Tiara was having the time of her life. She was bleeding from several shallow wounds but kept moving despite the pain. Her movement speed increased as the battle progressed. It was almost like Tiara was growing more adept at using the power of her transformed Silvarean Tiger form.
The sudden changes in her movement added through Inner Force were also helping her have great agility. Tiara feinted attacks left and right, all while slicing through the throats of a handful of enemies. Most of them couldn't even pinpoint the true direction in which her attacks would hit and reacted when it was already way too late.
Tiara's kill count increased rapidly, but so did the injuries that accumulated on her body. Her energy consumption was not too low either. Continuously supplying her Soultrait Spirit Whip with energy while allowing Silvarean Tiger and Inner Force to consume her stamina to be maintained and used continuously was depleting her of stamina. Tiara was slowly growing tired.
The pressure on her body and mind increased, while the same happened to the strength of the enemies all around her. Tiara didn't realize it yet because her entire being was caught in bloodlust, but Lowest Tier-3 Guards were already near her, putting more pressure on Tiara to slowly wear her down. As long as Tiara was out of stamina and energy, she could be crippled, caught, and tortured.
Torturing ordinary beings was already highly pleasurable for most Kitsun. However, seeing the desperation and suffering in the eyes of beautiful existences was even better. Tiara belonged to the Silverfang Tigerfolk, and she was an otherworldly beauty. The Kitsun wouldn't want to waste such a great opportunity to obtain a new toy to torture.
'She should leave,' Michael thought, his eyes narrowed as Eagle Eyes and Spirit Gaze unraveled every little detail in his sight. Tiara was faring well, but the number of enemies, and their strength, was slowly growing into a burden.
If Tiara had the means to replenish her stamina and energy it wouldn't be much of a problem to let her continue fighting. However, since she didn't have the means, Tiara had to leave the battlefield now.
The Golden Stinger Wasp swapped places with Tiara as her Spirit Spear cut through the neck of a Peak Tier-2 Adventurer. She twisted her body and was just about to strike the next opponent when the space around her twisted. Tiara disappeared and reappeared next to the Elemental Empress, who looked at Tiara with wonder in her eyes.
"Michael told me to tell you that you did an amazing job. You stalled enough time for our Master's plan to be set in motion on the battlefield. It's fine to rest and retreat home with the others. Don't worry about Master. He'll be fine!" The Elemental Empress informed just before a golden light flashed across the battlefield.
Stinger moved back to the Elemental Empress, where a small fist-sized portal manifested. The portal led to the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team and the Greater Eagles. Stinger moved through the portal and forcefully deported Tiara by swapping places once again.
Afterward, Stinger remained next to the Elemental Empress.
"You don't want to leave yet? Master said that you can rest if you want. You must be out of stamina and energy from using your ability so often," The Elemental Empress asked the Golden Stinger Wasp, which shook its head vigorously.
The Elemental Empress didn't say anything else. She observed the battlefield in front of her, her expressions grim.
Despite giving their utmost, Tiara, Lilica, Pheli, and Liopham hadn't been able to do as much damage as the combined efforts of Mika and Opars. The power of the heirloom arrows had been too strong in comparison. Unfortunately, Mika couldn't use the same kind of power several times in succession. Not only would that use up his last remaining heirloom arrows, but it would also permanently damage his energy veins.
Using one heirloom arrow was already enough to leave him weak and injured for a few days.
Nonetheless, Michael's subordinates did an amazing job.
Roughly 7,500 Kitsun had been killed, and there was still a batch of 4,000 Kitsun injured. Most of them were lying on the ground, unable to get up after the explosions of the duplicated heirloom arrows hit them. Meanwhile, the other injured Kitsun either retreated or remained where they were.
They didn't bother getting up to attack Michael. After all, there were only so many people who could attack a single enemy at the same time.
Given the tight space around Michael it was impossible for more than ten Kitsun to strike him simultaneously. But then again, there were more than enough Kitsun Awakened who couldn't care less about the Summons around them. They used their Soultraits to strike Michael as heavily as possible – even if that meant that their own brethren would sustain injuries.
In fact, it would be even better if their brethren were injured in the crossfire. And that was something Michael exploited to the fullest. He moved deeper into the crowd of enemies with hundreds of tiny golden threads squirming all around him. The golden threads were jutting out from his skin all over his body. They wiggled vigorously and shot toward those who had sustained injuries.
The golden threads infiltrated the injured Kitsun's body through their wounds and anchored themselves inside them. They tapped into their pool of energy and drained it slowly. Most injured Kitsun targeted by the golden threads were either Tier-1 Guards or Summons at the lower end of the 2nd Tier. This was to ensure that Michael wouldn't have to focus on the extraction of energy within the bodies of his enemies. The threads of extraction could naturally extract their energy, as long as their mental resistance wasn't strong enough to block them.
Therefore, Michael chose the weaker Kitsun as easy targets to become his extended energy storage. The extracted energy naturally entered Michael's body. It was annexed inside his body and used to create more golden threads. These golden threads were then used to anchor inside more enemies, therefore draining even more energy that was annexed by Michael.
Michael repeated the same course of actions in a seemingly endless cycle while his subordinates had fought desperately to stall for some time. That way, Michael could go all out with a tremendous amount of replenishable energy now that he was alone on the battlefield.
No. He wasn't even alone right now.
The Elemental Empress was still nearby. She advanced to the 1st Tier, increasing the strength of her Powers drastically. The only downside of her Powers was that she lacked fighting experience with them and that she couldn't control her energy precisely to fight many enemies simultaneously.
But, of course, Michael's plan not only took that factor into consideration but also used it to their advantage!
If she couldn't control her energy consumption precisely, why wouldn't he help out a little bit with his extremely high replenishable energy? Even if he created a thousand Glacicles right now, Michael would have enough energy to keep his energy storage filled to the brim. However, ordinary Glacicles were not powerful enough to deal with more than ten thousand Kitsun – forget about their strongest powerhouses.
Thus, Michael could only rely on the Elemental Empress and their taming bond. He channeled energy through their taming bond that had grown a lot firmer over the last few hours.
Witnessing Michael's care and the attention he paid to his subjects allowed the Elemental Empress to trust her new master a lot more than before. The Elemental Empress realized that she would not only be a mere toy for Michael but that she might even turn into a part of his family.
By sending energy through the taming bond, Michael filled the Elemental Empress with enough purified energy to create dozens of compressed fire spears. The Elemental Empress released them in batches, finally not forced to focus on her energy consumption.
Being allowed to go all out without the need to think of anything, the Elemental Empress could finally unleash her fury. The fury as the Empress of the Elementals, and the wrath of all the Elementals that died protecting her coursed through her body. After getting abused, exploited, and chained to a wall for a decade, and forced to use her Core to create more Elementals with the essence of the elements she could control, the Elemental Empress finally got a chance to take revenge for herself and all those who shared her suffering. At last, she could ensure that the deaths of her subjects had not been an utter waste.
Feeling determined, she tapped into the Power of the fire element, and her fire spears grew stronger and stronger. She manifested more fire spears at the same time with every batch released, and shot them toward the battlefield not caring whether lowly Tier-1 Summons died, or if her attacks hit Kitsun Awakened.
All she wanted was to be the cause of the Kitsun's death no matter what kind of Kitsun. None of them was void of guilt. They were all at fault for the suffering of other races, and none of them deserved to stay alive – not even as Summons.
A dozen fire spears turned into two dozen, and then three dozen. Once the number of fire spears reached 50 in a batch, the Elemental Empress' mind couldn't handle anymore. However, being mentally limited to roughly 50 fire spears didn't mean that the Elemental Empress was willing to accept this limitation.
She might only be an existence at the 1st Tier right now, and at the lowest rank at that, but her rage and fury couldn't be measured on a power scale. So what if she would suffer a little bit by pushing past her mental limitations? Would she die from it if she overdid it? Maybe…but so what?
If she could take revenge on all Kitsun and eliminate them one by one, why wouldn't she give her all to achieve it…even if it would cost her life.
Thus she continued to attack mercilessly. And, as her barrages of fire spears struck the Kitsun, killing dozens in every charge, the Kitsun focusing on Michael were slowly drawn to the Elemental Empress.
They had been ordered to kill everyone else before paying attention to the Elemental Empress and capture her alive. However, the Elemental Empress was too powerful to be ignored. If they ignored her any longer, thousands would die long before Michael was killed.
Therefore, the first few Kitsun charged over to the Elemental Empress.
But before anyone could reach her, a golden light filled the air. Stinger disappeared from the Elemental Empress' sight and Michael appeared in its stead.
"Not so fast, you disgusting bastards," Michael growled deeply, the Elemental Empress' conscious slowly seeping into the taming bond, rage filling his entire being.
"We're just getting started."
