After gaining Wind Mastery and Enhanced Wind, Frederik's range of control with Aeroan expanded drastically. The range of precise extended even further after Aeroan had been upgraded to a 5-Star Soultrait.
Nonetheless, Frederik didn't hide near the last row of defense. Instead, he used one of the presence distortion Artifacts, which the invaders from the Council of Xylon had used to invade the Untamed Jungle. He used the presence distortion Artifacts that were also known as Camea Artifact and positioned himself at the northernmost area of the battlefield.
Only a few monsters of the High Beast Horde passed by Frederik. Other than that, nobody paid attention to him or his position.
The one-meter-wide Invisible Wind Blades removed the biggest downside of Aeroan's great power. Under normal circumstances, Aeroan would cast a greenish hue around the winds it controlled. This made it much easier for the opponents to pinpoint Aeroan's winds and its creations.
Frederik's Legacy Arts solved that issue in exchange for heightened energy consumption.
Frederik had to consume one Energy Potion after another, but his killstreak continued until the High Lionhearts had enough of their underlings' deaths. They unleashed blazing flames all over the battlefield and controlled them precisely to spread further.
Frederik was quite unfortunate. The flames set only a few colossal trees on fire, but one of them was the tree he had been hiding. He was forced to change his position.
But that was fine as well. He changed to Plan B, coated his body in gales to accelerate, and crossed the distance to the Forest Elves quickly.
"The Speedy Arrow service has arrived!" He declared with a wink.
The Forest Elves frowned but they didn't say anything. Instead, they nocked arrows on the bowstrings and channeled energy into the bows to increase their pulling force as high as they could handle. In the next instance, the arrowheads were coated in hardened soil and razor-sharp ice shrapnels.
The Forest Elves pulled the bowstrings back, took aim, and released the arrows in one go. Hundreds of arrows soared through the air in beautiful arcs. They reached the highest point in the air and hailed down onto the Lionhearts who had already been waiting for the downpour.
The Lionhearts were prepared for the impact, but something changed all of a sudden.
Raging gales coated the arrows, casting a greenish hue around the hail of arrows. The arrows' top speed increased all of a sudden. They shot down to the ground like meteorites and tore through the enemies like a scythe cutting dry grass.
Frederik had been using Aeroan and his other Soultraits to enhance the arrows. He managed to double their speed for a short moment and increased their piercing force by compressing gales around the arrowheads.
A tremendous amount of energy had been consumed, leaving Frederik dry, but he was satisfied nonetheless. Opars appeared next to him. The Forest Elf pressed his hand against Frederik's back and used both Soothing Wave and Energy Imprint to ease Frederik's tension and replenish his dried-up energy storage.
Not all arrows managed to land a killing blow. The majority of incoming attacks were either blocked by the Lionhearts' shields or their armor. Nonetheless, the shields and armor pierces ended up damaged or they shattered into countless pieces. The Lionhearts stared into the treetops awaiting another attack. They sensed that something was wrong and waited. A second barrage of arrows arrived.
But this time the arrows weren't enhanced. They were ordinary arrows released without using a trace of energy.
The arrows impacted but the damage they inflicted was minuscule. It was almost as if the arrows were never supposed to cause any damage.
That was exactly what happened. The second barrage of arrows was a distraction. Stinger appeared above the masses of Tier-2 Lionhearts and used its special ability the moment the hail of arrows ended.
Stinger teleported outside the battle, Mekhaz and five other Warlock Centaurs replacing the Golden Stinger Wasp.
Mekhaz and the others sensed that Stinger wanted to switch positions with them. They had been marked before and felt the heat within the mark rising. Mekhaz and his comrades-in-arms were prepared for the teleportation and they wreaked havoc at once.
The distraction caused by the barrage of arrows had been initiated to create an opening for the ferocious monsters of the Untamed Jungle. A Wolf Pack of Tier-3 Vivarean Wolves charged into the masses of Lionhearts. Their leader pounced into the shield wall, clawed through the shields like they were made from paper, and ripped the closest Lionheart Shieldbearer's head from his shoulders.
The Vivarean Wolf Leader crushed the Lionheart's skull with a single bite and spit it out right after. The monster howled loudly, casting a gloomy sheen around the entire Wolf Pack The white in the Vivarean Wolves' eyes was replaced by darkness and their speed increased. They accelerated and fought more ferocious. Every soul they reaped intensified the darkness that shrouded the entire Wolf Pack. They grew stronger.
Mekhaz and the others glanced at the Vivarean Wolf Pack once but they noticed that their Leader didn't even glance at them. The Vivarean Wolves pushed past them, weaved around the blazing flames that threatened to burn their shimmering fur, and continued their slaughter.
Mekhaz manifested the Living Armor and activated his new Soultraits right after. He didn't focus on his attack power when it came to purchasing new Soultraits from the Jungle Shop. Instead, Mekhaz desired to power up his Living Armor as much as possible. Therefore, he purchased Energy Absorption and Repel.
Energy Absorption was a very useful Soultrait due to two particular reasons. First of all, Mekhaz's innate talent improved right after fusing with Energy Absorption. He learned to absorb the surrounding energy more naturally and efficiently. However, that was only a minor gain compared to Energy Absorption's actual effect.
He could use the Soultrait on objects or other Soultraits to grant them the ability to absorb the surrounding energy naturally as well. It was only a temporary effect, but it was perfect for the Living Armor Soultraits and the 3rd Soultraits Mekhaz had fused with.
Living Armor's defense increased drastically as long as energy was infused into it. The Living Armor could even repair all kinds of damages as long as it possessed enough energy. That was exactly what Energy Absorption allowed.
Mekhaz's third Soultrait, Repel, completed the set of three highly compatible Soultraits.
Repel manifested an Ancient Rune with mystical power. It allowed Mekhaz to repel physical attacks and attacks of a magical nature to a certain extent. But that was not how Mekhaz used it. He used Repel on the Living Armor to cover it in Ancient Runes before using Energy Absorption on Repel. By doing this, Mekhaz managed to configure Repel a little bit. Repel wouldn't throw the incoming attacks back right away. Instead, it would absorb the energy within the physical and magical attacks before throwing everything back in one mighty blow.
Since Repel didn't block the attacks entirely, it wasn't a perfect Soultrait. However, combined with the Living Armor's extraordinary defense, Mekhaz didn't have to pay much attention to defending.
The incoming fireballs and fire spears lost a portion of their power upon reaching Repel's Ancient Runes. Energy Absorption stored the portion of energy that had been taken from the projectiles whereas the remaining power impacted on the Living Armor. Mekhaz was already trained to endure mighty blows from a Peak Tier-3 Berserker's mace. Weakened fireballs and firespears didn't hold a candle compared to that.
The Living Armor sustained little to no damage, and the little damage it sustained now and then was mended near-instantly as well.
Mekhaz acted as the meatshield that charged ahead into the masses of enemies. He wielded his double-bladed spear with determination and demonstrated with decisive attacks that meatshields could also transform into terrifying slaughter machines.
Mekhaz's spear swirled around his perfectly armored body with great velocity and precision. The spear blade sliced through the throat of a Lionheart next to him and he pierced the next Soldier a moment later. A third one fell victim a mere second later.
The other Warlock Centaurs didn't allow Mekhaz to take away all the glory. They joined the battle by unleashing their Soultraits as well.
One of the Warlock Centaurs manifested a massive spiked club. Another one accelerated all of a sudden, his legs coated in sparks and electricity currents. Everyone unleashed as much power as possible to obliterate hundreds of Lionhearts in an instant.
Lionheart Awakened and two High Lionehearts were about to change their targets to them, but the Warlock Centaurs disappeared from this part of the battlefield. It was almost like they had never been there, in the first place.
The Golden Stinger Wasp replaced them. Mekhaz and his comrades-in-arms reappeared in another part of the battlefield. Their Soultraits were already fully unleashed and it didn't matter where Stinger teleported them. All they had to know was that the Heart of the Blazing Lion army was their enemy and that they could beat them.
As Mekhaz and the Warlock Centaurs disappeared, the Vivarean Wolf Pack continued to charge ahead. All of a sudden, the fasted Holy Knights wielding daggers appeared next to them. They emerged from the thicket and pushed ahead, continuing where the Warlock Centaurs possessed stopped.
But instead from fighting alone, the Holy Knights unleashed the Holy Power and combined their powers alongside the Untamed Jungle's monsters.
