After the initial display of power, only 25 High Lionhearts remained in the frontline army. Some sustained heavy injuries but the majority were tired, yet still capable of dealing fierce blows to their enemies.
Lokai, Hirak, and the other Untamed Awakened gave their utmost to hold the High Lionhearts back for some time. Unfortunately, they didn't manage to stall all of them. Sun Demos, the Demon Monkey Unit, Immortal Knight, and the remaining monsters of the High Beast Horde fought desperately to restrain the High Lionhearts that the Untamed Awakened couldn't keep in check.
However, the price was heavy. Sun Demos' fur was burned, he was covered in deep gashes, and he was dead-tired. But he was still alive. That was something not all Demon Monkeys could say. Among the 1000ish Blood Oath Demon Monkeys under Sun Demos' wings, only a quarter was still alive. Even those who'd managed to survive until now were either wounded or too exhausted to move a single muscle.
Michael's army didn't fare much better. Immortal Knight and the Holy Knights were great at blocking physical blows whereas the Elementals, including Zeroa and the Noble Elementals could absorb and weaken most elemental attacks, the prowess of Higher Lifeforms was not something they could take lightly.
It was a great advantage that Immortal Knight's Holy Formations and the Elementals' Might could be used to strengthen Hiraku, Lokai, the other Untamed Awakened at the Late rank of Tier-3 as well as the last two High Beasts that were still standing in front of the High Lionhearts. They fletched their razor-sharp teeth and continued to struggle against the High Lionhearts' fierce flames.
Aided from the Healing Soultraits of Opars and others, Holy Formations and Elementals Might, the High Beasts recuperated a little bit. They gained an edge against the High Lionhearts and managed to attack more fiercely once again.
Nonetheless, it was only a matter of time before the High Lionhearts would kill the remaining High Beasts. The situation would turn from bad to worse once that happened. Michael had to kill the Lionheart Commander as soon as possible, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to help his people.
It was good that Michael knew everything he had to know about the Commander's Soultrait. He studied its strong points, its unique characteristics...., and the weak points of Blood Manipulation.
Some weak points had only been exposed when the Lionheart Commander used Blood Manipulation in front of Michael. It could be used as an attack Soultrait but the Lionheart Commander didn't use it as a weapon often. Instead, it was used to absorb the energy of the surroundings and replenish the Lionheart Commander's energy storage.
The Crysalis Deer fared well against the Lionheart Commander after the Pryar Guardians had been eliminated. It couldn't gain a tremendous advantage against the Lionheart Commander because he replenished his energy at all times, allowing him to exhibit the strongest powers of his mighty Artifacts.
However, that was about to change with Michael joining the battle.
But instead of pouncing at the Lionheart Commander, Michael prepared a proper attack, which exploited the weak spots in Blood Manipulation.
He unleashed Spirit Eyes and marked the Lionheart Commander's blood droplets. They swirled through the air and spread out further to absorb energy.
Michael didn't interfere in the process. On the contrary, he helped the blood droplets to absorb more energy.
But there was more to it. Michael retrieved a few small vials and used Extraction on them. One of the vials contained compressed Holy Power. Immortal Knight had spent several days compressing his Holy Power to create a few Holy Drops for Michael.
Michael could consume them to fill his body with Holy Power. It was a great means to dispel ailments and detrimental effects cast on him via Soultraits. He could have used the Holy Drops already, but he retrieved them via Extraction, splitting a single tear into hundreds of minuscule mots.
Michael's energy erupted and spread throughout the surroundings right before he unleashed Insert to insert the mots of Holy Drops into the Commander's blood droplets. The blood droplets were still absorbing energy when the Holy Drops were inserted into them.
Michael observed the Lionheart Commander's reaction intently, but it was just like he expected. The Lionheart Commander didn't react.
'Can he only sense the amount of energy in his blood, or can he not perceive anything about his blood while he controls it with Blood Manipulation?'
Even though Michael couldn't be certain about his guesses, it seemed to be the case that the Lionheart Commander had a hard time sensing what was going on inside his blood droplets. That was a great advantage and something Michael had been hoping for.
His physical strength and Tier were incomparably weaker than the Lionheart Commander's, but that didn't mean Michael was helpless. As long as the Crysalis Deer continued to stall the Commander, Michael was certain to come out victorious. He had a bunch of high-ranked Soultraits, after all!
He glanced at the other vials that contained blood from two sources. One of the vials was filled with darkish-red blood from the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King, whereas the other vial contained silver blood... blood of the Chaos Ants.
It had been a while since Michael used the Chaos Ants, but he figured that the Zentika Empire would be happy about getting seconds. After all, they loved the Chaos Ants, their blood, and the Chaos Pills concocted from it.
Michael focused entirely on the following procedure. He used Extraction to extract more than a hundred tiny portions of Sun Demos' blood and the Chaos within the Chaos Ant's blood. Controlling the tiny portions wasn't easy, but it was a great thing that his mind refinement degree was relatively high at this point.
The external enhancement from the Legendary Ring Artifact helped Michael a lot as well.
Once the tiny portions of Chaos and tarnished blood had been extracted, Michael used Insert to insert the portions into the Lionheart Commander's blood droplets.
Some droplets burst apart because of the incredibly high potency of Chaos. Thus, Michael had to split the Chaos even further with Extraction. He inserted the minuscule traces into the blood and watched with Spirit Eyes as the tarnished blood from Sun Demos mixed into the Holy Drops and Chaos. The three energies would soon react with each other and create a catastrophic event.
But for now… Michael filled the blood droplets of the Commander with his excessive energy using Insert.
It didn't take long to fill the droplets and his attention moved to the Commander, whose eyes widened. He didn't expect the blood droplets to be overflowing with energy this soon.
He retracted them back into his body and circulated the energies through the energy pathways.
To annex the energy properly, the Lionheart Commander had to distribute the recently absorbed energy through his body twice. That was exactly what he did, without realizing what he was doing to his body and energy paths.
Michael watched the Lionheart Commander with Spirit Eyes. A smirk blossomed on his face as he observed the tarnished blood, Chaos, and Holy Drops being dragged through the Lionheart Commander's body as they reacted with each other.
The Lionheart Commander's energy pathways were contaminated, and it was only a matter of seconds before the grand event occurred.
One very interesting question many Lords and Awakened asked themselves more often than one might think was how a Lesser Lifeform was supposed to kill a Higher Lifeform.
They ascended and broke through the limits of most mortal beings. Nothing about Higher Lifeforms could be compared to the weaklings they had been before ascending.
So…how was a Tier-3 Lord supposed to kill a Higher Lifeform at the Peak of Tier-4?
Michael could have attempted to extract the Commander's energy and inserted Chaos, tarnished blood, and the Holy Drops into it before re-inserting it into the Commander's energy system. However, the Commander would have sensed that. He would have been able to react swiftly, separating the properties of Chaos, tarnished blood, and Holy Drops long before they could react and harm him.
Thus, Michael had to use the Commander's biggest weakness and the only opening he managed to pinpoint.
Only a minuscule amount of Holy Power, Chaos, and tarnished blood circulated through the Commander, but it was enough to react with each other. The effect wasn't anything grand given that the Holy Power, tarnished blood, and Chaos didn't stem from Higher Lifeforms. However, the reaction was intense enough to affect the Lionheart Commander once it jumped into effect.
The Lionheart Commander's eyes widened as he lost the ability to convey energy into his Artifacts. The Crysalis Deer was charging at him, yet he couldn't erupt the enchantments on his Shield Artifact.
'What the…'
The Lionheart Commander had more than enough energy in his body to use his Artifact's strongest effect several times in succession, but his energy paths were disturbed. It felt like the paths were blocked even though he could sense that something like this wasn't the case.
Michael knew that it was only a temporary state and that the Commander would fix the issue in no time. However, losing the ability to strengthen his physique by channeling energy through his body, and being unable to use his Artifacts weakened the Commander greatly.
But that was not all. The Commander lost the ability to use his Soultrait and use any of his techniques. All of his techniques required energy, but he couldn't control a single trace of it.
He was too shocked to react to the Crysalis Deer's charge and was hurled through the air. He crashed into a towering tree with tremendous force and coughed up blood.
His stun was evident as he looked up only to see Michael appear in front of him with a highly compressed True Extraction Qi Sword.
All of a sudden, Michael's eyes glowed brightly and the Lionheart Commander, unable to control his energy to erupt with a mental shield, suffered great spiritual damage.
The next thing the Lionheart Commander recalled was a golden sword piercing through his neck.
It was also the last thing he remembered before the world around him turned dark.
He died. Just like that.
