Chapter 88: Turf Wars [3]

Before I could explain, another one of the girls, whom I recognized as Hope, suddenly turned to the other two and said.

"If we claim all the land, then it doesn’t matter, right?"

Looking at me, Hope added.

"That’s what you meant earlier, right? There won’t be a ’next hour.’ "

As I nodded my head, Hope gave me a thumbs up and knelt back down, continuing to press her hands to the ground, and, just a moment later, the other two shortly followed, with Angelina adding.

"You’re our teammate, right? So, we trust you."

Not wasting another second, as the sounds of swords clashing and elemental reactions rang through my ears, I smiled and flew forward at the three magic sword-slashers.

One of them, seeing me, swung at the air, sending an ocean-blue mana sword slash at me...however, I just phased right through it.

Then, appearing right in front of him, I jabbed my sword straight at his stomach.

My sword cleanly pierced through his skin, impaling his body.

It felt...weird.

I almost expected my sword to bounce off his chest, like during spars with my wooden Dao...but the sword cleanly cleaved him.

Slamming my sword down at the floor, I watched as his limp body slid off my blade and banged on the ground below me.

I raised my sword and aimed a slash right at his head...however, as my sword flew down, the boy’s body vanished right before my eyes.

"..."

After blinking for a moment, I looked back up...only to see two orange and crimson-red slashes flying toward me.

Not skipping a beat, I immediately activated Anubis’s Ferry again, feeling a stinging pain surge through my entire body as if I had been stung by hundreds of bees.

But, phasing right through the sword slashes, I appeared in front of one of the remaining two boys and slashed at his shoulder.

However...at that moment, the boy simply... slid backward on the ground, as if he were skating on ice, easily distancing himself from me.

Clicking my tongue, I glanced backward, seeing Angel fighting five humans simultaneously while Charlotte desperately attempted to defend against Ner’s unrelenting sword slashes.

*CLANG*

*CLANG*

*CLANG*

Holding on for dear life as Ner pushed forward and stepped into our territory, Charlotte finally used her gift.

Instantly, two wooden antlers grew from her skull, emerging from her blonde hair and stretching up to the sky.

The countless wounds all over her body vanished in an instant, a green hue simultaneously surrounding her body.

Ner, who had been controlling the tempo of the fight thus far by simply attacking Charlotte with his sword from every angle and at every moment, suddenly...paused for a moment.

Not because he wanted to...but because the antlers were surging forward from Charlotte’s head and...toward him.

As Ner raised his sword to cut the antlers surging toward him like tree roots, Charlotte simultaneously jabbed her sword at his stomach.

For just a moment, then, as she looked forward, she could see past Ner and at his semi-circle.

Her eyes immediately met mine as I pointed at the ground.

Nodding her head, Charlotte glanced downward discreetly, her mouth inadvertently opening perhaps at the sight of all the green.

As she nodded and turned to the right back to face Ner, I glanced back forward, immediately seeing a sand-orange sword slash fly at me from the other remaining sword-slasher.

I took a deep breath and held my Dao diagonally in front of me.

If I was eliminated here, there would be no one to protect the three claimers.

Our loss would be guaranteed.

I had to cut through it.

Honing my intent, I stepped toward the slash and slowly raised my Dao in the air so that it was perpendicular to the sand-orange slash.

In the next second, like a guillotine, my Dao surged downward, dividing the slash perfectly into two.

"..."

In the next moment, my vision was completely covered in dark orange as sand surrounded me from all sides, blocking out any oxygen and leaking into my clothes.

Holding my breath through the uncomfortable sensation, I simply moved my empty hand to the right, forcing it through the heavy sand.

Then, as if following my hand’s movements, a floating Dao suddenly burst through the sand dune that was suffocating me, creating a small hole for oxygen.

Over and over, I moved my empty hand up and down, as if I were slashing at an enemy in front of me.

And, bit by bit, my Dao broke through the sand dune...until finally it collapsed.

I closed my eyes and sprinted forward, re-opening my eyes and seeing the perpetrator of the sand slash right in front of me.

Before the thought could even leave my mind, my Dao surged forward from my hands and slashed the boy’s right shoulder.

He instantly fell to the side, vanishing before he could even hit the ground.

At that moment, from in front of me, a sudden yell echoed.

"O-OUR LAND!? IT’S ALMOST ALL CLAIMED."

The last remaining sword-slasher yelled desperately while standing at the last bit of red land left in the coliseum, which was barely large enough to fit a bathroom.

Instantly, all the humans turned around to face their own semi-circle, their mouths opening in astonishment.

Ner, especially, looked down at the ground in confusion.

However, before he could say anything, Charlotte’s yell echoed.

"STOP THEM AT ALL COSTS!"

Charlotte, Angel, and the remaining three elves, all covered in wounds with their entire bodies trembling, formed a line at the center, preventing the humans from re-entering their own semi-circle.

Hearing dozens of footsteps behind me, as if they were a bull stampede, I sprinted forward at the last mana sword-slasher, who was surrounded by the three girls.

Raising my hand, I sent a death-mana sphere forward as he attempted to take out Hope with a crimson-red mana sword slash.

*BANG*

Slipping through the cloud of dust, I stepped onto the last piece of red land and gazed at the mana sword-slasher, who had his back to the coliseum wall.