Chapter 416: Sudden Threat - 1

Swosssshhhh!

Uraan unleashed a gust of wind directly at the ground below, slowing his descent. Increasing its intensity, he cushioned his fall completely and landed softly, unharmed.

He didn’t waste a single second. Drawing his sword, he took his stance.

"Even if my defeat is imminent, I won’t back down," he said, determination flaring in his eyes. He needed to know the exact disparity between him and the top 3 individuals.

Most of the attacking members from the top 10 territories had already been defeated, with a few still running around, desperately dodging arrows. In fact, they seemed entirely focused on avoiding them.

Wait... how the hell are they even dodging? Uraan thought.

He had already seen that the archers were high-ranked elves, and from his earlier conversation with Leo back in the slave market, he knew Leo might have captured them.

Damn, didn’t know Fruder and Vexi were such masters at dodging. He spotted two of his territory members weaving effortlessly through the arrows. The moment they noticed him, they quickly regrouped at his side.

"Leader! Let’s fight together!" they called out, drawing their swords and taking position beside him.

A few other members from Lyra’s territory also approached, blades raised. All of them pointed their swords toward Leo and Kaelion, who calmly walked forward from within the territory.

Leo gently stroked Niri’s cheeks as she nuzzled into his palms, clearly enjoying the attention.

Master! Didn’t Niri do great with the [Solar Beam]? she asked through their link, her intent as clear as day.

"Yeah, yeah, you are the best," Leo replied.

Almost instantly, a dissatisfied intent came from Shyra, who still lingered in the shadows.

"You were great too, Shyra. I didn’t forget about you. I’ll let you have the top-quality boar meat we hunted today."

Her intent shifted to pure delight.

"You still want to fight?" Leo asked, looking at Uraan, whose brown, regal eyes remained fixed on him and Kaelion.

"Why not?" Uraan replied, tightening his grip on his sword. "Doesn’t mean if I cannot win, I will lose my will to fight."

"So you do know you have no chance of winning." Leo said with a grin.

Uraan chuckled.

"Not after you lifted that whole Mammoth just for fun."

Beside Leo, Kaelion shot him a strange look, as if silently questioning why he would do that. In the end, he just shook his head and stepped forward.

"Since you’ve already seen his strength," Kaelion said, voice calm, "how about we test each other and see if there’s been any progress since the competition?"

Uraan nodded and signaled his men.

Realizing Kaelion wanted to test himself, Leo stepped back. After all, Kaelion could never properly gauge his strength while sparring with him. As for Lily, that was out of the question entirely.

Leo glanced toward a particular direction and smiled faintly.

"Be careful," he said. "You might find yourself jumped."

"If I allow that," Kaelion replied, stepping forward, "then I can never even dream of catching up to you."

"So Leon will fight me? Makes things a bit easier—"

Uraan vanished mid-sentence and darted forward.

Kaelion sidestepped, narrowly avoiding the blade, but Uraan immediately extended his hand and unleashed a volley of wind blades. Kaelion blurred, dodging each one cleanly.

Without slowing, he caught the swords of Fruder and Vexi as they attacked from the side, snapped both weapons in half, and drove his kicks into their abdomens, sending them rolling across the ground.

Kaelion raised a brow at that.

"You’ve got some durable territory members. Most would’ve been sent straight back to the temple."

"Haha, even I’m surprised," Uraan said with a chuckle.

He released a powerful gust to push Kaelion back, but it had almost no effect.

Clicking his tongue, Uraan ran his finger across his blade. A faint silver glow spread over it.

"Oh? The poison of your crow?" Kaelion said, almost amused.

Internally, however, he grew more cautious. His healing factor was already slow—if that blade landed, the bleeding wouldn’t stop easily.

"Crow, you say? Let’s teach you his proper name." Uraan said, slowly getting excited.

As Kaelion prepared to disarm Uraan, a presence rushed toward him from behind at terrifying speed.

He ducked under Uraan’s blade—

Clang!

"Now what’s this?" Kaelion said with a faint smile. "Are you both teaming up on me?"

A pearly white nail had elongated from his index finger, just enough to parry Lyra’s surprise attack.

A partial Soul Fusion with Singham followed—then a full fusion.

"More trouble demands more preparation," Kaelion said, adjusting his claws to an appropriate size.

"I thought you ran away!" Uraan called from the opposite side, with Kaelion now standing between him and Lyra.

"I was planning to," Lyra replied with a sneer, "but after seeing you, I changed my mind. Not to mention, a few of my territory members are still here."

She gestured toward 8 fighters currently closing in to engage Kaelion.

"What did you see?" Uraan asked. "I was trapped and forced to fight. You can still leave."

"Do I look like a coward?" Lyra shot back.

Uraan gave her a look that clearly suggested he thought otherwise.

"Well... you didn’t show up this whole time—"

"Shut up!" she snapped. "Focus on defeating him. Look at how easily he’s handling 8 people at once."

Out of those 8, 2 belonged to Lyra’s territory, while the remaining 6 came from other top 10 territories. Including Uraan and Lyra, only 10 fighters remained—counting even those who had been kicked away earlier.

"Hm," Uraan muttered. "I suppose I’ll need your help to defeat him. I’m definitely not doing it alone. What about your beast?"

Another Low 3-star speed-type beast would be a big help.

"He was defeated the moment I charged into the territory," Lyra replied flatly. "I’ve been hiding ever since."

"..." Uraan fell silent for a moment.

"Must’ve been a wind-element elven archer," he muttered.

Lyra nodded.

Meanwhile, Kaelion was dealing with something entirely different.

"What the hell?" he muttered, parrying a blade aimed at his neck.

He had been fighting these 8 for a while—but he hadn’t been able to land a single finishing blow. Even when he did, just like with Fruder and Vexi, they would be thrown back... only to return moments later with the same vigor.

Peak 2-star fighters weren’t supposed to be this sturdy.

To test it, he increased his output and struck hard enough to one-shot a Low 3-star like Aaron.

No difference.

Just a bruise—one that began healing almost immediately—before they resumed fighting like nothing had happened.

Then, suddenly, a few of them disengaged and moved toward Uraan and Lyra, seemingly to catch their breath and allow them to take over.

Or so it seemed.

One of them even "mistakenly" took a hit and was sent flying toward Leo.

And in that instant—

Danger bells rang loudly in Kaelion’s mind.