Teacher by day, Farmer by passion

The smoke had barely cleared when the second wave came.

From the parted ocean path, the Tharz Kingdom army advanced again; this time in armor gleaming with enchantments, formation bands glowing along their limbs, and movement in perfect unison.

They had regrouped fast.

"Enemy elite formations incoming!" a Falmuth scout shouted from the ridge.

Two distinct squads emerged; clad in silver and deep blue, each marked by a different beast emblem: Tiger and a Hawk.

These weren't ordinary foot soldiers. They moved with precision, their auras indicates they were all above gold rank.

A horn blew from the backline of the Tharz ranks.

In response, the squads split—the Tiger squad charging headfirst, shields raised in a moving wall of spiritual steel and the Hawk squad leaping onto cliff walls, agile and fast, clearly aiming to flank.

"Formation breakers," Ace muttered.

"Looks like they came prepared," Queen Arlen said, riding up beside him, her blade now sheathed in burning spirit-light. "I was afraid it would have been too easy."

Below, the Falmuth soldiers, already scattered from the earlier push began reorganizing.

"Archers, on the ridge! Alchemist, channel into the soul wells! Shield units, front line!" barked one of the generals, sweat slicking his forehead.

The second clash exploded like thunder.

The Tiger squad met Falmuth's front with a brutal crash; shields slamming, blades sparking against reinforced halberds.

Meanwhile, the Hawk squad zipped up the cliff walls and began raining javelins and flame talismans down into the Falmuth rear.

"We're getting overrun on the left flank!" someone screamed.

Just then—

A blur of silver armor dashed into the chaos.

Lily.

Her new armor glinted under the sunlight, her twin blades now crackling with spiritual flame.

She cut down two Hawk warriors mid-leap, then spun with unnatural grace, deflecting a barrage of javelins with a single, fluid sweep.

"Left flank's mine!" she grinned, voice crackling with soul fire.

Then she vanished skyward, leaving only flame in her wake.

Ace, standing calmly on the cliff, extended one finger.

A thin thread of blood-light wrapped around it, he sent a ripple of power downward, activating the hidden counter-traps he personally embedded last night.

Below, the very ground began to shift.

Stone spikes erupted, and soul compression fields locked dozens of advancing Tiger squad members in place.

Their spiritual pressure buckled as the air turned heavy—like a mountain pressing down on them.

The tide turned once more.

Queen Arlen drew her sword. "I believe this is our cue," she said, and without waiting, she leapt into the fray, blazing with legend-ranked might.

The remaining Tiger squad, crushed beneath the compression field, barely stirred as Arlen's blade swept through them.

Just as Queen Arlen carved through the frontline like a blazing tempest.

A horn blasted from deep within the Tharz Kingdom's formation again.

Ace's eyes snapped toward the ocean trench where the enemy still poured forth like a tide.

And then he felt it.

A pulse. Not of qi… but domain pressure.

Multiple sources.

One… two… three…

Six overwhelming auras surged upward like the roar of titans waking from slumber.

Out of the marching sea of soldiers stepped six figures, each bearing a different crest upon their chestplates.

Their armor shimmered faintly, not from polish, but from the enchantments woven into the steel.

Their eyes burned with calm fury.

Legend Rank. Every last one of them.

Gasps echoed across the Falmuth lines.

Even the brave among them trembled slightly at the sheer weight of power that dropped like boulders into the battlefield.

Queen Arlen gaze was also fixed on the approaching giants.

The central figure of the six—a man in obsidian-black plate with twin crimson sabers at his hips—stepped forward and unsheathed one.

The air around him distorted.

"Falmuth Queen. Sky High Sect Master." His voice was cold but clear. "You made your stand. Impressive. But we are no mere fodder to be scattered by glyphs and traps."

Another stepped forward—a woman with a long staff crowned by a floating crystal wheel, her armor shaped like flowing silk but hardened like dragonbone. She smirked faintly. "We didn't come here to lose. So if you surrender now, you'll save a lot of lives."

The third—an aged man with a hunched posture but eyes like silver blades—tapped the ground with his cane. The earth cracked.

The central general now raised both blades and pointed one directly at Ace.

"Sky High Sect Master," he said. "We've heard tales of your rise. But tales don't kill armies."

Ace sighed.

"If only Talk-no-Jutsu worked in real life," he muttered.

The six Legend Ranks didn't waste another breath.

In an instant, they moved.

Two lunged toward Queen Arlen, soul pressure erupting like twin storms.

Three tilted their heads upward—gazing into the sky where Lily blazed like a falling star.

The last one charged straight for Ace, halberd already humming with void-killing force.

Their priorities were clear.

To them, Lily was the true threat.

Just then Lily dove into the fray like a falling star.

She landed hard, knees bent, cracking the ground beneath her armored boots.

Her smile was wide, eyes gleaming like a child's on festival night.

"Well then! Three of you?" she chirped, facing a trio of Tharz generals, all flanking her with grim faces.

"You must be the unstable one," said one, spinning his massive glaive with both hands.

"I'm the adorable one," she corrected, and vanished.

The next moment, the general's head whipped sideways from a heel kick he never saw coming.

BOOM.

He went skidding across the dirt, carving a trench.

The other two attacked instantly—one unleashing a thousand soul threads from her fingertips like a net, the other calling down a meteor-sized hammer of compressed soul pressure.

Lily laughed.

"Come on, hit harder! My sect master hits harder in his sleep!"

She swirled between them, arms dancing, her palm smacking runes into the air.

The threads missed. The hammer was caught barehanded and cracked by her soul-infused punch.

"Try again!"

Elsewhere, Queen Arlen charged forward, soul force burning around her like a royal inferno.

Her blade extended far beyond its steel form, glowing with ghostly flame.

Her two opponents struck as one, perfectly synchronized, one wielding chains that drained soul force, the other casting illusions that stabbed directly into the spiritual core.