While Long Wu was dealing with the new threat, the situation outside was raging on. Neither side was giving in to the other and their fierceness showed.
“Turns out that their reinforcement came so quickly. This is abnormal and needs to be studied.” Hecates murmured while swinging his axe in an overwhelming manner. His swing was also purposeful as to gather his previous swinging strength to the next one, amplifying its strength and might.
Undead element and Ether clashed and reacted, causing secondary damage. Hecates then swung his axe for the third time, with the addition to the previous swing, he had gathered quite an attack.
His opponent was barely defending himself even though he was the vice-captain of the group. His spear was long and that gave him an advantage but when Hecates decided to close the distance, that became somewhat difficult for him.
The elf changed his stance from offensive to defensive since the first attack he had launched failed to take down Hecates. Hecates only needed to swing his axe and the enemy would not dare to attack him because the attack was created to be unstoppable.
Then the elf decided to use everything he got and launched an attack by swinging the shaft of the spear to give it the force necessary to knock the opponent.
Hecates only needed to change his swing slightly and the counterattack became nullified. Hecates sped up the swinging since he felt that the fifth swing would put some strain on his arm.
This time, Hecates moved so close that he could finally land a solid hit. The elf then spun the wooden spear in his hand and used the blunt end of the spear to counter Hecates’ attack.
But it was futile as the swing of the axe was not even interrupted, bypassing the shaft as it sliced through it and causing a small explosion due to the energy reaction. Hecates continued the trajectory of the swing and managed to decapitate the elf in front of him.
Hecates looked around and saw that the first and second groups were occupied by the reinforcements.
Then he continued to find his new target. This time, he wanted to make sure that he could become as strong as Long Wu. He did not want to lose out against his peer.
The tide of battle was shifting slightly to the Transcendent Group’s advantage so the reinforcement noticed this too.
“They are so skilled that they are above us in might and technique. Overwhelm them!”
Then there were attacks that were large enough that the transcendent groups had no choice but to endure. Even though it was hard for them but they still put up a shield and circulated their energy to form a protective layer on the shield and around the body.
It was actually a bombardment of Ether and arrows, as well as the pressure of the Elves mixed in to create an even bigger attack.
The ground sank in as the attack continued to hit the transcendents without giving them time to even blink.
Hecates was also struggling with the defense as he was not quite proficient in it. But he remembered what was taught and altered his stance a bit, widening the distance between his feet, straightening his muscles as well as letting the flow of the transcendent energy flow more smoothly by intentionally will it.
‘Remember! The transcendent energy that you processed is imbued with the sliver of your will. That is why it flows according to your will and knowing your energy pathway helps visualize the flow of the energy.’ Long Wu’s advice was the culmination of the experience he had and now it was relayed to Hecates like a light in the darkness.
After that, he became akin to an immovable object that could withstand the colossal attack that encompassed the surroundings, where evasion was not possible. He withstood the attack that was supposed to be the thing that pressured them.
After seeing Hecates doing that, the rest of the transcendents followed, with various results. Some were proficient in copying others so they were durable and strong enough to share the pressure and the attack.
While some were subpar, they only managed to follow the form. They were the ones who were having a hard time. They gritted their teeth as they had to let the flow of the energy inside their body synchronize with their form.
Inside the Sacred Tree, the third group was still dealing with the incoming wooden creatures. The creatures came in waves and they were sure that wherever Long Wu was, there should be no such creatures to go there.
They moved closer to the chamber while fighting off the waves of the creatures that came to them as if endlessly.
“We need to tighten the formation. Form a complete circle and move to the place where Long Wu had been going!”
“Another one incoming! Brace for impact!”
Another wave of the wooden creatures arrived and they had to deal with it. But the moment they were done, they moved closer to the chamber where Long Wu had gone to. It was quite a distance but they covered it with each step a battle had to be fought.
Inside the chamber, Long Wu clashed with the elf once again and he proved to be slightly superior. For an expert of his caliber, that advantage was quite deadly as he could leverage it to the point where the enemy would feel hopeless.
‘From his attire and accessories he wore, he seemed to be someone influential among the Elves.’ Long Wu thought as he saw that the accessories were not just decorative but also a kind of battle prop too.
The branch crown on the elf’s head was actually something that amplified the Ether by half, increasing the damage caused by the attack backed with the Ether. The necklace was like a second energy storage which could accumulate Ether in case the elf did not have any source of transcendent energy.
But since the chamber was filled with Ether, the necklace became less useful.
But the elf did not need the necklace function as he could unleash many kinds of attack he could unleash. And he decided to unleash multiple attack as his control over the Ether was quite exceptional.
His arms were busy with the sword and the gesture unique to the Elf Race, signaling the flow of the Ether and its transformation while the mind were willing the Ether to create something around the chamber.
It formed a circular pattern on the air, filled with Ether and it caused Long Wu to react visibly as he hastened his attack at the elf.
The elf felt the pressure of the attack but it did not interrupt the process of creating something. The circular pattern then let out a brilliant jade hue as it let out beam attacks, multiple from the same pattern.
Long Wu had a hard time dealing with the elf and the barrage of attack in addition to that, he frowned. But he used a movement skill as he created afterimages of himself and dashed to the side of the elf.
The aim of the circular pattern became erratic the moment Long Wu used the movement skill, temporarily covering his presence with something similar. Then he and two other afterimage slashed at the elf.
The elf was experienced and realized that only one of the thing he saw was real and decided to defend precisely at the point where Long Wu’s attack landed.
Another clash occurred, and the two transcendent energies reacted, causing a shockwave to form.
Another circular pattern formed and Long Wu was moving to avoid being pinned down. The elf in front of Long Wu proved to be a warrior in its own right. Long Wu had to take it seriously.
Long Wu moved faster as he evaded another beam attack which caused some damage to the walls of the chamber. The chamber shook slightly but it did not affect the important structure that kept the chamber intact.
‘His control over his transcendent energy is excellent. There is something worth learning from them. If I am not wrong…’ Long Wu thought before he integrated the thing he had just seen.
The small undead element around that was not devoured by the Ether then formed a small black line and formed a circular pattern. Long Wu lunged at the elf while launching the attack from the black circular pattern, letting out a black beam.
The elf countered by letting out a circular pattern and then formed a defense from the roots of the Sacred Tree. It was a spatial transfer and Long Wu was astonished as it managed to deal with his attack.
But Long Wu had already opened one of the gates inside his body; his energy was berserk and expanded. His foundation increased and his core spun faster. Then he channeled the energy to the dagger as he launched an attack that could overwhelm the greatest defense he could think of.
The defense formed by the roots was slashed without resistance, along with the elf. Blood sprayed around, filling the ground and making a small puddle.
Long Wu knew that the elf did not expect the defense he was so proud of to be broken and he failed to anticipate that. Long Wu walked slowly to the helpless elf who was barely clinging to life by absorbing Ether around him in a frenzy manner.
Long Wu cut off the Ether around him by absorbing it through a complicated process to turn it into the undead element.
Furthermore, he traced a pathway that the elf had created and intercepted that too while he was moving closer. Long Wu had gained something to be researched upon returning but for now, he had to deal with his enemy.
But the thing in the middle of the chamber suddenly let out a pulse that could not be ignored. Long Wu turned his head to look at it and saw that the Ether it produced went to the nearby living being, to be exact, to the elf and the soon-to-be elves.
Long Wu then quickly finished the elf that had already fallen by cutting his throat and stabbing the forehead of the elf. He did this because he knew that delaying things could cause unexpected variable to rise.
The elf’s body then slowly became the place where the undead element thrives and it reacted with the surroundings' Ether. Long Wu then absorbed the undead element and let the corpse became the undead servant, slowly acclimating to the condition it was in.
Long Wu took some extra effort to modify its energy intake, making it had an Ether to undead element transcendent energy transformator circle pattern. This was the first applicable things Long Wu had acted upon after learning something from his enemy.
‘To think that it can be incorporated like this…I suddenly have an epiphany and this is the result.’ Long Wu looked at the undead servant and was satisfied to see that it could function like any other in this situation.
“Alright. You have to help the group over there! I created you to look after them while I am here dealing with the source of the Sacred Tree’s strength.” Long Wu said before he willed the undead servant to go help the third group.
The undead servant’s strength was at the Core Formation Realm and enough to be a witness for Long Wu as they could share their senses.
“Now…what will this do if I attack it with full power?” Long Wu muttered while already opening one of the gates and launched an attack on the source.
The source was damaged as some part of its wooden structure was shaved off from its body but it was still functional.
Long Wu had to do this multiple times before the source started to malfunction and stopped working. Then Long Wu stopped opening the gate because the consumption was huge and the strain on his body was quite considerable if extended over some time.
After some time, cracks appeared on the object and it began to spread. Some were slashed off from the main body but the others kept the structure intact. But with the cracks appearing on its body, the object then started to fail its function and let out massive amounts of Ether.
Long Wu sighed and also checked on the third group and controlled the undead servant well enough that the group could manage waves after waves of the wooden creatures. Long Wu realized that the wooden creatures were the defense mechanism of the Sacred Tree to fight against the invader but it was limited to the most frequent places they could reach.
As for the chamber he was currently in, there was none that could even hinder him. Meaning, it was not a place for the wooden humanoid creatures to spawn because its purpose was more important.
“With this, we cut off the Sacred Tree’s capability. But to make sure, we need to chop it.” Long Wu muttered.
He was not sure about the feasibility of this since the Cerulean Defense Force had sent the transcendent group to deal with the Sacred Tree when it was able and ordered them not to damage it if possible.
It meant that destroying the Ether source of the Sacred Tree was already a concession to make the Sacred Tree more bearable for them.
The moment the Ether source was destroyed, the movement of the Sacred Tree started to become sluggish and slower.
“Hmm?” Hecates noticed that the Sacred Tree was moving quite strangely and knew that the third group and Long Wu had successfully crippled the Sacred Tree of its strength.
It was different for the Elves since they had a connection to the Sacred Tree.
“No! Something must have happened inside the Sacred Tree!” the reinforcement leader shouted and the rest of the elves realized it too.
“I think that even our strongest member went to the Birth Chamber to check on the Sacred Tree’s interior. But if this is what truly happened, then even he could not stop whoever is inside.”
“No way!”
As the leader said this, the others who had heard him reacted visibly and they even overexerted themselves by pushing things to their hated enemies.
There was a small black mist in the battlefield between the two forces and it hindered the elves from unleashing their power properly.
“Everyone, use the Ether in the air as fuel for your transcendent energy and sweep a victory!” Hecates was grinning when he announced his strategy to the two groups.
Then the transcendents present recalled the teaching of Long Wu about the Ether and its utilization in practical combat. They just need to visualize that and manage to convert Ether into undead element faster than their normal process.
This caused the transcendents to have a temporary power boost and managed to restore the battle that had almost tilted to the elves.
“Attack without mercy! Until the Star Battle is officially over, no one is to show mercy to the opponent, regardless of reason!” Hecates knew that the difference in disappearance of the language barrier that scientists spoke about was starting to affect the units under him and the Cerulean Defense Force. So, the moment he saw hesitation from those under him, he gave this instruction.
The transcendents gritted their teeth and attacked furiously. Enhanced with their current situation and also stealing the Ether in the air caused the elves to be slightly deprived of their transcendent energy resource.
The transcendent group realized the strategic move that Hecates had made and exploited it. They became fiercer when exchanging moves with the elves.
Each blow caused some shockwaves and a reaction of the two transcendent energy sources, dealing more damage to the environment than what the elves intended.
But slowly, some elves started to fall in battle. The reinforcements did not expect that even with reinforcements, they could not defeat the aggressors who attacked their Sacred Tree.
“How can it end like this!?” The leader was frustrated but he could not do anything else to fix the problem that arose in front of him.
He remembered that the three races that became their opponent were a formidable one even for the Queen of the Gling Swarm. So he should be happy that he could exchange moves with them but the price for that was the Sacred Tree that every elf in this planet revered the most.
The Sacred Tree’s roots moved slower and slower until it was moving so slowly it might as well have stopped moving. The elves could still feel the Sacred Tree’s life but it was not as powerful as before.
Despair and reluctance filled their faces as the transcendent group managed to slay a dozen of the elf reinforcement before the leader shouted something to the rest of the elves who kept resisting.
“Retreat! I will bear the responsibility for this, so retreat!” the leader of the reinforcements shouted with a pained expression on his face. His eyes glinted as he saw the faces of the aggressors who dared to lay their hands on the Sacred Tree.
The elves slowly disengaged from the transcendents, slowly falling back to the roots of the Sacred Tree and produced a circular pattern before the first elf walked to it.
Even the most battle-frenzied among the elves had to heed the words of the leader so they obediently returned to their place by using the roots of the Sacred Tree and the elf method of transportation.
Hecates looked at them slowly disappearing until they were completely gone. He knew that cornering the reinforcement was not a good idea since he did not know what kind of thing they would do if that were to happen.
But he was glad that Long Wu managed to reach the source of the Sacred Tree’s strength and crippled it. He knew that the elves were feeling it the moment the Sacred Tree lost its source of Ether-producing facility.