The moment Be said that she couldn''t hold back anymore her entire demeanor changed.


    Before she was already ready to fight, however, right now, she had the presence of a Valkyrie.


    Be''s hair gleamed golden while her eyes released a faint golden glint. This was her Innate ability [Celestial transformation] that had been activated with its highest output.


    However, that was not everything Be had up her sleeves. She used her ability [Outburst] once again, ignoring the usual weakening state that would soon kick in.


    Under normal circumstances, this was dangerous but Be didn''t feel that she was weakened after using both her Innate ability and [Outburst] less than a minute ago.


    This would have astonished her but she didn''t even have time to think about it right now as the five Guardian Knights appeared in front of her.


    She was the closest to them and thus the designated target that had to be eliminated first.


    Retreating a few steps, Be appeared near Nial, who was still standing in the same position as before.


    Her gaze turned to him for a moment before flicking back to the five unscathed Guardian Knights and the one Nial had taken care of to some extent.


    Taking a deep breath, Be pushed her feet off the ground as her body leaned forward.


    She had sensed something approaching them from behind him, which was more than enough reason for her body to bend towards the ground.


    A mere momentter a dozen highlypressed Earthen needles shot past Nial and Be, colliding with the Guardian Knights that were about to attack them.


    The Earthen needles were not powerful enough to pierce through the Guardian Knights'' armor but their impact upon colliding was tremendous.


    Thus, Be was able to make use of the short distraction Mathias had created to emerge in front of the closest Guardian Knight.


    Circting her tremendously enhanced mana into the Tier-0 shortswords Be was tightly grasping, they began to vibrate faintly.


    With enough mana inserted the Tier-0 weapons could release a majority of their functions, including the runic constetions that enhanced the de''s endurance and sharpness.


    The more mana used the stronger the enhancement until the runic constetions limit would be reached.


    However, reaching the limit of a runic constetion''s saturation was not something any of the three present young Originals were capable of.


    But even if that was the case, Be''s current state allowed her to wield the Tier-0 shortsword to an unexpectedly high degree.


    Adding the strengthening of the Tier-1 protection chestte to it, the rapid attacks she issued in a single second had been more than enough to cut through the Guardian Knight''s sword arm.


    At first, Be had nned to kill one of the Guardian Knights by attacking its back. However, Mathias'' attack caused too little distraction for her to attack the back and move away from it unscathed.


    The Guardian Knights were simply too powerful to allow her to roam around unhindered.


    Nial''s situation was simr. His attack power was slightly higher than that of Be''s as he didn''t have a problem with cutting through the powerful defenses of the Guardian Knights.


    His Tier-1 Dragonme spear, its burning hot de, and the dark energy that was under his control were simply too powerful for the Guardian Knight''s defenses.


    Unfortunately, his high attack power didn''t make up for the gap in his slow speed and weaker brute force.


    It was still impossible for him to properly block the Guardian Knights'' attacks because their brute force was too strong. However, avoiding their shes was possible, even if it was difficult.


    It required him to be in a state of full concentration.


    Fortunately his range of perception was the greatest advantage in a fight against multiple opponents.


    While others would focus on their sight to determine which opponent was about to attack first, Nial used not only his range of perception to visualize his opponents in his mind but his other senses were fully unleashed as well!


    [Hodur''s Heir] did not only provide the ck miasma. Rather, this had been a bonus that Nial hadn''t nned on obtaining when binding the Curse to his mana core.


    The true effect of the Curse [Hodur''s Heir] was the tremendous enhancement all his senses except his sight had received.


    Hearing even the slightest movement within the entire hallway, feeling the gusts of wind that were released by his friends and opponents alike while brandishing their weapons, and sensing the vibrations of all existences the moment they touched the ground, Nial received all necessary information he required to do everything he wanted.


    Nial was able to react to the actions in his surroundings before anyone else. This outbnced his slower speed and weaker strength.


    The only issue was that his mind was in severe pain while trying to digest all the provided information at once in order to react in time.


    Taking in the influx of information was not really a problem for Nial. However, digesting them in time was the true issue that Nial was currently struggling with a lot.


    It may look like he was able to evade all the attacks of the Guardian Knights without any problems but Be was clearly able to see the sweat trickling down his temples and the blood running down his nose.


    ''Why is he not backing off?'' Be was confused.


    Nial should have long since retreated in order to catch his breath and attack again. What he was currently doing could be considered stupid, to put it simply.


    He was intentionally draining his precious energy, exhausting his body and mind without actually gaining anything in return.


    It was not possible for Nial to initiate an attack on the Guardian Knight because he was trying his best to prevent them from attacking Be.


    That meant he was facing four Guardian Knights at the same time, preventing them from moving too quickly while evading their attacks.


    His moves were nimble but even more so taxing. Even Mathias in the back was a little bit astonished about Nial''s action.


    Under normal circumstances, he would focus on attacking, or defending before initiating an attack the moment he perceived an opportunity.


    But right now, Nial was merely keeping the four Guardian Knights upied with himself and simultaneously preventing them from advancing.


    This was contrary to his usual fighting style, even more so because Nial had retracted the dark energy that had been swirling around the Dragonme spear for quite some time.


    "Mathias…are you sleeping back there?"


    Suddenly, Nial''s voice could be heard from the front. Mathias flinched at that moment just to finish the attack he had begun to prepare from the moment he had shot out the Earthen needles.


    Calling it an attack may be an exaggeration. Rather,beling it as an attempt to control the crowd might be better.


    Since he had seen Yves nt-controlling ability and the Original''s high control over the nts in a wide range, Mathias had nned on adjusting his fighting style.


    Thus, his current attack was somethingpletely different than before. It required more than half of his mana despite wielding the ckwood wand, and his Innate ability [Elementalprehension] being fully unleashed.


    Others would be required to use their entire mana at the 9th Origin rank to unleash the same attack Mathias was releasing right now.


    The floor in front of Nial began to shake all of a sudden. He sensed a tremendous amount of mana being used from behind him, affecting the floor around the area on which the Guardian Knights were standing.


    All of a sudden, the earth seemed to protrude out of the stone floor. It manifested seemingly out of nowhere, tightly holding on to the Guardian Knights that were not moving owing to Nial''s actions.


    What neither of his friends had realized yet was that Nial had sensed that Mathias had been trying out something new.


    This was another reason for him to keep moving in a close range to the Guardian Knights to prevent them from moving away.


    He wanted to provide Mathias with the opportunity to test out new things. Simultaneously, Nial knew that he had to learn how to digest numerous pieces of information without feeling as if his mind had been thrown in a pit ofva.


    One way to train his mind was to actively force it to work in extreme situations like he was doing right now. For some, it might seem as if he was doing something stupid, even more so because he was currently fighting existences that could kill him the moment they got hold of him.


    However, that was exactly what forced his mind and body to move despite the pain that was spreading through his brain.


    The fight ahead prevented him from taking rest or slowing down even for a millisecond.


    Being put in a life-and-death situation, Nial''s proficiency in various aspects increased tremendously. At the same time, a simr scenario urred with Mathias because he was intently observing every single thing about the attack he issued.


    Mathias called it ''Living Earth trap'' because the Earth under his control was moving and squirming as if it was alive.


    It shot out of the ground and kept growing, shackling down the Guardian Knights the moment the Earth mped around their legs.


    Being able to control the crowds in specific ways was extremely difficult. However, Mathias'' first attempt had already been a sess.


    This was mostly owed to the fact that the Guardian Knights didn''t move much. Furthermore, they weren''t attempting to break out of their restricted state yet.


    They had yet to notice that their legs were caged in the mps created by Mathias, to begin with.


    Nial noticed that they were unbothered, which was why he began to smile before pushing his body backward.


    He retreated for the first time, just to sense that Be appeared next to him.


    She had just defeated the Guardian Knight, whose sword hand she had cut off before.


    This was only possible owing to the opportunity Mathias had created for her with his Earthen needles, and Nial''s action that had prevented the other four Guardian Knights from reaching her.


    Nheless, she was exhausted right now but the same could be said about Nial and Mathias.


    They had merely defeated two Guardian Knights, with one of them still running around in all directions, just like a small child would aimlessly run around.


    However, there was one big difference from before! The Guardian Knights began to move, only to realize that their legs had been shackled down.


    Using brute force, it was possible for them to destroy the Earthen shackles. However, two of the four Guardian Knights fell to the ground as the shackles had been more strong than expected.


    The remaining Guardian Knights shed at Nial and Be, just to notice that a small pir of Earth pierced out of the ground.


    Only one small pir shot out from their left feet. But this one, seemingly useless pir was more than enough to destroy the bnce of the already unstable walking Guardian Knight.


    Pushed to the ground due to thebined effect of the Living Earth trap and the Earthen pirs, the Guardian Knights'' runic constetion circuit first had to digest what was going on.


    However, once the information was digested, everything was already toote as Nial and Be had appeared in their midst, destroying the Guardian Knights'' main circuit of constetions in a clean swipe.


    "Finally, done!"


    **


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