Chapter 856: The Battle Intensifies

The skeletal figures rose out from within the swirling portals of darkness, each different in size and shape. There were six humans, as well as six beasts of differing species. The beasts were all hulking in size, ranging from a few dozen yards tall to nearly one hundred yards tall.

It was hard to tell what each beast was based on its skeleton, but all appeared to be terrifying in their own right. Spiked spines, massive, fanged teeth, and sharp razor claws was a prevalent theme.

Not only that, but each skeleton emanated a powerful aura, equal to a Peak Dao Transformation cultivator. As they emerged, the auras of the skeleton figures quickly diminished, clearly restricted by the formation mechanisms of the arena. Even with their power restricted, each figure was still formidable, sitting just a tier lower than Lilian herself.

'She's a summoner?' John mused, seeing this art for the first time. He had not been expecting such a battle art to be used by Lilian. But this art was different. Summoners summoned things that were alive, yet these things were skeletons, and had no life in them.

'Wait...no...I detect the slightest hint of life in each skeleton...a soul, like a candle in the wind, just barely hanging on,' John noticed as he inspected closer.

While the art was impressive, he still didn't know how this was supposed to help against Zeras. If Lilian herself could not injure him just yet, how would twelve weaker beings help with that. Zeras seemed to be of the same opinion, as his amused gaze swept across the small army Lilian had summoned.

"You've become a skeleton babysitter now?" he mocked, not threatened at all by what he felt.

Lilian's expression remained calm yet cold, as she completely ignored his words. The summoning completed, and Lilian swiftly altered her focus. The Dao of Space began to emanate from her body once more, as her spatial rune on her body lit up, similar to the rune of death that had lit up previously.

As the glowing rune lit up on her upper chest, a gale of spatial energy began to swirl around her. It started out small, but quickly grew into a storming tempest, brimming with spatial might, which spread out around her body in all directions. The air shifted and changed constantly within the tempest, as the spatial energy distorted sight and sound.

John's eyes narrowed as he focused on the spatial storm, and then widened his eyes as he realized what was going on.

The spatial storm was made up entirely from spatial fragments, each narrower than a blade, as well as shaper. It was as if a million blades of incomparable sharpness were surrounding her, making it impossible to approach. Even John felt some danger when he looked at the storm, as it's lethality was without question.

Even in his strongest body state, he would take damage if he were to enter that storm. While it might not be lethal for someone like him, for Zeras, who had a powerful yet lesser body when compared to John, it made approaching Lilian almost impossible without dealing with the storm first.

Zeras' amused gaze vanished for the first time as he stared at the tempest surrounding Lilian. His haughty and lax demeanor vanished, and his grip tightened around his weapon.

"Good. At least you didn't waste the last decade of your life," Zeras said, and then pointed his weapon towards her. "Let's see if I can blast away this little storm of yours."

A beam of pure astral energy blasted straight towards her, its might beyond terrifying. It was even more powerful than the beam Zeras had unleashed on Lua, revealing that he had clearly held back in his previous fight.

The beam arrived before Lilian in an instant, threatening to pierce directly through her spatial storm and land onto her body. At the last moment, a figure appeared before her.

Boom!

The astral beam slammed onto one of the beast-like skeletons' skulls, which was wide and flat, as if its skull was designed with the purpose of only defense. The astral energy blasted off the skull and scattered in all directions, falling onto the arena and the formation barrier, shaking the arena violently with its power.

The skeletal beast was knocked backwards, but its claws dug into the arena as best it could to resist. It was pushed back several dozen yards before the beam stopped and the beast came to a halt. A small crack appeared on the beast's skull after taking the attack head on, something that even Zeras raised an eyebrow at.

'What a formidable defense!' John thought, seeing the use of the figures for the first time. His eyes shifted to his master, and they widened in shock.

'She's gone! When did she move?' John couldn't help but be surprised. He had focused on the beast, as had everyone else, and in that moment, his master had somehow completely disappeared.

Zeras' gaze narrowed as he noticed Lilian's disappearance as well, and he quickly pivoted on his feet, turning around in an instant.

"A petty trick," he sneered as Lilian materialized behind him, as if stepping out from a different dimension. She was less than ten feet away from him, and her scythe was already cleaving out towards Zeras with lethal intent. While he had not agreed to a life and death battle, it didn't stop her from trying to kill him before he conceded.

Zeras' weapon slashed out to meet her attack, and then his gaze narrowed as he felt danger approaching from behind. Two of Lilian's human skeletons appeared behind Zeras in an instant, each slashing out with their own weapon. One held a sword, and the other a spear, and both weapons brimmed with spatial and death Qi.

While the attacks were normally beneath Zeras' notice, he was focused on Lilian at the moment.

"Pathetic," Zeras sneered as his free hand stretched out to the side, pointing towards the skeletal opponents.

Boom!

Another powerful beam of Astral Qi cleaved out towards the skeletal humans, while his weapon slashed towards Lilian's scythe. Even when surrounded, Zeras maintained his calm and control of the battle, impressing even John. Zeras was definitely battle-hardened, and not a pampered prince of an empire that never saw battle.

Peng!

Weapons collided, violently shaking the arena once more as both fighters utilized their full strength in the attack. Zeras sneered as he stared at Lilian who was a few feet away, but unable to land a decisive blow.

"Is this all you have? Sneak attacks and puppets?" Zeras sneered as he casually held Lilian at bay. The spatial storm surrounding Lilian slammed onto his Astral Armor, chipping away at it and slicing into his skin, but Zeras was able to resist any harmful damage thanks to his armor and innate variant body. His eyes suddenly widened as he felt danger from his side.

"Impossible!" he thought. The two skeletons had been knocked away, and the others were still too far away to assist.

Boom!

A powerful beam of Qi slammed onto Zeras' back before he could react, violently launching him into the air like a broken kite. His astral armor strained against the powerful beam, and managed to resist, although he had taken a bit of internal damage from the force of the attack.

Lilian appeared above Zeras in an instant and unleashed a scythe art, sending a sharp scythe image, brimming with death and spatial Qi towards him, as if it was an attack unleashed by the grim reaper himself.

"Fuck off!" Zeras roared in frustration, and unleashed another beam of astral Qi towards the scythe image.

His eyes widened as a swirling circle of spatial energy appeared between his Qi beam and the scythe image for just an instant, long enough for the Qi beam to slam into it. However, no explosion happened as expected, and the Qi beam disappeared into the portal of spatial energy.

Zeras' gaze wavered, and then he felt danger once more coming from behind. He finally understood what happened as his gaze shifted, and he spotted another swirling circle of the same spatial energy appear, from which a powerful beam of Astral Qi came out of.

The beam reached him in an instant, while the scythe image from above landed on him at the exact same time.

Boom!