Chapter 328: Shifting Tides

With the emergence of the sovereigns the battle now took on a more frantic pace. Not from the soldiers of Eldor, but from the defenders of Syan.

The regular soldiers were well aware that they only had 5 sovereigns on their side. Already they were battling against 6 tier 5’s, yet they also knew that the enemy supposedly had 8 on their side.

That was a terrifying number of supremely powerful foes to face against.

Even a freshly advanced tier 5 could easily handle up to 10 level 149 Lords, that gap only grew wider and wider as they advanced in levels even further.

Someone on the kings level would be easily able to deal with a full compliment of almost 100 high level lords.

So whilst it did not seem like the kingdom had anyone quite on their Kings level, the simple fact was that they were outnumbered.

This discrepancy in sovereigns caused the Lord level captains to push their troops all the harder. They fought with a relentless furor, constantly pushing against the seemingly endless surge of kingdom troops threatening their home.

Men and women died near constantly, be it from spell, sword, arrow or the stray giant bolt or boulder from the siege weapons that still continually unleashed their payload on the wall and defenders both.

As for the sovereigns themselves, well that was where the furor of the Syan army seemed to come to a halt.

Whilst both Masin and the King were somewhat holding their own in their battles, the same could not be said for the other 3 tier 5’s.

The kingdoms sovereigns were either to high a level or simply countered the Syan tier 5’s skills and abilities.

One of the Syan generals fought with fire, he held a domain focused on raging wildfire. The world around him seemed to be engulfed in a constant inferno, his flame spells searing the very air itself.

He wielded a longsword that was similarly wreathed in bright orange flames, his swordsmanship was brilliant, using condensed flames as footholds he seemed to dance through the air as he furiously defended against the brutal onslaught of his opponent.

The general that he fought against wielded a domain of still air. It was a strange domain in that it seemed to apply more of an absence of any force than the usual intense force that domains were known for.

Yet in this battle, that absence was felt quite poignantly. She was a slight woman, wearing flowing robes of white and blue silk, yet even as she raced through the air they did not flutter or sway in the slightest for the simple reason that all around her no air existed.

She moved through an absence of air, held aloft by this absence and wielded it with a refined precision that seemed effortless.

This domain was also a brutal counter against the flame sovereign. For what did fire need to burn but air, and when their was no air to burn, the flames went out.

Or they would have, if the Syan general had not filled their continued burning with his own mana. However, that was but a delaying tactic, it cost him a significant amount of mana to maintain his flames in the abcense of any file to burn.

Whilst the wind sovereign did not need to exert herself all that much, whilst the fight seemed mostly even at the start, things swiftly shifted towards the Eldor general’s favour. She was able to consistently counter any attack sent her way, her magics slowly closing in.

Whilst the Syan general was holding, it was unclear how long he would be able to hold on for. The only saving grace on his side being that the wind user seemed to lack any decisive magics that could end the battle early.

The King on the other hand was seemingly unstoppable. Whilst he appeared elderly, with a wrinkled face and sunken eyes, his body was still fit and his magics were still formidable.

Even when fighting against two sovereigns he held strong, if anything it was the Eldor generals that were being pushed back.

The domain of the king was a terrifying thing to behold. His domain was called Autority of Ice, it granted him near flawless dominion over ice while actively freezing anything and everything deemed not an ally near the king.

Against him stood the head general with his domain of Flowing Tides. Besides him stood a robust human man, his domain was centered on stone and indomitably.

Two powerful tier 5 combatants, yet against the king, they were struggling to simply stay alive.

Lances of ice constantly rained down on the two, as nets and barriers of ice rapidly formed to try and block any chance of avoiding his attacks, forcing them to actively defend against them.

Martin Renolds, the general of Eldor was struggling to evade the constant barrage of attacks. The constant barriers and nets of ice all around him forced him to intensify his domain, its effects causing the lances to swerve out of the way most of the time.

Yet, most of the time was not quite good enough. He was forced to lash out with twin whips of water as he relentlessly battered away the barrage of attacks, never getting the chance to retaliate against his foe directly.

He was only able to send the odd water bullet or jet towards the king, only to grimace in annoyance as his attacks simply froze half a dozen meters away from the king, then to his horror those same frozen attacks suddenly morphed into yet more ice lances before shooting straight back towards Martin.

But if General Martin was struggling, then the other Eldor Sovereign was simply being brutalised.

His sturdy body seemed to be made from wet paper. The thick layers of flexible rock armour that covered his body simply unable to defend against the lances of ice.

Only his relentless swinging of his war hammer provided any kind of defence. Even still, he was constantly being injured.

First his wounds started off light, just a slight graze along a leg, then his arm, then his side. Soon however, they grew more damaging, his left leg was entirely skewered, then he lost an ear and then his left hand was entirely severed.

Still the stone general fought desperately, his powerful body and magics surged as he unleashed everything, knowing that if he didn’t he would not be living much longer.

His mana flowed out of him in such intensity that it was almost liquid. Stone forming all around him in a whirlwind of rock and stone, this managed to hold back the incessant barrage of attack for enough time for him to gather enough mana for one final attack.

A colossal stone drill was forming above him, then it began to spin, rapidly building up speed. When the last of his impromptu stone shield fell he unleashed the drill directly at the king, using ever last drop of his mana.

It was a colossal thing, easily 30 meters long and nearly 5 tall.

The early stone projectile cut through the air at terrifying spee, crossing the distance between the king and the general in near moments.

Then the drill hit the king, and the kings body staggered into fragments of ice.

The stone general blinked in confusion for a moment, unsure of what had just happened. Then he felt a surge of mana to his side and horror engulfed his mind.

He only had time to turn his gaze in that direction, there he saw the King, he floated in the air on a platform of thin ice, his hands extended wide and his face ice cold as he stared directly back at the stone general.

Then a come of absolute cold shot out from the core of the king. Everything, including the very air itself simply froze, nothing remained unfrozen, not even the stone general.

His body was instantly frozen solid, his consciousness shut down and his body began to fall.

General Martin had managed to avoid nearly the entire thing, yet he was still left shocked to his very core as he watched his colleague drop from the sky, only to shatter into a thousand pieces when his body smashed into the frozen ground below.

The first sovereign of the battle had been slain and it was done at the hands of Syans King.

General Martin grimaced, he thought he knew how powerful the King was, it turns out that he had severely underestimated exactly how powerful in the end.

His gaze flicked back towards the direction of the temporary fort, there his gaze locked onto two excited eyes as they watched the battle with an unnerving intensity.

Then his domain surged.

It seemed like a tide of razor sharp blood exploded from the fort, red ribbons of utter destruction expanded up into the sky in what could have been a beautiful display had those same ribbons not instantly killed half a dozen Eldor soldiers as they unfurled.

The Bloody Sword Saint surging forwards through the sky, his bloody ribbons extending from his back in a mesmerizing pattern.

He raced straight for the king as General Martin instantly fled away, eager to be anywhere except in the psychopaths way.