Agitated bats filled their vision.
Wherever they turned, there were countless bats frenziedly attacking them.
Their visions were blocked, and they could only hear their fellow Awakeneds being in the middle of their own battles.
A large number of bats were currently surrounding three Awakeneds. These were the ones Chief Li had long been waiting for.
The three of them knew that they should have long escaped the area since there was no way left for them to achieve their goal.
Their previous plan was to distance themselves away from the blood-sucking bats and begin from there.
Once they see that the barrier was stable enough to hold them all off inside, they would then move closer and slowly finish all the bats off.
Those creatures' only advantage against them was their high numbers and their ability to slide out of their grasp once they decide to escape.
However, when the bats were limited to only flying within the barrier, those bats can only wait for their deaths as they slowly decrease their numbers.
Overall, it was a simple yet tremendously exhausting and time-consuming mission. Other than that, the task would be a breeze.
Among the Awakeneds that escaped, White Eye can only be considered to be an average Awakened. There were much stronger and troublesome ones that got away.
In their eyes, White Eye could barely be a threat for a Rank 1. Though White Eye had immense potential with his skill, there wasn't a guarantee that White Eye could fully reach the peak of his power.
Some day, the blood-sucking bats would surely become strong enough to be able to attack Awakeneds with ease.
When they imagined how powerful his bats would become once he advanced his rank, they could only hope that they weren't the ones being targeted by those fearsome monsters.
However, none of them expected that with White Eye's current ability, his bats could already break out of a barrier.
They seemed to have underestimated White Eye's capabilities. He was more powerful than they have thought.
Now they found themselves in a predicament, under attack by a furious group of bloodsuckers.
Although from an outside perspective, the three looked like they were at a disadvantage, the reality couldn't be farther from that.
Each of them could feel the bats hitting their bodies everywhere. The bat's hidden fangs were also trying to pierce through their skin.
Unfortunately, they were still too weak. Their fangs weren't sharp enough to deal any damage to them.
The only thing they could feel was tiny creatures hitting their bodies as if hoping that they would suffocate from their numbers.
This was truly the most one-sided battle that they had been through. They couldn't do much to retaliate in their current state.
The Barrier Master, whose skill was only to form a barrier, could only rely on her stronger body to hit back, slowly reducing the numbers of bats that were attacking her.
No one could understand why are the bats attacking them in the first place. White Eye should be aware that he could do nothing against them.
White Eye was only digging his own grave so pointlessly.
The other two were also doing well on their own.
The first one had a skill that releases sleeping smoke, which made the bats in the surroundings sink into a heavy state of sleepiness before they fell one by one.
This was the most effective skill against the bats among the three skills available to them. Most of the bats moved away from the area, not wanting to be affected by the smoke.
After a certain distance away, the sleeping smoke no longer affected them. The smoke was only effective around the area near the skill user. Outside of that, the wind would only blow it away.
Since it was impossible for the bats to be aware of how to deal with the smoke, their fast response could only mean that White Eye was still in control of them.
This was what they had been trying to find out even before White Eye had escaped from them.
The bats weren't capable of speaking, and they had been acting so foolishly, which made them confused whether it was still the same White Eye or he was influenced by the little creatures.
Now that they had proven that these bats have intelligence and proper coordination with each other, they would be able to report back some interesting findings.
However, with that many bats, White Eye would surely have a hard time individually controlling them.
From this, they could assume that White Eye might only be able to control a number of them, but he might still be able to swap to controlling different bats whenever he chose to.
The last one among them, who was a sword user, easily sliced away the bats. Every time the sword moved, a few bats fell, building up a small mountain of corpses below.
But even though they had been slaying as many as they could for what seemed to be a long time now, they still couldn't see any significant changes around them.
If this were to continue, they would surely be exhausted, and when they do, they could only imagine what fate would befall them.
The blood-sucking bats were similar to ants. As long as they don't let them stick to their bodies for a long time, nothing would happen.
However, when they become too drained to move, it would be a disaster. Even ants would be able to take down an animal many times bigger than them by overwhelming it with their numbers and slowly consuming them alive.
After a few swift movements, breathing heavily, the three of them managed to move closer to each other. Now with them being together, they pushed off the pesky creatures that were vigorously attacking them non stop.
...
After an extended period, they were becoming increasingly tired, their movements slowing, and their strengths weakening.
Being alert the whole time and using all their strengths to prevent the bats from sticking to them had caused their energy to be gradually depleted.
The bats seemed to have been waiting for this moment. Their attacks became more and more frantic as if they were getting excited about their prey nearing its end.
They were in serious trouble.
The three of them communicated using their movements, deciding if they should make a run for it.
One thing on their mind was whether these bats would chase after them and how long could they last before they collapse since their bodies were already screaming at them.
Just before they became desperate, the blood-sucking bats simultaneously screamed out, which made their minds blank out from the intense pain being transmitted in it.
All three of them went down with eyes tightly shut, covering their ears from the extremely unbearable piercing noise coming out of the bats.
They didn't know what the bats were up to now. The only thing on their minds was how to put an end to it.
Suddenly, the noise stopped.
There was a gloomy silence as they feared the noise ringing out for another time.
A few seconds had passed, and there was nothing.
When they slowly opened their eyes, the bats were already rapidly flying away, back to the forest, seemingly in a hurry.
...
While there was chaos happening in the mountains, on the other side where light barely touches the land, Max was also kept busy with his own battle.