Landing like a meteor in the midst of the enemy legionary force, Jake used his new sword to brutally decapitate the opponents around him with a sweeping, circular sword motion. Four heads rolled to the ground as several sprays of blood splashed on Jake and other nearby warriors, both friend and foe.
Just after Jake ducked his head to avoid a sneaky arrow, then dived headlong with a forward roll to get clear of the ensuing attacks. As he straightened up, he drove through the legionary in front of him, then clung to him, holding him in position to intercept a few more arrows.
The corpse having done its job, Jake withdrew his blade, then with a frontal kick threw the dead legionary at two of his comrades. Taking advantage of the confusion, he continued to slash the nearby enemies as fast as he could.
Each time an Aether filament emerged over a corpse, he would quickly absorb them in his wake. At one point one of the Throsgenian Players nearby who was supposed to fight alongside him tried to steal the Aether from one of his victims, but with a snort Jake grabbed his leg from behind, then used his body as a hammer to half stun the nearby centurion who was about to finish off Will.
So what if they were allied? Anyone who acted selfishly in the midst of such a fight deserved to die. At least this little shit had helped to kill a centurion this way.Indeed, Will, who was cornered on the ground and soaked in sweat, took the opportunity to twist the neck of the dizzy centurion, his wooden sword long since destroyed.
Gradually the battle seemed to turn in their favor. Their numerical disadvantage was getting worse and worse, but every survivor who managed to eliminate an enemy legionary would get his equipment. The bloody corpses Jake left behind provided as many weapons for his allies.
Lu Yan, meanwhile, continued to shoot arrow after arrow, eliminating one by one the archers who were causing them so much trouble. Yifeng protected his sister from retaliation by two other centurions, while Kyle and Thomas were barely managing to fend off the Primipile.
Surprisingly, Sarah had managed with Erwin's help to outrun the centurion who was aiming at her, and just like Jake she had infiltrated the enemy ranks in order to massacre their regular infantry and reap some Aether.
It seemed like an easy plan, but very few were actually able to do that. Most of the survivors could barely hold out against a legionary or two, sometimes a decurion. Jake was beginning to realize that the furs they had been given had no decisive influence on the battlefield. The only thing it had been used for was to allow enemy officers to identify the most dangerous Throsgenians.
However, while Jake's situation was ideal at the time, it was not the case for everyone. Just as Jake, Lu Yan, and Sarah were actively decimating enemy infantry and archers, there were other Myrmidians who were doing the same.
The Myrmidian General too continued to throw spears with tremendous power. Very few gladiators could survive these shots and when they did, the legionaries in front of them always seized the opportunity to finish them off.
Likewise, the two Tribunes from whom Jake had managed to break free formed a perfect team, murdering one by one the gladiators posing a threat to their cohort. In just a few tens of seconds of intense combat, their situation had become unmanageable.
Looking around him briefly, Jake unconsciously realized that the Throsgenians were shrinking in numbers. In addition, the legionaries that he had been hacking and slashing without feeling the slightest resistance earlier had begun to parry his blows, an arrow often coming to interrupt his fatal counterattacks.
From a situation where he was eliminating one enemy per second, he soon found himself on the defensive, forced to retreat little by little to avoid being overrun. Then suddenly, a decurion joined the fray, trying to backstab him.
Dodging the surprise strike by a narrow margin, Jake leaned slightly to the side, then tucked his arm in, capturing his opponent's arm and locking it in position. Straightening up abruptly, Jake then broke his nose with a back elbow.
Still holding the decurion's arm, he then pulled the decurion over his head with a jiu-jitsu grip. Crashing on his back while facing him, Jake then stomped his face, the crack of a broken neck confirming that the soldier would not hurt anyone else.
All of a sudden, a sharp pain assailed Jake's senses. By reflex, he plunged forward, preventing the blade from sinking any further. Turning around sharply, he recognized the two Tribunes he had neglected.
When he passed his hand over the nape of his neck, whose radiating pain prevented him from focusing, a gash a half-centimeter deep confirmed that they had just tried to decapitate him. When he became aware of what he had just escaped, he couldn't help but shiver.
' The fuck?! Why didn't the Shadow Guide warn me?' That was the first thought that went through Jake's mind at that moment.
On high alert, he stared at the two Tribunes looking for signs that they were rank 4 or higher, but he couldn't find any conclusive evidence. The two Myrmidian officers were as inexpressive as dead fish, their only thought being how to eliminate the tenacious Throsgenian gladiator in front of them.
Accustomed to confrontations against Gerulf, he pushed with all his might on his legs, concentrating his Red and Yellow Aether in them to bounce like a kangoroo several dozen meters back. He landed against the stone wall bordering the arena away from the melee and was finally able to catch his breath.
His pupils glowed blue and purple again, with a green glow added to the first two. His neck began to glow with a ghostly green halo, a sign that all his Aether of Vitality had been mobilized to contain the wound.
The wound, which had already stopped bleeding, coagulated in a split second, a scab forming on the back of his neck. Taking advantage of the respite, Jake was finally able to discover the catastrophic situation in which they found themselves.
Of the two hundred Throsgenian gladiators alive at the beginning of the fight, only ten were left and every survivor was in a precarious situation. Erwin, who had severed a Tribune's arm earlier, was now also on the ground with one arm amputated.
Like Jake, he was controlling his Aether of Vitality as best he could to stabilize his wounds, but to no avail .For unlike Jake, the Tribune he'd amputated an arm from was harassing him over and over again, each stab going for the kill.
As Jake scanned the arena, he discovered Lu Yifeng's dead body lying next to his sister. His sister was completely enraged, showing a completely different expression from the shy and reserved young woman she normally displayed. Her body was covered with wounds, but she kept fighting like a fury with a sword in each hand, resisting as best she could against a Tribune and three centurions.
Hugo had been fighting the same Tribune from the beginning, although he had managed to eliminate the weaker centurion earlier with a lucky strike. The fight had been balanced until the General finally ran out of spears and decided to physically join the battle.
He had then replaced the helpless Tribune in the face of Hugo's unmovable turtle style, allowing the free officer to attack Sarah.From the first sword stroke of the General, Hugo's strength had proved useless, the Myrmidian shield he had obtained from Lu Yan being immediately pulverized.
The second blow brought him to his knees, while the third, a terrifyingly powerful horizontal swing sent him crashing against the stone wall bordering the arena. The arm that had blocked the blow was twisted in a strange position, its bones broken into several pieces. From Hugo's dazed expression, it was clear that he was badly injured.
The Myrmidian General was now walking towards him without any hurry to finish him off.
Will... was dead, too. Jake found the top half of his body about ten meters away from his legs, a trail of blood connecting the two halves.
Sarah, Kyle and Thomas were still alive, but two Tribunes and three centurions had caught them in a pincer attack after the one fighting Hugo had joined them to kill the blond woman. They had suffered multiple wounds and without their perfect cooperation they would have died too.
''What the fuck just happened?!'' This was not supposed to turn out this way!