With the energy in his beast core depleted, Carter could no longer use his [Pseudo-Godrealm], meaning he could no longer afford to fly at full speed with the level of the passengers sitting on his back being too weak to bear the turbulence. As such, his speed was a lot slower. Still, they weren’t far away from the Pavilion now.
Unfortunately, it appeared that they weren’t completely out of trouble yet.
Before they could return to the safety of the Pavilion, they were intercepted by another of O’Brien’s disciples.
Shamar was O’Brien’s 14th and most cunning disciple. When his senior brothers and sisters rushed ahead to chase after Ace and his group, he calmly followed on the ground, a shadowy aura covering his body, hiding him from the senses of everyone he was tailing.
Originally, he didn’t expect to find an opportunity to capitalise on the situation, but when he noticed Ace and the others escaping after the intervention of Mathias, Lauriella, and the others, he couldn’t help but grin to himself.
Still, even after trailing his master’s son and mistress for dozens of miles, he wasn’t in a hurry to take action. He had no idea how many, if any, more powerhouses this Yin-Yang Pavilion had.
It was only after travelling another hundred or so miles that Shamar felt comfortable enough to take action.
The moment he did, Carter reacted instantly.
“LEO!” Carter growled at his son as he turned to face the new threat.
Nothing else needed to be said; by that point, Leo could also feel Shamar’s overwhelming presence speeding in their direction.
Leo immediately turned to Ace, preparing to lift his partner onto his back, knowing Ace was in no condition to move by himself, but what he got in response was a threatening glare.
“Take my mother and Lance,” Ace commanded, leaving no room for discussion. “NOW!”
Leo didn’t want to leave Ace, but he didn’t dare disobey him either. As unwilling as he was, Leo hurriedly lifted Milianna and Lance onto his back before leaping off his father’s back and jumping through the air as quickly as possible.
Milianna’s heart dropped as she was forced to leave her son, but thankfully, before she could try and order Leo to go back and get him, Cirilus, Ace’s new subordinate, flung his new master over his shoulder and, like Leo, began leaping through the air at breakneck speed to try and escape.
With everyone off his back, Carter was finally free to engage their assailant. After becoming a peak saint and gaining access to the knowledge of the pavilion, Carter’s current strength was enough to rank him among the likes of Haydson and Shelia – the leader of the Cult of Darkness.
If he were at his best, he would have nothing to fear facing a saint like Shamar, but right now, he was far from his best!
Shamar smirked disdainfully when he heard Carter’s enraged roar, but he didn’t slow down in the slightest. In fact, he barely even looked at him. Most of his attention was still focused on Ace and his mother.
“You would’ve been better off running away,” Carter snorted when he felt the feeble flames coating Carter’s man-sized paw as it flew towards him.
Two throwing knives appeared in Shamar’s hands, and with a casual flick of his wrist, the knives whistled through the air, but instead of heading towards the giant lion, they seemed to be aimed at the ground.
Carter had no idea what his target was thinking, but it didn’t matter; all that mattered to him was tearing the dark-robed man limb from limb before he could get anywhere near his son. Unfortunately, fate had other plans in store for him.
His paw was mere inches away from Shamar’s pale-skinned face when he not only felt a piercing pain coming from his paw and neck, but his body also refused to listen to him.
“That’s impossible!” Carter roared as he looked down, only to find blood leaking from both his neck and paw. “You didn’t even hit…”
“You figured it out too late,” Shamar chuckled evilly as he summoned a long sword from his storage ring, slashing at the beast’s neck as he passed him before continuing his pursuit of his true targets.
He had intended to decapitate Carter in one blow, but his mane had been a lot thicker than he had foreseen. Still, Carter could only let out a faint whimpering sound as he fell to the ground, a fountain of blood gushing from his neck, its state ultimately unknown.
With the only saint of the group down, Shamar had nothing left to worry about as he flew towards Ace and Cirulus.
Cirulus had been paying attention to everything that had happened between the two saints, so the moment he noticed Shamar dispatching Carter, he took action.
Knowing that he and Ace would be next, Cirulus did the only thing a loyal subordinate could do in his situation.
“It’s been short, but it’s been fun!” Cirulus grinned at Ace one last time before launching his body towards Leo and the others and turning around to face Shamar.
Ace didn’t seem to react when thrown through the air like a javelin; his eyes remained trained on Cirulus’ back as he fearlessly faced death head-on to protect him – as if to etch that scene into his memory.
“YAAHHHH!” Cirulus roared as he coated his sword in crimson fire-style battle-qi and slashed at Shamar with all his might.
Facing the attack of Cirulus, Shamar didn’t react; he simply carried on flying as though the rank nine warrior was mere air.
The moment his sword made contact with Shamar’s neck, Cirulus helplessly watched as his sword shattered before his body was sent flying off into the distance as he had his chest caved in by Shamar’s shoulder.
“Don’t stop!” Ace roared when he sensed Leo slow as if to catch him. “Protect my mother!”
“NOOO, AACCEEE!” Milianna wailed as she fought to escape Lance’s hold with tears streaming down her pale yet still beautiful face. “GO BACK! WE NEED TO GO BACK!”
Tears could be seen welling up in the eyes of Leo and Lance, but neither of them said or did anything to help her. As much as it killed them, both were determined not to let Ace’s sacrifice be in vain.
After his last fight, Ace knew he would be lucky to defeat the average rank nine expert in his current state, but as he summoned ‘Newgate’ for what he knew would inevitably be the last time, into his one good hand, no hesitation or fear could be seen in his eyes.
Ace could barely stand straight; he was literally running on fumes by this point, but still, he coated his glaive in both his [Armament & Conqueror’s Haki] as he faced the 14th disciple of his biological father.
“We really don’t need to fight, young master,” Shamar explained as he came to a stop in front of the teen, his eyes diligently studying the polearm in Ace’s hand with a hint of fear but even more curiosity.
Newgate had several very prominent cracks running across its obsidian body and blade, but its most noteworthy feature was the golden veins running along it.
Shamar could clearly feel that, at best, the power it gave off was that of a warrior at the early stages of the saint realm, but still, there was something about that aura that made a peak saint like him feel slightly threatened.
“I don’t intend to harm you or your mother,” Shamar continued. “I just want to bring you back to your fa…”
Ace refused to let Shamar finish his sentence. The moment Shamar attempted to say the word “father”, Ace leapt forward and thrust the blade of his glaive towards the saint’s mouth.
A helpless sigh escaped Shamar’s mouth when he saw that, as he didn’t want to do any more harm to his master’s only living child, but now it appeared he didn’t have a choice.
Even though he could quite easily dodge it, Shamar wanted to experience Ace’s technique for himself.
Ace could see Shamar's look of curiosity and anticipation as his attack neared. He knew he wasn’t being taken very seriously, but all he was focused on was doing as much damage to the man as possible whilst allowing his mother and the others to get as far away as possible – as long as they got back to the Pavilion, they’d be safe!
As Ace’s glaive met Shamar’s sword, Shamar couldn’t help but widen his eyes in surprise, but it wasn’t because of the force…
As he suspected, the force of the blow was around that of a weaker early saint, but as the attack neared, he felt something tug at his consciousness as if trying to force him to submit, as though something was telling him that he wasn’t qualified to even dare to resist.
That tug was so strong that for the briefest of seconds, he actually relaxed his arm slightly and weakened his Darkness Battle-Qi as though he was about to disperse it.
Shamar stared at his wrist, lost in thought. Even though he hadn’t suffered any real damage, his arm was still numb, and that in and of itself was shocking enough considering the difference in realm; it was only when he heard a pained grunt that he snapped out of his thoughts.
After using [Conqueror’s Infusion], not only had Newgate shattered into thousands of pieces, but so too had the bones in his left arm. Still, he wasn’t done fighting!
He ignored his ever-growing fatigue and the pain of two broken arms as he hardened his leg to perform a shin kick.
The power of Ace’s strike would’ve been enough to shatter the shin of any mortal, but Shamar, who still had his battle-qi protecting him, hadn’t even felt it.
But Ace refused to give in. Since his first did nothing, he would try a second.
Using his one good limb, Ace performed another shin kick. Once again, aiming for Shamar’s shin.
Still, Shamar did nothing. He simply watched Ace’s act of futility whilst studying the teen’s expression.
Though his talent was genuinely frightening, it was at that moment, as Ace broke his last good limb and attempted to headbutt him, that he realised Ace’s most fearful attribute was the power of his will.
For a second, Shamar had to fight the urge to kill him. He was well aware that keeping someone like this was no different from asking to spend the rest of your life sleeping with one eye open, but as frightening as Ace’s potential was, he was easily 100x more scared of his master.
“Enough!” Shamar commanded as he grabbed the boy and held him up by his throat, preventing him from attacking him any further.
Still, even though every cell in his body was screaming for Ace to go to sleep, and the pain of his four broken limbs was enough to make even the most hardened of warriors wail in pain, Ace’s expression showed none of that.
“Be good whilst I go and pick up your mother and familiar,” Shamar commanded as he flew off after Leo and the others, whilst trying his best to forget the sight of Ace’s fear-inducing eyes.
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Book 11: Part 14 – One Attack
