The Elephant Man lord stood clutching blades in both hands, one weapon clumsily wedged across his snout, peering around in utter bewilderment.
When the watery barrier had dissolved, he had not yet managed to position himself within the core sector of the engagement.
The abrupt turn of events left him hesitant, completely unsure whether to advance deeper or fall back temporarily.
At that moment, the rolling billows of black smoke parted as a centaur warrior tore out into the open.
The Elephant Man frowned deeply at the sight, failing to recognize which allied faction this bizarre combatant belonged to.
No centaur lords had been recorded among the southern faction of the Sacred Realm.
"Who are you..."
Before he could finish his demand, he saw the centaur swerve sharply to the side, revealing a young man lunging forward with a drawn sword!
In an instant, every hair on the Elephant Man’s body stood on end!
He instinctively crossed his three remaining blades into a defensive cross-guard, registering a dull, concussive impact the moment the block locked.
One of his standard cleavers snapped cleanly in half, while a deep, jagged notch gouged the second.
Fortunately, the third blade held firmly against his snout, allowing him to instinctively sweep it upward to parry!
Li Xu twisted his momentum and vaulted backward, skillfully evading the Elephant Man lord’s ferocious counter-swing.
This marked the first time he had ever crossed blades with an opponent who wielded weapons using his nose, throwing off his tactical rhythm momentarily.
He could instantly appraise that the Elephant Man before him sat firmly at Level 30, whereas he himself had reached Level 35.
Yet the adversary was a trial lord, granting him superior foundational attribute scaling and equipment enhancements.
Absent the element of surprise from a sudden ambush, Li Xu recognized that a protracted duel against the Elephant Man lord offered no guaranteed victory.
"Fall back!"
The centaur Marta instantly assessed the tactical deadlock and barked the command, surging forward alongside the elite warriors to bypass the Elephant Man.
One of the intervening Elephant Guards lunged to block their path, only to be met by a blinding flash of whistling steel!
The precise number of cold arcs that flickered during that brief collision remained impossible to track.
When the steel light faded, the colossal elephant guard was already chopped into several lifeless chunks!
Witnessing the brutal display, every remaining Elephant Guard broke out in a cold sweat, while the Elephant Lord felt the icy hand of death grip his heart.
Capitalizing on that fleeting moment of hesitation, Marta and the swordsmen punched straight through the line and vanished into the swirling black smoke.
"Where on earth did these ruthless monsters crawl out from?!"
The Elephant Man lord stared down in horror at the sheared remnants of his custom-forged weapon, which featured reinforced structural spines.
Yet a single sword strike had sliced it directly in half?
During the brief exchange, he had felt as though the enemy’s blade was cutting through warm butter, encountering zero mechanical resistance.
Had he not possessed three separate blades, that initial blow would have opened his chest wide.
While the Elephant Man stood paralyzed by shock, the interior of the territory remained a zone of absolute carnage.
A horde of frenzied tiger warriors brandished massive maces, mercilessly battering the cornered, desperate elven defenders.
The Tiger Lord stood toward the rear clutching an ornate scepter, passively reinforcing his troops from a distance while projecting mental oppression upon the elven ranks.
This intimidating, fierce-looking adversary turned out to be a specialized support-class lord.
Furthermore, his personal lord talent belonged entirely to the support tree, Tiger Deterrence Spirit.
So long as the talent remained active, any enemy injured by his tiger soldiers suffered direct structural damage to their very soul.
The siphoned spiritual energy was automatically redirected to heal the soldiers’ physical wounds. Concurrently, once an enemy’s soul degradation crossed a critical threshold, their consciousness was forcefully ripped away.
Any combatant completely drained of spirit was instantly converted into a mindless puppet under the Tiger Lord’s absolute control, turning their weapons against their former comrades.
It was precisely this agonizing, psychological torment that had made fighting the tiger forces a living nightmare for the elves.
Sensing absolute doom closing in, the remaining elven defenders hardened their expressions with the savage desperation of a final stand.
At that exact second, however, a squad of armed combatants burst out from the shadows directly behind the Tiger Lord.
Catching sight of the enemy command target ahead, Marta reared his mount upward and delivered a devastating, unannounced kick with his iron-shod hooves!
Boom!
The kinetic strike instantly shattered the Tiger Lord’s primary defensive barrier, triggering a cascading detonation of multiple overlapping protective shields that sent Marta skidding backward from the feedback.
Operating as a backline support specialist, the Tiger Lord had layered himself with extensive defensive magics.
Yet before he could muster a counter-attack, dozens of figures wielding paired long and short swords closed the distance with terrifying velocity.
Swish! Crescent moon blade arcs erupted!
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash!
Clang! Bang! Bang!
The sword-light swept outward with such blinding speed that the Tiger Lord completely lost count of how many separate strikes battered his remaining protective talismans.
He only registered one catastrophic reality: his layered barriers were disintegrating at an incomprehensibly exaggerated pace!
Terror gripped the Tiger Lord’s soul, freezing his blood in his veins!
He was a spellcasting specialist; stripped of his protective barriers, his physical durability was virtually negligible.
His worst fears materialized instantly as the final defensive layer ruptured with a muffled pop, followed immediately by a flashing arc of steel that swept cleanly across his neck.
A massive tiger head spun wildly into the night sky.
Li Xu stood frozen in astonishment as a brilliant golden halo materialized beneath his boots.
Following the execution blow, a surge of accumulated combat experience propelled him upward across multiple tiers, rocketing his level from thirty-five straight to thirty-nine in a single heartbeat!
Marta stared at the scene with a mixture of intense envy and jealousy; the bastard had actually secured a lord’s head!
An authentic trial lord!
It was a profound pity that his own centaur combat mechanics could not match the raw, specialized slaughter efficiency of elite swordsmen like Li Xu.
Glancing toward the surviving elves in the distance, alongside the howling tiger soldiers who had gone berserk following their master’s decapitation, Marta raised a hand and loosed a shrieking signal flare.
The projectile streaked into the upper atmosphere with a piercing shriek before erupting in a thunderous boom.
A blazing, crimson floral warning burst across the midnight sky.
The fiery crimson display was witnessed not merely by the combatants within the inner perimeter of the Holy Spirit Alliance, but by the massive tide of independent lords converging along the exterior highways.
"What are you standing around for? Move out!"
Marta roared at the bewildered elven defenders, leading the elite swordsmen in a wide arc toward the adjacent forest line.
Enraged tiger soldiers surged forward in suicidal waves to block their escape, but the elite warriors carved through the interceptors with relentless efficiency, sending severed limbs flying in all directions.
Ultimately, they successfully punched through the net, diving deep into the safety of the tree line just as hostile reinforcements converged on their position!
Boom!
Inside her command tent, Ai Lan smashed a crystal chalice into fragments against the stone floor.
Across the internal alliance communication channels, frantic lords were bombarding the network with demands, screaming to know what catastrophe had just unfolded.
Simultaneously, reports flooded the regional public channels, with dozens of independent observers confirming they had witnessed warning flares detonating directly over the capital territory of the Holy Spirit Alliance.
For a brief, volatile window, panic and chaotic arguments exploded both within and beyond the alliance’s borders.
Yet amidst the mounting uproar, a singular system announcement dropped like a nuclear payload, delivering the most devastating blow imaginable straight to Ai Lan’s composure:
[Level 5 Leader Elara [Heaven]: I have officially arrived at the capital of the Holy Spirit Alliance! Musa, Ai Lan, step out and face your judgment!]
The public channel of the entire Southern District instantly shattered into total chaos!