(MC POV)
The moment those words left my lips, a spear of red energy was shot towards me.
I took a step to the side and the spear passed me harmlessly, barely grazing my side.
Lilith pouted, disappointed that she couldn’t achieve a quick victory at the start.
Honestly, I had half expected them to rush at me as a disorganised mob but it seems like they had other ideas.
Aside from Lilith’s surprise attack, no one else tried anything as they moved to encircle me.
Interesting…
One might think that this is their way of trying to hit me from my blind spot but the only problem was that I don’t particularly have those even with the current restrictions placed on myself.
No, this formation was just to allow them to be able to go all out against me without worrying about each other.
In each of their eyes reflected an obvious, primal hunger. It seems like they really wanted that ‘prime sleeping spot’, huh?
They took a moment to compose themselves, as though needing that time to finally decide to fight against me.
That was when I heard the faint rustling of wind coming from behind me.
Like before, I simply sidestepped and the fireball from Manami sailed past me, right as the ground I stepped on suddenly sank to throw me off balance, courtesy of Diao Chan’s Spell.
I felt my hair stand on end and I quickly erected a shield above me, right before Lian Li’s lightning came crashing down on my shield.
I took the opportunity to cancel the earth prison wrapped around my foot, negating the earth spikes the Spell was supposed to hit me with. I barely lifted my foot from the hole before several ice spears were shot towards my chest.
A wall of flame was summoned in front of me, melting the ice almost immediately while I took a step back to allow Tsuki’s dark lance to miss me too.
I heard another rush of wind and this time I had to spin out of the way as Eris’s air blade and Brendan’s water blade sliced through where I had been moments before.
Raising my hand, I summoned another shield just in time as Elaria’s sniper bullet disintegrated against my shield, my little sister looking none too pleased at being caught.
Then the same shield was redirected upwards as another lightning crashed down, this time summoned by Guiying.
I stopped and slowly cracked my neck. All of the attacks by my disciples just now were merely meant to test the waters. The real fight would be starting now.
Almost as soon as the thought went through my head, I had to leap away as a wave of lightning, fire and ice crashed at where I had been.
My feet hadn’t even touched the ground before I had to throw up a shield, deflecting Tsuki’s and Lilith’s dark lance that were thrown from in front and behind me.
Eris had rushed up towards me at that moment, her sword slashing out in an arc towards my neck.
I barely reacted to her feint as she pulled back at the last second, moving to thrust her sword towards my chest instead. I was also aware that Elaria had set herself up for another shot with her sniper again, aiming at the small of my back.
Hardening my arms and tilting myself, I used my right fist to deflect Eris’s sword away while my left first was raised to deflect the bullet.
Eris did not pause in her onslaught and tried to slash at me again, forcing me to deflect her strike with my fist once more.
She caught me in a blade lock with my arms and the rest of my disciples did not waste that chance, all of them sending an attack at me at the same time from every direction.
Thinking quickly, I reached out my other hand and grabbed Eris’s collar, my swordswoman’s eyes widening when she realised what I was about to do.
“Might want to enhance your body a bit,” I suggested, right before I spun in a circle and used her as a shield to block all the attacks thrown at me.
Eris let out a shriek, more out of embarrassment for letting herself be handled like that than out of pain since they can’t get hurt here anyway.
I then tossed her away towards Brendan, the alchemist barely ducking in time as Eris sailed over his head, cursing at him for not catching her.
I spun back just in time to catch Lilith’s punch in my palm, the demoness clucking her tongue in disappointment before summoning several red spikes around her that immediately shot themselves towards me.
White orbs appeared where the red spikes would have hit me, redirecting them towards my other attackers who were trying to close the distance with me, forcing them back.
Twisting my hand, I flipped Lilith upside down and made her let out a gasp of surprise, right before she was blasted away by my wind to crash against both Diao Chan and Guiying, interrupting the attack they were preparing.
I leapt up into the air just as the floor froze solid, Kiyomi letting out a grunt of disappointment as I avoided her attempt at freezing my legs.
A rumble echoed in the sky and I had to blast myself back with a gust of air before Lian Li’s lightning stuck me.
Unfortunately, that threw me right in front of Eris who had her sword prepared in a lunging motion towards my unprotected back.
I twisted myself in midair, raising my fist again to deflect her attack to the side while my other fist was also raised to deflect the bullet Elaria had shot.
Eris started to pull her hand back for an overhead slash and I moved my arm above me to defend against that.
Knowing that her sword would be deflected by my arm, I turned my attention to the back where Lian Li, Manami, Kiyomi and Brendan had tried to fire off their own elemental blast at me while Elaria switched to shoot a bazooka from the side.
All of them I dealt with by conjuring a wall of fire, right as I felt Eris’s sword hit my arm.
I was about to move to strike her away when I felt something hit me in the chest with a metallic clang.
I stopped and looked down, only to see Bait grinning up at me with her sword touching my chest, the girl having been summoned forth from Eris a moment before.
Really smart.
She counted on me assuming she would only use one body but summoned her second persona behind her to take advantage of that. She probable even had more plans up in store should this one had failed, most likely having her other two personalities striking at me from behind while Bait and Eris distracted me.
I am impressed.
“Hell yeah! First strike goes to us, Master!” Bait cheered, giving Eris a high-five.
I chuckled, “One slot taken, three remains. Carry on.”
I could have sworn my disciples had let out a rather animalistic growl at my announcement.
