Sovereign of the Karmic System

"Wha-What is going on?" Asked one of the students with worry.

The young woman once again looked at her surroundings, then said, "They took care of their half of charmed ones, then right as they were about to lend a hand to us, the other groups took advantage of their tiredness, in order to get rid of them for the rest of the event."

"Damn it! Do we help them?" Asked the student who had spoken before, right after.

During this short exchange of words, Nilo and the other two groups had already exchanged blows at least twice, showing the students that this was a battle in which they had no right to meddle with. To reiterate this point in the minds of the students, were the slowly rising charmed ones, who were preparing to meet the smaller group of students in battle.

"Forget it. It’s unlikely that Teacher and the others are observing us. We can’t afford to be brainwashed by the charmed ones without him knowing." Said the young woman before turning to look at the large group of injured cultivators, and adding, "Do what the outcast’s disciples are doing. Keep a defensive position, and as soon as a single person attacks, take him out in small groups."

"Ha! To think that those brats would still be alive!" Said one of the large beasts after noticing the large number of cultivators that had appeared in the middle of the massive square.

"Stop getting distracted!" Said the Dragon before growling with anger. Ever since he had used his wing as a shield for the primate beast, he could not shake off the trembling feeling he felt on it. What was even more frustrating, however, was the fact that despite how long they fought, it did not seem that their few opponents would tire out at any moment.

Their production of immortal essence was abnormal, and their power, while inferior to that of a fully transformed beast, was still far beyond what a peak immortal cultivator should be. If that was not enough, their cooperation was so efficient, that one would mistake them for a single being with multiple bodies, making the difference between them and their opponents look like five connected gears, and a pile of random rocks.

The merchant’s followers had inherited the powers of their leader, who could compel people into doing their bidding by "purchasing" an intention. By paying them, they were able to interrupt their train of thoughts, and prevent them from carrying their strategies on to victory. Their contribution was one of the main reasons why the collaboration between Nilo’s team had only led to a stalemate, instead of a victory.

Following the young woman’s suggestion, the students spent the next two hours struggling to keep her companions in check. If not for their ability to understand their situation at an impressive speed, and find an optimal path to counter their enemies, they would have never been able to survive for so long.

However, after more than five hours, everyone was starting to feel the strain of the prolonged fighting. The attacks of the beasts were becoming less and less frequent, and the students and charmed ones were respectively relying on their organization and willpower to keep going. Even Nilo’s team was struggling to keep up with the many small wounds they had gained during the hundred of exchanges.

It was now five in the morning, and the first lights of dawn were starting to shine from behind the few still standing buildings. Of the faces of the many participants was a wide range of emotions, amongst which the most common was worry.

From what the beasts and merchants had realized about Nilo and his team’s abilities, the power they had been granted by the Outcast had something to do with battle prowess, as well as the speed of production of immortal essence, and while more injured, this had allowed them to obtain the upper hand.

Unsure when the event would start, or if hey would be granted enough time to recover to the peak of their powers, the beasts were starting to think that their plan had backfired, as at their level of cultivation, injuries were much less important than the lack of essence during a fight.

In this battle of attrition, they were on the losing end.

Left with no other choice, the three legendary beasts stepped forward, and took three small vials from within their spatial rings.

As soon as the other beasts saw these vials, they immediately gasped in shock. "BROTHER! NO! You will end up hurting yourself!" Said the large gorilla to the Minotaur, who looked at him with a stern expression before turning to look back at Nilo and the others.

"We have to use it, or we might not have a chance to participate in the rest of the event," said the young dragon before taking the cork off of the vial, and drinking the dark red colored liquid in it. "We will try to take out as many as we can, while the effect lasts." he then added, as the quilin and the minotaur followed in his steps.

The liquid that these three beasts had ingested, was the blood of their ancestors. The essence of a beast was much less personal than that of an immortal cultivator, as instead of containing a portion of their spirits and mind power, it contained the beastly instincts of their kind. So when this type of unique beast consumed the blood of a much older member of their kin, the essence contained in the blood would try to merge with the beast’s essence.

To absorb the power was impossible, but the essence contained in the blood, once diluted with the beast’s own essence, would remain in the body as a form of one-time-use power.

The very instant the blood touched the tongues of three beasts, its power flushed through their bodies, and began its violent reaction. Slowly, the bodies of the three beasts became visibly larger and more muscular, and the power that before was dwindling, was revived in a matter of moments, becoming even stronger than before.

It did not take long for Nilo to understand that things were not going to go well for them if they were forced to fight these three powerful beasts along with the other twelve cultivators, so he immediately began to formulate a new plan.

Moments later, he turned to look at the students, and said, "TIANNA! Have your people face off against the three merchants and the other beasts! We will take care of the other three!"

"What about them?" She asked while avoiding the attacks of two charmed ones.

Nilo did not respond to her, and instead turned to look at Fyro, and said, "Take care of them."

Fyro nodded in acknowledgment before disappearing, and reappearing in the middle of the stage, right where the battle between the students and the charmed ones was taking place.

The students were not stupid, and as soon as they saw Fyro, they immediately understood that Nilo’s plan had the highest chance of success. So without thinking twice about it, they gave up on fighting the charmed ones and joined Nilo and the others in a more comfortable fight which, instead of requiring them to fight three people each, allowed them to fight the beasts two against one.

The charmed ones immediately tried to react to the students’ movements in order to strike them from the back, but as they turned away from Fyro, they felt the cold threat of death dash past their necks, as they were barely able to avoid a deadly hit.

This exchange took only a few seconds, which were enough for the legendary beasts to turn into their boosted, and final form.

"Cynna, take the dragon. Zack, go for the quilin, and I will take care of the Minotaur. Finn, support us whenever you are able to." Said Nilo while keeping his eyes glued on the three fuming beasts. However, before he could receive a nod of understanding, the three beasts disappeared, and when they reappeared, they were already standing in front of them.

Cymma was barely able to place her shield in front of her chest, before the petrified hand of the dragon clashed against it with enough power to shatter it, and send her flying directly into one of the buildings. Zack’s attempt to avoid the quilin’s attack was also a failure, and one of his antlers opened a gash on his back, and sent him spinning in the air. Nilo was the slowest of the three, and was left with no other choice but to try and defend himself from the descending palm of the massive minotaur, from which he protected himself by crossing his arms above his head. However, the impact was so powerful, that his bones started to crack, and he was pushed a meter into the ground.

As Nilo lay flat on his back under the pressure of the minotaur’s power, the minotaur decided to follow the first strike with a second one, but just as his fist was about to do some serious damage, a nearly invisible flash appeared next to his head, and before he could react, the vision in his left eye went out.

This flash then reappears at his feet, and with incredible speed, grabbed Nilo, and pulled him out of the minotaur’s range.

After leaving him at a safer distance, the flash of light moved in the air, right where Zack’s injured body was spinning, and releasing a spray of blood which was similar to a red ribbon.

Cynna was able to pick herself up, and walk out of the pile of rubble that just seconds earlier was a large building while holding the side of her torso, where nearly all of her ribs had cracked.

"Tianna! How long can they keep this up?" Asked Nilo to the young woman that lead the students. While he knew that he could make his own guess, he had seen how quickly these students were able to analyze the situation, and find details that he could miss while in the middle of a fight.

Luckily, the young woman had already spent the past few seconds making this calculation, so without turning to look back at Nilo, she said, "They have to use all of the power within three minutes, or they will start to go crazy! Hold on until then! They will be weakened then!"

"Easy to say.." muttered Nilo while feeling his bones crack, and every muscle in his body hurt.

As soon as the dragon’s eyes landed on Cynna’s body, it dashed in her direction, but his charge was met by a ten meters long sword, which came down upon his head with as much power as Cynna could muster. Unfortunately, her power was nowhere near enough to do any damage, and was instead barely able to push the dragon back due to its lack of footing.

At the same time, Nilo made use of the blind spot created by the loss of the Minotaur’s left eye, to avoid his powerful attacks. He knew that another attack from the minotaur would destroy his bones, and if that were to happen, the situation would go south very fast for him and his friends.

Finally, Finn and a slowly recovering Zack were handling the quilin by trying to stay by its sides, and make it impossible for him to charge at them with his powerful antlers.

-----

For the following three minutes, Nilo and the others were not always they able to avoid any form of damage, but their luck was powerful enough to help them avoid any deadly blow.

"It is time! Release the power!" Shouted one of the flying beasts while trying to avoid the attacks of two of the students.

The suggested time limit for this type of boost of power had already passed, and after every additional second, the three legendary beasts would lose more and more of their sanity.

The three beasts did not appear to be listening to their companions, and were too focused on the slippery methods of Nilo and the others. What they were not realizing, was that the more time passed, the less chance they would have to reawaken. It was only out of sheer luck, that a now semi-crazed dragon had felt the presence of the quilin, and instinctively reacted to it by sending a powerful tail strike in is direction.

The quilins and the dragons had evolved as enemies, and only thanks to their increase in intelligence had the two races started to get along. However, the instincts passed down through the blood of their ancestors recounted of a time where the two races could not live under the same sky, and the lower their control over their minds was, the more important this fact became.

Soon enough, the dragon and the quilin stopped caring about Cynna, Finn, and Zack, and charged all the power they had left into their bodies, to release it against one another.

A massive ball of black flames formed inside the opened mouth of the dragon, while a sphere formed by the mixture of beast and light essence, formed in between the quilin’s antlers.

These two powers created two storms which were powerful enough for the Minotaur to be shaken awake, and release all of the excessive power before losing his mind.

When released, these two powers clashed against one another, and formed an explosion that expanded through the entirety of the massive square, cancelling every bit of essence present in their surroundings. Each cultivator present, including the participants who were simply observing, were pushed back, and pressed against the spatial barrier present in the edge of the square, or against the crater that had formed, leaving them within an inch of their lives.