Just as expected, the situation was heading towards the direction that Emery was worried about. At some point, this stopped being a one-on-one duel and turned into a brawl where all of them started ganging up on him.

As these people decided to shed all forms of pretense, the acolyte who had dark skin who had unknowingly disappeared emerged from the ground behind Emery in a muddy form. The man moved so fast and in such stealth that Emery didn't even notice his presence until he had finished doing his job.

Thanks to his somewhat unconventional form of attack, Emery was completely caught off guard and the ground around his feet turned to mud which in turn submerged and held him in place.

This mud person was the third strongest in the party of seven whose test ranking placed only below the magus Bradley and Atlas.

[Rank 33 - Abrafo (38)]

He was an earth element acolyte with 8 pillars formed.

While Abrafo did his job of restricting Emery, Armand shouted to his two mates. At once, the three of them took out their infamous weapon of choice, the [Soaring Shuttle].

In the next second, the sky was suddenly crowded by the presence of the flying weapons. A shimmering golden glint could be seen on the surface of the weapon, as all of them shivered in the air, ready to strike at whatever their owner commanded.

Even though at a glance Emery's situation looked grim, luckily for him, it seemed Bradley and the other two people had no intention of joining in. As such, Emery had to finish off his opponents before they abruptly decided to change their minds.

In the blink of an eye, Emery created more [Jade Root] to stop the flying weapons heading toward him. He himself also didn't remain idle as he swiftly turned around and swung the [Savage Blade] in his hand downward, delivering one decisive slash laced with [Heroic Strike] prowess at the muddy figure behind him.

Swiissshhh!

Splattt!

Without any sense of resistance, Emery's slash managed to easily split the figure in two. But then, he realized that no blood had been spilled. When he took a closer look, Emery realized that there was no one inside. It was just a figure completely made of mud.

Emery inwardly sighed. It was clear that this acolyte would not be easy to deal with at all.

As he used his Spirit Reading to scan the muddy ground beneath him for Abrafo, some of the Soaring Shuttles managed to cut through the barricade formed by his plant roots, and swiftly flew towards him.

"Dodge this, you lower realm bastard!!" Armand shouted with all his lungs, his hatred blaring clear.

Even though he couldn't move his legs, Emery didn't seem too worried. He calmly tightened his grip on the dark sword, as his hand began to move in a certain profundity and an almost imperceptible aura enveloped his body.

[36 Dao Divine Sword Technique]

Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!

Loud consecutive metallic sounds rang in the air as Emery's sword, augmented by his overwhelming 306 battle power, performed mesmerizing sword orbits and struck down all the Soaring Shuttles that wanted to hit him.

However, with his feet basically planted deep into the ground, the sword art could only show half of its effectiveness. As time passed, it became even harder for Emery to deal with the Soaring Shuttles as they gradually became even faster. Slowly but surely, Emery was cornered by the attacks.

[Rank 65 - Armand Nephilim (58)]

[Rank 83 - Simoan Nephilim (81)]

[Rank 86 - Jordi Nephilim (85)]

Even though the opponents he was currently facing were only part of the bottom 50 ranks, these people were still privileged acolytes - the brightest of their peers. It had to be remembered that these three were strong enough to injure a bonafide Bone Dragon on their own during the previous Magus Game.

This time, it was Emery's turn to endure the ordeal that the Bone Dragon was experiencing back then.

Clank! Clank! Crack!!

Unfortunately for these Nephilim bunch, although they had managed to find an opening on the barricade Emery built and hit their target, they were soon be slack-jawed when they saw their proud Soaring Shuttle could not pierce the enhanced [Jade Skin] spell that covered Emery's body.

Currently, Emery only used the black sword in his hand to parry the attacks, prioritizing those that went to his vital body parts and also towards his left shoulder where Twik was hanging.

The Soaring Shuttles' rampage went for over a minute, but the onslaught was still unable to really deal a critical injury on Emery. Of course this made Armand furious.

Turning his head to the three people who didn't make a move, he barely suppressed his anger and coldly said, "What are you three loitering around for?!! Attack him!!"

Bradley didn't say anything and just ignored Armand. It seemed his ego as a bonafide magus still prevented him from taking action. Meanwhile, Atlas also did not give the man any response. He was still watching without an expression on his face.

The Asian-looking female, however, pulled out her sword in response. It was a one-edged sword that shimmered under the sunlight, and as she began channeling her spirit energy into it, Emery who was a distance away could feel a chilling aura pouring out from the sword.

[Rank 49 - Fei Ling (49)]

Even though the girl's ranking was just about right in the middle of the leaderboard, She was also an acolyte with 8 pillars formed. Emery better not underestimate her.

Emery instinctively knew what the girl was preparing currently would be a powerful one-hit attack. Therefore, he himself started to channel his own spirit energy into the [Savage Blade] in his hand.

The girl looked at him and said nonchalantly, "It's nothing personal. I want to see if you can block my Ice Dragon Fang!"

After saying those words, she dashed a few steps forward and threw out a strong swing that blew a tremendous amount of cold energy towards Emery. The energy streaked fiercely through the air, taking on the faint form and aura of a dragon.

Facing this attack, Emery was quickly reminded of Yunxiao, the powerful spear user that could also manifest a dragon aura in his attacks. He knew that this attack was not one to be underestimated.

Due to the suddenness of the attack, Emery's battle art had not reached its optimal state quite yet. Even so, he decided to throw it away anyway because otherwise it would all be meaningless.

[Shadow Edge]

The two blade energy shot at each other and clashed immediately. A fierce explosion bursted out in the sky between the two of them, showing that neither were able to overpower the other.

Even though her attack was destroyed, Fei Ling's eyes shone and she became very excited. The gaze she threw at Emery was as if she was looking at a precious treasure.

"Amazing! Another one!"

Once again, she channeled her spirit energy into her sword. On the other hand, Emery was preparing his battle art. This time, he planned to serve the other party the full power of his [Shadow Edge].

However, his opponent this time decided to dash in full speed, charging at him with a wide grin on her face. Reflexively, Emery willed the roots around him to shoot towards the other party and stop her. However, the attempt was not successful.

An icy dragon aura covered Fei Ling's body as she dodged the jade roots with great precision. With the obstruction out of the way, she continued her trajectory to Emery. It seemed her idea was the same as his. She was aiming for the full impact of her powerful strike.

Still, Emery was ready. The darkness energy within his sword was fully charged, and that the only thing he needed to do was to unleash it.

However, when he raised his weapon and was about to swing it, suddenly a muddy figure appeared next to him and covered his entire right arm, effectively stopping his movement.

Emery didn't have time to do anything, because Fei Ling had arrived right above him. Her sword shrouded in cold aura descended down, heading towards his left side and ready to divide his body into two.

An alarm rang in Emery's head, warning him of the fatal attack. Unfortunately, Emery didn't prepare another spell nor have the time to cast one, which left him with only the [Jade Skin] that covered his body since the start.

Emery raised his left arm, prepared to sacrifice it to block the attack when all of a sudden something crawled on his left arm.

"Kuuangg.."

It was Twik, the wooden creature crawled down from Emery's shoulder where he resided and completely enveloped his left arm with its wooden body.

"TWIK?!! NO!!!"

Crraakkkk!!