The fifteen remaining Soul Formation Xylarri and their purple-skinned leader snapped back into action after an instant of being surprised. Their technique had not just failed, it had backfired catastrophically. The prey who they believed was weakened had just turned and annihilated five of their own in an instant.

Li Yu did not give them time to recover. He knew he had one brief shining moment of initiative before their shock would go away and they would take action again.

His Koi’s devouring field which had been passively absorbing the first kill now flared to its maximum. He latched his devouring intent onto all of the remaining Xylarrithe fifteen Praetorian and their leader. A constant siphoning pressure began to pull at their energy.

Simultaneously, he continued to even the playing field.

His priority was to finish the wounded. He used his void-step, flickering across the air to appear directly above one of the four critically injured Praetorians writhing on the ground. The creature looked up only to see darkness. Li Yu's staff descended, a silent void-wreathed shadow and smashed its head, destroying its upper half.

The remaining fifteen healthy Xylarri were already in action. As Li Yu had just executed their wounded comrade, a small group of them darted down. They did not do so to attack but to retrieve their three remaining grievously injured companions.

They pulled them back from the immediate fight and were shielding them. This was definitely a sign of organization Li Yu thought to himself after seeing the sight. At the same time, three other Praetorians, two Hunters and a Crawler, shrieked and charged at Li Yu. Their auras flaring into techniques aimed to kill him.

Li Yu saw them coming. He stood alone in the sky with no allies in sight. He hadn't been able to use this particular technique in a long, long time precisely because of that. He took a deep breath and channeled his energy into his Nascent Soul.

His Leviathan Soul roared.

No sound came from his own lips but the effects were immediate. It was 'Death's Roar,' unleashed to its full unbridled power. A silent 360-degree wave of spiritual power erupted from him and was washing over the entire battlefield.

The three charging Xylarri with their techniques ready to launch, seized up. Their bodies locked up, their auras flickered and their movements staggering as the psychic blast hammered their consciousness.

Even the purple leader standing with its main force visibly flinched. Its slender body shuddered and its aura dimmed for a brief instant. It was affected. There was clear unmistakable panic in its posture now. It waved its arms and its head snapping toward Li Yu. It let out its own answering screech.

The high-pitched psychic wail slammed into Li Yu who was just finishing his own attack. It was agonizing, a spike of alien malice designed to freeze his soul. It was just as the Red-Eyed Mistress had described.

Li Yu grunted, his Sentry orb flickering as his concentration broke for a moment but his own powerful Nascent Soul had automatically activated his Leviathan Soul-Shield to protect itself from such an attack. The pain was blinding but it didn't stop him. He was mostly unaffected.

He ignored his pounding headache and exploited the opening he had created with his death’s roar.

The three charging Xylarri were still staggered and were trying to recover from 'Death's Roar.' It was too late. Li Yu's void-step was a blur. Flicker. Crunch. Flicker. Crunch. Flicker. Crunch. He moved between the three stunned creatures in an instant. Using his staff, he was striking each one in the head with calculated lethal force. They crumpled and were quickly dead.

He landed lightly in the air a bit away from his enemies to ready his next assault. His kill count was now five among this group.

Sixteen Xylarri remained. The purple leader, its twelve healthy Praetorian drones and the three critically injured ones now in the back and out of the fight.

The Xylarri were now much more cautious. This human was not simple. He was not just physically strong; his soul attacks were devastating and he was immune to their leader's sure kill skills.

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The purple leader's mouth was moving, most likely issuing a new set of commands. However, Li Yu didn’t even hear anything come out of its mouth. It must be some kind of mental communication.

The twelve healthy Praetorians reacted to the commands instantly. Their positions instantly snapping into a disciplined rotating circle. Their movements became synchronized and their purple auras linking together. They formed a protective barrier by using this living and moving formation. It created a living fortress with the purple leader at the very center.

Li Yu's eyes narrowed. This was a battle formation. One he had never seen before but it was clearly not simple. The fact that this group of creatures that were said to be leaderless before this war started were so coordinated and organized was stunning.

However, Li Yu wasn’t the boy who faced off against his sect members in the tournament many years ago. He was battle hardened and experienced. He decided to test it. He void-stepped and appeared at the formation's flank in an instant. He brought his staff down in a crushing blow on a Juggernaut drone there.

CLANG!

The Juggernaut blocked with its arms. The impact which should have shattered its limbs was met with impossible resistance. A ripple of purple energy flowed from the struck drone and moved across the entire formation. It was then dissipated evenly among all twelve members. They had shared the force of his blow. His monstrous physical strength was being distributed and nullified by their collective defense.

‘What an amazing formation. It is somehow able to redirect my attack across all of them. I would need to keep smashing them until they were worn out. Or if I had a strong enough attack I could kill them all at once.’ Li Yu thought.

Li Yu retreated, his expression hardening. This was tricky. Their coordination and overall strength had increased exponentially. They could now take his attacks head-on. His original idea to keep picking them off one by one had to now change.

However, the formation wasn't stopping his Koi's powers. He didn’t need to fight this head on, he simply needed to stall and wait until they were too weak.

He didn't attack again. He just hovered, his devouring field working relentlessly. The Xylarri in the formation held their ground and were watching him. Seeming to wait to see what he would do next and perhaps counter it. They were in a stalemate.

But it was a stalemate Li Yu was winning.

A minute passed. Then two. The Xylarri were starting to feel it more and more. Their energy was being drained. It was no longer a subtle ignorable pull that they could ignore; it was a constant noticeable hemorrhage. They needed to revise their plan.

Their bodies started to weaken slightly. Their purple auras which had been blazing in their formation started to dim ever so slightly. Their strength which was shared among twelve was now being sapped from twelve different points and the drain was accelerating.

The purple leader knew they couldn't wait anymore. They were being bled dry and fell into this person's tricks. They had to kill this person and shatter his soul to end this. It screeched another command.

Seeing them tense for an assault Li Yu decided to pre-empt it. He unleashed 'Death's Roar' again, a second full-power psychic blast aimed at the entire formation.

As his soul-shock wave rolled out, Xylarri acted. The purple leader screeched and the twelve Praetorians in the formation did something Li Yu hadn’t seen them do before..

From the tops of their ovoid heads a glowing purple ball of light emerged from each of them. They pulsed with a seemingly dark and powerful energy. They were like twelve malevolent little stars.

Li Yu's eyes widened. 'Their souls? They've externalized them? They are going to resist my Death’s Roar with their own soul technique. I wonder what their souls can do and what kind of technique they have for it.' Li Yu thought, more out of curiosity than concern. He was confident in his soul’s power.

The twelve purple soul-balls pulsed in unison, creating a shimmering psychic barrier that met Li Yu's 'Death's Roar.' The two forces collided and Li Yu's soul-shock dissipated harmlessly against their collective will. They had surprisingly countered his technique with their combined might. Their formation and collective powers were truly extraordinary.

Just as Li Yu was considering what else he could do to stall further, the purple leader in the center did something different.

Something emerged from its head as well. It was not a ball of light.

It was a perfect miniature glowing-purple version of the Xylarri leader itself. It floated above its physical body, radiating an aura of cold ancient intelligence and a power that utterly dwarfed the twelve purple soul-balls surrounding it. It turned its tiny head and looked at Li Yu.

Li Yu's mind stopped at what he was seeing. He knew what this was. He had one.

'A Nascent Soul?!'

His shock was absolute and his concern sky rocketed. This was his first time ever seeing another one. This changed everything. This creature wasn't just a Soul Formation-level equivalent.

It was a Soul Formation expert with a Nascent Soul. Just as his followers had told him before, the Nascent Soul looked like a miniature version of the person, beast or creature.

The purple Nascent Soul raised its tiny crystalline hand. It was preparing an attack. The stalemate was broken. This was no longer a physical fight. It was a battle of souls.