I transformed half the ether I had into hundred thick needles and poured the lightning mana into them turning them bright red.
The army of earl coslen had their attention divided between the hellish attacks coming from the sky and frontal assault from earl simon's forces.
They had only two choices, first to retreat which was not allowed and standing in one place made them perfect target therefore they scattered throughout the battlefield transforming into different types of intelligent beasts and charged toward the incoming army.
It would be quite troublesome to hit them when they mix with the enemy forces thus this ether attack would be the last long ranged attack I will do before targeting my enemies.
I had the power to annihilate whole army of earl coslen but I would leave that part to earl simon's forces and when both sides has weakened considerably, I would take neutral position killing both of them at once.
If everything goes according to plan, I will have almost 1,000 medium ranked cores which would be considerable boost to my soul force.
'Fall.' At my command hundred ether needles fell from the sky akin to bloody raindrop and targeted their prey's at random.
Quarter of the needles were unable to pierce the thick skin of its prey's but rest of ether needles penetrated the skin of its target and changed its form wreaking havoc inside their bodies sucking the aura and life force from within, which soon resulted in significant reduction in the forces of earl coslen.
At the height I was flying no long ranged attack were capable of reaching my position, while only few individuals below were capable of harming me directly.
Not long after I sensed two powerful figures heading in my direction at unbelievable speed, one was in the form of Giant eagle with 5 meter huge body, it used some kind of high speed wind attack which manifested just beside me, hitting and propelling me hundreds of meter away in the air.
'This should be enough to attract their attention.' I thought and flew away in the opposite direction of the battlefield and behind me two, rank 9 pseudo immortal ranked experts followed.
Our battle strategy was not that complex, it was decided in the meeting that I would attract the attention of two pseudo immortal ranked experts while Samuel and Gabriel will sweep through the army of earl coslen weakening them further.
Our plan would have gone vary, if even one of those two pseudo immortal ranked expert would have stayed behind but earl simon was sure that if I can even attract the attention of earl coslen's son and make him follow me, his general would follow suit not caring about the rest of his army.
In their eyes, the army of 500 soldiers were just some expendable pawn while if they can deal with me and ethereal experts of earl simon's forces, the battle would be as good as won.
One of enemy following me had transformed into a 5 meter huge eagle while other sat on his back preserving his strength and firing attacks made of shockwave at me.
The eagle was fast, too fast, it was only not able to catch upto me because of my counter attacks and carrying a 7 feet tall demon on its back, it evaded my [lightning bolts] and [lightning blades] perfectly while throwing wind blades in my direction.
It kept chasing after me but soon I brought them to a secluded forest away from the battlefield and hid myself among trees covering myself with my own layer of soul force as their soul force failed to detect my presence.
"Come out you coward, you have nowhere to run." The demon which had transformed into an eagle previously shouted and the other demon also came down from his back but I didn't reveal myself until they were within 100 meter radius from me.
Altering my appearance to one of the random soldier of earl simon, I stepped out of the shadows and both pseudo immortal experts stopped in their tracks observing me.
'Our bet is still on, right?' I said and merlin switched position with me affirming to my question and taking control over my body.
As merlin took over my body, the back of my palm started to glow with rune master symbol but under our disguise it was not visible to our opponent.
He snapped his fingers and a golden dome manifested itself trapping all three of us inside before both of them could blink.
"I don't feel very good about this." The demon general of earl coslen spoke.
"Enough with your flashy tricks, this measly barrie…." At the end of his sentence the voice of earl coslen's son trailed of because his beast transformation came undone and the wind attack he was preparing was dispelled along with mana stored inside his core.
"An Anti-mana barrier, enough to restrain immortals like us." the demon general spoke in worried tone.
"Don't worry uncle, let's prove him how wrong he is, if he thinks he has cornered us by restricting our mana core." The young demon spoke and next second a powerful ripple of soul force swept inside the barrier making the earth below crack but merlin didn't even flinch proving that his soul force was many times stronger than his opponents combined.
"It's useless, let me do something." The demon general said as we didn't stop him from trying anything, having absolute faith in the capabilities of barrier.
The demon general had merged with the beast core of some power type beast because even though he wasn't able to accumulate mana inside his body, his muscles bulged with visible veins pulsing out of his hand.
Kicking off the ground the demon general redied his fist and smashed the barrier with full force as the ground beneath his feet shook and cracked and soon a painful cry was heard from the position of demon general.
BOOM!
"Ahhhh!"
"A Rebound barrier, it returns the shock 10x of strength applied to it." Merlin spoke in causal tone as earl coslen's son neared the injured demon general to examine his condition.
The demon was truly a pseudo immortal expert as even with the lack of mana in his surrounding, his hand was healing albeit slower than expected.
"May I ask, why a rune master is helping earl simon, clearly we didn't offend you in anyway." The demon general spoke in polite tone ignoring the pain in his hands and his guess was spot on indicating he wasn't a fool like the demon standing beside him.
"Should I consider this question as your last wish before you die?" Merlin asked.
"There is no room for conversation ha..., we were fools to have underestimated the preparations of earl simon, but not all hope is lost yet." The demon general spoke and stood up in his place.
Flicking his fingers, he retrieved a full gauntlet from his dimension rune and as he activated the gauntlet, his hand started transform partially.
I thought he would foolishly charge at me but instead once again preparing his fist, he smashed the barrier.
BOOM!!!
'A rank 8 artifact, I underestimated their preparation.' Merlin said eying the fist of demon general which didn't get injured this time.
"Maybe 2 or 3 more hits, the moment the barrier is broken, please leave young master, I will hold them back." The demon general spoke ready to smash the barrier once again but a calm voice of merlin resounded inside the barrier.
"Why waste your strength trying to break the barrier when my next attack, would shatter the barrier anyway and so will you." The demon general stopped his attacks and watched merlin pull something out of his dimension rune.
In merlin's hands, three transparent beast core husk were floating surrounded by golden runes while inside them, black gas was circulating fiercely ready to come outside and wreak havoc but the runes kept it restrained.
Both demons had ominous premonition and distanced themselves from merlin but soon they had to stop because they neared the other edge of barrier.
"It can't be mana bombs, they won't work inside this barrier… than noooooo."