Not only had he utterly failed to crush the group from the Great Ruler Empire—the very people he'd planned to humiliate, rob and kill—but he'd also lost his chance to claim the lightning essence stones for himself, stones that could have earned him immense resources and prestige.
Worse still, he and his men were now forced to endure the wrath of heaven itself, as the vengeful lightning continued to rain down upon the lake, striking the ground with punishing force and sending violent shockwaves rippling through the air.
Time crawled by as the relentless storm gradually began to weaken, the bolts of lightning striking less often until, at last, the sky above the lake grew a touch calmer.
When the lightning finally stopped, the dome-shaped shield that Ben had conjured earlier still hovered over Omar's group, though its once-smooth surface was now marred with deep fractures, spiderweb-like cracks radiating in every direction, glowing faintly as residual sparks danced along them.
