"Judas!" Ferris shouted, and it was enough to snap Judas out of the daze he was in.
"No! I'm harmless!" Judas narrowly avoided the two colorful fighters that attacked him simultaneously.
One thing was for sure about Judas, he had a knack for dodging but didn't have anything to show for in terms of counterattacking.
"Damn it, we can't hit him too?" the attacker said in annoyance. No matter how many swift strikes he delivered, he found himself to be punching air.
"All you villains do is dodge!" Rainbow Man tried to deliver a kick while Ferris was distracted.
In all honesty, Rainbow Man expected the kick to be dodged immediately, however...
Ferris was beginning to form his idea from before the fight even started.
It's time to act. Ferris decided to take the full brunt of the high-speed kick to his face.
Slam!
Ferris was blown away as he even spun in the air. Rainbow Man was shocked by his powerful strike.
In an amazing display of exaggeration, when he landed on the ground, Ferris acted as a bowling ball that smashed against the two colorful fighters.
In the meantime, Ferris caught Judas by the feet and made him fall to his position.
"I have a plan, you better be ready," Ferris whispered. "Just follow my lead."
After saying what he needed Judas to know, Ferris stood up, stealthily carrying Judas up.
"No! We have to run away!" Ferris placed all of his emotions into shouting.
Judas contorted his face. "U-uh yeah! These guys will kill us!"
Hearing their cries of defeat, one of the colorful fighters that Ferris knocked out as a bowling ball shouted, "You won't get away, villains!"
The fighter moved forward to deliver a straightforward punch.
Perfect, that leads me to the direction of Rainbow Man! Ferris poured his essence into his legs.
Punch!
"Huahhh!" Ferris wailed in exaggerated pain as he kind of jumped in the direction of that punch.
"Ahhh!" Judas genuinely shouted while he was being carried by Ferris.
At their present trajectory, they were about to smash into Rainbow Man.
In that moment, Ferris prepared his mental awareness.
This was the same move he used against Lionheart.
A move that temporarily paralyzes the body when the opponent is mentally distracted by a certain task.
***
Swoosh!
Clang!
Felix barely managed to block that heavy strike with his sword.
He was currently in a battlefield against a terrorist group known to worship the awakening of Jörmungandr.
In times of prophecy and desperation, it was an inevitable outcome that people tended to twist such dangerous prophecies into something they agreed with.
Like worshipping Jörmungandr as an awakening god that will usher in a new era.
But of course, Felix knew that all of it was a load of bullshit.
So why the hell has my own comrade betrayed me!
Betrayed us!
I don't even want to utter his name...
He killed so many of my friends that I want to rip this bastard apart.
Felix clenched his sword in anger as he dashed at lightning speed to deliver a thrust to the heart.
But that was a bad move as Felix found himself slamming on a heavy iron wall.
Against a greatsword user, using obvious and straightforward attacks would not be a good idea.
This was because although greatswords could deliver devastating single slash attacks, they were incomprehensibly slower compared to something like a two-handed sword like the one Felix uses.
As such, giving such obvious attacks allowed the enemy to prepare a defense in advance.
"They died because they're on the wrong side," the man clad in dark armor released a wave of powerful essence that pushed Felix back dozens of meters.
"This is what the followers of Jörmungandr receive. It's not too late to join me, Felix!" The man raised his hand in a gesture of alliance.
"Fuck you!" Felix only had those two specific words to say.
The man smirked and plunged his greatsword into the ground.
"You were one to break the knights' creed anyway, my mistake for believing that I trusted your loyalty."
You're lecturing me about the creed? Felix gritted his teeth. "You arrogant fool!"
Felix foolishly let his emotions get to him and did the exact same attack from before.
To which he paid dearly for it.
Slam!
The hulking traitor dodged in advance before punching Felix's back, making him drop to the floor like a ragdoll.
The man kneeled before Felix and ungraciously turned his limp body around so that he could see Felix's dying face.
"Oh? Paralyzing essence gaze?" The man praised his old comrade.
Paralyzing essence gaze.
At the 9th level, the ability to sense and feel essence was at its weakest.
But the lower the layer, the more you become one with essence.
At the 6th layer, their essence control and sensing was strong enough to allow them to implant their essence onto other people.
In this case...
Using your emotions, like bloodlust, or a strong enough will to paralyze anyone, as long as they were unprepared or simply weak.
Unfortunately, Felix was only a 7th layer knight at this time. He could only mimic paralyzing essence gaze to an extent.
"I guess you were always so pathetic." The man stood up and raised his foot over Felix's head. "This is the end."
Damnit... Ferris continued eyeing the traitor with a rage-filled expression.
As his vision was entirely covered by the massive foot, Felix finally gave up and closed his eyes.
But death didn't await him.
He opened his eyes to see that the foot just barely touched his nose.
What's happening? Ferris wondered. Then he heard a voice in the distance.
A cold voice called out to him in a discerning tone. "Felix, was it? Yaromech only had praises to say about you, but it looks like he was lying again."
Felix turned his head while he was still on the ground. He saw a knight who was walking towards their direction.
A lean build, dark hair, and an unpleasant face to look at.
"A knight must never lie, and as such I'll say this." The knight drew a rapier and casually walked towards the frozen traitor. "You suck."
Then, he slowly stabbed through the hulking armor as if his sword was phasing through it.
Unable to counter attack, the traitor immediately dropped to the floor and slammed against Felix.
"That's how you do an essence gaze" He sternly said. "Any how. I don't want to get my hands dirty, so get up yourself."
Felix struggled to push away the dead body so that he could breathe some air.
After that physical ordeal, he saw the knight who saved him.
And Felix noticed that the knight had a disgusted look on his face, as if he was seeing a dirty pig, in which case the pig is Felix.
The knight meticulously wiped his rapier with a white cloth before sheathing it back. "Address me as Alaric, I'll be forcibly taking you in as a student while Yaromech is busy somewhere else."
Huh, what? Felix was rightly confused. He kept staring at this Alaric with a gaping expression.
"Hmm, where did that essence gaze go?" Alaric rubbed his chin and closed his eyes.
Then he opened them. "Do it."
Order essence gaze.
Ferris felt a strong desire to do what Alaric ordered. But since he couldn't perform that paralyzing essence gaze...
"Aarghh!" Felix dropped to a crouch, clutching at his eyes.
A searing pain spread through them, so sharp it made him want to claw his own eyes out.
"What a shame, you're just as untalented as Yaromech." Alaric sneered.
After that encounter, the next months with Alaric were the bloodiest Ferris ever experienced.
But that was a story for another day.
What was important to him now was that thanks to Alaric's brutal teachings, he mastered what it meant to be one with essence.
So even if he was an unmaximized 9th layer, he could perform feats that wouldn't be normally possible at his level.
***
Ferris closed his eyes and gathered the essence near his eyes, turning his will to put fear into his enemies into a physical construct. A small string of his own essence that was on its way to Rainbow Man.
Everything was perfect. Ferris saw that Rainbow Man was completely focused on them, and that Rainbow Man was about to attack them when they were about to crash into him.
His mental defense was probably nonexistent.
Now! Ferris locked gazes with Rainbow Man and imparted his own essence into him, causing Rainbow Man to suddenly tense up and freeze.
Ferris grabbed Judas's head. "Do it!" he loudly whispered.
Judas got the idea and swung with it as when they both crashed onto the frozen Rainbow Man, Judas placed his palm on Rainbow Man's face.