F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 237: Almost Through

Daru felt strange.

Before Caleb even said anything, he already knew what needed to be done — instinctually. That he had to clear a path, as fighting on two fronts was simply a death sentence.

So, without hesitation, he momentarily skidded to a halt, assumed an L-stance, fired a crescent dicer, and then immediately turned into an azure sword.

He was like a manifestation of death, hovering in the air for a moment before crashing down like a meteor, straight into the disrupted ranks of the wraith army guarding the staircase to the fourth floor.

The swift and deadly combination of his two Sword Skills opened up a decent-enough opening for the Damnedling Army to slip through.

Only, they would still have to fight fiercely if they wanted to make it through to the other side.

If Sigrun wasn’t beside Daru, that is.

She was surprised at her temporary comrade’s decisiveness, an impressed smile gracing her face before she burst into a silver blur, then turned into a piercing tornado that further threw the ranks of the Forsaken Legionaries into disarray.

A Condemned Centurion desperately tried to close the gap in the formation, only to end up as mangled bits of flesh after taking two of Elara’s Sword Skills.

Once her piercing momentum ended, she immediately transitioned into summoning silver flyssa manifestations on the ground, stabbing at the enemy formations in three diverging lanes.

The middle part of the wraith army’s formation was instantly breached, allowing the Damnedlings to slip inside.

Nonetheless, they still had to fight a bit, and the main problem still towered before them: the two Ashbound Praetors.

Their presence doesn’t seem to affect the spearhead duo much.

However, for the Damnedlings of Egress, they were the stuff of nightmares. One casual swing from their stone longsword and an entire cohort could be decimated.

The level gap was quite wide, after all.

Most of the Damnedlings of Egress sat at the level range of forty-nine to fifty-four, with only the party leaders surpassing fifty-five.

This was why the Ashbound Praetors were way out of their league right now.

Not to mention, spawns of the Underworld were considerably stronger than their counterparts in the Surface.

At least those in the Novice Zones.

But then again, Limbo, too, seemed to be a Novice Zone of sorts in terms of the Underworld Regions, since its divine? profane? laws ensured that the region’s stability wouldn’t be broken so easily.

The sheer difficulty of how difficult it was to return to the Surface from the ashen realm was a testament to this.

Nonetheless, what could the wretches do except fight?

And fight they did.

They lashed out with their bony arms, stabbing, slashing, and hacking with their gray jian, all while snarling like the abominations they were.

The Damnedlings were fierce, determined, and desperate.

They wanted nothing more than to survive and return to their worlds.

If only wishes were granted and objectives were achieved through mere will.

In the next moment, for the first time in the entire operation, the spearhead duo was delayed.

It seemed that the wraiths were somehow...learning?

Despite this being the first time Daru and Elara met these specific Ashbound Praetors, the two elites seemed to be wary of them.

Before they even got close, the two towering wraiths stabbed their stone longswords into the ground, summoning forth a raging black tornado of sword manifestations.

It sang in dull clangs as it barreled towards them.

Elara snorted in disdain.

She had no intention to hide anything and was as proud as her icy-silver blade.

It was just that this was truly the first time she felt the need to use one of her stronger sword skills that excelled in single-target annihilation, and so she used it.

A silver light lit up at the tips of her fair, middle and index fingers.

Then, she imbued her flyssa with the light, causing a temporary silver rune to appear in it.

No...it seemed to be a sentence written in runic letters? Perhaps the language of the gods.

Either way, she raised her sword the next moment as if tapping upon the will of her blade, causing a huge, ethereal silver flyssa — an exact copy of her soulbound sword but a significantly larger version — to descend upon the raging tornado of small black swords.

Two moments of stinging clangs later, the black tornado dispersed, and the silver flyssa manifestation remained stabbed in the stone ground, victorious.

Elara could’ve used it to attack the Ashbound Praetor and perhaps take a limb, but had she done so, a lot of the wretches behind her would’ve suffered.

Nonetheless, she was pleased, shooting a smug grin her rival’s way, as if the worried woes of the commander at the back of the formation did not bother her one bit.

Her good mood didn’t last, though.

Her rival simply charged at the small, black tornado, his sword veiled by a billowing black aura, and slashed at the Ashbound Praetor’s profane Sword Skill, destroying it just like that.

There was no sophistication, no elegance.

"Hmph...what a filthy brute you are..." Elara muttered.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have much time for follies, and after dealing with the towering wraiths’ Sword Skills, the spearhead duo immediately got back to work, forcing their way to the back of the enemy’s formation.

The Forsaken Legionaries posed little challenge. The Condemned Centurions, too, would only be able to delay them for half a second or risk perishing.

Daru and Elara might’ve been delayed, but not by much.

Still, this allowed the pursuing wraith army to catch up, forcing the Egress Army to fight on two fronts.

This couldn’t go on for long...

Fortunately, the frontliners were almost through.

"Brothers! Sisters! Hold fast, we’re almost through! Things will be easier soon!" Caleb roared through the white ribbon.

He wasn’t exactly lying, but there wasn’t much truth in his words, either.

Things would indeed become easier, but not by much.

Still, fighting on one front was better than fighting on two. Besides, the young commander had more pressing matters to think of, namely, the morale drop the moment the first of them fell in battle.

There was no other way around it.

Some of them will probably die very soon, and the rest will have to fight through whatever emotions will wash over them.

Or die, too.