Chapter 37: Transcendence II

After they had finished their cliche lines of threatening each other, the two soon broke free from their standstill.

As a Transcendent level being, one of its perks was being able to fly in the sky. So, with its huge body, it began to make its way through the sky as if it was a dragon soaring through the air.

Following its lead, the countless White-Horned Snakes surrounded Herbert and the others. In this fight, they became more intelligent as they were under the command of their leader. This made it possible for them to become rational yet bloodthirsty as if they were a cog in a clock, each became an integral part to serve the whole.

With their current strength, the low-ranked White-Horned Snakes understood that they would only hinder their leader if they continued to fight in the front so they could only take on more of a supportive role instead.

The wind blew and in one swift motion, humans with black feathered wings flapped their wings as they threw out their black feathers like knives raining down on the ground.

On the ground, the White-Horned Snakes started to congregate and launched an even stronger illusion that helped their Transcendent leader's illusion become stronger. If one did not use the Silver Moon Leaf then they would see that the day had turned into night and the snakes around them had transformed into their allies while their allies would transform into snakes. This was completely different from the type of illusion that it had first used on Princess Amelia and the others when they entered a trance-like state.

Unfortunately, none of the combatants around Herbert hadn't used the Silver Moon Leaf so the White-Horned Snakes could only do so little to slightly influence the others with illusions.

Herbert's current plan was to first lure out the Transcendent being that was hiding deep in the lair to an open-air battle so that he could use his speed and maneuverability as an advantage. The second step was the battling phase, their goal was to make the Transcendent White-Horned Snake separate itself from its kin so that his guards can bombard them with an all-out black feathered attack. From there, they would then move to help him temporarily distract the White-Horned Snake so that he could finish it off. But things rarely go exactly as planned so Herbert was prepared for minor changes. This was why Herbert had the third phase of his plan which would only be activated once the conditions are right.

Confirming the plan in his mind, Herbert then proceeded to engage with the White-Horned Snake and used his sword that had been formed from the black feathers that he had materialized to form his wings.

From the corner of his eye, Herbert soon saw something that made his head hurt. With the Transcendent level White-Horned Snake being their enemy, his guard's aim had become unstable as the illusory powers of a Transcendent were far stronger than what they had expected. The Silver Moon Leaf could not completely remove the effects of the White-Horned Snake, instead, it had just weakened it to the extent that some illusions were barely recognizable while others feel completely real.

However, because all of the awakened that he had brought along with him were capable of long ranged large-scale attacks, this did not matter much. After continuing their indiscriminate feather barrage, Herbert recognized the strength of the illusions.

Based on the current state of things, they can only determine what is illusory and what was not by being in direct physical contact with it. This meant that If their attacks did not connect despite the visual contact then it would only mean that their target had been an illusion.

Keeping this in mind, Herbert continued to face off against the Transcendent level White-Horned Snake. Occasionally he would also mistakenly hit an illusory version of it to which he would immediately try to dodge or enter a defensive position as the White-Horned Snake was prone to making counterattacks once Herbert made the wrong move.

After their back and forth, Herbert could quickly feel that the effects of the Silver Moon Leaf were quickly waning at a much faster speed than he had originally expected. At this state, Herbert estimated that instead of the ten minutes of resistance to illusions it should be reduced by about forty to fifty percent.

If he did not finish the battle early then he would fail in his mission to slay the monster in front of him.

Originally, Herbert intended to use his guards to buy time to distract the monster so that he could unleash his coup de grace skill to end the battle swiftly. This should have high feasibility because compared to the previous rank 9 Three-Headed Snake which has developed its physical attributes and its poison breath, this White-Horned Snake has developed more of its mental capabilities to help it develop powerful illusions.

Herbert then took a distance and momentarily switched with one of his guards to catch his breath. Things weren't going exactly as planned, but it was still within his expectations. After all, defeating a Transcendent with only a group of awakened was not easy.

"We're moving our plan early. Buy some time for me."

After saying this, Herbert landed on the ground and dispelled the black wings that were on his back.

He then condensed the feathers to form a huge arrow. Due to its size, it wouldn't be wrong to call it a spear. When Herbert had finished making its sharp edge, Herbert then aimed at the huge monster in front of him. It took Herbert a lot to be able to concentrate to compress his power just to let out a burst of lethality,

At the moment he was currently facing its back. It was fighting three different people at once as it soared through the sky. When he had made eye contact with one of them, they began luring it over to get closer to the ground.

But as a Transcendent, it had the intelligence to figure out what Herbert intend to do, the moment it looked back, it rushed towards herbert from a different angle.