Tick Tock  

Lisa and Giselle continued their barrage of attacks on the curtain of light surrounding the loot and ignored the black mass that Will and Alison had disappeared into. They cared far more about the treasures in front of them than an enemy they could not comprehend.

Achilles and Lyra had been standing behind the black mass and were also quite curious as to what Will was doing. Nevertheless, they had faith, and Lyra's ability to maintain his buffs for so long was a testament to that.

'I hope he can finish this soon. I only have 3 minutes left.'

Lyra prayed that his buffs would last longer because the situation was not favourable for them. Once his buffs disappeared, Will would be weak and isolated. Hence it was best if they were to take care of the opponent in front of them.

Just as Lisa was about to land what she believed would be the final blow with her darkness-imbued blade, a sharp killing intent that made her cringe forced her to turn around and face Will's general direction. The black mass had faded away and Will's figure, along with a fully healed Alison, came into everyone's sights.

 The moment Will appeared with a seemingly healed Alison, everyone stopped in their tracks.

Giselle, Sophia and Lisa were especially disturbed because they were extremely confident that she was in trouble. Now she seemed to be in tip-top shape, with only a look of confusion remaining on her face.

There was no sign of any kind of injury as if her appendages hadn't been cut at all, while her demeanour revealed that she had no malice toward Will despite the fact that he had literally cut her to pieces only moments ago.

"I used precious loot from the Boss to heal you, don't disappoint me." After saying these words to the still-stunned Alison, Will turned his attention to Lisa and said, "I'm sorry, I had a deal to initiate. Let's continue where we left off. I believe we were at the part where I was about to cut you into pieces."

Lisa panicked as soon as she saw Will's figure. She decided to ignore him and strike the treasure nearby as only one True Strike was all she needed to break the barrier made of Solitude. Lisa put her concentration into the blow, but alas, the True Strike landed nowhere near the loot and headed straight for Will!

Will blocked the attack with a blade light of his own. The two attacks cancelled each other out as they created tempestuous winds between the duo. Giselle could not understand what was happening, because Lisa had started by aiming for the loot, yet halfway through her swing, she changed the trajectory of the blade and struck at the young swordsman!

Giselle wanted to ask Lisa why she would do such a thing, but one look at Lisa's ugly expression told her something was off. Lisa turned around and attempted another blow on the curtain of light, and yet the same incident repeated itself. Mid-way through her strike, she suddenly shifted and her attack went toward Will. This odd series of actions repeated itself a few more times until Giselle was reminded of something.

'This is just like when the Agonised Banshee tried to attack the Shield Warrior earlier!'

Giselle remembered that during Will's battle with the banshee, there were certain moments where it seemed as if the Banshee wanted to attack Achilles, but its attack would shift and it would always land a blow on Will instead.

Lisa's odd actions reminded Giselle of that moment. Giselle started to believe that Will had some method of controlling a person's aggro because that was the only explanation for what was occurring.

'Aggro skills normally cause some sort of phenomenon. Even the shield warrior caused a fuss with his odd skill when he attracted the ire of the banshees during the initial waves.'

Achilles' Guardian's Call was a classic example of a skill that pulled aggro. When it was summoned, waves of qi would spread out from Achilles, alerting the others in the environment of what he had done.

This was different from Will, because his skill did not cause any odd phenomenon to occur, nor did it alert any of them.

'If he can pull someone's aggro like this without alerting anyone, then this man is dangerous."

Giselle noted that Will confidently stood next to Alison, his back completely exposed to the Frozen Asgard maiden. As if he was not even worried she would attack him.

'Has he used the same skill on me as well?'

Giselle tried to cast a small ball of darkness with her free hand and aimed it at the curtain of light, but to her surprise, she found herself shooting the ball of darkness straight at Will. The latter casually sidestepped and ignored the ball while simultaneously blocking another one of Lisa's attacks.

'I can't focus on attacking anything else but the swordsman. What is this?'

Giselle's horrifying discovery and previous actions caught Lisa's attention. The latter had seen what the former had done. Giselle's actions also led her to the same train of thought. Within a few seconds, the duo had a telepathic conversation where they explained their circumstances.

After communicating, they both came to a frightening conclusion. This swordsman had some sort of ability that forced them to spiritually focus on him. As this was a spiritual attack, no fluctuations of world energy, qi or mana were present, resulting in there not being any physical phenomenon.

This meant that they only had one way forward if they wanted the loot, they had to kill the Solitary Sword Sovereign in front of them!

'He has multiple Doors open, 3 Higher Senses, a top-tier cultivation manual, a Yin Physique and a Swordborn Constitution. To defeat him in our current circumstances, there is only one way.'

Giselle sent Lisa a telepathic message indicating her plan, to which Lisa sighed and solemnly nodded. Lisa's attention shifted to the reticent Alison who had been reduced to an observer. Due to their rush, the duo of Giselle and Lisa ignored Alison's circumstances. But now they were forced to think it over.

From the swordsman's words, it was clear that he had used a treasure from slaying the World Boss to heal her, in return for something. What that something was, the girls were unsure. Alison's pondering stance made Giselle and Lisa nervous because they had left her for dead. 

If she wished to join Solitary's side as an act of revenge, then their deaths were all but guaranteed. Even if they survived, Alison would no doubt spread word of what happened. 

Had Alison remained injured, the girls would have ignored her as the sect did not value useless cultivators. But now that she was fit and fully functional, the sect would value her word. 

Cultivators of the space attribute were rare and valued because the Space element was publicly acknowledged as the rarest and most valuable. Although Giselle and Lisa had a greater talent for cultivation, their stations were not that far above Alison's due to her space attribute affinity.

Sophia was also wondering what to do as well. Her sisters had betrayed Alison without much hesitation, while Alison herself had seemingly made some sort of deal with the Swordsman. If Alison joined the Swordsman, she would have no idea on which side to fight on.

The swordsman was the follower of an enemy of the sect while Giselle and Lisa could leave her for dead under the right circumstances. Sophia was momentarily at a loss and didn't know what to do.

Alison however was the most distressed of all the ladies. Because after Will had asked her if she wanted revenge, he had not waited for her reply. Instead, he had simply smiled and released the darkness, revealing their current location. After lifting the seal, he left strange words that had dire implications for her!!