A similar situation was happening to Zaol’s side, though in his case he also had a few more assistants, so the enemies only managed to land a few hits, none of which had been close to taking down anything, except for the loose sentries. Those were too far away to defend effectively.

Zaol was not an elementalist, but he was a relatively skilled level 55 spearman. He fought against the most powerful level 54 and a level 45 enemy guarding the trebuchet. One of them was a bald man with a perennial sneer on his face, and was also someone Zaol knew.

Meanwhile, his assistants, including some of Mettheo’s guards and cronies with him, defended against the others.

"Who’d have thought we’d meet here?" The level 54 fighter, Kalbo, sneered as he barraged him with his attacks, getting his underlings to attack the old man from other angles to distract him.

He might be a level lower than Zaol, but he, as a warrior by profession, consumed fewer aether crystals. Hence, his foundations were more solid at his level.

Kalbo was one of the strongmen from Hassen City. He was not a top powerhouse, but he gained his level through fighting, so he was technically more powerful than many people at his level.

Sometimes, he’d also be sent to Bleulle to handle Blu trade, and the bastard had never let a visit pass by when he mentioned Zinnia’s "death". It was simply built on the belief that she really was gone.

The thought angered Zaol again, and his attacks became sharper and sharper.

[Tremor Wave]

[Crescent Sweep]

Kalbo gritted his teeth, pushing forward, and he did push Zaol back, pushing the older man into a defensive stance.

"You had a higher level than I do, but you don’t nearly fight as much. Not to mention there are two of us," he said. On cue, a blade appeared from behind, and Zaol turned around to defend against it. Zaol also had teammates around him, but they were busy with their own enemies, so he knew that he was really two-against-one in his case.

Kalbo thought it was finally his chance to make a hit, raising his weapon to slash the bastard’s neck. Unexpectedly, it didn’t go through at all!

Clank!

At this moment, one of Zaol’s protection charms broke, and it was a sacrifice Zaol was willing to take to get rid of enemies.

SLASH!

Zaol’s blade pushed through the level 45 bastard, properly distracted because he, too, thought that Zaol was about to be defeated.

The next thing he knew, he was thrown smack into one of the projectiles just fired by a nearby trebuchet.

BAM!

It not only stopped the projectile, but also got rid of an enemy.

A dwarven trebuchet, like elementalist attacks, had special penetration effects that also reduced the effectiveness of aether. This meant a direct hit was practically lethal, especially for a level 45 who had been stabbed deeply.

Kalbo gritted his teeth, knowing full well this ally was already a goner.

Zaol’s face remained impassive, his swing moving relentlessly as if he would never get tired. Kalbo’s jaw was clenched, but he also gave it his all, no longer caring about conserving energy or whatnot.

He underestimated this bastard.

How could he know that Zaol, who had indeed been a little dependent on Aether crystals back then (though a lot less compared to fellow City high nobles), had been training vigorously since he landed in Alterra?

With the exception of his daily dates with his wife and frequent meals with his children, as well as some visits to the library and other places, he was training in the barracks.

Before, all he had was raw power that came from his level, but he became aware of the value of actual combat strength. In the barracks, he learned of various techniques that fit his style well, and the effect of all that training was showing now.

Other than this, he also got to spar a lot. It was just that, as a level 50+, how many people could he spar with? There were a few, but they were the same people.

The only fun part in their spars was that they were always held outside of the walls, lest they damaged anything inside of it. This meant that Zaol had fought all over the surrounding forests of the territory.

He already memorized the landmarks and knew the major terrain changes. With the intensity of their fights, Kalbo had no idea he was being led by the nose.

Pak!

He gasped when he felt something slightly sharp behind him, not knowing it was a protruding rock. He slightly turned by instinct. But even if this pause lasted no more than a second, Zaol took advantage of it.

[Crescent Sweep]

Followed by a clean slash that nearly removed his arm.

"AHHH!"

"YOU BASTARD!"

Kalbo barraged Zaol with attacks, his loose arm eerily hanging and swinging along as he moved. The damaged arm was his dominant hand as well, significantly lowering his battle prowess.

The humiliation and the agony were too much, and Kalbo’s hits became more and more frantic, no longer caring if he was slashing his own teammates.

He even used some of his area of effect skills, the kind that could clear out enemies a few meters away from him.

How many people from Valov this ’ally from the city’ killed in the past half hour, no one could count anymore.

Zaol wasn’t allowed to kill the enemies below the level cap, but people of the same team could, and he took advantage of this.

SLASH!

BAM!

PAK!

Kalbo got so crazy that the trebuchets were forced to relocate several times to avoid their fight, which changed locations every so often.

Things happened so quickly that none of them noticed that Zaol was directing the fight so the trebuchets would be forced to move locations.

Specifically, to the locations where the loose sentries were still intact. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

He just had to push the fight to the back of the trebuchets, and the weapons moved forward.

Whoosh!

"AHH!"

Another operator died as well, just like this.