Chapter 490 Attention
Going back several minutes before the consecutive victories of the Unlocked...
Suarez was no longer afraid of charging through the numerous enemies.
With his command, the enemies aimed toward the location where they felt Suarez would move. However, in the most critical moments, the enemy's aim was so far off that the magnetic powers of the room could not cause these attacks to land.
All forms of attacks were now being altered to chase after the unique metallic signatures that the Unlocked had. Every enemy of the Unlocked had a gun and weapon that could curve and chase after the targets. Yet even with this cheat aiming technology, these bullets would still miss.
Suarez could infiltrate the ranks and make the attacks that were chasing him hit the enemy.
No matter how chaotic things were for Suarez and how the bullets flew closer, he did not retreat.
At the last moment, a portal would open, and Will would harness his shield to block the attacks.
The Void Assassins would appear and eliminate whoever they could before teleporting out.
Will could travel the Void Realm carrying the shields, which allowed them to teleport without fear and move straight towards the area where they were teleporting.
This made them able to teleport faster as long as Will prepared the way for them in the Void Realm.
Ivan's Werebear form was growing larger and larger. Each time he devoured the flesh of humans, it would make his figure bigger.
The bullets and attacks that could reach him were easily repelled, and Ivan's recovery was quickly able to keep up with the damage.
Fish worked together with him as Fish would move through the room. Whenever the enemies would use a magnetic jump that harnessed Rail Technology to shoot them somewhere, Fish's sword of lightning could kill them.
The armies that fought them had grown three times as more soldiers were deployed in the room.
But even with the number, the battle constantly shifted to the side of the Unlocked.
Lim watched the progress of the battle and was able to estimate who to protect and who to prioritize. She and Epic stayed along with Will and the other Void assassin, made jumps to escape and make attacks on key locations, and kept the battle manageable.
"I can't believe it's this easy!" Will chuckled as he shot out another blast.
"Easy? No. There were many times when I would almost fail. My calculations are a mess now. It's hard to keep up. I'm still quite a distance from achieving what Arthur can. We have held out and have been without issues because of General Meryl!"
"General Meryl? She's just punching out people, throwing them, and turning them into bombs!" Epic was confused. Meryl seemed to be fighting and having fun. She was the least destructive and had the least enemies that she was fighting.
"No. She's fighting in the places where we lack. I didn't account for our enemies increasing to such a number. My limit has long been passed. General Meryl is fighting to help us all keep pushing ourselves way beyond our limits."
"What? Then she has Zone like General Alean?!"
"I don't think that's it..." Lim shook her head.
Suddenly, Lim saw Meryl.
"What the?!" Lim exclaimed.
"Relax, Lim. You're good. You almost understood the power that I have."
"You have invisibility?"
"No. I can remain perfectly visible. But in such a chaotic place, I can easily change the attention people have been giving me." Meryl chuckled.
"Attention?!"
"Yes. I want to shine. But I realized that real shining has to do with being hidden. The sun is bright, but you can't look at it. No one will look at me and see me if I shine so brightly. For me to shine, I have to learn how to grow dim. And with my constant fights with Seeker, it somehow affected my Zone."
"Then I was right! You have Zone, just like Alean!"
"No. Alean adapts her actions to the circumstance. That's how she sees the future. Because of my Path and how I control the attention given to me, I can disrupt the Zone of another or make them follow mine. Since the start, everyone here has been following my rhythm." Meryl chuckled.
Attacks were shot, and Lim's attention shifted as she made orders to evade. And then, she realized Meryl was missing and nowhere to be found.
"There!" Epic shouted as she pointed to a location where Meryl was.
Meryl then fought and killed the enemies who were targeting someone else.
Lim watched, and for some strange reason, although Meryl was blasting through the many enemies and was using a powerful attack, it was as if it wasn't eye-catching, and Lim would have ignored that fight.
"Impossible! It's hard for me to keep up!" Epic cursed. Despite his alteration and how his eyes were made different that he could have a sight like Titan and John of the Covenant, he was still on the verge of losing Meryl.
"Hey, focus!" Meryl laughed as he saw Epic and Lim stand like stupid idiots in the middle of a chaotic battle.
Suddenly, her light shone, and everyone couldn't help but turn to see the light.
The split-second warning and light awakened Lim and Epic, and the two were cursing as they realized they were dancing in the palm of Meryl's Zone.
"Just keep fighting and push yourself to the limits. I'll be watching you guys..." Meryl smiled.
The battle continued, and suddenly, a surge of power erupted around the place.
"Meryl! It should happen now!" Alean uttered a command.
"Wow. You don't know what those words mean, right Alean? You just somehow know what to say. It's like you could read minds." Meryl chuckled.
"Everyone! Start defending! I'll be going wild!" Meryl laughed as she flew towards the massive entrance where all Lanterk's forces were coming from.
"What?" Lim was confused.
"Lim, you better get your defenses up. Even you will be attacked!"
Her body started to change. Every cell in her body was erupting with energy and letting out a light.
Meryl's entire body was generating energy.
"So this is a cultivator's body? Lynd, I finally did it!" Meryl chuckled as her body reached a state in which she would be considered a Mid-Tier Presider in the world of the Aragarians.
In her palms was the similar energy that Lynd harnessed on the orb. The radiation levels she released were so intense that the room's metal began to melt. Even the very molecules began to melt at the strange light of Meryl.
Meryl suddenly launched several attacks on friend and foe alike.
All eyes were on her.
Ivan was burned and screamed in pain.
Fish's wings were burned off, and she fell like Icarus but managed to hide behind Will's shield.
The rest were able to gather together as Fish ordered them. If not for Meryl's warnings, they would have been caught up in the attack.
"What are you doing?!" Lim cursed out as the light around Meryl grew brighter and brighter.
At that moment, Lynd and Jake had just made their attacks, and Lanterk was losing control over his ship.
But the light and power of Meryl caused Lanterk to use the last bits of his attention to attacking Meryl.
It was love. It was hate. It was vengeance.
Instinctively, Lanterk followed the light and sent a charge of his precious Universe Energy to create an attack on Meryl.
Meryl was not in the room Lanterk thought she would be. And so, the surge of energy was not prepared to make an immediate attack.
The energy coursed through the entire ship passing through the other rooms but moving with haste to attack Meryl.
Meryl had already become the sun. She was shining, but her light was no longer blind. A gold aura appeared around her.
"Cultivators Body Variant! Form of Z!" Meryl declared as her hair grew longer due to the growing cells, and it was now colored gold due to the light.
She concentrated the light that was bursting out of each of her cells and compressed it into a small ball.
"You're still falling for my Zone, Lanterk. Even at this moment, I still got your attention. We win." Meryl laughed as she knew that Lanterk could see her.
The surging power appeared, and Universe Energy shot towards her. Finally, the form of the Universe Energy was shown. It had a black color with many small lights appearing on it. Just as it was named, the raw form of this energy looked exactly like the universe when men would see through a telescope to observe the skies.
"Too weak! Haven't you read the bible? When God sets fire to the heavens, it will dissolve, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!" Meryl shot the bright beam of energy that erupted and became a massive beam of light.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The massive attack shot through the room and devoured the creeping dark energy, and the massive blast broke through the rooms and destroyed a huge part of Lanterk's ship.
The sun was lost, and the sea became dark once more. The lights in Lanterk's ship were all gone as the damage severed the ship's connection to the main body where Lanterk was.
"You're crazy!" Lim shouted.
"What? I wanted to finish the fight in eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds, just as you said." Meryl laughed.
Rai suddenly appeared next to her. He was carrying Jake, who was wounded and exhausted.
"He nearly died fighting Lynd's enemies. He killed two, but the last one managed to hurt him." Rai explained.
With the ship damaged, Alean could now move deep into the ship without being attacked.
"Shall we retreat?" Meryl asked.
"Take him with you. I'll pick up the rest." Rai left Jake and vanished.
"Alright, Void Assassins. Alean is coming to pick us up! Teleport us there!" Meryl ordered.
Lanterk was furious. In the current state of his ship, choosing to chase after Seeker and his fleeing team would make him lose more than half of the resources and power he had. So with no choice before him, Lanterk focused on repairing the ship as Seeker, and the rest focused on retreating.