The Almighty Ring

“Level 5?” Jiang Fei froze. The last thing that he wanted was a Level 5 enemy. Come a million Level 4 but never a single Level 5…

Isabella could not really fight and Ariel was not even a real Level 5… There were no words to describe how conflicted Jiang Felt was then. On one hand, he needed to save the people there, on the other, he needed to stop the Level 5 from coming. The question was… how?

“Darling! I’ll handle them,” said Ariel immediately when Jiang Fei’s mind was beginning to drift towards the negative. She braced herself and shot off into the sky, facing off the incoming enemy alone.

“Bella, follow me and only act if Ariel is in an absolute pinch. Everyone else, start running! I don’t care if your feet falls off! Pick up the pace!” Jiang Fei roared. The amount of Valium he had was extremely scarce, however, whether he liked it or not, Isabella might be using them tonight.

“I’ll be fine. Even if I’m not, I will be,” said Isabella comforted Jiang Fei before she too, shot off into the sky to join Ariel.

Han Tianyu scowled as he saw just how painful Jiang Fei felt when he had to send off two of his companions away. Feeling guilty, he shouted to the other martial artists, “move faster! We’re so close!”

Concurrently, Ariel had just encountered the enemy. Without even exchanging words, the enemy fired off a streak of blue particle beam towards her. In response, Ariel fired off a bolt of lightning imbued with everything she had. When the two attacks met, it clashed into each other, releasing a surge of power that was so bright that it lit up the night sky.

“Get down!” Jiang Fei roared. He quickly pushed down the person that was carrying Han Tianyu to the ground and put up a Qi barrier on him and protected the two.

The fight between Ariel and the other Level 5 was happening far away from where Jiang Fei was. The blast of the clashing attacks was so strong that its residual energy could still travel as far as a hundred kilometers. Jiang Fei was well within that range and had to do something to protect Han Tianyu from taking the full effect of that. Those that were not protected immediately fell to the ground, vomiting blood from being bathed in the residual power of a Level 5 Metahuman.

“Those who can stand, pick up those who can’t! We need to leave! WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!” Jiang Fei roared. By shielding Han Tianyu and the others, Jiang Fei had taken a full blast of that residual energy, sending his own energy inside his body on a runaway mode. Even so, the pain and discomfort he felt was not enough to render him immobile. The fear of being struck once more was good enough to keep him moving.

As expected, those that could still move were Level 4 fighters. There was only a small portion of fighters at the Pinnacle stage of Level 3 who could walk but they were too weak to help the others. Everyone was either limping or dragging their unconscious friends, a scene no different from war refugees.

While Jiang Fei and the others were pushing themselves beyond their limit to escape, Ariel breathed a sigh of relief. Her opponent was clearly not as strong as she thought, allowing her to repel the attack. The enemy might have the energy reading of a Level 5 but his body, much like Ariel or even weaker than her, was incredibly weak.

“Sister Bella, I think I can handle this alone! Please go to darling and help him!” said Ariel with confidence.

“Alright, I’ll leave you alone to deal with him,” said Isabella calmly as she too had sensed that the enemy was not as strong as what it seemed.

Ariel and the enemy exchanged blows three times before one of Ariel’s attacks finally hit its target. With a clever feint, she diverted her lightning bolt to bend behind the enemy and strike him from behind. The bolt of lightning hit its target but it was not enough to destroy him. However, it was more than enough to reveal a vital piece of information. The target was burnt on the entire left portion of his body, revealing a metallic skeletal system underneath a synthetic skin.

“I knew it’s a machine!” both Isabella and Ariel cried. Jiang Fei was right all along—the military had already managed to make the breakthrough in creating Level 5 Androids!

“Someone’s coming!” cried Isabella when she was about to return to Jiang Fei.

“Hmph. Looks like the battle will only escalate further,” said Ariel, preparing herself to fight by summoning the power of lightning and allowing it to flow throughout her body. Before the enemy reinforcements could reach, Ariel ended the fight with continuous, rapid attacks, making the enemy utterly useless in doing anything. Her last attack had managed to overload the enemy’s circuitry, rendering many of its internal parts unusable. Just as when she was going to destroy the enemy with a huge bolt of lightning, fashioned into a javelin, four Androids with the power readings of Level 5, appeared and erected four barriers to protect their severely injured comrade.

“Big sister, I can handle this! Please let me,” Ariel pleaded, not wanting Isabella to use any of her powers.

After exchanging a few blows with the first Androids, she had understood how they fought and how their system worked. Every time they did something, be it offensive attacks or defensive barriers, they would need some time to recharge. That feature only caused them to be incredibly inefficient in a fight, not to mention weak! Knowing that, Ariel was confident that she could fight all of them alone.

“Be careful!” Isabella cried, not wanting to leave. She was there preparing to interfere if Ariel was about to be defeated.

The bolt of lightning that she had fashion in her hand was made even bigger. It grew so big that it was at least 20 times her size. While the enemies were still preoccupied with tending to their comrade, Ariel split the bolt of lightning and animated it into snakes.

“Eat this,” Ariel sneered and released all of them towards the enemy. In the next second, the battle ended with the barrier that the enemy erected was destroyed and the attack striking them down. If Jiang Fei was present then, he would not believe his eyes. There was no doubt that Ariel was strong but those Level 5 Androids were incredibly weak!

“Something’s not right. Why are they so weak?” Isabella thought to herself. She was not looking down at Ariel but something about those Level 5 Androids make it seemed that they were nothing but Level 4 Androids. That being said, Ariel, capable of manipulating lightning itself, was the kryptonite of Androids. Until the day they could figure out how to deal with electrical surge, they would have to bow down to her.

To put in comparison, Ariel’s elemental advantage made her much stronger than Level 5 Androids. However, if Ariel’s power level was considered a pseudo-Level 5, the Androids would have a genuine Level 5 energy reading but an extremely weak vessel. If that were the case, a real Level 5, Isabella, for example, could take on at least 25 Level 5 Androids alone without even breaking a sweat.

As soon as the battle was concluded, Jiang Fei and the rest of the wounded had boarded the ships.

The battle stopped then when all five Androids ceased attacking and decided to escape, leaving Ariel completely unharmed. To be fair, Ariel could never fully defeat all of them without Isabella’s help.

“Darling, we’re back!” Ariel greeted Jiang Fei as she and Isabella flashed themselves to his side.

“How did it go? Isabella, how do you feel?” Jiang Fei asked. Jiang Fei knew about the Level 5 Androids through information feeds from 0542. He had genuinely thought that the only way to defeat them was by having Isabella unleashing her power of Berserk.

“Well. I feel fine. The truth was I didn’t move a finger. Ariel took care of everything by herself!”

“What? How is that possible?” said Jiang Fei, surprised. Jiang Fei did not bother sugarcoating the fact that Ariel was only a pseudo-Level 5 Metahuman but the fact that she could single-handedly won a fight against five Level 5 Androids was unbelievable.

“It’s true. I didn’t even need to be there, to be honest,” said Isabella before she started to explain how the fight ended.

“I understand that Ariel has the advantage of lightning but those Level 5 Androids couldn’t be that weak?” Jiang Fei groaned as he frowned. Although he was glad that Ariel had defeated the enemies without taking much of a scratch, the fact that they could not even land an attack on her proved that something was extremely wrong. How could they possess the power of a Level 5 but fail to fight like one?