One of the hooded figures disappeared.
A sonic boom detonated across the grassland as he crossed the distance almost instantly and arrived directly in front of me. His fist carried enough condensed soul force to distort the air around it while the space behind him collapsed under the force of his acceleration.
I met the attack head-on.
My knees bent as I shot forward and punched myself.
The collision generated a shockwave powerful enough to flatten everything for hundreds of meters around us as both of us were pushed back.
"How is that possible?" the attacker muttered surprised.
"Ohh this is nothing." I chuckled.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t alone.
The moment we separated, a second attacker appeared above me and brought down a blade formed entirely from compressed soul force. The attack descended like a falling star and split the landscape apart before it even reached the ground.
I twisted sideways.
The blade struck the earth.
A canyon instantly appeared. The grassland split apart for kilometers as the attack carved through the terrain.
Then a third Saint attacked.
Unlike the others, this one remained at range.
A sphere of blue fire appeared between both hands before rapidly expanding until it resembled a miniature sun suspended above the battlefield. The temperature across the region immediately began rising while the surrounding air shimmered violently.
Then the sphere was launched. The attack crossed the battlefield so quickly that it resembled a beam rather than a projectile.
I accelerated.
The miniature sun exploded behind me. The resulting blast swallowed an enormous section of the grassland and created a crater large enough to resemble a small city.
The six hooded figures continued advancing.
Every attack flowed naturally into the next.
A fourth Saint thrust both palms forward and released hundreds of razor-thin arcs of soul force. The attacks spread across the sky like a storm of luminous spears before descending toward me from every direction. Each carried enough power to annihilate ordinary Transcendents.
I charged directly through them. Several attacks missed entirely.
Others struck my body. Without soul force reinforcing me, every impact hurt. The pain simply wasn’t enough to matter. I broke through the barrage and reached the attacker.
His reaction speed was impressive.
My fist connected with his ribs.
The entire side of his body folded inward before he was launched across the battlefield. The hooded Saint tore through the grassland before finally disappearing beyond the horizon.
A fifth attacker arrived immediately afterward.
Then a sixth.
The battle escalated further.
The grassland could no longer endure the punishment being inflicted upon it. Massive sections of terrain were continuously collapsing and reforming while enormous explosions of soul force illuminated the horizon. Every collision generated enough force to alter the landscape and every missed attack left scars stretching for kilometers.
But I found myself genuinely enjoying the fight. These people were strong enough for me to engage them in my current state. The kind of opponents capable of forcing me to move seriously even while deprived of my greatest advantage.
I seized one attacker by the throat and used him as a weapon against another charging from behind. The collision sounded like two mountains crashing together and sent both figures tumbling through the air. Before they could recover, I accelerated upward and smashed my elbow into a third Saint descending from above.
The impact generated another shockwave. The hooded figure became a streak of black and disappeared into the distance.
For a brief moment the formation broke.
And I laughed loudly. That was my mistake.
The entire grassland suddenly illuminated. Millions of symbols hidden beneath the surface erupted to life simultaneously. They stretched across the horizon in every direction.
I immediately attempted to move. The world resisted. It felt as though the very idea of movement was becoming heavier.
The six hooded Saints appeared around me once more. This time they occupied specific positions. Their soul force surged together and merged into a single enormous formation.
The pressure multiplied instantly. I pushed forward but could not move.
"Damn it," I muttered as I planted my feet and braced myself for the incoming strike.
The hooded Saint accelerated again, turning into little more than a black blur that tore across the battlefield. The sheer force generated by his movement created a trail of collapsing air behind him while the surrounding grassland exploded outward under the pressure.
There was no room to evade. No time to reposition. So I met the attack head-on.
My fist shot forward.
BOOM!!
The collision detonated like a thunderclap across the grassland. A massive shockwave erupted from the point of impact, flattening everything for kilometers around us and tearing enormous trenches through the earth.
For a brief moment our fists remained locked together.
Then I felt it.
The force behind this attack was far greater than anything the previous Saints had shown.
Without access to my soul force, relying purely on my physical body, I simply couldn’t absorb the entire impact.
The strength rushed through my arm, into my shoulder, and then through the rest of my body like an unstoppable tidal wave.
A split second later I was launched downward.
The ground rushed upward to meet me before I crashed into it with enough force to shatter the landscape.
For several moments dust and debris continued rising around me as I lay at the center of the destruction.
Then I exhaled slowly, rolled my shoulders, and pushed myself back to my feet.
"Now that’s more like it."
The six Saints weren’t stronger than me individually.
Together, however, and supported by a formation specifically designed for capture, they possessed exactly enough strength to accomplish their objective.
Eventually one final pulse surged through the formation. The pressure multiplied again. For the first time since the battle began, my body stopped moving completely.
The six hooded figures approached carefully. None of them appeared relaxed. Several maintained attacks ready to launch at any moment while others reinforced the formation.
Apparently they weren’t entirely convinced I had been captured. I tested the restraints one final time.
The entire formation shook. Cracks spread through the runes. The hooded Saints immediately tensed.
I smiled.
Then, before I could decide whether breaking free would be worth the effort, a new hooded Saint appeared directly before me and thrust two fingers toward my forehead.
A pulse of soul force erupted. The world immediately became distant. The grassland blurred.
The sky darkened.
My thoughts grew heavy.
Then everything vanished beneath a tide of darkness as consciousness slipped away, and the last thing I heard was the voice of an old man echoing through the darkness.
"How weak have you all become? Six Saints and you still needed this much effort to capture one man. Absolutely pathetic."