It seemed like the master at the back gave a signal to the metal giant master, following which he moved.
Caster sensed the movement, and he also had really fast reaction time due to his attribute 'Traveller', so he had no trouble dodging the hit.
The giant master had launched a heavy blow in his metallic form, but unfortunately for him, Caster dodged.
They were hoping to catch Caster off guard and kill him cleanly without any casualties, but of course it wouldn't be that easy would it?
Skillfully avoiding the blows and intercepting the arrows with his sword, to destroy them, Caster got behind the giant.
The chain he wanted to escape to was being covered by four masters, so Caster decided to go into, deeper into Reckoning again.
The ruined part of the island.
He knew the terrain advantages the best here, since he had demolished it himself.
The masters seemed to not want to let Caster escape Reckoning, that was why they left the least mobile master to cover for the opposite direction.
As long as Caster was in Reckoning, he'd have to fight them. Running away would be basically impossible, unless he delves even further, towards the tear.
What they didn't anticipate was that it was more advantageous for Caster to fight there.
Using his wall of impossible communications, he contacted Moonveil.
[Moon, I'm being ambushed by five masters of the Sword Domain at the Island of Reckoning.]
***
"He's running towards the heart of Reckoning, beware, there's supposed to be a terrifying abomination inside."
The one who spoke was Master Eleanor, the leader of the cohort. She wore a bright, silvery armor that didn't allow for rapid movements very efficiently, but was exceptionally good at recreasing the damage, especially elemental damage. It even protected her from mental attacks to an extent, which was why she wasn't affected too much by Caster's echo.
She, along with the other two masters near her rushed towards Caster.
The master who had the metal giant transformation, Master Ludwell, turned into a sleeker and smaller body for more agility and ran around a bigger path to catch Caster and keep him surrounded at all times.
They had a master with a tracking aspect as well, which was why they found Caster soon after they got to the Chained Isles. Her aspect also allowed about analysing the properties of memories and even some aspect abilities.
She was right behind Eleanor. Everyone just called her 'tracker' due to her flaw making her forget her own name, if someone told her about it, she'd forget about it soon enough. Surprisingly, it didn't make her forget about her nicknames, so it wasn't the worst. Rather, it was much better than most flaws.
The other master who was running after Caster, a bit ahead of the two, was Master Ludwig, Ludwell's twin brother. He had a physical enhancement aspect and something to do with instincts as well. He had the best combat output among the cohort.
Eleanor herself was the most skilled fighter of them, but due to her aspect being focused on healing others, rather than strengthening her body, she was a bit below Ludwig in pure combat power. However, her essence control was the best among the five.
The archer, Master Laylah, was an exceptional ranged archer, it made her very, perhaps the most deadly at range. Her aspect made her unable to miss her shots unless the arrows themselves were destroyed. She could also create arrows out of anything, so as long as she was prepared, she would not run out of arrows. But her flaw made her exceptionally vulnerable at close range.
It was a very brutal flaw, if not for the support she had from her clan.
But the flaw... it could also be used as a weapon, at the risk of her dying.
'Let's not think about that for now. It's just a backup plan.'
Eleanor focused, her essence control back in precise control to increase her traversal speed.
She noticed how Ludwig had caught upto him and was swinging his sword.
But midway through, he stopped and jumped back, the look on his face was concerning. He was nearly scowling.
'Did his instinct pick up on something?'
Instantly, seven arrows swung past Eleanor, aimed directly at their target.
The target, Caster, didn't even seem to break a sweat as he intercepted all seven of the arrows with his dual blades and shot forward at impossible speeds to pierce Ludwig in the heart.
If it was anyone apart from Ludwig from their cohort, they would have not been able to evade it. Without his instincts and the physicality to back it up, he wouldn't have evaded it.
"Be careful! You can't get hit by that! It has soul destroying properties! It is also extremely potent! Ascended tier six."
The one who shouted was tracker, who was right behind Eleanor. She had the ability to analyse memories after all.
'That's insane. He killed the terror of crimson spire? We were just told that he held it off and escaped after wards! Fallen terror as a dormant? That's ludicurous!'
Caster disappeared from in front of Ludwig and rushed even further into Reckoning, the master's followed. Laylah's arrows didn't stop even amongst this.
As they followed him, they noticed the scenery change, rapidly.
There were hundreds of uprooted trees, the ground was wet uptil the ankles, a lot of trees were charred, the entire place was smokey, as if an intense fight had just happened.
Then it hit Eleanor.
Caster was leaving from this place, the place known to have a dangerous abomination, and the place was in terrible condition.
'He... did this? Insane. Divine aspect is insane. Luckily, he must be tired from such a battle. We underestimated him too much.'
Ludwig wasn't able to catch upto Caster either, Caster's speed was just too fast. Because of that, their formation had broken.
Ludwell, the one trying to circle around wouldn't be able to catch up at all.
Tracker was sending Ludwell and Laylah information at all times, allowing for them to keep up better, but it was of no use at the moment.
Caster was just too hard to hold down.
Caster looked like he was trying to find a way to escape rather than fight, so it Eleanor more certainity about her deductions.
'He's indeed injured.'
After reaching the heart of the devastation, Caster stopped and turned around.
"You see this? This wasn't done by me, I barely escaped the fallen terror that lives here. I'm too injured to fight you all, I hope you like him!"
Instantly, every one of them froze up, terrified.
'A... terror?'
"Behind you!"
Ludwig turned around, so did tracker.
"No-"
Before Eleanor could say anything, Caster disappeared from his position and appeared in front of Ludwig, thrusting his sword at impossible speeds at his face, piercing it and destroying his soul at once.
So much for his sharp instincts.
He fell for the oldest trick in the book.
Before Eleanor even had time to even process his death Caster shot forward again, there was decent enough distance between them so she could at least react but his speed was still too much for her.
Barely parrying the hit, she jumped backwards. But then she heard a sound.
It came from Caster's sword.
The sound pulled her right it, not allowing her to escape properly.
Barely resisting it a second later, she swung her sword towards Caster's gold covered legs.
But Caster didn't even try dodging it, he just swung his other sword at her neck.
Barely stopping her swing and rolling back, she avoided the hit.
She couldn't afford to get hit even once.
A dozen arrows shot at Caster, a couple that penetrated the transcendent echo he used as an armor. The rest were intercepted and destroyed.
Using that as an opening, Eleanor launched a barrage of attacks on Caster.
Skillfully, he avoided most of them, parrying the necessary ones, but taking a couple hits.
But the hits he took weren't in vain, as Caster knocked Eleanor off of one of her feets and kicked her hard in the sternum. If not for the tough armor, she'd have coughed blood.
She got thrown back multiple meters, and before she could even set her feet to the ground, to stabalize herself, Caster was on her again.
'Monster!'
Swinging his hilt downwards, hitting Eleanor's chin, she got slammed to the ground.
Just as he was about to turn the sword downwards and pierce her throat with his sword, the tracker caught up, who desperately launched a barrage of attacks, trying to save her leader.
Following that, Laylah's arrows hit Caster again, damaging him further.
Pushed back, Caster leaned down on his sword slightly.
'He's tired.'
"Now!"
Before the two of them could reach him, though, multiple arrows shot forward again.
If his face wasn't being covered by Evermelt, they see how frustrated Caster actually was.
Again, he intercepted the arrows, didn't let any of them hit him, but it strained him a lot.
The two masters, Eleanor and tracker had got to him before Caster even finished taking care of the arrows. It left him in a weak position, strategically.
However, it couldn't be helped from his perspective. Getting hit by those arrows to defend against the two master's would be detrimental.
Eleanor launched a precise and sharp swing of her sword to Caster's leg diagonally downwards and tracker lauched a thrust of her sword to Caster's face.
Just then, a flood of gold shot out of Caster's armor, capturing both of the masters inside.
'What the hell? We almost had him!'
The two of them were blinded, tracker seemed to be in immense pain due to the heat, even Eleanor was only barely hanging in due to her armor.
She swung her sword at it, to attempt to break free from it. It was only for a split second but the she did see the outside. It looked like Ludwell joined the fight.
'If only you were here a few seconds ago...'
She continued to launch a barage of blows on it, her and tracker both. In the end it didn't do much. She was still as trapped as she was a few mintutes ago.
Ludwell and Caster were also not in their immediate vicinity now, their fight was being continued elsewhere.
Eleanor was panicking slightly but she hadn't given up.
'Hang on Ludwell.'
Just as she swung her sword again, a blast happened nearby, creating a gap in Evermelt's covering, allowing the two masters inside to escape the entrapment.
The blast came from an arrow that Laylah, the archer, shot from point blank.
Evermelt, deciding that its too risky to fight the three masters, rushes towards Caster.
Eleanor and tracker both were too burnt up to be able to focus on the fight properly, but they hadn't given in yet.
'This wasn't supposed to be so hard.'
Following that, Eleanor spoke in a grim tone:
"Let's use your flaw, Laylah."
Laylah simply nodded. She didn't like it, but she had no choice.
The two of them rushed towards the fight Caster and Ludwell were going through, the three of them saw it from afar.
All they saw was how effortlessly Caster was demolishing Ludwell.
It wasn't even close.
The towering figure of ludwell was just a target for Caster's soul crushing, so he was using a sleeker build.
And Caster was at an advantage at that. At a massive advantage.
"Fucking monster."
Laylah spoke out.
Then tracker said something:
"He's supposed to be very injured and lacking in essence right now. Like brutally injured."
The two of them were in silence for a bit before Eleanor spoke again.
"Let's not waste time. We need to get him."
Laylah walked towards it, grimly.
"Don't waste my attempt."
The two of them nodded. Their faces, grim.
"Don't die."
Laylah nodded.
'Laylah... I have a feeling that... you're walking towards death.'
Eleanor looked over to tracker.
Both of them seemed to have the same feeling.
'Do you also have this feeling, Laylah?'
She wished to ask her, but she knew that she can't ask that.
'Please, I beg you, don't leave us like Ludwig did. I know what was going on between you two, but please... his end isn't your end.'
She wished to speak this out loud, but she had another feeling... that she'd never get through with her.
The look on Laylah's face wasn't that of a hunter, but that of death and vengeance.
She was planning to doom both Caster and herself.