"Shit!"

  I cursed, seeing the concentrated poison bullets coming at us; I had already used all the methods I had, and those I had remaining wouldn't be enough to defend against these poison bullets.

  I might be able to defend against ten or twenty at most, but there are hundreds of them; there is no way I could defend against them, even if I used all the methods I have.

  The only method I had that could have defended against these attacks were my shields, but I could not use them, considering the strings I should use to weave the shields are now holding back the vines. Still, I have to do something immediately, as these bullets have reached the water elemental sphere which is covering the whole chariot.

  "Star Shield!"

  I was about the activate the best defensive method I could use when lady Atkins activated hers.

  Her defensive method was the five-pointed star above us which expanded immediately and covered the whole chariot.

  I had acted extremly fast, and it was a good thing; it became the moment it covered us fully, the bullets had reached us. The water elemental sphere was not able to stop the concentrated poison bullets even for a moment; it did not slow down their speed.

  As it was completely vaporized by the first bullet stuck it, and now there are three hundred and fifty that are going to strike against this star shield.

  BANNNG

  The first bullet struck against the shield and made a sound as if a cannon had stuck it. The momentum of it surprised me; I thought it would try to seep inside the shield and poison rather than directly strike it.

  BANNNG BANNNG BANNNG…


  After it struck it, the bullet exploded and splattered across the shield-like pain, and that was just beginning, right after it stucks tens of others stuck, painting the star shield green,

  SIZZLE SIZZLE SIZZLE!

  These splattered energies begin to melt the shield; I could feel a colossal amount of energy in the star expanding to defend against the poison, which is stronger and stronger every moment as more and more bullets crash against it.

  I watched in horror as all the bullets stuck the shields and literally burned down the energy of the star, that it began to shrink away; even with all its energy, it wouldn't be able to hold on against this scary poison.

  The shield was fighting the energies when finally, we touched the boundary of the poison domain and began to pass through it.

  We are passing through it at an extremly fast speed, but it is feeling very slow to me. I could see the minute expressions on Lady Atkin's face and ripples in the boundary wall as we passed through it.

  BANNG!

  Suddenly everything turned normal, and I found myself crashing against the ground in a place filled with the extremly dense mellowed water elemental energy.

  "We are out!" Rai shouted in joy as the dense blue fire disappeared from his body, but the next second, his expression turned somber, seeing the horrifying poison was still covering the star in which we are protected.

  Now that we had gotten out, nearly all the horror from my heart had disappeared. As I had not once again become free to use my strings, I am sure I will be able to make a way through them by powering up with my blood energy.

  Hun!

  I was about to do that when Lady Atkins acted again; I felt an immense amount of water elemental energy gathering toward us. The energy is not only beginning to attack the poison but also beginning to strengthen the star by replenishing its energies.

  I could feel the power of the poison whittling away, which made both Rai and me take a sigh of relief.

  I looked at poison for a moment before turning my focus on my string; I am burning my essence, and I should call my strings as soon as possible and turn off the burning, as every second I waste, I am going to need a day a recover.

  This bastard vine had nearly killed us and forced me to burn my blood; there is no way I am going to leave it as it is. I have already made the preparations for that, and now, I just have to pull and hope I will succeed.

  Rip Rip Rip!

  A ripping sound rang out from inside the domain, and my strings came back a second later, and they have not come out alone; they had come bearing gifts. Hundreds of them are holding glittering crystals of three colors on their end.

  The crystals disappeared a moment later, and the strings came inside me; as did happen, I cut off the fourth burst.

  Thud!

  Intense weakness flooded into me as I stopped the fourth burst; it was so intense that I did not have the energy to lift my finger and fell down with a thud before falling unconscious.

  "Micheal, Micheal Lord Zaar…"

  I felt cool all over me and heard the faint voices, which grew louder and louder till I was able to hear them clearly.

  The weakness is still flooding my mind, but I have already started to recover slowly thanks to my avatar, which had activated the recovery formation the moment I had cut off the fourth boost.

  I don't know how long I have remained unconscious, but now, I have enough energy to open my eyes and look at Rai and Lady Atkins, who is looking at me worriedly.

  "I am fine, aside from little weakness," I said slowly; the last sentence was a sort of joke, but no one laughed.

  "Burning one essence for power is no joke, Micheal; it might take a month or even more for you to recover," said Rai seriously.

  "You are a little wrong about that; I will be able to recover fully in a week," I replied to his shock. I lied; actually, it won't take me more than four days to recover fully.

  My constitution, rule power, and the methods I had developed are aiding me in recovering far more quickly from essence burn than the other people. It is not the first time I have burned my essence, and it wouldn't be the last time.

  Though, I would need to make some heavy modifications in the burst, especially in the fourth burst. I want the essence burning more controlled. I don't want it to kill me; instead, help me kill the enemies more efficiently.

  Also, the weakness was too much; I could not fall unconscious in battle. If this happened in the battle, my enemies would only need a single move to finish me off.

  "I am fine; you guys don't have to worry about me," I said and drank a couple of potions in front of them. Those were the fake potions I drank to elevate their worries.

  "It was quite a vine," I said after nearly a minute of silence; "Yes, it was," replied Lady Atkins, before her expressions turned serious.

  "This time, we were very lucky to survive, but if we dared to go unprepared there next time, we would not survive," she added.

  She did not say it, but the vine is too intelligent; it will be prepared to deal with us when we enter next time. We need to be far more prepared and a lot stronger than we are right now if we ever wish to deal with it.