As much as in shock as the captain was at the sight of one of his subordinates getting dispatched to hell even before the fight started, he wasn''t as incompetent as most of the recently advanced guys that were trimmed down by Aster and the others, so he immediately shouted.

    "Retreat!", with a single word, the three of them flashed backwards appearing a few hundreds of meters away from Iris, who calmly remained floating in the same spot, despite being obvious that she was the one who beheaded that guy a second ago, let alone unsheathing her sword, not even her pretty long red hair moved at all.

    Which is what made the captain grit his teeth, especially since he was questioned by his subordinates.

    "W-What was that, I couldn''t see anything?", said the remaining peak star axys guy as he touched his neck with his right palm as if to make sure that his head was still attached to his body.

    The vice-captain didn''t show signs of panic, but he also gave a doubt-filled gaze at the captain, who snorted as he said.

    "Calm down you fool, we were warned that our opponent would have a few tricks in store, after all, princess or not a "mixed" blood born in a lineage type of family needs something to rely on, given that there were no spiritual energy fluctuations nor any signs of she moving, that was probably a one-time thing, a hidden weapon of some sort, perhaps".

    "Yeah, there is no way she could have cut Reflective Skin without using the attribute of which the Redheart are so proud of", added the vice-captain from the side.

    High up the sky, Aster who was observing Iris''s battlefield, couldn''t help but notice that a moment ago when the captain said the word "mixed", a sharp light flashed through the red-haired girl''s eyes.

    Which is rather unusual, contrary to what one would expect from someone with a fire-related attribute that clearly focuses in offensive, Iris is most of the time a cool-headed girl, it''s not as if she doesn''t get angry or happy, but she rarely externalizes it.

    Unlike Vivian who was only limited to not show her emotions due to her constitution but once she got a handle of it, became a bright cheerful girl curious of everything she has missed so far, Iris has a much more serious or even stern personality.

    The only times she has shown the emotional intensity expected from a fire attributed cultivator, were when the three sisters got wounded or when something had to do with swords.

    There have been a few other exceptions lately though, like where when she clashed with Nerissa back at the valley, or when Aster made up that excuse so that the Redheart would literally have to ask him permission to take her back in the open at least.

    The point is that, as subtle as that reaction was, for Iris to show it, it meant that she... was angry.

    ''Now that I think about it, back then when she made a soul oath to ask if she could tag along when Nina was wounded, she used the name last name Bladeheart, instead of either Fireheart nor Redheart'', thought Aster.

    A soul oath has to be properly made using one''s name for it to work and the other party would notice if that wasn''t the case, in other words, despite Iris being the princess of the Fireheart family from the Redheart, from the bottom of her heart and probably by birth, she used the last name Bladeheart instead.

    Not that it surprised Aster that much, she was obviously close to Layla who is the Bladeheart''s princess and even called her "sister", so probably Layla''s mother and one of her parents were related.

    The previous also explained why unlike Layla and their other "cousin" who had at least some support from their family branches, regardless of their standing in the official matters of the Redheart family, but Iris didn''t have any backer from her family, she was a "mixed" blood.

    One would think that having ascendence from both the Bladeheart and the Fireheart, would make her more valuable for the Redheart family as a whole, but in a lineage type family, the purity of one''s blood is incredibly important and she had only 50% of purity from both sides, hence why the elders didn''t support her actively.

    Sure, they knew she was talented enough to be their representative in the youngest generation, but thinking about the future, her offspring would have a purity of 75% at most and that is if she married an extremely talented member of either the Fireheart or Bladeheart families, but it would be a waste to do so when they could pair said talented member with some girl that had a high blood purity to produce a much better result.

    In other words, from their point of view, her glory will be short-lived, and to top it off she refused to fulfill the role in which she could have excelled, but... who were they to decide that.

    ''Half strength without using her attribute, resorting to tricks due to something as trivial as being of mixed blood... ridiculous'', thought Aster.

    Back at the battlefield, having adjusted their states to be as good as possible, the captain shouted.

    "Now!", with a single word, the vice-captain as well as the remaining peak star axys suddenly mobilized a large amount of spirit energy into the metal layer that covered their bodies, causing a surprising reaction.

    A blinding white glow engulfed the battlefield, forcing those who were watching the fight to advert their eyes, they used the unusual shiny tone of their metal armor to produce a flashbang.

    Even some Genesis Manifestation closed their eyes while cursing due to the itching burning sensation that assaulted them, since using their spirit sense to look at the battlefield might make provoke a retaliation, the vast majority of people observing were left in the dark for a few seconds.

    "Damn it!", not seeing a way to both completely protect himself, his subordinates and also be ready for Iris''s next attack, and under the disbelief of the remaining peak star axys guy, the captain used the previous as a shield.

    "Aghhhh!", the slashing lights fully landed on the back of the guy who was used as a meat shield, and cut through his body, coming out from his chest not even a second later since the peak star axys guy was no longer using intent due to the intense pain he was suffering and the fact that he lost his shield earlier, he died with his eyes full with hatred at the captain, who was the next target of the slashing lights that killed him, not to mention another set of attacks were about to arrive.

    That being said, using the impact of the first slashing lights as a propelling force the captain grabbed the arms of the vice-captain as well as the latter who was in shock due to the death of his subordinate and flashed to retreat.

    It''s worth noticing that Iris didn''t pursue them, very much to the anger but at the same time relief of the captain, anger because she clearly didn''t think they were even worthy to chase after, despite the fact that they were obviously arranged to deal with her, and relief because he knew his chances to actually win a head on clash against Iris were quite low, to succeed he needed a defense focused teammate in the front.

    Which is why he put all that effort into saving the vice-captain to the point that he sacrificed his other teammate.

    "Get it together if you don''t want to die!", shouted the captain as he slapped the vice-captain, so that he would return to the real world, at the same time he took out a small black jade box from his pocket and put the content into the mouth of the vice-captain who after witnessing the end of their other teammate, naturally resisted and didn''t swallow.

    "That pill was a last resort given to me by "her", it will heal and give you a temporary boost, of course it has a nasty side-effect, but it won''t kill you nor make your cultivation regress, just some lifespan and potential will be burned, it''s that or we both die you choose", said the captain as he kept holding the vice''s severed arms in place.

    Ultimately, living even if it meant no longer being as "talented" as he used to be was better than dying, specially since the supposed side effects can be diminished with some resources, if he accomplished what was expected from him, then he might even get something to make up for his loss, so he swallowed the pill.

    As one would expect, the vice-captain started healing at a visible speed, his arms reattached to his body and even the layer of metal that covered him gained new life, alongside a blue shine that mixed with the previous bright gray tone.

    ''As one would expect from a boosting pill made from the flesh and poison of a steel jellyfish, just like I was told it has high enough healing properties to even reattach severed limbs not to mention the increase in defense...'', thought the captain.

    Naturally, just like he mentioned, the side effects were immediately shown, since due to the burn of a big amount of lifespan in a single go, the vice-captain showed some signs of aging, like some of his hairs turning white.

    It was normal, though the amount of lifespan he lost wasn''t lethal nor was enough to really be worrying, and he could maintain his previous youthful appearance, it would take his body a few days to draw more of its lifespan to return to "normal", with the exception that he would be considered older than before and his potential would have diminished according to that.

    "My physical defense has more than tripled why the hell didn''t you mention we had this, we could have had one of those two use it!", exclaimed the vice, sure he was happy to recover and to have a chance to survive, but he still suffered a loss so it was natural to be angered.

    "It''s an expensive last resort kind of thing, using it means we weren''t as good as expected, and that means our backing will be diminished according to that, I was literally ordered not to use it unless half of the team was dead... still with only the two of us, we can use the other''s resources to make up for it, are you going to cooperate or not?", said the captain with zero remorse.

    In the dog eating dog world of cultivation, resources and riches were the biggest driving forces, the captain wanted more and so did the vice-captain, which is why the latter snorted as he answered.

    "Fine, but I want to be treated the same as you, this pill can explode two more times and I am willing to do it so that we can do as we were expected to, swear that you''ll give me a larger part of resources until I get what I deserve".

    The captain swore to his insides, but he couldn''t do anything but accept and make a quick soul oath, with that they were both on the same "side" again and were ready for their last effort.

    "I don''t know how, her reactions are too fast, even with blinding reflection blocking her sight, we can''t escape and showing our backs is the same as asking her to kill us, the strategy is the same, but this time you have to block her slashes and not die nor retreat so that I can land my attack".

    The vice-captain nodded and the two of them exploded in spirit energy, since they only had one chance and it was do or die, then they went all out, the vice was marveled at the increase in defense his Reflective Skin had.

    ''I wouldn''t lose against even Heavy Iron Skin in this state'', he thought as he poured all his spirit energy and intent into his shield, which though had scratches was still fine, since Iris''s attack focused on his arms only.

    "Suppressing Charge!", with a loud roar, the Reflective Skin of the vice-captain glowed in a light blue light as he flashed towards Iris, followed closely by the captain who wasn''t going to commit the same mistake again, or at least that''s what was supposed.

    Iris once again pointed her pretty hand at the incoming enemy, whose technique caused waves of spirit energy to spread through the battlefield, making the captain inwardly snort, after seeing the previous attacks, with the pill he calculated that the vice won''t die even if she aims for his neck, unless she uses her sword that is, but that clearly wasn''t going to be the case.

    And the vice thought the same, seeing the red-haired girl not unsheathe her sword reaffirmed his confidence in surviving the frontal clash, so he accelerated even more.

    "Go to hell!", the vice-captain whose eyes became bloodshot in part due to be fighting for his life and in part because of the side effects of the pill, roared like a mad beast, only for his scream to fade at the end.

    The captain looked in horror how the intent, shield, armor and lastly the body of the vice-captain were cut apart.

    "R-Red Sword Hand!", screamed the captain in disbelief as he caught a glimpse of the crimson sword emblem that appeared at the reverse of Iris''s right hand for a fraction of a second, which is what took her to slice up the vice-captain.