Chapter 392: Dealing with Illusions

As the world seemed to shift around him Joshua took notice of the fact that the battle field that was once within his vision disappeared along with the rest of the surroundings. Instead he found himself standing in a heavily forested area even though he knew there weren't any trees close enough. He knew the man was the cause of this since before things shifted Joshua could feel a slight shift in the man's aura. The other four didn't do anything and were still standing around him protectively.

From what Joshua could tell from what was going on around him he had either been warped to another location or he had been put in an illusion. Within a few seconds Joshua was certain it was the ladder since he could tell that they were all still standing near the battlefield that was raging on. The reason he could tell was because even though the illusion had shifted the surroundings it didn't affect his aura sense. He could still feel people fighting each other a little ways away through his aura sense. This also let him confirm some of the limits to this man's abilities.

Although the illusions set up he was seeing before his eyes was extremely life like and hard to discern from reality, it didn't affect all of your senses. From what Joshua could tell the illusion at the moment was only able to affect his sight and hearing. He could see all of the trees as if they were right in front of him and even the cloudy sky above was hard to see from the new foliage that seemed to just naturally fit in the surroundings. He could hear the sounds of animals coming from all over the illusion along with the occasional roar of beast which told Joshua right away that this man knew how to create the most realistic environment possible.

Those two things on their own would make it hard for many people to tell they were in an illusion if the illusion was created discreetly, but since the illusion didn't effect Joshua's sense of smell he could still smell the smoke and fire from the devastation occurring in the battlefield nearby. Since it didn't affect the sense of touch Joshua could still feel the constant breeze that came through the open plains area that they were originally located. He was also fairly certain that the illusion wouldn't be able to affect his sense of taste either and it was clear that it couldn't affect his aura sense at all. Even so messing with just two of your sense could put someone at a huge disadvantage.

"Well then how about we have a little battle of our own. Us against you, after all you've got us at quite the disadvantage from the skills that I've seen so far. Oh how unfair Unique Job holders can be, isn't that right girls?" The man said with a smirk. Joshua just rolled his eyes at his words. The man clearly had a unique combat job of his own and yet he was the one complaining.

"I don't mind giving it a go. Fighting's in my blood after all." Joshua said while losing a bit of the tension from his body. He was still on guard, but it was clear that the territory war would be coming to an end soon in his guilds favor with the way he had left the battle field. With the only large danger to his guild members being stuck here to deal with him he was certain that Ivan, Victor, Natsumi and the others wouldn't have any more trouble finishing the war.

"Well then let's get started. He's all yours ladies." The man said as he took a step back and faded away into the illusion. What shocked Joshua about this was the fact that even with his aura sense he was no longer able to feel the man's presence. This was an ability he hadn't had to deal with before, but he didn't get much time to think about it as the swordsman and martial artist both charged over preparing to go on the offensive. The swordsman's blade was glowing a bright white color while aura was building up around the martial artist fist and feet.

Even if Joshua could clearly see what the two were doing he wasn't going to trust his eyes with someone with the power to create illusions all around him watching the fight from god knows where. Joshua used his aura sight to get a better look at what was going on. Even while using aura sight Joshua wasn't able to find the man, but he could see that the incoming attacks weren't what they seemed. The first drastic difference that he noticed was the fact that the auras were flipped from what he could see with his normal vision. In reality the martial artist was attacking from the directions of the girl with the sword and it was the exact opposite when it came from the swordsman's perspective.

His aura sight also let him see that the fire mage girl was up to something even though with his normal vision it looked as if she was still staying back and watching what was happening alongside the healer. There was an arrow made of fire flying directly towards Joshua from above. Although the arrow was mostly made out of mana since it was created by a mage, Joshua could still feel and now see the disturbance in the air above him even if there was an illusion trying to prevent him from doing so.

Joshua jumped back out of the way of the fire arrow and swung his scale blade to the left to knock aside the attack of the woman that tried to aim for his waist with her blade. If it wasn't for his aura sight Joshua would have figured that she was attacking his neck instead of his waist. Joshua also quickly caught the punch of the martial artist before letting go as she twisted in the air and tried to go for his head.

It was annoying for Joshua to deal with the style of combat that they were using against him. He had to constantly focus on their aura instead of what he was actually seeing with his normal vision. Any time he was about to land a fatal blow to one of the two he would get interrupted by the other one or have to avoid a fire arrow that could come from any direction.

From what he could tell while fighting them Joshua was certain that the sword user had a soul beast that amplified the effect of skills or abilities that had to deal with swordsmanship. It also allowed her to use them more often from what he was seeing. The amount of times she was able to use energy slash was absurd in comparison to the amount of time he had to wait in between each energy slash. She also had great technique and fighting style that worked well with the illusions. When she attacked she would just slightly change to a different position at the last moment instead of making things so obvious. It had caught Joshua by surprise a couple of times, but his aura shroud could easily deflect any weaker attacks that she was able to get off in such close range.

The martial artist was the exact opposite of her partner though. She was blatant and obvious with all of her attacks, no faints, and no tricks behind her movements. The illusions were the only reason Joshua hadn't caught the girl out right and taken her down already. That and the fact that the mage and swordsman would intervene whenever he was about to take her down. For the most part the healer spent the whole fight just healing this girl in general. What the martial artist was good at was brute strength. The power behind her blows were even stronger than Amy's. When Joshua first caught one of her punches it would have injured his hand if not for his aura shroud being up at the time. He could feel the ground crack beneath him with that blow.

The teamwork shown by the girls was great, especially the way they worked with the illusions that supported them. Joshua couldn't take any of them down in one shot because of the barriers the healer kept putting up on everyone to this point and they weren't allowing him to get any breathing room to prepare a stronger attack. Joshua could have eventually broken through all of these issues if it weren't for one thing. The fact that the illusionist himself wasn't just sitting back and doing nothing.

The first time the illusionist got involved in the fight Joshua was taken completely by surprise when a gunshot got so close to hitting him that it nearly hit his eye before his aura brought it to a stop. He wasn't able to sense the attack until the very last second. It also occurred while he was in the middle of fending off the two close ranged fighters. Joshua was only able to sense the presence of the illusionist for a brief moment before it once again disappeared. These types of attacks became a common thing as the fight went on, but Joshua was starting to get the hang of when the illusionist would go on the attack.

The man didn't have all that much power behind his attacks and could really only be a threat to Joshua if he left a large opening. He could use stronger piercing ammo, but that would just heal up from Joshua's high regeneration factor. Gun shots weren't the only thing Joshua had to worry about from the guy though. He also seemed to have a dagger that he had almost cut Joshua's neck with while he was about to break the martial artist arm forcing Joshua to let her go.

At first Joshua wasn't sure if he was using a dagger or a short sword, since he could use illusions to cover up what his weapon looked like. It was the main reason Joshua didn't focus on the length of the swordsman's blade either since his aura could only sense that whenever she channeled a form of energy through it while using a skill or an ability. As the fight dragged on Joshua could see that some of his opponents were getting more and more tired. Joshua expected the illusionist to be getting tired as well since keeping up such a large scale illusion for the nearly hour they had been exchanging blows must have been exhausting. Joshua could also tell that the fighting in the territory was coming to an end as well. At this point their side still had a little over a hundred people left while the enemy force was down to around twenty when you included the five he was fighting at the moment. It was a fairly one sided territory war.

Knowing things were coming to a close Joshua decided to finish things on his end as he ignored the martial artist and swordsman as he dashed passed the both of them. They of course chased after him as he rushed straight for the healer. He needed to take the initiative if he wanted to end the fight and taking out the healer was the best way of doing that. Joshua rushed straight through any of the trees that were in his way since they weren't real and he knew it. The mage tried to stop him with a large torrent of flames, but right when Joshua got in range he blinked directly in front of the aura signature of the healer. He grabbed her arm and acted as if he was going to cut her down.

It was then that Joshua felt the killing intent suddenly appear right behind him letting him know the illusionist was about to strike. The other three girls were also close enough for what Joshua planned to do, but taking down the illusionist was his primary goal. Joshua allowed his aura to grow all around him as he let an aura blast fill his entire body. All of his opponents were too close to avoid his upcoming attack and the healer was caught so that she couldn't create any barriers for them as well.

With everything exactly the way Joshua wanted he smiled before releasing the power of the aura blast from his body creating a massive wave of aura that instantly caused both the illusionist and the healer to disappear in a flash of light while knocking the other three away from Joshua. With the illusionist down the illusion faded showing Joshua the battle field and how there were no longer any members of the Scavenger's Guild standing. With the leader of the opposing guild taken down the territory war was won.