Alex used the opportunity of the explosion to teleport behind the woman. If he could get rid of her, he would have an easier time fighting the patriarch.
He broke the array in doing so and his strength wasn't as strong as it had just moments ago. Even then, it was enough for the woman who he attacked as hard as he could.
The woman hadn't realized he was behind her at all. Her focus was still on the explosion in front of her, but the patriarch sensed him.
Immediately, a water aura erupted from him as it covered both him and his sister. At the next moment, Alex felt his strength disappear.
He was feeling a resistance that was softening all the attack that was going out of him. The attack landed on the woman, but it wasn't strong enough to harm her at all.
She immediately turned around and used her fire Dao to try and burn him. Alex teleported at once to avoid that and appeared back in his position for the array.
Alex frowned. "Godslayer, just what the hell is that Dao?" he asked.
"Looks like some water Dao to me," Godslayer said. "Must be Dao of softness. I did hear the man saying something like that earlier."
"Dao of softness," Alex thought. "Can I even beat him if he constantly weakens every attack I send his way?"
Alex was sure if he put his intent into it, he could find a way to attack them, but right now, his mind was spread way too thin to use his intent so effectively.
Just focusing on the fight itself was taking a lot out of him.
'Please finish the fights quickly,' he hoped. Once his beasts finished their battles, they could fall into formations, letting him fight without having to think much about their position in the array.
"Stop getting distracted," the Patriarch said. "We need to kill him quickly and then the rest. We don't know what is going on back in the continent. The council elders are most likely going to execute us, so we might have to change our faces and hide for a while."
"Hnng," the woman grumbled. "Fine. He's strong, so help me kill him."
The battle resumed as both the siblings fought Alex and his 3 beasts. The battle shook the sky and rocked the earth.
The people sitting inside the formations watched in shock as they had never seen anything this crazy in all their life.
"Your sure that's your son, leader?" one of them asked.
"He is, but I don't think he got any of that from me," Graham said.
Whisker stood on top of the white puppet as he looked up at the battle as well. He was a cowardly rat, so he wouldn't have gotten into the fight even if his cultivation base matched the people fighting.
But, somehow it felt wrong for him to not help Alex even a little. All he could do was sit there and watch.
Alex swung his sword as hard as he could and used both the Dao of Cutting and Dao of Space at the same time to send out a slash that moved along, cutting space.
The cut-up space repaired itself a few seconds later, but the same could not be said of the matter the space would have separated.
However, even as a slash that could cut space itself, the slash was weakened by the softness Dao that the patriarch was using.
He destroyed the incoming attack with a water snake attack and launched another attack at the lizard blood beast.
The lizard wasn't as quick and didn't manage to dodge in time. It took the full-force attack of a Saint Soul 6th realm cultivator and was hurt quite a lot.
The octopus attacked with its tentacles and the woman created some more flames to ward off that attack.
Alex attacked at the same time again, sending out blood bullets, and the Eagle attacked, sweeping in with its talons.
The patriarch weakened Alex's attacks and destroyed them, while his sister once again fought back the eagle.
The patriarch took the opportunity to launch another attack that Alex couldn't react to. He sent mist out from around him, reducing everyone's visibility.
Alex could still see with his spiritual sense, but the same could not be said of the blood beasts.
A massive blue spear attacked flew through the sky and hit the Eagle right in its side that it couldn't see coming at all.
The eagle fell through the battlefield, leaving Alex and 2 more beasts.
Alex didn't even have time to frown as another attack came for him. He fought off that attack, but then they attacked another one.
Alex tried to control his two blood beasts to tell them where the enemies were, but controlling them, on top of managing the array was very hard for him.
On top of that, with the mist out, the two siblings continuously attacked Alex from all sides, never letting him catch a breath at all.
Due to all the attacks, the array was starting to slip through his hands. His control was getting worse and as a result, he was starting to get weaker.
He fought back as much as he could while trying to keep his blood beasts in order. They were winning their own respective fights as they easily overpowered their enemies.
However, that alone wasn't enough. As Alex moved, they needed to be able to move along with him to form an array and if they didn't, the array would fall apart.
And as the array fell apart, the blood beasts got weaker, making the fight easy on the enemy's side. When that happened, the blood beasts were beaten back, making the array falter more and more.
The cascading effect piled up on itself, making the problem worse.
Alex felt his power reduce by a single realm as less than 100 beasts were in array now. And he could feel even that getting worse.
When the number reached less than 10, he would be in serious trouble.
The two beasts with him were getting beaten badly and he himself was getting hurt as well. The attacks that were landing on him were hurting him quite a lot more than they were just beforehand.
This was getting troublesome.
The Kang family patriarch noticed Alex's lack of strength and sent 20 different water spears flying toward him.
Alex managed to dodge most, but one still hit him in the thigh, piercing through it.
"Argh!" Alex grunted as he felt the pain. A fire burst out in front of him, landing on his face.
It didn't hurt as bad as the spear, but it still singed his face.
Alex tried to teleport away or use attacks to stall for time while he fixed the array, but his opponents were smart and they didn't let him have a single moment of freedom.
He was bombarded with attacks, where his focus was entirely on protecting himself. Alex was saving as much Blood Aura as he could, but even that seemed to start to run out soon enough.
He needed to do something, maybe bring the puppet to fight, but he couldn't even do that right now. Not that that would help in the first place.
The puppet simply wouldn't be able to fight on its own in midair, and if he was there, he would be in just as much trouble as now.
'What do I do?' Alex thought. His heart grew distressed, but not a single idea came to his head.
He continued trying to bring the beasts into the array, but he simply couldn't focus at all. If he wasn't paying attention to the two siblings' attacks, he was going to die.
The people on the ground watched in horror. Everyone, including and especially Graham, had a terrified look on their face as they realized that their savior was going to die.
Graham got out of his stupor and banged on the barrier he was in. "How do I get out of this? I need to save my son," he shouted.
He tried attacking it, but it didn't work. The others tried to join in and help Graham, but none of them could do so.
Whisker was afraid of the battle in the sky and was cowering behind the puppet, but right now, he feared for his brother more than anything.
His deep-rooted fear was one thing, but the fear of death, the fear that knowing if Alex died, he would die as well terrified him.
For most people and animals, that sort of fear would make them unable to act, making them stunned. However, for some reason, it brought out a fire inside Whisker.
A will to save, a will to help.
His body quivered, but he fought through it. 'I should help,' he thought. 'I can help.'
He reigned in his fear and jumped from the puppet, flying into the sky. He got close to the nearest blood beast and jumped on top of him.
"Brother, fear not. I am here to help," Whisker spoke out loud.
The moment Alex heard that he felt as if he had suddenly lost all pressure from within him. The burden that was on top of him for the longest time had just disappeared.
"Whisker, take control," Alex shouted.
Whisker nodded and sent his spiritual sense everywhere, connecting to each of the Blood beasts in the area. He also connected to Alex who was against the two Saint Soul realm cultivators as well.
Then, he became the leader as he used the Hell Emperor's Divine Battle Array.