The next moment William flashed forward, chasing after Rick.
As things turned down in such an unexpected way for the latter, Rick kept cursing William in his mind and heart. "That son of b*tch! If I knew he'd grow to become such a troublesome enemy, one who kept ruining my life one time after another, then I'd have killed him back when I met him with that damn old man…"
Rick was lamenting not being decisive back then, not sniffing the great danger that rose up from William when he met him before at the academy. Back then, William was just a weak bronze master, powerless and didn't have any of his current famous guild or vast resources.
But he never expected such a thin and wasted looking kid to be the kryptonite for him and many of the dark forces. Rick threw away such thoughts for now and focused on getting away fast.
He was chased by two ferocious enemies, and his only helper here got killed already. He was alone, and his only hope was to go towards the Mutants side, seeking refuge there.
The Mutants weren't that far off to begin with. Yet he knew from his dark master that they'd be too busy to take care of him. Recalling such a warning, Rick took out a scroll, and started to ignite it fiercely with his spirit power.
"This power… It seems weirdly familiar," from behind, William was keeping a close eye over Rick. he was running and jumping from one peak to another. And as he couldn't literally fly, he had to exert most of his attention over synchronising his techniques to not face the same fate as Richard.
He alternatively used his dashing lightning technique coupled with wind hovering technique. That technique would enable his body to stay in midair for a few seconds. And all he needed was these seconds to reactivate his lightning technique again.
When Rick fiercely ignited his spirit power, William started to feel more doubt. He felt like he met Rick before but couldn't pinpoint when or where. And when he saw the spirit power he used, William couldn't help but feel more familiarity with it.
"No time to fool around anymore," William knew what Rick wanted to do from the very beginning. He thought Charley would be enough to stall this dark master and stop him from reaching the Mutants. Yet it seemed Rick left behind many arrays that got activated, slowing down his pursuers, and enhancing his running away speed.
In the next ten minutes, it was clear to William that Rick was going to succeed. So, he took something out and shouted the next instant: "Stop him! Stop him now!"
[At last!] Ibra's impatient voice landed, and then a flash of black light appeared next. Ibra was already hiding at a peak around the one Rick and Richard took as a base, a peak that laid inside the grand formation.
William didn't know where Ibra exactly was. And luckily that fierce friend wasn't far away from Rick. The moment Ibra said his words, he activated his fastest moving technique, flashing directly towards Rick like a bolt of black lightning.
The latter was shocked when he saw this. He considered facing William and Zin all the time, never expecting that a third enemy was lying in wait, hiding from his senses, biding his time to just arrive at such a crucial moment.
"F*ck off!" Rick was just less than a dozen peaks away from the closest Mutant. But it felt like he wouldn't make it. He had to divert his attention from that scroll, take out a grand hammer, and waved it with all his might towards Ibra.
"Hahahaha! Do you think training with William was this nice? That kid is really harsh and cruel, never went easy on me, not even once!" the moment that fierce weapon came towards Ibra, the latter laughed while changing his path in a smooth way.
It felt like he was used to doing this, and that was true. When dealing with William, one had to always be prepared for the latter's unbelievable agile way in changing directions and scary dashing movement.
*Boom!* Ibra waved his glaive and landed its shaft over the waist of Rick, ending up throwing the latter for hundreds of metres back. Luckily, he landed over a peak, and unluckily he just landed a few peaks away from another Mutant.
"I told you to train on controlling your power, dammit!" William grew instantly furious at Ibra when that happened. And the latter felt how bad he performed this time.
"It's not my fault! I wanted to make him land safely. Besides, I had to overcome his hammer or any technique he'd use. It's not my fault!" Ibra bellowed back in his defence, knowing that no words would be enough to make up for this mistake.
"Shut up!" William was really furious at this moment. Instead of helping out, Ibra ended up complicating things.
Just as this was happening, the Mutants were making their move.
Zin was watching everything using his spirit sense. He saw how William managed to turn the tables around, taking down Richard and was chasing Rick around.
During this, he never stopped spreading out more arrays, placing more pressure over the Mutants. He didn't know for how long this was going to take for the enemies to fall apart. And he didn't even know to how much extent these arrays were pressuring the Mutants.
The pressure exerted over the latter was quite severe, growing with each passing minute. As they knew they were going to lose, they decided to cut short their losses and put a rough and swift end over all this.
The anger deep within their hearts was immense. They wanted to rip apart that dark gold master who managed to foil their plans and make them suffer. And they decided to make him suffer a ton in return for this before killing him.