Astrid watched as Kim ran towards a fight she shouldn''t be taking part in. Her blood was boiling with hatred and disgust, but she hid all her feelings under her mask.


    Years of abuse fueled her anger, yet her rigorous training kept her from losing her composure in a fight.


    Next to her, the twins stared towards the approaching woman with more fear than anger.


    Unlike most, they had a pretty good life. They were helping Mary as attendants in the Research Facility.


    There was some experimental monster that escaped. One thing led to another, and they killed it. Eula and Joan did the killing blow, with a long metal pipe, that they could only lift together.


    That''s when they got their strange power, which was extremely strong, but only worked if they were physically touching each other.


    After a few tests done by Mary, they got transferred to the Angelic Order here in New Athens. They weren''t too into training, and they weren''t too useful in close quarter fighting.


    They were the polar opposite of Astrid. They sucked with regular weapons, but their ability was so powerful that they did not need to use weapons.


    They also weren''t in any war situations before, but they tried their best.


    Now Astrid looked towards them, and wasn''t sure how well they would perform, but she had no more time to think. The first of the goblin female had arrived.


    Astrid in her giantess form reached about 2.5 meters, which meant that the goblin female was nearly half as tall as she was. She wore a red plate armor, which didn''t seem to impede her movements at all.


    In her hand, she carried a long sickle-like sword with serrated edges.


    She grinned at the tall woman, then snickered and jumped towards her. With quick reflexes Astrid move out of the blow, and was about to punch the Transcended out of the air, when she felt the sickle bite into her skin.


    On her right, below her shoulder, blood flowed down on her whitish-gold armor. She had no idea how it got there, since the female stood way out of reach.


    She attacked again, this time towards her leg. The sickle only hit the air as Astrid moved out of its way, but when it finished moving, a new deep wound appeared on her left calf. She gasped in pain and anger.


    With this second attack, she knew what was happening, and she didn''t let the goblin make another cut.


    The sickle cut through the air; it was aimed towards Astrid''s neck this time. It was about to complete its arc when an unexpected powerful force knocked it away.


    With one long step Astrid got a few meters closer to the female goblin, and with a swipe of her spear, the weapon was not only stopped, but knocked away.


    The female goblin''s eyes went wide, and she screamed as Astrid grabbed her head with one hand. She lifted the still screaming goblin into the air and applied pressure. It exploded into a watermelon, raining green blood everywhere.


    The shouting from the other increased, but when Astrid turned around, there was only three left. The one with the human-like features seemed to disappear from their midst.


    Each was a few meters away, and they prepared their weapons to deliver unstoppable blows.


    In that moment, the familiar smell of ozone hit Astrid''s nose, and she watched in awe and glee as the three goblin females got hit with lightning.


    Imagining all this brought a bright smile to his face, and he snickered. He said a few words to Damien, but he didn''t speak the goblin''s language. The Warlord didn''t care either. He just said a monologue for a few seconds, then out of nowhere, attacked.


    Kim was still a few dozen meters away, and her powers would only work from within ten.


    The Warlord unleashed an onslaught of attacks on Damien. With a quick step, he cut at the large tiger head. Damien''s eyes glowed for a moment, freezing the Warlord thoroughly in the air.


    He tried to bite down on the frozen goblin, but he turned ethereal and Damien only bit the ice sculpture. It exploded into tiny shards.


    In the air, the Warlord became physical once more. He floated for a moment in front of Damien''s widened eye, then pushed the point of his sword inside.


    The saber-tooth tiger howled in pain, while turning back to human. The Stellar laughed and punched Damien in the chest, breaking all of his ribs. He went flying like a rag doll; the sword falling away in the process.


    He was still alive, but his right eye was impaled on the slender blade. The Warlord walked towards it and plucked the eye from his mouth. He made a few satisfied noises, like he was eating a gourmet meal. Then he stood up and went towards Damien with a wide grin.


    He lifted his sword in the air to kill the unconscious Transcended, but in that moment Kim had finally arrived.


    With little thought, she jumped in the air and transformed. She was about to land on the Stellar, but suddenly he turned his sword and stabbed behind his back.


    Kim''s own weight impaled her on the sword. It went into her abdomen and exited behind her back. The two meter long blade stabbed through his spine.


    She lost her neural connection to her snake tail, and her body got weaker each second.


    The Warlord turned around with a giggle and stared into Kim''s eye. His hand got covered in the green energy again, and this time he touched Kim''s face.


    At that moment, she felt a strange connection being established. She felt it try to change her DNA, her race, her sense of self, everything.


    She held onto herself as best as she could, but her control was slipping.


    As a last ditch effort, she tried something that had a high chance of killing her... She burned away all her essence at once.


    Her essence reserves were 8000, which was about four times as high as a regular Ascended, and even close to a normal Transcended''s.


    She activated her petrification ability, and with a scream of excruciating pain, she sent its full force through that connection.


    In that moment, she instantly lost consciousness, and was sent flying with so much force that she landed about ten kilometers away.


    On the battlefield, Damien was pushed away too, which brought him back to consciousness. It took her a few seconds to realize what had happened.


    His chest had already mostly healed, but his eyes couldn''t regenerate that easily.


    But at that moment, he didn''t care about that at all. His lone eye solely focused on the Warlord. He and a fifty meter radius around him turned to stone, and upon seeing the statue''s expression, Damien laughed.


    The goblin Stellar''s eyes were wide with both surprise and terror. It captured the moment of his death perfectly!