The older man who stood on top of the pyramid wasn't just anyone from the Light Faction. Reno had noticed the clothing he was wearing, the light color with the golden trim around it.
This man was known as Nabi Highborn and was one of the ten elders belonging to the Dawnblade Clan, the same clan that Beatrix had come from.
After Beatrix's loss to the Demonic Faction, the Light Faction could do one of two things: accept the loss and decide to stay low for a while. However, what would that mean for the Light Faction? That they were weaker than the Demonic Faction?
Not only that, but from within the Light Faction, the Dawnblade Clan was being pressured, and some were beginning to think that they had grown weak being next to the border of the Demonic Faction.
Essentially, it meant some of those in the Light Faction felt like the Dawnblade Clan didn't deserve to be in the top three clans of the Faction.
Because of this, and with all the pressure internally, not only did the Light Faction decide to react to the Demonic Faction, but they had decided to do it in a big way so they wouldn't dare to even try to act back.
This was why the Dawnblade Clan had sent one of the Elders belonging to their clan. Nabi wasn't just a powerful person from the Light Faction; he was extremely powerful and one of the strongest there was.
The Demonic Faction thought it was enough when they sent out Rayna, a middle-staged warrior, one that was possibly in line to be the next leader of the Neverfall Clan, to protect themselves. But they were wrong, and this was the result.
Thinking all of this, underneath Reno's eye, it was starting to twitch. He was trying to get his brain to work, to figure out what the best thing to do was now that his plan had been overturned.
'I originally wanted to come up here so I could cast a wide-range Qi attack with my poison Qi as it fell on those chasing us. Then I thought we could just scram out of here, but now that he's here, he'll stop me before I even cast such an attack.
'And if I cast using so much Qi, then how will I even be able to fight him?'
Taking a peek behind him, Reno could see that most of the warriors were staying on the pyramid waiting for them to drop down or stopping them from escaping.
"This is a seriously bad situation!" Reno thought as he stretched out his hands, and visual Qi was seen coating both of them in a light green fluorescent color.
At the same time, two of the Light Faction Pagna warriors from below had jumped up and were surrounding Raze again.
'I am sorry, my new friend,' Reno thought in his head. 'But I cannot help you; you will have to deal with them both on your own.'
Reno didn't hesitate as he charged in, and when he was within range, he swung his hand in the air, leaving a large veil of green mist to fire out toward Nabi. The Light Faction Elder drew out his sword, and it started to glow with power.
He then struck from below, and the green visual Qi disappeared right at that moment.
"Having already lost to us once, I would have thought they would have sent a few that were stronger than this!"
Nabi charged in with his sword, ready to strike from above. His Qi power extended beyond his sword, making it longer, and when he struck it down, Reno was able to dodge it by the skin of his teeth.
He slipped to the side, and a large line that reached the very edge of the pyramid appeared on the floor. He pushed forward, spun his body, aiming for a direct hit.
Using his sword, Nabi blocked the strike again, but the visual green Qi continued to come off from his fist and was heading towards the Elder. However, before it could touch him, the Elder's clothes were now glowing in a bright white, and all of the visual Qi had dispersed.
'Crap, my Qi isn't strong enough. He must be quite the high-level middle stage warrior, at least higher than me! This isn't enough on my own!' Reno thought.
Raze was struggling as he fought against two opponents at once, using the Descending Steps, but it was his first time fighting more than one person who was this strong. Because of it, he wasn't able to strengthen the steps by using them consecutively one after the other.
The steps were weak on their own. Raze struck one, slashing right against the sword, and as he did, he could see the other coming from his back. He had no choice but to cover his hand in his Wind Magic; as he did this, he swung it out, and it clashed against the other sword.
"Huh, is this guy's Qi is this strong to stop my sword? That's impossible; it doesn't really make any sense!" The Light Faction warrior thought.
"A push of the wind!" Raze said as he used his magic and pushed the warrior away. It skidded him across the ground but wasn't enough to do damage to him. Jumping back, Raze decided he had no choice.
"If I don't do something, then none of us will live!" Raze said.
In a struggle, with Reno's fist clashing against Nabi's, Reno was trying to draw power from somewhere, but he wasn't much of a fighter. If his poison wouldn't work, then what could he do? He didn't have the best techniques.
In his struggle, he could see Nabi's sword slashed right across his chest, faster than he could see, and a cut was made, spilling out blood from his body. It fell to the floor, it was slightly black in color, not the bright red it usually would be.
"A poison user, of course, only someone as sick from the Demonic Faction would use such a thing!" Nabi charged in again, swinging the sword from above, and it was too fast for Reno to deal with. He placed both hands above his head and activated all of the Qi he possibly could to stop the sword from cutting him.
As he had done that, though, a foot kicked him right in the stomach, sending him skidding across the ground. It was clear to Reno that he was outmatched, and he wasn't sure if he could do this alone.
He was continuing to go, nearly falling off the edge, that was until he felt something solid grab onto him and stop him.
"Thank you," Reno said, but his eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw it was a large stone statue of all things.
When looking at the hooded figure, he could see that both of the attackers who were fighting him just moments ago had been defeated. One was slashed apart, with the other next to a destroyed part of the ground.
"Use this!" Raze said as he threw over a pill.
Reno had caught it and looked at the pill. It was green in color, and not only that, it had the marking of DM on it.