The short words echoed in Liens's heart, and everything around him froze.
Looking at the frozen Alfred, Liens knew his anticipated outcome was correct.
Having used two major moves consecutively, the Sword Saint's mental state had diminished to the point where he couldn't resist the suppression of "Extreme Wind."
Under normal circumstances, Alfred would break free from the shackles of "Extreme Wind," and during that process, their mental states would clash, leading to a situation Liens temporarily didn't want to see.
He had experienced this situation several times in the Instances.
Without wasting time, a sword-wielding phantom detached from Liens, walked directly towards Alfred, and finally passed through the Sword Saint's body.
Just as Liens thought everything was complete, he saw a slight movement in Alfred's frozen body.
And this movement seemed to trigger a chain reaction, causing everything that was initially frozen to fluctuate.
"Extreme Wind" was also activated prematurely because of this.
Everything resumed its flow, and Liens, like a ray of light, passed through Alfred's body, appearing instantly in the air several meters away.
Subsequently, he fell to the ground like a kite with a broken string.
Looking at Alfred, whose body from chest to abdomen had largely disappeared, a hint of helplessness appeared in Liens's eyes; such an injury couldn't kill him.
Although he struck at the right moment, he ultimately couldn't completely suppress Alfred.
At the last moment, Alfred still broke free from the shackles of "Extreme Wind," reacted prematurely, and dodged Liens's fatal sword strike.
However, although he reacted in advance, "Extreme Wind" was too fast, and he didn't completely dodge it, and even he couldn't ignore such severe body trauma.
Alfred grunted, a trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth, and his complexion became rosy.
Without hesitation, Alfred immediately used elemental mending to repair his body; water of life rapidly filled the void in his body like blue jelly, preventing him from being cut in half.
Everything happened too fast, too suddenly.
In Balder's eyes, Alfred was severely wounded immediately after he finished speaking, as if a god had struck him in that instant.
Of course, Balder and the others knew it wasn't a god who attacked, but Liens.
Seeing the "broken string" Liens, even if they didn't know exactly what Liens had done, they could guess he had probably used a move that sacrificed eight hundred to kill a thousand.
At the same time, others noticed that the Mirror Lake and the giant sword in the sky had also disappeared, guessing that the severe body trauma had caused Alfred to retract his moves or be forced to interrupt them.
Without wasting the opportunity Liens created, Balder and the others immediately launched an attack on Alfred.
And seeing the giant sword in the sky disappear, someone on the main battlefield below initiated the attack again, and the fighting resumed.
As Liens fell from the air, he originally intended to retrieve the life-saving "water of life" from his belt space.
But seeing the healing light emanating from his body and Lucrezia rushing over, he temporarily put aside the idea of using "water of life."
Over there, Lucrezia first used magic to confuse Ralph, creating an opportunity to escape, then used "Float" on Liens, who was falling from the sky, to slow his descent.
"Heal" followed closely, then she quickly caught the falling Liens, and finally, holding Liens, she instantly returned to the previous battlefield to continue dealing with Ralph.
The entire sequence of actions was seamless; while Balder and the others were still slightly stunned by the suddenness of the event, Lucrezia had already acted.
It was also seeing her actions that Balder and the others didn't go to rescue Liens but seized the opportunity to deal with the heavily wounded Alfred.
Looking at the two clinging together, although he knew that a relationship with Lucrezia, who had become a Rebel Army member, was no longer possible, Ralph still felt a sense of being cuckolded upon seeing this scene.
This also darkened his expression a few shades, fire in his eyes, and he looked at the couple in the sky with a somewhat distorted expression.
A longsword, from an angle Ralph couldn't see, pierced towards him at an extremely fast speed, as if in the next instant, he would once again experience the pain of a sword through his heart.
At the critical moment, Ralph regained his senses and used a shield to block the longsword, and then instantly used "Earthwalk" to leave his original position through the earth's veins.
He was a normal mage, not a spellblade like Lucrezia; using magic to attack enemies from a distance was his forte.
Looking at Ralph, who had disappeared from his original spot, Lucrezia said softly; although she said this, there was no regret on her face, which remained calm.
"Sorry, my injuries are a bit severe, I couldn't hide my aura."
Liens, held in Lucrezia's arms, weakly apologized in a low voice.
"It's alright, his life or death doesn't significantly affect the overall battle; as long as he can be held back and prevented from interfering with the main battlefield where the two armies are clashing, that's enough. The key is over there."
Lucrezia slightly shook her head, indicating she didn't mind.
Ralph's grand magic could stir the earth's veins to cause large-scale damage, which was too great a threat to the Rebel Army, most of whom were ordinary people, and could easily lead to mass casualties among the Rebel Army soldiers.
However, there's a trade-off; apart from this threat, Ralph's strength was only so-so, unable to truly influence the overall battle between the two sides.
"Although the Sword Saint suffered such severe body trauma, the decline in his aura isn't obvious; Balder and the others will probably find it very difficult to win."
As if to confirm Liens's words, a loud bang followed.
Balder's figure rapidly smashed from the sky to the ground, adding another new crater to the already pockmarked earth.
Then the others also refused to be outdone, continuing to present the scene of meteorites falling to the ground; soon, the Rebel Army high-ranking officials who had been besieging Alfred were all struck down to the ground.
Balder spit out a mouthful of clotted blood, his expression exceptionally grave as he looked up at Alfred, who stood in the air.
He hadn't expected that even with such severe body trauma, almost cut in half, Alfred's combat power was still so fierce, his attacks even stronger than before he was injured; they could barely resist a single sword strike.
Balder assessed his own injuries, then looked at the condition of the others, and finally gave the command to retreat with a serious expression.
Although he knew that Alfred's temporary enhancement wouldn't last much longer, they genuinely couldn't hold on.
So, they reluctantly had to announce a retreat, otherwise, if they continued fighting, they might all sacrifice themselves without being able to defeat the Sword Saint.
Although it might sound a bit morale-damaging, the Rebel Army soldiers were already experienced with retreating.
Moreover, Balder and the others had anticipated another failure, so they had also formulated a detailed retreat plan; therefore, upon hearing the signal to withdraw, the Rebel Army soldiers did not cause any commotion.
Maintaining their battle formation, they resisted the enemy while retreating in an orderly fashion, simultaneously protecting the wounded and recovering the remains of their comrades.