Capítulo 1997: Intense Battle III At the same time, both Klaus’s and Alice’s opponent rushed over, hoping to stop the assault on the Ninth stage Sovereign Gnome. Klaus snickered and rushed at his opponent once again, not giving him the chance he wanted to join in on the battle. The Ninth stage Sovereign Gnome was greatly humiliated at this point. When he was retreating from Klaus’s attack, he was caught off-guard by the latter who suddenly attacked and made a turn. Before he could figure out what was happening, Klaus was already below the Ninth stage Sovereign, attacking. Now that he rushed over to help, he was unable to due to Klaus stopping him. He was still wary of the method Klaus used in fighting the last time. What he found hateful was that Klaus’s defense was just too strong, so whenever they were in a position of mutual destruction, Klaus was always fairly better off compared to him. This is the reason he was afraid of entangling himself with Klaus, which gave Klaus the opportunity to launch a sneak attack on the Ninth stage Sovereign battling with Reynolds. Alice’s opponent was slightly weaker, so before he came over, Alice was already on the way back, stopping him from making any advancement. Reynolds, taking a breather, rushed after his opponent, keeping a good distance from the others to make sure they were not able to help. The Gnome’s Puppet that was struck by Klaus’s ice blade became frozen solid, falling from the sky and landing hard on the ground. It did not shatter as the fall was not enough to destroy it. The Gnome tumbled a few times mid-air, and even when he stopped tumbling, he still felt like the world was turning. Just as he got his bearings, he saw Reynolds once again attacking with a bolt of lightning. Panicking, he tried to summon his Puppet, only to realize that it had been frozen some hundreds of meters away from his current location. He hurriedly retreated, not wanting to be hit by Reynolds’s attacks again. On his arms were burn marks, the aftereffects of being hit by lightning spear a while ago. With shaky arms, he made a set of hand seals and the frozen Puppet made creaking sounds, breaking out of the ice and rushing out. Reynolds was about to attack again when he sensed a dangerous aura behind him, turning around, he saw the previously frozen Puppet sending a punch his way. Employing his lightning element, he hastily dodged to the side, making sure he was not struck by the Puppet. He had been hit by the Puppet before, and knew just how strong it was. The Gnome sent out a preemptive strike to his right, perfectly predicting where Reynolds’s counter was coming from. Just as predicted, his attack hit Reynolds’s incoming lightning orb, both cancelling out each other. Reynolds grunted, not expecting the Gnome to react so calmly. He had hoped to use his hasty retreat as a means to catch the Gnome off-guard. The Gnome showed his vast battle experience in this situation, predicting what Reynolds planned. After this strike, both parties went on to exchange a series of strikes. On Klaus’s end, things had heated up considerably. The Gnome was no longer fighting apprehensively. From their previous bouts, he could already tell that Klaus would not be using the same reckless fighting pattern which gave him a sense of relief. As long as he did not try to engage in any form of mutual injuries like the last time, he was confident he would be able to take out this strange Young Man. He could not be blamed for being this wary, the manner of his defeat the last time was traumatic. Most of the mutual attacks deployed by Klaus were actually forced on him, he had no choice when doing them. At the time, it was either he at least got something off the trade, or suffered alone. Knowing there was no way to dodge Klaus’s attacks, he did the only reasonable thing in that situation. While these Sovereigns were engaged in intense battle, those below the Sovereign Plane were not left out. Every single one of them was currently engaged in battle against the Gnomes. After their resounding victory the last time, they were even more energetic, especially the new troop that came with Klaus and the others. The victory from their first battle made them fearless against the Gnomes which gave them a boost in battle. The Gnomes did not have many reinforcements, only barely having the same numbers as the Humans this time. This was probably the first time they were having to fight with around the same numbers since they started the war on this side of the Magical Beast’s Forest. Previously, the Gnomes generally outnumbered the Humans two to one. Hugh’s impact on the battlefield could not be overlooked. Taking advantage of how difficult it was to deal with his use of vines and trees, he occasionally assisted any Human that was in a dangerous plight. His opponent was the same as the last time, and both of them were basically left to supervise the war. The Gnome did not want to fight Hugh, unfortunately, seeing how he is able to easily influence the tide of the battle, he was forced to confront him. “Sovereigns are not allowed to fight them!” He warned coldly. “Says who?” Hugh asked nonchalantly, before adding, “I’m aware of that rule being for the Half God Plane experts, I heard nothing of it being implemented for us too.” The Gnome wanted to blow his tops, but knew Hugh was right. The rule was only for the Half God Plane experts, even Peak Sovereigns could interfere in these battles as long as they were free. Hatefully glaring at Hugh, the Gnome was forced to attack, he had no choice. It was either he personally stopped Hugh or he watched him help the Humans wipe out their army, which was unacceptable.