The soldiers of the Empire were prepared for that eventuality.
They opened a path for Noah and focused on defending against the ethereal sabers that surrounded him, they didn't have any way to block his real weapons.
'They learnt quickly.'
Noah judged as he entered the enemy's army, he smiled seeing their reaction.
'The more focus they put on me, the less there will be on their feet.'
He ran for a few meters and, when he was sure that he was at quite some distance from the soldiers of the Odrea nation, he injected "Breath" in one of his Instabilities and dropped it on the ground.
That movement was smooth, it was covered by the storm of attacks that surrounded him and wasn't noticed by the soldiers around him.
The small grenade was successfully armed and left in their lines.
'Twenty seconds, I should be able to plant a few more.'
He was the maker of those inscribed weapons, he knew exactly how delayed the explosion would be with each quantity of "Breath".
He continued in his charge.
Most of the soldiers were able to withstand Noah's offensive but some of them were still injured by the First Form, that martial art was still in the fourth rank, some blue soldiers simply couldn't block it.
Then, when the timer in his mind hit five seconds, he dropped another Instability on the ground.
The quantity of "Breath" injected in it was small, it corresponded to the maximum possible delay that the bomb was capable of.
Another five seconds passed and Noah planted another bomb with the same programming.
'Ten seconds!'
Five seconds later, another Instability was dropped.
There were four bombs on the terrain, right under the feet of the soldiers of the Empire.
'They came rather quickly this time.'
Noah's killing intent rose as he saw two red figures coming in his direction.
'Four seconds for these two.'
Noah quickly calculated the needed quantity of "Breath" before injecting it into two Instabilities and dropping them on the ground.
Then, he turned toward the Odrea army and began to make his way back to his allies!
The blue soldiers in front of him opened a path while the red soldiers behind him continued in their chase, however, Noah's attention was on the countdown in his mind.
'Two… One… Zero!'
BOOOM!
Precisely twenty seconds after he planted the first Instability, an explosion resounded near the first line of battle.
The blast was powerful, it directly flung away any blue soldier that was in a three meters radius from its epicenter.
Those soldiers were just in the liquid stage, that blast had their same power, their natural defenses weren't enough to protect them from the explosion.
Soldiers flew in the air, their legs had been destroyed due to the explosion while those closer to the blast had been directly killed!
Burned corpses and severed limbs flew everywhere, one simple Instability had reaped a few victims already.
Then, the spikes came.
The soldiers were still surprised by the sudden explosion that they didn't have time to protect themselves from the incoming fuming needles.
Their bodies were stabbed without mistake, all the cultivators that had survived or avoided the explosion were hit by that sharp rank 4 material.
Ten or so blue soldiers fell on the ground, their bodies were covered in spikes and their faces showed their surprised expressions, they still couldn't understand how they had died!
One Instability killed more than fifteen rank 2 cultivators in the liquid stage!
The red soldiers chasing Noah were surprised by the sudden blast and moved their attention toward the vanguard of the army.
Yet, in that moment of distraction, the two Instabilities under their feet exploded!
Noah had precisely planned for them to detonate shortly after the first Instability and had left them on the red cultivators' path, he knew that a blast out of nowhere would distract them for an instant.
That planning paid off.
The red soldiers were still running when their bodies were swept by a hot wave of energy.
Their robes and hair were burned in an instant and their legs were blown away during that process.
They found themselves in the air, the burning sensation completely covered the pain from the countless injuries that the spikes stabbed in their bodies had created, everything had happened too quickly, they couldn't even understand why life was abandoning them.
Yet, they died anyway, their bodies weren't any different from those of the blue soldiers, they were only slightly more resilient.
'Being underestimated sure has its advantages.'
A cold aura was radiated from Noah's figure as he inspected the results of his creations.
'Those two Instabilities have killed two red cultivators and nineteen blue ones, the first grenade should have produced a similar result.'
Then, another explosion occurred.
The soldiers on the frontline were still recovering from the first blast when they were hit by a second one.
BOOOM!
'Two more to go.'
BOOOM!
BOOOM!
Noah carefully listened to those noises, he wanted to be sure that the weapons had worked as intended.
Most importantly, he wanted to be sure that they had exploded exactly as he had planned, the delay had to be perfect in order for those weapons to be reliable.
Nevertheless, the Instabilities worked perfectly.
The morale of the soldiers of the Odrea nation skyrocketed when they saw Noah safely returning in their ranks, they had greatly benefitted from the commotion created by his weapons, the army of the Empire was in a state of complete chaos after all.
All the soldiers were too scared that another explosion would occur that they forgot about the enemies in front of them.
The result of that chaos was a total victory.
The blue soldiers of the Odrea country completely overwhelmed those of the Empire, the red cultivators were forced to step in the battle to limit the casualties on their side but they still couldn't stop the unrestrainable wave of cultivators coming at them.
A hidden threat was scarier than a visible one, the army of the Empire couldn't focus on the enemies in front of them at all for fear that a bomb was under their feet.