Volume 4 – Perpetual Conflict, Chapter 15: Joint Assault
Warriors at such a high level as Qianye and the werewolf captain could already, albeit with some difficulty, join the battle between champions. Each saw the determination in the other’s eyes—the determination to kill the current opponent as quickly as possible and assist their own champion in battle.
Man and wolf roared at the same time as they released their power and similarly charged at the enemy in a straight line.
Qianye and the werewolf crashed into each other with a loud boom—there was nothing fancy about their exchange—and both were sent staggering back after the impact. Qianye turned to check his left shoulder with a frown. His shoulder armor was completely deformed after being pierced through by the werewolf captain’s bite. A fuzzy mess of flesh and blood could be seen under the fragmented pieces of armor where a large chunk of muscle was nearly torn off.
The werewolf captain didn’t get off that easy either. His mouth was full of fresh blood and many of its fangs were broken. Additionally, there was a fine strand of blood in front of his chest left behind by the Radiant Edge.
Perplexity emerged in the werewolf captain’s eyes as he looked down at the wound in front of his chest. However, an uncontrollable and profound fear arose in the depths of its heart. Why was such a small wound making him feel as if his energy was gradually dripping away into nothingness?
This feeling, this feeling… he suddenly recalled what this feeling was!
He was once stabbed by a vampire noble during a certain conflict with a vampire tribe. It was a rapier as fine as a toothpick and the tiny wound left behind was almost negligible. But moments later, this harmless little laceration erupted like a volcano and transformed into a gigantic wound which almost killed him!
The vampires loved to play such shady games! The recollection made the werewolf furious. It let out a growl and once again activated his darkness origin power. At this moment, however, the indistinct sensation of energy drainage was suddenly magnified by thousands of times like a volcanic eruption. Fresh blood gushed out from the werewolf captain’s thread-like wound and shot several meters into the distance.
The prepared Qianye leapt to one side as the werewolf captain’s huge body collapsed with a loud bang.
Qianye turned back to inspect the results of the battle and happened to see a jet-black war hammer strapped behind the werewolf captain. He was immediately moved and bent over to retrieve it before weighing it in his hands. This war hammer was made completely in werewolf style. It was heavy and crude, but there was nothing to complain about the material and origin array.
This was a grade three melee weapon. Its might was, of course, not comparable to the Radiant Edge. However, it was more suitable for dealing with large, heavily-armored enemies—Brahms, for instance.
Qianye picked up the hundred-kilogram war hammer with relative ease and was quite satisfied. With that, he turned and ran toward the village exterior.
The battle line was already fully deployed on both sides. The expeditionary army made no special effort to keep the dark race army outside of the town. In two short charges, almost all the dark race warriors had rushed into Black Clay Town.
However, the dark race warriors immediately found themselves being doubly besieged. There were expeditionary army soldiers everywhere as the little town had already been modified into a gigantic military stronghold. Every wall was a sturdy fortification, sharp blades would extend out from under the roofs, and every house might fire bullets or even origin bullets at them.
The rubble within the town served to impede the movements of the enormous arachne. The strength they were expending to deal with the rubble had far surpassed that of dealing with the expeditionary army. One could see large arachne bodies getting stuck everywhere, following which, a large number of expeditionary army soldiers would appear to surround it and attack madly.
Mixed within the expeditionary army forces was a group of soldiers wearing ordinary officer uniforms with no rank insignias. They were all rank five and above—judging from their joint assault tactics and positioning, one could tell that they were experienced in killing werewolves and arachne. They blended in with the ordinary soldiers in groups of three to five and targeted high ranking enemies at rank four and above. They would usually finish off a strong werewolf within a couple of exchanges.
These people were Wei Bainian’s personal guard. Although they numbered only a few dozen, their effect on the present battlefield was great.
Qianye passed straight through the thick of the battle and rushed toward where Wei Bainian and Brahms were fighting. The area outside of the town had already been cleared into an open field by the origin power explosions. There, Brahms and Wei Bainian were engaged in a bitter fight as blinding white light erupted time to time from their midst.
The arachne viscount’s body was enormous, but his movements were quite nimble. His eight limbs were all sharp killer weapons. Being struck even a little bit would be no different from being cut by a sharp blade for the frail human body. The spider held a new origin gun in his left hand and a five-meter halberd in his right.
The halberd was the viscount's primary weapon. He stabbed and slashed repeatedly, stirring up an area dozens of meters wide. Numerous raging origin power fluctuations appeared on the sturdy earth. The origin gun would rumble from time to time and a giant hole would appear wherever the projectiles struck. The situation was extremely adverse.
The greater part of Wei Bainian’s body was hidden behind his giant shield. He seemed to be only defending and not attacking, running circles around Brahms and causing almost half the viscount's attacks to strike empty air. The other half of the attacks were blocked by Wei Bainian’s giant shield which flickered with yellow light.
The way Wei Bainian utilized the Thousand Mountains was different from Wei Potian’s. The image representing a sustained Thousand Mountains state couldn’t be seen around Wei Bainian’s body at all times. A yellow radiance would emerge only when Brahm’s attack was about to land and would disappear once again after blocking the impact.
Brahm’s violent and ceaseless attacks were comparable to the tides. However, Wei Bainian wasn’t completely on the defensive either.
Qianye had just approached the battlefield when he found Wei Bainian circling toward Brahm’s flank. Wei Bainian suddenly lifted his heavy shield and chopped down on one of the arachne’s limbs with its palm-sized edge. The arachne viscount's limbs were naturally covered by thick diamond-hard black shells.
The sound of clashing metal rang out as Wei Bainian hacked down with his shield. Brahm’s was actually shoved several meters away by this full force attack, however, the shell on the his limb was only cracked open despite receiving such a heavy blow.
Brahm counterattacked with his gun, accurately grasping the short pause after Wei Bainian’s charge. Wei Bainian was also quick to react—he had already assumed a retreating stance after the successful attack—the arachne viscount’s attack barely connected despite taking advantage of the close distance. Wei Bainian’s shift to a defensive stance hadn’t yet completed and was struck before he could fully activate the Thousand Mountains. He was blown dozens of meters away and fell heavily to the ground, suddenly spitting out a spray of fresh blood.
Brahms let out a roaring laughter and completely ignored his cracked limb. The gigantic spider body pounced toward Wei Bainian like a flying mountain peak.
Two patrolling personal guards in the vicinity came forth to block the attack, but the arachne viscount had long since noticed their movements and sent them flying with a swing of his halberd. Ordinary rank seven or eight fighters were completely helpless before Brahm’s terrifying strength.
Brahms suddenly felt something unusual with his body. One of his limbs could no longer move as if it had gotten stuck in the mud. The currently accelerating Brahms abruptly lost his balance, sending the enormous arachnid body swerving to one side. He glanced down in surprise and rage only to find one of his limbs being held down by a tiny human.
This fighter was neither tall nor strong even by human standards. In Brahm’s eyes, the human was merely the size of a main dish, a stark contrast from the enormous force being transmitted through his limbs. Not only was the arachne viscount stopped from moving even a single inch forward, but it even seemed as if he would be dragged backwards.
The astonished Brahms immediately broke into a fit of violence. He raised another limb and was prepared to punch a hole through this annoying bug with its sharp point.
Qianye immediately let go as soon as he felt the sharp winds assault him from nearby. He bent down and exerted power through his foot, immediately disappearing from his original spot and crashing toward another leg.
With a muffled thud, Brahm’s razor-sharp jab missed its target while an intense pain was transmitted from another of his limbs. Momentarily losing his balance, the arachne’s huge body began to sway wildly.
Qianye was already prepared when he charged toward the other limb. Making use of the recoil force, he leapt into the air with great agility, and he then retrieved the warhammer from his back, ruthlessly smashing the arachne’s front limb with a full swing.
Only a loud crack was heard as the hard shell shattered and peeled off. The black pillar-like spider limb was actually broken and slowly collapsed.
This didn’t mean Qianye was stronger than Wei Bainian. It just so happened that he had targeted the place damaged by Wei Bainian’s shield. The force behind both overlaying attacks was not the least inferior from a champion’s. Of course, the spider limb couldn’t withstand it and was fractured.
Brahms was immediately sent into a frenzy and raised his origin gun with incomparable fury. The arachne viscount’s power was extremely berserk and thus the origin bullets he fired would always explode violently. Qianye was so close to the viscount’s main body that the latter himself would be swept into the explosion if the shot found its mark. But at this moment, the enraged Brahm’s could no longer care about these things.
However, he couldn’t find the tiny human when he looked down.
Qianye didn’t zealously continue his assault after breaking the arachne’s limb. He immediately abandoned the cracked warhammer and ran away. Brahms glanced left and right, but by the time he discovered the human, Qianye was already dozens of meters away.
Brahm’s roar grew louder. He slowly moved the origin gun as the radiance at its muzzle grew even more dazzling. The viscount cared little about accuracy at this point—with his strength, the shockwaves from the explosion were sufficient to engulf Qianye even if the shot missed.
A sudden gunshot rang out at this time—it was the timbre of an Eagleshot—a dazzling milky white origin bullet tore through the air and struck the back of Brahm’s head.
After the blinding origin power explosion dissipated, some pieces of armor, including the greater half of Brahm’s helmet, were sent flying into the air. The arachne viscount, who was interrupted while charging his origin gun, seemed somewhat dazed. He pierced his halberd into the earth and began to look around him in search of the sniper.
Qianye grasped this opportunity to hide into a nearby fortification and left the arachne viscount’s line of sight. Just as he had expected, the Eagleshot wasn’t quite able to exert its might against a champion level expert. The current dark race army was also composed of high-defense races such as werewolves and arachne—it would be difficult to deal a fatal blow with a rank four origin gun unless the marksman was able to hit vital areas like the eyes, ears, or heart.
At this time, Wei Bainian had already recovered and was rapidly approaching the arachne viscount while the latter was still searching for the enemy. He found a gap and smashed his shield toward Brahm’s arachnid abdomen. The arachne roared continuously in pain and once again turned to battle Wei Bainian. But this time, Brahm’s flexibility had been greatly reduced due to the loss of a limb, allowing Wei Bainian to evade with greater ease.