Chapter 748 - Invincible Monsters
DOGE Note: The finale chapter 844 + Epilogue 1&2 will be released on the 17th of May for the Mr Good Boi Universe patrons! Come support me and get these advanced chapters <3 can’t wait for you all to read it.
On the vast yellow desert filled with undulations and wrinkles, screams and beast roars had never once stopped.
The first to suffer were the armoured slaves. The black beetle that emerged from under the sand had seized them like roaring waves. Instantly, the slaves standing in the front were enveloped in a blanket of black. The little beetles were like starving fierce wolves as they pounced on the unfortunate souls.
Due to the overwhelming number, even if the slaves shook them away, beetles would continue to crowd over. As soon as an opening was detected, the beetles would utilize it and squeeze themselves under the armour to begin a biting fest.
One of the golden-armoured slaves screamed hysterically. Soon, he lost strength and tripped over onto the ground. The impact chased away a wave of beetles and the man was finally allowed to wheeze with his freed torso. However, the crowd of beetles returned once again in the next moment. His face was already bitten into a bloody mess. The scent of blood stimulated the beetles, making the insects behave crazier than ever.
There were just too many of them. At this point, the slaves were all slipping into a mental breakdown.
Weirdly, other than the monsters on the outer radius, the beetles too actively avoided the canvas canopy. This caused the slaves that were tormented by the insect swarm to rush over. At that moment, it felt like deja vu to Shao Xuan. This was just like what Yiken had experienced. The only difference, however, was that Yiken was spared from the beetle attacks because of Shao Xuan and Sapphire. The current situation was a different circumstance, just like how the beetles stayed away from the monsters.
Noticing that the insect swarm hadn’t come into his proximity, Su Le felt slightly relieved. His biggest fear was solved as long as he was alright. While the death of his slaves left him upset, the young master wasn’t genuinely sad about it. The bond between slave and master would be forcefully broken at the slave’s death. The stronger the bond, the stronger the slavemaster would feel when it breaks.
Su Le had placed a lot of effort into training the golden-armoured slaves. As soon as the insect swarm devoured a slave, the young master would feel a hammering pain in his skull that threatened to split his head open and restlessness. Thankfully, based on the current situation, the insect swarm wasn’t invincible. At least the beetles could do nothing to the monsters.
Rage filled Su Le’s eyes. He roared, “Kill them!”
The giant golden armour beast was already dashing over towards them. It was a giant beast enslaved by Su Le. Before the shift of power in the desert, a giant beast like that would be brought into the beast battle arena. However, the arenas hadn’t been operating for a very long time and these beasts were incorporated into war affairs. The beasts now too served as Su Le’s transport every time he was out on a mission.
“Go.” Shao Xuan said to Sapphire.
While Sapphire wasn’t as huge as the giant golden armour beast, and its weight class was at least one level below, Shao Xuan remained confident in Sapphire.
The beasts met with a loud impact. As if it had created a sandstorm, the flying sand particles had blurred out everything on the surface.
The initially silent and unresponsive monsters began to move at this moment.
Occupied with the insect swarm, the slaves were forced to cower away from attacking. Su Le too wasn’t keen on sending his carefully trained slaves to the afterlife, hence his only choice was to sacrifice the monsters instead. Those monsters alone could defeat the Flaming Horn Tribesmen, right? After all, they still had the advantage of numbers.
“Protect them!” Ta shouted at the warriors circling the six Gongjia members.
The Flaming Horn Tribe members unsheathed their swords, daggers and axes from its leather cover. They had brought two types of weapons to the desert. One was made of the new bronze material and the other was just regular bronze ware. Before this, they mostly used the regular weapon unless faced with ferocious beasts in the desert. The new bronze weapon stayed mostly in its sheath. After all, such a weapon was just too unique, so they decided to hide it. Now that they were about to head into an intense battle, they certainly had no plans to be reserved. There was no longer the need to mask it.
The totemic power in their bodies surged. Within the blink of an eye, all totemic patterns of the Flaming Horn members were fully displayed. There were no screams and battle cries, they lunged forward into battle silently. When hunting in the jungle, they would mostly keep silent, unless the hunt had come to an end or due to special occurrences; like herd hunting strategies that required their roars to drive away a group of beasts.
They too kept the same practice in the current battle.
Swinging their huge axe over mercilessly, it clashed with the monster’s weapons heavily. The ruthless impact forced the monster backwards. The axe-wielding Flaming Horn Tribe member shook his shoulders to suppress the anti-shock force and swung his axe again!
A warrior brandishing his spear had already replaced the spearhead with a green one. With a slight tremor from its long handle, a hole was broken through the field of flying sand. The spearhead was like a fang focused on its prey. It pounced straight on the monster, whose head was completely covered with linen.
Piercing noises rang from every corner. Everyone from the Flaming Horn Tribe party was adhering to Shao Xuan’s earlier advice- To attack the monster’s skull first!
The long spear went through the monster’s oesophagus clean, leaving behind a hole. If this was a regular human being, this attack would have triggered a squirting fountain of warm blood. However, there was no visible bleeding on the monster even after such a lethal attack. Their movements were largely unaffected too. Some were even using their heads as a weapon, they seemed ready to fight till death!
Shao Xuan could only sigh internally. It was indeed as expected. These were long deceased people, they were nothing more than controlled puppets now. They felt no pain and bore no sentience.
Even the strongest fearsome beast would defend themselves in a fight. For example, when their vitals were threatened, they’d begin dodging or blocking attacks. But these monsters seemed absolutely clueless. Their main goal was to land an attack, hence each assault was packed with heavy murderous intent. They couldn’t be considered humans anymore, they were more like tools to murder!
Shao Xuan’s right foot stomped the floor and jumped. In an instant, the man backed off two steps to avoid the monster’s assaulting skull. The monster knew no pain and did not hold back their attacks. Their emotions were immune to swings. Even if they were hurt, the monsters would remain unfazed. However, Shao Xuan could not offer to ignore his wellbeing.
With a twist of his ankle, Shao Xuan stopped backing away abruptly. The sword in his grip struck like a bolt of lightning, as he slashed the air with minor sizzles, almost as if the blade was rubbing against sand particles. With a cold glint of the blade, the monster opposite him was decapitated.
The other Flaming Horn members a distance away could see the head wrapped tightly in linen fall off. There was no blood at the wound, all they could see were some dark shrivelled flesh and skin.
The beheaded monster paused slightly. But soon, it continued its attacks. Decapitation felt almost like a mere hair fall to it. However, one would notice that those beheaded monsters were moving more clumsily than before upon closer inspection.
Experienced in hunting, this detail did not go unnoticed to the Flaming Horn tribesmen. They felt much confident with Shao Xuan’s suggestion. Indeed, that approach was effective.
Though the idea had worked to a certain extent, the beheaded monsters were still standing. Its movements were largely unhindered and it was still able to fight with weapons. The crowd couldn’t help but feel uncanny about it.
Su Le, who had been observing the battle, naturally noticed that the Flaming Horn members seemed to have a plan. But relatively, Su Le cared more about the weapons in their grips.
When he saw the Flaming Horn member’s green weapon earlier, Su Le’s brows shot up and his jaw was slacked with shock. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He lifted the curtains higher and widened his eyes. He stared at the particular weapon in the Flaming Horn Tribe member’s grip.
“That’s...!”
Su Le had encountered a similar green weapon in the past but they weren’t allowed to use it. Other than the few core members involved in the coastal region wars, the others did not possess it. His father, Su Lun, too had one. From what he heard, the weapon was said to have excellent structural integrity.
Green weapons like these were rare. Even young lords like them could hardly own one, they’d have to earn it through credits. So why would the Flaming Horn members possess something like this?
How was it possible?
Was its appearance merely similar?
To understand the situation, Su Le continued to observe them. Now, his priority was placed on those weapons. As to the Flaming Horn Tribe’s plan, he couldn’t be bothered. From his perspective, those monsters were meant to be invincible. Even if it was torn into pieces, it would still be able to continue fighting. He hadn’t thought of possible failures.
Failure? Impossible!
Even the silent person sitting behind Su Le had noticed the green weapons wielded by the Flaming Horn members. They couldn’t help but stare ahead instead of sitting still with their eyes glued to the ground. But still, compared to the visibly agitated Su Le, the person’s expression was indifferent. Their grey eyes felt like a lifeless desert.
The harsh collision of metal created a deafening screech. Su Le watched the monster’s weapon sustain damage with every clash, heart palpitating crazily.
Yes! It really was it!
Frankly, the monsters were already wielding comparatively high-quality weapons, at least much better than those brandished by the desert robbers. However, in the face of the Flaming Horn Tribe’s green weapons, it was vulnerable.
Su Le’s breathing picked up. The initial plan was just to bring the Gongjia members back home, finish the mission and perhaps exploit the credit for some benefit. The man really wasn’t expecting to come across great things!
Su Le couldn’t be bothered with how the Flaming Horn Tribe got ahold of these weapons. All he wished to do now was to rob their green tools away!
There were plenty of them. Perhaps if he submitted a portion upon return, Su Le was confident that he’d still be able to leave some for himself. Even if he couldn’t reserve much for his own use, bringing these home could be considered a great deed!
“Charge! Kill them all!” Su Le roared.
As long as all these Flaming Horn members were killed, all their weapons would naturally fall into his possession.
The person behind Su Le shared the thought. There was a glint in their otherwise dull eyes. The tightly-wrapped monsters began attacking with more ferocity. Their lack of reservations earlier had upgraded to suicidal attacks. Thankfully, the Flaming Horn Tribesmen had already beheaded quite a lot of monsters earlier. The situation was less dire but even so, it still brought the Flaming Horn Tribe members plenty of stress.
Thud!
One of the monsters’ bodies was slashed into halves. Its upper body fell to the ground but its lower body was still moving. Losing its legs, its upper body quickly utilized an arm to move about while the other arm resumed attacking the Flaming Horn member with its weapon.
There was no blood. What was supposed to be a cruel scene was diluted by the lack of bleeding. Despite that, it was instead filled with terrifying murderous intent.
The six Gongjia members watched the battle, expressions heavy with shock and horror. They tried their hardest to keep their turbulent emotions in check.
This was unbelievable!
When they had escaped through the sea, they were observers from a far distance away. Even so, the distance did nothing to save them from the numbing horror. Now, everything was happening near them. The imagery was clearer and it felt like a heavy hammer that slammed onto the Gongjia members’ hearts. Even their hair follicles seemed to be shivering from fear.
The halved monster continued to fight. Without a head, its body was still able to fight. The dismembered arms, on the other hand, were shockingly still able to grasp a sword and slash at the Flaming Horn Tribe member’s legs... These monsters were just as described in the legends. These monsters were invincible!
They knew no exhaustion, knew no pain, expressed no fear and did not breathe... Could they possibly defeat a bunch of monsters like this?
“Ah Xuan, this isn’t going to work at this point!” Ta exclaimed.
The monsters were originally at an advantage due to their sheer number. In terms of competence, the Flaming Horn Tribesmen were obviously much stronger than these monsters. However, if these monsters couldn’t be stopped, the Flaming Horn members would soon find themselves out of ideas. They had tried dismembering the monster’s arms and legs, they even tried decapitation. Yet, every attempt had never failed to generate more trouble. There was even an arm that tried to execute a sneak attack from behind.
Did they really need to crush the monsters’ bones? That’s too much hassle!
Their main focus was to charge into Su Le’s proximity but the monsters were relentless. They just couldn’t get any closer!
“Cover me!” said Shao Xuan as he kicked a lunging monster away. He could even hear the crisp bone crackling noise emitted off the enemy. Losing its structural support, the whole monster was deformed. It fell heavily at a distance away but got up the next second. It ran in the same direction again.
This was just the beginning. If this went on, it would be detrimental to the Flaming Horn Tribe members.
Picking up Shao Xuan’s request, Tuo, Ta and the others closest to the man quickly circled Shao Xuan to form a protection circle.
Shao Xuan inhaled sharply and laid his sword flat on his palms. He raised it to his front and smoothed a palm over the blade, letting his thumb graze along the sharp edge. Immediately, it opened a wound and blood began pouring out.
“What is he trying to do?” Gongjia Ren was perplexed.
While the other Flaming Horn Tribe members too were equally clueless, they stuck to Shao Xuan’s instructions firmly. The elder would certainly have his own rationale behind the action.