The Era of Gods

Within the half-plane, Wan Chuan commanded his Clan, with the remaining two thousand Stoneheart Halflings ready at the portal, poised for battle.

Stoneheart Halflings are a variant of Halflings that are identical in physical quality, but possess a talent unavailable to ordinary Halflings – the Stoneheart Talent. It grants them immunity to charms, significantly increases their resistance to fear and other negative states, and slows the decline of their morale.

In addition to that, Wan Chuan had equipped this group of Stoneheart Halflings with the warrior profession. Each warrior was armed to the teeth with chainmail, a short sword, a hand crossbow, and a small round shield.

Being unable to carry higher-ranked Clan members was unavoidable, but their combat strength could be compensated for in other ways.

Armed with shield, sword, and hand crossbow, they were prepared to face any enemy without any weak spots.

With this heavily gold-forged gear, they had crushed all enemies head-on with sheer strength, even the Furious Demons from the previous wave were taken down by sacrificing five to six hundred Stoneheart Halflings who tenaciously fought and killed them with their hand crossbows.

Six minutes later, the portal reopened, and he confidently watched as light waves from the portal arched over a figure that appeared not very tall – a…

“Elf? No, Half-Elf!”

His face involuntarily changed, and he gritted his teeth, finally remembering the teachings of his teacher and father not to interfere with the Clan ready for combat.

As one Half-Elf after another, armed with shields and swords, emerged from the battlefield and formed ranks in front of the portal, a Stoneheart Halfling leader raised his short sword and cried out loudly:

“To the Supreme, the Lord of the Earth, Son of the Mountain Range above, protect Your people. For Kagolas, charge!”

The prepared Stoneheart Halfling warriors pressed the triggers on their hand crossbows, and a rapid sequence of ‘whoosh, whoosh’ filled the air. A volley of crossbow arrows flew, and a flurry of clinking sounds soon followed as short crossbow arrows stuck into the Half-Elves’ round shields. Several plains warriors who were not fully covered were hit, but their seemingly ordinary leather armor turned out to be Magic Leather Armor. A faint shimmer flashed, and many arrows that hit bounced off.

A wave of arrow rain proved ineffectual, and the Stoneheart Halfling leader swung his sword mightily, signaling the second wave of arrows to fly.

By this time, more than two hundred Half-Elf warriors had entered from the portal, forming a half-circle to protect it. Then, under Wan Chuan’s gloomy gaze, one after another, Half-Elves wielding long bows stepped out, drew their bows and notched their arrows. The arrows whistled across the battlefield, and one with a ‘clang* pierced right through a Stoneheart Halfling’s round shield, the aftershock hitting the chest of the Halfling, penetrating the chainmail, and embedding several inches into the flesh.

Elves are a fully-fledged high-ranked Legendary Race, and although Half-Elves are not as powerful, they are still a Medium race, top-tier in intelligence and potential among their tier.

Lin Xiao’s Black Scale Naga, although also a Medium race, were still far behind the Half-Elves.

The moment the Half-Elf Archers made their appearance, Wan Chuan could no longer hold back and bestowed a Divine-mandate to his Clan. The remaining two thousand some Stoneheart Halflings charged at the Half-Elves under their leader’s command.

Previously, he had wanted to rely on his Clan’s hand crossbows to take down some from afar, but now it seemed they were the ones being eliminated from a distance.

As a Deity, how could he not know what the Elves’ most famous forte was? Almost no Race can outshoot the Elves in remote combat, even if they are just Half-Elves.

As the Stoneheart Halflings moved, the Half-Elf warriors immediately advanced to extend their defensive line, creating distance between themselves and the Half-Elf Archers behind them. With each arrow shot from the portal, a Halfling’s life was nearly guaranteed to be taken.

Two hundred Half-Elf warriors definitely couldn’t hold back two thousand Stoneheart Halflings, but they could withstand them for a while. And during that time…

XXX

By the time the three hundredth half-elf had emerged from the portal, the first half-elf archer to have come out had already shot his eighteenth arrow. The Stoneheart Halfling’s rectangular phalanx had been shot into a concave hollow, with seven or eight hundred bodies lying dead on the battlefield.

The loss in this short amount of time was nearly as much as the last wave that had been sent to annihilate the furious demons.

Moreover, the loss continued to grow, every time a bow was drawn and an arrow nocked, hundreds of Clan members would fall.

“We’ve lost!”

Wan Chuan shook his head in disappointment. Although the remaining Clan members still outnumbered the half-elves, the outcome had already been decided.

In the Yuan Hong Plane, the entire plane was deserted at this moment, except for Yuan Hong, who stood alone atop the Vault of Heaven, watching the half-elves who were steadily returning to the portal.

The sixth wave, contrary to his expectations, was not some kind of demon, but half-elves—three hundred Level 2 veteran half-elf archers. His thousand-plus Lizardman shooters were crushed in the exchange of fire.

And then there was no then; after losing the shootout, the other Lizardmen were just targets, one by one shot dead without a chance to fight back.

In another plane, the Lizardman shooters were the same, but the Lizardmen in this plane had reddish skin, and the arrows they shot were glowing red as if they were rockets. The arrows pierced through shields, melting small holes in them.

Although their archery skills were somewhat inferior to those of the half-elves, the gap was not large, and they had the advantage in numbers. This group of Lava Lizardman shooters managed to narrowly win the direct shootout against the half-elves, with fewer than fifty Lava Lizardman shooters surviving in the end.

Yan Renjie truly deserved to be one of the two strongest students in the entire year; his raw strength was indeed formidable.

As for the second strongest in the year, Class One’s Wan Ying, her Clan of Harpies was not as powerful as the Lava Lizardman shooters. The reason she was ranked alongside Yan Renjie was that she had a hero—the Harpy Queen.

This was the queen of the Harpies, a long-range shooter capable of firing arrows with lightning damage.

But the most formidable thing wasn’t her lightning arrows; it was the hero spell “Lightning Chain.” Once she flew into the sky, a bolt of lightning as thick as an arm would strike, instantaneously killing four or five dozen half-elf archers.

A one-minute cooldown time was quite short, and it took only three waves for the half-elf archers to be decimated.

With the start of the sixth wave, the victor was quickly decided within a short period. Except for Yan Renjie and Wan Ying, nearly everyone else was wiped out within five minutes, the only difference being who lasted slightly longer and achieved slightly more.

Except for Lin Xiao.

The Naga and the Fishmen followed his tactics from the start, staying away from the portal and dispersing to execute guerrilla tactics.

Although a half-plane was only so large, and guerrilla tactics might as well have been a waiting-to-die strategy, his goal wasn’t really guerrilla warfare but simply to stall for time.

The half-elves took control of the central area of the plane and began to eliminate the Naga and Fishmen spread around the perimeter in small groups. The numbers of the small bands of Naga being killed by the superior force of half-elves dropped rapidly..