Chapter 137 - 137 Bad Hidden Rules and Retribution
The result was indeed a hit on his own companion. The Supreme Naga took the chance to bounce the two Ogres away. With its strong and powerful serpentine tail, it violently whipped the ground to support itself, and once again from a superior position, it brought down its sword. Accompanied by a crisp ‘crack,’ the fierce and ugly head of an Ogre flew out, and the Dual Hand Greatsword sank deeply into the ground, all the way to the hilt.
Even with the Ogre’s tenacious vitality, decapitation meant certain death.
With one Ogre dead, the remaining two Ogres let out angry roars and fearlessly charged at the Supreme Naga, engaged in a tangled battle.
“Combat power is decent, upper rank in the same tier!”
An observer initially commented before pausing and adding,
“Not sure about their reproductive ability, hope it’s not too low.”
Immediately, another observer chimed in,
“I have a feeling their reproductive capability isn’t high; their numbers still haven’t reached a thousand.”
The first observer’s gaze flickered, then casually remarked,
“Then its practicality gets a discount.”
“Indeed, while strong in power, if the numbers are scarce, the utility indeed falls short. However, a flaw does not obscure the virtues of the rest—worth to be sculpted. I’ll watch a bit longer, and if possible, I can give out a special recruitment invitation.”
Once these words dropped, immediately an intention revealed a sense of surprise,
“Your Ether only has five special invites this year, right? You’re willing to spend one on him?”
The first intention didn’t answer, but instead retorted,
“What, does Heart of the Holy Dragon also want them?”
“That’s the idea, but we need to observe more.”
“Alright then.”
The will from Ether nodded and shifted its focus back to the battlefield.
The battlefield was now in complete chaos. From time to time, two or three, sometimes four Ogres would gang up on a single Supreme Naga. Especially as both sides’ transcendent level combatants—the Two-Headed Ogre Mage and the Supreme Naga Whale Knight—entered the fray, the fight escalated to a fever pitch.
At this point, there was basically no need for commands; it was entirely up to the strength of each Clan. Slarda picked up an anchor and swiftly swam toward the battlefield. Suddenly, his body sprang dozens of meters high, aiming headfirst at a tall figure ahead.
Just as he leaped, a massive Flame Burst Fireball landed right where he had just touched down. Accompanied by a thunderous blast, a firestorm erupted, covering over half a basketball court’s area, obliterating every Small Fishman and Hyenaman within it into dust.
This was a five-meter-tall Two-Headed Ogre with two hideously ugly heads, casting a Flame Explosion Fireball. Although its power was not comparable to that of the Kobold’s Dragon Breath Flame Explosion, it was still not something that a Small Fishman could withstand.
Holding a huge steel shield, as large as a banquet round table, in one hand and a colossal Wolf Fang Club in the other, the Wolf Fang Club, over five to six meters long, thicker than an average person’s waist and studded with steel spikes over ten centimeters long, he moved forward like a tank, charging at Slarda.
Slarda, falling from the sky, flicked his tail to sweep away the surrounding small fry, his massive body turning to face the Two-Headed Ogre charging at him. With a powerful whip of his tail on the ground, he created a massive pit. His over twenty-meter-long colossal body shot out like lightning, and in a blink, he crossed over two hundred meters to brutally collide with the Two- Headed Ogre.
Slarda’s Salted Fish Charge had been transformed into a Hero Skill, significantly increasing the charge distance.
The Two-Headed Ogre Mage reacted quickly, and its repulsively grotesque faces revealed cruel and vicious smiles. One of the heads spoke an indecipherable incantation, and a layer of red fire appeared, enveloping its entire body in protection as it held up the massive shield and took a big step forward.
“Boom!”
The two massive beings collided fiercely. The anchor smashed into the center of the huge shield, and with a sound shattering to the ear, an invisible distortion exploded outward like lightning. The ground beneath their feet suddenly collapsed, and a thick layer of broken earth and grass lifted like waves, rushing to all sides.
In a short struggle lasting less than o.i second, both heads and all four eyes of the Two-Headed Ogre Mage widened. The fire covering the shield fractured, the central part of the shield indented inwards with the impact, deformed and exploded with the hit.
Slarda’s terrifying strength, comparable to a High Transcendent level of rank 7, amplified fivefold by his Hero Skill with the anchor strike, caused such a distortion in space in Lin Xiao’s eyes from above the Vault of Heaven. It was as if he was seeing a transparent film being indented, creating a pulling effect downward—an anomaly forming distinct layers of spatial impressions as the anchor brutally struck the Two-Headed Ogre Mage.
“Bang!”
The gargantuan Two-Headed Ogre Mage exploded as if a regular person hit in the abdomen by an anti-materiel sniper rifle, tearing into pieces that scattered and flew in all directions, instantly killed on the spot.
The terrifying violence of Slarda made Li Shengyuan’s eyelids twitch slightly above in the Vault of Heaven. He commanded the dispersed Two-Headed Ogre Mages to reassemble at the center, with the remaining eight lined up. They began casting spells together, rolling out spell after spell of Flame Explosions as big as wash-basins into the enemy ranks. In an instant, hundreds of Fishmen were blown into bone and dust.
Seeing this, Slarda roared loudly, and the seventeen dispersed Transcendent-level Supreme Naga Whale Knights began to gather around him and charged towards the far-off Two-Headed Ogre Mages, who were continuing to cast their second round of spells.
The Whale Knights, with their enormous size, rammed through the battlefield like heavy cavalry, easily pushing aside the small troops as they pierced the enemy’s ranks. Seeing this, Li Shengyuan ordered the Two-Headed Ogres to cast again, and a deluge of red light rained down. The Hyenamen and Ogres affected roared in wrath and charged fearlessly towards the enemy.
This was one of the Two-Headed Ogre Mage’s two signature spells, the Bloodthirsty Technique, which was similar to Berserk, but was less powerful. It could stimulate the receiver’s potential, increasing strength and speed, reducing some damage taken, and bolstering resistance to mental spells, but at the cost of a slight reduction in intelligence. However, unlike Berserk, it didn’t make them unable to recognize allies from enemies.
The Ogres and Hyenamen, bolstered by the Bloodthirsty Technique, fearlessly faced the charge of the dozens of Whale Knights, and even though they were thrown into disarray or trampled to death, they fought without fear. More and more Ogres, Hyenamen, and Grey Dwarves rushed in, so much so that even Slarda was held back by this endless resistance.
These little guys fearlessly attacked Slarda with their weapons, prying into his scales with swords and many even trying to climb onto him.
The enraged Slarda swung his tail fiercely, smashing down his Hero Skill Thunder Shatter. Accompanied by a blast like a dust explosion, a white mist erupted, and all enemies within a fifty-meter diameter around Slarda turned into a rain of blood mist that scattered on the ground.
Meanwhile, the other Transcendent Supreme Nagas did the same, setting off Thunder Explosions one after another.
The physically strong Ogres and Grey Dwarves could still endure, but lower races like the Hyenamen could not withstand the skills of the Transcendent troops and were blown to pieces in large numbers.
But by then, the group of Two-Headed Ogre Mages had already cast three rounds of Flame Explosions, killing a large number of Fishmen and even dozens of Supreme Nagas.
Li Shengyuan did not want his Transcendent troops to engage the enemy directly. He was well aware that if they fought head-on, his Two-Headed Ogre Mages would definitely not win. So, he played to the strengths of the Two- Headed Ogre Mages, using spells to clear the battlefield.
Thus, a peculiar balance was reached. On one side, they continuously bombarded the Fishmen with spells, while on the other, they used a large number of cannon fodder to withstand Slarda and the Supreme Naga. The huge battlefield turned into two bloody meat grinders, with cannon fodder from both sides continuously drawn in and slaughtered.
Lin Xiao was helpless in this situation. He couldn’t break the stalemate in a short time and could only wait for the ten-minute cooldown of Salted Fish Charge to see if he could break the deadlock with a burst of energy.
But in these ten minutes, who knew how many Clan members would die.
As Transcendent creatures, each Two-Headed Ogre Mage had enough Magic Power to cast dozens of Flame Explosions. With eight of them combined, that added up to several hundreds of Flame Explosions, which could kill off most of his Clan members.
This was the first time Lin Xiao had encountered such a formidable opponent. He had to admit that Magic based Transcendent troops were indeed powerful, whether they were the Two – Headed Ogre Mages or the Kobold Dragon Vein Magicians. They were both formidable forces.
His own force of over fifteen hundred Fishman Magicians seemed rather weak in comparison to these two types of Magic based troops. Their Sea Water Boundary could barely withstand one or two Flame Explosions before failing, and the summoned Fire Elements were no better than the Fishmen, disintegrating upon the slightest blast. Other spells were not even worth mentioning, as they didn’t have the range.
Lin Xiao stroked his chin, already considering the idea of adding a powerful Magic based Clan to his own Divine Realm.
Otherwise, without such formidable Mages as others had, he would be at too great a loss.
At the current stage, it was still manageable, but things would become terrifying once Legendary level Magic based troops appeared in the future. A single legendary spell could wipe out his entire force, and without a Legendary level Magic based of his own, he would be unable to resist.
“Boom!”
A Flame Explosion erupted among the Supreme Naga Group, and even though the Supreme Nagas reacted quickly and scattered, the shockwave still flipped over a dozen who were too slow to escape.
When they surged out from the flames, their scales were cracked and charred, severely injured.
At this point in the battlefield, very few Clan members remained on both sides. Li Shengyuan had only about fifteen or sixteen hundred Ogres left, with less than two thousand Hyenamen and Grey Dwarves left, including the eight Two- Headed Ogre Mages.
On Lin Xiao’s side, there were only a little over five hundred Supreme Nagas, less than a thousand Small Fishman, and all seventeen Supreme Naga Whale Knights were still present. Until now, both sides had been clearing each other’s cannon fodder and hadn’t made moves against the upper echelons of troops.
But as the cannon fodder on both sides were almost depleted, a decisive battle was imminent.
Li Shengyuan gathered all the remaining troops, protecting the eight Two- Headed Ogre Mages in the center, particularly one Two-Headed Ogre Mage leader. Lin Xiao found it surprising that his opponent had such strength but didn’t possess a single Hero; if there had been a Two-Headed Ogre Hero, it would have been much more difficult. Heroes were generally much more formidable than their troop types.
His own maneuvers were simple: the remaining Clan members were lined up in a single file, spreading out to avoid being wiped out by a single spell.
Lin Xiao wore a fairly normal expression, not overly concerned. Although his side had fewer remaining Clan members, ten minutes had passed, all skills had cooled down, and considering that his remaining forces were essentially elite, he was not the least bit intimidated by the opponent.