Chapter 169
Chapter 169: Massacre (Part 2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Saleen had no time to think, and even if he thought about it, he would not understand why the situation was like this. These swordsmen attacked with such determination and mindlessness, but what did they have to gain from it?
At the road junction, Sika was surrounded by swordsmen. She was not afraid at all. Instead, she became abnormally excited.
Sika was far more nimble than Saleen, and none of the arrows could hit her. Additionally, Sika did not give things as much consideration as Saleen. She only knew that the battle was not related to anything else. On the battlefield, the only thing a person needed to focus on was killing the enemy. Sika’s weapon was heavier than those wielded by the fully constructed puppets, and metal armor would not be able to absorb the blows from the swinging cudgel no matter how thick it was. Sika even found time to toss her boomerang in order to kill the archers who were shooting from high places.
During such a messy battle, cavalry would not be able to increase their speed, so a person like Sika who possessed immense strength would naturally dominate the battlefield.
As Sika was engrossed in her killing, she took out the magic liquid that Lex had given her with one hand and took a sip. She could immediately feel that her strength was recovering swiftly. Like a gust of wind, Sika rushed back to join the battle. Since the ballistae were ruined, she needed to return and assist Saleen.
The swordsmen swarming Saleen were still hopeful that Saleen’s magic chords or mental power would be depleted. However, when they saw Sika’s ferocious attacks, they became paralyzed with fear. This female warrior was only wearing simple leather armor, and yet she was more terrifying than a magic beast. Whenever that black cudgel was swung, anyone who came into contact with it was flung away.
This was not a battle. It was a massacre.
Everyone knew that no matter how fearsome this female warrior was, it would be impossible for her to kill every last swordsman. But her attacks were more astounding than magic because every move she made resulted in someone’s death. Upon seeing Sika charging towards the rear, the swordsmen directly in front of her made way for her to pass through. Sika went on a rampage as though she were a walking dragon, killing anyone who obstructed her path.
A dragged out sound came from a metal whistle. The swordsmen who were swarming Lex and her team suddenly felt demoralized, as they had now received the order to retreat.
“Trying to flee?” Lex snorted, taking a gulp of magic liquid. She relaxed her muscles before commanding the fully constructed puppets to pursue the fleeing swordsmen. Nailisi also commanded her puppet to stand beside Lex, but she did not participate in the pursuit since her puppet was protecting Lex.
“Stop!” A restless voice could be heard. At the road junction ahead, a tall middle aged man walked over to Lex. This man was encircled by hundreds of swordsmen in silver armor.
Lex ignored what the man said. The tall metallic puppets pursued the swordsmen and crushed them into a bloody mess. Even the pope would not be able to heal the people who were struck by the weapons wielded by the puppets.
It was too late to stop this battle. Since the other party had used alchemy crossbows, it meant that they had only intended to keep Lex alive. Lex was a grade-6 mage, so it would be difficult to kill her using an alchemy crossbow. Obviously, Lex knew the crux of this issue. These people from Dragon’s Tooth Town had received instructions from Pompeii City to capture her alive.
Had Lex been captured alive, the consequences could have easily been predicted.
“Lex, don’t think I can’t kill you!” The middle aged man drew his sword in extreme ire. Then, he hollered at Lex, “I still have one hundred and fifty swordmasters. If you continue killing, don’t blame me for being merciless.”
Lex finally stopped. The swordsmen in her vicinity had already been killed, and the fully constructed puppets were too far ahead. That would deplete exponentially huge amounts of her mental power. It was already very taxing for Lex to command ten fully constructed puppets at the same time.
Sika suddenly turned around and tossed her boomerang. The boomerang gave out a strange whimpering sound and cast a shadow as it rushed towards the man’s face at full speed.
A swordsman beside the middle aged man used his sword to block the boomerang, causing the boomerang to collide with the sword before sliding past it. Then, the boomerang travelled around the neck of that swordsman before returning to Sika’s hand.
“Your swordmaster is dumber than a pig.” Sika waved her cudgel at the middle aged man and ran towards Saleen.
The swordsman’s neck had been slashed, forming a ring of blood. His cervical spine was not damaged, but he would still die. The swordsman covered his throat with his hands, but fresh blood continued spurting from his neck. All the strength in his body seemed to be completely drained as he collapsed onto the ground.
This was the first time Sika had tapped into the power of a priest. The remaining mental power in her boomerang had enabled Sika to control it freely and allowed her to kill a swordsman, and this made her really happy. When the skeleton of that mysterious magic beast could be utilized, Sika would then be able to fight in midair. A warrior priest who could fly was not any weaker than a mage.
Seeing that his subordinate had been killed, the man’s face twitched but he suppressed his rage. Then, he said to Lex, “Do you really want to try me?”
“Let me think about it.” Lex laughed as she carefully checked her current state. Her mental power was less than one-third depleted. However, this was quite a precarious situation, because Lex would only be able to cast one spell and it also meant that the fully constructed puppets would only be effective for another ten minutes. During actual combat, the depletion of mental power by the puppets was exceptionally fast. It was entirely different from practicing with them.
Saleen stopped commanding the puppet and had the puppet return to him. He had also realized that the depletion of his mental power was more than usual. If an average grade-4 mage had been controlling that puppet, they would not even have been able to cast a single spell right now.
“If you let me go, how will you answer to Dominic?” Lex asked calmly, patiently trying to regain her mental power. Even though she could not meditate at this point in time, her equipment was flawless, so the speed of her mental power recovery was naturally faster as well.
This middle aged man bore a grudge. When the man had received Dominic’s message, he had only regarded it as an errand, so he had accepted it without any hesitation. In truth, he possessed sufficient power, but he had not expected Lex to be a mage master and for those weird metallic people to be around Lex.
The metallic people were simply too horrifying, as they could kill any person below the rank of a swordmaster with just a single strike. If the man wanted to capture Lex, it was possible that he would have to expend all the swordmasters working under him.
“What are you talking about? I don’t get it,” the middle aged man replied nonchalantly. It was not that the man refused to admit it, but he knew that Duke Dominic had concealed certain information, causing him to misjudge Lex’s capabilities. It was not just about trust. If he failed this task, Duke Dominic would also shirk all responsibility.
If the man testified that it was Dominic who had instigated his actions, Dominic would never spare him, even if this matter was swept under the rug.
“Forget it if you don’t know what I’m talking about. I wouldn’t want to fall out with Dominic either. Since this was not done under his instruction, then I shall kill all of you to prevent any future problems.”
As Lex spoke, she brought out her magic staff.
“What?” The middle aged man did not understand what Lex meant. He did not believe that Lex was so haughty that she would be willing for both of them to suffer great losses. His elite swordsmen were still alive, and they had been accumulated by his family for the past hundreds of years.
Lex raised her magic staff. A black ray and a white ray shot out from the top of the magic staff, accurately hitting the forehead of the middle aged man. A hole the size of a thumb appeared on his head, and this hole extended from the front to the back of his head. This hole was flawless, and there was no liquid flowing out from it. It seemed as though this hole had been present in the man from the very beginning.
What kind of spell was that? Saleen was extremely astonished, witnessing that scene. Under the analysis of his icy sight, he discovered that this magic had been formed by the combination of two level-7 spells. Yet, the offensive power of this spell had greatly exceeded the limits of level-7 magic.
“Let’s begin. Once we kill all of these swordmasters, Dragon’s Tooth Town will belong to us.” Lex gathered all of the fully constructed puppets around her and had them surround her. Then, she charged forward on horseback.
In that moment, the swordmasters in silver armor had realized that their leader was dead, so they were stunned. This single move by Lex had killed the strongest of them all in mere seconds.
Lex was enveloped by the ten fully constructed puppets. Even though she was on horseback, the three meter tall puppets still managed to block the swordmasters easily. Lex seemed just like a warrior as she charged into the horde of swordmasters.
“Kill her!” The swordmasters went berserk and lunged at the puppets fearlessly. Two of the swordmasters leapt up high, hoping to jump over the puppets to kill Lex. The battle was reignited. This time around, these swordsmen were slightly clueless as they did not know whether to fight or run.
Two fully constructed puppets protected Saleen unyieldingly, while Sika wielded her cudgel and blocked off the other side. She stood shoulder to shoulder with Nailisi, and the blood that had spilled onto her earlier was beginning to dry.
Saleen slowly advanced towards the road junction. He ignored the swordsmen who were crowding towards him as their deaths did not matter. However, those swordmasters definitely needed to be killed.
The total strength of all these swordmasters had exceeded that of an emblem group. These swordmasters were the power behind the core of this town. As long as they were killed, the local clan would lose all of its influence.
Furthermore, Saleen knew that it would be impossible to kill everybody in Dragon’s Tooth Town. Even if he had possessed sufficient scrolls, he did not have so much mental power.
The two swordmasters who had attempted to jump over the puppets emitted a bright glow from their sword auras. These were the symbols of high-grade swordmasters, and if they progressed just a little more, they would become bronze grand swordmasters.
Lex did not have time to open her scrolls as she was busy commanding the ten fully constructed puppets. She then raised her head calmly and bellowed, “Get off!”
A golden stream of air rippled off of the surface of Lex’s body and her voice was transmitted directly into the ears of the two swordmasters. The swordmasters felt that the sword auras in their bodies had been extinguished. They could no longer maintain their balance and fell straight down like blocks of wood.
The fully constructed puppets used their door-sized blades and cut the swordmasters into half. Lex clenched her teeth and activated the secret magic of the Grukos family. The golden stream of air upon her spread and caused the nearby puppets to experience delays.
He!
Lex mustered all her strength and hollered at the top of her voice. A golden stream of air sprayed out in all directions, and those swordsmen attacking her felt that something had penetrated their armor as their sword auras were all negated at the same time. A few of the swordsmen who were wielding heavy weapons could no longer withstand the weight of those weapons and dropped them, as they saw Lex take out a black scroll.
Saleen froze in his tracks as he saw Lex cast a level-7 scroll. The images in the sky became distorted as black liquid floated around Lex. Droplet by droplet of the black liquid dirtied the bodies of the swordmasters and began to burn rapidly.
Without their sword auras, those burning droplets of black liquid were now fatal to those swordmasters. At the same time, pathetic cries and moans filled the air. Those cries did not bear any significance on their own, but the swordsmen surrounding Saleen could not tolerate those noises and lost their will to fight.
Seeing that even the group of swordmasters had been exterminated, the normal swordsmen did not have the courage to continue attacking. They simply dropped their weapons and escaped for their lives.
Saleen stopped and shouted for Sika to stop her pursuit of the swordsmen. Saleen glanced around his surroundings and saw that hundreds of bodies had piled onto the streets. The two fully constructed puppets beside him were drenched in blood and flesh, and their bodies contained shallow scratches caused by the weapons of the swordsmen.
So this was a battle? Saleen knew that they had won this battle, but he did not feel the sense of satisfaction he felt when he had won battles in the past. The smell of fresh blood diffused across the entire town, and this had merely been a battle in a single street. If this had been a war between empires, then what kind of scene would it have been?