Chapter 304 - 304. Sly
Forty or so spiked spheres rained on the charging army of the Empire.
The soldiers had never seen those items, Noah had secretly dropped them on the ground the last time, they didn't know what to expect from those spherical things.
Yet, that was still a war.
The Empire had to completely refill the ranks of the blue soldiers after the last battle, it had warned the new troops about the unusual battle tactics of the hooded cultivator.
So, they slowed their charge and raised their weapons toward the incoming Instabilities, they prepared themselves against that attack.
The bombs detonated mid-air, right over the troops of the Empire.
They were too far away to actually damage any of them with the blast but the spikes were successfully released on the army.
However, the soldiers didn't passively endure that attack.
As soon as the explosions resounded in the battlefield, they deployed their defensive measures in order to counter the incoming spikes.
Spells and martial arts were performed to fend off the power of the Instabilities, the army completely stopped its charge to defend against the inscribed weapons.
Some of them still died but the majority managed to block the destructive effects of the bombs.
It was at that moment though that a second wave of spells was launched by the army of the Odrea nation.
Logan wasn't stupid, he knew that the Empire would warn its soldiers about Noah's creations, he couldn't just hope to take them by surprise a second time.
That's why he decided to use the Instabilities as a decoy!
Generally speaking, spells could only be blocked by other spells, they were the most powerful weapons of a cultivator after all.
There were a few exceptions.
A rank 4 martial art could easily block a rank 1 spell if the centers of power of the cultivator performing it were at a decent level.
The same went for inscribed items: Noah's Demonic swords were an example of that case.
However, the soldiers of the Empire didn't have powerful inscribed weapons nor centers of power strong enough to block the incoming wave of spells.
It was a slaughter.
The first line of the army of the Empire was swept by the torrent of magical abilities, they had just used their protective measures against the Instabilities, they were basically defenseless after that.
The damage didn't stop on the first line, it reached even the depths of the opposing army.
Hundreds of spells created havoc, they could finally show their might instead of being blocked by a similar force.
'Who would have thought that Logan was such a sly commander…'
Noah completely approved that battle tactic, it perfectly exploited the weakness created by the Instabilities.
Burned corpses, frozen limbs, severed heads, the scene after the spells was filled by the remains of those blue cultivators.
Hundreds had died, more than half of the army of the Empire was destroyed in a few seconds.
That outcome was even more astonishing than the previous battle, the two armies had still to clash but the victor had already been set.
Then, the army of the Odrea nation resumed its charge.
The remaining blue cultivators on the other side saw the seemingly endless tide of enemies and became disheartened, there were simply too many of them, they couldn't hope to survive with that difference in number.
Also, their battle formation had been wrecked, their inexperience didn't allow them to adapt to that sudden change in the battlefield.
Huge losses were suffered as soon as the army crashed on them, the cultivators of the Odrea nation were unrestrained in their slaughter.
They knew that the Empire wasn't actually suffering that much but they still had to vent years of abuses, the soldiers in front of them were the only ones where they could redirect such feelings.
Noah, instead, didn't have any enmity with the Empire.
He limited himself to kill anyone in his reach but his attention was on the red cultivators, they were the requirement for his release after all.
As for which side was right or wrong, he couldn't care less.
He would have done the same if it was the Empire holding him captive, he was willing to fight as long as he gained something out of it.
He had long lost count of how many men had died because of him.
He remembered his first one though.
Balor, the fat guard that trapped him with the rank 3 Ironclad spider back when he was still in the outer circle of the Balvan mansion.
He had the appearance of a kid back then but an old guard was still willing to kill him because of a petty reason.
It was then that he understood that the world was merciless and that, in order to survive, he had to be even more merciless.
That decision accompanied him through countless battlefields, ultimately ending in that valley surrounded by mutilated corpses.
He didn't hate the Empire nor had any grievances with it.
Yet, he was willing to kill as many of its soldiers to obtain what he wanted.
'The pile of bodies that I've created managed to bring me in the second rank, I wonder how big I need to make it to become a god.'
His thoughts wandered as he severed the head of an isolated red cultivator, the battle was progressing way faster than the other ones, the sudden loss of the blue soldiers had forced the more powerful ones to join the battle.
The events then unfolded in the same way as the battle in the previous month.
The remaining blue cultivators of the Empire worked together with the red ones to defend against the relentless assault of the Odrea country.
Noah jumped from battle to battle to kill the isolated cultivators, managing to slay a few red ones in the process.
Hours passed and the night came.
The black soldiers did the usual show of power, Noah had become used to watch them from the side of the valley.
'Today was quite profitable, my kill count of cultivators in the solid stage reached fifteen. It's going better than I had predicted.'
It was with those thoughts in mind that the night came, decreeing the end of Noah's fourth battle.