“If we don’t die before then,” Einen replied.
“What did he say? Tell me!”
“Calm down, Proximo.” Theia snorted haughtily. “You’re gonna pop a blood vessel.”
“Or shit yourself,” one of the giants suggested. Argakhad, that was his name.
“Good thing he wore his brown pants,” she sneered.
“Maybe they’ll kill each other?” Einen said hopefully. “By the way, this particular plan, my barbarian friend, is the most insane one you’ve had in a while.”
“Are you scared?” Hadjar arched an eyebrow.
“No,” his friend retorted, “I’ve survived many of your plans, barbarian, but this one… Even the Great Turtle can see that this one is suicidal.”
Hadjar seemed confused by that. “How can it see the plan? Isn’t the Great Turtle blind?”
“Doesn’t it bother anyone else that they’re discussing something in their native language?” Proximo screamed.
“Blasphemer!” Einen shouted and almost tripped in his outrage.
“I’m serious!”
“Look, Proximo,” Galkhad said with a chuckle. “We’re at the bottom of what was once a great river. The forge only knows what kinds of beasts were awakened by the appearance of the key and the map.”
The rest of the squad chuckled as well. Proximo gripped his spear with both hands and looked around.
By this point, they’d descended the slope and were now moving along the riverbed that looked more like a gorge with high rocks that towered above their heads. Like the walls of a mighty fortress, they surrounded the squad. Sharp as blades, they jutted out of the ground, reaching toward the sky. The horses, despite their high Stage of cultivation, couldn’t deal with the gorge while carrying a rider.
“Dismount,” Galkhad commanded and jumped off his mount.
He grabbed his horse by the bridle and gripped the handle of his axe with his right hand. His Imperial level armor was the best that Hadjar had ever seen. Even the sets that the Dinos siblings and Dora wore had some flaws. Their sets of armor weren’t able to fully maintain energy circulation, so they couldn’t store the power poured into them by their owners. Galkhad’s armor didn’t have any such flaws. At an auction, it would sell for way more than an ordinary set of Imperial level armor.
“I don’t like this,” Argakhad said and approached Galkhad. He held a hammer; his armor was in no way inferior to his cousin’s. “Do you really believe these two peasants?”
Hadjar, who was walking in front of the two, couldn’t quite make out what they were saying. However, the neural network could. It was as if someone had suddenly made all the sounds in the world much clearer. Hadjar heard a snake crawling ten paces to the north. He heard hundreds of small bats, their wings quivering slightly and creating vibrations.
In all that noise, two voices stood out clearly.
“I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t wear the insignia of our clan,” Galkhad responded quietly. “But we don’t have a choice.”
“We could destroy that group of forty cultivators.”
“We could,” Galkhad agreed, “but then what? Go blindly toward the east, chasing after rumors?”
“It was thanks to rumors that we even found the key.”
“Lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice, cousin. Rumors may help, but they may just as easily lead us into a trap.”
Galkhad wasn’t stupid. Hadjar hadn’t initially taken that into account. He had trusted the rumors he’d heard in Dahanatan that claimed the Eternal Mountain clan were all big, strong, power-hungry, and stupid. Then again, had they been as stupid as the rumors made them out to be, they wouldn’t have secured themselves a place at the table of the seven great clans. Or been able to forge such perfect armor.
“These two could be leading us into a trap.”
“They probably are,” Galkhad said. “But whatever they’ve come up with, they won’t be able to take the key from me.”
“A spatial artifact doesn’t make for the best safe, cousin.”
“But they won’t just steal the key. Even if they’re planning something nefarious, their plans will only end in their own deaths and—”
Since he’d heard all that he needed to hear, Hadjar discreetly took a small, King Stage Core out of his spatial ring.
“Here we go.” Einen sighed.
Hadjar winked at him and hurled the Core forward. A few seconds later, there was movement.
“We’re dead.”
“Stop being such a pessimist!”
The walls of the gorge shook as something roared, sounding like it was crashing through the walls themselves.
“Take cover!” Hadjar shouted. “It’s a Stone Crocodile!”
The two friends ducked behind a nearby boulder.
Chapter 706
B reaking through the high rocks, a huge crocodile came around the bend. Attracted by the Core, it had sniffed out the squad and now sought to devour the Spirit Knights, whose Cores were far more powerful than the one that had originally lured it here.
“Get into formation!” Galkhad commanded.
Their trained horses immediately retreated a few yards back and huddled behind a big rock, following Hadjar and Einen’s example.
“By the Great Turtle,” the islander breathed out. “That creature is much stronger than we thought.”
“Yeah…” Hadjar rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Well, I couldn’t have predicted that.”
Einen grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back behind the rock. Hadjar took a small mirror from his spatial ring and poked it out a little from behind their shelter. Now he could see what was happening even without the neural network.
The Crocodile really was stronger and bigger than Hadjar had planned for. It resembled its mortal kin in appearance, only it had sixteen instead of four legs. Its huge, square head was completely covered in stone plates. Some of them were dotted with red crystals that radiated destructive energy. Their scarlet rays cut through the walls of the gorge, reducing them to many small pieces. The large rocks were no tougher than dry wood to them.
“Shields up!” Galkhad roared.
Hadjar could see why the military appreciated the Eternal Mountain clan no less than they valued House Marnil. The Geran warriors stepped in front of Galkhad’s squad. They took their shields off their backs in perfect unison and held them in front of themselves.
“Stork’s Wing!” They shouted.
White energy swirled around the warriors and passed through their shields. Hadjar was surprised to realize that they were Heaven level artifacts. A scarlet ray shot out from the crystal on the monster’s face and struck the white energy. The latter flared up and turned into a wide stork wing that covered the squad protectively. It looked both mesmerizingly beautiful and deadly. The scarlet beam, deflected by the defensive Technique, split into dozens of smaller rays. Twisting and turning, they melted and cut through several boulders.
“Archers! Aim for its eyes!”
Three men rose from behind the Geran warriors. Long-range fighters were very rare: a Lord level archer was valued more than even the most talented of swordsmen. These three Spirit Knights were both skilled and strong.
“Phoenix Feather!” one of them shouted.
A Spirit appeared behind him, assuming the shape of an arrow in a quiver. Hadjar imagined the archer reaching behind him and drawing a fire arrow from his quiver, but he didn’t. Or rather, he couldn’t. Only he and Einen used the ancestral path in the human world.
The Arrow Spirit shone with energy that instantly flowed into the archer’s body. It passed through his hands, merged with his arrow, and then went into his bow as well, which was a Heaven level artifact. An arrow made of fire suddenly appeared on the previously empty bowstring.
There was a high, ear-piercing whistle, and then the arrow sank into one of the monster’s six eyes — it had three on each side of its huge stone head. The other two archers released their arrows, hitting the remaining
eyes on that same side. Their arrows had been made of ice[DI1] .
Even before the three arrows struck the beast’s eyes, Galkhad had already given the next order.
“Spearmen! Aim for its legs!”
Proximo was the first to attack. A Spear Spirit flashed behind him. It imbued him with great power, allowing him to use a truly frightening Technique. Hadjar clearly saw the difference between Einen’s powerful and fast, but rigid spear-staff, and Proximo’s slightly slower, but more flexible spear.
“Porcupine’s Rage!”
The Technique’s name sounded a little dumb, but not taking it seriously would prove deadly to most foes. Proximo moved so fast that it looked like he was gliding over the sharp rocks instead of running over them. Unlike Einen, who merged his attacks into one continuous stream, he preferred to separate them.
With a furious cry, the spearman lunged forward explosively. The rocks that had been torn out of the ground followed in the wake of his weapon. A spear-shaped hole appeared beneath Proximo’s feet. Brownish energy passed through the Heaven level spear and split into hundreds of different rays that circled around the giant Crocodile. They stung its legs, making it stomp around in anger.
The beast was so massive that its every movement created a gust of wind that sent debris flying at the squad. The ‘Stork’s Wing’ Technique deflected the attacks, but with every second that passed, its glow dimmed further and more holes appeared in the barrier.
Protected by his Technique, Proximo managed to get close to the monster. He attacked its tendons with fast and unpredictable strikes. This was his greatest strength — the ability to deliver a barrage of attacks from a distance most weapons couldn’t reach.
“He’s… good.” Einen admitted, watching the fight.
The second spearman, whose Spirit was some kind of river fish, was weaker than Proximo. He moved slower, his attacks were less powerful, and his simple Technique full of weaknesses. There were almost no mysteries of the Spear contained within it. He was one of those Spirit Knights who, in their pursuit of power, had forgotten about their weapons. He wasn’t even a Wielder, which seemed quite odd. But Proximo, even though he was still only at the Wielder level, had made his first steps toward mastering the Weapon’s Heart.
“Close combat!” Galkhad ordered and charged into the fray.
Discarding their shields, the Geran warriors followed the Eternal Mountain clan warriors into battle.
Looking in the mirror, Hadjar became more aware of the value of blacksmiths, not only as suppliers of weapons and ammo, as well as ferocious warriors in their own right, but as commanders, too. As he’d been examining the battlefield, he’d almost become convinced that there were more soldiers in Galkhad’s squad than there actually were, all because the giant had managed his squad with such precision and talent that any military commander would’ve envied him.
But it was now time to see just how good of a warrior he really was. Two Heaven Soldiers using Spirits seems impossible, since it’s apparently something only people like Hadjar or Dora can do at that level, due to their odd connection to the ancestors. Random archers doing it kind of breaks all the lore of the books so far.
Chapter 707
T heia was the first to push off from the ground and soar into the air. A Bear Spirit appeared behind her. It spread its massive arms out and tried to wrap them around the girl, but couldn’t. After learning the ways of the ancestral path, Hadjar had begun to notice oddities in regards to how Spirit Knights used their Spirits. The latter sought an alliance with their cultivators, but the former only cared about the power they could take from the Spirits. In Theia’s case, the Bear Spirit had tried to join the battle, but had been rejected.
“Bear’s Paw!”
Hadjar could sense her Spirit screaming in pain and despair, but Theia, unaware of its plight, blithely kept fighting.
The heavy sword in her hands, which was more than six feet long and several palms wide, was suddenly enveloped in gray energy. Her attack assumed the form of a huge bear paw. With a crushing blow, it rammed the Stone Crocodile’s head into the rocky bottom of the dried-up river with a chilling crack. A huge cloud of dust rose high into the air and the earth trembled. Trickles of thick, swampy blood flowed down the reptile’s head.
However, a moment later, the shroud was torn to shreds. The explosions that went off around Galkhad reminded Hadjar of gunpowder blowing up.
The air was filled with flashes of pure power and energy that were so strong even Galkhad’s Spirit struggled to retake the form of an axe, looking like it was ‘choking’ on the flow of energy seeping from his Core.
Imbuing his attacks with the mysteries of the Weapon’s Heart, Galkhad rained blow after blow down on the Crocodile. Surprisingly, he didn’t use any Techniques. He didn’t have to. His armor oozed power and energy that poured into Galkhad’s axe, tearing off large chunks of the stone plates that covered the Crocodile’s head.
His cousins weren’t far behind, wielding Spirit replicas of their own weapons. But unlike Galkhad, they imbued their attacks with mysteries at the Wielder level. Since they didn’t have the incredible amount of energy their leader did, they had to use Techniques. However, they poured so much power into them that they could’ve easily been mistaken for Lords.
Chunks of stone skin flew off as the Crocodile was stunned by Theia’s attack. The other melee fighters charged across blood-soaked sand that turned into mud beneath their feet. The archers, constantly changing their location, continued to shoot at the reptile’s left side, forcing it to keep that set of eyes closed. Due to its square muzzle, it couldn’t see what was happening on that side, and Galkhad, skillfully coordinating their squad so that it was hitting its blind spot, took full advantage of that fact.
Trapped by a furious onslaught consisting of eleven different attacks, the huge Ancient Beast couldn’t move to defend itself. All it could do was snarl occasionally, sending out scarlet rays of energy that were immediately blocked.
“I think,” Einen drawled, “that we underestimated these guys.”
“To some extent,” Hadjar agreed and summoned the Black Blade into the physical world.
“Hey!”
“It’s all right,” Hadjar assured him. “If we don’t help the beast a little, we can kiss our plan goodbye.”
“Then we need a diversion.”
His purple eyes glittered with excitement. Leaning out from behind their shelter, Einen gathered energy in his palm.
“On my signal, barbarian.”
“What signal?”
“Oh, you’ll see.”
Einen struck the ground with his palm, sending three quarters of his Core’s full capacity into the stone. The energy went through the rocks and crackled down the steep slope until it exploded about 150 feet away from their shelter. Heavy stones broke off from the sides of the gorge and fell directly on the heads of the cultivators standing below them.
“Ah, that signal.” Hadjar grinned.
“Go already!”
Without waiting for the boulders to fall, he aimed and swung his sword quickly, imbuing the attack with pure energy. He couldn’t use Sword mysteries, lest he give himself away.
A bolt of energy flew off from the Black Blade that instantly disappeared back into his soul. Barely perceptible due to its complete absence of mysteries, it didn’t look like a dragon, nor did it affect the world around it.
It struck just in time. Galkhad was still swinging his axe, continuing to rain crushing blows down on his foe. If the beast didn’t move soon, it would die.
“Die, you damn monster!”
Glowing due to the amount of energy he’d absorbed, Galkhad slammed his axe down toward the beast. But before the weapon could reach its target, something invisible collided with it. Despite all his power, the giant failed to correct his swing. So, instead of hitting the already open wound, the axe simply cut off a few more stone plates.
“Fucking shit!” The giant swore.
Without wast
ing a second, the reptile demonstrated that, despite its enormous size and considerable weight, it could still move at an impressive speed. The leg that Galkhad had attacked twitched slightly, sending the warrior flying back with such violent force that he whizzed through the air like an arrow released from a bow. With a loud crash, he slammed into the side of the gorge, causing more rocks to roll down. The time between Einen’s diversion and Galkhad slamming into the wall had been no more than a fraction of a second, so the two friends were reasonably sure they wouldn’t be suspected of foul play.
The monster, now enraged beyond all reason, scattered the cultivators as if they were training dummies. Its blows were strong enough to break through their defensive Techniques as well as their armor, managing to hurt some of the warriors with shards of dislodged steel. The second spearman, not managing to jump aside in time, was trampled by the Crocodile. He died immediately, not managing to even cry out for help.
A scarlet ray of energy pierced the fire-wielding archer’s chest. The man, after shouting something incomprehensible, died right there on the spot.
“This way!” Hadjar shouted. “Over here! Quickly!”
He and Einen were standing next to a small, narrow crevice, flailing their arms around to attract everyone’s attention and guide them to safety. Galkhad was smart enough to realize that even if their original formation was somehow established once again, the reptile would still kill a lot more of them in the process.
“Retreat!” The giant shouted. “Everyone into the crevice! Now!”
The cultivators wasted no time fleeing the battlefield.
The two friends, who were already in the crevice, looked at each other.
“Everything’s going according to plan.” Hadjar’s calm tone was a sharp contrast to the chaos raging outside.
Dragon Heart: Land of The Enemy. LitRPG Wuxia Series: Book 8 Page 29