Chapter 286 - Ensnare the opponent of the seventh step (III)
Chapter 286: Ensnare the opponent of the seventh step (III)
Translator: GravityTales Editor: GravityTales
In terms of strength, the Dual-Headed Devil Eagle was at the early stages of the seventh step, making him no match for the Fiend Lord they fought before. While the Fiend Lord was handled by exploiting his weak points, this Dual-Headed Devil Eagle on the other hand was proficient in magic. Therefore, it was a tragedy for him to have fallen for the 21st general grade Demon Hunt Squad’s trap. Of course, the most important contributor in killing him was the little pig McDull, who deserved at least half of the credit.
The deterrence caused by the Black Dragon’s appearance wasn’t finished; he could of course not attack, but could at least issue a dragon cry to the skies.
Seeing that enormous Black Dragon head towards the demons, the various races of demons felt confused at his oppression towards demons. Of course, they were unable to understand why a personal guard of His Majesty Demon God Emperor would attack them. For a moment, those middle ranked demons lost all desire for battle.
Morale was the most important aspect on the battlefield.Iin case a side suffered a morale blow, it could very possibly cause them to suffer a crushing defeat.
Seeing the decline of morale among the demon forces, the Southern Mountain’s City immediately commanded its soldiers to launch a counterattack. Those soldiers were part of an injured army, but they were all veterans. Having survived so far, they could be called the top of the elite of the Southern Mountain Pass’ army. They understood that their survival was bound to this battle. Even if it took them everything they had, they were willing to fight to the end. So, they clenched their teeth and charged at the enemy.
The troops weren’t in too bad a state, having just received their reinforcements. They had powerful support; led by dozens of Demon Hunt Squads as well as the reinforcement army of five thousand Alliance fighters. The Temple Alliance brazenly walked on the streets, launching the counterattack against the demons.
Since the Temple Alliance dispatched troops when the Southern Mountain’s City entered a state of emergency, they had certain grasp of the situation. Aside from the Knight Temple that dispatched their strongest Temple Knight Regiment, the other five great Temples dispatched a lot of elites of the fifth step or above. And although this army could not compare to the strength of the Demon Hunt Squads, the combat power they displayed on the battlefield was still terrifying. With both sides at the fifth step, a single human by himself could handle three or four demons. This was due to their difference of equipment! Even an ordinary armor gave them a much better protection than the demons.
And don’t forget that they were an army, and every army had its discipline, needing to coordinate with and assist each other. Although the demon armies were powerful, they were composed of many races, they didn’t always move in groups that optimized their power and mostly relied on their superior numbers to defeat the opponent.
Therefore, the counterattack was orchestrated successfully in the Southern Mountain’s City.
However, Long Haochen leading the two Demon Hunt Squads, moved forward at a slower speed, and didn’t directly participate in the battle yet.
Luc Xi’s crowd healing was released all around. After his internal spiritual energy was raised by a thousand through the means of the Holy Spirit Pill, his healing ability rose greatly. His entire body glinted in golden color, and, bathed in the warmth of the healing magic, the battlefield was filled with his energy.
However, no one knew that it wasn’t because of their exhaustion and injuries from the previous battle that Long Haochen had everyone slow down their pace.
The Dual-Headed Devil Eagle’s last strike was violent, but the Soul Linking Chains truly deserved to be called equipment of the Epic Tier.After the attack was countered to the greatest extent possible by Long Haochen’s defensive abilities, including Divine Obstruction, they showed their utility by dividing the remaining damage among the seven of them. This remaining damage was almost negligible, and no one even required Luc Xi’s crowd healing. As for Long Haochen’s consumption of spiritual energy, there was no real problem. He had the help of both the Eternal Melody and the Light Elemental Fairy Yating to help him with this aspect, and when required, Haoyue could even take the initiative to use Radiant World to help him recover even faster. To preserve a group’s fighting ability, no one at his level could compare with Long Haochen.
The real reason why he slowed the pace was because of the pain that he was currently bearing. He was left without choice but to move slower, to let himself gather his energy to endure this pain.
This pain had its origins in the Eternal Melody.
Starting from the first step he took on the battlefield, Long Haochen’s Eternal Melody started to burn, just like an insatiable beast, engulfing all the soul energy invisible to the other people’s eyes from the battlefield.
Long Haochen’s mental strength was far stronger than that of ordinary people, but thousands of drops of soul energy were coming over to his side, giving him a really unpleasant feeling. Moreover, along with the absorption of the soul energy, the Pendant of Eternal Melody kept giving off a scorching feeling, and the burning pain had always affected him. If not for Long Haochen’s astonishing willpower, he surely couldn’t possibly have persevered for so long.
He could feel that this soul energy would rapidly disappear after entering Eternal Melody, but the burning feeling it gave off kept increasing. And he could also feel that the Eternal Melody wasn’t omnipotent either. It was only able to absorb soul energy in a diameter/radius of two hundred meters, and past this distance, it couldn’t absorb.
Thus, he slowed his pace to let the Eternal Melody’s absorption speed slow down, trying to digest the absorbed souls as quickly as possible. Otherwise, this burning sensation would make him feel as though his chest was about to explode. How could he fight in this state?
However, this burning sensation was not completely devoid of advantages. In the burning heat, Long Haochen clearly felt that his liquid spiritual energy was rotating around the Saint Spiritual Stove at an increased speed, producing a constant compression of spiritual energy. And although Eternal Melody gave him a burning sensation on the chest, it also made him feel as if he was going to grasp a new insight.
However, this wasn’t a situation where he could sit down and cultivate, otherwise, considering his power of understanding, how couldn’t he know that gaining this insight would be of great benefit to him.
The Eternal Melody’s burning sensation cooled down because of Long Haochen’s slowed pace. Finally loosening his breath, he felt really unwilling to let the Eternal Melody go on absorbing the souls’ energy. This Tower of Eternity seemed to have some benefits, but due to the fact that it was passed down from a necromancer, he never had a good opinion of it.
The others took the opportunity to recover their spiritual energy with the help of the Spiritual Gathering Halo released by Long Haochen. Although they were now advancing at a slower pace, their previous performance caused everyone to see them in a new light. It was precisely from their breakthrough that a butterfly effect was produced, leading to this counterattack.
“Is everyone alright?” Long Haochen turned around, looking at Luc Xi. Although he was asking everyone, this question was actually directed at the 22nd general grade Demon Hunt Squad. The seven members of their 21st squad had the Soul Linking Chains, so any problem that arose for one would be shared with everyone else.
Luc Xi replied, “No problem, we can still fight.”
Long Haochen nodded, “Let’s go then.” The burning sensation on his chest had finally disappeared, but as they would keep advancing, the amount of corpses would only increase, but Long Haochen had no choice. He could only bear the pain alone; who would cower before the battle at such time?
The counterattack greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers on the Temple Alliance’s side. Led by the reinforcement troops, they immediately suppressed the demon forces located inside of the Southern Mountain’s City, and slowly pushed forward, recovering the lost territory.
The reappearance of Long Haochen’s group on the battlefield immediately became one of the assets to break through the enemy ranks. Long Haochen was leading the charge, Haoyue, Yi Jun with his magic cover and Bai Xiaomo’s botanical summons producing a thorny undergrowth at the sides of the team, strengthened its defense. For the moment, they were an irresistible force that only kept going forward.
The group of thirteen advanced with a coordination with each other that only improved as the time passed, and even demons of the sixth step were unable to stop their advance. As for those at the seventh step, they were after all a small minority, and having already killed two of them, they couldn’t have the bad luck of always attracting their attention.
Long Haochen became the busiest of the group. He not only gave orders, killed enemies, and handled the defense, but he also recovered those demons’ corpses by making use of Eternal Melody. Of course, Long Haochen currently had to be picky, and directly ignored those below the fifth step, only recovering the others. To say nothing of the corpses’ value, the magical crystals from demons were already worth a considerable price.
At this time, the discipline within their team was brought to the fullest. Other than Long Haochen, the others in both squads were solely preoccupied with killing the enemy, defending and providing support. No one went to recover the demon corpses, and even if Long Haochen let them, they wouldn’t take the initiative.
If an outstanding team was affected in its momentum by the thirst for benefits, would it really deserve to be called outstanding?
Long Haochen only said a single sentence, that he would be the one to go recover the spoils of war, distributing it after the battle. The others carried out these orders well. Until now, Long Haochen had always been fair to the team, fair and selfless, a behaviour that everyone got to see with their own eyes. As the one who always chose to bear the most difficult tasks in the whole team, no matter how proud these elites of their respective Temples could be, they were currently wholly committed to him.
Someone acting as the core of a powerful team didn’t only have to be strong in battle, but also needed to be able to handle the most important duties. At the same time, he also had to form his team into a cohesive unit, and to bring out the most out of everyone in the team.
The blazing sensation from the massacre before reappeared on Long Haochen’s chest, but even Long Haochen was shocked to discover that this time, his ability to resist the Eternal Melody’s burning sensation was visibly a lot stronger. The reason for this was unclear, but it could at last be considered a good thing.
More importantly, when the previous amount of souls appeared again, the internal spiritual energy in his body gathered frantically, and under this burning sensation, the quantity of internal spiritual energy in his body didn’t seem to lessen even though he kept using various abilities continuously. It seemed that the Eternal Melody carried some extraordinary ability.
_Could it be that the Eternal Melody can also restore my spiritual energy with the soul energy?_
This thought came to his mind, but Long Haochen couldn’t afford to pay attention to his own body’s circumstances.
A black light descended from the sky, and smashed against the counterattacking army of the Temple Alliance with a loud bang. In the midst of this violent sound of explosion, a purple black-colored gas broke out, enveloping dozens of soldiers of the Six Great Temples that didn’t manage to evade it in time. Those poor souls had no chance to survive and melted instantly.