Chapter 1083 - Archon!
Chapter 1083: Archon!
A volleyball-sized dent appeared on the ant queen’s forehead after suffering a heavy blow from Heracles.
With the dent as the centre, a large number of cracks quickly spread out, like a glass door or a car windshield that had cracked but not yet shattered. It seemed as if one more hard impact was all it would take for that large area of outer shell to shatter into tiny pieces.
The ant queen raised its head high and staggered back like a frightened horse that was being reined in. The heavy impact on its head had probably sent it into confusion. A thick liquid gushed out of its mouth.
The thick, dark-green liquid shot up into the sky like a fountain, then rained down onto the ground, creating numerous hissing holes. It was evidently a mouthful of corrosive acid that the ant queen had prepared beforehand for its next attack. Heracles’ strike had obviously caused some severe damage to the ant queen. The mouthful of corrosive acid must have been prepared for Sheyan’s pleasure, but now it seemed to have been prepared in vain.
The one most hurt among the contestants at the moment was undoubtedly Paul because his battle robot’s chest had suffered a really heavy blow. If Heracles was a real human instead of a battle robot, that attack would surely not just have cut open the chest. It would have broken the ribs and damaged all the organs inside.
Even so, the damage to Heracles was significant. The chest wound had revealed the core magic array inside which was glowing brilliantly, as well as some coils, bolts and other internal parts.
Sheyan also saw the biggest secret of the metal robot, which was a huge crystal placed deep inside the robot’s body like a heart. They crystal was surrounded by thin mithril wires, which connected the crystal to various parts of the metal robot like blood vessels.
Sheyan had obtained some crystals before. For example, in the world of Avatar, he had gained quite a lot of them. But the crystal in Heracles’ chest had a silver glow, indicating that it was a rare silver storyline grade. A crack was faintly visible on the surface of the crystal.
That was the work of the high air pressure from the ant queen’s forelimb. From this, one could see that the silver storyline crystal was just as fragile as the human heart.
This crack had also become the most painful scar on Paul’s heart. Even if Heracles was fully repaired, it would lose at least 10% to 15% of its fighting power. The crack on the crystal could never be repaired; the core crystal could only be replaced. But if he had to replace the core crystal, he would be better off just making a new robot.
After the queen suffered the heavy blow, it held its head low and wailed for a few seconds. It seemed that even its fury had dissipated from that blow.
Two of her wings had now been crippled by Sheyan, so although her movement speed seemed to only be marginally affected, her explosiveness had actually been greatly mitigated. This was the best possible situation for the contestants.
Aldaris suddenly charged in the ant queen’s direction. This charge of his was a little bizarre. He looked as if he was riding on waves with a surfing board under his feet. He rapidly rose and fell following the rhythm of the turbulent sea, leaving a trail of phantoms in his wake.
The ant queen was apparently bewildered by his phantoms. Its powerful mutated forelimbs swung out like sickles, but unfortunately they only managed to cut through air.
Aldaris’ attack seemed imminent, but although the queen had no powerful offensive spells like Zi’s ‘Force Collision-Wall’, it had six terrifying spider-like legs that could bend in ways defying common sense to attack enemies from unthinkable directions.
Two long, sharp legs tore through the air. Although the queen’s compound eyes could not tell the phantoms from the real Aldaris, it got lucky and its gamble was successful. One of the legs accurately cut towards Aldaris’ true body. Sheyan dared to take the ant queen’s attack thanks to his high Physique, but Aldaris apparently had no plan to joke around with his own life. He immediately escaped from battle with ‘Blood-Elude’.
But in the next second, Aldaris showed off a trick that was very familiar to Sheyan!
Once again, Aldaris sprinted towards the ant queen from a distance. However, when he was nearly thirty meters away, three more Aldarises appeared from three other directions. All four Aldarises rushed towards the horrible monster!
The queen emitted a bitter wail and waved her sharp forelimbs about frantically. The forelimbs made a number of cracks on the hard stone ground and sent large stone pieces flying everywhere. A cloud of dust even rose around her. This move of the ant queen’s was indeed vicious. As soon as the four Aldarises came close, they would all be chopped into pieces.
But the real Aldaris was already high in the air above the ant queen’s head since who knows when. He swooped down like an eagle, the wind rippling through his hair and clothes, making the dagger he held in his hands especially conspicuous.
Previously, in the battle with Zi, Sheyan had seen Aldaris use a dark red dagger which gave off an extremely evil feeling — the ‘Mage-Nemesis’. The dagger Aldaris was holding now was a different one. It had a very unique appearance — like a broken rapier, thin and sharp. A black aura surrounded it. The dagger exuded a demonic vibe.
Upon closer inspection, the oppressive sharp edge of the rapier would appear more restrained. The sharp blade was mottled with marks that seemed to be the result of corrosion. When it cut through the air, it felt like even the wind would turn rusty. Only when it was soaked in blood would it show its original devilish brilliance.
After Aldaris landed on the ant queen’s back, he did not dare to stay there for too long. With a gentle thrust, he stabbed the rapier into the wound Sheyan had made before, then immediately jumped down and ran away.
The queen wished to give chase, but Sheyan had threw out a timely curse-mix. It not only stunned the ant queen in place for several seconds with the shock wave, but also shrouded the ant queen in a dense smoke, enabling Aldaris to retreat in one piece.
After escaping thirty meters away, Aldaris immediately started to chant an incantation. A thick white aura began to emerge from the handle of the rapier that was stabbed into the ant queen’s back.
The white aura quickly solidified into a huge monster which looked like an Arabian lamp genie. It was glowing with a strong white light. Although the light carried a trace of holiness, the core creature inside had a demon-like face.
This monster, which had only half a body, started to attack the ant queen furiously. Its attacks seemed to carry a light element. When it hit the queen’s outer shell, electricity would flow through the shell like white snakes. The buzzing of high-voltage electricity could heard in the air.
“Is that….an Archon from Starcraft?” Sheyan heard Paul exclaim in shock from behind him while he was still in a daze.
(TL: https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Archon )
At the moment, Sheyan looked heavily injured. The worst injury was no doubt the wound on his back from the time he was struck by the ant queen’s leg. The wound was more than a foot long and had festered and blackened. However, such injuries were actually nothing to him. He just did not want to expose his trump card in front of Paul, so he deliberately acted weak and in pain.
Paul had witnessed the ferocity of the ant queen’s attack on his battle robot Heracles, so he was not suspicious of Sheyan’s act in the slightest. Instead, he felt that Sheyan was a fierce and observant man who did not fear death and would not flinch when he needed to attack. He was indeed a strong support.
The ant queen twitched painfully under the frenzied assault of the Archon Aldaris had summoned. The queen frantically struck at its own back with its legs, but its actions were in vain. Aldaris’ rapier was stabbed so deep that only a few centimeters of the handle was exposed. As dexterous as the ant queen’s limbs were, they still could not pull the rapier out like human fingers.
As for the creature that looked like an Archon from Starcraft, it seemed to be a phantom summoned from another plane. The ant queen’s limbs could break steel and cut through iron, but they could only make ripples in the air when they attacked the Archon.
Sheyan turned towards Aldaris and saw that his forehead was dripping with sweat. His lips were moving all the time and there were lots of elements fluctuating around him. He had obviously been chanting all this while.
Sheyan thus realised that what Aldaris had performed was just a damage-over-time offensive spell. It would be better to buy Aldaris more time.
So Sheyan immediately let Ramtas stand in front of Aldaris. The grown creature started to chant a nature spell called ‘Nature’s Grasp’.
This was in fact the most advanced natural magic that Ramtas had mastered. Although the Uruk-hai blood flowing in Ramtas endowed it with a strong vitality and an amazing strength, it also limited Ramtas in its mastery of the power of nature.
The surface of Ramtas’ body started turning as tough as tree barks. Moss appeared around its body, and so did a fist-sized hexagonal seed. While the seed existed, Ramtas’ defence would be boosted by 20%. If the enemy was struck by the seed when Ramtas attacked, the seed would immediately burst into tendrils and vines that had a strong binding effect on the enemy.