The Ultimate Evolution

Right after that, the robe of that person suddenly burst apart into pieces of cloth that scattered everywhere!

Her whole body was covered in a tight-fitting scale armour made of metal. The style of the scale armour was very futuristic. Every metallic scale that made up the scale armour was very sharp and shone brightly, giving the armour a sense of mysterious beauty, and of course, extraordinary sharpness.

Because the metal armour hugged the body closely, it perfectly showcased the shape of its wearer’s body, which appeared slim and graceful. There was no doubt that the wearer was a woman. The wearer’s voice also confirmed that.

Upon seeing Sheyan, all the metallic scales on her armour actually stood on end, like the feathers of a fighting cock. The light they reflected were cold, like the glint of a blade!

“It’s you!!”

The person who let out the exclamation was none other than an old acquaintance of Sheyan, the Metal Professor!

She was originally in the middle of a conversation with a group of other contestants, but the moment she saw the despicable villain that was Sheyan, all the bad memories rushed back to her mind like a tidal wave!

Several sharp metallic pieces flew out of her metallic feather armour. The metallic pieces looked rather similar to fish scales. They were slightly thicker in the middle and thin on the edges which were covered in sawtooth serrations. The spinning pieces flew across the air at high speed, but did not produce the tiniest bit of sound. They scattered everywhere like moths, making trails of spark as they scraped past the tough rocks and left deep white grooves behind. Finally, all of them bounced towards Sheyan from multiple directions!

The Metal Professor’s strength had noticeably increased by a great amount. The entire process of the attack sounded quite tedious, but it was actually completed in an extremely brief period of time. The attack seemed to have been specifically enhanced to deal with mages. Almost immediately following a flash of light, the metal pieces were already in front of Sheyan. With such an astonishing speed, even Zi would be hard-pressed to dodge them and would have no choice but to take the hits.

Among Sheyan’s party, only Ronnie had the confidence to avoid them! However, that was because the Metal Professor was able to launch the attack from such a close distance, because Party Ace did not expect to be attacked in their own main camp. Otherwise, they would certainly not have given her a chance to make the move!

The only one who reacted in time was Ronnie, who flung the pair of swords in his hands towards two of the metal pieces and knocked them away. The other six pieces continued whirling sharply towards Sheyan’s head!

The spinning metal pieces felt so quietly powerful that those watching felt certain Sheyan’s head would surely be chopped into pieces!

But although the Metal Professor had improved, so had Sheyan! He calmly lifted his right arm and placed it in front of his eyes.

When the metal pieces hit his arm, they actually clanked like they had struck metal, then proceeded to bounce away. Sheyan’s right arm was completely unhurt, as if it was really made out of metal!

The Metal Professor’s heart sank. The first impression was always the longest-lasting. When the Metal Professor encountered Sheyan for the first time, he was just an ant that she could flatten at will. Even though he had won in the end, it was through trickery and foul play. With this psychological advantage, Sheyan gave her the impression that he was someone that had nothing she should be afraid of!

But…she knew perfectly well how powerful her attack was! She had used 60% of her full power, yet the man in front of her had stopped the attack as if it was nothing! He was hit by six pieces of alloy steel cutters, yet he was totally unharmed!

Such a strong contradiction stunned the Metal Professor briefly.

And while the Metal Professor was in a daze, she suddenly saw an anomaly in the shadow beneath her feet, but before she could react, a figure had drifted out of the shadow like a ghost and moved towards her like a wriggling serpent!

The Metal Professor’s left hand suddenly spread open. A sharp steel blade sprung out like a fingernail from the tip of her metallic finger. When the blade cut downwards, even the air and the land below felt like they would be split in two!

But following a sharp clang, the Metal Professor felt a chill on her index finger, and a grim blossom of dark red bloomed in her vision! Next, a bloody finger flew away!

The dark figure continued rushing at her after the successful strike, the afterimages it left behind completely violating the laws of human body mechanics. After several distortions, the figure bizarrely appeared right in front of the Metal Professor, almost within her arms. This seemingly harmless action made the others gasp in shock. There were almost only ever one outcome when an assassin managed to get so close to a person – the person’s body would be cut open and dismantled!

But no one noticed that a transparent thread that looked like a fishing line had stuck to the Metal Professor’s back. She was abruptly dragged back at an extremely high speed.

However, the dark figure was still doggedly in pursuit!

The speed of the figure had shocked the people around speechless! It was no less than the speed of the Metal Professor’s retreat!

However, another figure suddenly moved in from the side and collided with the dark figure. Multiple sounds of frictions followed, so shrill that they made the listeners’ teeth hurt. A dark red glint that could barely be concealed flashed continuously, and the sound of blades colliding could be heard a few hundred times in a mere few seconds, as frequent as the raindrops in a heavy rain. Following a brilliant flash of light, something could be heard breaking. Half a silver blade flew into the air. It glowed brightly as if to burn out the remainder of its life, then almost immediately dimmed down in sorrow. Evidently, its weapon soul had suffered a fatal damage, so the weapon was probably beyond repair.

The figure who intruded into the fight screamed in fury, but with his weapon destroyed, he had no choice but to retreat!

“That’s enough,” shouted Reef under the instruction of Sheyan in the party communication channel. “Come back, Ronnie!”

Ronnie, who was about to ride his momentum and continue his pursuit, flicked his wrist without saying anything. The dark red glint that carried a cruel and murderous intent suddenly vanished. With that, Ronnie turned back into the unremarkable short, skinny figure. He turned around and walked back without any fear of a possible attack coming from behind him. Only when he had almost reached his team did the broken silver blade fall from the air and stab into the ground.

The ordinary-looking Ronnie was, at this moment, the centre of all the attention!

The people around them started whispering to each other.

“I heard the Blu-ray party intend to make themselves the leader and have already roped in four large parties under them. Only a small number of parties still remain undecided. Boy, they sure bit into a hard one this time.”

“This war is crucial. Whoever can lead us to a win will surely catch the attention of the Realm.”

“That’s right. Of course they’d want to be the leader. However, our Noah Realm C has been undergoing a rapid expansion recently and has recruited many powerful figures. Perhaps in terms of party strength, the Blu-ray party is the best, but in terms of individual combat power, they’re not strong enough yet to make those arrogant figures follow their orders.”

“Take that Ronnie guy, for example. He’s shockingly powerful. Among all the contestants I’ve seen before who specialises in Agility, his movement speed is probably in the top three. And that’s only in terms of attributes.”

“Did you see the weapon he used just now? I couldn’t see clearly what it looked like, but something that can break a silver storyline dagger must have a higher grade than dark gold, and must also be strengthened to at least +7 so that it obtains the powerful ‘Subduing Edge’ property!”

“The one who had his weapon broken, Rising Dragon, is a core member of the Blu-ray party, but he’s no match for Ronnie. The Metal Professor looks strong, but it turns out she’s only a paper tiger…”

“And yet, someone as powerful and prideful as Ronnie retreated after a single shout from that guy…. Doesn’t that mean the guy’s even stronger? Look, a dark gold shield! He’s an MT!”

“…..”

Listening to the comments of these onlookers, it seemed that the incident of Sheyan blocking the Metal Professor’s metallic feathers with his bare arm had been well covered up. The others only thought that the Metal Professor was not actually that powerful, and not that Sheyan was too strong.

That was Sheyan’s intention. From what they know so far, the contestants could attack each other even if they’re on the same side, so there was always the possibility of being stabbed in the back. But more importantly, Sheyan was used to the feeling of controlling everything from the dark. This would also give the party an extra card up the sleeve.

Their most important card up the sleeve!

“Should we wait here?” asked Reef in the party channel. “Since we hit the dog, the dog owner will definitely come look for us. We can wait for them to show up and solve this problem once and for all.”

“No,” Sheyan denied his suggestion, “We’ll go straight to the central area. Since the Blu-ray party dare to plan something so big, they’re surely not weak. Against parties like us who have proven our strength but are rebellious, they definitely have their own plan for us, either to win us over or to marginalise us. No matter which choice they make, it definitely wouldn’t be an all-out fight, and they definitely won’t approach us under so many pair of watchful eyes. We don’t need to waste our time here.”

***

The Orcs were filthy and ugly, but they had done a great job in setting up the base. Four large squares had been arranged on the vast Pelennor Fields. It was nearly the end of October, and the weather was quite chilly and a little dry, so the Orcs had constructed mainly bunkers. After the inside was laid with animal skins and hay, they did a good job in keeping out the cold.

Saruman no doubt deserved the most credit for training these crude and savage creatures into a fearless army. A large number of Uruk-hais had been injected into the army. Saruman had crammed a large amount of knowledge regarding siege battles into these creatures that were no less intelligent than humans. They were currently commanding their Orc subordinates to cut down the nearby trees to construct siege towers that were over 30 metres tall!

There were wooden wheels underneath the siege towers. They had a similar structure to normal towers, but were made out of wood. The towers could effectively protect the attacking soldiers from arrows. Their height had been carefully calculated so that when they were pushed against the city wall, the exit at the top of the towers would be level with the top of the wall. The heavy gate would then open, and a group of Orcs would rush out like a pack of wolves, completely overcoming the terrain advantage of the defending army.

The advantage of the siege tower was obvious, and that was to effectively protect the soldiers inside from the threat of arrows when they attack the city wall, so that they could jump into the melee fight in their best condition. As long as the soldiers in the towers were brave enough, it would not be difficult to hold their ground on the city wall, and with the rest of the soldiers climbing up the wall with ladders, it would be easy to breach the fortification.

However, its disadvantages were also very obvious. First, it must be built very solid, so it took a lot of materials to make one. In addition, in the era of cold weapons, if it was made too large, the soldiers may not be able to push it, and if it required too many people to push, they would be extremely vulnerable to the attacks of archers from both sides when they get close to the city wall.

However, this problem was easily solved for the Orcs. The Ogres among them had very thick skin that could protect them from most arrows, and exceptional physical strength which enabled them to push the large towers.

However, the biggest drawback of the siege tower was that, although it was not afraid of arrows, it was vulnerable to stones.

A giant boulder thrown by a trebuchet could reach a flying speed of 200 m/s!

No matter how solid a siege tower was, it would never be as tough as a city wall! A siege tower would be lucky to remain standing after being hit by a trebuchet boulder. What’s more, Minas Tirith’s defence was nothing short of phenomenal. The reason why it was described with the word “phenomenal” was because this capital city of Gondor that was built on the mountains had, in essence, seven layers of walls.

(“For the fashion of Minas Tirith was such that it was built on seven levels, each delved into the hill, and about each was set a wall, and in each was a gate.” —The Return of the King, Chapter I: “Minas Tirith”)

Therefore, the initial siege towers would only carry a small number of troops. Their main purpose was to waste the ammunition, as well as the durability, of the trebuchets.

Usually, after launching ten boulders, a trebuchet would have to replace its sling. A trebuchet that could fire twenty times without damage could already be considered a top-grade weapon.

It was indeed true that wars were all about attrition.

Sheyan could not help marvelling at what he saw as he walked through the Orc camp. It turned out that his omnipotent Legend Level +3 worked on the Orcs and Uruk-hais too. Most of them had to lower their arrogant heads when they saw Sheyan and call him “Tigor”, which meant great warrior in Orkish.