The Ultimate Evolution

Sometimes, you have to give something to gain more.

If Sheyan wished to get the fattest share of the spoils in this battle, then he must make the corresponding investment. Otherwise, why would the Maritime Alliance and the Blue-ray Party yield to him? A big fist could intimidate others, but it would not convince others.

Because Party Ace’s Oliphaunt was redeemed with the silver storyline Sauron Badge personally bestowed by Sauron himself, it was not the kind of ordinary Oliphaunt that was made available for everyone. It was an Oliphaunt with a name – Eviltusk – and it was a royal demonised Oliphaunt!

The amazing behemoth had at least one and a half times the defence, attack power and HP of an ordinary Oliphaunt, and it could accommodate 30 people on its back. But its most noticeable difference was that it had four unique tusks instead of two. Even when it was walking slowly, its force was already terrifying.

Tattoos of a black snake on a red shield could be seen on the right side of Eviltusk’s body. These tattoos were inked with the blood of the slaves captured by the Haradrim. Not only could they provide a high defence against magic, but whenever Eviltusk killed an enemy, the enemy’s blood would be sacrificed to bring out the vengeful spirits hidden within the tattoos to attack other enemies.

When Eviltusk was redeemed, 30 warriors came riding on it. The warrior types could be selected by the redeemer, ie. Sheyan. They included shield guards, spear throwers and archers.

The shield guards were responsible for guarding the vital spot at the back of the demonised Oliphaunt’s head and could heal it in battle. The spear throwers had amazing strength; the javelins they threw could pierce through a knight’s armour. The Haradrim archers were proficient in shooting on the move. Their arrows were not as strong as the javelins, but the arrowheads were smeared with a type of strange poison that was very difficult to deal with, even for the Elves who were knowledgeable with herbs and medicinal plants. Like the Ringwraiths’ Black Breath, the poison could only be cured at the source by herbs from the southern jungle.

Therefore, Sheyan did not select any spear throwers. Besides two shield guards, the rest were all archers. Under the current circumstances, injuring the enemies would cause them more trouble than killing them.

When Sheyan sat on the most important seat on the Oliphaunt’s back, the commander’s seat, he immediately felt a dark power infiltrating into his body, connecting him to the war beast, as if he could feel the demonised Oliphaunt’s pain and joy clearly. At the same time, Sheyan also received some notifications:

[ You are riding on Eviltusk, the royal demonised Oliphaunt. ]

[ Part of your innate ability will be shared with the Oliphaunt. The bonus will disappear when you unmount. ]

[ According to your innate ability, the royal demonised Oliphaunt will ignore 10-50 points of damage, depending on the enemy’s attack power. ]

Seeing this, Sheyan could not help calling over his party members to try riding on the Oliphaunt one by one.

Aziz’s bonus was an aura which gave the archers riding on the royal demonised Oliphaunt + 10% explosive strike rate and + 10% range.

Zi’s bonus was to increase the range of the royal demonised Oliphaunt’s ‘Dark Trumpet’ ability by 50% and reduce its MP consumption by 50%.

Ronnie’s bonus was a passive ability called ‘Combo Attack’. When the Oliphaunt attacked, it had a chance to attack another time.

Sanzi’s bonus was eye popping. It enabled the royal demonised Oliphaunt to court female Oliphaunts even outside of mating seasons!

It is common knowledge that animals usually have mating seasons and non-mating seasons. Creatures that can mate all year round like humans are honestly very rare. Many solitary animals, such as tigers, leopards and bears, will only come together with the opposite gender during mating seasons. If they meet outside the mating seasons, they will probably get into a fight. The young will be brought up by the mother, while the father will just leave after spreading his seeds.

The mating season of a female Oliphaunt only lasts for a month. If the males approach the females in the other 11 months, they will be identified as sex offenders and will be attacked. Even if the females know they are not strong enough, they will still resist desperately and fight to the death. Because of this, the bonus ability provided by Sanzi was the most important one to Eviltusk, without question.

Therefore, although Sanzi’s bonus was the most useless from Party Ace’s perspective, the royal demonised Oliphaunt unfortunately did not share the same opinion. When it realised that Sanzi was trying to come down from its back with an embarrassed expression, it bellowed angrily in protest. It then used all kinds of non-violent uncooperative behaviours including going on hunger strikes and slamming into the wall to express its dissatisfaction.

After a round of extremely difficult negotiation, both sides finally came to an agreement. The Oliphaunt accepted that someone other than Sanzi may ride it in battle, but outside of battle, Sanzi must stay on its back.

***

Half an hour later, Eviltusk could be seen slowly walking towards Minas Tirith in an extremely heavy set of chain armour! Every time one of its feet trampled on the ground, it would make the earth shake. A large number of corsairs and soldiers crowded around it. The number of people seemed overwhelming, but they also looked like a disorderly mob.

The commotion had naturally attracted the attention of the human alliance, but most of the trebuchets had been damaged by now, and coupled with the bad weather, there was nothing the remaining trebuchets could do to stop the Oliphaunt. And after the war beast had passed through the broken Great Gate and stepped beyond the first wall, it was already within the blind spot of the trebuchets, rendering the trebuchets totally useless.

Because the human alliance had retreated to the fifth level, the attacks of the ordinary soldiers did not have enough range to reach the Oliphaunt, but the battle between the contestants and legendary figures had already begun! Aziz was naturally feasting, but he was still outshined by Legolas. The Elven Prince’s arrows were simply too destructive. He alone caused more than half of the dark side’s losses.

Sheyan was having a headache seeing the terrifying number of casualties caused by Legolas. He was even feeling a tinge of regret. Perhaps making Legolas his target in the last confrontation would have been the better choice? But truthfully, between Aragorn and Legolas, the former was no doubt the more valuable prey.

While the two sides were busy shooting at each other, Eviltusk the royal demonised Oliphaunt started to accelerate, propelling his heavy body forward with great force. Its head was equipped with a ferocious steel armour that had a large number of sharp steel spikes on it. Amid the slightly trembling earth, Eviltusk slammed head-first into the second wall of Minas Tirith!

The impact was comparable to an earthquake, making the whole city tremble for a short period of time. The abnormal strength of Eviltusk, coupled with the special equipment on its head made specifically for ramming into walls, instantly caused large, deep cracks to appear on the second wall!

This was made possible mainly because Minas Tirith had spent most of its efforts on reinforcing the first wall. The first wall of Minas Tirith, the City Wall, was truly worthy of being called an iron bastion. If not for the powerful Grond battering ram, it would be almost impossible to breach.

However, precisely because everyone thought that the first wall was impenetrable, the remaining six walls had become mere symbolic existences. Since Minas Tirith was founded, the first wall was repaired and maintained every year, while the other walls had only undergone maintenance a few times in history!

After slamming into the wall hard, Eviltusk became dizzy and took dozens of steps back unsteadily, but the wall fared even worse than the Oliphaunt. Large cracks and holes were starting to appear on it. While Eviltusk was resting, a group of Trolls hired by the contestants rushed forward with heavy weapons like giant hammers and started demolishing the wall like construction workers. Not only would they continue to expand on Eviltusk’s impact, they would also clean up the blocks and pieces that were in the way.

It was worth mentioning that among the three Trolls hired by Party Ace, Black-Ear had actually survived and had successfully advanced. He was now rushing at the very front in full armour while roaring excitedly, seemingly full of energy.

Thanks to the close cooperation of the dark side forces and the insufficient attack range of the human troops, the second wall of Minas Tirith was broken through in a short amount of time. It was common knowledge that the second gate of Minas Tirith was on the far right of the second wall, while the third gate was on the far left of the third wall. Now that the second wall had been breached on the far left, it meant that the dark side forces could directly attack the third gate without the need to make a long detour!

They were not greedy. After knocking down the third gate, they chose to retreat. Sheyan was not a hasty man. If they advanced further, they would have entered most of the enemy’s attack range, and what they had to deal with next was a hard wall rather than a gate, which was simpler to bring down. Therefore, he ordered a retreat so that they could rest up and discuss the next step in their plan.

Now that Sheyan had shown the enemy another of their hidden card and fully demonstrated the power of this card, it was now Knight’s turn to have a headache! If Knight and his allies could not find an effective measure to deal with the Oliphaunt, they should just get ready to die!