Chapter 333 - Madman
The howling of the wind was similar to the cry of a ghost in the middle of the night as intermittent lightning flashes tinged the world in blue and purple. Thunder sounded as loud as explosions announcing the beginning of the battle.
What appeared to be a huge red eye hovered high in the sky and the crimson glow looked like the devil of the legends. However, if one looked carefully, one would easily notice that the center of the eye was actually black, dark as the clouds that covered the skies at that moment.
From the dark center of the strange phenomenon, hundreds of thousands of long tentacles releasing a faint deep red glow extended from high in the sky all the way to the ground to form what appeared to be a mythological monster.
This eye was actually the blood vortex that Bai Zemin had formed with his Second Order Blood Manipulation skill after making use of the immeasurable liters of blood from around two thousand enemy wild beasts that escaped from the mutant forest after the clash between the Second Order existences and Bai Zemin's Crimson Blood Judgment.
With a diameter of approximately three hundred meters, its brightness and size made it possible that even from the ground each of the North Camp's defensive troops would be able to witness it in all its splendor.
No matter if it was an ordinary human without even having taken a single step on the path of evolution and no matter if it was a soul evolver; each of the people presents marveled between fear and shock as their pupils reflected that distant but terrifying bright crimson light high in the skies.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!...
Under Bai Zemin's control, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of blood chains whose thickness was enough to compare to the entire body of a corpulent adult man spun in a spiral shape like snakes and began to cling tightly onto the bodies of the mutant beasts.
Blood chains twisted and coiled fiercely around the bodies of each enemy beast. Amidst enraged and frightened roars, many of the beasts whose levels were higher and whose bodies were more powerful began to fight furiously in an attempt to break free from the bindings that constrained them.
"Futile effort." Bai Zemin coldly snorted.
His voice sounded like that of the demon itself and with a wave of his hand coupled with an investment of another fifty points of Mana, the blood vortex began to spin at much higher speeds as the blood supplement the chains received increased tremendously.
The chains became at least three times more powerful and slammed hard into the skin of those who struggled in an attempt to break free. But the most terrifying and surprising thing was that the blood did not drop to the ground but began to be absorbed quickly by the blood chains which slowly but surely increased their power.
Giant elephants, sturdy rhinos, ferocious tigers, thickly armored boars, etc; all the Unclassified beasts fell to the ground one after another.
The earth shook at the mass collapse and the blood chains twisted again. The tips of the chains transformed into long, thick stakes that with a gesture from Bai Zemin stuck deep into the ground.
Three of the five First Order mutant creatures were suppressed by the blood chains, however, two of them managed to give Bai Zemin some difficulty.
One of these creatures was the fire-toothed tiger against which Evangeline fought. The creature possessed a truly ferocious bite so it slowly but surely began to destroy the chains surrounding its body. Even as Bai Zemin tried to seal its mouth the blood sizzled as a faint cloud of steam rose into the sky; since the blood Bai Zemin was using was the blood of Unclassified beasts, it was only natural that the skill of a First Order beast that happened to be the perfect counter would give some trouble.
Fortunately, Bai Zemin's Blood Manipulation skill had evolved to Second Order and the blood affected by the skill also became stronger while the effect was active. Otherwise, the fire-toothed tiger might have already broken free.
Swoosh!
Bai Zemin's body swayed and an instant later appeared right in front of the fire-toothed tiger's eyes. His speed was so high at this point that for those soul evolvers who had not even reached the First Order it felt as if he were teleporting.
The fire-toothed tiger barely had time to open its eyes any wider when a punch that seemed to weigh several tons landed heavily on the beast's skull.
Bang!
After the direct hit, the body of the squirming fire-toothed tiger collapsed noisily on the ground and the blood chains clung to its limbs in such a way that even if it wanted to, it would not be able to stand up again. Moreover, the beast's roars finally subsided and a dazed look shone in its pain-filled eyes.
After calming the fire-toothed tiger, Bai Zemin looked down at the ground and frowned slightly.
The other First Order creature that was giving him headaches and on a larger scale than the fire-toothed tiger was actually the earthworm, another beast that Evangeline was facing a few minutes ago.
Although Bai Zemin didn't know what kind of creature it was since it was hidden underground, he could feel the creature's Soul Power moving around underground constantly.
How the hell am I going to get that sucker out from the ground? Such a thought caused the frown on his face to deepen a little more.
This was the first time Bai Zemin had encountered this type of creature or something similar that had the ability to hide underground. Such beings were usually the most difficult to deal with as they could simply hide and come out to launch attacks when they pleased.
That beast that was hiding had not yet fled for the mere fact that it did not have enough intelligence to realize that it could not defeat Bai Zemin so despite its fear it still hovered around the area waiting for the opportunity to devour that huge amount of Soul Power that attracted it greatly.
Even after two full minutes, he could not think of anything useful.
His Blood Manipulation skill was useless in this case, and the rest of his active skills were of no use for this kind of situation either. He also acted oblivious and left several openings in his defense on purpose in an attempt to lure the creature but nothing worked.
Just then, a series of soft and delicate footsteps approached closer and closer in his direction and after turning around he realized that this person was actually Evangeline.
"What's wrong?" He asked at the same time noticing how most of the superficial cuts on her skin had disappeared after her Health stat began to act effectively.
Evangeline said nothing and looked at the surroundings. After a minute of silence during which Bai Zemin looked at her expectantly waiting for her to have some sort of solution, she finally looked at him and said something that took him by surprise.
"Why don't you use your sword?"
My sword? Bai Zemin blinked and unconsciously looked over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of the large hilt of his Blaze Scale Greatsword.
"How do you want me to hit it if I don't even-"
Just as he was saying this, his words suddenly stalled and his dark eyes shone brightly. A slightly crazy idea popped into his mind but the more he thought about it and studied it the more he felt it might actually work!
With a slight smile, he looked at Evangeline and nodded before asking her to step back.
Swoosh!
A thin blood chain shot out from the blood vortex that was still feeding the rest of the chains. However, this thin blood chain was not used to limit the movements of any enemy, and instead, Bai Zemin controlled it to draw his sword.
The blood chain wrapped around the hilt and slowly floated forward. Bai Zemin took the sword with ease, surprised at how light it now felt in his hands, and the blood chain shot skyward disappearing into the blood vortex an instant later.
If previously Bai Zemin felt that his Blaze Scale Greatsword weighed about a ton, the current one he felt as if that weight had been halved.
Of course, he knew that the weight was still the same and the reason behind this was that his Strength stat had increased explosively after killing two Second Order existences and receiving another boost from the Second Order ape that Shangguan Bing Xue defeated.
After Evangeline backed off, Bai Zemin raised his sword high into the sky and then, under everyone's dumbfounded gaze, fiercely slashed downwards without holding back his strength at all!
Boom!
An explosion that even surpassed the loud thunder boomed and the defensive troops felt as if their minds went blank for a second.
A crater of approximately two hundred meters with Bai Zemin as its center and whose depth easily exceeded ten meters spread out to the sides. As the earth broke into millions of pieces and mud flew everywhere, he managed to hear a slight groan from underground.
A smile automatically formed on his face as he saw that this fierce and barbaric method was indeed effective. Without even two seconds of delay, he raised his sword again and slashed for a second time!
Boom!
Hearing that same groan his hopes grew so he slashed again!
Three, four, five, six, seven.... Twenty times!
The constants explosions shook the entire half kilometer around Bai Zemin as a nucleus and now a crater whose depth exceeded a hundred meters was in a place that was previously flat ground.
"Even after all that it is not coming out?" A hint of annoyance flashed in his eyes, finally stopping his mindless and bestial attack as he realized that even though the beast underground had definitely received several injuries due to the shaking it still refused to come out and even refused to leave.
Since you don't want to come out then you can only die. He thought as the murderous intent in his eyes became stronger and stronger.
His original intention was to let his troops of soul evolvers kill all these beasts. With such a large number, all of them should be able to at least average between two and five levels; those who were at lower levels might even benefit more with some extra stat points if they were a bit lucky.
Although it was a pity to lose such a First Order beast, Bai Zemin didn't have all night and his patience wasn't too great either so he decided to end the life of whatever monster was hiding like a cowardly rat.
"All of you! Return to the base and wait behind the walls!" Bai Zemin shouted loudly as he turned around.
His voice echoed throughout the length and breadth of the battlefield, so even though many did not understand what was happening they immediately got into the vehicles and began to move back.
Riding in a modified jeep in which only Shangguan Bing Xue, Kang Lan, Evangeline, and Nangong Lingxin were traveling, the expression of the woman who had been conferred the title of ice princess by everyone at the base due to her icy personality looked extremely serious at this moment.
"What's wrong?" Nangong Lingxin couldn't help but ask worriedly.
Shangguan Bing Xue hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she shook her head without saying anything.
Let's hope that madman won't use that attack here again.... She thought with lingering fear as the still fresh memory of the power of the blood trident thrown by Bai Zemin seemed to flash before her eyes again for the second time.
That was one of the times in which her life was at greatest risk since the apocalypse began! And it was caused by her friend!
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