Chapter 8 – Survival of the Fittest
Book 14, Fiend – Chapter 8, Survival of the Fittest
Stirton stood there in mid-air. Although the battle around him was fierce, he was like a rock amidst the waves. Nobody was able to budge him at all.
Stirton watched everything coldly.
The warriors and members of the tribe died, but he didn’t care at all.
“It is about time!” Stirton muttered softly.
“Let’s do it!” A hoarse voice suddenly rang out. Three people suddenly charged out from within those black uniformed warriors of the Black Dragon Army. These three black robed figures moved almost at the same time that Stirton did, charging towards the two enemy leaders.
The tiger-headed warrior and the skinny, gold-robed man both laughed.
“Stirton really did have something up his sleeve. Only, I didn’t expect he’d actually have three of them.” The gold-robed man, Klotman, said in a low voice.
“Fortunately, we made preparations as well.” The tiger-headed man said coldly.
The gold-robed Klotman narrowed his eyes, a freezing aura shooting forth from them. With a low growl, he said, “Kill!” As his voice rang out, two gray-robed men suddenly charged out from within their troops. These two gray-robed men and the two leaders simultaneously charged towards their enemies.
The three black-robed men and Stirton!
The two gray-robed men, Klotman, and Raschell!
Four on four!
“You invited Fiends as well?!” Stirton said in a cold voice.
“You really are rich. You invited three.” Klayton let out a sneering laugh.
The two sides immediately dispensed with words. Four on each side. Eight in total. These eight people were all Highgods, and Highgods who had become Deities through their own power. Every single one of them had their own special abilities, and they began to wildly fight against each other.
“Boom!”
Space itself shook, and terrifying waves of energy blasted out in every direction.
“What?!” Many people stared over in astonishment.
Fighting one on one, the four pairs of people fought wildly in mid-air, causing those terrifying spatial tremors to spread out in every direction constantly.
One’s body transformed into nothingness…
Another’s transformed into an enormous elemental beast…
Still another transformed into the shape of a sword…
A battle between Highgods was exceedingly vicious. The four pairs of combatants fought against each other, and no one dared to draw near. Even those God-level warriors of the two sides which had been fighting all out against each other earlier now came to a halt as if by mutual agreement, and the fierceness of the battle dropped dramatically.
“Everyone really is pragmatic.” Linley watched this scene unfold.
Just now, the leaders of both sides had only been watching as those warriors fought against each other. But now that the leaders of the two sides were fighting, the warriors came to a halt as though by taciturn understanding.
Delia laughed calmly, “It’s normal. Nobody wants to die! Right now, the leaders are fighting each other. Whichever side’s leader survives will be the side which obtains victory. To these warriors, it doesn’t make much of a difference as to who their leader is.”
Linley watched those four pairs of Highgods battle it out in mid-air.
He had to admit that the power of a Highgod vastly outstripped that of a God!
“At the very least, a Highgod has mastered every single profound mystery in an Elemental Law.” Linley sighed to himself. “Only, there’s differences in the level of fusion.”
Weak Highgods might not have fused any profound mysteries at all.
Stronger Highgods, by contrast, might have fused two profound mysteries, or three or more for the powerful ones.
“Two died.” Linley raised his head, watching the battle as he spoke softly.
The eight Highgods that had been battling each other had already suffered two casualties; it was the golden-robed Klotman and a black-robed man. Just then, during the four-on-four battle, the golden-robed Klotman had been fighting against that black-robed man.
Klotman, suffering a severe injury in turn, managed to kill the black-robed man.
But just at that moment, Stirton suddenly transformed into two clones and attacked, killing the heavily wounded Klotman. Although Klotman also had a clone of his own, his clone was only a God. It was destroyed as well.
“Stirton!” The tiger-headed warrior’s face changed. “I didn’t expect that your wind-style clone has reached the Highgod level as well.”
“Hmph!” Stirton sneered. “First, Klotman. Next, you.”
To people like them, they usually wouldn’t choose to utilize fusing divine sparks. They would only become Deities through training.
“Is that so?”
A cold look flashed through the eyes of the tiger-headed man. Suddenly, a figure flew out of his own as well. This figure pounced towards his opponent, another black-robed man. This essentially meant that the tiger-headed warrior and that shadowy figure were joining forces against their opponent.
“A Highgod clone!” The black-robed man was frightened into an immediate retreat.
Stirton’s face changed. Looking at the tiger-headed warrior, he said, “Raschell, you hid it really well!”
“Not as well as you.” The shadow solidified. It was the darkness-type clone of the tiger-headed warrior, Raschell.
Watching in the distance, Linley had to sigh in amazement. “That seemingly rash and foolish tiger-headed warrior, Raschell, isn’t one whit less sinister than Stirton.” Linley now understood that perhaps Stirton and Raschell had some secret, ulterior motives for allowing their subordinates to do battle against each other.
Right at this moment…
“Lord Bertie [Bo’di], how much longer are you planning to wait?” Stirton sent a message with his divine sense.
Suddenly, in mid-air, a black light solidified, transforming into a silver-haired, silver-robed elder. This silver-robed elder was wielding a long black whip in his hands, and he charged leisurely towards the tiger-headed warrior and those two gray-robed men.
“Whoosh!” The long whip danced out, causing space to distort.
One of the gray-robed men let out a cold sneer. The spear in his hands lengthened, and wherever it passed, black flames appeared out of nowhere.
The long whip and the long spear collided.
“Hmph.” The silver-robed elder sneered.
“Ah!!!” The gray-robed man’s entire body began to convulse. He let out a few agonized cries, and then he stopped moving, falling down from the skies.
This scene terrified many of the onlookers. Everyone had witnessed the power of that gray-robed man; he definitely was a fairly powerful Highgod. But in front of that silver-robed elder, he had been defeated within a single exchange.
“It is Bertie of Castle Greensnake!” The face of the tiger-headed warrior, Raschell, changed dramatically. He glanced disbelievingly at Stirton. “Stirton, you…” He didn’t imagine that the chief of the Black Dragon Tribe, Stirton, would actually ask for help from Castle Greensnake.”
“Bertie?” The other lucky survivor, the gray-robed man, was greatly shocked.
Bertie’s fame was fairly well known throughout the Nightblaze Prefecture, and he was a fairly powerful expert. At the very least, he wasn’t someone whom the likes of them could stand against.
“Flee!”
Without hesitating at all, the tiger-headed warrior and the gray-robed man transformed into multiple shadows, fleeing at high speed.
If a powerful Highgod wished to flee, other Highgods generally wouldn’t be able to kill them.
“Hmph.” The silver-robed elder sneered, then glanced sideways at Stirton.
Stirton immediately revealed a smile on his face.
“You handle affairs here. I’m going back now.” Bertie said, and then he exploded, transforming into a large amount of black light which then disappeared.
Stirton looked at the surrounding, astonished people. In a bright voice, he said, “Warriors of the Golden Wolf Tribe and the Snow Tiger Tribe, you now have the choice of joining our Black Dragon Tribe. But of course, you can resist as well. If you choose resistance…” Stirton let out a cold laugh.
The warriors of the two tribes looked at each other.
Now that Klotman was dead, the Golden Wolf Tribe was finished. The Snow Tiger Tribe’s power had dropped greatly as well.
“Now of course, your family and friends can join our Black Dragon Tribe as well.” Stirton laughed brightly. “Our Black Dragon Tribe will definitely bring you more wealth and security than you previously had. If you agree to join our tribe, then sheath your weapons.”
Those God-level warriors looked at each other. Some of the Gods of the Golden Wolf Tribe sheathed their weapons. Their leader was dead. Naturally, they had to surrender.
After all, without the protection of a tribe, their lives would be very difficult.
After the first few people began to surrender, the others began to surrender and choose to join the Black Dragon Tribe as well. To them, the identity of their leader didn’t make much of a difference.
“He was the one that killed my big brother!” Krate growled softly as he stared at a distant person.
Those surrendered warriors had some enmities now with many of the survivors of the Black Dragon Tribe. Only Stirton’s presence in the Black Dragon Tribe was too intimidating, so no one dared to say anything. But one could imagine that in the future, the Black Dragon Tribe would have quite a few internal struggles.
“Hmph.” Stirton glanced out of the corner of his eyes, seeing the hatred in some of the eyes of his tribesmen. He just let out a soft laugh.
He didn’t care about the deaths of a few tribesmen.
This was the Infernal Realm. Survival of the fittest was the natural law of this place!
In the blink of an eye, nearly half a year passed. The battle of half a year ago had actually caused the population of the Black Dragon Tribe to increase greatly. In particular, a majority of the Golden Wolf Tribe’s tribesmen had joined in. The Black Dragon Tribe’s population reached nearly thirty thousand.
In particular, the number of God-level warriors had increased to nearly three thousand.
Stirton had wanted to annihilate the Snow Tiger Tribe, but afterwards, he discovered that the Snow Tiger Tribe had already moved away from their original location. Clearly, the tiger-headed leader, Raschall had predicted long ago that Stirton would come for revenge. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist, he had immediately led his people elsewhere.
At Linley’s residence.
“Krate, if you want revenge now, your only choice is to endure. Your current power is far inferior to your enemy’s. Right now, he doesn’t know that you are his enemy. You can calmly train. There will come the day when you will have a chance to take revenge.” Linley advised.
This entire time, Krate had wanted to get revenge for his big brother. But his enemy was a God, after all. Krate’s power was far inferior to his opponent’s.
“I know, Linley.” Krate’s face was sunken, but he nodded.
“Boom!”
A vibration came from outside.
Linley mused, “It seems there’s a battle outside again.”
The nearby Delia sighed as well and said, “Thousands of members of the Black Dragon Tribe died half a year ago during that battle. Many of their family and friends are still alive. Of course they want revenge! Fortunately, that battle was so chaotic that the vast majority don’t know who the killers of their loved ones were. Otherwise, the tribe would be in a state of chaos.”
Linley nodded in agreement.
“Who cares if it is in chaos or not?!” Bebe laughed coldly. “As long as they don’t cause trouble for us. If they do, we’ll kill any who come!”
“Krate, if you don’t mind, I can help you get revenge.” Bebe said quite magnanimously.
“No need.” Krate’s gaze was cold. “There will come a day when I personally get revenge. Linley, Bebe, I won’t disturb you any further. I’m going back now.” After this experience, Krate was no longer as cheerful as he had been in the past.
Soon after Krate’s departure, someone else came. It was a familiar figure; Buffett.
“Linley, didn’t you want to go to Royalwing City? Tomorrow, our Black Dragon Tribe will send a group of people on a metallic creature to head out. If you want to go, each of you needs to prepare five inkstones.” Buffett reminded them with a laugh.
“Truly?” Bebe was the first to stand up.
Linley and Delia were greatly overjoyed as well.
They had already waited quite a long while for this day.
“Mr. Buffett, thank you so much, truly.” Linley felt great gratitude in his heart. He would finally be able to leave the Black Dragon Tribe.
Buffett let out a long sigh, then laughed, “Linley, actually, when last time you refused to join the army, I knew that you didn’t want to stay at the Black Dragon Tribe. Actually, leaving is fine.” Buffett instructed, “But Linley, Royalwing City isn’t a place where just anyone can stay. You need to make some preparations.”
“Right. I understand.” Linley’s mood was excellent right now.
Early next dawn, Linley, Delia, and Bebe first went to bid farewell to some of the friends they had made in the Black Dragon Tribe.
“Krate, no matter what, don’t be hasty.” Linley instructed.
“Linley, the Infernal Realm is vast and boundless. Royalwing City is one of the ten cities of the Nightblaze Prefecture. The Black Dragon tribe is just a small place. That place is a large city! You have to work hard to stabilize your footing in Royalwing City. That won’t be an easy task.” Krate actually encouraged Linley rather than vice versa.
Linley chuckled.
“Don’t worry. A small affair like this can’t possibly stop me.” Bebe rubbed his nose, laughing delightedly.
“The metallic creature has come.” Delia suddenly spoke.
Raising his head, Linley saw that in the air above Stirton’s black castle, a metallic creature was there, having transformed into a black dragon while hovering in mid-air. A number of people, spread throughout the Black Dragon Tribe, began to fly towards it. Linley, Delia, and Bebe bid farewell to their friends, then flew towards the metallic creature as well.
“Farewell, Black Dragon Tribe.” Linley lowered his head, looking down at the slowly disappearing Black Dragon Tribe and its mountains.
This was the first place where Linley had settled down in upon arriving at the Infernal Realm. In the future, he would most likely never return to this place again.