Chapter 160: Charging In
First it was one, followed by another.
Bang, bang, bang, bang! Of the ninety-nine Arcana Towers, ten or so of them actually were extinguished, resulting in a drastic decrease in the strength of the barrier.
The waning of the barrier, the gaping hole in the wall, and the demons flying everywhere became the nightmares of these Harpies.
“Mother Goddess!” one of the Harpies exclaimed in shock and despair when it saw the Beasts that seemed to have materialized out of thin air.
Even more of the Harpies immediately went into shock, some of them considering retreating immediately if it weren’t for the stony gazes of their commanding officers standing behind them.
“Fire!”
Lonely Skyleap’s voice was still calm and collected, but it had begun to grow hoarse over the course of three days.
“Wuuuu!” The shrill howl of wind could be heard as the beasts began to crash into the city like a storm.
The chaotic attack of the Beasts disrupted the Harpies’ setup.
Without the Annihilation Bolts and the Sun-Shattering Cannons, the Harpies’ bows alone were a bit weaker than needed. Most of the Demonic Beasts charging forwards were incredibly powerful and unleashed waves of flames as they charged forwards. The Thousand Poisons Toad was attracting most of the attention, so this gap began to slowly but surely widen.
The Beasts howled, the Desolate Beast attacked, poisonous clouds flew in all directions, and the very ground itself was trembling.
Even the unsinkable Sky City was beginning to show signs of breaking under this furious assault as the barriers continued to disappear and the walls began to crumble in larger and larger chunks. The Harpy soldiers began to die by the dozens.
It was as if an open wound had been ferociously torn open by the enemy. The holes in the city’s defenses grew more and more apparent.
Boom!
The Thousand Poisons Toad sent another massive tremor through the ground as it headbutted another section of the city walls, causing it to collapse. Finally, it had created enough space for itself to enter the city.
“The Desolate Beast has entered the city!” all of the Harpies began to cry out in fear.
“ROAR!”
The Thousand Poisons Toad bellowed in happiness.
After suffering so much torment for the past few days, it could finally exact its revenge!
It opened its mouth wide and began to spit out large swaths of poisonous clouds.
This time, there was no barrier to keep the poison out.
The blustering waves of poisonous fog spread slowly throughout the city, rolling over the Harpies stationed inside.
Even though most of them were able to resist the immediate effects of the poison due to the partial antidote, the poisonous clouds were too vast and had immediately enveloped tens of thousands of Harpies. Even if one-tenth of them were to be poisoned, that would mean the deaths of thousands of Harpies.
This single spew of poison killed around three thousand Harpies, shocking Lonely Skyleap. His yells grew even hoarser. “Fall back! Everyone, fall back!”
The Harpy soldiers on the front line began to retreat as quickly as possible.
The Thousand Poisons Toad opened its mouth wide again and spat out another swath of poisonous fog. The flying Harpies began to plummet to the ground as if they had been stung by the poisonous mosquitoes.
The Thousand Poisons Toad was also continuing to attack itself, headbutting the wall repeatedly as it attempted to destroy the entire southern wall protecting the city.
The Beasts also took advantage of the opportunity to slip in through the gap.
Even though the Beasts were much weaker than the Desolate Beast, their sheer numbers gave them equally destructive potential as they rampaged through the city. A massive golden eagle flew through the air, raking its claws through a Harpy soldier and tearing him in two. Fresh blood sprayed through the sky.
One giant wolf in particular and a three-legged golden bird were the most eye-catching beasts amongst them.
The massive wolf was naturally Deep Blue Flame, while the three-legged golden bird’s name was Gold Blaze. When the two of them joined forces, the burning blue flames unleashed by the wolf seemed to have been imbued with wind energy and began to spread at a much quicker pace. Even though the flames weren’t nearly as powerful as the poisonous clouds unleashed by the Desolate Beast, they were still devastating in their own right.
Most importantly, these two creatures were much more elusive than the Desolate Beast. The Thousand Poisons Beast only knew how to use brute force and didn’t strategize when attacking. The two beasts, however, knew how to capitalize on opportunities and chose to attack where the Harpies were the most spread thin, resulting in the greatest numbers of casualties.
This kind of targeted attack was, in some sense, even more of a fatal blow. When factoring in the cooperation of the other beasts, the damage that they did was probably no less than the damage done by the Thousand Poisons Beast. However, the Thousand Poisons Beast’s poison also affected them, making it impossible for the Beasts to enter areas with poisonous clouds. They could only attack from the two flanks, but that would also increase the rate at which Sky City would crumble.
Even so, the originally iron-clad defenses began to melt away like snow.
The Thunder God Cannon fired again and again, but wanting to wipe out the infiltrating Beasts with it alone was far too difficult. When the Harpies saw the wave of Beasts closing in on them, they seemed to fall into despair.
The three-legged gold bird, Golden Blaze, crowed victoriously, “From this day onwards, Sky City will no longer exist!”
“Is that so?” Eternal Night replied indifferently. “For some reason, I believe that you guys will be the ones who will cease to exist.”
As he spoke, he gestured.
The situation suddenly shifted.
A massive wave of pressure suddenly seemed to bear down on the Beasts straight down from the sky. Yet another floating castle had suddenly appeared out of thin air.
This Floating Point somewhat resembled a pinecone. Upon closer inspection, it became apparent that it was actually constructed from layers of bones. These bones glowed quite brightly and were layered quite high in similar fashion as a beehive.
It wasn’t as majestic and spectacular as Sky City. It was roughly similar in size to the Thousand Poisons Toad. Most shockingly, the pressure emanating from the Floating Point wasn’t weaker than the Thousand Poisons Toad’s aura in the slightest; actually, it was even stronger. Even the Thousand Poisons Toad was taken aback.
This was the Origin Energy Demonic City!
A Floating Point that had been crafted from the bone of an Origin Beast.
At the same time that the Origin Energy Demonic City appeared, the sound of giant footsteps could be heard rumbling across the ground.
A massive tower swayed off in the distance as it approached - the Chaos Tower, a tower built on top of the back of yet another Desolate Beast.
The appearance of the Chaos Tower and the Origin Energy Demonic City shocked Deep Blue Flame.
He realized in that moment what kind of trouble he was in. Never had he once suspected that Eternal Night would be this savage - he had obviously brought the two Floating Points close a long time ago, but had kept them from participating in the fight until this critical juncture.
“Not good! Hurry and retreat!” Deep Blue Flame yelled.
However, just as the advance had been difficult, the retreat was not going to be easy as well.
Two more Floating Points appeared, and the Sun-Shooting Pearls that had gone dark began to flicker back to life.
Yes, the ten Arcana Towers that had lost their effectiveness earlier actually began to recover at this moment.
They hadn’t been destroyed!
This was all a ploy!
Deep Blue Flame’s heart beat wildly. Everything had been to trick him into the situation.
And as the Arcana Towers began to light up again, the originally destroyed barrier began to reform. Not only so, but the ground also began to glow as strange inscriptions appeared on the ground. A massive tornado formed at the center of the gap in the walls and began to blow towards the Beasts.
Furthermore, countless Arcana Masters appeared near the gap, all of them legendary Arcana Masters. They sprang into motion simultaneously, creating a new barrier that prevented all the Beasts from retreating.
The Harpies’ barriers might not be able to keep out the Thousand Poisons Toad, but it was more than strong enough to stop Deep Blue Flame and the Beast horde in their tracks.
Their real target was him!
Deep Blue Flame was both stunned and enraged. He had never expected to become a victim like this.
Now that the Beasts had fallen into the trap, the tornadoes, cannon fire, and Arcana Techniques began to resume their downpour. The Beasts immediately suffered tremendous casualties. Deep Blue Flame’s regret was almost palpable.
At that moment, a voice spoke directly in his ear. “So you still ended up falling for his trap, Deep Blue.”
“It’s you?” Deep Blue Flame recognized who the other party was. It was the human who had gotten into touch with him in the first place.
Deep Blue Flame was infuriated. “You shameless human, how could you ally with the Harpies……”
“You’re wrong, Deep Blue. I never allied myself with that old fox Eternal Night. After all, he would probably prefer to deal with me first instead of you,” Su Chen chuckled.
“What?” Deep Blue Flame replied, stunned.
Su Chen replied, “Of course, I must also admit that I was never rooting for you either. The humans and the Beasts will always be at odds. I helped your subordinates break into Sky City just to give you an opportunity to fight against the Harpies. But I never expected him to be so…… decisive.”
He sighed.
Eternal Night’s response was vastly outside of his expectations. He was obviously intent on carrying this all the way through, and he was the one who had given the order to shut down some of the Arcana Towers.
Yes, the dimming of those ten Arcana Towers was his doing, not due to Su Chen’s interference - he would have been an idiot to try and break into that heavily-guarded of a location.
The result was that Deep Blue Flame, along with the rest of the Beasts, fell head-first into this trap.
Since Eternal Night couldn’t bargain for the lives of his fellow Harpies that had been lost, then he was going to send the Beasts to the grave as well as recompense. This kind of thought process was vicious and calculating. Even Su Chen was taken aback.
The Harpies would absolutely pay a tremendous price during the course of this battle, but the Beasts within Harpy territory would also basically be completely wiped out. That would secure at least a hundred years of peace for the Harpies, which meant that the situation wasn’t necessarily bad.
Deep Blue Flame, who understood this now, felt intense regret.
After a moment, however, Deep Blue Flame suddenly realized something. He said hurriedly, “Human, you definitely have a way of getting me out of here, right?”
“That won’t be easy……” Su Chen replied calmly.
“No, I realize that I have no chance of being able to leave alive. However, there is one Beast that I hope you will help me save.”
“Oh? Are you referring to the three-legged golden bird?” Su Chen asked, realizing what Deep Blue Flame was getting at.
“Yes!”
After a moment’s thought, Su Chen said, “Breaking out is no longer going to be a possibility. Your only chance is to go in deeper.”
“Go in deeper?” Deep Blue Flame was stunned.
“Yes, go in deeper!” Su Chen said. “Even though the Arcana Towers have recovered, the defenses operate based on both the stones making up the wall and the Arcana Towers. The Arcana Towers supply the Origin Energy, while the walls serve as the medium for the Arcana Formation’s inscriptions. The destruction of the walls has destabilized the formation significantly, so that might still give you the possibility of escaping…… Charge in deeper, bringing the Beasts, the poisonous fog, and the target you want me to save in with you. Since most of you will not be able to escape anyways, the best you can do is go out with a bang. As for that bird, I can only promise you that I will do my best.”
Su Chen was like a demon as he uttered these words seductively.