Chapter 174 - 173: Harpies and Naga
Chapter 174: Chapter 173: Harpies and Naga
The battle had only lasted a little over ten minutes.
After all, there weren’t many combatants.
But the tide of battle had already completely turned.
Zhou Qian’s squad: Zhou Qian was dead, and of his 50 Blood Race Soldiers, only a few had escaped.
Zuo Yuan’s squad: Zuo Yuan had been captured, and of her 50 Blood Race Soldiers, only a few remained alive, having already fled into the woods.
Of the 300 Blood Race in the center, 80 had been lured away by Tang Ruan and were now running chaotically all over the battlefield.
Whenever any of them broke free from the Taunt, Tang Ruan would immediately use it again, keeping the number of affected enemies consistently around 80.
This was the maximum number she could handle.
Any more than that and she might not be able to hold out, not to mention she lacked the Spiritual Power to maintain the Effect on a larger group.
The remaining 220 Blood Race Warriors were fighting against the 100 members of the Peach Blossom Human Race.
Although the Blood Race held every advantage, they had still lost dozens of men.
They were also stunned by the women’s ferocity.
Even though the Blood Race consistently held the upper hand, their Morale was surprisingly dropping.
Under these circumstances, a pincer attack led by Zhao Chi and Gu Jie would naturally cause them to break completely.
The hundred or so remaining Blood Race Soldiers scrambled frantically toward the woods.
But just then, a series of strange squawks erupted from the trees.
"SKRAW! Over here!"
"There are seven of them over here! SKRAW!"
"Over here, too! Five of them!"
"SKRAW, SKRAW! Some here, too!"
At some point, a dozen or so Harpies had appeared in the sky above the woods.
They were continuously reporting the positions of the routing Blood Race Soldiers.
The Harpies’ night vision wasn’t particularly good, but thankfully, the Blood Race Soldiers had no ranged Ability. This meant the Harpies could fly right along the treetops.
At such a close distance, they could of course see everything clearly.
"Shut the hell up! Goddammit!"
"Piss off! You looking to die?"
"Get lost!"
"Keep squawking and I’ll butcher you!"
The Harpies were cowardly by nature, but their courage swelled when facing a routed army.
They didn’t dare to attack directly, but they had no problem whatsoever reporting the enemy’s movements.
"Butcher who? SKRAW."
"You’re the ones who are going to die! SKRAW."
"Stop running! Surrender! SKRAW."
The Blood Race Soldiers had wanted to threaten them.
But then they discovered the light of torches appearing in the woods.
The light from those torches cast an exceptionally wide glow, seemingly illuminating a radius of over twenty meters.
This left them completely exposed in the darkness, with nowhere to hide.
The torches were held by arms covered in scales.
The owners of these arms had four hands each. The other three all gripped an Iron Saber, which glinted yellow in the flickering torchlight.
"Shit, what is that?"
"The Naga Race!"
"Why the hell are these things in the woods?"
"I don’t know! Quick, get Old Li and the others! The eight of us are no match for them."
"Who the hell knows where they went?"
"Then what do we do?"
"Run! They’re coming!"
"Can we drink their blood?"
"The Naga Race has scales, and the blood conversion Efficiency is low. It’s not worth it. Besides, I don’t have the Spiritual Power to summon a Spiritual Shield anymore."
"I’m out of Spiritual Power too, and my Armor Durability has been completely hacked away."
"Then what are you waiting for?! Run!"
"I’m out of Physical Strength! I can’t outrun them!"
"If you’re out of Physical Strength, then run for your life!"
"Oh no, there are more behind us! We’re surrounded!"
"Goddammit, move!"
A dozen or so Naga Warriors swayed their bodies emotionlessly, closing in and swinging their sabers.
"Kill... HISSS!"
"Hack them all to death... HISSS!"
Miserable screams echoed through the trees.
The dull thuds of flesh being chopped apart followed.
Soon, the Harpies in the sky cried out again.
"Nice kill! SKRAW!"
"This way! SKRAW!"
"There are nine of them over here!"
"They’re running that way!"
The Naga Warriors, holding their torches high, plunged into the woods, their serpentine bodies slithering swiftly between the trees.
The Naga’s agility was inferior to that of the Blood Race.
But these Blood Race Soldiers were out of Physical Strength.
Without Physical Strength, high agility was useless.
With the Harpies spotting them from the sky and the Naga illuminating the ground with torches, the Blood Race Soldiers were filled with despair.
From the very beginning, Zhao Chi had never intended to include the Harpies and Naga in his main fighting force.
It wasn’t that he was afraid of losing them.
It was that they were unreliable.
The Harpies, needless to say, were extremely active when the battle was going their way, but the moment things turned sour, they were no better than airborne Goblins and would flee instantly.
The Naga Warriors had decent Combat Power.
However, their Obedience Level wasn’t high, and they were also affected by Morale.
If these sixteen Naga Warriors had been thrown into the battle from the start, they would have only been able to hold off sixteen Blood Race Warriors.
That would have been pointless.
It wouldn’t have helped the overall battle situation.
Besides, they didn’t have the Fearless trait and would have quickly broken and fled.
So, in the end, Zhao Chi assigned them the task of hunting down the survivors.
So far, it seemed they were executing their orders quite well.
Unfortunately, their numbers were too small to kill many of the routing Blood Race Soldiers.
But their constant Pursuit would continue to drain the Physical Strength of the Blood Race.
It would prevent them from ever resting and recovering their Combat Power.
Besides, this arrangement was actually quite good.
If they didn’t kill many, they wouldn’t gain much experience. In a little while, once the Female Soldiers had finished on the main battlefield, they could come and deal with the exhausted Blood Race.
This way, the majority of the experience would still go to Gu Qing and her comrades.
Killing two birds with one stone.
As for the 200 Flower Demons, they were currently completely unable to fight.
Their wings hadn’t grown in yet. Making them fight would be tantamount to serving the Blood Race dessert on a silver platter.
Zhao Chi had ordered them all to hide in the Lord’s House.
Back on the battlefield.
Zhao Ji had already unleashed more than a dozen large Fireballs.
Their power was truly formidable, but Tang Ruan had only been struck head-on three times. The rest of the Fireballs had either only grazed her or been blocked by her Iron Shield.
This was why Tang Ruan endured the searing pain in her hand, refusing to let go of the Iron Shield.
After all, her Armor was gone.
She still needed the Iron Shield for Defense.
All she wore were strips of leather and cloth that barely covered her private areas, offering no Defense Power whatsoever.
Tang Ruan’s laughter, combined with her constant, agile evasions, was having a huge psychological impact on Zhao Ji.
Nobles, after all, have immense pride.
He simply couldn’t stomach being mocked like this by a commoner, a woman no less.
Even if Tang Ruan was beautiful, it was still unforgivable.
At this point, Zhao Ji’s fixation was likely driven by more than just the Taunt; a stubborn sense of pique had set in.
This only made him more firmly fixated on Tang Ruan.
Li Yan was slightly different.
He was a support-oriented Hero.
At first, he had dispelled Tang Ruan’s Taunt.
But after assessing the battlefield, he decided that dealing with Tang Ruan first wouldn’t be an issue.
So, he stopped dispelling the Taunt.
This would conserve Spiritual Power, allowing him to use more offensive Spiritual Techniques.
Like the Flame that shot from his hands.
Once Tang Ruan was dealt with, the Taunt Skill would naturally be dispelled.
Besides, Zhou Qian and Zuo Yuan’s Combat Power was more than adequate, and they each had 50 capable Blood Race Soldiers. Against those women who looked so frail and weak, wouldn’t victory be a matter of minutes?
Furthermore, based on past experience...
These members of the Human Race, who only knew how to farm, were naturally fearful of the Blood Race. Their Morale would plummet before a battle even began.
In battle, they would break at the first sign of contact.
If the Human Race men were like that, what use could these women possibly be?
’We can capture them all,’ he thought.
’Take them back and keep them as livestock.’
’Aside from carnal pleasure, we can also drink their blood every day.’
’Even if we drink them to death, we can still eat their flesh.’
’One woman, three uses.’
Although Li Yan was considered a calm and composed Hero...
His analysis and plan were, in fact, sound.
Under normal circumstances, there would have been no issue.
Unfortunately...
These were not normal circumstances.
He could never have anticipated that while those women looked frail, their Attributes were incredibly high, comparable to those of the Blood Race at night.
Not only were their Attributes high, but they would also never break down or surrender.
Even if their Morale hit rock bottom, even if only one of them remained, they would fight to the death.
It wasn’t Li Yan’s fault.
No one could have predicted this.
And Li Yan himself, by not dispelling the Taunt at the first opportunity, had truly fallen into its trap.
He was sinking deeper and deeper.
Now, his mind was consumed by a single thought: burn Tang Ruan to death as quickly as possible.
Zhao Chi and Gu Qing joined forces.
They led the remaining 150-plus women in a charge toward Tang Ruan.
Zhao Chi yelled, "Gu Qing, I’ll take the left, you take the right! Pincer attack!"
Gu Qing: "Understood!"
Soon, the 150 women split into two columns, charging straight ahead.
Zhao Chi bellowed, "Tang Ruan, over here!"
Tang Ruan laughed, panting for breath. "Finally, it’s about to end. I’m coming! Hahaha."
She was still laughing, but the sound was noticeably weak.
She was out of Physical Strength.
However, the ones chasing her were also running low on stamina.
Yet they all continued the Pursuit, panting heavily.
Before long, the 150 women had enveloped the 80 enemies in a pincer movement.
Once again, they had created a two-on-one situation.
But this time, the two were on their side, and the one was the enemy.
Li Yan stared, dumbfounded, at the forces closing in from both sides.
The purple glow in his pupils rapidly faded. "What’s happening? How did we get surrounded?"
Zhao Ji was still gritting his teeth, his eyes locked on Tang Ruan, completely ignoring Li Yan’s words.
Li Yan quickly scanned their surroundings.
He didn’t see Zhou Qian or Zuo Yuan.
Nor did he see any other Blood Race Soldiers.
"Shit, we’re screwed!"
Li Yan snapped to his senses, his body flaring with multiple rays of light.
He quickly dispelled the Taunt Effect on Zhao Ji and the others.
Tang Ruan turned around.
She no longer needed to use Taunt.
Her petite body was covered in wounds, but they were already healing at a rapid pace.
Her Armor had been battered into what looked like a swimsuit—a rare leather one, at that.
Tang Ruan tossed her red-hot Shield into the enemy crowd and focused on healing her left hand, where the bone had been exposed.
Gu Qing frowned, her heart aching at the sight. She produced some Silk Paste and applied it to Tang Ruan’s wound.
Tang Ruan’s hand rapidly recovered and healed.
"Heh, thanks, Sister Gu."
Gu Qing shook her head, then furiously sprayed Silk Threads from her hands.
Like red cotton candy, they shot toward the enemy group.
Zhao Chi strode past. "Tang Ruan, you did very well. You can rest now."
"Yes, my Lord..."
Hearing those words, Tang Ruan truly felt her legs give out.
She couldn’t stay standing any longer.
She collapsed, kneeling on the ground.
Zhao Ji finally snapped out of it.
He stared in utter astonishment at the Female Soldiers surrounding them on both sides.
"Li Yan, what is going on? Are they here to surrender?"
"Surrender? Surrender my fucking ass! I told you not to underestimate them! I told you, and you wouldn’t fucking listen! Now we’re going to die here, you dumb fuck!!"