novelPoly Spirit Beast (2)
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Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Twenty minutes passed by quickly, and another thousand snowmen were killed by the pirates. Even though the pirates' techniques were unsuitable, their physical attributes were much stronger than those of most armies. In this one-hour long battle, almost no one grew tired. At the very least, this battle was much more relaxing than experiencing a storm at sea.
Boom!
The gates were the weakest part of the snow ice castle. With a crash, the pikoosi broke the gates and charged out. Daniel, riding on the back of the pikoosi, made a beeline for the over two hundred headless riders.
He was somewhat fearful that the three kings would not lend a helping hand. This was because the previous time Saleen had demanded that Banchajanna kill the black bishop, Banchajanna had refused to do so. His relationship with the three kings was not as close as that of Saleen's. In the event that he ran into danger and the three kings turned a blind eye to it, he would not be able to defeat all those headless riders alone.
Fortunately, there were more than one hundred pirates rushing behind him, making Daniel feel more assured.
Those brainless things could not possibly target me alone, could they?
Daniel charged towards the north, and when the snowmen realized that the people in the snow ice castle had come out, they began changing their direction in a sluggish manner. But by the time they made it to the north of the city, the pirates had already advanced by more than one hundred meters. These snowmen had no choice but to give chase at the back slowly.
The headless riders hastily altered their formation before charging towards Daniel, wielding massive weapons. Daniel became afraid and did not dare conserve his abilities. With a tap on the pikoosi's head, the two horns on its head immediately began gathering a grey light, and a ray of soul corrosion was propelled outwards.
A level-7 death spell was also a powerful ability. It was the only spell the pikoosi could employ after returning to grade-7. The pikoosi could not cast the rest of its spells because Daniel's grade was too low. The soul corrosion was the fundamental spell the pikoosi had, and its three heads could take turns casting it.
The grey-colored ray from soul corrosion was like a magic cannon, becoming massively thick after its launch until it could not even be considered a ray anymore. At the same time, those headless riders who were charging head-on were struck accurately, and at least five of them died on the spot. Those who were not struck fatally also fell off their warhorses, and when the warhorses of a lower grade were hit even a tiny bit, they rolled on the ground in excruciating pain.
In dozens of seconds, both parties had attained terminal velocity, ruthlessly ramming into each other.
Having a sturdy body, the pikoosi immediately sent three headless riders flying. Daniel, who was riding on top, ducked his head to avoid a giant axe which flew up in all that chaos, and became so appalled that he did not dare straighten his body again.
When the pirates crashed into the headless riders, the lances in the front row were fractured. However, the lances had penetrated the bodies of the headless riders, causing the pirates to clutch their wrists in pain as the headless riders fell off their horses and rolled across the ground.
Even though the weapons refined by Saleen could not kill the headless riders, the power of life from the Myers Goddess would still torture them until they lost all ability to fight, even if there was only a tinge of it.
Noticing the phenomenon, the pirates at the back tossed their lances forward. They were more accurate tossing lances than they were shooting steel crossbows. Almost every lance which was flung struck a headless rider.
Saleen was overjoyed. He had never honed their lance-throwing skills in the past because he had enough steel crossbows to use. Nobody would have known that the pirates possessed this technique. From a short distance, the lethality of a javelin was much higher than that of a crossbow. In the first round of assault, the armor of the headless riders had already been reduced to shreds by Saleen's snowkill. And when these briefly refined lances pierced in, the sound of cold water being poured into hot oil was produced.
Half of those headless riders who had previously almost killed Saleen and Aini were now being exterminated in this head-on blitzkrieg. Saleen had never expected his team to possess such strong offensive abilities.
In truth, Saleen had set his expectations too high since he had seen Lex's swordsmen's camp before, so he had been very unsatisfied with the pirates. However, the Qin Empire had more than a billion people while Lex's swordsman's camp had only ten thousand soldiers. These swordsmen were the elites groomed by Lex over a period of ten years. Not many armies like hers could be found on the mainland.
These pirates had robust bodies and possessed unparalleled ferocity in battles. They could easily defeat normal mercenaries, unless their enemy was Lex's swordsmen's camp. The offensive power of these pirates was unmatched by any other normal army.
Furthermore, other armies would definitely not provide their soldiers with magic weapons. Even though the lances refined by Saleen were very crude, their lethality was not any less. It was just that the shelf life was too abrupt. In a weeks' time at best, the tip of the lances would be destroyed, and even the metals would self-erode into dust.
Because the metals used in these weapons were too low of a grade, they could not withstand the power of magic. That being said, Saleen did not need these weapons to last for a long duration. He just needed them to last until the current battle was over.
Very soon, casualties started appearing among the pirates. Despite having the advantage of magic weapons, the pirates who were pioneering at the front paled in comparison to the headless riders in terms of strength and skill, hence their wrists were injured and they could only use their left hands to wield longswords for the fight. As both parties slaughtered one another, the pirates were almost immediately thrown off their horses by the headless riders.
Some pirates were even smashed into pulp by sledgehammers while still on their horses. It was truly tragic.
Be that as it may, Saleen still had the upper hand in the battle. He might have lost over twenty pirates, but more than half of the headless riders were eliminated, while the surviving ones were all rolling on the ground in pain. Using its enormous skeletal claws, the pikoosi stomped on the headless riders forcefully, smashing them into a grotesque pile of flesh. The pikoosi wagged its tail delightfully. Ever since it had begun following Daniel, this was the first time it could massacre to its heart's content. As long as the giant bone tail of the pikoosi swiped a headless rider, the headless rider would be hurled into midair, then a tiny death spell would be launched from the pikoosi's horns, destroying that headless rider.
Death magic subdued black magic. At this moment, Saleen had two death mages by his side, and if he still could not curb the situation, then he was an idiot.
Aini summoned the flesh spirit. It spread out its wings and flew in the air, striking the ground from time to time. Its attack power might not have been as strong as Saleen's magic, but it definitely had the ability to restrain the headless riders.
The pirates, who had finished tossing all their lances, took out their longswords and began clashing with the headless riders.
Other than its weapon, the offensive power of a headless rider definitely surpassed that of a pirate. The pirates were also shrewd. Since the skeletal warhorses were very agile, the pirates decided to use the warhorse's front hooves to attack the enemy. The pirates abided by Saleen's training, teaming up in threes, and never got into a head-on fight with the headless riders.
The few pirates with screws loose who thought that they were very powerful were all beaten to death by the heavy weapons wielded by the headless riders.
The pirates only scattered the strength of the headless riders. The people who delivered fatal attacks were Jola and the four magic beast swordsmen. Riding on a skeletal warhorse, Jola's Tears gave off an air of ruthlessness which was even more intense than that of a headless rider. Even a gigantic axe would not be able to withstand a swipe from his longsword.
Besides casting spells, Saleen also made an effort to observe Jola. He realized that Jola did not force the sword aura out of his sword. He only used a tiny bit of strength in his attacks. Even so, every attack could utilize the weapon and unleash the greatest effect.
A snow-like white robe and a wind-like longsword. In the midst of the team of headless riders, Jola slaughtered them willfully, giving off a rare glow of ardor from his eyes.
Saleen's team advanced forward gradually, as the over two hundred headless riders crumbled slowly under all the spells and attacks from the grand swordmasters. More than thirty pirates had died, and the remaining eighty followed Saleen closely. They realized that the closer they were to Saleen, the less easily they were injured. As long as Saleen was shielded, his spells would be able to strike every single target precisely.
At the moment when a headless rider almost chopped a pirate's head off with a cavalry sword, Saleen's ice bomb immediately struck its wrist, causing the cavalry sword to veer to one side. Then, the pirate swung his sword over, slicing the body of that headless rider.
This headless rider had not died. It was just that since its wrist was broken and its body had been split into two, it had lost its offensive ability.
Similar events happened several times, subconsciously planting a notion into the minds of the pirates. As long as Saleen was kept alive, they would be able to survive on the battlefield. The pirates acted in a more regular fashion. Besides the dozens of pirates who were following Saleen around loyally, the rest of them also took the initiative to isolate the headless riders, allowing Saleen to cast his spells with peace of mind.
At this point in time, two out of the four magic beast swordsmen could also make their moves without any worry, further decreasing the number of casualties among the pirates.
The more than forty remaining headless riders battled on desperately, and the snowmen had finally caught up, trying to pester Saleen's team. Saleen decided not to bother with the headless riders. He called out to Daniel and steered the team towards the hills in the west.
Saleen had lost a quarter of his warriors and killed at least four times more enemies. All the credit was due to the snow ice castle, which had greatly minimized the number of casualties. Had Saleen decided to execute a field battle, the mages and grand swordmasters would have been fine. But with more than five hundred headless riders, Saleen would not have been able to comprehend the battle and control the situation.
Especially those ten thousand snowmen, who could only unleash their terrifying power in the environment of a field battle.
In the blink of an eye, Saleen's team had charged into the hilly region, with the headless riders pursuing him desperately. But in reality, the headless riders already had zero chance of prevailing.
In the vicinity of the snow ice castle was a ground strewn with dead bodies. After Saleen and his team entered the hills, the fragments of these bodies began wriggling, gradually agglomerating with the flesh nuclei left behind by the dead snowmen.
Other than the black puppets and headless riders who had been killed by the pikoosi and Aini, the rest of the bodies underwent a transformation. Thousands of soul shards and flesh shards fused together at an increasingly fast speed. Finally, a monster measuring about six meters in length was born. This monster was clad in tattered metallic armor. It had six limbs, six eyes and a bulky tail.
This monster had fangs about one foot long, and its head looked like that of a tiger. It gazed in the direction in which Saleen departed, its eyes full of intense hatred.
If a mage from a thousand years ago had been present, he would have recognized this monster.
The poly spirit beast, an evil offering used in black magic. A huge quantity of souls and flesh were required to produce this monster. A poly spirit beast almost never died, unless it was repeatedly cauterized by holy spells. Otherwise, whenever it was killed, more soul shards would simply be gathered and a new poly spirit beast would be born again. Every time a poly spirit beast died, it would produce the power needed for the black mages to create a devil.
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