I parried the salamander's tail as best as I could, only to be driven back. My sword rattled in my numb hands, almost torn out of my grip.
"Huff…"
I could feel the perspiration drip down my face, which wasn't the result of solely the heat, but also a combination of exhaustion and anxiety.
Unlike the minion-ranked lava wolves, the warrior-ranked salamanders were tougher. If the lava wolves were as tough as rock, then the salamanders felt like a solid boulder. Instead of cleaving through their armored scales as easily as I did against the lava wolves despite me trying to locate weak points and fragile currents of qi within their bodies, I felt as if I was fencing against equal opponents armed with proper weapons.
"I won't be able to last at this rate…"
I was forced to jump and twist my body to evade fireballs. Throwing out a hand, I cartwheeled off the ground while cleaving those few fireballs that I couldn't avoid. Bouncing about, I weaved through the net of flames before stabbing the eye of a salamander. It shrieked and thrashed about, forcing me to duck under its claws. I determinedly sank my blade deeper into its eye, ramming the tip past the ruined eyeball and through its socket to pierce its brain.
Then I yanked my sword out in a spray of blood and dove to the side before several fireballs connected against my victim, who slumped onto the ground.
However, I was barely able to defend myself from a swipe. The salamander's paw struck my sword and the momentum hurled me back. Before I could stop myself, another trio of salamanders hurled fireballs at me.
Twisting around, I stabbed the ground with my sword and used it to spin myself about, just narrowly avoiding the fireballs that streaked past the air where I would have been. Sliding onto the ground, I yanked my sword out and allowed my momentum to move me forward so that I can slit the throat of a salamander.
It shrieked and swatted me away, blood dripping from a thin line. I cursed under my breath when I saw that the wound was too shallow. I wasn't able to cut a critical artery or vein.
The salamander snarled and spun around, its tail whipping about to catch me in the temple. I ducked my head and watched the tail lash the air above my face and glasses, and then straightened up. Skidding to a stop, I dove to the side and rolled away as fireballs detonated against the ground I had been kneeling on.
Hopping to my feet, I held my sword out in front of me while keeping a cautious eye on the salamanders. The spirit beasts were surrounding me now, their jaws blazing with embers. I used my free hand to push my glasses up my nose, even as I felt a bead of perspiration trickle down my face.
A single Heaven realm like me fighting against a horde of warrior-ranked spirit beasts (the monsters' equivalent of Earth and Heaven realms). This was going to be very tough. At this rate, they would wear me down before I could defeat the whole swarm.
If this turned into a battle of attrition, I would definitely lose.
Time to think of a new strategy.
Closing my eyes briefly, I considered my options. My dragon sword was finding it difficult to cut through their armored scales. I could use Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths to divert their fireballs back at them, but they seemed impervious to their own fire. Not only that, I would probably run out of qi and stamina before their numbers eventually overwhelmed me.
"That's why I bought these."
Keeping the salamanders at bay with my sword, I used my left hand to retrieve a few spirit talismans from my pocket. Instead of the protective talismans, I chose the ice ones. Infusing my qi into the ice-type spirit talismans, I activated them.
Within a few seconds, the entire clearing was frozen solid. Most of the salamanders were caught before they could escape, their huge forms encased in ice. Almost immediately they broke free, flames igniting to life around their squat, clumsy forms and melting the ice. The next moment, the clearing was clouded in thick, white fog.
Snarling, the salamanders waddled about, trying to find me. They launched fireballs toward the direction where I was in hopes of hitting me, but they missed. Unlike the salamanders, I didn't have to rely on my sense of sight to see where the attacks were coming from.
"Phew…"
Using Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths, I avoided the fireballs as best as I could, spinning and whirling about, but also using the minimum movements to avoid them by a hair's breadth. I didn't want to move from my spot if I could help it, for I was planning something.
Moving my hands, I used a spirit brush to paint spirit runes on the ground while simultaneously dodging the fireballs. Each rune glowed luminously, but not bright enough to pierce the fog. Just as well, because I didn't want to call the salamanders' attention to me before I finished my task.
The salamanders were nearing my position, still shooting fireballs randomly. I dodged one, ducked under another and spun away from a third, but my right hand continued moving, flicking my spirit brush and dabbing more esoteric runes and arcane symbols into the earth.
However, it was clear to me that the salamanders would reach my position before I could finish my killing array. They would barge through the fog, finally spot me, and then pounce on me. Worse, they would interrupt my incomplete formation.
Huh…worse? I should get my priorities right.
Grabbing another ice talisman, I froze my surroundings. This time, rather than use the ice spells offensively, I formed a defensive frozen fortress around. The salamanders smacked into the thick glacial walls but were unable to break through it. Fireballs hammered against the frosty surface, only to dissipate into boiling steam.
Even so, the glacial walls held. They were melting at an incredible rate, but they would endure for a moment longer.
Long enough for me to complete my killing array. I hastily finished the last few symbols right before the persistent salamanders finally melted my icy defenses. I couldn't help but look up nervously as the barrage of fireballs continued to pummel away at the glacial walls. If I had used wood talismans, they would have been incinerated by the fireballs. If I had used metal talismans, the steel wall would have melted under the fireballs (don't ask me why, even though steel has a much, much higher melting point than ice, higher than even the boiling point of water). Apparently, because according to five elements theory, the weakness of metal was fire, using a metal talisman against fire attacks would result in a tremendous disadvantage.
Go figure. I honestly had no idea how five elements worked, but let's just attribute it to Eastern magic and pretend that explained everything.
By the way, just in case anyone was wondering, metal was strong against wood, which was strong against earth. Earth beat water, and water (under which ice was classified under) beat fire. Which was why I used ice talismans against the fire-type salamanders, as counterintuitive as it might seem.
The spirit talismans were basic tools, however, and not designed to fight against warrior-ranked spirit beasts for long. I knew I shouldn't have bought the cheap ones. Then again, the effectiveness and strength of a spirit talisman was dependent on the user, as well. If the ice talismans were not doing well against the fire-type salamanders despite the type advantage, then it was my fault. I wasn't using the ice talismans to their full potential.
This was something I had to correct when I returned to Seven Stars Academy later.
Now that I thought about it, though, from another perspective the ice talismans were doing their job perfectly. The fireballs couldn't find their way past my defenses and the salamanders weren't able to break the walls despite relentlessly battering against them for as long as they had.
A smile came to my lips when I realized that I was about done. But I refused to take anything for granted, so I completed the last of my spirit formation.
Crack!
At that moment, one of the salamanders smashed through the glacial walls after melting a steaming hole through it. With a snarl, it lunged at me.
I withdrew my brush into my pocket, then pressed my right hand against the formation to activate the killing array.
"Ugh!?"
Golden light flashed blindingly through the clearing. Brilliant beams of destructive energies rose from my formation – which now took the form of a colossal arcane circle with glowing symbols of light – and pierced through the many salamanders. They howled and bellowed in agony as their bodies were mercilessly torn apart by the powerful beam, which resembled laser beams to a science fiction anime fan like me.
"Hmph."
I couldn't help but grin as I directed my laser beams from the center of my killing array. Pointing my fingers at the scrambling salamanders, I had the devastating rays of light lance through the fleeing spirit beasts before they could get very far.
Nothing could travel faster than light. This was the grim lesson I was teaching the poor salamanders. Not that they would live for long after learning it.
Pointing and orchestrating the network of laser beams, I continued to bombard the clearing until there wasn't a single salamander left. At least not in one piece.
"Impressive…"
Once I finished massacring my foes, I studied the aftermath. I had always known that spirit arrays and formations were arcane spells of tremendous power, often helping a much weaker cultivator overcome a much stronger opponent through…well, eastern magic. That was why array masters were so highly coveted and sought after. It was unfortunate that many people didn't have the discipline or aptitude to become an array master. It required one to master countless arcane symbols and memorize many esoteric runes. All that studying could drive one mad.
After so many months of studying, I was only able to learn probably a small percentage of all available runes. I was only capable of drawing basic defensive formations and killing arrays… but just a simple killing array had enough power to slaughter an entire swarm of warrior-ranked spirit beasts.
Just imagine what an advanced killing array could do. Even a commander-ranked spirit beast or Blackened Skies realm practitioner might not be able to escape death when trapped in one.
"Huff…"
I dropped on the ground, feeling exhausted. As powerful as spirit arrays and formations were, they had one major weakness. They required a lot of time to set up. That was why I had to buy as much time as possible by relying on my ice spirit talismans. If I wasn't able to delay the salamanders for long enough, they would have torn me from limb to limb before I could finish drawing my killing array. If they had broken through my frozen defenses just a few seconds earlier, the outcome of this battle would have been very different.
Also, if I didn't have alternative sources of qi, spirit formations required a lot of energy to power. Normally we would use spirit crystals or stones to supplement the wielder's qi, using these additional sources of qi to power the formation. Or if we were lucky, we could tap into ley lines or dragon veins present in the earth itself, making use of the immense quantities of natural qi to power the formations.
Fortunately, there was a dragon vein rich with natural qi right below me, which was why my killing array was so powerful. Even so, the fight was undoubtedly tiring and I felt drained.
"Time to dismiss the killing array…"
I hadn't finished my sentence when I heard a loud hiss. Turning around, feeling cold dread in the form of a chill that ran down my spine, I spotted a titanic scalding serpent slithering toward me. At least twelve meters long and with jaws wide enough to swallow me whole, the top-tier warrior-ranked spirit beast – which was the equivalent of a peak Heaven realm human cultivator – lunged forward with its mouth open.