The War God's Tomb was not, as I expected, haunted by wraiths. Instead, the usual ghostly denizens of the tomb had been replaced by solid, armored soldiers who formed ranks upon ranks. The terracotta soldiers resembled soulless golems.
Their lack of features did make them visually similar to the wraiths, but they wielded spears, swords and other weapons. Many of them bore shields, locking them to form some sort of impregnable defensive formation.
That didn't stop them from attacking, however. I could see them thrusting their spears through small gaps, the lethal weapons surging toward me as they charged in perfect coordination. Such coordination was probably impossible for human warriors, but these automatons appeared to be under the control of a single mind.
"What should we do?" Mu Rong Shu deferred to me, but she was already adopting a combative stance and activating her Eight Trigrams Palm. The eight elements glowed softly under her, revolving. I noted that she had chosen to use the Kun trigram, which was the earth element. Good choice. Since a frontal attack wouldn't do much against those shields, she would knock them off balance from below.
"Seems like you already have a plan."
"I do. So I'll just attack from below."
"Yeah, and I'll take care of the rest."
Mu Rong Shu didn't hesitate, already launching forward. The Kun trigram ignited, glowing golden. Below the terracotta soldiers, the ground shifted and spikes erupted. The silent golems didn't bellow when they were impaled. Indeed, many of them managed to duck, their reflexes swift and preternatural. Those that didn't evade in time simply broke off their limbs or the parts of their bodies that had been caught by the spikes and continued crawling forward. A few of them were far too damaged to do that, their chests or bodies obliterated by the earth spikes.
On the other hand, the distraction had caused their shield formation to falter, and I seized the opportunity.
Summoning my war spirit, I sent him crashing into their lines. A swing of his spear scythed down the first row, turning them to little more than powder.
Then I was in their midst, turning and twisting about, hammering their breastplates with my palms and sending them crashing. Spinning around, I kicked one of the soldiers, crushing what was his chest and sending his stony limbs flying. Grabbing a spear that he had let go, I twirled it around and beheaded another soldier.
While I caused chaos in the enemy lines, Mu Rong Shu joined me. She covered my back, sliding her foot around and conjuring various elements from her Eight Trigrams palm to smash apart the soldiers. We fought back-to-back, our flurry of violent movements turning us into a circle of destruction. More of the soldiers burst apart, cleaved by my stolen spear or ripped apart by a combination of fire, earth, wind and water. Mu Rong Shu was alternating between four different elements, catching her opponents by surprise by not becoming too predictable.
It was almost as if they were fighting four different martial artists at the same time, not including me who watched her back almost zealously.
Apart from the circle of death that we formed, my war spirit was in his element, hacking and slicing through the broken lines of the soldiers. They tried to reform their lines, bringing their shields to bear, but my war spirit swiftly darted in, poking his spear through gaps and forcing them apart. Before they could drive him off, he plunged into their ranks to preemptively prevent them from forming their defensive formation, his spear meting out death.
Even suffering such casualties, the soldiers did not falter. Where living, mortal men would break and run, the soldiers continued to march onward, hefting their weapons and attacking relentlessly. Those not engaged in battle had fallen back to regroup and renew their lines, holding their shields up in that turtle-like formation.
It was a good thing the confined nature of the tomb and its enclosed space rendered it disadvantageous for archers, so none of the soldiers carried bows and arrows. Nonetheless, the sheer number of them, as well as their impeccable discipline and complete lack of fear, made them formidable opponents.
The moment we dispatched our current foes, a new wave of soldiers attacked, their bodies protected behind their shields even as they thrust their spears forward.
"Gen!"
Mu Rong Shu imemdiately activated that specific trigram, conjuring a mountain that served as a wall. The soldiers ran into the slab of rock, their spears shattering against the solid rock.
"Dui!"
Flicking her hand deftly, Mu Rong Shu transformed the mountain into liquid rock, a manmade marsh that washed over the soldiers and then hardened, immobilizing them.
I didn't hesitate, commanding my war spirit to launch himself forward and swing his spear. With a single blow, he destroyed the trapped soldiers, turning them into millions of fragments.
Still, the remaining soldiers came. They were relentless, fearless and determined, not to mention expendable. Whoever owned them saw them as nothing more than pawns.
Somehow that made me a little angry. It really shouldn't – these soldiers were clearly nothing more than puppets, but even so…
"Whoa!"
Just as my war spirit and I cleared a path through the massed ranks of soldiers, with Mu Rong Shu following up with her esoteric elements, a new enemy arrived, hurtling over the heads of the milling soldiers and crashing into our position.
Both Mu Rong Shu and I jumped away, watching as a colossal crater was smashed into the ground. A single soldier stood up, much bigger than the others. Unlike the common soldiery, he was dressed in fine armor and had clear features, despite being composed of the same material.
Clearly this was the commander.
Lifting his sword up, he pointed it at my retreating war spirit, beckoning him over. It was clear that he was issuing a challenge.
My war spirit responded, already telepathically tuned to my own responses. He slammed the blunt end of his spear shaft against the ground to express his acceptance, and then he twirled his spear around to point it at the general.
At his response, the other soldiers backed off, forming a semicircle behind their general. It was clear that the general intended for this to be a one-on-one duel. I watched the scene, intrigued. Was this the so-called honor on the battlefield? I had heard of such legends before, where the outcome of a war was decided between two commanders, so as to preserve the lives of their retainers. The army of the losing commander would serve under the winner, bolstering his forces. It reduced the pointless bloodshed of wars.
Or it was supposed to, anyway. It was a good resolution as any, and I briefly wondered if I could keep these terracotta solders as puppets. Summoning an army would be an amazing trump card. It would be a waste to destroy all of them otherwise.
The general of the soldiers lunged forward, swinging his sword violently. My war spirit parried his strike, using his spear to knock the general back. However, the general flowed smoothly from attack to counterattack, spinning his sword about to scrape past the spear and slide the blade toward my war spirit's chest. Sparks flew as metal screeched against metal, but my war spirit spun away to avoid the blow.
He then whirled his spear around and retaliated with a swift thrust that the general dodged. Using his spear like a club, he swung it down, but the general blocked it with his sword. Blade clashed against metallic pole, and the ground beneath his feet cracked.
Then the general swung about to slash him. My war spirit staggered back, almost unable to deflect the hit. His arms trembled from the blow, his physical strength clearly being below that of the general's. It was only natural. He still hadn't formed his whole body yet. Without his full form, he couldn't bring out his true strength.
Yeah, this was my fault. If only I was able to cultivate him to his full form…then again, I took about ten years just to bring my divine dragon to maturity. Three years for my war spirit was already quite an impressive feat. Okay, three years didn't count because my war spirit was still incomplete, but I really shouldn't be expecting to finish him in three years.
Did I attempt to explore this tomb too soon? No…the whole point of exploring this tomb was to acquire treasures that would greatly speed up my progress in completing my war spirit's full form.
However, I couldn't interfere in the battle. This was a matter of honor. If I jumped in, the horde of soldiers would also intervene, and it would turn into an all-out brawl like earlier. It wasn't that I wasn't confident that Mu Rong Shu and I wouldn't be able to defeat them all, but I wouldn't gain the respect and loyalty of these soldiers.
As a summoner, I would prefer to keep them on my side.
That didn't mean I was completely helpless in this situation, though.
A single blow sent my war spirit crashing against the wall, causing him to almost drop his spear. He was gradually fading away, unable to maintain his spiritual integrity in the real world. The general lunged forward, intent on finishing off my war spirit.
However, before he could deliver the finishing blow, my war spirit vanished. He glanced around, confused, searching for my war spirit, but was unable to find him.
"Over here."
I strode forward, holding a new spear. Well, it wasn't exactly a new spear. It was my own personal spear, the form that my war spirit took when I manifested him in this way. Clanging the blunt end of the spear against the ground, I stared down the general, who glowered at me.
"You wouldn't mind if I swap with him, would you? After all, I'm the real commander here. Allow me to take your challenge."
The general was silent, but he nodded in acquiescence. Apparently he didn't care, as long as he had the chance to face a worthy foe.
And he deemed me to be a worthy enough opponent.
Kicking off the ground, he charged at me and swung his sword down in a vicious arc that would cleave me from crown to groin if I didn't dodge.