Booom! A deafening explosive sound echoed as Wind and Jiao exchanged the first move. It naturally was due to usage of large amount of chi. Suppressing the opponent with an overwhelming might was a basic strategy in a combat.
Both Jiao and Wind were pushed back from the collision. At once Jiao was astonished.
"This is no ordinary Sage realm warrior." Jiao thought and frowned. He was already puzzled as to how did Xiao break out of his control but he increasingly felt that Wind had something to do with it.
Swoosh! Wind flew over rapidly.
"Chieftain charge!" Wind aimed his golden spear towards Jiao's head and charged ahead furiously.
"Hmph! Reaper slash!" Jiao snorted and countered. The two weapons clashed again.
Boom! With an explosive sound Jiao successfully parried Wind's attack and then spun swiftly slashing at Wind fiercely.
Whissh!! Clang! Wind was struck directly by the black scythe but his knight armor protected him. The impact however was still powerful enough to push him several feet away. As he tried to control his body Jiao already had attacked with another technique.
Fwoosh! A red flame engulfed Wind entirely. But it was ineffective against the knight armor.
"Chieftain hurl! Wind charged towards Jiao again, closing the distance immediately.
"Air ripper!" Jiao attacked, moving his scythe a hundred times within a second! Wind was struck a hundred times. His knight armor was now full of scratches.
Swish! Jiao spun and kicked Wind as he got close. A fiery explosion occurred upon impact and Wind was pushed away once again.
Bwoosh! Bwoosh! Bwoosh! Jiao shot several fireballs at wind.
Bwoosh! Bwoosh! Bwoosh! Wind countered with a similar move! He had mastered the Blazing Flame technique after all.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Several explosions occurred in air. Following that Jiao and Wind began pitting their fire element techniques against one another.
Meanwhile on the ground several empyrean warriors were fighting with a single Plant King. His Silvery Flicker technique was no joke. It was so swift that everyone who came to test waters was forced to retreat and fight from a distance, using ranged technique moves. However, Plant King moved rapidly and continuously, closing in on them. His attacks were rapid, abrupt and his pattern couldn't be deduced. The veteran warriors were all stumped!
"Fuck! How is he so fast? Somebody hold him off!"
"I'll finish him with my elemental technique!"
The empyrean warriors communicated through certain support type technique.
"Fight me if you dare, Plant King!" A warrior shouted and his body enlarged, growing fur on the skin as he began to resemble a tiger. It was a brute force technique.
Swish! With a gust of wind, Plant King appeared in front of him, having accepted the challenge. His long sword seemed like a silvery flicker of light as it cut through the opponent. However, the empyrean warrior took the attack directly & grabbed Plant King in a grappling manner
"Got him!"
Attack!"
Everyone shouted and hurled all sorts of attacks on Plant King.
Boom! An explosion occurred. Both the tiger warrior and Plant King were blasted into pieces. However, Plant King recovered immediately, thanks to his wood element technique. But his opponent was dead. He sacrificed himself for nothing.
"Fuck! Keep attacking!" The warriors roared and attacked again but Plant King was too swift. As he dodged, his back began to grow a small but thick tree on it. Within a minute the tree bore fruits which fell off on the ground and rapidly grew into treemen!
"…" At once everyone was lost for words. They had fought such treemen when they attacked Qiang. These were a nuisance! Soon the empyrean warriors were all surrounded by several treemen. The advantage of numbers they held against Plant King was gone and now they were the outnumbered ones. Plant King moved easily with his Silvery Flicker technique and started ambushing the distracted warriors, easily killing two more of them.
"Huddle together and fight it out!" Suddenly Jiao's voice resounded as he guided his warriors.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Many of his duplicates rushed down to aid the empyrean warriors. Plant King frowned as he fought three of the clones at once. They were fairly powerful and agile. Despite their levels being lower to Plant King, they had most of Jiao's techniques and hence still held a qualitative advantage against Plant King. The latter retreated while the duplicates chased after him.
"It seems you're taking me lightly." Wind muttered next to original Jiao's ear.
"Chaos burst! Lighting strike!" Wind attacked furiously and rapidly. Jiao was struck directly and flew several feet away. His armor now had several cracks and burnt marks on it. As Jiao regained his balance, Wind closed in and they fought once again.
"How is this brat so powerful? He's fighting me on equal footing!" Jiao frowned and thought. Although he hadn't used most of his techniques and power yet, but Wind was still fighting him equally. This upset Jiao greatly.
"Giant technique!" Jiao shouted and his body rapidly grew massive in size, making him look like a giant. He was twice the size of Lan's golem form.
"Giant fist!" Jiao struck Wind with his left fist.
Boom! Wind was struck down and fell to the ground.
"Die!" Jiao stomped at Wind with his giant foot, causing tremors in the ground. But Wind had already retreated underground using the Earthworm technique. Next, the entire ground split open and the giant Jiao fell into it before the ground recovered, filling up the big crevice. He was stuck.
At once everyone stopped and stared at the ground before resuming their fight urgently. The empyrean warriors were quickly exterminating the treemen while Plant King was finally backed into a corner.
Suddenly a crossbow bolt appeared out of nowhere and struck him in the head, causing him to feel disoriented for a moment before the Jiao duplicates got to him and pinned him down with a barrage of attacks. Fire, rocks and scythes were used against Plant King, injuring him quickly while more duplicates flew over.
Lan smiled from a corner. She had been brainwashed into fighting Wind's group. Her loyalty was towards Jiao.
"Got you." Suddenly Xiao whispered in Lan's ear, startling her.
Silvery flicker! Xiao was Plant King's partner and had learnt the Silvery Flicker technique from him to some extent. She used the movement aspect of it and closed in on Lan before Lan could notice.
Lan retreated while aiming her crossbow towards Xiao. She shot all the crossbow bolts at Xiao soundlessly. Her silent arrow technique was remarkable. But Xiao dodged them all and the turned into water, splashing on Lan. Lan fell on the ground and struggled for a while before stopping. Xiao resumed her elf form while clarity returned to Lan's eyes. This all happened rather quickly.
"I'm sorry for what I've done, dear." Xiao consoled Lan. "Could you please protect the children?"
Lan nodded. "You were not yourself. I don't hate you mother in law. & yes. I will let no harm befall the children." Lan said & went underground. She was going to keep watch on the last strategy and defend the younglings without revealing herself.
Xiao on the other hand, rushed to aid Plant King. Jiao's duplicates had frustrated expressions as they were immediately pushed back by Xiao and Plant King. The latter had already recovered. Plant King had wood element constitution which enabled him to fight for a long time while his opponents would always eventually run out of chi. The duplicates had limited energy too. They could not spend it all recklessly but under the joint rapid attacks of Plant King and Xiao, they had no choice.
Soon half of the duplicates were killed off. Some of them disappeared on their own after expending all their energy. Meanwhile the treemen kept pouring into the battlefield and empyrean warriors got no chance to even take a breather.
The ground shook strongly every now and then as the giant Jiao and fought Wind. Jiao had entered the underground. But he was in enemy's turf. Not only was Wind able to dodge and confuse Jiao by digging numerous tunnels, he also constricted Jiao's movements and deployed his demon army.
This demon army was a small force. It was formed hurriedly. Wind merely had a week despite forcing dozens of prostitutes in the strategy to breed the demons. He had even released all the prostitutes on the way to battle after erasing their memories. Thus, there were no new demons being bred and so the demon army was going to be wiped out soon.
Jiao was however eventually forced to return to his normal size which reduced his strength but increased his speed and made it easier for him to fight the enemy. The demons kept pouncing over him like ants attacking a tiger. They were a nuisance but that's all. Jiao chopped them all off no matter how many demons attacked him. Meanwhile Wind had retreated and was preparing a technique while pondering.
"He remains true to his nature." Wind thought. "Even now he's just playing with me and not using his true power. Well, that's in my favor anyway." Smiling, Wind activated his move once the last demon was slain by Jiao.
Rumble! The ground moved rapidly and formed an underground cave. This was the usage of Potter technique. Wind hadn't completely mastered this one but he had just enough grasp of it. Jiao squinted, looking for Wind and soon found him.
"There you are!" Jiao snarled but the ground shook again.
"Hundred Infusion Array!" Wind shouted and light glowed under Jiao's feet as he was captured in the array that Wind had set up during Jiao's fight with demons.
"Humph! Strategy arrays are ineffective against me." Jiao snorted.
"Array breaker!" he shouted and chi rippled out from under his feet, breaking the array. Although hundred infusion array was basically hundred times durable than an average array, it was still taken down under the massive amount of chi that Jiao released.
However… the array resumed its form, stunning Jiao at once. He then felt immense pressure on him as the array displayed its power.
"Array breaker!" Jiao shouted again and broke the array but it reconstructed itself magically within a moment. Jiao broke it several more times but the result was still the same. He was stuck in a standstill.
Wind's lips curled up into a smirk.
"He doesn't have a third eye!" Wind deduced. He had actually cast an illusion spell on Jiao, causing him to see a loop. In truth the hundred infusion array had been shattered by Jiao in the first attack. From then on, he was just caught in an illusion and wasting his chi.
"If he had third eye, he'd have been able to see through my spell." Wind smiled. This was a great news. Wind didn't have enough information on Jiao's techniques and trump cards. He had been testing the waters all this time. Jiao was doing the same but he was ironically caught in an illusion now.
"Now then…time to finish you off." Wind murmured staring coldly at Jiao. His magic surged as he prepared for a lethal attack.
Boom! Suddenly a Jiao duplicate barged into the cave and merged with Jiao, breaking him out of the trance.
"Illusion?" Jiao frowned feeling angry.
Boom! He leapt up and rushed out of the ground.
"To think that I was caught up in an illusion! How embarrassing!" Jiao shouted in his mind and dangerously glared at the children in the central hub.
Swoosh! He flew towards them and struck with his chi.
"Array breaker!" Jiao shouted and punched towards the barrier.
Boom! The strategy barrier shattered and Jiao barged in.
"Time to die, chickens!" Jiao growled evilly as he glared at the scared children and teenagers. But suddenly he fell into a pit which had formed under his feet quickly.
Blang! Blang! Blang! Numerous crossbow bolts struck him like heavy rains as Lan shot them while moving in a camouflaged state. She couldn't be easily seen.
"Hmph petty tricks." Jiao growled and flew up.
Boom! Ground exploded below wind as he charged towards Jiao at lightning speed. Jiao turned swiftly and grinned. He had been waiting! This was his way of luring Wind out of the underground.
"Empyrean slash!" Jiao shouted and slashed his scythe towards Wind.
"Chaos beam!" Wind shouted and shot a beam towards Jiao with his palm.
Boom! Jiao was blown away and collided against a wall several li away. A human shaped deep hole had formed in the rocky wall.
"Fuck!" Jiao cursed as he flew out in rage. His armor had been cracked and damaged greatly & his scythe was broken!
"You bastard! I'll show you my true power then!" He shouted and revolved his chi rapidly, no longer wanting to drag the battle out.
"Devourer shadow!!" He shouted and raised his palms towards Wind. Boundless black shadows erupted from his hand like tsunami waves and quickly engulfed Wind entirely before spreading further.
"Retreat!" Someone shouted. Everyone fled away from the rapidly enlarging shadows.
However, the next moment all the shadows retreated and disappeared. Wind stood tall in the sky staring at Jiao.
"…" There was a pin drop silence in the Dwarves colony for several moments.
The menacing ultimate trump card of Emperor Jiao had no effect on Wind?
"How…" Jiao murmured. He was thoroughly astonished. This was his strongest attack from the godly technique that he gained from Shadow God himself!
"Chieftain charge." Wind uttered.
Boom! He was in front of Jiao already and struck ruthlessly.
"Lightning spear!" Wind shouted and a massive lightning explosion occurred, blinding everyone's sight at once.
Boom! Jiao was struck down on the ground and a crater formed underneath him. There was a gaping hole in his chest! Meanwhile Wind's golden spear had also been broken. Its tip was thoroughly deformed and no longer usable. Wind stowed it away and cracked his knuckles.
Jiao got up as well. His wound was healed already. He stared at Wind seriously.
"Did you use heaven and earth forces in that last attack?" Jiao asked. Wind snorted in response and summoned heaven and earth forces around him. It was an invisible force that could only be seen through a third eye. But Jiao was still able to sense it even without third eye.
"…Which God's follower are you?" Jiao growled through gnashed teeth. Things had escalated to a dangerous turn. If Wind turned out to be a follower of some mighty god, the conflict between Jiao and Wind could lead to some inconvenience to their respective gods. Jiao dared not get on the bad side of Shadow God! He'd be eradicated without a second thought as Shadow God was ruthless and evil!
Whoosh! Wind made another move, not replying Jiao at all. He needed to end the fight and not give Jiao a chance to talk to Shadow God. Otherwise once that God meddles, Wind might not be able to take his revenge!
Boom! Boom! Wind immediately struck powerfully. He used Blazing Fire technique and Chaos technique, suppressing Jiao completely. Loud explosions occurred and Jiao was tossed around like a ball. Everyone stared with wide eyes and gaping mouths.
"How the hell did he get so strong!" Plant King shouted in his mind. Wind was still at Sage realm in cultivation. Theoretically it was impossible for him to beat someone at Emperor realm. But Wind was doing it! The empyrean warriors were also at a loss. They themselves were in a miserable state. And now their emperor was taking a beating!
"Enough!" Jiao roared and flew up in air directly colliding with Wind.
Boom! Wind was pushed back and both him and Jiao penetrated into cave wall as they fought barehanded.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Rumble! A large part of the wall crumbled and fell down in a landslide.
Swoosh! Jiao and Wind flew out, fighting furiously.
Boom! They collided into another wall and then into the ground and then up high, piercing through the roof. The entire Dwarves colony trembled and shook from their fight. Rocks fell from above and it seemed that the entire roof would cave in and everyone would be buried in the rubble.
Boom! Bam! Jiao fought speedily but Wind was not at a disadvantage either. His close combat technique was fairly good too. Jiao knew numerous techniques though and hence eventually got an upper hand as Wind started to take more hits and dodged some. But his perfect body was tough and tenacious. Wind took the hits and kicked Jiao away before showing all the moves of Chaos technique. Enhanced by heaven and earth forces, the Chaos technique revealed its full godly might! The Dwarves colony was in shambles. A large part of it was already filled up by the rubble that kept pouring down as Wind and Jiao fought furiously.
It was obvious to Wind though that Jiao himself had a good grasp on heaven and earth forces. He was Shadow God's lackey and had gained a powerful technique which employed usage of heaven and earth forces. He used the Shadow Devourer on Wind but Wind kept absorbing it and turned it all into shadow beads. Needless to say, Wind had already obtained a shadow element constitution. His grasp on shadow element was now natural. This gave Jiao a headache. He didn't get any chance to scrutinize Wind thoroughly as he was continuously forced to defend or attack. He was slightly confused and flustered. He wanted to end the fight but Wind seemed like an immortal bug which kept bugging him.
"Chaos spear!" Wind shouted and struck towards Jiao.
Boom! The chaos spear pierced through Jiao and destroyed his both lungs. His eyes were bloodshot as he rapidly retreated & healed himself.
"This isn't good." Jiao thought. He was sweating profusely. "This bastard is definitely Chaos God's follower but he seems to have a method to nullify my shadow technique attacks. Should I use it for defense instead of attack?" This was the second round of probing. After both Jiao and Wind revealed their mastery over heaven and earth forces, they needed to probe one another again. Though Wind had an advantage. He could see heaven and earth forces while Jiao only could make a guess.
"Armored Shadow Giant!" Jiao shouted. His chi was rapidly consumed as he turned into a giant while heaven and earth forced transformed into shadow energy and covered Jiao in form of a solid shadow element armor.
"Shadow club…" Jiao snarled and the shadow element solidified in his hand taking shape of a huge club.
"He is finally taking the right approach; using his shadow technique defensively. It's hard to say if he has the shadow element constitution too, but the amounts of shadow element in his dantian is quite large. This won't be easy now." Wind thought as he stopped to catch a breath and stared at Jiao. Neither of the two moved for a while but winds had started to blow in the Dwarves colony already.
"Witness the power of chaos…" Wind suddenly uttered as heaven and earth forces were utilized in place of chi. The winds intensified by a hundred times immediately forming a large whirlwind which exerted immense pressure on everyone!"
Crack! Crack! Rumble! The walls shattered and stones turned to dust.
"Gyaahh!"
"Aaaah!!" The empyrean warriors howled before dying as they all turned into a piles of meat paste. They were dead.
Lan had used earthworm technique to help Wind's group retreat into the ground by now. They were all deep underground, watching this fight through observational support techniques. At the same time there were several long tunnels dug out by Lan. In these tunnels the children were escaping in different directions, each guarded by a group of goblins led by one orc each. This was the precautionary alternative they had decided upon. To let the children escape guarded by Xiao's goblin army and orc children. Even if Jiao won and they all died, some of the kids might survive even if Jiao chased after them. the chance was slim but there was hope. But this was all done before Wind displayed his current might. Currently everyone was thoroughly astounded!
"Chaos whirlwind…" Wind uttered as he floated to the center of the whirlwind looking down at the armored shadow giant Jiao. Their gazes met.
Boom! Jiao jumped up! He resisted the whirlwind and even jumped up!
"Take this!" Jiao roared and hurled his club upwards.
Pressure! A counter pressure was created within the whirlwind which struck towards Wind.
"Chaos spear!" Wind had no choice but to launch his assault prematurely. From the looks of things, the chaos whirlwind would be cancelled out by Jiao so Wind utilized the chaos he had accumulated thus far and shot a chaos spear towards the incoming shadow club.
Boom!!!! A strong explosion occurred. Chaos whirlwind was already gone. The shadow club cracked and crumbled but Jiao was still leaping up with his fist raised towards Wind. Chaos spear was dispersed in the previous collision already.
Boom! Wind was struck heavily and flung upwards. He collided into the roof and kept getting pushed up for about a li before stopping. He coughed out a few mouthfuls of blood.
"Fuck! What insane strength!" Wind cursed. Even his perfect body was finally injured!
"Emperor pull!"
Swoosh! Wind was suddenly pulled down and before he could do anything he was already in tight grasp of armored shadow giant.
"Die!" Jiao growled and squeezed.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Wind's ribs made cracking sound and he grunted.
"Chaos burst!" Wind shouted and chaos erupted from his body trying to unclench Jiao's fist in which Wind was captured but it had no effect.
"Haha! Surrounded by my shadow element, you have no access to heaven and earth forces!" Jiao cackled and squeezed harder.
"Chaos burst!" Wind burnt out all his accumulated shadow element traits, turning them into heaven and earth forces and managed to break free!
Clap! Jiao clapped with both hands catching Wind between his giant palms and pressed hard.
"Fuck! I'm screwed!" Wind panicked. To think that armored shadow giant form of Jiao was so powerful! Wind was facing the worst-case scenario. His shadow element constitution fell a bit short of helping him out of this situation.
Crack! One of his ribs cracked.
"Damn it!" Wind cursed. His chi techniques could not break him out. His magic was only enough for one spell but he had none that could free him from such a massive physical force. His perfect body was giving in and he was cut off from heaven and earth forces.
"Am I going to die here?" Wind thought. "Such a pity. I could have taken him down if I had more time, sigh."
Boom! Boom! Krrrr…!! Suddenly Wind heard muffled but loud sounds.
Outside, a huge tree had grown up in the Dwarves colony. It was so huge that its branches upheld the roof and its thick trunk covered more than a quarter of the cave's width. This was Plant King's trump card. He had transformed into the giant tree and was now attacking the armored shadow giant. At the same time large and thick branches wrapped around Jiao's wrists trying to free Wind.
"Humph! Dream on!" Jiao barked and kept the pressure on, trying to squash Wind to death.
"Graah!!" Xiao roared as she appeared from a side in her orc form and attacked Jiao furiously.
Bam! Bam! Her giant axe struck the shadow armor but made no damage. It was too tough!
Rumble! The ground cracked under Jiao and he stumbled, falling down on the ground and getting stuck in a large crevice that had already formed under him. Numerous vines joined in with the branches, trying harder to free Wind while Xiao used magic spells to augment her power and struck even harder. She was finally able to hack into the shadow armor and chunks of it fell off with each strike of Xiao's huge axe.
"Aaahhh!!!" Jiao roared and clenched harder.
Crack! Stars floated in Wind's eyes as he was crushed hard. His ribs and bones finally cracked and broke down.
Krrrr…! Finally a tiny gap opened between Jiao's palms. Vines slithered in and wrapped around Wind, forcefully pulling him out.
Boom! Boom! Plant King and Xiao attacked furiously at Jiao. At the same time ground rumbled as Lan went all out. They were all trying to keep Jiao away from Wind.
Meanwhile Wind's ears were buzzing and his sight was dark.
"You bastard. I told you to not go to battle alone." A familiar female voice echoed in Wind's ears. Wind tried hard to recall to whom it belonged but his thoughts were all muddled now. He had already lost grasp of consciousness.
Several minutes later Wind slowly opened her eyes and stared blankly. In her line of sight, a giant tree and an armored shadow giant were fighting brutishly. Not far from them there was a female ork impaled by several spears. She was bleeding and flinching, unable to heal herself. Then there were also massive flames roaring everywhere. They were quickly engulfing the armored shadow giant while also harming the giant tree.
"Wind… Wind! How are you feeling?" A deep abyssal type female voice called out, bringing Wind back to her senses.
"Lan?" Wind asked and frowned. "What happened?" Wind scrutinized herself at once. She had turned into a woman again. This was basically her default gender now. There was still some magic left in her body. Her chi had already recovered but her shadow element constitution was all gone.
"You fell unconscious when Jiao managed to capture you and almost squeezed you to death. We've been holding him off since then." Lan said. "Father-in-law managed to pull you out. Princess Alexia healed you."
"Alexia!?" Wind jolted to full awareness. She looked through her third eye and found Alexia flying around Jiao and attacking him with all her might.
"Damn it woman." Wind frowned and got up.
"You should rest Wind. Gather some more chi." Lan stopped her. She no longer addressed Wind as master or mistress because they were relatives now. Lan had grown bolder over time too. She wasn't so timid anymore and Wind and Lan already shared a deep understanding of one another. It could be said that they were close friends.
"Hmm… bring Xiao. I need her spells." Wind said and sat cross-legged to meditate. She immediately felt calm despite the loud chaos of the battle. Heaven and earth forces flowed into her body, quickly forming shadow element which Wind began to store in her dantian. It was still going to take about half an hour to restore and provide her the temporary shadow element constitution.
Soon Xiao was brought over by Lan. Wind opened her eyes and touched Xiao's body. All the shadow element spears turned into energy and were absorbed by Wind. This was one of her abilities now that she had mastered the Shadow technique.
Xiao immediately turned into an elf but stayed on her back, breathing slowly as she scrutinized herself.
"Restore spell hadn't been working I presume?" Wind said noticing this.
"What is this shadow thing?" Xiao asked weakly.
"An element." Wind replied. "An out-worldly or rather…a godly element."
Xiao and Lan were amazed.
"There is no time. Use restore spell on me." Wind told Xiao who complied in turn.
Immediately Wind felt energetic and even her magic recovered to full! It could be said to be a cheat spell at this point. Once an elf used restore spell on another elf, the latter's magic would be restored as well!
Wind immediately turned into a man. It wasn't going to have any effect on his battle prowess but Wind simply wouldn't feel himself if he fought as a woman. Taking a deep breath, Wind stood up. His knight armor had been broken but he summoned it again. Xiao used restore spell on it too, repairing it magically. Wind donned it on and cracked his knuckles. He was ready for battle once again!