Hei Ba's charge swept aside the hapless Yellow ranked Flood Dragon soldiers, crushing several under his immense bulk as he swiftly slithered across the battlefield and toward the sedan bearing the Flood Dragon King. A swipe of his tail flung a mob of Flood Dragon soldiers about like bowling pins, causing the walls and floor to crack when they crashed against the rocky surfaces.
One of the Flood Dragon Behemoths lumbered forward to intercept Hei Ba, but the enraged Abyssal Serpent ignored the fellow Mystic ranked spirit beast. He lashed at the approaching Flood Dragon Behemoth with his tail, almost irritably, and pushed it back a few steps – just enough to seize an opening to slither away before the Flood Dragon Behemoth could pounce on him. The latter was large, slow and heavy, so it was unable to catch up with Hei Ba. Within seconds, the Abyssal Serpent was too far away for it to catch.
With an almost triumphant hiss, Hei Ba lunged at the Flood Dragon King, shoving aside the elite Flood Dragon guards with his bulk and opening his maw wide, as if to swallow the huge dragon monarch whole.
His fangs slammed down against the Flood Dragon King's shoulders, but didn't pierce through. Despite biting desperately, Hei Ba's jaws didn't budge, almost as if they were stuck. The Flood Dragon King simply looked up at the slavering maw and slowly shook his head.
"Not impressed."
With a single flick of his arm, he swatted Hei Ba aside. The Abyssal Serpent was about five times his length, and yet Hei Ba was thrown away like nothing more than a doll, his long figure slamming against the ceiling and shattering stalactites. With a thunderous thud, Hei Ba crashed onto the ground, crushing a couple of unlucky Flood Dragon soldiers still within the rearguard, and twitched. Blood pooled around his mouth as he stared blankly, glassy eyed.
"Holy…"
The Flood Dragon King had defeated a peak Mystic ranked Abyssal Serpent with a single strike. I knew the difference in cultivation realms was huge, but I didn't expect Hei Ba to go down that easily. He was the strongest summoned spirit beast I had in my disposal, and he was effortlessly knocked out by a single hit.
This didn't bode well for my dungeon.
However, I couldn't let his instantaneous defeat deal a blow to morale. Instead, I held up my sword and yelled defiantly.
"See, this is what happens if you disobey orders and recklessly charge ahead by yourself for personal glory! Individually, we are weak! But together, no matter how insignificant we might seem, as long as we work together, we are greater than the sum of our parts! Hei Ba refused to cooperate with us, and he was punished for it! But unlike him, we will stand strong because we have each other to rely upon! So don't give up and prove to him that individual cultivation realms don't matter! You don't get a pass just because you happen to be the strongest! Everybody is to obey orders and work together!"
"YEAH!"
A determined cheer rose from my army of summoned spirit beasts. As if to reinforce my point. arcs of lightning from the formation of Little Anglers and Lantern Fishes sprayed across the advancing phalanx of Flood Dragon soldiers and electrocuted them. The Colossal Crabs continued hammering away, forming an impenetrable wall of crustacean shell to deflect spears and blades. The Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins worked in concert, the physical attacks of the Flood Dragon soldiers simply passing through their immaterial bodies. Instead, their ghost and wood element attacks – while not doing much damage individually – were enough to sow confusion in their ranks, inhibiting movements and inducing lethargy.
The only way for the Flood Dragon soldiers to fight back is to use elemental techniques or third-eye sight to allow their physical attacks to land against their intangible ghost forms. This was why ghost type spirit beasts were so effective against body tempering cultivators, who would need to learn third-eye sight in order to deal with them.
And that wasn't a technique many of them bothered with because it was so situational. Fortunately, it wasn't as if spirit beasts were limited to learning only four different techniques or attacks, but still…it simply was a scenario that didn't come up very often.
Even the Tree Revenants and Pumpkin Wraiths were immune to physical attacks, and they were carving bloody murder through the ranks of the Flood Dragon soldiers, who were sinking into a quagmire.
The Flood Dragon Behemoths surged ahead, passing through the barrier to ram down the gates, but the Guardian Golems were waiting for them. They grappled, fought and wrestled, but unlike the last time, they were actually taking casualties. There were more Flood Dragon Behemoths than the two in the vanguard force, and I saw one of the Guardian Golems topple over, unmoving. Another was being weighed down by a hundred different Flood Dragon Soldiers, who had crawled over his body and dragged him down, constantly hammering and chipping away at his high defense with their spears. Even though each attack didn't do much damage, the total combination eroded away at his health.
Death by a thousand cuts, indeed.
A bright flash spread across the cave, and one of the Guardian Golems fell, cleaved apart by one of the two remaining Flood Dragon Champions. His next blade cut a deep gouge across another Guardian Golem, causing him to stumble, and the follow up blow brought him down for good.
Seeing that the flank was about to collapse because the Flood Dragon Behemoths were pouring in, I redirected several of my forces.
"Tree Revenants, Pumpkin Wraiths! Eliminate the Flood Dragon Behemoths!"
They pulled away without question, but their absence left a gap in the lines of my somewhat weaker spirit beasts, and despite being immune to physical damage, the Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins were being pushed back by the sheer number of Flood Dragon soldiers…well, flooding in. To make matters worse, the infantry were being reinforced by Flood Dragon priests, whose spells were detonating amongst my ghost and wood type spirit beasts with devastating effect.
At this rate, the Flood Dragon soldiers would reach my vulnerable Little Anglers and Lantern Fishes.
Fortunately, a freezing beam swept across their front ranks and turned the first row of Flood Dragon soldiers into an icy barrier. Xiao Ke waddled in, firing hydro torrents and freezing beams from his mouth. He was accompanied by Da Hai, who deflected spears and blades with his thick shell, and retaliated with slashes and water techniques. Bubbles or hydro torrents swept across the Flood Dragon soldiers, washing them away.
As always, the Flood Dragon soldiers were resilient, getting back up after being knocked down by the highly pressurized jets of water or rock-hard bubbles. Those encased in ice broke free after a while, shaking the fragments of frost down their armored bodies, and resumed the offensive.
"Xiao Huo, Xiao Huo Long! Reinforce!"
They obeyed, hurling fireballs into the Flood Dragon ranks, but once more, the Flood Dragon soldiers were very resistant to heat and elemental techniques. I could see the frontline collapsing in no time. I had to shore up that side somehow. Not to mention, the Flood Dragon champion was bringing down my Guardian Golems at an alarming rate, despite the Tree Revenants and Pumpkin Wraiths' reinforcement. Normally, they would overwhelm him with sheer numbers, but the Flood Dragon Behemoths that the champion was protecting were bringing their strength to bear, making use of their tremendous sizes and strength to smash aside my spirit beasts.
I made to move toward the Flood Dragon champion, but Long Wang called out to me.
"No, my lord. Leave this bastard to me. Stay where you and continue commanding the troops. I'll take care of this champion."
"Okay, I'll leave it to you."
"Jun Wen, we're done!" Sylvie shouted from her position. "Get your forces to fall back! Silvia and I are ready!"
"Understood!"
I sent a mental command and redirected my Ghost and wood type spirit beasts, as well as Colossal Crabs, back, their retreat covered by the lightning and water from my aquatic armada. The Little Anglers, Lantern Fishes, Da Hai and Xiao Ke incessantly pumped out an unceasing tide of water, electricity and ice, keeping the stubbornly advancing Flood Dragon soldiers at bay.
Then the fairy sisters struck. The arcane runes, each arranged intricately in circles, glowed brightly before turning into elemental energies that streaked across the front area of my dungeon and exploded violently amongst the Flood Dragon soldiers. These being spirit arrays, they were more powerful than my spirit beasts' attacks. Lightning bolts vaporized entire squads, while firebolts incinerated swathes of infantry. Wind blades cut into the marching soldiers, though their armored scales protected them from the worst of the gusts, they left trails of blood.
"Keep pushing, big sis! If we keep this up, we'll wipe them out!" Silvia shouted excitedly when she saw the damage the spirit arrays had done. At least a hundred of the enemy lay dead, but there were more to take their place. For every Flood Dragon soldier cut down, three more replaced them, marching onward with a grim and stoic demeanor.
They really were afraid of the Flood Dragon King's wrath.
"We'll need another few seconds before the spirit arrays' cooldown finishes," Sylvie informed me, her voice strained when she saw that there were still so many Flood Dragon soldiers. They were flooding into the courtyard now, under the barrier and right inside our territory. When I saw where they were stepping onto, I smiled.
"That's good enough. Once the spirit arrays have cooled down, you can activate them again. In the meantime, we'll deal with them."
The Spirit Beast Booster spirit arrays that I had set up came alive in a nova flare. My summoned spirit beasts surged forward to meet the approaching Flood Dragon soldiers in combat. It didn't matter if they were the ordinary ranked Phantom Stumps, Ghost Pumpkins and Little Anglers or the Yellow ranked Lantern Fishes and Colossal Crabs, they benefited from the mystical enhancements from the spirit arrays that the system had given me. With a determined bellow, they charged and knocked the Flood Dragon soldiers back, tearing into them with renewed fervor. Even the ordinary ranked spirit beasts found themselves a match for the Yellow ranked Flood Dragon soldiers now.
The Guardian Golems, Tree Revenants and Pumpkin Wraiths that had been pushed back by the Flood Dragon champion and the Flood Dragon Behemoths were suddenly revitalized, their attacks more aggressive and powerful enough to penetrate the enemy's armor. A Guardian Golem pummeled a Flood Dragon Behemoth, laying it low and cracking open its thick scales to expose the more vulnerable organs inside. Roaring triumphantly, he proceeded to tear into the innards and slay it.
"Oh, seems like all the spirit beasts are motivated by the new spirit arrays," Long Wang remarked as he parried the champion's blade with his claws. He grinned wryly. "I can't get left behind. As the butler of Deep Sea Palace, I should be leading by example."
"You will all die here!" The Flood Dragon champion spat. "None can oppose the will of my king! Your pitiful act of defiance is futile. A waste of time and energy."
"So we should just do nothing and let you guys kill us?" Long Wang snorted as he deflected another slash. "How arrogantly delusional."
"That's right. The weak has no right to resist. They must obey the strong. And if the strong decides the weak should die, then they can do nothing but die! DIE!"
Not this strong eat the weak bullshit again…
I wanted to bury my face in my palm, but I was currently commanding my troops to push back the Flood Dragon soldiers. In any event, Long Wang found himself overpowered by a malicious blow from the Flood Dragon champion. Despite crossing his claws and catching the blade, he was sent flying. Hitting the wall of the Deep Sea Palace, he coughed out some blood and slid down.
"Hah! So weak! I told you, you have no say in the matter because you are too weak to resist! So stop fighting back and just die already!"
"You really are stupid." Long Wang sighed as he rose to his feet and wiped the blood from his mouth. "Just because I went a little easy on you, you let it get into your head and act all arrogantly."
"Went easy on me? What nonsense are you spouting now?"
Long Wang chuckled as his eyes glowed golden. His body began shifting and melting, his figure lengthening and contorting. In a few seconds, he had transformed to a miniature version of his original form, a black oriental dragon with horns, wisps of beard and onyx scales. Though he was nowhere as large as he originally was when in Heaven realm, he was still huge – about as big as the Flood Dragon Behemoths. His claws crushed rock to powder as he slunk toward the stunned Flood Dragon Champion. The Spirit Beast Booster spirit array appeared to harmonize with his new form, enhancing his qi further.
"What…what the hell are you?"
"Me?" Long Wang's voice was now a deep rumble, almost sounding like the crash of tidal waves during a storm. "Unlike you thin-blooded descendants, I'm a real dragon."