As he was about to leap into battle, the bandit's leader laughed, "With this new contraption, we can make a hole in this damned wall!"
"Chief, when we will be using this?" one of his men asked the reason why he hadn't made his move just yet.
"I will lead our most powerful men first and try to see if we can conquer the wall first. If we can defeat them, we will detonate these 'bombs' at a later time, on every single wall, at the same time.
This will cause the defense of the city to be weakened significantly. If we can't defeat them, then we have to blow this baby up early, so our advantage would be gone. Ideally, we detonate them all at once, at every single wall but if we can't then it's no biggie, we just have to improvise," the leader shrugged, before preparing to make his move.
Ryker let out a sigh of relief. 'At least I can kill the leader as quickly as possible. As for the bombs,' he glanced at them, an idea coming to his mind.
'They won't know what will hit them,'
-x-
Despite being outnumbered one to five, the Duke had the advantage. Aside from the bandit's great chief, the rest were 3rd Stage of Genesis Sea, not enough to threaten someone like him if he played defensively.
However, doing this will lead them to not be able to help in any other area, and considering how they were holding back and playing it safely as well, it's part of their plan.
He frowned, because of how stretched thin his forces were, courtesies of sending other Genesis Sea experts to help protect other major cities, along with most of his forces, the capital's defense is severely weakened.
Some of the walls didn't even have a Genesis Spring expert to protect them, forcing him to depend on the young elites of the great families.
He thought about one young elite, remembering how strong he was, 'If he was here, I would be more assured,' he thought to himself. After all, the young man possessed strength equal to a Genesis Spring expert.
His thought was broken when he sensed a disturbance near one of the walls. Unleashing a burst of aura to push his opponents back, he used his Soul Sense to determine the threat.
"Oh no!" he gasped, sensing several figures flying towards the wall supposedly guarded by the young master of the Mortola Family.
He didn't sense the young man and would reprimand him greatly. However, even if he was present, he couldn't do anything as the attackers are made up of Genesis Spring experts, led by a Genesis Lake expert.
The bandit leader seemed to sense his distress, judging by the laughter he heard, "Watch Duke, as your precious city turned into ruin,"
He was about to continue fighting when he sensed a powerful burst of energy, the other Genesis Sea experts also sensing it as well.
"What the-"
-x-
In all honesty, the success of the plan hinges on several key factors. One is that the bomb will be placed far away enough that if it explodes, it won't cause any harm to the walls.
Number two, the group the leader led to conquer the section of the walls didn't have much in terms of numbers, to avoid his line of sight from being blocked by some other bandits.
The third and last point, the group focused on their attack to the point they wouldn't notice him attacking them. The last point is the most important, as his only chance of killing the leader is by ambushing him.
As the elites led by the leader flew towards their target, Ryker prepared one of his strongest attacks, Lightning Spirit Spear, though he also added one little addition to make it even more deadly.
Instead of just lightning qi, he infused the spear with both fire and death qi, the aura emitted from the combination was so powerful he was amazed that they didn't sense it.
As it would take some time to prepare the technique, he had put some concealing formation to cover the energy emitted, though he was fearful the low-level formation would not be enough to cover him.
As it turns out, he had been overthinking it, the bandits didn't even sense the energy emitted. With his technique already completed, he just needs a clear line of sight.
"Spread out!" he heard the leader speak, the other bandits flew to form the wing in their formation.
He smiled broadly, it couldn't get any luckier or better than this. Not wasting any more time, he threw the spear, "Deathly Infernal Lightning Spear," he called the name of the new and improved technique, watching as it headed towards its target.
-x-
The bandit leader could barely sense the attack. He only sensed it when it got close enough for him to touch, to the point he turned his head to see the spear coming at him.
He couldn't dodge all of it in time, barely twisting his body so less of the attack made contact with his body. He also created several qi barriers to reduce the injuries he will receive.
Despite all of his efforts, the spear pierced through his abdomen, leaving a gaping hole in his stomach. Besides the pain of having his body pierced, there is also the feeling of lightning and fire tearing his body from the inside. Plus a sensation that his organs began to fail, decayed if he could call it that.
As he was in great pain, he didn't notice his men calling out to him, or them trying to fly towards him only to fall to the ground, their heads no longer connected to their bodies.
The only sign of danger was a young man appearing in front of him, a sword coated with lightning descended towards his injured form.
And then, darkness.
-x-
Ryker let out a tired sigh. While normally it wouldn't cause him to be this tired to use the Lightning Spirit Spear, the new and enhanced version took a lot out of him, to the point it was a surprise he could still move after launching the attack.
Then again, he needed to go all out, so the leader was less injured than he would have liked. Even with him being drained, he could still tear through the rabble in front of him, not to mention...
He took out several pills before consuming them. The pills are simple Qi Supplying Pills, a pill used to, well, supply qi back into one's own body.
With his qi reserve slowly filling up, he looked at the bandits before snapping his finger. At that moment, a large explosion occurred in the bandit group, courtesies of him tinkering with the bombs.
With a large number of bandits killed from the explosion or at least badly hurt, that left the remaining stragglers, all looking fearfully at him.
He gave them a dangerous smile, "Who's next?"