"Push, we're about to pincer them! Attack through the north-eastern road!" Master Shen Ning
commanded Wu Lei and Rui Ming, then flew away. Things were going great so far, but this next order was crucial — if they managed to break through this layer of defense, hundreds of Fist sect soldiers would be attacked from the rear, cut away from their forces with nowhere to go.
Xin shot a monk that was aiming a crossbow at him in the head, then hid behind the corner as he reloaded. Heavens, they are dropping like flies! Seems they've sent a bunch of mooks to slow us down, fresh recruits with barely any training.
A minute later, the enemies retreated, but Xin's side wasn't too eager to chase, and chose to shower them in crossbow bolts while holding shape.
"Lei, how do we proceed? They can flank us from the central square if we advance too eagerly!" Rui Ming had his foot on top of a surrendered enemy monk, tying his hands down.
"Think we leave Nang to hold this barricade with a chunk of our forces, then turn the corner with the main force! You've seen them fight, they are running out of troops in this area. We've got to seize the opportunity!"
"Let's not force the opponent's hand too much. Once we corner them, we need to give them a corridor out, or they'll fight to death. Leave a small street open to retreat, and they'll trample each other to death retreating instead of holding formation and fighting." Murong Zhan was a noble, and knew the basics of strategy. What he said just now was common knowledge among military commanders, but was often forgotten in the heat of combat. Xin appreciated having an ally who could keep their head cold.
"Fine! Troops, split! Yao Nang, you take fifteen and hold that passage, five men deliver the prisoners to the Xuanwu and come back swiftly, everyone else — follow me and master Ming! Troops, ready in thirty seconds!" Lei pointed his bloodied blade at the sky, his crimson hair catching the last sunbeams of this dreadful day. He felt uneasy, not being in serious danger felt like a relief, but killing so many people with little to no resistance left one feeling hollow. For some reason, many Fist sect members refused to surrender and fought to death, Lei found their loyalty to something as ugly as their thug sect revolting.
"Xin, I want you to stand behind the troops and snipe the rank ones! They'll target you, don't pop up too much. Zhan, how many discs can you launch?" Rui Ming spent the last seconds of preparation strategizing a bit more.
"Five more at most." He answered after munching a spirit stone.
Murong Zhan is a perfect mortal killer, Xin thought. Impenetrable for their weapons with his defensive methods, a launch of his disc can slice down two people at once, if aimed at heads, and his enchanted chakrams can cut down even armoured mortals as if they're grass. But, given the rules and his noble status, he was unlikely to utilise this advantage, as the punishments for "punching down" were much more severe than just having one's immunity removed.
"Move, move!" Lei finally commanded the troops. The sect's forces have now split with Xuanwu clan's as they were busy holding down the enemy advance on the left flank. Mobile and heavy hitting FETS fighters were a much better hit squad, given that Xuanwu clan's magic had already exhausted itself.
Rui Ming and Wu Lei led twenty five soldiers in total among them as they turned from the road leading to the central square, crossing an alley and emerging in the rear of the opponent's forces.
"Rush them! Rush them!" Lei shouted and activated Molten Heart once again.
Blink! A person emerged between their forces, mounted on a flying sword, moving so fast that it almost seemed that he teleported.
It was that rank three man Xin saw earlier during the duels, master Bo! He looked completely unremarkable, with brown eyes and a bald head, a weak chin complementing his tired eyes. His body was toned, if slender, covered by orange robes with a traditional thick Way's necklace on top.
Xin's heart skipped a beat. Did he decide to start wiping the mortals out? There is nothing we can do if that's the case. And unless the Sect Leader is around, there is also no one to punish him!
Their squad stopped in their tracks. One of the soldiers almost shot the flying man out of pure reflex, but Rui Ming slapped his hand.
The man quickly glanced through their squad, Xin even felt like their gazes met for a moment. He then grunted and locked his arms on his belly.
"Soldiers, spread!" Rui Ming commanded. If he launches an area attack, we'll all die! Xin hid behind the corner as he activated his totemic senses. What's that smell?
Feces? Musk? Wool? Xin peeked around the corner, and he saw his squad retreat. The enemy master manifested several creatures out of his aperture!
Wait, he's not a physical cultivator, he's got a rank three core! And why are these creatures armed?
The creatures that emerged in front of their squad were none other than white gorillas, wearing gambesons and holding clubs, standing at human height when hunched. There was five of them in total, and all of them had their heads shaved bald. Right behind them, a taller ape stood, devoid of fur, covered in bone spurs, its eyes bloodshot. It emerged after the other apes, and would thus reach their squad last.
"It's a fucking bone monkey!" Xin exclaimed. He hoped this information would be useful to his peers. It was a creature of rank two battle strength, known for its defense and speed for its size.
"Don't you dare! Leave the low ranks alone!" Master Zhi emerged on a radiant flying sword, leaving a trail of sunbeams as he pierced the air. "Think you can just reflect my techniques? Take this!" He rushed towards master Bo, his entire body glowing in fractal ornaments, as if he himself was a formation. He buried his fingers into his ribs, and when he retrieved them, he bled a golden shining liquid, slowly forming into ritual vajra weapons, eight in total.
Vajra Sacrificial Dance! Master Zhi unleashed a rare technique, a mix of xiandao and shendao powers, as the vajras span in the air, rushing towards master Bo. His body flashed as he tried to rush away, but two vajras still hit him. His skin glowed when the radiant weapons touched it, as if trying to reflect the sunlight away, but the spinning motion of the vajras completely nullified this method. He cried out in pain as he flew away, chased by master Zhi, chunks of his sliced off flesh falling on the ground.
"Focus! We've got the Eggshell formation! Take on the monkeys! Rank ones, surround the big ape!" Lei recomposed himself first and charged at one of the gorillas. Rui Ming jumped at the roof of a nearby two-story building in a seemingly effortless move, drawing his bow.
A myriad of thoughts flashed through Xin's head. If the enemy is willing to risk legal punishment to unleash the apes on us, and decided to reinforce this spot out of all places, it means that winning here is crucial! Means our advance on the main flank, where the rank twos are involved, is going well, and he's trying to reinforce his side with the soldiers we were about to tie up! If that's the case, winning this skirmish could decide the fate of this assault!
"Let's regroup in the main square!" A disciple unfamiliar to Xin took a few steps back, in awe of the things he had just witnessed. The sight of the beasts and a battle of rank threes, even a short glimpse of it, was enough to overwhelm many people. Xin saw a bunch of mortals stare at him, unsure whether they agreed or not.
Murong Zhan was channelling his chakrams, moving towards the beasts along with the squad, then turned back in confusion. Half the mortals are just standing, not advancing! They are right to be afraid of gorillas, but these are creatures, not humans, thus they're exempt from immunity rules! If a rank two or three comes to our aid, they'll likely be able to blast them away in a few moves! We can't give up ground, this is a crescendo of this battle!
"The fuck? Rush!" He pointed at the gorillas. Most mortals didn't think in terms of the big picture, and wanted to take a safe option to survive.
Xin knew what he had to do. He leaped towards the mortal that spoke up and pointed a crossbow at him.
"I want to see you in the first rank or I'll slay you! You have one breath to start running forward! One!"
The mortal just stared at him.
"But..."
Xin shot him in the groin with an unenchanted attack. He considered a headshot, but decided to show mercy.
"Everyone, move!" He quickly reloaded with a technique as he threatened his own soldiers with his crossbow. He kicked the downed soldier's crossbow away just in case, leaving him to bleed out on the ground, groaning, then scanned the combat situation.
Lei attacked the gambeson wearing white gorilla with his meteoritic saber. The animal blocked, but Lei spat lava at its face. The creature groaned in pain, waved his club at him, which Lei deftly dodged, and retreated back, trying to get his spit off its face. It was quickly swarmed by emboldened soldiers, eager to seize the advantage.
Meanwhile, Rui Ming understood how crucial his task was. He needed to keep the bone gorilla occupied for as long as possible. He had a secret method capable of hurting even rank twos, thanks to the sect's help, but it needed a lot of time to set up. This move is impossible to use directly, I need to win us time so that our troops kill the smaller gorillas and distract the bone ape!
Swoosh. Swoosh. He shot two enchanted wind qi infused arrows at the ape. It barely scratched its neck, although he tried to aim where its "carapace" was most vulnerable. The ape roared and pointed its fist at him. Unlike the smaller gorillas, it was three meters tall and carried no weapons, relying on its spiked knuckles to fight.
Rui Ming felt a tingling in his forehead, he entered his natural flow state! His combat intuition hinted at what would happen next. The gorilla is unleashing a ranged attack!
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh. Three bone spikes flew towards him, but he dodged two with his movement technique, and blew another away with a wave of his hand, infused with wind qi. These were upper rank one strength attacks, launched in quick succession. Rui Ming felt uneasy, but also happy that they weren't rank two.
Swoosh. Swoosh. He shot two more arrows at the gorilla, but it blocked one with its arm and took another head on. Realising that Rui Ming's efforts are futile, it decided to run towards the main squad, ignoring him.
Xin aimed at one of the bald apes. Its inner thigh is unarmored, and seems vulnerable. Need to find the right moment…
Smash. A mortal of his sect was too careless and had his skull cracked by its club. The ape roared menacingly, as if to establish dominance, and punched its chest with its fist. That's it!
Twang. The creature's hip was pierced, but the damage wasn't as strong as Xin expected. Seems you need rank one techniques to truly harm them, and the double infusion shot barely qualifies! Xin used a reload technique and approached closer.
Shit, the big one is coming! It ignored Rui Ming and is rushing for our squad!
"Finish them fast! Finish them fast!" Xin shouted to his troops. A normal person's gut instinct seeing a massive gorilla approach his squad would be to back away, but Xin knew that their victory hinged on being able to surround the creature. Its quite fast, and will chase most mortals down if we break rank and flee!
Propulsion shard! Lei waited for the bald white gorilla to swing its club at him, barely dodged it and jumped into the air, burying his meteoric sabre into its neck with a powerful downwards stab, infused with fire qi. To his surprise, he didn't do as much damage as he expected, as the creature's muscles and bones were unnaturally thick and infused with a natural qi coating!
Lava Spit! Lei spat a load on the ape's face, then used his other leg to bounce off the nearby wall, and transformed his upwards jump into a sideways retreat! A moment later, he emerged on the opposite side of the alley, where Xin just shot another gorilla in the hip!
Murong Zhan saw his chance. He pushed an ally mortal aside, and rushed a gorilla stunned by Lei's attacks. The creature was trying to get the spit off its face, burning its hands as well, the melting metal not letting the wounds cauterise.
Cross swing! Murong Zhan took the creature by surprise, but it still had bestial reflexes, and blocked one of his attacks with the club, but his other chakram buried itself deep into its wrist. It burnt through the creature's flesh, hitting the bone, but the gorilla still recomposed and raised the club above its head!
Spinning disc dao shard! Murong Zhan manifested a metal disc out of his chakram, aimed at the ape's raised arm's armpit. It spun as it launched itself, and cut through the thick gambeson like it wasn't even there, then pierced into the gorilla's pectoral muscle, tearing it apart.
"UUUG!" With its swing disrupted, the gorilla instinctively grabbed at Murong Zhan with its other arm, but he blocked the grab with his chakram, slicing two of the ape's fingers off.
Headbutt! The scared creature lost its composure, and in a fight or flight situation, it chose to fight. A wrong choice. Murong Zhan dodged backwards and attacked the creature's groin with another glowing chakram stuck to his armour's sabaton, slicing a part of its genital off.
Xin shot at the bald gorilla once again. Other than the wound he already inflicted, it was also covered in scratches from the polearms of the mortals poking at it, but they too struggled to penetrate its hide. Twang. Almost point-blank, this shot was angled much better, the tip of the bolt burying itself deep into the ape's pelvis bone, but this only made the gorilla more determined to get to him through Lei and the other mortals!
"Space, retards!" Lei kicked an ally mortal away, he got too close to him and almost got Lei hit by a club, as he denied him space to dodge properly. The man fell on the ground and was trampled on by his own allies, fighting the three gorillas in the middle.
Xin sniffed the air just in case, but nothing useful came out of it. He saw Rui Ming jump off the roof and run towards where the bone ape was heading, and realised Murong Zhan was also there. He is in danger! We need to obtain tempo somehow.
Snakevine dao shard! Xin entangled the bald ape's face. The vine landed nicely, near the ape's eyes, and while it wasn't blinded right now, the snakevine would soon grow and obscure its vision.
Lei spat lava at the distracted gorilla, his meteoric saber slicing into its club holding wrist. The ape lowered its arms and tried to shoulder tackle him, but Lei figured the creatures out by now — when pressed, their first instinct was to mindlessly bump into its opponent, trying to overpower them. Predictable. Lei used the propulsion dao shard to launch himself back and rolled away.
Where's Xin? Why is he not shooting?
"Argh!" The bald ape roared out in pain. Xin dashed from behind Lei's shoulder, and just a moment later, he had his hand buried in the ape's neck!
Xin used me as bait and abused its blind spots! Lei was astonished.
The white gorilla tore the snakevine off its face in one move, wide-eyed, and prepared to counter-attack. Xin used this momentary relief to retrieve his arm and step back, but with his Mercury greaves exhausted, he had no movement methods to match the ape's bestial speed!
Smash! It lunged and punched at Xin's head. He raised both of his Resonance Palms and reinforced his wrists with metal qi, but his arms were still thrown away as he lost his balance and was tripped. The creature lunged once again and assaulted Xin, aiming to crush his ribcage with a qi infused strike of its mighty fists! Xin prepared to roll away, but his combat instincts screamed he wouldn't be fast enough!
Smash! Lei collided with the beast, slashing at one of its fists with a fire qi infused attack. Smash! Clang! The creature redirected its punch at Lei's ribs, but he reinforced them with an Iron Lung dao shard, his chitin armour cracking lightly as he was sent flying away, crashing into a wall. A moment later, the creature dropped dead, a fountain of blood gushing from its neck opening.
Cutting Wind! Windstrider! Meanwhile, Rui Ming tried to backstab the bone ape to distract it, but it just lazily waved him away. With its second arm, it swiped at the mortal to Murong Zhan's right shoulder, throwing him into the wall. He hit his head and died instantly.
Murong Zhan considered his options. The creature is faster, stronger and more durable. The only way to win is to make us both waste time! He jumped backwards and connected all his chakrams mid-air, creating a longer reach weapon. As he landed, he was also sped up by Rui Ming's warm breeze. Maybe it's not so unwinnable, after all!
Xin quickly recomposed himself. His wrists and back hurt badly as he picked up his crossbow. With my injuries, it will be hard to use the reload technique… Fuck. There was a human Fist sect squad fighting a Xuanwu troop down the street, but it didn't seem like any of them intended to reinforce the gorillas. Whatever. With the gorilla I killed, it's two down. Three left.
"Surround! Surround!" Lei pushed the mortals through the opening the bald ape's death left. Now that there were just three gorillas, with their sides unprotected, they could focus on the bone ape on the left flank. Lei ribs and back hurt, but his armour and dao shard protected him well enough, so he quickly recomposed and munched on a spirit stone, rushing towards Rui Ming.
"Defend me, brothers! I've got an attack that can hurt it! Need time to channel!" Now that his allies were around, Rui Ming finally unleashed his trap card. It was a cold and rational decision, he knew what the risks were! Seven out of ten chance of activation, if things go well and I'm not interrupted. Our front line will take losses, but this is the only way!
The bone ape was about to turn sideways and use the wall to protect its rear, positioning cunningly, but Murong Zhan read its intentions. I need to make it turn its back to Rui Ming!
Spinning disc dao shard! He launched another one, but was anxious. Running low on qi.
Swoosh. It cut at the creature's wrist, enraging it, and dealing minor damage. Rank one moves weren't completely useless, it seems, if they were good enough and hit where the carapace was thin.
The creature turned to Murong Zhan, enraged.
Rui Ming squinted his eyes as he channelled his attack, his blade and legs coated in a spinning wind current. He knew what was going to happen now, and he knew that he could potentially stop it, but sentimentality could get everyone killed.
Detached, as the wind of destiny twirls around my blade…
Detached, despite the tempest raging within…
Detached, to gain control one must first lose it!
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Three bone spikes were launched towards Murong Zhan from the bone ape's knuckles, and Lei seized the moment to spit on its neck.
Shit, can't dodge. Block this one... Murong Zhan tried to block the spike aimed at his head...
"Master!" A young internal disciple, his name unknown to Murong Zhan, jumped in front of the attack, his chest, gut and head pierced by the spikes. He activated a mortal level water path coating, but a moment later, he lay on the ground, lifeless.
Shit. Need to retreat and eat some spirit stones! Murong Zhan almost panicked, but quickly recomposed himself, he made a feinting swing towards the ape, then jumped backwards.
Xin briefly looked around. He was an audacious fighter, and didn't mind wasting time in combat, just to find the most optimal move. Even if his own or his friends' lives were in danger. Three gorillas are slowly getting cut down, but our people are taking losses. Our rank ones are engaged with a massive rank two beast. Will it turn on Lei after he spat on it? His thought process took just a breath, he aimed at the big creature as he dashed, flanking it.
I can only hurt the bone ape if I put all of my qi into the steel sting dao shard and stab its vitals. Snakevine? No, even a smaller gorilla was barely affected. Woodcutter's Downswing? Repeat swings are actually my strongest move, but it won't let me. Only my crossbow shots are a viable option. Where, then?
Eyes. No, too small, I'll miss. Ears. No, its ears are obscured by its bone armor, and its earholes are also too little. Neck? Even its thinnest carapace points are too thick for me.
You're weak. Useless. It's not your fight. You can't do anything. His internal voice merged with the tiger totem's mental barrage. Shut up! Ignoring great pain and meridian stress, Xin tried to use his reload technique, groaning.
"Hya!" Lei stabbed into the creature's inner thigh, his attack infused with fire qi. Insignificant damage. He front kicked its belly just to push himself away, but the gorilla still managed to wave at him, sending him flying five steps back.
"Halfway!" Rui Ming felt a drop of sweat flow down his forehead. Can't afford to lose concentration!
Clarity of mind, stillness of soul... Clarity of mind, stillness of soul... He calmly recited one of his favourite passages as he relaxed each of his meridians, preparing to unleash a rank two compound move!
Murong Zhan was pressed to a wall, as the creature got rid of Lei and pursued him. Fuck, why me?! What have I done to attract it?
Slash! He swung his chakram chain at its arm. No effect.
Shoulder tackle! He was hit badly, his metal qi infusion the only reason he didn't faint. The gorilla picked him up, holding him under his armpit.
Xin was wide-eyed. Murong Zhan! How do I save him? There's only one move. Mouth. Xin's instincts suggested that the creature would unleash a bite attack.
"Cunt!" Lei flexed his body, twisting it in the air as he jumped up on his legs from a prone position in just one move. He sprinted towards the gorilla, not knowing what he'll do next.
Murong Zhan stared at the creature, its visage cloudy in his sight. Live. Live. Live. There's a chance! I can hit its eye with my chain, it will stun it!
Lash! He hit the creature's shoulder. The bone ape opened its mouth, drooling with sweat.
Now!
Twang! The bolt bent and then expanded as it escaped the crossbow, flying towards the creature's mouth. It emanated a metallic aura, leaving a subtle green trail behind it.
Miss.