Chapter 334: I really feel ashamed for you, blech!
Since things had already reached this point, Han Shuo could only summon the fire elite zombie, wood elite zombie, earth elite zombie, as well as the little skeleton. Otherwise, he had no chance of defeating the bandits and the Church of Light.
Ripples of divine light slowly spread out from “Revelation” as Kosse stood surrounded by six Templars and chanted. These ripples slowly purified the land of death that Han Shuo had created with so much mental strength. Han Shuo no longer remained in the air to chase after Kosse. Instead, he slowly floated backwards.
Han Shuo threw out the Bloodlust Fang with a wave of his hand. The moment it flew out, it brought forth a dense mist of blood. This demonic treasure that Han Shuo had meticulously refined didn’t have an aura of death on it. Thus, he was naturally not afraid that the holy light would purify it.
The bandits touched by the mist of blood from the Bloodlust Fang began to let out terrible howls. The Bloodlust Fang could quicken the circulation of blood in their body, causing them to explode and die once their bodies couldn’t handle the speed anymore.
Bandits clenched their chest and roared in pain everywhere the mist of blood spread to, but they were unable to change the fact that the blood within their bodies was flowing too quickly. Clear cracking sounds rang in the air, their bones breaking under the horrific acceleration of blood. Before the pain could completely register, the snapped bones forced themselves through the soft skin, causing the trapped blood to rush towards the exit. Like a punctured boiler, the bandits would literally be ripped apart by the pressure of the accelerating blood, dying instantly within the mist of blood.
While this happened, Han Shuo concentrated and waved the skeletal staff in his left hand. Soon enough, the little skeleton, earth elite zombie, wood elite zombie, and fire elite zombie appeared. Under the cover of the mist of blood from the Bloodlust Fang, the earth elite zombie sank into the ground and snuck silently towards Kosse.
The little skeleton grabbed the wood elite zombie and soared high into the sky, directly landing on the city walls of Brettel City.
Under Han Shuo’s orders, the little skeleton and the wood elite zombie took charge of securing the ramparts of Brettel City. If a bandit managed to scale the city wall, the little skeleton and wood elite zombie were responsible for killing them.
The moment the fire elite zombie appeared from the other dimension, he caused pillars of fire to shoot up into the sky. As he manipulated the flames, the fire lotus sigil on the fire elite zombie’s forehead gradually grew clearer, finally reaching the brilliance of a burning flame. As it flickered on his forehead, flame lotuses started to detach and drift out of it.
The fire elite zombie had gradually grasped how to control the fire lotus, which was a supreme treasure of fire. The flaming lotuses that drifted out from the fire lotus were initially only the size of a fingernail. Yet, this clearly wasn’t their true form. The flaming lotuses increased in size as the wind blew, eventually causing each one to become the size of a large bowl.
As the flames on the fire elite zombie burned, larger and larger lotuses floated out the sigil on his forehead, growing in size till they reached the size of the largest lotuses drifting in the air. They then flew towards the surrounding bandits. Any bandit that even had a spark land on them was instantly incinerated.
This ferocity of this sort of flame was beyond their imagination. Even if they quickly used their pouches of water to try and douse it, they were unable to extinguish the little sparks. Anything that came into contact with the little fingernail sized sparks would burn, regardless of what it was. Skin, clothes, even armor and weapons all seemed to fuel the flames in burning even more brightly.
In the span of a few breaths, these bandits who were unwary enough to have sparks land on them howled. The sparks grew to great conflagrations, wreathing them in flame. The terrible smell of burnt flesh began to dominate the battlefield, as their bodies were incinerated.
The people on fire were completely turned into charcoal, the living transformed into the dead. The process was just that short. Under the extremely painful incineration of those strangely beautiful flames, several scores of bandits near the fire elite zombie were transformed into charred cinders.
On the other side, the earth elite zombie, who was deep in the ground, used his ability as the favored child of the earth to steadily make his way over to Kosse and the others during the chaos above.
As the red archbishop of the Church of Light, Kosse did still possess some mercy when dealing with heretics. As he saw the bandits ignite and turn into charred pieces of meat, Kosse took a breath from the sacred hymn he was chanting and to yell at the surrounding Templars, “Save them!”
Han Shuo continued to use the Bloodlust Fang to harvest lives on the battlefield whilst keeping his attention on Kosse. When he saw that Kosse slowly approach, still within his circle of protection from the Templars, Han Shuo immediately gave the earth elite zombie, already in place underneath them, the order to attack.
The ground rumbled, vibrating like an earthquake as the earth elite zombie started his attack. Earthen spikes shot up, towards the Templars and white priests of the Church of Light. Their attention wholly on what was in front of them, they were completely caught off guard, instantly killing approximately ten people.
Those earthen spikes accurately penetrated the feet of the horsed Templars. When this unprotected part of the foot was suddenly drilled by the earthen spike tips, the attack had marvelous results. Despite their excellent armor, the Templars tumbled from their warhorses with howls.
The priests in white, who were purifying the souls on the battlefield, were the target of Han Shuo’s hatred. Their purification of the deceased souls had stopped the Demonslayer Edge from gaining more power. It meant that they were indirectly obstructing the Demonslayer Edge’s evolution.
The Demonslayer Edge still did not truly have a soul of its own at this point in time. The Demonslayer Edge would only evolve and gain its own soul once it absorbed enough soul energy from others. Only then would the Demonslayer Edge become a truly unparallelled tool for murder.
Had Shuo had felt like a fish in water amidst the countless battles that had occurred after he’d arrived at Brettel City. As the Demonslayer Edge absorbed the souls of the deceased, its growth had accelerated. Han Shuo could even feel that the Demonslayer Edge was barely a step away from evolution. He would not let those pesky priests from the Church of Light put an end to it!
Thus, when Kosse and the others approached him, Han Shuo ordered the earth elite zombie to prioritize the white clothed priests. The priests, who normally weren’t in the thick of battle, naturally weren’t wearing armor. Each earth spike managed to impale a priest through, killing them instantly. After the earth elite zombie was done his first wave of attacks, aside from Kosse, well protected by the Templars, none of the white priests had been able to escape Han Shuo’s wrath.
“Demon! I must get rid of this demon!” Kosse tightened his grip on “Revelation”, then roared furiously towards Han Shuo as he watched the white priests die.
“You asked for this! I’ve never offended your Church of Light. It was you who relentlessly pursued me! Heh, any believers of the Church of Light who dares to offend me from now on, I’ll kill every one I see! I don’t believe that I can’t kill all of you,” Han Shuo yelled coldly as he looked down at the trembling Kosse from his vantage point high in the sky.
“Shoot him down! Axes, spears, polearms, hurry!” Fass roared with a pained heart as he watched his subordinates being consumed by the sea of flames.
The remaining two bandit ballistae turned towards the fire elite zombie in the center of the sea of flames. At the same time, a multitude of sharp weapons was flung at the fire elite zombie. The lotus armor on the fire elite zombie rang out multiple times as he manipulated the fire lotuses with complete abandon.
Every arrow, blade, and sword shot at him was melted into slag or incinerated to dust by the scorching flames before they even landed on the fire zombie. When the remains finally landed on him, the impacts were utterly negligible. The fire elite zombie had the natural ability to reconstruct his body after taking damage, and had already done so once already. This body was already quite tough, the soft blows on his skin did hardly any damage.
However, even though the elite zombies of the five elements were nurtured in the five absolute elemental locations, the power in their bodies was not endless. Nothing truly possessed eternal power. After twenty to thirty lotus flames floated out of the fire elite zombie’s forehead, he also grew tired and sent a signal to Han Shuo.
Han Shuo could clearly sense the fire elite zombie’s thoughts. The fire elite zombie was not yet mature and so would naturally feel tired after releasing so much power at once. Sparks flew everywhere the twenty to thirty lotus flames went, while the bandits that were grazed by even a tiny spark were burned to death.
Approximately three hundred burnt black corpses were forever fossilized on the ground. This had been caused by the fire elite zombie alone, who had not yet learned to fully control the power of the fire lotuses. Once the fire elite zombie matured enough to the point that it could control the fire lotus more deftly, his deadliness would become infinitely more terrifying.
Furthermore, when the elite zombies of the five elements were born, each one of them would possess their own natural way of cultivating. That meant that the elite zombies of the five elements were at their weakest when they first emerged. Once they slowly ascended using their cultivation method, their strengths would gradually increase over time, and they would be able to use their natural talents and abilities with far more ease.
Han Shuo did not doubt that when the elite zombies of the fire elements evolved to the final stage, they would absolutely be able to destroy the world. Furthermore, they would be capable of working together in a formation too. Since the water elite zombie was also being nurtured at the moment, Han Shuo would easily be able to practice setting up the formation once he created the most elusive metal elite zombie.
Having used up all of his energy in one go, the fire elite zombie was beginning to show signs of exhaustion. He disappeared amidst the raging flames into the other dimension with a wave of the skeletal staff in Han Shuo’s hand.
When the fire elite zombie disappeared, the fire lotuses gradually dispersed into the air after losing their source of energy. However, they still managed to take the lives of fifty more bandits before they did so.
The screaming, crying, and dodging bandits all breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the life-reaping lotuses dissipate. They secretly cursed and criticized the boss in their hearts. What was “not too dangerous” here? The previously defenseless Brettel City had suddenly become a terrifying demon castle. Anything amazing or weird they could imagine—this place had them all.
At this point, more than half of the six thousand Greenfire Bandits led by Fass had died in battle. Thirty-two hundred of them had died an inexplicable death, and roughly a thousand of those belonged to the elite troops.
Fass wanted to cry but had no tears when he saw the corpses littering the ground. Brettel City was like a demon city that had exposed its fangs. It was a tireless killing machine thoroughly displaying its violence and brutality.
The elite bandits, who’d painstakingly climbed the Brettel City wall, were assaulted by the two strange undead creatures. They fell down one by one, breathing their last in mid-air while tumbling down.
That was to the credit of the little skeleton and wood elite zombie.
Fass had initially thought that the Red Archbishop would easily break through Brettel City’s defenses when the bane of necromancers – the Church of Light – appeared. Now that Fass saw the little skeleton and wood elite zombie easily slaughter the bandits after they scaled the city wall with great difficulty, while the two capered madly beneath the holy light. Fass cursed eighteen generations of Kosse’s ancestors in his heart.
What natural nightmare of necromancers? What envoy of the Light on the Profound Continent? Complete bullshit!
The Red Archbishop and divine artifact “Revelation” combined can’t even purify a puny skeleton and a few zombies? You’ll be the death of us!
Fass cursed inwardly. He saw bandits spontaneously explode when enveloped by the drifting bloody mist emitting from the Bloodlust Fang. Simultaneously, he saw men and horses of Kosse’s team from the Church of Light unable to protect their own. Fass tried to think of a countermeasure in a hurry.
At this point, Fass had also figured out that Brettel City was relying mostly on Han Shuo’s support. Too many brothers had died or retreated in dejection. If word of this spread, the fame of the Greenfire Bandits would fall into a bottomless abyss.
However, if they didn’t leave now, who knew how many more astonishing methods the horrifying city lord of Brettel still had up his sleeve? Fass was now truly scared of Han Shuo deep in his heart now. He privately cursed the bastard who had brought him the intelligence and encouraged him to attack this city a hundred times.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
The distant ballista began to once more shoot bolt after bolt. Flames suddenly shot out again from the war chariots, falling directly onto the Church of Light’s Templars. Three Templars, along with their horses, were instantly sent flying.
The tired soldiers on Brettel City wall had rested for enough time. Having slowly recovered their strength, the soldiers resumed their control over the defensive weaponry to barrage the enemy.
“F*ck! Retreat! Retreat!” Fass no longer hesitated when he saw the flames surging through the sky from the war chariots. A million gold coins was indeed worth attempting a raid, but given this situation, he might not even live to enjoy it. The war chariots coming back to life again meant that the soldiers on the city wall had the strength to continue fighting.
Recalling the terrifying lethality of the war chariots and ballistae from before, and turning to see less than half his men remaining, Fass painfully issued the order to retreat.
The bandits had long since been scared witless and were only awaiting this order from Fass himself. They didn’t dare to remain in place as soon as they heard the angelic word “retreat”. They followed Fass, beating a hasty retreat as fast as they could.
“Useless Church of Light! How the hell are you people the messengers of Light?! You can’t even purify four dark creatures, I really feel ashamed for you, blech!” Fass stopped his horse just before he ran past Kosse and the others. He glared furiously at Kosse,, in the center of the Templars, spitting out a thick wad of phlegm to vent his rage and contempt before actually leaving.
Fass had been toyed with by Han Shuo from the start. When he’d seen the Church of Light appear and purify the corpses with holy light, Fass had thought that he’d seen the light of victory. Who would have known that the purification power of the holy light wasn’t strong enough? In addition, some more undead creatures appeared and caused even more damage. Fass then felt that he’d been toyed with by Kosse, so it was easy to imagine the grievances in his heart.
Had Fass not taken the Church of Light’s influence over the Continent into consideration, had he weighed the fact that the Templars were the trump card of the Church of Light; given his brutal nature, Fass would definitely have ferociously charged forward with his underlings and chopped these incompetent Church of Light believers into pieces already.
“Shoot! Aim at the people in white outfits!” Floating in the sky, Han Shuo had withdrawn the Bloodlust Fang, now dripping with blood. He shouted an order to the distant soldiers on the city wall.
The soldiers had restored their strength. Upon hearing Han Shuo’s command, they immediately turned the war chariots and ballistae to shoot what little firepower they had left at the Church of Light’s group. The Templars and their horses staggered, with even Kosse almost being struck by the goblin explosives.
“Bishop, what do you think of this situation?” A Templar with a cross insignia on his chest, desperately protected Kosse whilst asking hesitantly, as if he wanted to say something but stopped himself.
Kosse had been insulted by Fass before leaving and was wearing an ugly expression on his old face. Kosse’s sorry figure dodged the goblin bomb, before closing his eyes and commanding in a low voice, “I’ve failed, again. It seems that I will need to personally see the Pope this time. Let’s go, we leave immediately!”
The Templar waved his sword to point behind him as soon as Kosse’s order was given. The Templars grouped up, rushing forward to collect their thirty seven corpses, placing them on the warhorses. They then left the battlefield that was smoking with explosive residue, not leaving behind a single item of the deceased.
“They’re gone, they’ve all retreated!” An exhausted soldier looked at the gradually disappearing enemies and revealed an ugly, but sincere smile.
Some soldiers, who could still barely stand straight, saw the distant Han Shuo standing proudly in the sky above the battlefield like a demon god. They felt that, as long as this city lord was still alive, Brettel City would never be attacked by anyone from now on.
Han Shuo used the yin demon to carefully watch the leaving enemies. When he had made certain that they’d truly withdrawn, his eyes swept over the scattered corpses that littered the vast pockmarked battlefield in front of Brettel City and loudly shouted, “All soldiers with any energy, defend this place well. Don’t relax for even a moment!”
These people were truly tired to death already. When Han Shuo’s ears caught the deafening rumbles from the other two city gates, he understood that the battle with the two other sides had yet to wrap up. However, the soldiers on his side had no energy left to reinforce the other sides, thanks to it being the most devastating battlefield. Han Shuo knew that they were spending every bit of effort just to remain on their feet, so he intended to personally go to the other battlefields.
The anxious civilians of Brettel City heard the weak cheering from the soldiers over on Han Shuo’s side. These residents had been paying close attention to any changes from this side, for fear of being slaughtered, along with the massacre of the entire city. Some bold folk had even climbed onto the city wall to watch the entire battle.
Therefore, when the Templars and Fass’ bandit horde retreated, the civilians in this area immediately began to jubilantly cheer. The people here had always been living a life full of fear, but now felt an intense sense of excitement and happiness filling their hearts. Being able to retain their lives in the face of the threat of a massacre made them extraordinarily happy.
For so many years, the city lords had always been the first to flee.
Han Shuo had finally broken this tradition with his arrival. He had seemingly turned the tides with the power of one person alone.
Han Shuo had used all of his miraculous powers to firmly guard the vast Brettel City.
Victory came full of hardship through twists and turns, but its fruits were sweet beyond belief. They had been limping along in life for all this time and now felt an unvarnished excitement at this moment of victory, because they were the ones to personally witness it.
When the civilians on Han Shuo’s side erupted in cheers, the people on the three other sides also gradually smiled. At the city gates defended by Faulke, some civilians even took the initiative to join the struggle against the foreign enemies. These civilians didn’t know how to use defensive equipment, but they could join forces by helping to move the huge boulders onto the stone-throwing catapults. Then, they saw with their own eyes how the boulders they personally loaded fell on the bandits, causing horrifying fatalities.
On Faulke’s side, when the prepared boulders were used up, the civilians volunteered to move household items from the nearby houses and place them onto the stone-throwing catapults. This gave the desperate invaders an even more unforgettable blow.
The side defended by Dick, Chester, and Fabian were facing the Flying Dragon Bandits.
This gate had two magic crystal cannons, four war chariots, seven ballistae, six rows of stone-throwing catapults, and a thousand elite soldiers. Dick and the others had no experience in commanding an army, so Faulke had arranged a thousand skilled soldiers for defense. Han Shuo had placed a huge amount of firepower on this side precisely because he was worried that they couldn’t withstand being overwhelmed.
The leader of the Flying Dragon Bandits, Afie, was a petty, sinister man with a vicious heart. He’d already had another plan in mind from the beginning. When Fass shot the signal into the sky, Afie didn’t immediately rush forward to assault the gates. Instead, he waited for a while for the signals from all of the three other sides before he gave the order to attack.
Afie was somewhat frightened from the responding signals from the three sides. He’d had his underlings categorize the signals into three colors: red, blue, and yellow. Yellow signaled that the attack was going smoothly, blue meant there were some difficulties, and red meant that the assault in that area had encountered a fatal blow.
Of the responding signals from the three sides, those from Han Shuo’s and Faulke’s sides were both red. This showed that the attack on those two gates had met with a fatal blow from the beginning. Because Dorcas had just begun to lure his enemies inside and hadn’t violently erupted with overwhelming firepower from the start, the Flying Dragon bandits on this side only released a blue signal.
Two red and one blue signals didn’t really look too optimistic. Afie planned to preserve the bulk of his forces, so he let some of his underlings outside attack the gate guarded by Dick and Chester.
Chester had never faced such a battle before. Upon seeing Afie’s bandits rush over, they immediately issued orders to launch an intense bombardment.
Because Han Shuo was worried they would be unable to bear the attacks, the firepower on their side was the fiercest. The two magic crystal cannons and war chariots spat out surges of flames at the same time as the ballista and catapults let loose their lethal barrage. Half of the several hundred low rank bandits sent out by Afie were killed instantly.
Afie jumped in fright. He immediately gave an order to hold and observe, his heart somewhat chilled in fright.
When his enemies were successfully lured into his trap, Dorcas unleashed devastating firepower. Those closest to the source died instantly and the few hundred bandits who’d reached the walls didn’t leave behind enough for a grave by the time Dorcas was done.
When the bandit who’d released the blue signal saw the originally calm firepower become violent, he hurriedly released two red signals in a row out of shock.
Afie had already been a little worried in his heart when he saw the sudden two red signals in a row after the blue signal. He instantly ordered a retreat of a hundred meters, not allowing anyone to continue attacking.
Afie didn’t mobilize a single soldier until the moment Fass withdrew. He only remained on his warhorse and glared at the enemies on the distant city wall, as if trying to cow the opponents with his presence alone. Afie was waiting for the other bandit groups who’d attacked Brettel City to gain some footholds first. Only then would he made a move against those bastards on the city wall.
When the news of Fass’ failure was delivered one step ahead to him, the frightened Afie knew that they wouldn’t be able to reap any benefits this time. He immediately issued an order to retreat without another word. The bandit group, who always advanced fiercely and bravely, now quickly retreated far away, leaving behind roughly two hundred corpses.
It was the first time Chester and Fabian had experienced such a battle. Seeing Afie dejectedly leave in resentment, they thought complacently, “Our side is indeed powerful. We’re only fighting from a distance. Could it be that we already scared them off with just our momentum alone?”