The Human Emperor c1-2382
Page 614
Whooshwhooshwhoosh! The rain of arrows drew a massive arc through the air before descending on the rhino-shaped beast.
But to their stupefaction, of the nearly ten thousand arrows, more than ninety percent bounced off the Behemoth’s hide.
Not even the arm strength of a master archer was able to pierce the thick hide of that Behemoth.
“!!!”
Everyone was stunned by this sight. The master archers of the Anxi Protectorate army were the best of the best, and though they were mass-firing, the power of each arrow could shatter stone at a distance of one thousand zhang, and even ordinary armor wouldn’t be able to stop one. Yet this beast’s hide had managed to repel more than ninety percent of these arrows.
“Impossible!”
Even the spectating Duwu Sili was flabbergasted by this sight.
On the steel wall, Wang Chong’s mind was in a state of turmoil—this animal was overturning everything he knew. This beast’s body might not have been as hard as steel, but it was far more pliable. Of the arrows that had made no impact, eighty to ninety percent had just bounced off the skin.
This Behemoth’s hide is equivalent to a steel wall half a foot thick. The master archers alone won’t be enough to deal any effective damage.
Wang Chong’s mind whirred as he attempted to calculate the strength of this Behemoth.
The winds around him were only getting fiercer as the Behemoth got closer and closer.
The Tang soldiers were growing more and more panicked, the Behemoth’s power making them all tremble in fear.
“Fire again! Reduce the number of arrows fired to only two!” Wang Chong once more ordered to his uneasy army.
“Huang Botian! Get ready! Earthquake Art!
“All other officers, stand ready! Prepare for the Lion’s Roar!”
As the tension thickened, Wang Chong’s voice was the sole thing holding the army together. Wang Chong issued a string of orders, and the entire Tang army, including the Anxi Protectorate army, began to move.
Twangtwangtwang!
Another thick volley of arrows was fired, crossing the western battlefield to fall upon the Behemoth. After taking in the lesson of the first volley, the archers had reduced the number of arrows so that each arrow had more power.
The effects were immediately apparent. Swishswishswish! They could all hear the sound of the metal arrows plunging into the hide. The several thousand arrows had all entered the Behemoth’s body, not a single one being deflected.
But before they could cheer, they were silenced by the beast’s reaction.
Even though it had thousands of arrows rising from its skin, the Behemoth showed no reaction whatsoever. Let alone slow its speed, it didn’t even blink. It was like the arrows had never been fired.
“This massive beast… what, what thick skin!” one of the Qixi soldiers said with wide eyes, his throat gurgling.
Around him, countless soldiers similarly showed fear in their eyes. Normal animals had only thin hides, but this was clearly not the case with this massive beast. The thickness of its skin seemed to even exceed the length of the arrows, which were three feet long.
This was merely the Behemoth’s first layer of defense, but this alone was enough to render many of their attacks ineffective.
At this moment, Wang Chong was the only person who maintained his calm. As he stared at the distant creature, his mind constantly calculated.
Fifteen hundred zhang!
One thousand zhang!
It was getting closer and closer, the shaking causing the ground to rise and fall by half a foot. At this distance, the soldiers felt like they were ants looking up at an elephant. The psychological impact of this sight was difficult to describe. Even Wang Chong began to feel an intense danger, the stench of death surging at him in waves, threatening to overtake him at any moment.
Eight, seven, six, five, four…
Wang Chong silently counted down, and at ‘one’, he immediately gave the order.
“Begin!”
“Okay!”
All the officers of the Tang army, including Wang Chong and Gao Xianzhi, totaling more than fifteen hundred, bellowed as one with the Lion’s Roar. In an instant, invisible waves of sound began to spread out from the steel walls, rapidly merging into a torrential wave that swept over the western battlefield, including the rhino-shaped Behemoth.
Chapter 947 - Behemoth Battle (I)
Chapter 947: Behemoth Battle (I)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The moment the Lion’s Roar was unleashed, Wang Chong, the recently-arrived Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, Wang Chong’s father Wang Yan, his big brother Wang Fu, Li Siye, and all the other officers nervously watched the dreadful Behemoth. The enormous beast seemed to sense something, and it appeared to momentarily slow down. But before any of the Tang could celebrate, the Behemoth launched its counterattack…
Roooar!
A stentorian bellow louder than the combined roar of all the Tang officers emerged from its mouth, and an enormous pressure descended from the sky. Neeeigh! Several hundred well-trained horses finally broke under the pressure, breaking free of their riders and fleeing the defense line. The Tang army itself was frightened and alarmed by the Behemoth, cries of shock and fear rising from its ranks.
“It’s useless,” Dalun Ruozan suddenly said. “These enormous beasts of the Arabs are different from the elephants of Mengshe Zhao. They don’t have the same weakness of elephants in a fear of loud noises. Using a solution for elephants against these beasts simply isn’t plausible!”
In the war of the southwest, Wang Chong had employed the same method to defeat the White Elephant Corps of Mengshe Zhao, but it was now apparent that he had been too optimistic if he believed that a similar method would work against the Arabian Behemoths. Although the Tibetans were not taking part in this battle, Dalun Ruozan had been keeping a close watch on Wang Chong’s movements. Right now, not even Dalun Ruozan could think of a way to address this crisis. Deep within his heart, Dalun Ruozan wished for Wang Chong to be defeated, but he also wished that he would not lose to anyone except him…
Eight hundred zhang!
The Lion’s Roar of the Tang officers had not only failed to stop the Behemoth, but had even provoked it. Rooooar! The earth quaked as the furious Behemoth charged with all its strength, the massive edifice of its body getting even faster. This embodiment of terror and destruction struck fear into all who looked upon it, making them feel like they were trapped in their worst nightmare.
Wang Chong, Li Siye, Gao Xianzhi, Cheng Qianli, Wang Yan, Wang Fu… all the commanders of the Great Tang side were focused, their expressions anxious. The Behemoth’s speed was very fast, leaving them little time. A method had to be thought of to deal with this beast as quickly as possible.
The most problematic thing was that the Tang were in no position to fall back or flee. If they fell back, the walls would be broken, and if they fled… the sixty thousand Tibetan and Turkic cavalry behind them made that impossible.
“Huang Botian… it’s up to you!”
Wang Chong turned to those several rapidly running figures in the distance.
“Ha!”
At a distance of around six hundred zhang, a roar suddenly rose from the blustery winds. At this moment, Huang Botian and five other Earth element Wushang villagers capable of using the Stone General technique lowered their bodies and pressed their hands against the ground, using one of the supreme skills of the Stone General.
“Earthquake Art!!”
It was not necessary to lower one’s body and press one’s hand against the ground to use the Earthquake Art, at least not for Earth element experts at Huang Botian and the five Wushang villagers’ level. However, for the sake of unleashing a large-scale Earthquake Art, these six Earth element warriors had chosen to lower their bodies to the ground so they could exert all their power.
Rumble! Ripples began to appear in the quaking earth and rapidly
began to spread out. The ripples of vibration caused the firm earth to rapidly soften.
Land subsidence!
This was one of the Earthquake Art’s abilities. It could convert hard earth into soft slurry that the enemy would sink into. Huang Botian rarely used this ability, much less on the battlefield of Talas. This was because the earth of this area was abnormally hard, the layer of bedrock much thicker than usual.
To use a land subsidence technique here was extremely draining, even for a peak Imperial Martial warrior like Huang Botian. Buzz! As the earth softened and lost texture, Huang Botian and his fellow villagers began to pale, cold beads of sweat emerging from their foreheads.
Rumble! The Arabian Behemoth was getting closer and closer. Huang Botian could now sense an intense danger. If struck by the beast, even he would be finished.
“Go! Hurry!”
With this order, the six men immediately shot off in six different directions. Behind them, the dreadful Behemoth was so close that everyone else had nearly stopped breathing from how nervous they were. The subsidence technique was complete, but the Behemoth only needed to adjust its direction for Huang Botian’s group to be pulverized.
Ten, nine, eight, seven…
The distance was shrinking, but the Behemoth did not do as the all the Tang soldiers had feared. The morning sun plated the rhino-shaped Behemoth in a layer of red light, and it had not even noticed Huang Botian and his men. Neither its speed nor direction had changed.
Bang!
As they all watched, it roared, one of its enormous feet seemed to land on a void, and it rapidly began to sink. In the blink of an eye, everything below the neck was underground.
Boom!
A burst of cheers exploded out from the Tang army in celebration.
“Wonderful!”
“A good show from General Huang! It’s been caught! It’s really been caught!”
“Truly impressive!”
The oppressive and nervous mood instantly evaporated, and the Tang soldiers slightly relaxed. What man feared the most was the unknown. Only when one faced down this divine Arabian Behemoth did one truly understand how much fear and danger one could feel. The strength of man seemed immaterial in the face of such an enormous beast.
But a simple subsidence technique from Huang Botian’s group had succeeded in using this beast’s own weight against it to capture it in the earth.
“Kill it!”
The morale of the soldiers swelled, all of them anxious to strike. With the Behemoth trapped under the ground and unable to move, it could only wait to be slaughtered.
“Lord Marquis, I will bring some men to kill it!”
Xue Qianjun clasped his hands together, his eyes blazing. The countless soldiers behind him were also ready to attack. While the beast was still trapped underground, they could attack as one. No matter how formidable and dreadful it was, how heavy it weighed or how thick its skin, the only thing awaiting it was death!
Enough ants could gnaw an elephant to death!
“Wait!”
Wang Chong suddenly raised his hand to halt his men.
His brow was tightly furrowed, his expression as grave as it could be. With the beast captured, the strategic objective had been achieved, but for some reason, Wang Chong still felt extremely uneasy, as if things were not as simple as they seemed.
“Hmph!”
No one noticed that while the Behemoth was trapped underground, the red-robed commander of the Behemoth Army, Masil, was coldly sneering, a smile dripping with derision on his face. One was being far too childish if they believed a meager land subsidence technique would be enough to deal with the Behemoths that he had personally trained.
If the Behemoths were really that easy to deal with, they would have never become one of the anchors holding down the Arabian Empire, much less an army that made all the surrounding countries quail in fear.
“How foolish!”
Masil was not one bit perturbed that the Behemoth had been trapped underground. These Tang men of the east had no idea what sort of power they were facing. He had noticed that pit in the ground. He had not commanded the Behemoth to go around because he did not care, because it did not matter.
Bang!
As if responding to Masil’s thoughts, the trapped rhino-shaped Behemoth roared as its enormous body suddenly exploded with a mountain-sundering strength. Booom! The rocks, dirt, and gravel in a radius of several dozen zhang exploded, blowing the energy of the land subsidence art into bits as well. As debris flew through the air, the Behemoth shook its body and jumped out of the hole.
After a moment of stunned disbelief, the soldiers began to panic.
“Not good!”
“The monster managed to get free!”
“Careful, careful! Get back!”
The astonishing strength the Behemoth had used to break free had left all of them flabbergasted and fearful. The land subsidence art had only further provoked it, and its body seethed with savagery and killing intent.
Rooooar! The golden horn waved through the air, stirring up gusts, and the Behemoth began to charge at the first defense line once more.
“Beast, stop for me!”
A thunderous roar echoed through the skies, and a huge fist made of countless bits of stone smashed against the rhino-shaped Behemoth’s head.
“Stone General!”
“No, that’s General Huang Botian!”
Under the sunlight, a massive general made of stone rose from the earth to appear next to the Behemoth. The enormous physique was five to six times larger than the ordinary form of the Stone General.
Stone General, Advanced Form!
This was the Stone General formed from the combined might of Huang Botian and the other five Earth element warriors. These six warriors were divided amongst the head, arms, body, and legs, their combined abilities working to form this Stone General of unprecedented size.
Chapter 948 - Behemoth Battle (II)
Chapter 948: Behemoth Battle (II)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Bang! Bang!
Hot on the heels of the Stone General’s first fist was the second. One punch after another flew at the rhino-shaped Behemoth’s head. In this short period of time, the Stone General had thrown six punches, each one with incredible weight behind it. This was the strength of warriors, something that pure beasts could not possess.
But the Behemoth’s counterattack was also extremely vicious. With a toss of its horn, it smashed into the Stone General. Boom! Crack! The enormous Stone General formed from six experts was blown to pieces with just a single strike of the Behemoth’s overwhelming strength. The six men along with countless rocks flew out from the wreckage like they had been fired from cannons.
Plush!
While still in the air, Huang Botian trembled and vomited blood.
“Too powerful!”
Huang Botian’s unfocused eyes were wide open, his face pale as he felt a deep despair. The six of them had combined their strength into a massive Stone General, but in front of that dreadful Behemoth, they had been like a blade of grass, not even worth a mention.
Milord, I’ve done all I could. You’ll have to rely on yourselves now!
With this final thought, Huang Botian fell unconscious.
“General Huang!”
Cries of alarm rose from the Tang soldiers on the ground. Everything had happened too quickly. From the moment Huang Botian and his men had combined their might into the Stone General to the moment they been knocked away, not even a full second had passed. Not even Wang Chong had time to react, much less anyone else.
“Someone, hurry and save General Huang’s men!”
“Yes!”
Wang Chong had barely spoken before Xue Qianjun lunged forward with several elites, headed in the direction that Huang Botian’s men had been sent flying. But the crisis had only just begun. The enraged Behemoth’s eyes were bloodshot, and it was approaching the walls
with a terrifying speed.
Five hundred zhang, four hundred zhang, three hundred zhang…
The Behemoth was now less than one thousand meters from the steel defense line, and its speed was faster than ever. Its four pillar-like legs swiftly rose and fell, each stomp thundering on everyone’s hearts, unleashing earth-shattering jolts and quakes.
Hwoom!
The fierce winds stirred dust and sand that clouded the area in front of the defense line, but the Behemoth’s body was clear and visible. The enormous golden horn seemed to have pierced the skies, and the contemptuous gaze of its eyes of blood struck fear into all the soldiers. With the battle imminent, the atmosphere was so oppressive that it became difficult to breathe.
There was no more time to think about the crisis or how to escape. Countless gazes were now focused on the enormous beast.
Two hundred zhang!
The distance was closing!
“Ballistae! Ready!”
A cold and determined voice resounded through the air. Wang Chong stood on a steel wall, his hair blowing in the wind, his eyes shining with unprecedented focus. In a flash of cold light, Wang Chong swept his sword through the air, allowing the sun to reflect upon its edge.
Creakcreak!
The ballista began to ready up behind the first defense line!
This was the first time Wang Chong was personally commanding the ballista army. All the nearly three thousand ballistae were lined up at the gaps, the cold tips of their bolts pointed outward. The entirety of the ballistae brought from Qixi were participating in this battle of man versus beast.
In addition, the several hundred ballistae belonging to the Anxi Protectorate army also began to aim at the Behemoth.
The greatest drawback of ballistae was their accuracy, but it was impossible to miss such a large target.
As the more than three thousand ballistae took the field, the battlefield fell silent, time seeming to stop.
Every person’s heart was loudly thumping in anxiety.
The ballistae were the strongest move available to the army, its trump card. The sharpness, strength, and damaging ability of their bolts far exceeded those of regular bows. This was the last measure that could be used against the Behemoth. If this were unsuccessful as well, then probably nothing in the army could threaten it.