But Anise didn’t stop there. She drew her sword again and swung it in a circle over her head.
“Bloody Hunt!” She shouted.
Hadjar had never seen a sword or a swordsman’s Technique move in a circle instead of a straight line or an arc! Anise’s circular swing suddenly created a fainter and more indistinct shape than Tom’s crescent, but even so, as it expanded, it sliced through the golems, creating a space around the girl that was free of the creatures.
“Follow me!” Tom was the first to rush into the opening left behind.
He was followed by the rest of the cultivators, including Hadjar, who’d recovered from his shock. Behind them, strewn about among the incoming waves of golems, the dozens of broken and lifeless bodies of their fellow cultivators lay on the ‘rocks’. There were only six hundred and fifty warriors left standing, surrounded by a ring of monsters at the King Stage.
“I think the giant is getting smaller…” Einen whispered. He was still surrounded by the shadow of his rainbow ape. It opened its mouth and snarled at the golems, drops of darkness falling from its huge fangs. While they’d only been able to use their Calls for a few seconds before, they could now keep them going for almost a minute and a half.
Hadjar looked at the horizon. Indeed, the giant, which had previously been about 2600 feet tall, was now barely 2300 feet tall.
“So that’s how he makes his army,” Hadjar croaked.
With every second that passed, the Primeval Giant’s aura grew stronger. It was getting difficult to breathe. Most cultivators who’d been able to break through to the cleared out area created by Anise fell to their knees and spat out blood. If they didn’t have loyal friends to protect them from the golems, they were doomed to die at their hands.
Groans, the crunching of broken bones, and the sound of people cursing stupidity and greed filled the air. The golems closed in. The ranks of the cultivators thinned.
“Marnil” Dinos pointed at the scar on the giant’s neck.
There were some golems standing near the scar. Only these golems were about twelve feet tall, and their auras weren’t just at the King Stage, but at the peak of the King Stage. Therefore, they wielded power similar to the initial stages of the Spirit Knight level.
“I know… I know…” Dora murmured. “But whatever happens is your fault.”
Holding the handle of her hammer with both hands, she held it in front of her, then began to spin around. A whirlwind of hammer blows erupted around her, containing the mysteries of the Hammer Spirit, and she slammed into the ranks of the golems. If the Dinos’ attacks had looked almost artificial, elegant, and even deadly, Marnil’s Technique appeared brutal and wild. The tornado of hammer blows that surrounded Dora blew up the golems. Torn from the ground, they disappeared, turning into stone dust.
Clearing a path for the other cultivators, she got rid of dozens of golems with every rotation. It didn’t look as fascinating as the Dinos’ sword Techniques, but the hammer’s destructive power was clearly superior to that of the blade’s.
“Watch out!” Tom shouted, but it was already too late.
Several cultivators rushed through the opening in the golems’ ranks. They had tried to avoid being killed by the golems, but they got a much worse death instead.
Some careless, stupid disciples were sucked into the vortex of Dora’s hammer. Apparently, the girl couldn’t fully control such a monstrous Technique. What else could explain the gruesome fate that befell them as they were crushed right alongside the golems? Blood rained down on the heads and shoulders of those who’d been smarter and allowed Dora to separate from the group.
While the elf cleared a path to the monster’s neck, the golems tried to close in once again after she passed. The others had to fight through as they ran after Dora.
Hadjar deflected a creature’s fist, pushed it with his shoulder, and struck. He put all the mysteries of the Sword Spirit and the rest of his ‘Strong Wind’ into his attack. That one strike was enough to kill the nearest golem, but the two standing behind it only swayed. There were a few shallow cracks in their bodies, but that was it.
“Damn it!” Hadjar swore, lamenting his own weakness.
After witnessing the power of the inner circle disciples, especially Dora and the Dinos siblings, he’d realized how far he was from catching up to them. Despite the fact that all of them (except Anise) were Heaven Soldiers like him, he was still no match for them. The path of cultivation wasn’t just measured in stages and levels. There were many other factors that determined the strongest, as well as the survivors and winners.
Suddenly, Hadjar felt the sword in his hand vibrate slightly. It seemed to be resonating with the golems’ fragments. Sometimes, tiny wisps of fog separated from the Black Blade, catching grains of sand floating in the wind. Drawing them into the Black Blade’s body, they processed and gradually absorbed them.
“What…”
Then it dawned on Hadjar. An Energy Stone was a concentration of Spirit. Naturally, such a thing was densest and most saturated directly in the Spirits born from the World River.
Those who followed the path of cultivation, people and animals both, also had their own Spirit. The higher the level or Stage of cultivation, the more concentrated it was. The sword hadn’t even paid much attention to people who were at the Spirit Knight level, but the golems... While they were only equal to Heaven Soldiers, they were still part of a Primeval Giant, an existence that had far more Spirit than the creatures Dora had destroyed in the Forest of Shadows.
Hadjar looked at the two Dinos running after the elf. The scar on the giant’s neck was only a few hundred yards away. A bloodthirsty grin appeared on Hadjar’s face. He gripped his blade and ran after them. By the High Heavens, if everything worked out, Tom Dinos wouldn’t get the Primeval Core he was after.
At that very moment, just as Hadjar saw his goal, a fiery inferno descended from the sky, heading right for them.
Chapter 470
Tom’s servant was standing on a hill, waiting for the signal. Behind him were hundreds of external energy cultivators, or, as they were called on the borders of the Empire, the cultivators of the true path of cultivation. All of them were sitting in a lotus position, with threads of energy radiating from their Cores. Intertwining into huge, complicated formations, they poured into the scroll that lay in the center of the circle of cultivators. This scroll contained a special pattern. It was so complex that it could destroy the mind of a mortal, drive a mere practitioner mad, and make a cultivator feel dizzy for a few minutes.
A steady stream of energy flowed from the scroll into Tom’s servant. Gradually, the right spell was forming in his mind. The energy of two hundred cultivators burst into his soul, and if not for the spell formation, it would’ve burned or broken the servant’s soul long ago. Holding such a vast amount of power felt like trying to pour a whole sea into a one-liter jug. The servant was watching the battle and waiting for the signal.
About ten seconds ago, the giant had stopped destroying everything around him. He froze, and then suddenly cupped his hands together, as if he were praying to his gods or spirits. The monster’s aura gradually expanded and thickened. It pressed down on the swamps, causing the water to evaporate and the ground to sink by several feet.
A battle raged on the monster’s left shoulder. The cultivators fought against the giant’s smaller copies. The number of golems grew with each passing second and, at the same time, the number of disciples from ‘The Holy Sky’ School decreased. Everything was going according to plan. The servant continued to wait quietly for the signal. Finally, he saw it.
A green vortex of hammer blows appeared on the giant’s shoulder. Once the servant saw the ‘Stone Quarry’ Technique being performed by the more experienced Marnil warrior, he knew it was time. That Technique didn’t show any mercy to the enemy. It possessed such overwhelming, unrestrained power that it could crush anything. The servant shook away such thoughts and his memories, and picked up his staff. He pl
unged it into the ground and began to slowly form the spell. The sea of energy that waited in his mind responded like a happy dog greeting its owner.
It flowed like a torrent into the magical runes that formed the Phoenix Crypt. The servant spread his arms out in a single, sharp movement. A single ancient hieroglyph flew out of his chest. It gradually grew in size, radiating such heat that the water around it disappeared before it even turned into steam, and the earth melted and flowed beneath the hill in streams of lava.
Many of the cultivators, shouting something unintelligible, fell unconscious. The formation scroll had drained them of so much power at once that, judging by their convulsions and agony, they were clearly on their way to their forefathers’ house.
The hieroglyph suddenly began to shake uncontrollably. If not for the scroll, even an experienced Lord would hardly have been able to control such power. However, the servant wasn’t afraid of this new development. He knew that everything was going according to plan. Gradually, the edges of the hieroglyph began to stretch until they formed two wings. The central part elongated, forming the body of a mythical bird. The lower part became a tail. The Phoenix spread its huge wings, burning the very air around it. Its wingspan was a full hundred yards, and its feathers were so hot that the flames along their length turned white.
“The Crypt!” The servant shouted, and then fell down.
So did almost a hundred cultivators behind him. About fifty of them died, and only twenty of them were able to keep observing the formation. Announcing its arrival with a loud screech, the Phoenix leapt into the sky. With a single sweep of its huge wings, it managed to clear a few miles. Once there, it turned around, and was about to throw a stone down, but at that very moment, something burst in its chest.
The Phoenix screamed in pain as its wings were wrapped in fire chains. Shackles were breaking its talons. Its head was held to its chest by a band of white fire. Something extremely strong was condensing and breaking the Phoenix. It compacted it, making it brighter and hotter, until the seventy-foot-long bird shrank down to the size of a simple sarcophagus. The coffin of white fire fell on the giant’s left shoulder. He was too absorbed with his own Technique and battle, and didn’t manage to react to the spell in time. His resulting roar of pain was so powerful that the sound wave raised a tsunami, shattered the earth, and scattered the hills. Those true cultivators who hadn’t succumbed to exhaustion yet were scattered by the giant’s roar. Hadjar and Einen had been wrong. The safest place was in the middle of the battle, not on the hill.
A second before they were hit by the white flames that spread like liquid fire over the body of the screaming giant, the group of cultivators was enveloped in a dome made up of hundreds of glittering runes and hieroglyphs. Not all of them, of course. Only those who’d been closest to Tom Dinos at the right moment. He was holding a small wrist shield, which radiated the energy that formed the dome.
“By the Great Turtle!” Einen tried to catch his breath. “I won’t be accepted into the house of my forefathers if that’s not an Imperial level talisman!”
Hadjar agreed with his friend. Amulets and talismans, as well as artifacts, were also divided by level. Imperial level talismans and amulets had the ability to contain a single use Lord level spell. They cost much more than Imperial level armor or weapons. That was because, in addition to a defensive or offensive spell, they could also contain a Lord’s Technique. If a person used one of them, they could summon one attack at a Lord’s full power. It didn’t sound very impressive until you saw what exactly these very Lords were capable of in battle.
Hadjar hadn’t seen it yet, but he suspected that it was very impressive. One Lord’s attack, using their full might, could not only send a Spirit Knight to their forefathers, but also injure another Lord! Unless, of course, said Lord had their own defensive artifacts, talismans, or amulets.
“Dinos is clearly very invested in this adventure,” Hadjar drawled.
Outside the dome of runes, about a hundred and fifty cultivators simply disappeared. Before they could even cry out, the white flames swept over them and the golems, gathering their rich harvest.
Hadjar wished that he could feed his sword right now. The black wisps of fog greedily caressed the walls of the dome, but couldn’t break out. And thank the High Heavens for that! Hadjar didn’t want to disappear into the fire.
After a couple of seconds, the fire subsided, the dome melted away, and the ‘stone plateau’ they’d been fighting on now looked like a terrible pool of lava. The giant, apparently unconscious, was rocking back and forth slightly.
“He shrank again,” Einen said.
Indeed, the creature was now about 1600 feet tall. The formation had worked.
“We’re almost there!” Dinos shouted, and led the survivors toward the scar on the giant’s scorched neck.
Hadjar, using all his speed and the ‘Wind’ stance, stayed near the front. A bold and, in some ways, insane plan had already formed in his mind. If it succeeded, Tom Dinos would get the Primeval Core, but there would be far less energy left in it than the young heir of the Predatory Blades clan was hoping for!
Chapter 471
Gradually, the giant came to his senses. His oppressive aura began to descend once more on the shoulders of the disciples who’d survived the fiery hell. Only this time, it was much less dense, which allowed the cultivators to fight with all they had. The inner circle disciples now crushed the golems as easily as children toppled sand castles. Hadjar, too, now needed only two light slashes, unsupported by any Techniques, to dispel the weakened copies of the giant.
They moved toward the neck and the burned scar. However, the Primeval Giant recovered further with every second that passed, and its stone skin started turning into green rock again, replacing the lava. Hadjar squinted at the ground and cursed. The monster had another Technique up his sleeve. Standing almost knee-deep in the swamp, he gradually drew it in. The muddy water, the various flora, and even patches of earth were being sucked into the giant. Both of his legs turned into powerful whirlpools that fueled the healing and strengthening process.
“If we can’t do this within the next minute,” Tom Dinos shouted, turning a dozen golems to dust with a single swing of his sword, “we’ll all be meeting our forefathers!”
Hadjar agreed with their temporary leader. He and Einen tripled the intensity of their onslaught. Not sparing any energy, they generously poured it into their Calls, wielding power similar to the might of the disciples with the golden tokens.
Finally, a group of forty cultivators, leaving the others behind, and now surrounded by a growing number of golems, broke through to the monster’s neck. The deep scar was the only possible weak spot they could attack. Inside, beneath the almost transparent stone skin covering it, was a pulsating vein. It looked like a glowing river of ore, beating desperately somewhere inside the creature’s body.
Hadjar was about to run toward it, but then a ten-foot golem appeared in front of him, still wielding the crushing power of a Spirit Knight.
“Azure Cloud!” Hadjar launched a fierce attack.
Silently, without so much as ruffling the clothes of the disciples around him, the incredibly powerful attack struck the center of the golem’s torso. A dragon with a sword for a body cut the golem into several parts. The explosion of energy dug a hole three feet wide in the solidifying lava. The Primeval Giant seemed to dislike this. Still stunned by the powerful spell from before, he kept trying to recover, but slowed down for a few moments after Hadjar’s attack.
Einen didn’t waste any time either. Together with his rainbow ape, he used the ‘River Serpent’ Technique. Enhanced by his Call, it looked like a stream of shadows suddenly stretching out from the tip of his spear-staff. Straight as an arrow, it pierced two golems at once. Hadjar couldn’t believe his eyes at first, but upon seeing how hard Einen was breathing, he realized that this attack had taken most of the islander’s power to use. Still, it was definitely scary. With just one blow, a Heave
n Soldier at the initial stage had been able to destroy creatures equal in power to the initial stage of a human Spirit Knight, which was a whole level higher on the path of cultivation.
When Hadjar saw the opening created by Einen’s Technique, he used his own ‘Wind’ Technique. Leaving foggy afterimages behind in his wake, he crossed the distance that separated them from the target.
Creeping along the ‘ground’, he dodged the grasping paws of the giant’s defenders when they reached for him. He dove between the legs of one of them, and, pushing off from another’s knee, he flew over its head, pushed off its back, then plunged his sword into the chest of a third.
The Black Blade went through the stone easily, and Hadjar used his momentum to lunge forward. Tipping the disintegrating golem onto its back, he pushed off again and, after leaping forward a few yards, landed exactly on the edge of the scar. The stone skin, which had been fused by the firestorm, was already getting stronger, but not enough to prevent him from piercing it.
“Spring Wind!”
Hadjar put almost eighty percent of his remaining power into this attack. Shrouded in black fog, he struck the thinnest layer of skin with all his might. His Black Blade bit hungrily into the stone flesh. The explosion of black-and-blue energy spread out in waves of power, sending not just the golems flying, but also the weak cultivators. However, even that wasn’t enough to penetrate the seemingly thin layer of stone skin.
“Einen!” Hadjar shouted.
The islander needed no further instructions. Over the years, the two friends had fought side by side so many times that they now understood each other perfectly. Holding his spear-staff out in front of him again, Einen roared: “River Serpent!”
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