Chapter 445: How to Die
Black Snake Shield trembled all of a sudden.
His body floated up and one shield rapidly shielded the bottom of his feet.
Psst!
Several red trails drilled out from the soil beneath his feet and hit the shield. In the loud screeching sound, the shield was smoking and showed large areas of corrosion.
Black Snake Shield looked as if he was on fire and rapidly retreated back.
Belo's face was immediately covered in blood tattoos, as if he was wearing a menacing mask.
His wrists were slit by his fingernails. Two streaks of blood flew out like two red ribbons.
"Even before the Era of the War with Dragons, only the highest ranked beastman tribes have such bloodline ability. He has actually evolved to this extent, to even be able to corrode the Snake weapons!" In the bush far away, Manguu, the biggest amongst the three arcane masters wearing silver robes, spoke with a serious expression.
"But this method of constantly using blood to fight should not last long. It was said that during the War with Dragons, the reason the beastman kingdom fell so quickly was because their bloodline was filled with rampaging and impulsive factors. Regardless of whatever Corps of the Evil Dragon, they would rush in without caring if they could hold out or not." The pony-tailed skinny arcane master coldly spoke.
"It's not that simple." Yugou, the captain, shook his head, "A common beastman bloodline is indeed unable to sustain this exhaustion. However, a beastman bloodline at his level...... his blood has already become a monster. He should have reached the stage where he can devour his opponent's blood and convert it to fight. So his endurance is abnormally strong."
"Is it like creating various weapons with the opponent's blood?" Manguu asked.
"That's right," Yugou rubbed his chin, "During the war between the beastman kingdom and Evil Dragon army, the beastman kingdom was destroyed very quickly. However, the Golden Demon Corps, one of the three great corps under the Evil Dragon, was also lost in the war against the beastman kingdom. It was said that twenty thousand beastmen fought against the fully armed Golden Demon Corps. Those twenty thousand beastmen made the battlefield into a living hell. Golden Demon Corps's Epic level armors were devoured by the blood of those collapsed beastmen."
"If the beastmen did not have those rampaging and impulsive factors in their bloodline...... and did not use their own flesh and blood to go against the metal corps that could tear everything apart, the outcome of the War with Dragons might be difficult to tell......" Yugou rubbed his chin and sighed. Then, he took a look at the detection device, "More arcane teams have arrived. I have a bad feeling. Is that guy trying to change here into a living hell?"
"Even if he possesses great endurance, how would that help? Even if he could defeat many arcane teams that could not hold themselves back, his arcane skills and traits would be exposed. The longer he fought, the higher the chance of getting killed." The skinny Fesh snorted, "It's too dangerous."
"Of course, that depends on their performance. At least from how things look now, Chris is clearly preserving her stamina. She doesn't even intend to use her arcane particles. The distribution of stamina and fighting style of that god-like girl is worth learning. As for danger...... We can let the other teams do the dangerous things. After all, our Silver Team is the incarnation of justice, we can just wait and pick up the loots from other people."
"Cunning......" Fesh and Manguu spoke simultaneously.
......
"No way......"
At the same time, Black Snake Shield was greatly shocked.
At least a hundred snakes swarmed out from the ground and bit onto Belo.
It was another signature skill of the Snake Mercenary Band: Spirit Snake Formation!
That skill could summon countless poisonous snakes nearby to attack the enemy.
However, those poisonous snakes were poisoned to death instead when they bit Belo.
Belo's body was even more poisonous than toxin!
Also, the toxin of those poisonous snakes seemed to be absorbed by Belo.
Two clumps of poisonous fog rushed out from Belo's hands, rapidly vanishing into the air.
Almost immediately, Black Snake Shield's head felt dizzy. His entire respiratory system and mouth felt a sickening sweet sensation. His limbs immediately felt numb. He was already poisoned!
At that moment, two streaks of blood hit the two shields around him like scimitars.
The two shields did not corrode like the shield beneath his feet. The blood spread out on the shield rapidly instead. They became countless blood threads and surged towards his chest.
Black Snake Shield's eyes immediately popped open.
He opened his mouth but no sound came from it. He fell backwards stiffly.
"Even Black Snake Shield......"
On the other side, Black Snake Eyes was panting heavily. He was completely drenched by cold sweat.
Two fresh wounds opened up on his body, making him bloody.
Not far from him, four similar grey balls of smoke pulsed.
Bat dashed out from the ball of smoke on his left and wounded him. He seemed to have returned to that ball of smoke. However, he could not be sure if Bat was really in that ball of smoke.
That was because in the first exchange, Bat's real body was obviously in the ball of smoke behind him. However, in the next attack, Bat came out from his left.
"Surrender!"
"Your Snake Eye has been broken by me. Your teammates are also killed. You should surrender and become a retainer of Lord Belo like me!"
At that moment, Bat's calm voice came from the four balls of smoke at the same time.
"Making me surrender? You just killed my teammates and you want me to surrender and work for you?" Black Snake Eyes pulled off his mask. Beneath the mask was a pale yet young face filled with madness, "Rather than that, I'm better off fighting to death!"
"Then? You will die as an arcane master of a shameful hired bandit arcane team? The life of an arcane master just disappears like that? Do you know why the majority of arcane masters desperately tried to join a Corps? Because those arcane masters fight against violent monsters and ruthless murderers. They also fought to death. However, the glory of those arcane masters, the achievements they leave behind, those are bound to be remembered by people."
The four balls of smoke dissipated, revealing Bat's figure. Bat had a determined expression, "It's unknown how many greedy people will come here, we don't know how many arcane teams we will be fighting against. However, even if we fought to death, our tale will become a legend. Do you want to die with shame as a bandit that came here? Or die a glorious death with us? You can make the choice."
"Arcane masters like you who have no beliefs and only fought for yourselves are only aiming to make yourselves stronger...... But what happens after you become stronger? Will you die as a bandit in the end?"
Arcane particles were already dancing around Black Snake Eyes. However, after hearing those last few sentences from Bat, his body stiffened.
How should I die?
The arcane particles around Black Snake Eyes began to dissipate.
He did not attack anymore.
"Are you really going to fight to the end here?"
"I won't surrender now...... But if what you said is true, that you would rather die gloriously by fighting to the end and not leave, and that you survived in the end, I will surrender. I will become a retainer just as you said!"
Black Snake Eyes took in a deep breath. After saying so, he sat down on the grass patch at the side and stopped moving.
"What does that mean? He just gave up?"
"Did he get persuaded by something and surrender?"
The arcane masters hiding in the distance did not hear the conversation between Bat and Black Snake Eyes. However, a powerful arcane team was annihilated just like that. The result made those tempted arcane teams shudder.
"What a beautiful battle. In that case, we probably need to wait for some time. There shouldn't be any arcane team that dares to take the head anytime soon?" In the bush far away, Yugou stretched and sighed as if he did not care if anyone discovered him.
"They......" Snake Charmer Hiruka was astonished.
Such a powerful team was finished off so easily.
Not only did Belo gain a great improvement in strength, even Bat showed a significant change in the chilling winds near the Eternal Winter Forest.
"What? As a retainer, even if you don't know how to cooperate, you should at least know how to clean up the loots, right?"
At that moment, Belo coldly glanced at her as he returned to rest, "Don't forget that you are my first retainer. This team is named after you. If you can't be of any use, then Bat will replace you as the first retainer and lead the team."
Actually, Snake Charmer Hiruka was not interested in being the team leader. What she wanted was to survive. However, hearing Belo's speech, she unconsciously walked to the corpses of those Black Snake Team members and began collecting their loots.
"These Snake weapons are not bad!"
The corroded shield, sword and whip were brought to Belo and Chris. Chris noticed that those weapons from the Magus Era were very unique. The arcane energy released by the weapons could be absorbed into their body like arcane particles. However, that arcane energy could not be used separately, it could only be used along with the weapon.
It was the power of the weapons themselves, using these weapons to fight would exhaust less arcane particles than using materialize skill.
Chris had trained in every form of fundamental training to the extreme. She could handle any type of weapon. Hence, she picked the Snake Whip and two Snake Piercers for herself.
"Sword-Shield combination, we were trained in that." Bat simply spoke that line and picked two undamaged shields.
Snake Charmer Hiruka hesitated for a moment and took that Snake Sword.
"They didn't get exhausted much, and obtained benefits from that battle instead. They have become a little stronger." Seeing Belo's group distributing the loots, many lurking arcane masters had such a thought.
The gathering arcane teams were increasing in number. Yugou's detection device showed nearly thirty clumps of red dots. There were surely some arcane teams that the device could not detect as well.
"Someone finally cannot hold back?"
Time silently ticked. After nearly an hour, the seemingly empty cold plain suddenly reverberated powerful arcane energy fluctuation. Wind breaking sound could be heard again!