Chapter 1077: Human Wave Tactics
These four-armed natives were so intent on killing Qianye that they didn’t care at all about the two-arm casualties. Seeing Qianye evade several of their attacks, the four-armed warriors became furious. They shouted out commands to the nearby two-armed people, having them restrict Qianye’s movement space.
Qianye knew that the four-armed people were on a completely different level compared to the two-arms, but he would’ve never imagined they would send the latter to their deaths. One had to know that they were intelligent lifeforms as well—many of them possessed human or dark race bloodlines, and were inherently resistant to orders sending them to their deaths.
Qianye saw terror and hesitation in the eyes of the two-armed natives. They approached him unwillingly because they knew doing so meant death. But their eyes were shrouded in an odd yellow color as the four-armed warriors roared, hiding whatever emotions they might have had before. Soon afterward, they lost all reasoning and charged toward Qianye amidst loud cries.
Qianye saw that the four-armed warriors were the ones in control. He laughed coldly as he charged out from the encirclement of two-armed people and arrived beside one of the roaring four-armed warriors. A swing of East Peak was all it took to sever his legs.
The four-armed native fell down screaming and rolled about in pain, his flailing weapons producing an area of death around him. All the two-armed people near him were badly mutilated.
Qianye only injured the warrior because he would turn into a natural obstruction in his badly injured state. Otherwise, not to mention a hundred thousand, just ten thousand of them was enough to squeeze him to death.
Despite that, the ones shouting out the orders weren't just a single four-armed warrior. Even though dozens of them were issuing commands at the same time, the two-armed natives never got confused. They simply charged at Qianye as though a single person was guiding them.
Qianye found it strange and wondered if all the four-armed people were simply shouting something like “charge”, an order that would make no difference no matter how many people were issuing it.
As the two-armed soldiers grew in number, Qianye slashed and dodged but wasn’t able to improve his situation at all. He glanced around him and noted the locations of all the four-armed people around him. It wasn’t going to be that easy to surround and kill him with two-armed cannon fodder!
The four-armed warriors were quite tall—the strongest ones were almost ten meters in height, while the shorter ones were at least four. They looked fairly eye-catching as they towered over the horde of two-armed men. The latter could obstruct him on the ground, but there was nothing they could do to him in the air.
At the thought of this, Qianye shot into the sky and pounced onto a four-armed warrior. He struck away the native’s weapon and, with a turn of his body, slashed open the man’s head.
Qianye leaped up again after the successful kill, tapping a tree-trunk in the air before shooting toward a different four-armed warrior. Yet another cull ensued.
Qianye flew about in the air, felling seven of these four-armed warriors and clearing the left side of the battlefield. The sea of two-armed people below him could pose no threat.
It was at this point that a sudden change happened.
The dozens of remaining four-armed warriors retrieved the bows on their back and nocked their arrows. In the blink of an eye, countless arrows were whistling through the air toward Qianye.
Qianye’s expression changed at the sight of these green-shrouded arrows!
He pounced toward a large tree, circled to the back, and began climbing upward. The projectiles whistling behind him flew around the tree as they closed in.
In the blink of an eye, Qianye had reached the crown of the tree. There, the branches were already quite thin and no longer able to hide his figure. Although most of the pursuing arrows had struck the tree trunk, there were still ten or so on his tail.
Qianye was a powerful character even by the twelve major vampire clans’ standards, someone who could suppress people like Edward. Despite his superiority in speed and agility, he still couldn’t escape these arrows after going all out. The archery skill of these natives was far beyond what the Empire was capable of.
With no path upward, Qianye made a sharp turn and slammed down into the sea of two-armed people like a comet.
“Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!” Several of the pursuing arrows stabbed into the ground behind Qianye. The projectiles almost vanished completely into the earth, leaving only the fletching. It would seem their accuracy was lacking just a bit during sharp turns.
However, Qianye let out a muffled grunt as he was struck on the thigh and shoulder.
The arrow in his thigh had gone in quite deep, while the other one nailed into his shoulder blade.
Qianye’s face turned pale as he reached back and pulled the arrows out. The arrowheads weren’t serrated, but there were strange blue patterns upon them representing an intense poison. Qianye’s wound felt somewhat numb, but the venom was swept away by a wave of sanguine flames.
Qianye felt fortunate that the natives had thought their poison was enough and never bothered to modify their arrowheads. Such crafting was too much work for the natives who had to procreate in the daytime and go into deep sleep at night to resist the cold. Using a bit of poison saved them much time.
Besides, a poison that could give Qianye such discomfort could easily kill any other beast. Even a demonkin expert like Eden would have to go through a bit of trouble when poisoned. While surrounded in every direction, just a slight delay was enough to plunge one into peril.
It could be considered good luck that only ten or so arrows had managed to chase after him until the end, two of them finding their mark. From a different perspective, these four-armed natives wouldn’t be at their current level if all of their arrows could chase after Qianye until the end. They would have to be at or near the divine champion realm.
The two-armed natives had swarmed over at this point, and Qianye no longer dared take to the skies, lest he became an easy target. He flashed into the crowd of two-armed people and adopted the most primitive way to protect himself.
Qianye’s movements became extremely small and meticulous, only enough to disable the enemy. He would not kill if he could injure, and only lightly if he could help it. This wasn’t born of benevolence but rather to conserve energy for potential danger.
The Book of Darkness could convert essence blood, but the rate was nowhere near the consumption in battle. He could replenish blood energy but not origin power, which was being drained at a steady rate.
Having adapted to the high gravity, most species in the Great Maelstrom possessed strong bodies. This was a problem for Qianye because his domain would have little effect on these people, and he couldn’t use Life Plunder too often. This crippled half of Qianye’s trump cards, leaving only the Shot of Inception for use in critical situations.
It was soon dusk.
Qianye was bathed in blood. All he could remember was that he had killed close to a hundred four-armed warriors and countless two-armed ones. His body was growing heavy, and every movement felt exhausting. He could feel his origin power and blood energy hitting empty.
“Will I ever escape?” Qianye sighed secretly. He had never imagined that he would be dying to a native human wave tactic, not on the front lines against the dark races, nor amidst a civil conflict in the Empire. Now that was frustrating.
That six-armed giant simply wouldn’t enter the forest and was currently quite far away. With the energy Qianye had left, it wasn’t possible even if he wanted to use Spatial Flash and take the giant down with him.
The curtain of the night slowly descended, and the forest grew darker. The darkness had no effect on Qianye, but the same couldn’t be said for the natives. They did possess some night vision capabilities but couldn’t compare to Qianye’s vision, which stemmed from his ancient vampire bloodline.
With the pressure on him reduced, Qianye finally made a decision on his path of escape. He charged out toward the Pond of Life!
Now that it was night time, most creatures would instinctively choose to sleep even without the frigid night freezing their vitality. All reproduction activities had stopped.
It was probably the same for those giant beasts in the Pond of Life. In their weariness, they would probably not mind an insect flying past them—provided said insect didn’t sting them.
Qianye was betting on the sea creatures being in a resting state and ignoring him as he passed by the water.
When the sky was completely dark, Qianye finally got through the encirclement and arrived at the point where the forest and lake waters met. That was where the invisible border existed.
The distant six-armed giant became restless. It roared continuously, instructing the two and four-armed natives to tighten their siege. The giant also tried to enter the forest, knocking several trees down and injuring itself.
This proved that there was something the six-armed giant feared in the Pond of Life. It didn’t want Qianye to go there.
It made sense for one to do something the enemy didn’t want; this was a good strategy under most circumstances. Qianye advanced firmly and crossed the invisible border.
A furious roar echoed in the Pond of Life as he crossed the boundary. A shockwave of desire surged over and struck Qianye, as well as the natives chasing after him. Even the people who were just close to the border weren’t spared. Apparently, the creature in the water had been infuriated.
As the tides fell, Qianye was overcome by a momentary daze. The stunned state was immediately suppressed by his Venus Dawn origin power, granting him clarity once more.
The natives around him, on the other hand, fell to the ground and became entangled like a group of mating beasts. It was clear that they could produce offspring, so they couldn’t resist the torrential urge.
Qianye was delighted because this tide of desire was much weaker compared to the daytime. Apparently, the creatures in the water needed to sleep too and were using minimal effort to deal with them. This intensity was enough for him to resist, which was beyond the power of those two and four-armed natives. This wave of desire actually helped Qianye deal with his pursuers.
Qianye continued running toward the Pond of Life, but he glanced back briefly before doing so. There seemed to be a commotion in the distance; the natives were beleaguering someone.