Chapter 763: Mask
However, the situation was only slightly better even after Su Dingqian had taken action. The armored soldiers were already at the city walls. The wooden stockade was incomparably fragile before their heavy weapons, giving way to huge gaps in just a couple of strikes.
In the blink of an eye, there were holes everywhere and the steel-armored warriors gushed in like a black tide.
Atop the city lord mansion, Su Dingqian stood leaning on the railing as he gazed at the battlefield with an ashen face. At this moment, only Liu Daoming and Su Yueyuan were beside him; the rest had been sent to the frontlines.
Liu Daoming was fine, but a rank-thirteen champion like Su Yueyuan was rather unpresentable in the lineup. Su Dingqian had no other way because all of his cards were here, and he still had to take care of this talented son.
The trio’s expressions were unsightly as they watched the city walls falling one segment after the other. Liu Daoming was still calm, but Su Yueyuan could bear it no longer. “Father, why not unleash another strike? We won’t be able to hold out at this rate!”
“What's the rush?” Su Dingqian rebuked.
Liu Daoming shot Su Yueyuan a meaningful glance and stopped him from speaking. Su Dingqian killing the giant warbeast was already the limit. Divine champions had to follow an unspoken rule when taking action. It wasn’t as if the other side was lacking in divine champions; their numbers were even greater. If Su Dingqian were to attack wantonly and exhaust his energy, the divine champions on the other side would surely take advantage of the situation to strike.
Preserving his combat strength and refraining from attacking was the greatest form of intimidation. At the very least, he could restrain one divine champion and many high-ranking experts. It was even possible for him to keep two divine champions in check.
However, there would be no other way if the battle below the divine champion level were to crumble.
On the opposite end of the battlefield, there was a magnificent airship hovering in the night sky—one that would look rather extravagant even in Evernight. Many of the decorations upon it were quite flashy, and many of the origin arrays on it were there to maintain the airship’s luster.
This garish, impractical battleship was extremely famous because it was the Spider Emperor’s ship.
At this moment, the emperor himself wasn’t here. The person on the main seat was a mysterious person clad in white robes and sporting a faint-golden demonic mask. There were a few arachne within the command room, all of them powerful, valiant, and extraordinary. These were the great generals working under the Spider Emperor, but none of them objected to this outsider usurping the master seat.
That masked person—the master of the Moonlight Demons—was just as famous as the Spider Emperor. People neither knew his name nor what he looked like, only his representative mask. But one could very well imagine his character from how the Moonlight Demons operated. The best way to deal with such a powerful and half-crazed expert was to not provoke him.
This battleship hovered far beyond the battlefield and never approached. Experts would occasionally fly up to deliver battle reports. Most of the time, this masked person would only listen to the numbers without expressing anything. The only order he had ever issued was to withdraw the two warbeasts.
The experts in the command center were feeling quite bored since the battle was developing as smoothly as they had anticipated. As expected, the war beasts forced Su Dingqian to launch an attack. According to the original plan, if the city lord attacked a second time, the masked man would lead them out to surround and kill him.
At this moment, the eyes of an unmoving spider on the cabin roof lit up. “Mask, what’s the situation?”
This spider was the size of a palm and strangely translucent. The voice with which it had spoken sounded rather old and showed no respect to the leader of the Moonlight Demons.
The masked person looked up. “Old Spider, you’ve finally appeared?”
The translucent spider said with a laugh, “I still need to deal with those female spiders back home, how can I have the time? I only have five clones. It’s already good enough that I put one here with you.”
When that translucent spider spoke, all the arachne in the room bowed respectfully. That was because this strange, palm-sized spider was one of the Spider Emperor’s clones. Its function was concealment and long-distance communication, much like a pair of eyes for the Spider Emperor. Its presence was equal to that of the Spider Emperor himself.
Mask knew that the Spider Emperor was always like that. He said with a snort, “Su Dingqian has attacked.”
The Spider Emperor’s voice became serious. “He attacked? How are the losses?”
“One Giant Brigley Beast.”
“Oh, that’s not bad. One Brigley for Port City, that’s not a loss.” The Spider Emperor seemed rather heartbroken despite saying that.
Mask snorted. “He wouldn’t have dared to attack if you were here.”
Spider Emperor said, “It’s no use even if I’m there. He’ll attack all the same when he needs to, and we can’t stop him from fleeing, either. It would be just right if the rabid wolf were there. I’m not like you people, my entire family business is in the Eastern sea. I don’t want to face a madman who had lost his foundations.
Mask remained silent for a moment, seemingly quite distressed as well. “That’s true, only those with foundations have weaknesses.”
The Spider Emperor said, “I don’t think Su Dingqian will fight us to the death. He’s probably thinking about letting us explore the Earth Dragon, and then coming back to attack us when we have suffered heavy casualties.”
The masked man said calmly, “His strategy isn’t bad at all. If not for ‘that’, we wouldn’t have any good way to deal with the dragon, either.”
The Spider Emperor laughed. “Indeed, Mask, I know you contributed the most this time. Rest assured, you’ll get as much of the Earth Dragon’s blood as you deserve, not one drop less.”
The masked man’s aura fluctuated slightly at the mention of the Earth Dragon’s blood. He was clearly not as calm as he seemed. “Let’s take Port City first before further discussion.”
The Spider Emperor said, “In any case, we just need to fight to the death and make them suffer heavy casualties. Do that and Su Dingqian will flee. I’ll be leaving first if there’s nothing here that needs my attention, I’ll be back in a bit. One of my little beauties have woken up, I need to take a pill!”
That translucent spider waved its fore-limbs in a gesture of farewell, and then lay down silently as the emperor’s consciousness departed.
The masked man shook his head. Propping his chin up with his hand, he fell into deep contemplation.
At this moment, the defensive lines of Port City were in flames. Thousands of armored soldiers had rushed into the city with less than fifty dead and began fighting the city guards. Port City’s casualty rates rose sharply once the melee battles broke out. The armor on these creatures was simply so thick and heavy that there was no way an ordinary soldier could shoot through them. It would seem that the four, elephant-like legs were its only weaknesses. However, these warbeasts possessed the trampling skill; going near their legs was almost suicidal.
Qianye was in no rush to join the fray. Instead, he kept on observing these steely warriors for their weakness. On this chaotic battlefield, he was basically in stealth mode after retracting his aura. Perception was an evident shortcoming of these armored warriors—sometimes, they would ignore Qianye even as he brushed past them.
After a period of observation, Qianye had a good idea in his mind. When a certain armored warrior charged past him, Qianye leapt up and landed lithely on his back. He pressed his origin gun at the soldier’s back-armor and fired!
The effects of the old man’s focused firepower became evident at this moment as a single blast almost penetrated the entire upper body of the target. The steel-clad warrior actually continued to rush forward, but its body eventually gave way. Its upper body snapped all of a sudden and fell off from the rest of its frame. Even then, the creature was still struggling with all its might, refusing to die completely.
Qianye broke into a frown as he glanced at the wound. The interior composition was fairly odd and the innards were a mess—there were many organs of unknown function, almost as though the creature was designed by someone with no sense of beauty.
However, there really was nothing special about the bones and skeleton. So, how were they able to withstand the weight of their heavy armor?
Qianye understood after glancing at the heavy armor. The plating was a type of support structure with its center of gravity on the creature’s legs. The other parts of the warrior’s body weren’t sturdy at all and relied on this heavy armor for protection.
After realizing this point, Qianye quickly formulated a plan. He rushed into the midst of several armored soldiers and abruptly unleashed his Oceanic Vortex, suppressing everything in an area ten meters around him.
The sounds of cracking bones could be heard from the legs of the eight armored warriors around him. Unable to bear the massive weight any longer, the creatures collapsed with a boom. These fierce warriors did not know pain and wanted to continue their massacre, but the sudden weight had crushed the bones in their legs. No matter how they struggled, they couldn’t climb back up.
Qianye withdrew his aura and domain before retreating into the city. His attack was concluded in a flash and controlled within a small area, hence no one discovered the abnormality.
At this point, the armored warriors were beginning to assail the interior of the city, and the battle had become quite complicated. Qianye merged into the shadows to join his favorite phase of the battle.
A steel-clad warrior was walking along a narrow street in search of potential enemies and attacking all life in sight, be they soldiers or civilians. It had just passed a house when the wall suddenly shattered and out came Qianye. He flashed past the armored warrior and opened fire at its belly.
The steel-clad warriors’ bellies were their weakness. At the very least, their abdominal armor wasn’t strong, and how could the soft abdomen withstand the ravages of a grade-seven gun? Qianye almost blasted the target’s abdomen apart, producing a shower of blood and organs.
That steal-armored soldier struggled and roared, but its mountainous body collapsed and blocked the road. Another armored soldier rushed over at this point, but it seemed to feel no sympathy for its dead comrade. On the contrary, it grew violent and tossed the corpse to the side with a wave of its heavy axe.
Qianye reappeared at this point, flashing past the warrior’s abdomen and sending it on its way to meet its compatriot.