Lunging forward, shield held forward, the two clashed together. After the clash, Lin TianAo’s body actually slid back two feet, but his body and shield remained firm and stable. As for the Blood Blaze Lion, the impact threw it back as well, causing it to roll on the ground.
Crow was about to leap to the attack, but Lin TianAo quickly stopped her. “Kill off all the lionesses first, I will hold of the Lion Leader for now.”
By now, out of the seven lionesses, only five remained, and all of them were still being suppressed by Shangguan Bing’er. Although they were roaring angrily, trying to force their way through the rain of arrows, they could only run about crookedly, unable to reach their targets.
Crow, Drunken Bao, Xiao Yan, Ye Paopao did not relax, each gathering their power and launching attacks to the best of their abilities.
At first, they had held back a little, somewhat worried that Shangguan Bing’er’s rapid fire rate might cause them some incidental injuries. However, such thoughts quickly vanished. Shangguan Bing’er’s archery was just too amazing, with some of their arrows actually arcing around them to reach the targets, and even at such speed of firing, not a single one even grazed any of them.
Under such a circumstance, even though these Blood Blaze Lionesses were Mid Level Zun Stage Heavenly Beasts, facing such a powerful and united team who worked so well together, how could they be of any match?
As for the most powerful Blood Blaze Lion, facing Lin TianAo, it was also unable to break through his defenses.
Originally, when Lin TianAo had bet with Zhou Weiqing and Yun Li, he had limited himself a lot by standing still, and was unable to unleash much of his power. Now, he showed his unique power, letting Shangguan Bing’er understand why Zhou Weiqing placed so much importance on him.
Without question, this Zong Stage Blood Blaze Lion Leader was equivalent to a seven-Jeweled cultivation level, and was much more powerful than any of the team members. Its destructive power was astonishing, and though Crow’s strength might be impressive, she would not be able to do much against the flames of the lion. As for the others, Little Four also wouldn’t be able to stand against it, Xiao Yan was not as good in close combat, and though Drunken Bao might be able to hold his own for a while, it definitely would not be for long.
However, facing this ultimate defense of Lin TianAo, the Lion Leader was stopped in its tracks.
Lin TianAo did not move extremely quick, not even with any sort of rhythm. From an onlookers perspective, it might seem that he was just moving his immense shield slowly. However, even so, he was still able to always get his defense in the right place at the right time; no matter what the Lion Leader tried, it was still unable to break free of him.
With just that single five-shield Assembly Set Piece, Lin TianAo was still able to give the impression of being everywhere. Every time the Blood Blaze Lion Leader wanted to change directions or attack someone else, Lin TianAo would just take a single step or move his shield, stepping onto the lion’s steps and preventing it from gathering its power or unleashing it, causing it to lose balance.
As such, Lin TianAo and the Lion Leader were in an unbelievably close proximity, engaged in such close combat, it looked extremely dangerous.
Even so, the Blood Blaze Lion was still unable to break through Lin TianAo’s defenses, nor could it jump to its companions’ defense, and could only watch as its Lionesses fell one by one to the members of the Fei Li Battle Team.
Crow’s attacks were just too ferocious. With the pair of axes weighing more than one thousand three hundred jin weaving about in her hands, even the Blood Blaze Lion Leader’s defense might not be able to hold up, let alone the lionesses. Out of the five remaining lionesses, by now, three of them had been killed by her! The strangest thing was that as soon as blood stained the blades of the axes, it seemed to be absorbed by them, causing its dark gold glow to brighten. These legendary axes were definitely no ordinary weapons!
Shangguan Bing’er had stopped firing her arrows, calmly collecting some of the arrows which remained undamaged. She knew that at this point, she was not required for the rest of the fight. That Lion Leader was not something she could handle, or even harass easily.
As Xiao Yan finished off the last lioness, Crow and Drunken Bao approached Lin TianAo from two different sides.
“Boss, let’s take action then.” Drunken Bao grinned and said excitedly.
Lin TianAo said solemnly: “Ye Paopao, use your ice spear to shoot it.”
Ye Paopao did not have much tacit understanding with the rest of the team, and with less battle experience, he was not able to work well with them yet. Without Lin TianAo’s instructions, he was really quite at a loss what to do. Now, he coalesced the ice spear with all his might; although he did not understand why Lin TianAo wanted him to do so, he would just follow orders. In his mind, his own Ice Spear would not even be able to get through the protective flames of the lion!
In about five breaths, Ye Paopao’s Ice Spear was completed, and with a loud shout, it flashed into a cold blue light, striking forth towards the Lion Leader.
At the same time, Lin TianAo showed Ye Paopao and Shangguan Bing’er what the true power of his ultimate defense was.
As Ye Paopao shouted out and released his spear, Lin TianAo also let loose a loud shout. Right foot stamping hard on the ground, his Assembly Shield flashed in a brilliant earth-yellow light, and the entire shield smashed savagely into the side of the Blood Blaze Lion.
In that instant, the flames of the Blood Blaze Lion were suppressed by that yellow light. That unknown Skill of Lin TianAo had caused the Blood Blaze Lion to be stunned for just a split second, but it was just at a perfect timing as Ye Paopao’s Ice Spear reached.
In that short period of time, Lin TianAo actually managed to strike the Lion a second time; not aimed to damage it, but to move it! As such, he somehow managed to reposition the Lion so that the Ice Spear struck right into its eye!
With a sickening thud, the powerful eight star rated Ice Spear Skill of Ye Paopao’s pierced deep into the Blood Blaze Lion Leader’s eye, embedding into the socket for a moment before being evaporated by its internal flames. No matter how powerful and tough the Lion Leader’s defenses were, that moment of being stunned, losing its protective flames for the split second, its eyelids were after all still just eyelids, how could it possibly protect it against such a powerful spear! As such, it sustained a heavy injury as it howled in rage and pain.
Drunken Bao and Crow did not waste the opportunity, springing into action.
Drunken Bao raised the cudgel in his hands, the brilliant gold light flashing once more as he struck forward, the cudgel seeming to split into three illusory images as he did so. His body flashed forward quickly, quick as lightning, as he struck forward in one fell swoop. If one did not look carefully, the three cudgel images would superimpose as if just a single one.
This was not a Elemental Jewel Stored Skill, but instead a cudgel martial skill that Drunken Bao had trained hard in, called the Triple Evil Smite. Coupled with the Light Attribute’s Righteous Smite Skill that he had used, although the offensive power wasn’t particularly strong, it had a powerful stunning effect.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* The three cudgels slammed onto the head of the lion, and its shrill howls were interrupted, and the suppressed flames around its body were once again unable to recover.
Next came Crow’s performance. Her legendary axes smashed downwards in a flurry of blows, along with a beautiful semi-circle arc of light that was almost blinding, causing the rest of the team to be almost unable to see the actual blows.
The defense of the Blood Blaze Lion was just too powerful. Even the heavy legendary axes were not able to finish it off with a single blow. However, what one blow could not do, many blows could. Furthermore, it was damaged and stunned, and its greatest defense of the protective flames were suppressed. In a matter of seconds, its head flew off, spraying Crow and Drunken Bao with blood… as it was finished off by the flurry of blows. Only Lin TianAo was saved from being drenched by blood, due to his shield blocking him.
Drunken Bao was almost struck speechless, finally sighing and saying: “Little Sis Crow, your Whirlwind Chop is getting fiercer and fiercer, your inborn talents are unbelievable.” Although the Gold Crow Tribe Members were extremely powerful, they were quite simple, and they did not take any fancy names for their combat skills.
Crow grinned, and the two legendary axes disappeared in a blur of light. Looking carefully, there was a Spatial Ring on each of her hands, clearly they were specially made to hold her Legendary Axes.
Keeping the Legendary Axes, she kicked at the Lion Leader’s head, catching it in her hands. Reaching in and searching around, she plucked out a dark red Heavenly Core.
Lin TianAo and the rest had also kept their Consolidated Equipment, and he smiled and said: “The hide and Heavenly Core of the Blood Blaze Lions are extremely valuable, and their blood can also be used to create Consolidating Ink, and can also be worth quite a bit. Let’s not waste it and harvest as much as we can. When we reach the city, we can sell them and split the profits.”
“Let me do it!” Crow excitedly rushed about to harvest the items, and Little Four also landed from his flight to help out.
Lin TianAo returned to the entrance of the cave, turning to Shangguan Bing’er who had finished collecting all her salvageable arrows. Nodding to her, he said in approval: “Nice archery.”
Shangguan Bing’er smiled faintly and said: “Leader is praising me too much, you all are the powerful ones. I will be useless against that Blood Blaze Lion Leader.”
Lin TianAo also smiled as he replied: “It looks like both you and Zhou Weiqing have quite a history and background. Our team is indeed lucky to have you, and you both will nicely offset our lack of ranged combat and attack speed. No matter how good Elemental Jewel Stored Skills are, the attack speed can never compare with bows.”
Amongst all Heavenly Jewel Masters, everyone had their own focus of cultivation and training. Some would focus more on the usage of Physical Jewels and melee combat, such Heavenly Jewel Masters usually had good physiques and bodies, and usually also had some form of martial skills. A good example of these sort would be Crow. On the other hand, there were some who focused more on Elemental Jewel Stored Skills, and examples of this would be Ye Paopao and Xiao Yan, and they were much stronger at ranged combat.
Of course, every Heavenly Jewel Master was the most powerful when using both Elemental Jewels and Physical Jewels. This was after all their main advantage, and focusing on one was a matter of relative extent, and not to say that they would abandon the other.
Although Shangguan Bing’er was only at the three-Jeweled cultivation level, with her outstanding archery, she would be able to minimize the expenditure of her Heavenly Energy while maintain a certain level of offensive power. Facing Heavenly Jewel Masters like Crow or Lin TianAo, she might not be a match. However, facing those like Ye Paopao and Xiao Yan, it would be difficult to say. With kiting archery methods, as long as she managed to keep her distance and given enough time, even the five-Jeweled Xiao Yan might be eventually worn down to death. After all, unless one’s cultivation level broke past the Zong Stage, Elemental Jewel Stored Skills’ attack range and speed were far behind fired arrows.