Chapter 250: Six Paths of Samsara (I)
The Fiend Commander didn’t pursue and attack eagerly, instead chanting an incantation using the Fiend tongue. It was at times loud and at times low, but no parts of his incantation missed to give off an evil feeling. The dark red radiance coming out from his body also became increasingly stronger. The red halo under the surrounding soldiers of the Grand Fiend Cavalry accordingly increased in intensity, and the Nightmare Devil Horses, that also chanted in a low voice, let out a red glow that seemed to amplify the halos on their riders.
It could be said that the results the two Demon Hunt Squads had just obtained were from the fact that it was a sneak attack, from Cai’er and Han Daosi’s advantageous control, and from their smart use of the terrain. This was why the attack was so successful.
The same Fiend Cavalry with a different commander would also display a different level of strength. It would be an error to think that Grand Fiends were easy to handle based on the last experience they had with a cavalry of fifty Grand Fiends. The last time they managed to wipe out the entirety of the enemy’s troops, the greatest contributor was Haoyue with his Essence of Disorder. The powerful might coming from this tri-elemental spell was enough to weaken the Grand Fiend Cavalry’s strength at least by half. And that time, their group had Long Haochen as their pillar of support.
This time, although they were only facing an army of thirty Fiends, it comprised an enemy at the seventh step and two enemies at the sixth step, which were by themselves already very difficult to handle for the two Demon Hunt Squads. Thus, the real battle had just started. Just like Luc Xi had previously said, their tactics were to provoke a battle of attrition in which their side would desperately defend their position.
Watshiii! The Fiend Lord let out a loud roar, and the Grand Fiend Cavalry immediately moved forward with the Fiend Commander of the sixth step as their core, forming a conical formation that charged directly at the cavern where the two Demon Hunt Squads were staging their defence.
Contrary to expectations, the Fiend Lord didn’t join in the formation, but stayed at its rear, raising his blood-colored heavy sword as he mounted his Nightmare Devil Horse. He seemed to be supervising the battlefield, but was in reality waiting for the opportunity to attack. From his point of view, the only enemy that could threaten him was Cai’er.
After sustaining injuries, the Grand Birdy Demon directly came back to Chen Ying’er’s side, groaning with two boo hoo sounds and carrying a look filled with grievance.
Looking at his injuries, Chen Ying’er felt deeply sorry, but now wasn’t the time to have Luc Xi heal him, because he currently possessed the darkness and lightning attributes, thus healing him using light element would only produce the opposite effect.
Certainly, this heroic Grand Birdy Demon was the Mythic Mirror Image Pig, McDull. He took the shape of the Fiend Lord to confuse the enemy, before eating the magical crystal of a Grand Birdy Demon, managing this accomplishment. Though it consumed a magical crystal of a demon at the sixth step, killing this powerful enemy greatly eased the pressure on the two Demon Hunt Squads.
After a few groans, the Grand Birdy Demon left the cave at great speed, as the rich lightning-element spiritual energy in his body was gathering, rapidly condensing a golden ball of lightning surrounded by a black stream of air.
Ten minutes hadn’t passed yet, and he still had a significant amount of spiritual energy left from the magical crystal, so he could obviously not let it go to waste.
The Grand Fiend Cavalry’s offense finally started, and under the Fiend Commander’s lead, the spears in their hand let out a strong dark-red-colored radiance. Following this charge, the Fiend Lord’s incantation stopped abruptly and a bloody red-colored glow shot straight at the cave. The most frightening thing was that this dark red radiance fused together with the Fiend Commander’s attack, taking the shape of a huge luminous projectile bombarding the cave’s entrance. Its domineering power caused the complexions on the faces of the Demon Hunters in the cave to change completely. At this moment, they finally realized how powerful a Fiend Cavalry could really be after taking their battle formation.
A cavalry’s greatest forte lied in their charging power as a group. Although this was a hilly region, with the Nightmare Devil Horses’ climbing ability, the Grand Fiend Cavalry’s charging speed didn’t drop in the slightest.
Facing that domineering dark red radiance, Han Yu didn’t have the slightest hesitation and resolutely stood in the front, readily keeping the heavy shield in his hand. His Holy Mantle and Holy Filter Shield which were already charged with Storing Power for a long time were immediately released.
Two successive fire elemental shields appeared before him and a silvery white radiance bombarded the dark red projectile, slightly weakening its offensive power.
Bang
The unreasonable offensive power almost instantly shattered the two Fire Elemental Shields and the Holy Mantle, before violently crashing against his shield that carried the power of Holy Filter Shield.
The shield Han Qian gave his grandson wasn’t a particularly powerful piece of equipment, just a magical ranked shield and nothing more.
With a violent boom, Han Yu’s body flickered, clad in golden light; it was Divine Obstruction. This was an ability he had learned from Han Qian’s Inheritance Ring, but which he only rarely used because the team already had Long Haochen as its core.
Normally, with Divine Obstruction, Han Qian should have been able to easily parry this attack, but in reality, this blow exploded in a large area. Han Yu let out a groan and his shield was violently slammed against his chest, pushing him three steps back before he stood firm again. In the meanwhile, the bodies of everyone in the 21st Demon Hunt Squad were lit by a golden light; it was the release of the vitality sharing effect of the Soul Sharing Shackles, absorbing a part of the damage Han Yu received.
Nevertheless, Han Yu spouted out blood, and a golden light spread out from the cave, falling on everyone in the group.
Luc Xi’s crowd effect restorative ability came with a good timing. It was not only Han Yu that sustained damage, but also McDull that had reverted back from a Grand Birdy Demon to his original appearance as a Mythic Mirror Image Treasure Pig. Luc Xi’s ability thus benefitted everyone in the group.
Han Yu felt a sharp pain in his chest, but what let him sigh silently was the fact that it had always been Long Haochen who stayed in the front. Now that he was the one to take on that role, he finally understood how enormous the pressure was Long Haochen had to bear every time he relied on his Saint Spiritual Stove to attract the most powerful enemy to him.
Han Yu was shocked to see that Dian Yan, took the initiative to join his side to guard against this attack. At long last, the Mythic Mirror Image Pig’s last attack had a certain effect. With a violent explosion, another two Grand Fiends were directly hit. The lightning’s speed was too fast, to the extent that even the Fiend Lord didn’t make it in time to rescue them.
However, this clearly had no suppressing effect on their side, and a second tyrannical attack was already launched against them.
Still charging as the offense was carried out, the Grand Fiend Cavalry was about to arrive in front of the cave.
Dian Yan’s situation couldn’t be compared with Han Yu’s; his cultivation was very lacking in comparison to Han Yu’s level. Although he had the support of Lin Xin’s two-layered Fire Elemental Shields, after receiving this attack, his body couldn’t resist and was sent flying. The shield in his hand was even shattered into pieces. Spouting a huge amount of blood, he was seriously wounded from this single attack.
The Demon Hunters from the 4th soldier grade Demon Hunt Squad didn’t have the support of companions who shared their damage with them. If not for Luc Xi’s prompt healing, Dian Yan would very possibly have been sent to hell by the attack. And even with the timely healing he wouldn’t be able to continue fighting for some time, since along with his shield, his two arms ended up fractured.
The Fiend Commander of the sixth step arrived in front of them as a change could be seen in the Grand Fiend Cavalry’s battle formation. From their previous conical formation, the formation suddenly changed to a single line. Each of the Grand Fiends held a spear, pointing it forward, with the Fiend Commander standing in the front. Dark red spiritual energy was unexpectedly forming a straight line as it was released from the weapons of every Grand Fiend, entering the Fiend Commander’s body.
At this point, if one paid attention, he would notice that only ten of these Grand Fiends did so while three others Grand Fiends stood idle in the back, probably prepared to defend their peers, and that the Fiend Commander’s body was clearly at its limit.
A spiritual energy of the sixth step meant that it comprised over 4,000 units, and because of the type of their spiritual energy, only the sorcerer type of Fiends would have the possibility of reaching the peak of their step for. Over this limit, none of them could have any breakthrough.
That was to say, this Fiend Commander’s spiritual energy could at most amount to 10,000 units, but couldn’t exceed this amount. But even so, this was already a catastrophical opponent to the two Demon Hunt Squads. Aside from Long Haochen who had yet to be back, no one in their group had broken through the threshold of 3,000 units yet, so how could they resist the Fiend Commander that benefitted from the combined boost of power coming from all of the Grand Fiends?
“I’ll go first, Yuanyuan will follow me, and Sima will come in third.” Han Yu’s shout was the loudest possible, as the aura of his body increased its intensity tremendously. Grabbing his shield, he released intense surges of spiritual energy, an extremely pure holy spiritual energy that clashed against the Fiend Commander’s attack.
In the midst of exploding sounds, everyone was shocked to see that Han Yu was unexpectedly not pushed back in the slightest. Under the effects of Bright Vengeance, he unexpectedly managed to meet force with force against this Fiend Commander’s all out attack.
The most amazing feat was that Wang Yuanyuan and Sima Xian didn’t assist him but instead took a few steps back to defend the cave.
Lin Xin continuously released one Fire Elemental Shield after another to assist Han Yu, while Yi Jun released his spatial spells to launch attacks. Luc Xi’s healing and various buffs were also launched without pause, and this was how Han Yu miraculously managed to block the Fiend Commander’s attack. Bai Xiaomo’s botanical summons wouldn’t have so much effect at this time, since the Grand Fiend Cavalry’s riders released some dark red flames and the Fiend Lord was at the rear, glaring like a tiger watching his prey. The wave of the summoning spells she had launched previously had come to an end, and it wouldn’t be possible to prolong them from such a distance.
This was clearly not some kind of random miracle, neither was it caused by some sudden breakthrough from Han Yu’s side. There was only one reason for this sudden increase of power which enabled him to block the Fiend Commander’s attack, and this reason lied in the pills that he took.
The additioned effects of the Spiritual Bursting Pills and the Bloodthirsty Pills increased his strength to a new level. Although it came with a massive consumption, its effects were incontestable. With his teammates help, he barely managed to block the enemy’s attack.
Han Yu knew clearly that even Wang Yuanyuan and Sima Xian couldn’t possibly have blocked the Fiend Commander’s attack even after eating the same pills, because they didn’t have such a powerful defensive ability as Divine Obstruction, which was why he had the resolve to last for as long as possible, no matter what.