Chapter 6: Three-dimensional battle skirmish
Translated by: Chua
Edited by: TN and Elkassar
In the movie, Mountain Banshees appeared frequently on camera. The Na’vi clansmen had relied on them to establish a formidably unrivalled aerial fleet. Moreover, there was even a rite of passage for one to become an Ikran Makto (Banshee rider, according to the Na’vi language). Riding one was akin to riding an Audi A6 in the present world. Of course, the Great Leonopteryx that the main lead, Jake Sully, finally succeeded in riding, could be compared to a Rolls Royce.Silver Ghost; which was the only one worldwide.
At the hundred metre mark, those 7-8 Mountain Banshees segregated and dove down in spirals; splitting into 4 groups to assault the 4 different regions of defending contestants. Currently, the long range combatants naturally started firing at them. Concurrently, a sentry started yelling loudly.
“Sightings of countless fast moving creatures from a distancet; I reckon they are a viperwolf pack, quantity of 50 – 100 heads!”
In this chaotic split second, Sheyan instantly recalled his experiences in the previous Starship Trooper world; where the skies were covered with mutalisks and the earth with zerglings. Fortunately, there wasn’t a combined and coordinated full frontal assault by the arachnids previously. If not, even if Sheyan’s life was multiplied by 10, or his innate ability was stronger by 10 times, he would’ve still been reduced to ashes!
Yet now! The viperwolf pack and the Mountain Banshees were ingeniously collaborating into a three-dimensional battle skirmish! The crafty and innumerable viperwolf pack, coupled with the vicious and threatening mountain banshees, had formed into a perfectly ruthless battle collaboration. Fortunately, Sheyan wasn’t the only one in this battle, he was stuck within the Illume-union party. Thus, a major portion of assaults from these formidable and cunning creatures would be tanked by the Illume-union.
Fortunately, the long range firepower of the Illume-union was naturally retaliating in advance, they were already unleashing their strength against the pack of viperwolves; and successfully aggravated the furious creatures and capturing their attention. As for Sheyan, he had successfully resigned himself to be just a spectator.
Visibly clear, a Mountain Banshee jolted down against the heavy firepower, and though its skin was lacerating from the bullets and magic blasts, it still maintained its unbearably sharp screech through its incisive long beak! It was like a pebble instigating a thousand layered tide or screech as it dispersed forth! Through the piercing screech, circles of incorporeal ripples could be seen! Contestants caught in the ripples had seemingly met with a 12 grade stormy gale, as their eyes burnt bitterly with blurred vision; overflowing with tears as they attempted to cover their faces and retreat.
Rank B ability: “Throat Shudder” ! – Evoking a wildly ferocious gust, causing the surrounding enemies to fall into a persisted retreating stance. Duration of 5 seconds, accuracy drop by 70% due to irritated eyes!
Mountain Banshees travelled in a flock, their screeches were their primary form of communication. Because a Mountain Banshee don’t possess a windpipe, its breathing directly enter through its chest. Therefore, their lungs acted as a jet engine to propel air into its skull cavity to emit voice, thereby using its huge mouth to direct the sound towards a specific direction.
After a long time, such breathing and sound interactions caused the Mountain Banshee to develop such a formidable offensive technique. This class of terrifying creature had two pairs of eyes. One pair were normal eyes, while another pair were tiny eyes which functioned independently, and were extremely sensitive to movement. During the night, its eyes contained infrared sensors to see, while a transparent lid protected its exterior. Therefore, naturally they would be immune to their own wind attacks.
As this Mountain Banshee broke through the surrounding formation, another 2 slightly smaller Mountain Banshees swooped down; tightly seizing this rare opportunity. Their razor-sharp talons carved out a deadly line without effort, as they easily tore through the human’s flesh; with the aftermath force carrying fresh blood, as it formed into intertwined red lines in midair.
Miserably wails followed suit from long range combatants, who relied on their party to survive and naturally had a weakness of lower health. Specializing in their own various roles made it hard for them to obtain any survival enhancing equipment or ability scrolls.
Instantly, a few contestants had been thrown to the ground, with wounds that shocked the eyes and astonishes the heart. It was obvious that they had been dealt crushing damage by the Mountain Banshees, their blood repeatedly gushed out as though it didn’t care for money.
Closely after, another Mountain Banshee seized a contestant, while slapping its membrane wings about as it skyrocketed into the sky; and ultimately flung the contestant down from about 70 – 80 metres off the ground. A mournful long scream pierced downwards. “Thump!” An oppressive crash resounded from beneath the left wing of the Valkyrie, as the contestant rolled along the ground; his fate visibly unknown.
However, when the third Mountain Banshee surged down; right ahead of Sheyan, Archeaphill had already charged towards its front. Because of his prior location, this MT had arrived late. Therefore, the Rank B ability ‘Throat Shudder’ had only messed up his chest hair, and did nothing to hinder him.
At this moment, Sheyan could obviously leave this battlefield, but truthfully speaking, he was reluctant to. Reef’s defensive tactics had been scrutinized by Sheyan many times, yet this MT Archeaphill’s capabilities were indeed intriguing. As the saying goes, the other mountain’s stone can polish the jade. For Sheyan who was still maturing, if he could obtain a valuable lesson from him, then it would be worth more than gold.
Against the diving surge of the third Mountain Banshee, Archeaphill breathed in deeply and fiercely lunged forward; as though he wanted to perish with it! However, at a gap of 5-6 metres, Archeaphill reached out both hands as he pulled out a gigantic shield from the back of his head; welcoming the collision of the Mountain Banshee.
Sheyan could see it distinctly, the surface of Archeaphill’s gigantic shield was glittering with silver brilliance. As it swerved, glitter scattered about, forming a misconception of falling stars. According to a report gathered by Jinkuang and Sheyan, this was obviously a special effect resulting from an equipment that had at least a +7 upgrade to it.
The gigantic shield was at least as tall as a person when erected fully, it had a curved top while it’s bottom was conical. This design allowed it to easily anchor into the ground. When being supported, it appeared exactly like an impregnable solid door, where its exterior was reinforced with dense penetrating rivets. Every pitch-black rivet had the shape of a pyramid, extended several centimetres from the shield. It was easy to imagine the scene of someone crashing into it; an outcome of densely dotted mutilated blood holes. Thus, it could be described as a blood drawing machine.
The silver metal frame edges of the shield were at least 10 cm thick; it was obvious that though it was exceptionally sturdy, it came at the price of additional weight. Hence, Archeaphill required the usage of both hands to be proficient in it.
“Dang!” A thunderous boom followed by a weird shrilling squawk emerged. Although Archeaphill was instantly knocked 5-6 metres away by the tremendous force, the Mountain Banshee’s murderous dive had came to a spontaneous end. It lost its balance as it rolled several times on the ground, repeatedly fluttering its wings and squawking miserly. Bluish blood squirted out in large batches from its chest.
Seizing this golden opportunity, that long arms burly chap, Sable, roared loudly like a broken gong. He leapt highly as his hands clasped onto his giant black longsword, chopping down mercilessly!
The blade issued a mournful shrill in midair, as though an ability was triggered. Its sheer showing of force appeared as if he had already gained the upper hand.
“Yet another Venter.” Sheyan had already evaluated the guy.
Blood splashed as a chunk of flesh was torn off Sable’s left arm by the struggling Mountain Banshee. Instead, Sable roared furiously as his black giant longsword chopped down, his blade tearing halfway through the beast’s wing as it drew out a 10 metre fountain of blood. Blood gently drifted through the air, painting a spectacular sight.
Besides, for the Mountain Banshee to glide effortlessly in the air, the membrane covering its wings was thin and its carbon bones were mostly hollow. Hence, it was inevitably lacking in terms of sturdiness. The killing threat of the Mountain Banshee was currently in steep decline after landing on the ground; although it constantly issued forewarning mournful screeches, in a short span of minutes, it was overwhelmed by contestants. The concentrated firing of contestants reducing it to a meat paste.
Immediately, the other two Mountain Banshees consecutively dived down in raging anguish. Yet this time, Archeaphill was already fully prepared. The Illume-union also had a tacit understanding of each other, not leaving the slightest thread of hope for the winged beasts. They counter attacked and chopped down a Mountain Banshee.
However, the few aerial beasts had already successfully caused substantial chaos within the crowd of the Illume-union. More importantly, the organized defensive formation of the Illume-union had been utterly thrown into disarray. Therefore, this opened the path for the surprise assaults of the viperwolves.
They were already intellectual creatures. Seizing the chance when the formation of the Illume-union was in massive disarray, 8 viperwolves managed to craftily dodged past the frontline defence of 5-6 close combat contestant. They maliciously and viciously pounced towards the backlines of weaker long range combat contestants. It was really a scene of mercury flowing over the earth, not sparing a single hole*. In a flash, the area fell into a massive upheaval.
(TN: Chinese idiom, exploiting fully the given opportunity)
Spectating till now, Sheyan already had a rough understanding on the strength of the Illum-union. However, he had noticed – out of their core members, it seemed like only Archeaphill and Sable was around, while Sheyan had personally witnessed at least 6 core members previously. Which goes to say, 4 core members were in hiding, obviously prepared to command a reserve team.
At present, he no longer desired to continue loitering around. Thus, he turned around with an intention to observe the other regions, and actively seeking other battlefields to reap some benefits.