Chapter 655: Colliding schemes
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Guarba steadily kept his golden scepter upright on the ground. The muscles and blood vessels in his arms swelled like tiny cyan serpents. From head to toe, his vigor flushed towards his scepter.
Kapa! Kapa! Atop this bonfire plaza, clamorous crackling sounds erupted as rock fragments gusted around sporadically.
To Sheyan’s astonishment, a shallow crevice had formed before Guarba; as though it was a curving grain long engraved on this ground. The maroon blood of the heap of Guardian corpses nearby flowed slowly through that crevice.
Soon after, more of such indistinct tiny crevices crisscrossed, and unexpectedly formed into a circular radius of 100 plus meters on this bonfire plaza; an astronomical yet furtive design. If one surveyed this design from a high altitude, one could observe this was a scorching sun with a beard, that was currently insatiably devouring the bleeding corpses. The maroon blood coursed unceasingly through the crevices of this circular design, projecting an unspeakable oddity and brutality.
"Illuminate this earth, O sun god of the 790th age. May you bare your scorching fangs! I, your descendant, offer up this sacrificial abundance in reverence!"
While Guarba was casting his shaman magic, Mbenga and the two Coiled Serpent tribe elders, Thiago and Hecaosi, immediately launched their ferocious assaults.
In response, Guarba unleashed a blasting heat wave with a wave of his hand; easily blowing the incoming arrows and javelins away!
Within a split second, as the blood of the deceased continued flowing through the crevices, the two serpent-headed statues once again slithered out with a boom. The convex mirrors of the statues were dyed in blood, as those blinding focused sunbeams lasered out again.
Yet this time, those sunbeams carried a shade of sorrowful blood red, as they swept in and effortlessly forced Mbenga and the two elders in retreat; forced into a corner of the plaza.
At this moment, Guarba sauntered with large strides towards the center of the bonfire plaza, before regurgitating huge mouthfuls of fresh blood.
When his blood landed on the ground, they congealed into blood globes and rapidly shot out in all directions.
Soon after, those dead corpses began crawling back up. Such a sinister and horrifying sight left one utterly shivering in fear. Fortunately, the dead weren’t in a rush to attack, but instead, congregated and unexpectedly started hugging each other.
The reanimated corpses displayed extremely substantial strength, that even Sheyan could hear the sounds of bones fracturing!
Proceeding onwards, their bodies abrupt distorted and like candles, melted and condensed into each other. From a distance, the sunbeams of the serpent-headed statue lasered onto their bodies, exactly like the process of electric welding.
Eventually, the corpses morphed into a terrifying creature of a bloody scarlet luster. Its appearance resembled that of a flayed massive orangutan Moreover, its body and arms were reinforced with an exterior armor of rib bones, that formed into ghastly bone scythes! The deterrence this creature emanated was actually even deadlier than a regular Licker, most probably, it could last for a long time against that humongous Boss Licker.
At this instant, Sheyan finally understood why Guarba had been so righteously generous, offering to be disadvantaged in a 1 vs 3 battle.
As it turns out, the corpses here were his mightiest assistants; be it Coiled Serpent tribe warriors of Sun tribe warriors!
As Mbenga glared at Guarba, the hatred and torment in his eyes intensified manifold. With a raging howl, he gripped his pike and speared forward.
By now, he was seemingly already demonstrating the fullest potential of his host body, which was the Coiled Serpent tribe’s chieftain, Gundazan. One must understand, the Gundazans had always led their tribe to contend against the Sun tribe for a millennium, one could simply imagine his formidability.
Sadly, Mbenga didn’t inherit the body owner’s persona, which was the only way that allows him to go into mutual destruction. Since that was so, he only suppressed the owner’s persona to the maximum. But now that the body was regaining its might, it only indicated one thing – Mbenga had to relinquish more control to the body’s main persona, allowing him more authority over his body!
Without a doubt, the price for this would be directly burning the soul force of the secondary persona. Most likely after this battle, that persona would extinguish.
Right now, Guarba was experiencing the repercussions of casting such a powerful shaman magic. Nevertheless, the zombie beast he had summoned was gigantic and even possessed frightening agility.
If not for the two elders combining their strength at the expense of themselves, Mbenga would’ve long been reduced into a dissected corpse.
This battle was exceedingly strange. Mbenga and the elders inflicted damages to the zombie beast, yet whenever the zombie beast approached any loose corpse, it would immediately pick it up and paste it into its body. Within a flash, the zombie beast would assimilate its flesh and blood, morphing it into a terrifying portion of its beastly body.
Threatened by this perilous beast, Mbenga and the elders demonstrated matchless ruthlessness. They were like lively dragons and animated tigers, not revealing a hint of fatigue.
With an ashen complexion, Mbenga stabbed his pike in repeatedly as most landed on nothing. Even if he successfully landed a hit, he merely drew mini splashes of fishy blood; completely unable to deliver grave wounds to this zombie beast.
With his life hanging by a thread, Mbenga’s face constricted with vicious currents as he continued unleashing a flood of jabs.
All of a sudden, amidst his raging howls, his pike finally managed to drill deep into the chest of the zombie beast. Then, twisting it mightily, blood erupted profusely before his pike exploded through the back of this zombie beast.
Mutilated flesh and blood poured down like rain amidst the ludicrous roars. The upper half of this zombie beast had been destroyed. In spite of that, the zombie beast swung in its left arm, as 5 ghastly white scythes sliced down onto Mbenga’s head with lethal incisiveness.
At this precise moment, Elder Thiago darted high above Mbenga with his pike. The next instance, he released a blood-curdling scream, as his right leg was dismembered by the zombie beast’s claws!
Yet instantly after, Mbenga, with eyes brimming with murderous bloodlust, thrust in another pike and drilled into the elder’s abdomen!!!
Bear this in mind, Mbenga absolutely hated the Ndipaya aborigines. His mental condition was truly and abnormally morbid. In his perspective, though it was Guarba who mercilessly butchered most of his tribesmen, the hands of other Ndipaya members were similarly drenched in blood; cannibalizing his tribesmen. If he was presented with the opportunity to slay one, he definitely wouldn’t relent.
After killing Elder Thiago, Mbenga prepared to lunge forward again. Yet suddenly, his body turned limped as he staggered backward, before gasping for breath. His vision darkened and Mbenga collapsed to the ground. Next, his body trembled violently as huge beads of perspiration rolled down his cheeks.
"Hahahaha!" Glimpsing this scene, Guarba laughed hysterically and enjoyed the scene.
Meanwhile, Sheyan was extremely clear on why Guarba was laughing. This was because Mbenga was purely relying on his hatred to control Gundazan’s body, or in other words, the curse of vengeance to control his body!
However, with every Ndipaya foe he cut down, a sliver of that curse would disperse away. The more Ndipaya foes he chopped down, the weaker the curse would become…...likewise, the repression of the body primary’s persona would weaken!
Being an extremely shrewd individual, Sheyan clearly understood his present capabilities was vastly inferior to Guarba. However, in terms of scheming capabilities, he wouldn’t lose out to him.
He immediately captured Guarba’s hidden intent – as long as Guarba presented Mbenga with the opportunities to kill off Elder Hecaosi, the grievances of Mbenga would diminish once again. As Mbenga’s hatred continues to plummet, he would sooner or later, be incapable of suppressing the body’s primary persona.
Therefore, if the primary persona attempts to seize back control of the body, the consequences would be paralyzingly devastating for both parties; it was akin to the military police fighting against the normal police. When that happens, Mbenga would surely lose control of the body.
As a result, Guarba can easily cast a certain secret shaman art, and perhaps, even seize Mbenga’s body as his own puppet.
In other words, the ultimate conclusion of the battle would be this – the loyal elders of the Coiled Serpent subtribe would perish, while the only inheritor would be manipulated by Guarba.
As a result, Guarba could seize total control of everything, and tacitly annex the martial might of the Coiled Serpent subtribe. A result a hundred folds better than straight up collision!!
As compared to a crafty old fox like Guarba, the two Coiled Serpent elders were essentially like little kids.
"Since that’s so...." Still feigning death in a heap of corpses afar, Sheyan’s lips curled into a sly smirk.
"This means you fear killing off Mbenga…..or accurately speaking, the body that Mbenga has possessed. Otherwise, all your painstaking efforts would be for naught. The Coiled Serpent subtribe ultimately wouldn’t swallow the animosity of killing their own chieftain, Gundazan. Hmph, hmph, looks like I have a role in this battle after all!"
"Hecaosi." Guarba suddenly called out the name of the other Coiled Serpent tribe priest. "You have no chances of victory, not even the least bit. I shall offer you a surviving way out, that is….cooperate with me to capture that brat at once. After that…..I shall turn him into an obedient puppet. With the two tribes unifying as one, the splendor of the Ndipaya Tribe would irradiate the great earth once again! The future belongs to us. Out of pity, I beseech you to choose wisely."
Hecaosi stood by the corner of this bonfire plaza.
At present, the distance between him and Mbenga, and between Mbenga and Guarba, was roughly the same. Hecaosi crooked his body forward and clutched his mouth. After retracting his arm, his palm was infused with additional warmness.