Chapter 155: Battling a Desolate Beast (3)
The poisonous clouds actually began to condense into clouds of mosquitoes, but these mosquitoes were as large as a rhino. Their stingers were as razor-sharp as swords and also glowed with a faint green light.
However, just because these mosquitoes were formed from clouds of poisonous fog didn’t mean that they weren’t powerful.
If Intelligent Race individuals could make illusory objects tangible, then all the more reason that Desolate Beasts could do the same.
Even though these mosquitoes were formed from Origin Energy, they were undeniably real. They surged forwards like a horde, full of rage, anger, and potent venom.
Originally, the Harpies had only been fighting against a single enemy, but now, the sky was filled with thousands of them. Even Lonely Skyleap was completely caught off-guard by the toad’s move.
The Harpies’ battle tactics for today had been designed with a single, powerful opponent in mind, and weren’t meant to go against an entire army. One major difference between the two kinds of strategies was that Sky City was “combining” the power of their attacks.
However, this kind of method of attack was obviously a bit less effective against a wave of poisonous bugs.
The Brilliant Light Platoon couldn’t reach its full effectiveness against this new enemy, and the Annihilation Bolts wouldn’t be able to destroy that many bugs. Ethereal creatures weren’t afraid of attacks with high penetrative physical power, as they could completely ignore any physical damage.
Sky City’s barriers were similar to most other cities’ barriers in the sense that they were separated into different regions and controlled independently. This meant that when the Thousand Poisons Toad attacked a specific region, the city could focus their energy on that region to better resist the attack’s force. Another benefit to this kind of setup was that the barrier wouldn’t completely crumble except for extenuating circ.u.mstances.
However, this ability to reinforce particular regions was not very useful against the wave of bugs. After all, concentrating energy in certain regions of the barrier would have the effect of weakening other regions, that the bugs could change their target to.
The swarm of bugs slammed into the barrier, sending up scintillating sparks of light over and over.
When multiple regions of the barrier began to crack under the bugs’ constant a.s.sault, streams of the poisonous bugs would pour into the city and begin to attack the Harpy soldiers inside.
Because these bugs were especially poisonous, a single bite from them was enough to put a soldier out of commission. As a result, the bugs simply didn’t need to return to their cloud-like form.
Even though the Harpies were using Kelesda’s incomplete antidote, there were still some poisons that couldn’t be nullified by it.
Poisonous clouds began to appear in the sky as the mosquitoes died one after another. And with each cloud, there were always some unfortunate Harpy soldiers nearby who would breathe the smoke in and then fall from the sky shortly thereafter.
“Sun-Shattering Cannons! Use the Sun-Shattering Cannons!” Lonely Skyleap yelled loudly.
The Sun-Shattering Cannons were more effective against these poisonous mosquitoes, but it was obviously not enough to defeat them.
Even more shocking was the fact that these poisonous mosquitoes weren’t just idling around. Instead, they had gathered into a large wave and launched yet another attack. The Harpies were immediately put on the back foot regardless of whether they concentrated their might or not.
“Trapping Company, move out! Fire the Thunder G.o.d Cannon!” Lonely Skyleap howled.
The Harpies charged forwards to meet the mosquitoes in battle. The Thunder G.o.d Cannon fired again, slamming into the Thousand Poisons Toad and causing it to howl in pain once again.
At the same time, Eternal Night, who had been surveying the scene, finally spoke up. “Your Majesty, your time has come.”
Following Eternal Night’s words, a strange, high-pitched chant began to fill the air.
Next, a flying carriage flew through the sky. Serene Dream Lotus Crown was sitting in the carriage, with dozens of Head Bishops from the Mother G.o.ddess Sect behind her. Each of them stood on an engraved tablet, the tablets glowing with a strange, profound light.
After arriving at the walls of Sky City, Serene Dream Lotus Crown pointed forwards. A door of light appeared, and immediately created a powerful vacuum force in the sky. The imposing might of the Desolate Beast decreased by a significant amount, and even the power of its physical attacks appeared to diminish.
This was one of the Mother G.o.ddess Sect’s forbidden techniques, Withering Flesh.
This Arcana Technique Technique couldn’t kill anything, but it could weaken any creature’s physical strength by thirty percent. This effect was, objectively speaking, not worth the t.i.tle of a forbidden Arcana Technique. After all, in most circ.u.mstances, a Third-Ring Arcana Technique could achieve similar effects.
However, it was cla.s.sified as a forbidden Arcana Technique because it was effective even against Desolate Beasts.
It was probably more accurate to say that this technique had been developed for the express purpose of being used against Desolate Beasts.
In the past thousands of years, the Intelligent Races had come up with many different ways to fight back against the Beasts, including Origin Tools, large-scale defenses, Origin Skills, and Arcana Techniques. Withering Flesh was one such technique that had been developed.
Decreasing the might of a Desolate Beast by thirty percent was incredibly impressive.
However, Serene Dream Lotus Crown found it incredibly draining to maintain this Arcana Technique. And the burden was even being shared; the Head Bishops behind her were also helping her sustain this Withered Flesh technique.
At the same time, two powerful Arcana Masters walked out from behind the twelve floating Shrines, simultaneously unleas.h.i.+ng two Arcana Techniques. These two were both forbidden-level as well.
Curse: Hollow Death.
Curse: Eternal Ceremony.
Hollow Death decreased the defensive power of the Thousand Poisons Toad’s skin. Even though this decrease was not very significant, it lowered it past the point where most Eighth-Ring Arcana Techniques could now wound the Thousand Poisons Toad. This would allow more Harpies to successfully damage the Thousand Poisons Toad.
On the other hand, Eternal Ceremony helped to diminish multiple different attacks’ power. Not only did it weaken their power, but it could also dissipate a single powerful attack’s momentum into multiple smaller waves.
The difference between a single attack with a hundred units of power and a hundred attacks each with single unit of power was ma.s.sive.
The Eternal Ceremony technique was basically designed to weaken attacks. The city’s barriers would then only need to withstand more attacks that were significantly weaker. This was obviously a perfect synergy with Sky City’s barriers, which were supplied by an endless source of energy.
Withering Flesh, Eternal Ceremony, and Hollow Death appeared simultaneously, which greatly diminished the imposing presence of the Thousand Poisons Toad. At the same time, however, it also impeded all of the attacks coming from the Harpy army.
The battlefield itself had also begun to change.
A large group of nearly a hundred demonic puppets had stepped onto the battlefield.
Each of these puppets were seventy to eighty feet tall, as if they were a ma.s.sive giant. The moment they appeared on the battlefield, they charged at the waves of mosquitoes along with the other Harpy soldiers. As mechanical warriors, they feared no poison. No matter how strong the clouds of poison were, these puppets would continue to fiercely swing their glowing blades, unleas.h.i.+ng incredibly powerful strikes against the swarm of mosquitoes.
With the appearance of these puppets, the rate of Harpy soldiers being injured began to greatly decrease. Even the destroyed regions of the barrier were beginning to regenerate.
A furious wave of attacks was being forcibly beaten back.
The Thousand Poisons Toad was obviously a bit surprised by the Harpies’ fierce offense as well. Its strength and defenses had suddenly declined, and the swarm of mosquitoes it was so proud of was actually not as effective as it liked. Of course, the Harpies had already lost thousands of soldiers, each loss searing their heart like a hot iron poker. This didn’t even factor in the vast seas of resources that they had consumed just to restrict this Thousand Poisons Toad.
However, it would have been a big mistake to a.s.sume that the Thousand Poisons Toad was helpless because of this.
The Thousand Poisons Toad bellowed with rage yet again before it began to violently suck in air.
This violent inhalation created a ma.s.sive air vortex with shocking propulsion powers. In the blink of an eye, countless Harpy soldiers had been forcibly dragged out of the city.
This barrier was only effective against the toad’s enemies on the outside, not the inside. As a result, the barrier served no protective purposes. The Harpy soldiers dragged out of the city flew directly into the Thousand Poisons Toad’s mouth. At that moment, however, Eternal Night suddenly made a move. He stretched out his hand and made a grabbing motion in the air. At the same time, a ma.s.sive claw descended from the sky and grabbed those Harpy soldiers, saving them from being eaten.
In terms of strength, Eternal Night was obviously inferior to the Thousand Poisons toad. But for that exact reason, he hadn’t tried to save all of the soldiers. Instead, he focused all of his energy on trying to save just some of them.
The hand, which appeared to blot out the sun, placed itself between the pressure vortex and the soldiers. It grabbed hundreds of them and forcibly pulled them out of the Thousand Poisons Toad’s mouth.
Unfortunately, even more soldiers fell victim to the toad’s mouth than were saved, disappearing without a trace.
“Thunder G.o.d Cannon, aim at its mouth!” Lonely Skyleap howled.
The Thunder G.o.d Cannon began to glow yet again.
Unfortunately, the Thousand Poisons Toad had already closed its mouth by now. It used its powerful physical body to forcibly resist the blow before opening its mouth again, this time spitting out three powerful wind blades.
The same wind blades were completely different from what an Arcana Master would unleash.
The three wind blades were each nearly ten thousand feet long. They descended from the sky like tines of a ma.s.sive, three-p.r.o.nged trident, carving up the city’s walls and defenses as they fell down.
The Harpies went back to firing a rain of Annihilation Bolts onto the ground below. They had just loosed the crossbow bolts when the Thousand Poisons Toad formed yet another wave of mosquitos. The Harpies continued to rely on the Sun-Shattering Cannons and the combat puppets to combat this new wave of mosquitos.
Both sides of the battle were incredibly even.
Greenish-blue blood was pouring out from the Thousand Poisons Toad. These seemingly vast fountains of blood, however, were nothing more than superficial wounds to the Thousand Poisons Toad.
On the other side, the Harpies were constantly suffering from the deaths of their soldiers. They would either ide to the fierce attack of the Thousand Poisons Toad, or from its toxic poison.
The two parties exchanged blood and lives. Finally, after one day had pa.s.sed, the Thousand Poisons Toad was forced to retreat helplessly.
The Harpies, who were widely-known for their frailty, had relied on their powerful city to defend themselves from the attack of a Desolate Beast. This was a direct demonstration of how frighteningly powerful Sky City was.
The city’s nearly endless source of energy, its various defensive setups and Origin Formations, and the combined efforts of the Harpy soldiers and Arcana Masters were all responsible for producing such a miracle.
Of course, they had paid the price of nearly six thousand soldiers to do so.
Was that too excessive?
In truth, this was already quite a low cost when it came to battling a Desolate Beast.
It would have been normal to exchange a few hundreds of thousands of lives for a singular Desolate Beast’s life. There was nothing strange about that.
However, to the Harpies, six thousand would not be the upper limit. The battle had not yet concluded.
Of course, they hadn’t brought out their full strength yet either.
At the very least, Su Chen was aware of a forbidden-tier Arcana Master who hadn’t made a move yet.
Kelesda.
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