Chapter 385 – Octahead
When the dazzling lightning descended from the sky and smashed into the black fog below, a blood-red, glistening knife suddenly appeared from the fog, chopped the lightning rod into half which then scattered into sparks. At the same time, the knife also crumbled as it tangled with the sparks amid crackling noises.
Both sides were equal in this exchange, and both the thunder dragon and Heavenly Hound started to size up the other seriously. In a graceful turn, the thunder dragon opened its mouth, where a lightning ball over ten meters wide gradually expanded while also becoming denser. Electric sparks as fine as hair danced on the ball, sizzling. As the dragon’s energy body slowly shrank to less than a kilometer long, the lightning ball inversely reached a frightening diameter of hundreds of meters.
The hound spread its wings and flew up to the same height as the thunder dragon. Within the black miasma around it, a 100-meter-long crimson saber hovered faintly, and the figure holding it somehow seemed more solid than before.
It was another sky-shattering clash. The ma.s.sive thunder ball shot out from the dragon’s mouth with terrifying momentum and hurtled towards the hound, the air exploded as countless lightning sparks were attracted and attached to it in its wake. By the time it reached the Heavenly Hound, the ball ma.s.s had increased by 30%.
At the same time the ball was shot, the thunder dragon swept its tail right behind the ball towards the hound. Made up entirely of lightning with erratic electric eels on the surface, it would be a disaster for anyone to receive this attack.
The Heavenly Hound raised its face to loudly roar at the sky. The black fog enveloping it quickly condensed into the crimson saber in the hand of the mysterious figure. Looking at the incoming lightning ball and the thunder dragon, the figure gently raised the saber and swung it upward.
With a strange echoing sound, the saber met the ball head-on, at their clash the ball burst and the surrounding s.p.a.ce erupted into a world of lightning. The ball, compressed with most of the thunder dragon’s power, was extremely powerful when it exploded. From the rumble, a series of clicking noises were heard – the sound of s.p.a.ce unable to bear this power and was torn up.
After a long time, the aftermath of the explosion finally dissipated, revealing the situation inside. The Heavenly Hound vomited a big mouthful of blood and the figure on its back disappeared. The crimson saber was broken, missing a third from the tip.
The thunder dragon didn’t look any better. Since most of its energy had been poured into the lightning ball, at the moment, not only had its size decreased but also its strength had been reduced by 30%.
Cheers were heard from the Heavenly Hound Corps as the strength gap between the two sides was now obvious. Although the hound was seriously injured, it still had some power to go on. Meanwhile, the thunder dragon no longer was a threat to the hound.
“Kill! Charge forth and take down Sky City! The great Sky City should belong to our eternal Sun Dynasty!” the hound shrieked.
“The h.e.l.l you shouting for, so annoying,” Fatty muttered. Amidst the cheering and screaming of the Heavenly Hound troops below, the Elemental Sword Diagram shook opened and swooped the hound into it. Five long swords shot out to station themselves at five positions in the Elemental Sword Formation which was wide as a hundred meters, suspended above Sky City.
“Old man, help me watch this place. I’m gonna go stew a pot of dog meat,” Fatty told Reck before stepping into the sword formation.
Within the formation, flames danced in an ocean of fire. Inside, the Heavenly Hound was constantly under attack.
“A crippled sacred beast dares prey inside my territory? Don’t you know that Lord Fatty has even killed a phoenix?” Fatty appeared in the sky, pointing at the hound while cursing.
The Heavenly Hound was enraged. Even if having been beaten to half a life left, a Divine expert like it was still not anything a little guy could provoke. With a cry from the hound, the remnants of the broken crimson saber streaked towards Fatty, filled with the intent to kill.
“Sword of Fire, cut it!” Fatty sneered and pointed at the crimson streak. A gigantic fire sword appeared in the air and smacked away the crimson blade.
“Elemental Sword Formation!” shouted the Heavenly Hound, its voice filled with horror.
“You know this too?” Fatty was a little curious. Is the Elemental Sword Diagram very famous or something, anyone with some power I come across knows of it.
“Wu Junxiao is dead, the Demon-Sealing Stele was taken away, and the Elemental Mystery Realm was completely destroyed. How can this thing still exist?” The hound was full of disbelief.
“You know the whereabouts of Demon-Sealing Stele?” Fatty was a bit excited. Do I finally get a lead on the stele here? The most important thing for the Elemental Mystery Realm is exactly that. Otherwise, the realm can’t be completely repaired even if it gathers enough elemental energy.
“So what if I do? Just a small fry like you dare to set your eyes on the Demon-Sealing Stele?” The hound‘s eyes held nothing but scorn.
Fatty ignored the comment. He flicked his fingers and said lightly, “Tell me the whereabouts of the stele and I’ll let you go, or die here.”
“Hahahaha.” The Heavenly Hound burst into wild laughter as if it had heard something very funny. “Or die? Hahaha, with just you?”
“Yep, just me.” Fatty smiled. “If you are at your best condition, I’m certainly no match. But now? Fire Valley, go!”
The sky full of flames suddenly turned into a valley where white flames tens of meters high raged. They seemed like they could burn people to ashes just by looking at it.
With Fatty fully operating the Elemental Sword Formation, a fire sword suddenly rose amidst metallic clanging and shot towards the hound.
The face of the Heavenly Hound was serious. Along with the majestic roaming of generations of Elementalists in the early years, the power of the Elemental Sword Formation had long been pa.s.sed down as very miraculous. Although there was no Demon-Sealing Stele to suppress and the elemental energy hadn’t been fully collected, a Sword of Fire alone gave the hound a sense of fatal threat.
“Grrrr…” With a growl from the hound, the crimson saber hovering next to it quivered sharply and shot out crimson beams at the Sword of Fire. Clas.h.i.+ng in mid-air, both collapsed into flames and blood sparks that dispersed in all directions. However, with the entire mystery realm backing him, Fatty could sustain the fire sword for months with the Fire Origin. After the fire sword crumbled, two flew out right away. When the two collapsed, three flew out. More and more fire swords crisscrossed in the formation, all directing their tips at the Heavenly Hound as they crazily shot towards it.
After all, the Heavenly Hound was already incomplete at the beginning, then was heavily injured by the thunder dragon and got its weapon broken to boot. Now, it was starting to feel the pressure. Its body gradually shrank to the size of an ordinary shepherd dog as it gritted its teeth to control the crimson blade to block Fatty’s barrage of attacks.
With a whoosh, a fire sword penetrated through the blocking crimson blade and left a vicious cut on the Heavenly Hound. The fire sword was not only sharp but also added a burning DoT effect that continuously sapped away the hound’s health.
When there was a first, there’d be a second. Gradually, it became more and more difficult for the hound to resist the sky-blotting fire swords, and many burn marks appeared all over its body. Moreover, Fatty was using every means at his disposal, so the damage caused wasn’t any less than when he had dealt with the Ice Phoenix.
“Still not yielding?” Looking at the hound’s steadily declining HP, Fatty sneered in his heart and took out the G.o.d Destroyer Crossbow. The huge ballista in beast shape slowly stood up in a series of creaking sounds. Its mouth opened, revealing a flas.h.i.+ng white light.
“G.o.d Destroyer Crossbow?” The Heavenly Hound almost went crazy at the sight of this ballista. Who on earth is this man, how does he have so many weapons that can threaten me?!
“Heavenly Hound, I’ll give you one last chance, tell me the whereabouts of Demon-Sealing stele and I’ll spare your life. Otherwise, you can meet this ballista close up,” Fatty indifferently threatened as he patted the ballista monster’s head.
The Heavenly Hound attacked several times, wanting to capture the king – Fatty, but was forced back by the dense s.p.a.ce of fire swords. It wanted to rush out but didn’t know how to break the sword formation, so, finally, it said with a sigh, “Deal, you stop attacking first.”
“Go ahead and say it, where is the stele?” asked Fatty as he stopped the formation with a wave.
“I only know that after the Demon race took it, the stele changed hands several times and ended up with the Dragon race. After that, I have no clue,” the hound replied.
“The dragons?” Fatty furrowed. He looked at the Heavenly Hound with threatening eyes. “The Dragon race is very dangerous, and what’s more you aren’t sure about the exact location. This information is not enough to buy your life.”
“You!” The hound was furious, but considering that it was in a disadvantageous position, it had to endure. “That’s all I know, but it’s still more than what others know. Don’t push me, or I’ll blow myself up and you won’t get any benefits.”
“Is that so? Let me think about it.” Fatty pretended to contemplate.
As time pa.s.sed, the Heavenly Hound’s health recovered quite an amount, but a second longer in the Elemental Sword Formation was a second feeling unsafe.
“Have you decided yet?” the hound urged.
“Fine.” Fatty waved his hand. The Elemental Sword Diagram suddenly folded and they both appeared above Sky City. “You can go.”
“Brat, letting me go? Hahaha, you can go to h.e.l.l!” The dog grinned sinisterly and stretched out its paw to attack. Suddenly, it stopped with a scared expression.
Around Fatty, Marshal Iron Eagle, City Lords Lin Xi and Lei Ao, along with a dozen others, were looking at the hound with mockery.
“Lord Octahead, help meeee!” The hound cried mournfully and turned around to flee.
Just now when Fatty had pretended to be thinking, he had been in fact, stalling for time, waiting for Iron Eagle and the others to finish their battle. Now that the powerful experts had their hands free, the Heavenly Hound had nowhere to escape to.
“Want to run?” Iron Eagle snorted. The experts attacked in unison and a bright light almost blinded the eyes of all and sundry.
“Aaaaahhhhhhh!!” In a wretched scream, the hound whirled out like a kite on a broken string, beaten to the verge of death.
Rumble…
The ground around and below Octahead City suddenly quaked. The whole city seemed to be crumbling as the earth cracked and a long rift over 100 meters wide with countless branches appeared. From the rift, a snake tail as big as a mountain leaned out its head towards the falling hound.
“Humph, finally out.” Iron Eagle faced upwards and let out a long shout as he stood straight in mid-air. A huge blood eagle suddenly appeared, emitting a faint red light from its body and covered the area of kilometers in just a blink, crossing between the tail and the hound.
The huge tail crashed into the blood light, but the latter only quivered slightly. When the hound fell on this b.l.o.o.d.y light, it immediately screamed shrilly as its body melted quickly until barely the head was left.
“Blood Nation, you are Iron Eagle.” A dull, heavy voice came from the ground like thunder. The land heaved and many buildings in Octahead City collapsed.
“Octahead, long time no see.” There was none of the previous aloofness on Iron Eagle’s face as it was replaced by nothing but murderous intent, and his body was shrouded in a layer of blood light.
First-cla.s.s Octahead City shook slowly, then to the shocked cries of everyone, uprooted and rose into the sky.
The base of Octahead City was a mountain 200 meters wide. When this mountain rose with the city on it and shook off the dirt, then opened a pair of huge, dark, vicious, and b.l.o.o.d.y eyes, that was when everyone realized that this wasn’t a mountain but clearly a huge snake head.
“This is only one head of the eight and it’s already so big. How spectacular it would be when all nine heads are together!” Fatty exclaimed.
Cradling Octahead City, the head looked around and slightly stiffened when it spotted Sky City.
“Sky City, the head of the seven neutral main cities. It really has been a ‘long time no see.’” When Octahead opened its mouth, the whole city trembled. A large amount of soil fell, almost forming a sandstorm.
“Octahead, long time no see for us as well,” said Iron Eagle.
“Oh, one of the five marshals of the Xuanhuang Ancient Country, two city lords of Black Tortoise and Azure Dragon, and the masters. So it seems you’re really set on destroying my Sun Dynasty this time,” Octahead sneered.
“Being so hostile and opposing our Ancient Xuanhuang as you might, you still belong to the Human realm. How dare you collude with the Demon race and build a Teleportation Portal to allow them to cross the border?! This is a betrayal to mankind and is unacceptable. Only your blood can wash away the sins you’ve committed,” Lin Xi coldly spoke.
“With just you lot?” Octahead burst out laughing, and Octahead City trembled even more violently, evoking frightened cries from the NPCs inside. “You really think that if you come here and kill a wretched dog, you can threaten my eternal Sun Dynasty? Childish.”
The sarcasm in Octahead’s tone didn’t anger Iron Eagle and the others. He said simply, “Childish or not, you’ll soon see. Get your whole body out of there. You’re no match for us like this.”
With a snort, Octahead swung its head, and Octahead City wobbly flew out, landing heavily on flat ground. The surrounding areas shook at the same time as eight more large mountain-like heads emerged from the ground.
The earth cracked and a thick snake as long as 10 kilometers was exposed in front of everyone.
“What a big snake. A soup made out of it will be enough for all of us.” Fatty was amazed.
“It’s not edible at all.” Lei Ao revealed a smile that wasn’t a smile. “Octahead’s meat is too tough and tastes bad, not even as good as a little gra.s.s snake.”
“You’ve tasted it before?” Even Lin Xi had to turn his head to look at Lei Ao.
“Octahead once paid a visit to Lord Azure Dragon and offered half of its body as a gift while at it. After it left, I tasted it, and the foul stinky smell killed my appet.i.te for half a month,” Lei Ao casually explained.
The crowd was speechless. Octahead’s guts were truly praise-worthy. What do you mean a visit? More like a provocation resulting in losing half a body. I bet that it was smart to run as soon as the situation went south, or else it would be the whole body instead.
Octahead’s nine heads each contained an attribute, namely metal, wood, water, fire, earth, poison, ice, thunder, and darkness, having nine inner cores. It also possessed extreme strength, a tough body and skin, capable of both physical and magical attacks and also excelled at close combat, one of the best among sacred beasts.
“Since you’ve forced me to move my Octahead City, might as well take Sky City for compensation.” Octahead knew no such thing as ‘courtesy.’
“Compensate your head! If you have the ability, turn yourself into a purebred first,” Fatty immediately cursed.
Octahead for a moment didn’t react, unable to figure out what anything to do with being a purebred. When it regained its wits, it realized that Fatty was calling it an impure breed.
“You. Are. Dead.” Nine pairs of eyes stared intently at Fatty, and the nine big mouths opened at the same time. A deafening sound swept all over Sky City.
“Kill me if you can.” Fatty wasn’t scared, he had several big bra.s.s in front of him.
The tail smacked a severe blow, tearing up a hill into rubble. Octahead’s huge body slowly rose and flew towards Sky City. Although there were Iron Eagle and other masters defending it, one of Octahead alone was worth several Divine experts. The results remained unknown until the battle was fought.
“Boss, ask Lord Black Tortoise for help,” Fatty whispered to Lin Xi.
“You think Lord Black Tortoise is omnipotent and can help from such a distance?” Lin Xi was both angry and amused. You were cursing so cheerfully just now, and now you’re scared?
“Nine heads. We have exactly nine, one for each,” said Iron Eagle.
Iron Eagle, Lin Xi, Lei Ao, together with the five deputy marshals under Iron Eagle, amounted to only eight. After counting back and forth with his fingers, Fatty finally couldn’t help but remind, “Marshal, you must have learned maths from your PE teacher. There are only eight people here.”
“You are not human?” Although he didn’t know what a physical education teacher was, Iron Eagle still asked back.
“Ah? Me? Yes, wait, no, I’m not like you!” Fatty immediately flailed his hands. Are you kidding me? making me fight a Divine big head? You want my life?
“That’s a pity. If we can’t stop it, we can run. But Sky City is so big, I reckon it runs quite slowly,” Lin Xi said.
“Fine, just count me in, then. Granny, I haven’t even reached the Saint tier and you make me fight a Divine-tier head, aren’t you trying to kill me here? “ Fatty grumbled.
Octahead soon reached the vicinity of Sky City. It didn’t intend to attack Sky City, because this was the flying fortress it had ‘reserved.’ Iron Eagle’s group also had no intent to fight in Sky City either. With a loud battle cry, they flew out at the same time, each rus.h.i.+ng towards a head.
“Geez, you are all G.o.ds, I’m only mortal. How can I be counted in?” Fatty unwillingly spread his wings and unhurriedly flew over.
Fatty’s opponent was the water head. Seeing Fatty approach, the head grinned evilly and spat out a smelly ma.s.s of blackwater.
“s.h.i.+t! Anyone who urinates or defecates anywhere will be fined.” Fatty clutched his mouth and dodged with difficulty. There was no need for the attack to hit him, the smell alone almost disgusted him to death.
“Have you never brushed your teeth? You have the nerves to call yourself a sacred beast? No hygiene, no culture!” Fatty scolded as he quickly sent out the Elemental Skill Book to block.
“Elemental Skill Book?” All nine heads went puffy at the sight of the book.
“d.a.m.n it! How come everyone covets this thing?” Spotting the undisguised greed in Octahead’s eyes, Fatty was speechless. He pointed a finger, issuing a slew of ice and water spells to soar at the water head.
Octahead was literally very tough and thick-skinned. Therefore, all these magic spells wouldn’t be able to break its defense unless one was willing to consume an enormous amount of energy to cast Advanced spells. After half a day, Octahead couldn’t do anything to Fatty, but Fatty couldn’t do anything to it either and the two sides were locked in a stalemate. Part of the reason was that Octahead had to split its focus to deal with the other eight.
“Give me the Elemental Skill Book, and I won’t interfere with your affairs here, how about it?” Octahead suddenly offered.
“Dream on.” For fear that Iron Eagle and the experts would agree, Fatty loudly refused outright.
“Then you all can go die.” With a loud roar, the nine heads shot a rain of different attribute spells at the same time, shrouding the nine people.