Chapter 929: Balance
Blood and chunks of flesh splattered.
The gargoyles slashed their stone claws at the humans ruthlessly, lifted them up, and tossed them aside like rag dolls. Trails of blood splashed in midair onto the humans. But instead of fleeing in fear, the humans widened their blood-shot eyes and raised their weapons like a group of maniacs, hacking at the gargoyles with everything they had got. The metal blades struck the gargoyles but failed to turn the situation into their favor. The menacing gargoyles swung their tails and blasted off several humans into the air, cras.h.i.+ng onto the city wall.
It was a messy, horrific, and b.l.o.o.d.y sight.
The man in black cloak let out an evil laughter at the sight of the pathetic, powerless humans. But he was curious as to why they didn’t retreat because according to his past experiences, humans turned around immediately upon seeing the gargoyles. Thereafter, he simply ordered the gargoyles to give chase and slaughter them altogether. However, he didn’t expect them to be this stubborn and naive. Not only did they not escape, but they also charged forward to their death. Well, this was fine too, since it saved him time from tracking them later on.
He gazed at the tragedy in disdain.
Within 10 minutes, blood had merged to form a river in front of the watchtower with hundreds of corpses piling up on the streets. However, this didn’t stop the humans from advancing. The soldiers on the watchtower felt chills running down their spines. They were elites of the Viper Gang and logically speaking, they shouldn’t be bothered by these rioters. As soon as the gargoyles crashed onto the ground and began to ma.s.sacre the rioters, the soldiers were cheering. But now, the entire watchtower was in complete silence as the soldiers watched palely at the b.l.o.o.d.y river and hill of corpses. However, it wasn’t this horrendous scene that frightened them. It was the rioters instead.
The rioters are continuing to charge forward!
They expected the rioters to struggle before finally turning around and fleeing in terror. However, they charged forward insanely as though their ripped and slaughtered companions were non-existent. They continued to raise their weapons, trampled over their corpses and slippery internal organs, and snarled at the gargoyles. As soon as the ones leading the charge were killed, those in the back immediately pushed forward and picked up the dropped weapons.
They were so decisive that it was terrifying. No one retreated, not even when the gargoyles swept their razor-sharp claws or swung their enormous tails to shatter their bones.
They aren’t humans anymore!
The soldiers might accept the truth if the rioters were to remove their disguise and fight as monsters. Even the most experienced soldier wouldn’t make such meaningless sacrifices in such a scenario because it wasn’t worth it. This was the most basic instinct of humans, no, of all living creatures: preserve and protect oneself. However, the rioters didn’t seem to have this notion and were throwing their lives away!
The soldiers of Viper Gang were experienced veterans, but this scene left them trembling in fear. This had exceeded what their common senses could accept and entered a level that couldn’t be understood. The rioters weren’t humans like them; they were monsters!
“Hmph. How strange…”
The man in black cloak scoffed and scanned their strange behaviors. After a few moments, he discovered that something was amiss. But at this moment, an unnoticeable breeze blew across the battlefield, and the bloodied gargoyles came to an abrupt halt and suddenly cracked!
How is this possible?!
The soldiers on the watchtower were bewildered. How was it possible that the gargoyles were destroyed by the rioters? As elites of the Viper Gang, they knew how powerful and terrifying magical creatures were. Although they were capable of destroying the gargoyles, that was because they had high-grade armor and strong magical weapons, unlike like the rioters who were clad in tattered clothes and clasping tools like iron hammers or axes!
“Kill the n.o.bles! This is our home!”
“Kill the n.o.bles! We have to protect our city!”
“Kill them all! Sir Morey’s will is here with us! For the sake of freedom!”
Without the gargoyles stopping their way, the rioters stormed to the watchtower relentlessly, screaming disorganized slogans. Although the periphery of the manor was enhanced with rock walls and a steel gate and protected by arrow towers, the soldiers began to panic.
“Shut up. Look at your pathetic selves! Sir! Please give your orders! Sir!”
The captain berated the soldiers before turning to the man in black cloak.
“Sir! Please give your orders… Sir?”
To his surprise, the man in black cloak stood on the spot and didn’t respond as though he heard nothing. At the next moment, he swayed to the side while a stream of blue blood spurted from his body. Then, his body split in half from the middle and he collapsed to the ground. Boom! The body wrapped in the black cloak instantly shriveled and within a few seconds, it vanished into thin air and only a lifeless black cloak was left.
“Sir is dead!”
The captain and soldiers witnessed this horrifying scene. They were aware of how powerful their commander in black cloak was, but he actually died before their eyes without uttering a word? What happened?
The soldiers were scared witless.
“Run! I’m leaving this place!”
“Oh no, we’re doomed!”
“Shut up you fools! Grab your weapons and kill the———”
As the saying went, blessings never come in pairs.
A gentle wind blew and in the blink of an eye, the entire watchtower became silent. A pet.i.te figure clad in a pure white cloak darted out of the shadow in a flash. She turned around and gazed at the dozen soldiers who collapsed to the ground in disorder. They widened their eyes in fear and anger. All they wanted to leave on this world was the proof of their existence but it was all too late.
“Hehe…”
The gentle wind blew as the pet.i.te figure dashed and vanished into the night sky.
At the same time, the steel gate below crumbled. Scarlet flames gushed through the opening like lava as they headed for the manor on the hill.
The periphery that was filled with blood and clamors was emptied shortly after. At this moment, a young lady leapt off the roof of the house on the side and landed lightly on the surface. Angelina lifted her head and her scarlet pupils glowed ever so brightly. She shut her eyes and took in a deep breath of air.
Ah… The scent of blood and death. This is what I’m most familiar with.
“Master, just as you’ve predicted, those lowly sc.u.mbags aren’t even worthy of a mention. They should be deeply grateful to be the pieces of your chess game.”
Angelina narrowed her eyes and said with a beautiful smile. She turned around and gazed at the nearby watchtower that was in dead silence. However, she knew what happened there a few moments ago because everything was controlled by her. The seeds that she planted had bloomed completely in this extreme environment. If the rioters were in their usual conditions, they would have given up to the threats of death or at least have made a strategic retreat just like the man in black cloak expected. But now, without any rationale in their heads, the extreme wrath had burned their brains completely. Right now, they were like wild animals manipulated by anger, and not to mention their master, Angelina, had personally arrived at the scene. Even though she didn’t possess the manipulation skills of the l.u.s.tful Demons, it was still an effortless task for her to control humans who had their brains filled with desires.
Step one of the plan was completed and now they were moving onto the next step.
Angelina s.h.i.+fted her gaze away from the watchtower and let out an inward sigh.
They’re so powerful…
This was the first time that Angelina witnessed Gracier and Madaras’ strength. She knew that there were several formidable beings around Rhode. When Angelina first saw them, she thought that the twin elf sisters were purely a.s.sa.s.sins. But after witnessing their battles, she discovered their intimidating strength. Their flawless a.s.sa.s.sination skill was as though the incarnation of art. Although many vampires were enthralled in a.s.sa.s.sination skills, compared to the two elf sisters, theirs were only child’s play. Angelina knew that even if she had gotten stronger by hundred times of her current strength, the two elf sisters could easily take her life as though she was no different from the lowly bugs.
There was no doubt in her mind that no vampires or even Ashvril could escape their blade.
Forget it…
Angelina shook her head and retrieved a card from her pocket.
[Sacrificial s.h.i.+ft]
“Go! Wind of the dead!”
Angelina extended her right hand and hurled the card elegantly into the air. In an instant, the card vanished into thin air and a ma.s.sive white fog erupted to envelop the blood, corpses, and land entirely. Shortly after, an ice-cold aura of the undead slowly permeated the place, where the broken pile of corpses twitched and one by one, they crawled to their feet as their flesh rotted quickly before her eyes. Soon, they turned into walking white skeletons while their pitch-black eye sockets flickered in scarlet radiance.
“Tsk…”
Angelina curled her lips. Even though she hated and treated the necromancers as a bunch of idiots, she had to admit that they were truly capable of creating an army of undead. In fact, vampires were also able to create an army of undead. However, they had to bite the humans, and mix and spread their blood like a virus in order to create an army of zombies. Although zombies were compliant to orders, they were still weaker than the skeletons. Moreover, after the vampires’ experiments, they discovered that if they produced zombies on a ma.s.sive scale, there might be chances of atavisms. In other words, it was possible that their blood would awaken the zombies and they would possess the first vampire abilities!
Thereafter, vampires strictly forbade the use of one’s blood to create servants because they didn’t wish for their precious and valuable blood to be awakened in some lowly humans. To the vampires, this was no less than a scenario where a prince married a princess, only to find out one day that he had a son with a prost.i.tute.
In comparison, undead soldiers were much easier to create and had lesser problems to worry about.
“Sigh…”
Angelina let out a sigh and extended her arm and the same card appeared in her hand. Currently, all the people who died in the battle against the gargoyles had turned into undead soldiers. They stood quietly before her, awaiting her orders.
“Go on, master’s servants.”
Angelina chuckled and pointed at the manor on the hill. At this moment, the manor was surrounded in flames and the rioters arrived at the final line of defense. As long as they broke through the defense, everything would come to an end.
“Kill those lowly humans who dare to surround Master… Huhuhu. This is all for
“…”
The army of undead soldiers turned around and marched in unison toward the manor. Angelina narrowed her eyes and chuckled before walking into the shadow.
“What?”
Shane jumped up from the expensive sofa. He stared at the ashen soldiers in disbelief. He couldn’t understand, no, he refused to understand what he just heard. The rioters broke through the several lines of defense? How was it possible? The commander in black cloak was also there. Could it be that he failed to stop the rioters?
Shane sulked instantly. He thought that the rioters were simply giving it a shot just like any other times. But this time, since the gargoyles and the commander in black cloak failed to stop them, the situation wasn’t as simple as it seemed. If this continued, it would become much worse. The Alanic Family’s remaining forces were all here. If the rioters had other reinforcements, Shane wouldn’t be able to hang on much longer. What should I do? Although I still have the strongest members with me, I may make the situation worse if I act rashly. It seems like I may need to seek help from a third party.
Seek reinforcements from Viper Gang? Forget it. Those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds can’t wait for me to die, so they can take over my position. It’s the same for the Alanic Family. If I ask for their a.s.sistance, I won’t get any help even if I waited for a year. So then… It seems like I can only rely on those old farts from the Light Parliament. As long as I can get them to suppress the rioters, I just need to defend my manor. But it seems like those unfortunate merchants… Maybe I will need to abandon them. But wait… It really isn’t considered as abandoning them totally…
Shane gnashed his teeth and made his decision.
“Activate the magic cannons immediately. Seal off the entire manor and contact the Country of Light’s border army—inform them that there is an unprecedented riot in Highland City and we need their a.s.sistance!”