The dark ones threw themselves at w.a.n.g Tong with abandon, flapping their bat wings and shooting hundreds of bone shards at him. Seeing that the bone shards were ineffective, they closed in and attacked him using bone spears. However, in the end, all of the dark ones met their maker at the tip of w.a.n.g Tong"s lance.
As w.a.n.g Tong slaughtered these dark ones who had gotten close to him, he also cast mastery spells at the ones further away, causing mayhem among the ma.s.s of dark ones.
In half an hour, the ground was covered with dark ones" dead bodies. Suddenly, the dark ones stopped their charge all at once. Even Linmo was caught off guard by the turn of events. He smirked again, urging his soldiers to charge at w.a.n.g Tong, but to no avail.
The dark ones" order was to capture w.a.n.g Tong alive, and after having sacrificed so many lives of their own, they knew that the mission was impossible. Unwilling to end their lives in a meaningless task, the dark ones disobeyed their master"s order for the first time.
Linmo shrieked again, this time doubling the severity in his tone. Finally, a few dark ones flew toward w.a.n.g Tong reluctantly. With a few clanks of metal against the bones, the sky rained green blood and flesh onto the dark ones on the ground. They knew that this was the blood and flesh of their own kind.
For some reason that no dark one could explain, they felt a sense of dread, and the desire to live. They realized how fragile they were, and how little they were worth. Most important of all, they felt fear. They feared for their lives, and feared losing all the things that they enjoyed while they were alive.
Death used to carry less weight than the fluffy clouds in the sky to the Zerg race. However, only a few generations after the first dark one who could sense pain was born, they started to fear death. Life was good, so why would they give it up unnecessarily? As soon as they questioned the order, they started to defy it.
Linmo shouted again with as much authority and threat as he could muster. Fearing their leader"s ire, the dark ones" panicked; however, not a single dark one was willing to meet his death still.
w.a.n.g Tong was pleasantly surprised by the development. His initial intent was to attract the attention of the dark ones. This was necessary considering that the huge number of enemies inside the city would easily overwhelm three hundred human soldiers. w.a.n.g Tong wanted to lure the most powerful dark ones out of the city, so that Yin Tianzong could protect the casters after they sneaked in.
"YOU!"
KOM!
A fire dragon flew toward Linmo. w.a.n.g Tong noticed that this city lord looked much bigger than average dark ones, and his armor was also of exceptional quality. w.a.n.g Tong wagered that he ought to be a high ranking dark one in the dark lord"s court.
Linmo waved an arm and diverted the fire dragon, his face awash with anger.
"Stop screaming! Why don"t you fight me instead?"
The other dark ones also heard w.a.n.g Tong"s taunt. Knowing that the powerful human warrior was not coming after them, some dark ones heaved a deep sigh of relief. At the same time, some lamented about how difficult their situation was after being sandwiched in between the wicked master and the deadly human warrior.
All the dark ones looked toward B-Linmo, waiting to see his reaction for w.a.n.g Tong"s challenge. At first, Linmo was taken aback by this human"s taunt, but he quickly gathered himself and plastered a confident look on his face. He knew that if he backed down right now, he would have lost the control over these dark ones forever.
w.a.n.g Tong had never been so intrigued by a dark one ever since he arrived on Mars. He registered that this dark one"s action would reveal to him a whole new aspect of Zergs.
w.a.n.g Tong"s face was lit up with glee when he saw the Zerg lord fly into the air to meet him. This one on one fight would be as uneventful as that with any other dark ones. However, this turn of events was a tell-tale sign that the dark ones were picking up bad habits from their human genes.
After millions of years of steady evolution, humans not only knew their weakness well, but they had also gotten very good at handling them. However, the dark ones were known to their human traits, and therefore, they did not know what to do with them yet.
"Ah, Attaboy! " w.a.n.g Tong smirked.
"Very well, we will do it as you humans would. If you lose the battle, you and your band of soldiers need to admit defeat." B-Linmo said with a smug smirk on his face
Although the Zergs considered humans as the inferior race, they held a different att.i.tude toward the really strong and powerful ones among humans. The Blade Warrior, for example, was even highly praised by the dark ones for his combat and strategic skills.
The thought of subjugating the heir of the Blade Warrior brought a smile on Linmo"s face.
"What if you lose?" w.a.n.g Tong asked.
Without witnessing the human side of the dark one, w.a.n.g Tong would have already unleashed death onto Linmo. However, he was intrigued by what would happen if he played along.
"Lose? Haha, I will let you live if I lose." Linmo rolled his eyes at w.a.n.g Tong.
Linmo was a terrible liar, and w.a.n.g Tong knew it, so he couldn"t help but chuckle at the dark one"s failed attempt to beguile.
The thought of a lying dark one also made w.a.n.g Tong lighthearted. Perhaps Linmo could not represent all the dark ones, but it at least signaled the slow transition of characteristics due to the dark ones" special genes.
The Zergs had gained the upper hand in the war; however, humans" comeback would hurt them much more after they had grown content. w.a.n.g Tong wagered that his surprise attack would have ushered a whole new array of emotions onto the dark ones.
Seeing w.a.n.g Tong unruffled by his threat, Linmo charged up his soul energy as the energy crystal on his body started to glow. A wide and heavy bone blade protruded out from under his right arm.
The scene agitated the throng of dark ones on the ground. The few higher level ones— judging by the color and size of their METAL—extended their wings and flapped them a couple of times while shrieking.
Linmo shrieked back at his minions, and suddenly, all dark ones started to fan their wings and let out high pitch shrieks.
Hiding at a corner of the city, Yin Tianzong watched the development with amazement and concern. This was not in their plan; w.a.n.g Tong was supposed to lure the high-level dark ones out of the city, but not to start a duel with the Zerg lord!
The human soldiers looked at each other with confusion on their faces. What was their captain thinking? Tan Bu and Lun Duo knew w.a.n.g Tong the best, and therefore, he was shocked that w.a.n.g Tong would challenge the Zerg in an honest one on one fight. The real w.a.n.g Tong they knew would either stab the Zerg lord while he was sleeping or use a trick to lure him into a trap. But a duel? That was just not w.a.n.g Tong"s style.
"What the h.e.l.l is going on? What are the Zergs yelling about?" Tan Bu murmured while holding back the urge to join w.a.n.g Tong.
"Are they...cheering for their lord?" Guan Dongyang remarked under his breath. He didn"t want other people to know that his childish mind had thought that Zergs would cheer like a human.
However, when soldiers heard Guan Dongyang"s comment, they didn"t laugh at him. The up and downs in the pitch did resemble that of human cheerleaders shouting slogans.
While the rest of the human soldiers were still at a loss, the battle in the air had already started. As a blood kin, Linmo was much more powerful than a golden dark one.
Belligerent Dash
It was the first move that Linmo executed. He had learned it from a human warrior he killed not long ago.
w.a.n.g Tong started the battle lightheartedly. For the longest time, humans regarded the dark ones as a perfect, albeit bloodthirsty race. Not only could they copy any human"s abilities, but they could also do it at an incredible speed. They were practically flawless. w.a.n.g Tong had thought the same; however, there and then, he had noticed a fatal flaw in dark ones.
Although this flaw might not be able to bring down the Zerg race right away, it would poison the Zergs slowly, and let it die in a gradual but painful death.
Not every race could control their emotions like the humans could. Desire, greed, and fear, were only a tip of the iceberg of emotions that could be deadly if left unchecked.
Once Linmo had entered battle mode, his power was on par with a legendary warrior, but on steroids. He was able to execute the human moves without using any human tactics. Backed only by his incredible physique and the energy in the crystal, he could deliver tremendous force to his opponent.
After a few exchanges, w.a.n.g Tong estimated that Linmo had reached level twenty-three. He guessed that the latter could even make it to the elite unit under Moye.
On the ground, Linmo"s minions cheered and danced like there was no tomorrow.