Chapter 965: The Gangke King Enters the Fray!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“How could this be?!”
The giant roared, but he quickly began to feel a fiery pain. At the beginning, it had not been obvious, but the pain rapidly intensified, in the end even causing his bones to ache.
“Kill him!”
A bellow came from the giant’s feet. Only by lowering his head did the giant realize that the ant-like human cavalry were sc.r.a.ping past his feet like lightning bolts, each of them wielding sharp swords.
The swords swept past his ankles like they were shearing through paper, cutting open that thick and st.u.r.dy dark green armor around his feet. The three-foot swords then cut through his skin, his tendons, his flesh, and then his bones, but because they were so sharp, he only felt the pain once the cavalry had ridden far away.
“How could this be? What sort of weapon could cut open our Giant G.o.d armor?”
The giant’s eyes flew open in disbelief. He tried to raise his foot, but then he heard a crisp crack. His feet could no longer hold the weight of his body. A thin line of blood appeared, and then they snapped off.
Boom! The giant lost his balance and crashed to the ground.
“My feet, my feet!”
He screamed. Only now did the giant realize that the human soldiers had completely cut apart his ankles.
“Kill him!” Kong Zi-an loudly called out from behind the giant, his voice callous and determined. Right after he gave the order, his one hundred cavalry descended into a killing frenzy upon the giant, their Wootz Steel swords hacking at his shoulders, arms, waist, and legs. Blood gushed out from all over the giant’s body, drenching the earth.
“Death’s Scythe!”
A harsh shout came from the one hundred cavalry. The moment the giant had fallen, seven veteran and extremely formidable Wushang Cavalry had pressed their hands against the backs of their horses and jumped off. These seven were an elite Death’s Scythe team, climbing onto the giant’s body with ape-like agility.
In the war of the southwest, w.a.n.g Chong had used a Death’s Scythe against the most basic form of these giants. Although this same Death’s Scythe Formation was being used, the seven using it were as different as could be from the initial team. w.a.n.g Chong had specially trained these men to counter the Skyquaking Giants.
Rumble!
The horses galloped off in a churning cloud of dust, leaving behind the seven men of the Death’s Scythe team. The rest of the Wushang Cavalry were led away by Kong Zi-an.
Meanwhile, the other hundred-man Wushang Cavalry teams were employing the same methods on the Skyquaking Giants. After charging at a Skyquaking Giant, they would leave behind a Death’s Scythe team and move on to the next giant.
One, two, three… in the blink of an eye, the five thousand Wushang Cavalry had split off more than one hundred Death’s Scythe teams. Moreover, based on the strength of the individual Skyquaking Giants, they would leave behind two, three, or even four teams.
“d.a.m.n it! You useless things!”
As the red-bearded leader of the Skyquaking Giants saw his men being held down, he could barely contain his anger.
“It seems like I’ll have to do it myself! Humans, little different from ants, I will kill all of you!”
Bang! The red-bearded giant stomped, cracking the ground as he covered nine meters in a single bound, beginning to travel with terrifying speed toward the giant ballistae commanded by Chen Bin and Xu Keyi.
“Load!”
“Release!”
The air howled as a giant ballista bolt was fired at the red-bearded giant. The giant ballista bolt left behind a black blur as it flew through the air. Chen Bin and Xu Keyi had immediately ordered the ballista bolt to be fired upon sensing this new danger.
Buzz! The red-bearded giant seemed to have predicted this ballista bolt, and by slightly leaning his body to the side, he succeeded in dodging it.
“How could this be!”
Chen Bin and Xu Keyi were both flabbergasted by this sight. The giant ballista bolt was extremely fast, much faster than the bolts fired by ordinary ballistae. Once fired, they were essentially impossible to dodge. Moreover, the giants were ten meters high and made for extremely large targets, making missing even more unlikely. Yet the red-bearded giant had managed to dodge it. Just this alone was proof that this giant was stronger than the rest.
“Lowly humans! Take one of my attacks as well!!”
The red-bearded giant grabbed a bulky horse corpse in each hand, and threw, transforming them into cannonb.a.l.l.s.
“Careful!”
Chen Bin nervously pulled out his sword and ran toward one corpse. At the same time, seven of the strongest ballista soldiers manning the giant ballista jumped up with him.
Bangbang!
They mustered all their strength to attack the horse corpse.
Boom! Chen Bin and the seven ballista soldiers smashed into the horse corpse, and in that moment, they all had a very strange feeling. Chen Bin felt like his attack was pus.h.i.+ng up against the hard surface of a mountain. Not only was his attack ineffective, but the backlash of energy coming from the horse corpse made his bones groan as if they were about to fall apart, and his organs suffered a severe jolt.
Plus.h.!.+ Chen Bin tasted sweetness in his throat as his body flew backward through the air to smash into the giant ballista behind him. At the same time, the seven ballista soldiers also screamed as they were knocked away.
In that brief clash, Chen Bin and seven of his strongest ballista soldiers had been heavily injured by the horse corpse thrown by the red-bearded giant. In comparison to the giant, they were still too weak.
Bang! At almost the same time, Xu Keyi screamed as he and his own elite ballista soldiers were thrown back by the other horse corpse. The red-bearded giant no longer had any obstructions between him and the giant ballistae, and the nearest group of Wushang Cavalry was still a hundred zhang away.
“An excellent chance!”
The red-bearded giant elatedly strode toward one of the giant ballistae.
“Load! Load the ballista!”
“Don’t let him get close! Use the giant ballista to kill him!”
Without the command of Xu Keyi and Chen Bin, the remaining ballista soldiers quickly began to panic. At this moment, the only things that could stop the red-bearded giant were the regular ballistae of the Great Tang. Boomboomboom! Ten-some ballista bolts shrieked toward the giant from all directions.
“Hah!”
The red-bearded giant sneered. He waved his dark-green s.h.i.+eld, one swing immediately knocking eight ballista bolts away while the rest struck the s.h.i.+eld as ineffectually as if they had struck a st.u.r.dy city wall.
Even while he blocked the ballista bolts, the red-bearded giant’s footsteps continued to rumble across the battlefield. In a few moments, he was only around seven meters from one of the giant ballistae. Given his height, he only needed to take one more step to be in attack range of that giant ballista.
Not only that, Chen Bin and Xu Keyi had placed the two giant ballistae close together so that they could cooperate and maximize the power of the giant ballistae. This meant that once the red-bearded giant reached the first giant ballista, he would be only four meters away from the other one.
“Danger! No matter what, he can’t be allowed to get any closer!”
“If the giant ballistae are destroyed, we’re all doomed!”
“Everyone, follow me! Charge!”
Everyone in the surroundings who saw this sight paled in panic. Twenty-some Tang cavalry immediately began a heedless charge, but they were already too late. The red-bearded giant’s eyes were fixed on the two giant ballistae, not even paying attention to anyone else.
Hwoom! A giant armored foot, blazing with green fire, rose into the air and began to descend toward the closest giant ballista.
The mere act of raising this foot stirred an enormous gale that blew away three of the ballista soldiers on the giant ballista. Given the strength the red-bearded giant had displayed, if this foot managed to land, the giant ballista which had taken so much effort to construct would be pulverized into a million pieces.
“Ah!”
Cries of alarm and fear rose from all sides, and everyone froze in place as the giant ballista to which all their lives were tied neared its moment of destruction.
But at this moment, a thin figure appeared atop the giant ballista. This person was wearing a white robe, their hair blowing in the wind. While everyone else was intimidated by the red-bearded giant’s strength and believed that the destruction of the giant ballista was certain, that person simply looked up and raised a single finger toward the descending sole of the giant.
Bang!
Time seemed to stop. The red-bearded giant’s mighty stomp which was capable of shattering even steel landed on that single finger like it had encountered the world’s hardiest fortress. The air exploded at the power of the impact, sweeping through the surroundings, but nothing seemed capable of moving that figure.
“What sorcery is this? Who are you!”
The red-bearded giant’s pupils constricted, his face contorting into a grimace. He knew well the power of his stomp, its dreadful might. No ordinary man could stop it with just a single finger.
“The King of the Gangke!”
The man raised his head and coldly announced his t.i.tle, underscoring it with tremendous waves of energy exploding from his body.
“Wrathful Tide!”
There was a flash of what seemed like lightning, and the face of the nearly twenty-meter giant suddenly showed a hint of shock. Crssss.h.!.+ His body was pushed backward, and only after he retreated more than ten zhang did that terrifying energy fully dissipate.