Stone Giants are awfully difficult to compete against. On top of that, in this case, the humans, so far, hadn’t been able to work together as a team, which was making the task even more difficult.
Each of the disciple from the Schools, which were a part of the Jiu Yu Da Sect, were beginning to rally behind the strongest martial artists present, of their respective Schools. But there were a lot of the other very strong fighters present on the scene, who didn’t belong to a Jiu Yu Da Sect School.
The Jiu Yu Da sect teams were circling, and studying, the Stone Giant from a distance, but none had taken the initiative of launching the second wave of attacks.
The smaller sects, other than Jiu Yu Da, had also started forming teams, smaller teams, and were preparing to launch attacks of their own, in the hope of killing the Stone Giant and taking the reward for themselves.
n.o.body stood a chance, not unless they decided to team up together.
“Every team must single out the men who have the ability to launch long-range attacks, and then these men should form a team, and attack the Stone Giant at the same time, quickly and swiftly.” Someone finally came up with a plan, and shared it out loud with everyone.
This man was the Yuan Shi Sect’s strongest fighter, named Yuan Feng. Yuan Feng was almost into the ‘Emerging from the Womb’ layer, and was considered as one of the leading martial artists of this young generation.
Since it was Yuan Feng’s plan, a lot of people decided to trust it.
The entire Jiu Yu Da Sect acted on his plan, and picked out their long range attackers, who started moving towards the front of their School’s lines.
Since the Jiu Yu Da teams had started acting, the teams from smaller Sects couldn’t stay behind either, and they too started picking out their respective long range attackers who were willing to stand up to the challenge.
“Now, all the long range attackers must divide into two groups. Both these groups will launch attacks on the Stone Giant in turns; remember to concentrate attacks on his joints only. As soon as you launch an attack, retreat immediately; safety comes first. You will attack him in turns, and make sure that you give him absolutely no room to breathe. As for the others, your sole responsibility is rescue the front line whenever they are in trouble.” Yuan Feng was willing to taking the initiative of leading this battle, and had already established himself as the commander in chief.
There was no one, even inside the Jiu Yu Da, who was willing to refute Yuan Feng’s command and authority.
Yuan Feng was a very highly rated talent; he had such a glorious reputation, that he was sure to get preferential treatment, no matter which town he set foot in.
“Yuan Feng, sir, we are willing to follow you command; but how do we distribute the loot once we have killed the Stone Giant?” One man asked.
This man didn’t belong to any Jiu Yu Da School, and was raising the question which was pertaining in the mind of every man present, who didn’t belong to Jiu Yu Da.
The disciples who weren’t from the Big martial sects were awfully aware of the position; and were afraid that the Jiu Yu Da might forcefully take the entire loot, leaving them with nothing later on, which is why they wanted them to commit to an agreement beforehand.
This was the kind of decision that even Yuan Feng couldn’t take on his own, and so, he quickly called a meeting with the leaders of other Jiu Yu Da sect schools to discuss a proposal.
They discussed the situation between themselves for a moment, and then returned to their respective camps. Yuan Feng announced the proposal in a loud voice: “The Jiu Yu Da had decided that in the event that we are able to kill the Stone Giant, we will keep forty-five percent of the total loot; whereas the remaining fifty-five percent will belong to the other Schools, which you can distribute amongst yourself as you please. Obviously, those who do not partic.i.p.ate in the battle… will not get anything.”
The number of disciple who belonged to Schools outside the Jiu Yu Da were far more in number, and were only proposed to take slightly more than half of the total loot; but then again, they would have the advantage of Jiu Yu Da sect at their side against the Stone Giant.
Jiu Yu Da disciples might be lesser in number, but they were the main strength of this army, so naturally, the smaller schools agreed to the proposed distribution of rewards.
“Yuan Feng, sir, since the Jiu Yu Da has come up with a sincere proposal, we have agreed to work together with you, and will support you in killing the Stone Giant.”
Soon, these people started discussing the distribution of loot, if any, amongst themselves, and quickly reached an agreement.
w.a.n.g Zhong was beginning to lose hope: “It seems that we won’t get anything here… we won’t be able to take anything away if they all start working together.”
“Don’t give up so easily. Even though these people have decided to band together, killing this Stone Giant won’t be that easy; and if they succeed, then they will do so after paying a very high price. There’s a good chance that there will be chaos here, towards that end of the battle, and we will probably get our chance to do something then.” Bi Fan smiled.
Bi Fan was cool enough to maintain his calm; but the others in their vicinity had already started becoming restless.
They too had been hoping to take advantage of the confusion, and twist it to their benefit. But now that the parties, who were leading the attack, had formed a coalition, their chances of obtaining anything of value, had gone up in smoke.
On top of that, if they decided to join the coalition now, their teams would probably not receive a good share in the loot.
Even though these people were looking extremely disheartened, they still didn’t want to leave the scene, since they wanted to witness the battle.
“Everyone, ready… attack!” Yuan Feng issued to the command.
Upon hearing Yuan Feng’s command, even the people who were a little hesitant initially, charged forward, and started to close down the Stone Giant at a very rapid pace.
But the will of taking the initiative was still missing amongst these men; some were intentionally running slower than the others, and some had even decided to drop behind the waves, altogether.
The Stone Giant saw another wave of humans charging in his directions, and started pelting rocks at them.
“Ah…..” terrifying shrieks filled the air, as some of the martial artists were hit by the rocks, and ended up injuring themselves very severely.
The Stone Giant continued to throw big rocks ceaselessly, and at a very rapid rate, while the screams of its victims continued to echo through the battlefield. Soon enough several people had already injured themselves, while many others had succ.u.mbed to their injuries.
Those who hadn’t yet reached close enough to the Stone Giant to launch an attack on him, started to retreat at twice the pace with which they were moving forwards, overawed by the Stone Giant’s might.
Even the ones who had reached close enough to launch attacks on him, hadn’t done so yet, as they too, were too afraid of angering the Stone Giant further.
Yuan Feng’s face was becoming more unsightly with every scream; at this rate, his plan would fall apart very soon, which wasn’t in his best interests, as it would label him as an incompetent leader.
Bi Fan smiled, as he said: “See, killing the Stone Giant isn’t going to be that easy. These people haven’t been able to blend well so far; they need to do better than that.”
“This Stone Giant is very smart. He’s even gathering more and more stones by his side, whenever they take a break from attacking him, and on top of that, he’s holding his position; he simply isn’t chasing after anyone.” Blue Dragon sighed in admiration.
Killing the Stone Giant was proving out to be a lot more difficult than anyone had antic.i.p.ated. If the number of causalities continued to rise, then this temporary coalition would fall apart in no time at all.
Yuan Feng issued another command: “Guys, keep changing directions, and keep an eye out for the stones he’s throwing, understand?”
“Understood….. Understood….”
The acknowledgements were weak and feebly voiced, and it appeared that people were having a difficult time working together under one banner.
Yuan Feng forced a smiled, as he shook his head; he was already beginning to regret taking charge of this battle.
Soon, he waved the second wave of humans forward, who quickly rushed out towards the enemy, but as soon as they reached within the Stone Giant’s range, they suddenly came overly cautious of his attacks.
They kept changing directions continuously, while their eyes remained glued to his hands, in antic.i.p.ation of the stones that he was throwing at them.
“Boom!” A few stones. .h.i.t the ground, but were unable to bring the desired result.
Those who still had some courage left in their hearts, continued to move closer.
The Stone Giant threw a couple of more rocks, but neither of them hit anyone.
“Attack!” Someone shouted out loudly.
“Kill him!” Some of the humans charged towards the Stone Giant at a renewed pace, and started to close him down awfully quickly.
“Argghhhh!!” The Stone Giant roared, and picked up two smaller stone, one in each hand, and threw them out simultaneously.
The two stones shot through the air, and hit their targets with perfect accuracy.
“Do not withdraw, keep going!” Yuan Feng was afraid that his men might retreat out of fear, and so he urged them forward, as loudly as he could.
This time, no one retreated, and everyone continued to move forward.
“Thud…. Thud…” the people, who had managed to close the Stone Giant down, launched their attacks. But they were so afraid of their enemy, that they simply couldn’t muster much strength.
Some people were so afraid that they completely lost the heart to launch an attack, and missed their targets all together.
Hundreds of attacks landed on the Stone Giant’s body in a matter of moments, but even then, failed to hurt him; normally, that would be considered a miracle.
Yuan Feng was furious with the effort, but he didn’t shout at anybody, and remained silent.
“Go again, you must close him down, and attack him.” Yuan Feng instructed the men who had returned back to the camps.
Many people were already beginning to question his leadership, as their minds were unwilling to trust his judgment: “Again? I don’t want to go again. Try taking a go at him yourself; and see how it feels to be that close to death.”
Obviously, no one had the courage to voice these words out loud, but their minds had already started complaining inwardly.
“These people are fools; they are going about this in the wrong way. They will never be able to kill the Stone Giant like this.” Bi Fan had no words for the scene that he was witnessing.
He had expected these men to kill the Stone Giant with ease the second time around. He was expecting that they would learn from the mistakes, which they had made in their first attempt, but was beginning to realize that these men, still, had no idea on how to go about it.
The temporary alliance’s plan was nothing short of trash in his eyes; but anyway, it was none of his business.