Traitor Of Humanity

This "eye" is not a physical eye, but a spiritual one. It allows 2nd stage cultivators to sense anything that can directly cause their deaths, including physical attacks, magical attacks, poisons, et cetera. It can even allow a cultivator standing at the step right before his destiny tribulation, to sense how high a chance he would have of getting killed by that tribulation.

The quality of this eye of forewarning death can differ from cultivator to cultivator, depending on how much battle experience he or she has. Thanks to this, in earlier times, there were some people who thought that this intangible ability was just some illusory sense of paranoia that warriors who have entered the line between life and death too many times developed.

However, this theory was quickly shot down, as even cultivators that have fought very few battles, and instead, just breezed their way into the heroic bearings stage using a lot of elixirs, would develop a weaker version of this same ability.

Then, if a cultivator at the 2nd stage is able to sense all the deadly threats coming at him, how do you kill him?

The quickest and most obvious way, would be with overwhelming speed and power. A cultivator of a higher stage, or using more powerful techniques, would kill the heroic bearings stage cultivator before he can dodge. Even if he senses death, if he cannot evade it, then he will still die!

A less demanding way would be to corner the 2nd stage cultivator, preventing him from escaping death even if he senses it.

What should you do if you have neither overwhelming power, nor superior numbers? Then, you will simply have to use a less direct way.

Seth stood on the ledge of a wall.

In his left hand is a greatbow partially made of steel, and partially made of wood. His gloved right hand is currently holding an arrow.

He nocked the arrow onto the greatbow, and aimed it at one of the heroic bearing stage officers of the Wolfing gang currently firing at him and his soldiers.

At this same time, the officer of the Wolfing gang that was aiming his rifle at Seth thought, "Look at that brat. Standing on the ledge of the wall, and not wearing any armor? He WANTS to die. Well, I"ll grant him his wish!"

BANG!

The bandit officer shot the bullet. He showed no hesitation the moment he pulled the trigger, even though his target is obviously a child.

The bullet hit Seth squarely on the chest.

Yet, Seth did not fall over.

"Huh?" The bandit officer exclaimed. "Is that brat wearing an armor underneath his clothes? How deceitful! ...Still, his face is unprotected. I"ll just aim for a headshot next, and watch as his head turns into Aghh!!" The bandit officer screamed. Before he noticed, an arrow had shot into a gap in his armor, right above his knee!

"D*mn it!" The bandit officer cursed. He forcibly pulled the arrow out of his thigh and crushed it. He felt the leg that had been hit going weak. "What great aim! If only he had aimed for my head, I would have been able to dodge it!"

The praise was said in resentment, but the last part of what the bandit officer had said sounded rather strange.

This bandit officer is only at the early levels of the heroic bearings stage.

His sight isn"t good enough to see the flight path of an arrow that has been shot by a greatbow. But because he has awakened his eye of forewarning death, when it comes to attacks that his naked eyes cannot perceive, it is easier for him to sense those that are fatal to him, than those that are not. If he can sense it, he can dodge it. But if he cannot, then he would get hit.

Right after firing his first arrow, Seth nocked another one onto his greatbow.

He took a second to aim. That second was the same second that his target used to curse.

Then, he fired his arrow.

The other leg of that bandit officer was. .h.i.t, causing him to bend at the knees.

There are 2 other bandit officers present on this side. The injuries taken by their fellow officer caused their expression to gloom, but they didn"t stop working to tend to him. Instead, they fired bullets at Seth to allow their comrade time to regain his stance.

Seth dodged the bullets that were aimed at his head. He ignored the ones that were aimed at his body. He would always be able to explain away why the bullets that hit his body were not able to kill him. He could just say that he is wearing some armor underneath his clothes. But he wouldn"t be able to explain it away if his head got hit by a bullet and he still survived.

With the speed that the bullets are traveling at, Seth does not think that the soldiers busy working besides him, shooting crossbows and dropping rocks on the nearly 500 bandits below, would be able to catch even a glimpse of them, unless they are constantly focusing on him. But it would still be suspicious if he does not move the whole time and still not suffer a headshot.

Instead, thanks to his occasional dodging, the soldiers would say with voices full of admiration, "As expected of young master, to be able to dodge even bullets!"

Seth did not care much about the praise though.

He aimed a third arrow at the bandit officer that he had made fall to his knees. The arrow he is using this time was made entirely out of steel, and its arrowhead was sharpened to the utmost. If it is fired from a fully pulled greatbow, it should have enough power to pierce through even armor made of the same material!

That bandit officer had regained his stance, standing shakily on the ground 250 meters away. His face is red with fury, and the muzzle of his rifle is pointed straight at Seth"s face! He wants revenge! If he could, he would want to shoot this little boy full of holes!

The bandit officer fired his rifle.

Seth fired his greatbow.

They had fired at about the same time. In fact, Seth had released his arrow a bit sooner than the bandit officer had pressed the trigger of his rifle.

Time seemed to slow down in the bandit officer"s perception.

Soon after a bullet was shot out from the muzzle of his rifle, he noticed the glint of an arrow that was shot from atop the city wall, growing bigger and bigger at an extremely fast speed. Although it wasn"t as fast as a bullet, it was still quite fast.

It started out as a tiny dot.

Then, it grew into a dot that was not as tiny.

It continued to grow. The bandit officer could tell that it was coming straight at his face. He could sense the impending death that this arrow will bring him! At this point, he has no room to worry about whether his bullet would kill Seth or not. He has to dodge this arrow!

Unfortunately, his body is moving slower than his senses.

The bandit officer twisted his head to the side, letting the side of his helmet match with the path of the arrow. He intends to block it with his helmet! However, it is not enough. He can still sense the impending death!

He tries moving his legs. If he could make a side-step, then he can dodge this arrow! But due to his previous injuries, his legs would not move!

Before the bandit officer could try anything else, the sensation of impending death became the greatest that he ever felt in his life. He heard a loud sound of screeching metal by his ear. It is the sound caused by friction occurring when metal cuts across metal. Then, he feels a mere instant of a sharp pain, before he blacked out.

The bandit officer"s body slumps, and falls to the ground, with an arrow stabbed through a side of his helmet and into his head.

As for Seth, with an abrupt turn of his wrist, he was able to block the bullet that was coming for him using the metal part of his bow. The bullet bounced off of the bow"s metal guard, creating some sparks in the view of his eyes, but no damage was done to Seth himself.

This, is the way, for one without overwhelming power, to kill a cultivator of the 2nd stage. By weakening him with attacks that don"t directly kill him, before finishing him off with an attack that he cannot dodge!

As a human being, Seth wasn"t able to see the bullet that was fired at him either. But as a person whose acc.u.mulated battle experience is particularly high, his eye of forewarning death is so superior, that any attack that has the slightest chance of directly causing his death, can be detected by him to the most accurate degree.

...

As was said before, the number of bandits that the Wolfing gang had gathered for this siege numbered over 3000. Currently, 1500 out of that 3000 are attacking the western wall of Haradur city, while the remaining 1500 were sent around the city walls to search for another breakthrough point.

That 1500 was further divided into 3 for the remaining 3 walls, turning into 500 or so bandits for each side.

Sending Seth to the side of the city that would most likely get attacked by the least number of invaders, was Merab Zefer"s way of providing some protection to his heir. That man was in no way the kind of person who would protect his sons by locking them up within the house. Instead, so long as his sons have a sufficient amount of combat ability, he would send them to fight similar level opponents to toughen them up. This is done with some protection provided, and is actually a method used by many martial schools or sects to train their students or disciples.

The soldiers whom were sent to the side Seth is on, mostly consists of the Zefer family"s old soldiers too, making a betrayal there highly unlikely to happen.

The distribution of Haradur city"s soldiers is about the same in proportion, with 300 soldiers on the western side, and 100 soldiers on each of the eastern, northern, and southern sides. Their support forces, the slaves, were distributed in a similar way.

One bandit vice-chief was sent to oversee each battle, at each of the 3 sides, while the chief of the Wolfing gang oversaw the battle on the western side himself.

The bandit vice-chief outside Haradur city"s eastern wall was named Dobe, He had been calmly watching the ongoing battle from afar, not lifting a single finger. He watch as one bandit after another was sent to their deaths.

Siege battles always start out tough, because at the beginning, that is when the defenders have the most methods to use against the invaders. The rocks, the arrows, the ballista bolts... Dobe was waiting for these consumables to run out. Once they run out, or even start to run out, then bypa.s.sing the wall would be much easier. Until then, he can just continue to count how many replaceable grunts have been sacrificed climbing up the walls.

But when a 2nd stage bandit officer was somehow killed so early on, on the first day of the battle, this bandit vice-chief could not just do nothing.

Dobe clicked his tongue. "I was ordered to only use these to destroy the ballistae, but now that this has happened, I don"t need to hold back, right?"

He ordered the remaining 2 officers. "Toss the grenades! Kill that brat!"