Qin Bangjie was the first to take action. Black clouds invaded the skies to cover the entire lands below in darkness. Black light s.h.i.+ned down from the clouds like snakes to converge together in the s.p.a.ce above Qin Bangjie"s head. Soon, a giant demonic figure was fully formed and roared loudly as though it was alive. Mimicking Qin Bangjie"s motions, the demonic figure extended its right hand forward and swiped it at the enemy Soul Kings!
The palm area of the demon"s hand s.h.i.+ned brightly with black light. A giant "spear" of black light protruded from the palm to attack Yao City like one would use a stick to smash a watermelon!
“Watch out!!”
The Soul Kings from the Yao clan acted immediately. Flying towards the giant spear from every direction, each of the Soul Kings glowed with a brilliant light to divert it from its destination.
“Boom!!”
The world trembled with an explosion loud enough to shake even the heavens when the two forces collided. All sorts of multi-colored light flew away from the black spear—the blowback from forcing the spear away was still strong enough to send all of the Soul Kings backward.
But they did it! The united strength of all the Soul Kings managed to stop the black spear from hitting Yao City. How terrifying that the strength of a Half-emperor could be this powerful!
“Woosh whoosh whoos.h.!.+”
The Soul Kings from the allied forces attacked the Soul Kings from the Yao clan with ferocity, as if trying to not give the enemy any time to catch their breaths. The Yao clan Soul Kings fought back just as fiercely, determined to not give an inch to the invaders. Streaks of light every color of the rainbow exploded like fireworks in the sky as the combatants collided with one another!
Each of the Soul Kings from the Yao clan fought relentlessly. They were determined to stand their ground here and not let the enemies gain even an inch on them!
The land and sky beyond Yao City was no longer a peaceful landscape, but now a terrifying battlefield where Soul Kings fought with vigor. Some parts of the battlefield had the Soul Kings fighting one on one, other parts had multiple Soul Kings fighting together. As for Qin Bangjie, he had four familiars, Yao Wuchen, and Yao Tianji, fighting him all at once.
The allied schools were down two Early-stage Soul Kings and the Yao clan up with Dan Teng, meaning the Yao clan had the advantage in numbers. Even with Qin Bangjie fighting six Soul Kings by himself, the other parts of the battlefield leaned more towards the Yao clan in terms of numbers. At a glance, it really did seem like the Yao clan had the upper hand…
“Roar! Roar!! Roar!!”
But not long after the battle began, the battlefield was temporarily greeted with the roars of several beasts!
The soulbeast puppets of the Beast Taming School!
Ma Xucheng was calling out his soulbeast puppets at last. The first to appear was a giant horse-shaped soulbeast bathed entirely in flames. Ignoring the attacks of the kangaroo-like soulbeast, the horse soulbeast weaved past the sickle arms of the praying mantis and bit down furiously onto the praying mantis!
“Skreee!!”
Unable to dodge it in time, the praying mantis let loose a screech of pain and fury!
Green light exploded from the soulbeast onto the horse soulbeast, creating several wound marks onto its body and further exacerbating its condition. Blood and flesh fell from the horse"s body with each pa.s.sing second, but still the horse"s jaw remained clamped on the praying mantis—it was as if the horse didn"t even notice the pain!
“Bang!!”
A giant blue winged-frog slammed into the horse soulbeast with a mighty crash. It was attempting to force the horse to detach from the praying mantis.
And while the frog succeeded in doing so, the soulbeast puppet managed to tear away a large piece of flesh away from the praying mantis!
“Bang!”
As if avenging its comrade, a humanoid soulbeast with an ox-head slammed into the aquatic frog. The two flew off in a perpendicular direction from the horse soulbeast, spraying blood as they went from where the ox-head"s horns gored the frog"s scales.
That left the praying mantis free from being killed, albeit still heavily injured. Blood flowed freely from where the horse bit down on it. A green light s.h.i.+ned over the surface of its body before concentrating around the wound. In very little time, the green light faded away to reveal new skin over where the wound was. Though it looked healed, the aura of the praying mantis was substantially lower than before. The healing of its own wound was only superficial.
“Neigh!!”
No longer hindered by the frog, the horse soulbeast puppet was charging back at the praying mantis! The blood spilling from its wounds was seemingly fueling the flames around the horse, causing them to explode in intensity and size. Though it charged furiously at the praying mantis, blood was still dripping in copious amounts from places such as its nose and mouth—but it didn"t seem aware of the bleeding.
And so the two soulbeasts clashed again with the praying mantis being the one lesser off this time! It was losing!
It was a horrifying battle that left many of the Soul Kings from the Yao clan startled. The pupils in Dan Tang"s eyes dilated at the sight.
“Be careful! It"s gone Berserk! Don"t fight that soulbeast puppet!”
Berserk. A special method of the beast tamers that allowed for their puppets to disregard any damage done and also bring out all of their puppet"s strength. Though simple in principle, the costs for this technique was harrowing for the soulbeast. The vitality and lifeforce of the soulbeast would be exchanged for more and more power until they exploded!
A soulbeast puppet is incapable of feeling "pain" nor "fear". While the "instincts" may remain, a capable beast tamer can quash those instincts to very minimal levels. When Berserk, a cla.s.s 5 soulbeast could fight a cla.s.s seven soulbeast without regards for its life and have a bigger chance of winning.
And it wasn"t just one soulbeast puppet that went Berserk! All five of the soulbeast puppets were becoming Berserk!
Going Berserk made a soulbeast puppet more machine than beast. Not even holes in its body or missing flesh could make a Berserk soulbeast puppet stop fighting. It wouldn"t even be afraid of a counterattack! Going Berserk was a suicidal method that allowed the beast tamers to fight against the familiars without fear!
All these familiars here were once wild beasts before. As wild beasts, they were no strangers to fighting other suicidal beasts tooth and nail. But never had they encountered such an enemy like this!!
The soulbeast puppets going Berserk was like a breath of fresh air for the allied schools. It signaled a change in the battlefield where the Soul Kings of the Yao clan were forced to have two of their own fight against the soulbeast puppets. But even with that, one of the Soul Kings nearly managed to get himself killed when a Berserk soulbeast puppet came after him. It was only because of another familiar that the Soul King escaped with his life, though the familiar was not so fortunate and was struck quite badly.
In just a short few minutes, the Beast Taming School managed to even out the power imbalance between the two sides. In other words, not even the beast tamers were holding back anymore. They were pulling out all the stops in order to fully destroy the Yao clan!
It was rather simple why they were doing this at the cost of their own soulbeast puppets—it was because of the familiars!
The goal of the Beast Taming School was for the pills, of course. What else but the pills could the Alchemy School be known for?
But things were different now. The existence of the familiars changed all of that. It wasn"t the pills the Beast Taming School desired now, but…the destruction of the Alchemy School!
The very existence of these familiars was a threat to the Beast Taming School!!
The Alchemy School"s ability to raise soulbeasts in such a manner was completely unheard of in the world. It was an unprecedented threat to the beast tamers and their way of life!
And so! It was imperative that the Alchemy School and this methodology of creating familiars be destroyed completely!