Chapter 209: The Final Battle (1)
Speed is important in war.
The Ravagers, as expected, sprinted into action.
Since they had decided they were going to fight, they would not delay.
After resting for only a day, the army set out the next morning.
The Ravagers’ military formation was quite representative of their personality. 120,000 of the Inferno Tribe’s soldiers were more towards the center, and they were the main force of the Inferno Tribe. The remaining 80,000 consisted of soldiers from a few smaller tribes that had sided with the Inferno Tribe. These groups of soldiers were scattered and unevenly sized, making it seem like a dog had ripped out a few uneven chunks from the “wings” of the army.
This large formation advanced steadily, with Anubi’s large imperial carriage at the very front. Anubi sat openly on top of this throne, holding the Origin Bone Scepter in his right hand and the Vitality Totem in his left.
Of course, this was not the real Anubi.
He was Le Feng.
After a long period of discussion, they eventually decided to stick with Su Chen’s plan.
That old proverb was still true: all disastrous plans seemed like good ones before disaster struck.
The same went for Su Chen’s plan. Actually, it didn’t seem that bad.
Regardless of whether the Scarlet Heart fell for his plan or not, it wouldn’t affect the Ravagers very much.
The opposing Beasts didn’t stay in the city either. The Three Mountain Castle wasn’t an important, strategic fort anyways, and its city walls were quite low towards the rear. They could be easily toppled using physical strength alone, so it was basically the same as having no defenses at all. After all, the builders of this castle had considered before the problem of losing and taking back the fort before. There was no way that they would build high walls facing their own side.
The Beasts’ military formation was obviously much simpler. Hordes of Demonic Beasts gathered in a misshapen way, glaring icily at the Ravagers. They lacked creativity, so they didn’t know anything about military formation. However, they did have powerful bodies, vigorous life force, sharp fangs and claws, and an innate affinity for perceiving and using Origin Energy.
They were the rulers of this continent, controlling it for tens of thousands of years. Even though other races had come to power in recent years, it was still irrefutable that the Beasts dominated this continent.
They had been following this emperor of theirs for some time now, attacking cities and obtaining bountiful, endless supplies of food. In addition, their bloodthirsty nature had been awakened, making them even greedier for slaughter.
As a Demonic Emperor, the Scarlet Heart should have been responsible for keeping this kind of unrestricted assault in check. This time, however, the Scarlet Heart had chosen instead to unleash the primal nature of these beasts.
At this moment, both parties seemed to be at a stalemate as they faced off against each other, howling and jeering loudly.
The air seemed to come to a standstill, and the tension was palpable.
“Wu!”
The call of a bugle finally could be heard echoing through the sky.
“Attack!”
“Attack!”
“Attack!”
As the officials gave the command, the Ravager army began to advance.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
Their footsteps caused the ground to rumble violently as countless soldiers raised their long spears, their battle axes, and / or their shields, forming an unclimbable wall that pressed forwards with boundless momentum.
The Beasts maintained their position.
However, the Ravagers were not a race used to just walking, so their movements quickly began to change.
As the distance grew closer and closer, the bugle signal suddenly changed from long, drawn-out calls to short, repetitive bursts.
“Wuwuwuwu!”
“Charge!”
“Charge!”
“Charge!”
Yells and howls once again sounded out.
These howls were like a match tossed into a pot full of hot oil. In an instant, flames erupted from the Ravagers’ hearts.
The Ravager army, which had been advancing slowly but steadily up until this point, suddenly began to unleash all of their energy as they sprinted forwards.
In that instant, their blood began to boil as the desire to do battle and the flames of rage surged in their hearts, which they converted into raw energy and ebullient momentum.
They howled as they charged at the Three Mountain Castle.
At the same time, a crisp, clear shriek could be heard coming from the bloody palace.
As this shriek resounded through the air, the Beasts simultaneously tilted their heads back and howled at the sky, then charged forwards, their energy sharply rising.
The two violent waves were on a collision course, growing closer and closer until they finally slammed into each other.
Boom!
Fresh blood began to flow like a river almost instantaneously.
The instant the two armies collided, nearly a hundred lives were lost.
The powerful vitality of both sides became a joke at this point. No matter how strong you were, when facing tens of thousands of opponents unleashing a sea of Origin Energy at you, you were still weak.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
Explosions rang out amongst the two armies.
The experts on both sides were clashing, unleashing their full power on their opponents.
There was no holding back, no hiding of trump cards. They did their utmost to slaughter their opponent, because no one knew if they would die an instant later. Unleashing one’s strength to the greatest possible extent before one died was the best thing to do.
Origin Energy wreaked havoc amongst the two front lines.
The violent waves of energy seemed to boil with killing intent as they indiscriminately washed over the front lines.
Utilization of the power contained in their surroundings became heavily restricted because of this.
Origin Energy was not like air. Even though it was everywhere, there was a limit to how much was present. When large quantities of usable Origin Energy was being consumed by lifeforms that could use it, the result was a deficiency in Origin Energy. Even Origin Skills being used would be adversely affected as a result.
Under these kinds of circumstances, the most effective combat tactic was for every Origin Qi Scholar soldier to put their own strength on the line.
This was also why experts would die more easily under these conditions. It wasn’t just because of the large numbers of opponents, or the fact that their opponents could use group tactics to fight, but because the surrounding environment was dramatically affected and changed.
Clap!
A shockwave of energy rolled past, and a striking, magnificent blade streak soared through the sky. However, it only traveled seventy or eighty feet before being wrapped up and dissipated in the raging torrents of Origin Energy nearby.
Under normal circumstances, this Origin Skill would have been able to do incredible damage across a distance more than a thousand feet, but given how chaotic the flow of Origin Energy was on the battlefield, it was less than a tenth as effective.
This kind of thing was happening all over.
Occasionally, some of the luckier individuals would find that their attack was stronger than usual.
BOOM!!!
A violent explosion of energy burst forth, the massive shockwave of energy sweeping at least a hundred feet in diameter. All of the lifeforms nearby were wrapped up by it, and a few of the weaker individuals died on the spot.
The individual that had unleashed such a frightening attack, however, was only a Temple Warrior of the lowest strength. He had merely unleashed a fireball at the center of the Origin Energy vortex, but to his surprise, he had managed to hit the convergence point of the energy. Due to the violent collisions of Origin Energy occurring around it, this convergence point typically only lasted for no more than a tenth of a second, so the chance of actually hitting it was quite low.
But as long as there was a chance, there was a possibility it would actually happen, and this time it had resulted in an incredible explosion of energy. However, the lucky individual was unable to escape from the blast radius, and he was immediately blasted into shreds.
Su Chen was standing at the back of the battlefield, observing the situation and absorbing everything that was happening. Even though he had fought with the Heavenly Might Battalion before a few times, they had relied on explosive techniques due to their advantage in strength against weaker, outnumbered opponents. As such, it was very rare for him to see such turbulent, violent flows of Origin Energy.
If the chaotic flow of energy right now was classified as a ten, then the Heavenly Might Battalion’s assault of Aurora City had involved a chaotic flow of energy merely at a classification of one.
The chaotic flows of Origin Energy created by this kind of a large-scale, high-level conflict were so powerful that even Demonic Emperors would be affected, making it hard for them to fully display their true strength.
But if you could harness the principles behind the chaotic flows of energy, you might be able to use this to your advantage? Su Chen suddenly began to think to himself.
The chaotic flows of energy were a result of the attacks of the nearby Origin Qi Scholars, so they were changing and shifting every second. In other words, there was no real rhythm or pattern. Even if there was a pattern, it would disappear in but a moment, making it hard to act on.
However, Su Chen was not worried. He had the consciousness crystal, so his ability to perform calculations was frighteningly fast. He also had the Microscopic Eye, and he was incredibly confident in his ability to observe these flows of Origin Energy. With these two as the foundation, even if he had a hard time grasping every opportunity or managing every detail, it was still possible for him to control the large-scale situation.
When he realized this, Su Chen found it difficult to remain motionless.
As soon as this thought arose, Su Chen turned around and said, “Blatch, tell the soldiers to get ready!”
Blatch asked in shock, “Are we going to move out now?”
Because of his love for his royal subject, Anubi had placed Su Chen and his troops near the left wing, making it so that he wouldn’t need to participate in the battle at the beginning.
However, this sudden burst of inspiration was going to cause Su Chen to personally take to the battlefield in order to test out his theory. Perhaps this was every mad scientist’s personality - as soon as a genius idea appeared, he or she would immediately hurry to experiment with it.
Thankfully, Su Chen was planning on taking to the battlefield in the first place. He was just a bit ahead of schedule, but that wouldn’t be a big problem. And if his experiment succeeded, his plan would proceed even more smoothly.
Under Su Chen’s command, the left wing cavalry began to advance.
They began to flank around the main force, taking the initiative to get closer to the battlefield.
Anubi very quickly discovered this interesting development.
At this moment, Anubi was obviously not sat on top of the throne at the very front.
He was standing atop some elevated terrain to the rear, observing the battle from on high. From time to time, he would issue orders, many of which were either ignored or changed by Gucha.
However, this didn’t stop Anubi from enjoying his position as the “Genius Commander”.
When he saw Su Chen’s troops jump into action, even Anubi was momentarily taken aback before he began to chuckle, “See? Lontu took his troops into battle on his own. He is going to unleash a fatal attack from the side. He is quite a courageous kid, isn’t he? Is there anyone else who thinks that this guy can only curry favor with me but has no actual talent to back it up?”
“He attacked too early, Your Majesty,” Gucha replied.
“Oh, so what? The Beasts are going to lose anyways, aren’t they? In any case, we are Ravagers. Ravagers rely not on patience but on bravery and willpower. He’s a real Ravager, is he not? Hahahaha!” Anubi guffawed.
“He’s a real Ravager all right,” Gucha replied.
Even Gucha didn’t think there was anything wrong with Su Chen attacking a bit too early. There was not too much variation possible in the outcome of this battle. The only question was how much of a price would be paid.
The Scarlet Heart didn’t believe that he could win. The only thing he was interested in was whether or not he would be able to take back his own treasures.
When a person’s object of desire was firmly controlled by the other party, even the most powerful existence could only obediently allow themselves to be led around by the nose.