Chapter 51: You're Despicable!
The soul master being kicked into the wall didn't plunge the other contractors into fear. Since they were already here, it was either fight or flee. As eighth-rank contractors, they were long accustomed to adapting to all kinds of battles.
"His speed is too fast. Find a way to restrict his mobility. Follow me."
The muscular man, Dean, strode toward Su Xiao, but at that moment, the fortress's main gate began to open slowly.
The contractors, who had been bracing for a desperate fight, saw the gate opening and all shared the same thought: 'Maybe we should retreat first?'
A faint, inconspicuous green light surged around Su Xiao—it was the manifestation of the Immortal Dew attached to him.
「Arcane Revival (Active, Lv.70): Upon activating this ability, Immortal Dew immediately restores 20% of your maximum health and, over the next 5 seconds, increases your movement and charge speed (this boost diminishes over time: starting at a 68% increase in movement and charge speed, decreasing by 10% each second until the buff ends).」
「This skill originally had a cooldown of 180 seconds, now reduced to 14 seconds.」
Su Xiao's health instantly recovered to full, and his speed skyrocketed.
The muscular man, Dean, was bold. From a certain perspective, his strength was no less than that of the soul master.
With him leading the group of contractors, Su Xiao would have to pay a price to secure victory. These were over thirty eighth-rank contractors; at this level, each had their own trump cards.
Su Xiao could handle their abilities, but the items they kept as last resorts were particularly dangerous.
With a whoosh, Su Xiao's speed exceeded his previous limits, leaving a trail of blood shadow.
"Awesome! This 'ride' is really fast. Die, you scumbags!"
Immortal Dew, usually timid, was now acting arrogantly, like a cat emboldened by its master's presence.
'Blade Path Sword: Extreme.'
Clang!
The long blade swept through, and a head flew up, its face frozen in shock. Its three layers of shield abilities were sliced through as if they were fake.
A beam of light kept ricocheting, trying to catch up to Su Xiao. An ice spirit handmaiden, conjured by the ice mage, drifted like a ghost, also pursuing him from behind.
Blood energy erupted, and the ice spirit handmaiden evaporated like snow under the sun.
With a clang, Su Xiao blocked the tracking beam with the blade of Dragon-Slaying Flash. The point of impact on the blade turned red-hot, but it cooled quickly, causing no damage to the blade's structure.
Su Xiao halted his charge, standing about ten meters away from the group of contractors. He pointed his long blade forward, and one by one, blood spears formed above him, shooting toward his enemies.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Blood spears formed and fired continuously. The subsequent blood energy explosions shrouded the area ahead in blood mist.
Su Xiao's blood energy value visibly dropped. The blood spears shooting from above him never ceased. Facing the enemy's attacks, he only used crystal layers to cover parts of his body, without dodging.
As Su Xiao gradually adapted to this sustained barrage of blood spears, he swung his long blade repeatedly, sending out blade auras.
For a time, the combination of blood spears and blade auras displayed overwhelming suppression. The ice mage, who had been exchanging fire with Su Xiao, was now questioning his existence. He was frantically constructing ice shields and walls, with over a dozen contractors hiding behind him.
On the other side, the muscular man, Dean, wasn't faring much better. He was hiding behind a black stone wall he had constructed. This wall, resembling obsidian, could hold for a while.
Amid the unending roar, an energy manipulation veteran hiding behind the stone wall was fuming. As a gun master who had 'reclassed' into an energy manipulation grandmaster, when had he ever suffered like this? Usually, he was the one suppressing enemies behind cover.
As the saying goes, endure for a moment, and the anger grows; take a step back, and the loss feels worse. The energy manipulation veteran clasped his hands together, about to unleash his ability.
Bang.
A blood spear pierced through the black stone wall, diagonally penetrating the energy manipulation veteran's head and stabbing into the ground behind him, pinning him in a crouching position.
Seeing this, the muscular man, Dean, was cursing inwardly. The defenses he had built earlier could still block the enemy's attacks, but now they were failing.
Looking closely, the blood spear that impaled the energy manipulation veteran was different from the others. Though entirely blood-red, it had fine crystalline lines inside—this was a split-off Banishment.
The blood spear seemed similar to Banishment, but it wasn't. The blood spear's penetrating power was far greater. Even Banishment in its internal combustion state couldn't match the piercing force of a single blood spear formed from condensed blood energy.
But that didn't mean Banishment was useless. First, if he ever lost an arm or leg in the future, he could form a crystal limb and mix split Banishment into it to control the limb normally.
Second, since Banishment and blood spears shared some characteristics, what if he split Banishment and mixed it into a specific blood spear during construction?
The answer was that Banishment could greatly enhance that blood spear's flight speed and penetrating power.
Imagine, when an enemy is blocking blood spears with a penetration power of 50, suddenly one with a penetration power of over 160 mixed in—that would be deadly.
The energy manipulation veteran's head was pierced. His trembling hand reached up, trying to grab the blood spear, but unfortunately, with a boom, the blood spear exploded, blowing off his head and nearly a third of his torso.
On the other side, the ice mage's mana was draining rapidly. Just as he felt he couldn't hold on, the enemy's assault eased, and the blade auras stopped.
The ice mage finally had a moment to breathe. He pulled out a fluorescent blue potion, but just as he was about to drink it, a hair-raising sense of danger came from ahead.
'Blade Path Sword: Ten · Ring Break.'
The blade chimed sharply. Layers of ring breaks radiated outward from Su Xiao. The ice mage roared in fury, while the muscular man, Dean, had veins bulging all over his body as they desperately constructed defenses.
The roar of blood spear explosions continued, mingled with the sharp ring of slashes. When everything settled, the ice mage, covered in frost, emerged from a large pile of shattered ice.
"No matter how twisted his abilities are, everyone has limits. You monster, you've finally reached yours."
As he spoke, the ice mage tore off his tattered left arm, blown off by a blood spear.
A total of 15 contractors emerged from the ice mist and dust. These were the ones who had survived the onslaught of blood spears, blade auras, Azure Demon, and Ring Break. The others had either been sliced into pieces or blown to bits by blood spears.
"Pah! To hell with being a blade grandmaster. What kind of blade grandmaster are you?"
The muscular man, Dean, spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, his emotions extremely unstable.
Understandably so. Fighting a blade grandmaster, only to engage at mid-range throughout the battle, and then have over half their people killed—the strongest soul master first kicked into the wall and unable to be pried off, then pinned down by two blood spears.
Hearing Dean's words, the ice mage was also gnashing his teeth in hatred. But as he took a few steps forward, he suddenly vomited a large amount of dark purple blood.
The ice mage collapsed to the ground with a thud. His face turned deathly pale, his breathing became rapid, and the world around him spun.
Thud~
The ice mage's head hit the ground. He only wanted to know what was wrong with him. Through his blurring vision, he saw the muscular man, Dean, kneeling on one knee, trying to raise his hand, but in the next second, his head was sliced off by a blade.
"This is... poison?"
The ice mage's eyes went dull, and he died on the spot. None of the contractors present had expected that they were fighting not just a blade grandmaster, a melee grandmaster, and a blood spear grandmaster, but also an alchemist.
Holding his long blade, Su Xiao approached the metal girl. She was leaning against an ice wall and said with effort, "You despicable poison user."
Clang~
The blade was sharp, and without hesitation, it severed the metal girl's head. For an assassin to call someone else despicable was truly rare.
Were there poison powders floating in the air? No. Before the battle began, the gray mist wall blocking the main gate's entrance contained 「Phosphorus Spores」. These spores could block perception and silently multiply in large numbers within a host.
Once the concentration of 「Phosphorus Spores」 in the host's blood reached its limit, they stopped coexisting and turned into a deadly poison, quickly killing the host and using the corpse as nutrients to evolve into a supernatural plant.
Su Xiao took out a metal canister, pulled the ring, and threw it to the ground. White smoke spread out, like glass threads, cleaning up the scattered 「Phosphorus Spores」.
Of the 15 contractors, 13 died instantly. A burly healer and Xiao Pei managed to escape using life-saving items.
Su Xiao didn't mind this. The current result was good enough. Eighth-rank contractors weren't as easy to kill as before.
Su Xiao walked to the center of the first floor, picked up the iron chair from the ground, sat back down, and waited for the next wave of enemy contractors.
Immortal Dew, floating beside Su Xiao, chattered endlessly. Su Xiao took out a soul crystal (complete) and bit off a large chunk like an apple. The chatterbox Immortal Dew's voice grew quieter, eventually becoming a mumble.
The fortress's main gate was wide open, revealing the variously mangled bodies of contractors. A small head peeked around the wall by the gate. She had been watching for a while, ever since the gate reopened. This person was Hao Mei.
After being sprayed by 「Molei's Old Man」 until she doubted her existence, Hao Mei had decided to strike hard in reality. So she came to the garrison area and found the Sun Fortress.
But just as Hao Mei was about to strike, she witnessed Su Xiao versus the soul master team. Hao Mei's current thought was: 'Sorry to bother you, I'm out!'