Chapter 24: Seeing
Dark clouds churned in the sky, accompanied by the rumble of thunder.
A silver lightning bolt split the sky on the horizon.
Crack!
The lightning dissipated, and the crisp sound of thunder arrived.
Compared to the majestic power of the heavens, the battle cries surging across the battlefield were more capable of stimulating one's nerves.
The counter shield beside Su Xiao expanded, its hexagonal edges shaped into blades. An orc was both wounded and pushed back.
The pushed-back orc was about to counterattack when a gleaming blade light appeared before its eyes, followed by an endless darkness.
A cool sensation touched his face. Su Xiao, who was in the midst of a bloody battle, was momentarily stunned, then realized the coolness on his face was rain.
At this moment, Su Xiao was already on a stone slope on the other side of the fortress. Looking around, he was surrounded by orc and dwarf soldiers.
Tribal soldiers surged forward continuously. Su Xiao accepted all comers; any tribal soldier who came within three meters of him died—one at a time, or a group at a time.
The battle cries and the smell of blood on the battlefield stimulated Su Xiao's nerves. The high-ground battle had been going on for over an hour. He didn't know how many he had killed; there was no time to check the number of battle merits.
In the dense crowd, even a moment of distraction would cause the counter shield to be shattered by the surrounding dense attacks. Once the counter shield broke, if a dozen or even dozens of weapons struck Su Xiao simultaneously, even if he didn't die, he would be severely wounded, and severe injury meant death was not far off.
Surrounding him were the elite troops of the tribal army. Their combat ability was incomparable to the ragtag forces from the previous battle. Not to mention their tenacious will, just their attack power and defense were enough to make one's blood run cold.
Su Xiao's intuition was correct. Misled by the previous battle, many contractors from Reincarnation Paradise charged into the tribal army. Their fate was predictable; they were quickly torn apart by the elite tribal troops.
Within the tribal army, Su Xiao's Dragon-Slaying Flash slashed out streaks of cold light. Horizontal slashes, side slashes, heavy slashes, upward slashes—the blade danced up and down, claiming the lives of enemy soldiers one after another.
The blood splashing near Su Xiao had not stopped for over an hour. He stood in a pool of blood, his gaze exceptionally sharp. His eyes quickly scanned the surroundings, his pupils locking onto the attacks and weaknesses of each enemy.
A sound of wind breaking came from behind his head. Although Su Xiao couldn't see this attack, he could sense it—a long-handled battle axe was hurtling towards the back of his head.
Because the counter shield was blocking, Su Xiao ignored this attack and instead swung his blade to sever the head of an enemy beside him. This was a dwarf who had been using his height "advantage" to harass Su Xiao, causing him endless annoyance.
With a crackling sound, the counter shield around Su Xiao shattered. Although the counter shield was sturdy, it had its limits. In a one-on-one fight, few enemies of the same rank could break Su Xiao's counter shield, especially after the Azure Steel Shadow ability was upgraded to Lv.30, raising the single-use mana limit of the counter shield to 500 points, forming a shield with 500 points of strength. Even Su Xiao would need considerable time to break a 500-point counter shield.
Now, he was in the midst of a battlefield, surrounded by enemies. The counter shield endured dozens or even hundreds of attacks every second on average, and the surrounding orcs and dwarves were elite troops with attack power 2 to 3 times that of ordinary tribal soldiers.
As the counter shield shattered, the sound of wind breaking behind Su Xiao's head became more pronounced. It was the long-handled battle axe he had intended to block with the shield. With the shield gone, the axe was heading straight for the back of his head.
He absolutely could not let this axe hit his head. Even if it didn't split his skull, given Su Xiao's high endurance attribute and the toughness of his muscles and bones, he might not die from the blow, but being struck on the head would certainly cause him to lose focus or become dizzy for a moment.
If he lost focus or became dizzy, the tribal soldiers around him would tear him to pieces within two seconds.
This was the battlefield. Even with Su Xiao's strength, one mistake could mean instant death.
The oppressive feeling of death quickened Su Xiao's heartbeat. The axe blade behind his head was getting closer and closer.
At that moment, Su Xiao experienced a very strange sensation. His usually calm mindset changed, becoming fervent and boiling.
Thump~
His heart beat. Due to multiple enhancements to his physique attribute, his strong heart contracted, pumping blood throughout his body.
A smile appeared on Su Xiao's face, revealing his white teeth. The sense of crisis on the battlefield and the oppressive feeling of death touched a nerve within him.
At this moment, the blade of the long-handled battle axe was less than three centimeters from the back of Su Xiao's head. The black hair at the back of his head was blown by the wind caused by the axe.
Strangely, this attack from behind, which Su Xiao should only have been able to sense, he now 'saw'.
He didn't see the exact appearance of the axe, but he 'saw' its shape, the trajectory of the attack, the landing point, and so on.
Su Xiao bent his left knee and shifted his upper body to the left.
Whoosh~
The axe almost grazed his head as it flew past. The sharp edge of the axe even cut off a few strands of black hair.
Just as the axe brushed past his temple, Su Xiao's left hand, wrapped in a crimson-gold arm guard, reached out. Azure Steel Shadow energy clung to his hand.
Bang!
Su Xiao's left hand grabbed the tail end of the axe, a part without a blade. He glanced sideways to see a dumbfounded orc soldier standing to his right-rear.
Applying force with his hand, crack, fine cracks appeared on the steel battle axe.
With a snap, the steel battle axe burst into metal fragments. At the same time, a fully durable counter shield appeared beside Su Xiao, blocking attacks from all directions.
The orc holding the long-handled battle axe—no, now just an iron rod—suddenly felt a tremendous force from his hand. Su Xiao had grabbed the iron rod.
The orc soldier suddenly felt the world spin. He immediately released the iron rod in his hand, and his body flew into the air.
Mid-air, the orc soldier breathed a sigh of relief, finally away from that terrifying enemy. Just as this thought appeared, he heard a sound of something cutting through the air, then his head was struck, his vision turned red, and he finally fell into darkness.
With a thud, the orc soldier, whose head was pierced by the iron rod, fell into the crowd, completely lifeless.
Su Xiao was like the god of death on the battlefield; all enemies who approached him died.
The crowd around him grew denser, and the durability of the counter shield dropped faster. Sensing this, the muscles in Su Xiao's right arm bulged slightly.
The counter shield expanded outward. Seeing this, the orcs who had been frantically hacking at the shield were overjoyed, their bloodshot eyes glaring at Su Xiao.
Su Xiao sheathed the Dragon-Slaying Flash. Seeing this, a dwarf soldier nearby felt a chill run down his spine. Twenty minutes ago, he had seen Su Xiao make this same move, after which a large number of tribal soldiers had died.
"Run..."
Clang!
The Ring Break blade light spread outward, like an ever-expanding ring. With Su Xiao as the center, the tribal soldiers within a dozen meters in all directions fell like wheat. After the Ring Break, not a single enemy corpse remained intact.
Su Xiao let out a long breath. Facing such high-intensity combat, he inevitably began to feel fatigued, as he was fighting with all his might.
Ten meters away from Su Xiao, a dwarf lay on the ground, trembling uncontrollably. The moment the ring-shaped blade light expanded, he immediately threw himself flat. His 1.3-meter height had saved his life.
The dwarf who had escaped death looked at Su Xiao, only to find Su Xiao looking back at him.
"He actually dodged it."
After using Ring Break, Su Xiao's right arm would feel weak for 1 to 2 seconds. Although he could still swing his blade, resting for a few more seconds would allow him to use Ring Break multiple times without his right arm aching. So, he didn't use blade light for the attack. Instead, the [Soul Shadow Hunter] crossbow appeared in his left hand. This light-gold quality crossbow had been pre-loaded; now he only needed to aim and pull the trigger.