Chapter 46: To Slaughter
Unit 3 certainly possessed the power to destroy all the Wild Gods, but she could not prevent them from climbing onto her body. To destroy those that boarded her, Unit 3's attacks would inevitably harm her own base.
A thousand years of battle had turned the area atop the steel base into a ruin. If she could help it, she did not wish to damage her own body. That was why Unit 3, despite being able to eliminate the Wild Gods herself, still asked Joshua and the others for help.
And Joshua would undoubtedly fulfill his promise.
The three monsters lunging forward before him had six arthropod limbs like mad wasps and two pairs of violently fluttering transparent wings. Their bodies were covered in compound eyes that could cause an arachnophobe to suffocate on the spot. They were the size of Western Mountain mammoths, with massive frames exceeding fifteen meters. A shell formed from a combination of chitin and crystal perfectly covered the monsters' weak points, while strange tentacles extended from their tails, twisting and twitching. At a glance, they seemed like a fusion of insects and deep-sea creatures.
**[Famine's Children]** — these names appeared in Joshua's eyes for the Wild Gods. These specially designated Wild Gods possessed power far exceeding their kin, and could even withstand the attacks of Unit 3's Blazing Sun Flash. They were naturally highly resistant to magic. While the impact of the artificial intelligence's Order Force could eliminate weaker low-rank Wild Gods, it could not inflict any real damage on these powerful monsters.
All around, dense volleys of Radiant Light Beam Cannons continued to bombard the Wild God army without end. With each flash of light came an explosion, but even so, the endless tide of Wild Gods slowly recovered their numbers from before the Blazing Sun Flash bombardment, step by step drawing closer to the fortress.
And Joshua faced the three Gold-rank Chaos monsters with their hideous forms in the sky above. Gripping his great axe, he began to sprint toward them with all his might. Though he rode no horse, his speed was like a gale sweeping across the land.
Fierce winds surged, dust flew. His forward speed could not be described as merely terrifying. With a great explosive boom, even sound was broken. White shockwave mist surrounded Joshua's body. His heavy iron boots stomped onto the steel base, leaving cracks with each step while emitting dense, heavy tremors.
Wielding a sword meant using sword techniques. Wielding a spear meant using spear techniques. Whatever weapon one held, one fought accordingly. And now, the warrior holding the mountain-splitting great axe would push the rapid 'chop' to its absolute limit.
The Wild Gods lunged at high speed, and Joshua charged forward at high speed as well. The distance between them shrank to nearly zero in a single breath. And in that moment when they were about to meet, the warrior leaped into the air, stomping a large crater into the steel base. His entire body, propelled by Battle Qi, soared to nearly a hundred meters in height. He rushed through the air toward the Wild God flying at the front, and then brought his axe down in a clean, decisive chop!
Though the Wild Gods lacked intelligence, their combat instincts far surpassed ordinary creatures. Facing Joshua's straightforward and fierce strike, it immediately raised two arthropod limbs, erecting shells harder than steel before it to block the warrior's chop, while the other two Gold-rank Wild Gods vibrated their wings and moved to encircle Joshua.
But how could this monster know just how powerful a Divine Mechanism—a weapon designed specifically to counter Chaos—was when facing it?
Accompanied by the sharp screech of steel grinding against crystal, the incredibly tough chitin and crystal shell was torn apart in an instant. The great axe, burning with crimson Battle Qi, fell like a meteor descending from the sky, easily severing two of the Famine Child's limbs, shattering all its defenses, and burying itself deep into its body.
However, Wild Gods were not ordinary creatures. While enduring the intense pain of having its body split open and a foreign object embedded within, it did not hesitate for a moment. Instead, it swiftly swung its limbs and tail tentacles, lashing out at Joshua.
The long tentacles and limbs cut through the air with explosive cracks. The other two Wild Gods also accelerated, attempting to flank the warrior from the side and behind. Their coordinated attack was indeed tacit understanding (moqi), but Joshua was not fighting alone.
*Whoosh—*
Just as Joshua used his right hand to block the tentacle strike from the Wild God before him, using powerful Order Force to corrode its body, a loud hum arose from the ground. Dozens of green afterimages, like massive arrows fired from siege ballistae, streaked across the dark sky, striking the two encircling Wild Gods in rapid succession. And just as these two monsters were staggered by the sudden impact, a golden streak of light broke through sound, air, mist, and Chaos. Like a lightning bolt splitting heaven and earth, it tore through the back shell of one Wild God, knocking it out of the sky on the spot.
"Thanks for that!"
With the threat from behind eliminated, Joshua roared and pulled the black great axe from the Wild God's body. The heavy curved blade and spear tip brought out a mass of writhing flesh. He kicked the monster hard in the chest. With a cracking sound of shattering shell, the creature fell to the ground alongside its kin.
On the steel base, around Claire, dozens of slowly withering plants were turning to ash. These war plants, nurtured by the Great Druid, had a form resembling a cross between a pea and a cannon turret. The seeds they ejected had the power to breach city walls and destroy fortresses. Even without targeting Chaos, their attacks were enough to shatter the chitin-crystal hybrid shells and stall the flight of the Gold-rank Wild Gods, allowing the old dwarf's strikes to hit home.
If not for this barren world lacking any support from Nature's Force, these war plants would not have withered so quickly. They were not disposable creations but siege weapons that could survive for over ten days. Unfortunately, the Carlis World was already on the verge of extinction, itself nearly a fireless ember with no strength left to support other beings. But even so, Claire calmly scattered handful after handful of seeds, using her own Arcane Power to continuously nurture various war plants, as if they cost nothing at all.
Meanwhile, Moria's entire body blazed with golden Battle Qi. In his hand, the spear that had automatically flown back gleamed with golden Battle Qi radiance and faint traces of Order Force. As the prototype of the Divine Mechanism, the creations of the Carlis people could easily shatter the defenses of Wild Gods. It was precisely this spear, thrown by the old dwarf, that had struck down a Gold-rank Wild God just now. Now, using all his strength, the metal rings on his beard and the steel crown on his head flowed with shimmering metallic luster, radiating a powerful brilliance.
This was the power that the Great Mountain bestowed upon its descendants. Each ring, made from different metal materials, in the hands of a powerful dwarf meant a stored supernatural ability. And Moria's Iron Crown, as proof of the Great Forging, could even store a supernatural ability beyond his own power limit. Just now, it was because the old dwarf had used the supernatural abilities **[Mighty Throw]** and **[Returning Missile]** that he could kill a Gold-rank Wild God in a single strike and have the spear return to his hand.
"Didn't think you'd kept up your skills from our adventuring days."
With his mind highly focused, observing the situation around them, Moria muttered to Claire beside him. "That last move wasn't bad."
"And you, you old bones. I didn't think you could still move."
The elf chuckled softly, then looked up at the sky, at the warrior charging at the very front.
In the sky, two of the three Famine's Children had been struck down in an instant. But the remaining Wild God showed no intention of retreating. Its entire body flickered with a dull silver-gray light. Then, opening its mouthparts, it let out a silent roar. Immediately, a pure energy blast gathered at its tail and shot straight toward Joshua, still suspended midair. The dark beam, as fast as light, contained terrifying thermal energy, as if it could annihilate anything in its path.
Joshua's expression was blank, as if this terrifying strike was nothing more than a tiny splash of water from an insect. He raised his right hand. His crimson Battle Qi transformed into a pitch-black fluctuation. A terrifying killing intent enveloped his palm, easily blocking the Chaos Flame Light spewed by the Wild God. He manipulated his Battle Qi, flying rapidly toward the still-attacking Wild God. The scattered energy fell like a rainstorm, splashing into the Wild God army on the ground, incinerating countless unlucky Wild Gods to ash.
At the same time, the warrior charging toward the Famine Child had already collided with his target. Joshua, clad in full armor, burned with crimson Battle Qi and surging white mist. Accompanied by a crisp sound of shell shattering, he had already crashed into the embrace of this massive monster at supersonic speed. The terrifying kinetic energy knocked it out of the sky.
*BOOM!!!*
The Wild God's massive body, over ten meters long, crashed onto the steel base. The powerful impact shook the steel structures within several hundred meters, as if an earthquake had struck. The Wild God's head, covered in compound eyes, was already mangled and broken, buried deep into the base's interior, with half its body also sunken into the steel.
Joshua stood up from the Wild God's abdomen. Without any hesitation, he spun his left hand, swinging the great axe. The heavy weapon brought a sudden gale, easily cleaving and shattering the monster's chest cavity, extinguishing its life force. The tentacles that had been rapidly twitching at the tail, attempting to ambush the warrior, stiffened, and were then severed by Joshua's backhand swing.
*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!!!*
"Ha!"
Amid the rapidly flowing wind around him, the warrior standing atop the Wild God's corpse took a heavy breath.
The power from the death of the three Gold-rank Wild Gods was completely absorbed by the Azure Orb in Joshua's chest. A cyan light even penetrated his armor, flickering at his heart. White mist rose from the gaps in his armor, then transformed into light, once again injecting into the warrior's body.
This burning, vast power carried a scorching pain as it spread through his limbs and bones. With just a slight shift of his foot, the leaked power caused the steel base to cave in, creating countless spiderweb-like cracks on the steel surface.
Turning his head to look at the endless Wild God army still surging toward the fortress, Joshua felt the abundant (chongying) power within his body. He grinned. "Blood... looks like there's plenty more." (To be continued.)