Chapter 75: Signs of Awakening
Intuition, spirit, battle qi, heart's eye, the flow of air, the noise of a massive object cutting through the air, and even the heat absorbed by steel, the taste of thunder electrolyzing the surroundings—all were omens of an incoming enemy attack.
Joshua had countless ways to dodge this palm strike. It was far too simple for him. If he wanted, the warrior couldn't even find a possibility of being hit.
But why should he dodge?
Facing the steel giant palm striking from behind, Joshua let out a disdainful cold snort, then raised the Dragon-Hunting Sword Lance in his hand and thrust it backward without even turning his head.
— *Crack!!!*
The razor-sharp blade, empowered by battle qi, pierced through the Titan Colossus's palm without any suspense. The raging battle qi surged in, detonating the thunder mana flowing through the palm. Instantly, a blinding flash and shockwave erupted in midair. Under the dual destruction of Joshua's battle qi and the Titan Colossus's own thunder mana, the giant palm shattered like fragile biscuits, easily pierced, torn apart, and then exploded into countless scattered magic pattern stones and steel debris.
"So there are still some that aren't completely dead."
Said calmly, Joshua turned around. His crimson eyes fixed on the Titan Colossus on the ground, its palm destroyed, retreating step by step. A gleam of battle qi flickered in his pupils. He nodded slightly: "Puppets are indeed tougher than living creatures."
Then, the warrior flew straight downward, his speed as swift as lightning. In response, the Titan Colossus didn't hesitate to intercept. The bright eyes on its head began to gather mana. In an instant, two massive thunder beams, seemingly capable of annihilating everything, shot out. The terrifying energy even ionized the surrounding air, striking out bursts of scorching odor.
But Joshua's trajectory was bizarre, as if ignoring all inertia. The crimson streak of light danced wildly in midair, forward or backward, left or right. One moment it was diving downward, the next it might suddenly pull up and rise again.
Beam after beam of lightning struck empty air, while the warrior's figure had already closed in on the Titan Colossus. Joshua plummeted down, arriving above its head before it could unleash another thunder beam. Without even using his weapon, he simply and decisively stomped heavily onto the colossus's head—accompanied by a crisp shattering sound, a visible shockwave radiated outward. The piercing noise of steel twisting spread across the entire battlefield. At the same time, the shell on the Titan Colossus's head instantly cracked and flew apart from the immense force, its structure completely distorted, even sending steel parts flying.
Thick, almost solid battle qi penetrated inward, reaching the puppet's core and destroying its central structure, instantly ending the Titan Colossus. With a faint hum of noise, the colossus's head wobbled, then its dazzling eyes dimmed and went out completely.
Standing on the wreckage of the Titan Colossus, Joshua took a few breaths, then slightly closed his eyes, as if recovering his strength.
With the Azure Orb burning chaos to sustain his stamina and the blessing of the Father of Nature providing endurance, he normally wouldn't tire so quickly. But the enemy's numbers were so vast that if he didn't seize the moment to rest now, he might not have time later.
And while Joshua was silent, recovering his strength, the spirits of Ying and Ling were whispering beside the warrior.
"Brother, what do we do?"
Ying seemed at a loss, her face showing some worry and confusion: "Our main bodies have fused, you know. What's going on?"
"…It's okay, sister. Don't panic."
Though in a soul state, Ling still took a deep breath to calm himself. He comforted the silver-haired girl: "It's okay, sister. I can sense that although our main bodies are temporarily fused, it's only because of the master's will. Our essence remains separate. Once the Divine Mechanism transformation ends, we'll revert to our current form."
Shortly after, under her brother's comfort, Ying calmed down and sensed her own main body, reaching the same conclusion. This realization immediately settled the two, who had been a bit uneasy: "The master really scared me with that move…"
Joshua had also almost finished resting and threw himself back into the battle.
In the sky, a humanoid form composed of countless lights was watching the battlefield.
It was the Coordination Core, typically used to control massive war puppets like aerial fortresses, but also employed for batch-controlling other puppets. Now, it was directing the group of stone demons in the air and on the ground to attack the ancient tree.
In theory, this wasn't a difficult task. The stone demons under its command were practically endless, and besieging a single ancient tree should have been a sure thing.
But its offensive had indeed been stopped.
The two humans and one giant creature below all possessed strength surpassing Titan Colossi. Their obstruction had prevented the stone demons from completing their mission.
Especially that human.
Its gaze turned to Joshua, and the Coordination Core's thinking core rapidly operated.
"Battle plan calculating… Target: humanoid lifeform. Energy level: incalculable. Estimated spells required for destruction: incalculable. Peak destructive power: instant destruction of eight hundred and ninety-two Titan Colossi. Thrown weapon instant destruction of aerial fortress. Combat power level: 'Calamity.' To avoid resource waste, all puppets and Coordination Cores must not approach. Recommended distance: thirty-five kilometers."
"Negation. Target is a must-eliminate object. Recalculating battle plan… Due to information deficiency, unable to determine target's weaknesses. Unable to determine target's combat techniques. Unable to predict or simulate combat."
"Battle calculation prediction error." After falling into a dead loop, the core suddenly began to change: "Implementing the only plan."
Gripping the new weapon, the Dragon-Hunting Sword Lance, Joshua might have been slightly slower in pure killing efficiency compared to dual-wielding before, but due to the concentration of power, he killed the stronger stone demons faster than before. Overall, efficiency had still improved.
Seeing Joshua shoot down three aerial fortresses, Loranda remained silent, killing enemies without a word. Holy light wrapped around his warhammer and giant shield, making the paladin seem like a god descending, charging in and out of the stone demon army several times.
And Hei's speed in clearing the minor enemies was even faster than Joshua and Loranda combined—after all, both were warriors. Though they had means of large-scale attacks, they couldn't use them constantly. As an ancient dragon descendant, the half-dragon could easily spew dragon breath capable of blasting an area the size of a plaza. Except for Adamantite Stone Demons, all other types turned into rubble.
But despite their valiant efforts, the situation hadn't improved.
In the distance, the dust and dark clouds that Joshua had split open and the explosion had sent flying were gradually healing. In the thickening mist, many reassembled rock giants could be seen in the distance, and aerial fortresses' trajectories were visible in the dark clouds.
The sky and ground were densely packed with stone demons, converging from all directions. With just Joshua, Loranda, and Hei, it was absolutely impossible to block so many monsters. No matter how fast, a few would slip through.
However, these missed stone demons, when touched by the natural aura within the protection range, would instantly grow vines all over their bodies. Once these stone demons lost mobility, they were either dragged down from the sky and shattered or pulled into the earth and buried.
A deity's sanctuary wasn't so easy to breach.
Seeing this, the two humans and one dragon immediately felt much more at ease. Joshua changed his strategy on the spot, shouting loudly to assign tasks to his two companions—he began prioritizing the large, powerful stone demons, leaving the minor ones to Hei, while Loranda, while holding the line, cleaned up the stragglers.
The three working together was far more effective than fighting separately. Even if a few scattered ones crossed the line, the Father of Nature's power would handle them.
But even so, as a new wave of Titan Colossi and aerial fortresses arrived outside the sanctuary, the pressure increased significantly.
Until a green, holy light, accompanied by an old, gentle voice, resounded through the sky and earth.