Chapter 103: Chapter 103: Group Fight (Part 2)
The fun of a group battle lies in surrounding a tough-skinned boss right in the center, then hordes of DPS swarm in, with all manner of sneaky and brutal moves leaving the boss with no chance to counterattack. Watching the opponent’s hp slowly decrease, the sense of achievement naturally skyrockets—it’s the ultimate thrill to have thousands beating up a punching bag that won’t break anytime soon.
I figured the badass Abyss right in front of us would die in a very frustrating manner. This guy originally came with a horde of underlings to settle the score, with his perfect plan probably making a loud noise in his head, waiting for the moment when the opponent was exhausted and defenses lax to rush in with his brothers. But unexpectedly, as soon as he showed his face, his vanguard was blown away, and before he could react, his escape route was inexplicably blocked. When he looked around, he found his underlings had vanished without a trace and now, he was left alone, facing a super-violent gang notorious across countless worlds…
Watching Pandora pick off the few demonized creatures in the sky with precise burst fire, then two thousand Xyrin terrorists rained down artillery fire on the tragic guy above.
It has to be said, as a Leader Level Abyss Creature, that ink blob really had some strength. Under the barrage of two thousand men, he actually tore half his body apart, using it as an unimaginable kind of shield to block the barrage and then managed to clumsily escape the first round of attacks.
Only half the size now, the ink in the air let out a low growl, then its surface contracted and several black rays shot our way.
A dozen Xyrin Soldiers activated their full defensive gear and fearlessly met the enemy’s attack. The black rays sparked violent explosions against their energy shields. The leading soldiers only lasted for less than three seconds before they overloaded and self-destructed, weakening the black rays once and cutting them off before they could cause more casualties.
During the first clash, taking advantage of the enemy’s carelessness, we focused the firepower of two thousand heavy infantry to heavily injure the opponent. In a rushed counterattack, the enemy killed five of our soldiers and left over a dozen incapacitated due to system overload.
The soldiers we lost this time were mass-produced Xyrin Apostles with no independent consciousness, controlled directly by Pandora—in other words, they were disposable like bullets. So, in the first clash, we had a clear advantage. But I didn’t feel at ease at all. I finally realized that the true power of the Abyss isn’t something those fodder tainted with a bit of corruption could compare to. One careless mistake could truly be catastrophic.
At that moment, I suddenly noticed that the corpses of those monsters around us were rapidly turning into black mist and converging towards the Abyss creature in the sky, which greedily absorbed these energy-transformed nutrients. The half of the body that remained began to rapidly heal.
Damn, I had forgotten such a critical issue!
Before I could issue any command, the super nanny Dingdang above me let out a loud cry, and the surrounding green life field instantly intensified by nearly double. The scattered black mist dissipated cleanly like foul odors meeting an air freshener (Dingdang, just hit me…). The ink-brother in the sky was rudely interrupted while chugging a blood potion, naturally getting quite annoyed. Its pitch-black surface churned with ripples, and several more rays shot at us.
It seems this Abyss was a bit easier to handle than Caesar. His attack methods were the same old tricks—powerful, sure, but they lose effectiveness with repetition, and besides, he’s gravely injured, right?
Pandora, who had already captured the detailed data of this type of attack, designated a counter-strategy. The Xyrin Warriors quickly shifted positions, overlaying their defensive force fields in a strange fashion which refracted the incoming rays by a principle I utterly couldn’t understand. Then, with a low humming sound from Pandora’s massive cannon, a blue-white beam of light roared towards the Abyss creature in mid-air, who had just completed its attack and hadn’t recovered yet.
General Level Pandora’s attack was incomparable to that of an ordinary Xyrin Soldier. She had a whole assortment of energy reactors set up in Other Space as a powerful driving force. In my words, even this girl’s sneezes would shoot out with the combined power of several ghost energy reactors.
The Abyss instinctively sensed that the incoming blue-white beam carried far more energy than the previous attacks from those small-fry. He tried with all his might to dodge, but Pandora had been lying in wait and wouldn’t miss the chance to kick an enemy when they were down.
“Your soul will serve me—” Pandora said in a low voice, “Mind Invasion!”
A powerful spiritual power, amplified over a dozen times by the golden stripes behind Pandora, forcefully penetrated the Abyss’s Spiritual Domain. Through the Spiritual Connection, I could clearly sense Pandora’s displeasure—it seemed intruding into the Abyss’s mind filled with brutality and a desire for destruction was not a pleasant experience. However, the discomfort didn’t cause Pandora much trouble as she seized the moment when the Abyss temporarily lost its ability to actively think and hit it with another strike.
“Thought Flame Burning!”
Just as this was happening, Pandora’s attack also hit Brother Mo Shui hard.
The dual strike to both soul and body finally snapped the impressive black mist out of its controlled state of mind. The intense pain elicited a hissing sound from him. Although it’s said and done, I still have to ask: Without even a vocal organ, how the hell did it manage to hiss?!
Despite having sustained severe damage, the Abyss creature’s formidable life force prevented it from being obliterated on the spot. It tried splitting its body once again for a miraculous escape, but the two thousand Xyrin Soldiers, who were ready and waiting, thoroughly implemented the spirit of viciously beating the fallen, showering the Abyss being, now reduced in size once more, with concentrated attacks that covered the entire sky.
Just when we thought we could definitely eradicate that pool of ink with resilience comparable to Little Strong, a black defensive shield suddenly materialized around it, blocking all of the Xyrin warriors’ attacks.
At the same time, above our defensive positions, several black energy arrays appeared out of nowhere. This familiarly disgraceful method of attack, reminiscent of dark alley murders and backstabbing, instantly put me on high alert.
Pandora immediately issued orders for an all-out defensive formation, but Caesar’s attack intensity was evidently much stronger than that of the quarter-sized ink spot left in the sky. Plus, with his knowledge of the weak points in the Xyrin warriors’ energy shields, a series of explosions followed, and nearly two hundred Xyrin Warriors who couldn’t dodge in time turned into brilliant fireballs.
This was the most significant damage we had sustained since the battle began. In one encounter, we instantly lost a tenth of our combat power.
And this was after the enemy’s strength was significantly reduced from the intense battles in Vedis and the Superpower Army, followed by a long-distance rush to our location through space transmission.
Without a doubt, this Abyss creature, which had fallen from being the Xyrin Emperor, had suddenly increased in strength.
My thoughts instantly went to Bubbles and the other superpower users far away in Vedis. If this had been the original Caesar, they could have played a role in delaying and surviving for a short period, but now, with Caesar’s strength vastly increased, I suddenly felt concerned about them.
Luckily, at that moment, Bubbles initiated contact with me and Sandora. Her voice sounded very tired, “Caesar has already broken through our defenses; he must have already reached your location by now—I’m ashamed to say we haven’t weakened him much.”
While urgently instructing Alaya, who was supporting the Auduo Empire Army on another front line, to be extra cautious and prevent any enemy schemes, I anxiously asked, “How are you all holding up there? Why did Caesar’s strength suddenly increase so much?”
“The reason for Caesar’s increase in strength is unanalyzable; our situation here isn’t good. Fifty percent of the superpower army has fallen, and the rest are all severely wounded and have lost combat capabilities. The mass-produced Xyrin Army has been wiped out, and more than half of the ‘Blinder Level’ combat vehicles have been lost. The outpost I am in is still mostly intact, but all defensive equipment is overloaded, and the ability to resist the next attack is zero.”
…Nearly destroying more than half of our reserve forces!
Although they were all low-level warriors akin to remote-controlled robots and semi-autonomous combat machines, without consciousness, such losses still pained me and made me even more astonished at Caesar’s strength.
As for the Superpower Army, which had lost fifty percent and the rest incapacitated, although what they lost were living humans, not the thoughtless puppets under our command—so their losses might seem even greater on the surface—it’s likely that the Vedis Empire was already quite satisfied. Historically, the emergence of the Source of Demons usually ended with the complete annihilation of the human forces, and even in a lucky victory, it would cost them immeasurably. Now, relying on a mere hundred superpower users to repel (at least it appeared so to them) the Source of Demons, that was already a miraculous outcome.
Realizing that the enemy had greatly increased its strength, anxiety gripped Sandora and me, our focus completely shifted to that constantly twisting mass of black substance in the sky.