Chapter 605: A Monkey's Weapon
Of course, the Forest Elves and their arrows were not omnipotent.
After several barrages their position was exposed and the fire was returned, quite literally.
The Heart of the Blazing Lion army unleashed fiery fires. They conjured fireballs, firespears, and various other projectiles and threw them back at the Forest Elves. Most fiery projectiles were not that fast, but their overwhelming number and destructive power were more than enough to force the Forest Elves to retreat.
The Untamed Jungle caught fire. Everything was about to burn down.
Lilica and the others retreated. However, they didn't run away from the battle. They trusted that the Lesser Water Elementals and Lesser Earth Elementals would do a great job extinguishing the flames. In the worst case, the Lesser Elementals would restrain the flames for a while.
"A bunch of Tier-3 Awakened are onto us," Opars pointed out while pulling the bowstring back. His muscles flexed as the Dryadwoven Bow's pulling force increased. Opars remained calm, aimed, and shot. The arrow disappeared in the thicket.
A terrifying scream escaped from the thicket and blood spurted all over the bushes. Opars stored the Dryadwoven Bow away and switched position. He leaped onto another tree's branch and climbed higher.
Lilica grit her teeth but activated Weakness Detection. She channeled more energy than needed into the Soultrait, creating a better display of her enemies' weaknesses.
A few Lionheart Awakened entered her view. They headed to Mika and the other Forest Elves.
Lilica retrieved an arrow, nocked it on the bowstring, and readied herself. Precise Aim and Invisible Projectile were executed at once. Lilica pulled the bowstring back and used her breathing technique. Her body stopped moving all of a sudden and it looked like she was frozen in place. That was just Lilica taking aim and releasing the deadly projectile into the group of Lionheart Awakened.
The Invisible Arrow whizzed through the Untamed Jungle unnoticed and found its way into the wrist of the Awakened who looked the strongest.
The Lionheart Awakened groaned loudly. He tried to hold his longsword tightly but the muscles and veins in his wrist had been ripped apart. Lilica's arrow had neatly pierced the Awakened's wrist. It was covered in blood and was visible to the bare eye once again.
The Lionheart was just about to pull the arrow out of his wrist and switch the longsword to his left hand to continue participating in the battle, but a shadow covered him all of a sudden.
The Awakened and Soldiers behind him screamed aloud. Earth Spikes shot out of the ground, impaling the Awakened's calves and thighs. Simultaneously, arrows hailed down. Some were slow and could be evaded easily, but a minority of arrows were incredibly fast and deadly.
The fast arrows were hard to distinguish from the slower arrows. It was already too late for most Soldiers when they realized which arrows were the deadliest.
Even if they survived the barrage of arrows, they weren't prepared for what happened next. Sun Demos and the Demon Monkeys joined the battle. They merged into the mass of the High Beast Horde and dived into their fights, reaped the lives of those who had already been weakened, and pulled out once again.
That was exactly what happened here. Sun Demos emerged above the Lionheart, whom Lilica had attacked, and swung down a one-handed axe. The axe head was inproportionately large. The blade covered most parts of the one-handed axe. It looked unhandy and hardly useful, usually, that is.
The blade-axe cut deep into the Lionheart's shoulder as Sun Demos cleaved down. The Blood Oath Demon Monkey King's other hand shot forward simultaneously. His claws plunged into the Lionheart's eyes, gouging them out with a single attack.
All of a Sudden, Sun Demos felt much heavier than before. The Lionheart's body heated up, and fiery flames covered his body.
Sun Demos screeched loudly and retreated. The Demon Monkey King ordered his Unit to retreat and change targets. Once Sun Demos distanced himself a bit from the Lionheart Awakened, the heavy weight that had impacted heavily was no more. He could still feel the weight on his shoulders but it was not impossible to bear anymore.
["That's enough. Focus on the weaker units first. I want you to take care of them!"]
Michael's voice rang through Sun Demos' mind and the Demon Monkey King moved at once. The Demon Monkey King kicked the ground, jumped on top of a tree, and moved rapidly through the Untamed Jungle. The Demon Monkey Unit followed quickly, gaining momentum as they swung from one branch to another.
Simultaneously, as Michael's voice reached Sun Demos, a dozen Soul Glacicle Bullets inserted with a trace of Extraction launched through the air. The Soul Glacicle Bullets pierced through the seams that held their Armor Set Artifacts together and burst apart. The traces of 7-Star Extraction inserted into the Soul Glacicle Bullet entered the Lionhearts' bodies while the compressed freezing mist within the Soul Glacicle Bullets shrouded the surroundings in an instance.
The Lionhearts' flames extinguished at once and their Armor Set Artifacts cooled down in an instant. Cracks formed on their Armor Sets, creating more openings for the Forest Elves to attack.
Michael knew that he could have killed the Lionhearts at once, but he wanted to utilize the opportunity to drain their energy storage while simultaneously giving the Forest Elves more opportunities to procure more energy influxes.
His War Rune was far from advancing. It would take months for him to advance to the Low rank of the 3rd Tier. Of course, that was without any energy shares and without resources worth more than most ordinary territories could procure in half a year.
Michael observed the battlefield intently. He knew that he could just leap into the most crowded area of the battlefield and kill a thousand Tier-2 Soldiers with the Dome of Extraction. However, he was not foolish enough to expose himself and his powers straightaway. The Heart of the Blazing Lion Army might be split into three minor armies but each of them had a Commander at the Peak of the 4th Tier and roughly 100 Higher Lifeforms.
Even if Michael killed a few thousand Soldiers at the 2nd or 3rd Tier with a surprise attack, he would end up encircled by 300 Higher Lifeforms. That was not what he wanted.
Therefore, he looked out for the Higher Lifeforms to hunt them down one by one. Michael thought that he might as well give his people a helping hand at the same time. Soul Glacicle Bullets didn't ingest much Soul Energy, and he could replenish his used-up Soul Power by consuming SoulStar Fragments, either way.
It wasn't like Michael was going to waste his SoulStar Fragments, but he was unwilling to leave everything to his subordinates!
Sun Demos and the Demon Monkey Unit had returned to the High Beast Horde. They were having a hard time pinpointing the weakened enemies, but everything happened fast once they did find suitable targets. Sun Demos and the Demon Monkeys would dive onto the battlefield, retrieve their one-
handed battle axes, behead their enemies, or cleave them apart, before storing their weapons back into the spatial satchels they'd been given.
The Demon Monkeys might have claws and tremendous physical strength, which they could utilize to an extraordinary degree, but the one-handed war axes were better than their claws. They were enchanted with Sharpness and Sturdiness Runes and allowed the Demon Monkeys to make full use of their superior physical strength.
The one-handed war axe made up for the Demon Monkey's racial limits.
Of course, the one-handed war axe was not a perfect solution. The Demon Monkeys might be Superior Existences but they were still merely at the Lowest rank of the 2nd Tier. They'd reached their racial limit a long time ago and couldn't slay everyone. The Zentika Empire's forces had a gross numerical advantage, and they knew how to make utilize of that.
They burned down the forest and moved in small groups. Most groups had either one or two tanks. They blocked the incoming attacks, allowing the Assassins, Swordsmen, and other damage dealers to do their job. Other than the tanks and damage dealers, most groups had either a Mage of Priest by their sides. However, since all Lionhearts had a Minor Fire Affinity, each of them could conjure fireballs and other fiery projectiles.
The Lionhearts learned to utilize their racial affinity for years if not decades, and they made use of it.
Fortunately, the Untamed Awakened weren't disturbed by the fiery flames of the Lionheart. They didn't care that the Untamed Jungle was set ablaze or that the underground in the outer ring had already been burned down.
On the contrary, the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs loved that. They had been fighting in the Savannah Region for a few weeks, only to return to the densely grown Untamed Jungle once again. The Untamed Awakened didn't hate the Untamed Jungle, but they didn't know the jungle as well as the Forest Elves. They couldn't make utilize of the Untamed Jungle that well. Therefore, they charged ahead and unleashed their multitude of Soultraits to obliterate their enemies with a head-
on clash.
The Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs looked like they were on ecstasy. They unleashed their Soultraits in excitement and charged into the masses of enemies without hesitation. It was almost as if they didn't even know that they were at a numerical disadvantage.
However, in reality, the Untamed Awakened couldn't be bothered. They didn't care that the Heart of the Blazing Lion army had several times more Soldiers and that the quantity of their high-ranked Soldiers and Awakened was much higher.
It didn't matter to the Untamed Awakened.
The Untamed Awakened were going crazy.