“About damn time!” Yue Wen, the Cultivator of the Healing Maiden style, grumbled full of impatience once she finally received the notification on her Pandamonium app that she was chosen to enter the dungeon raid instance.
“You were the one who said that you would wait for us.” Shi Hui, the Shadow Swan Cultivator, replied as she closed her war fan, with the rest of her squad AI following suit.
“Well, I had to. There hasn’t been much of a chance for us to play together ever since we started working at that bubble tea store. And when we are not working, SOME PEOPLE have to have their urges filled by SOME WOLF.” Yue Wen emphasised and Jing Ru, the Gunning Giraffe giggled at the side of the conference briefing room.
“Play nice Yue Wen, we agreed not to be too critical about their relationship.” Jing Ru reminded her, and Yue Wen faced her with an angry pouting expression as well.
“You too! Ever since you got along with your father in Jin’s store, you have been running along with him and his buddies a lot! Leaving me behind!” Yue Wen pointed sternly to the Sniper Cultivator, rendering her slightly speechless. Somehow she decided to explode at the wrong time when everyone should be getting along for the upcoming battle. Instead of arguing back, Jia Ying, the Sanguine Stag Cultivator merely went in front of Yue Wen and looked through her eyes.
“Calm down. Set your mind straight. Don’t forget you are still our healer for this round. Shouldn’t you be the most level-headed given your occupation?” Jia Ying stated objectively, and Yue Wen sighed after staring into her for a moment.
“My bad. Perhaps, I just really miss the four of us coming together.” Yue Wen replied meekly and subsequently, the Pandamonium App asked for their confirmation to teleport. Shi Hui patted Yue Wen’s shoulder and squeezed it a little as a sign of encouragement before they simultaneously pressed the confirmation button.
In an instant, they got teleported into the battlefield flying down from the skies. The first thing they noticed was the Giants they had seen on the projector in the conference room. The Venus Four immediately knew who their targets were as they readied their weapons while they were swooping down from the skies.
Without any parachutes to guide them, Shi Hui released her chi into the surroundings, and illusionary animals of their cultivation were seen diving down towards individual Giants.
Proud and majestic in its appearance, the Sanguine Stag could be seen diving towards one of the Giants who was holding a large shield. With the aura of nature emanating out into the skies, the stag’s horns were growing and trailing along as the illusion descended. Plants and flowers of various species were popping out from the horns creating a scene as if the Sanguine Stag was akin to a major Guardian of the Forest.
And right beside it was Jia Ying, prepping her spear technique while her AI squadmates were close behind her. It was one of the larger illusions that Shi Hui had created and it immediately attracted the attention of not just the Giants but everyone in the vicinity.
People were mesmerised by it especially since there was an illusionary aura of a blindfolded maiden in hood and cape descending with a bright shining light. It appeared as if it was radiating the path for the Sanguine Stag to walk upon. The Healing Maiden was like a bastion of hope for the cultivators who saw it when the Giants emerged from the portal.
In the meantime, Yue Wen timed the release of the shining light with her release of a wide area technique with the aid of her squadmates AI to provide the cultivators at the sky bridge a slight regeneration of chi accumulation.
However, being at Grade 4P, Yue Wen’s technique was still too weak for it to be very effective for a battle of this magnitude. The duration was cut short due to her lack of understanding of the skill along with her lack of high-grade cultivation. Nonetheless, it was quite a pretty show to watch, and the warmth from the illusion did increase the morale of the Pandarens.
Likewise, the Sanguine Stag cultivator Jia Ying descended elegantly whilst overcoming the shield that the Giant had been holding up. She pierced through the Giant’s neck without him being able to stop her. With a hole the size of a tree trunk in between the Giant’s trachea, it gasped for air and struggled by flailing its weapons around, only to succumb on the ground and suffocate to its death.
“Urgh, I guess I should not do such a thing again.” Jia Ying coughed as she was covered with the innards of the Giant all over her body. So much for the look of ‘nature’ after one was filled with Giant’s blood from head to toe. (Perhaps, that IS nature. Survival of the strongest prevails within every one of us.)
Unlike the Healing Maiden and Sanguine Stag’s grand entrance, Jing Ru did not portray her Gunning Giraffe, instead, she and her squad used grappling guns to reach their targeted Giants earlier and set a thermite C4 explosive on the body part they managed to land on before jumping down to the ground.
To prevent the Giants from suspecting too much, they had been ‘wasting’ their bullets by spraying the large creatures to distract their attention, and it worked effectively. But at the same time, the Giants were rather unsuspecting having one or two humans trying to come too close to them since they treated them as trash insects. What was one or two needle pins poking them when they had tolerated years of war against other monsters and demons?
Sadly, that underestimation was their downfall.
Once the thermite C4 explosives were ignited, the Giants suffered burning pains which caused severe bleeding at various parts of the body. There were also a few instant kills because of a well-placed C4 at the neck area, yet most sustained only minor injuries. Still, the burn and bleeding had hindered their movement, allowing Jing Ru as well as Jia Ying’s squad to disrupt them.
Shi Hui descended down with her chi powers (and grace) as she too had begun to use her chi powers to hold the injured Giants down with shadow grabbing techniques.
Earl Barbatos had never seen a small group of humans able to contend so aggressively against his Giants and at such a lightning pace as well. There was something about them that seemed to separate them from ordinary adventurers. Even the spells they cast or the techniques they performed were out of this world.
Thus, Barbatos decided to do something drastic to cope with them. There was no point in being considerate if his opponents had the upper hand in terms of brilliant soldiers.
“All Giants. Regroup and charge towards the bridge. All restrictions are off. Do not care if it is friend or foe in your way. Break their defences so that we can reach one of the floating platforms. Proceed to secure a safe teleportation space for our brethren.” Earl Barbatos commanded as he looked at his pocket watch.
“We will show them the true order of nature.”
