And just as the Pandarens and monsters were having the time of their life beating the demon soldiers out of the face of this world, everything changed when the Lion Mantises attacked.
Imbued with the crown’s energy, they arrived at their destination with insane speed, killing several Pandarens that were hiding in the forested area in one go. The offshoots of Shu fared no better, getting obliterated upon their landing. The Pandarens, as well as Jin’s monsters, immediately recognised them for the real threat they posed.
The pairs of Lion Mantises scanned their surroundings to gain a briefing understanding of the situation before commencing with their subsequent assaults. Low-grade cultivators stood no chance of reacting or even fighting against the Lion Mantises.
Even the Orcs who had the towering strength of a giant were cut down effortlessly, without the opportunity to defend themselves properly. Sandy and the rest saw what was happening and eventually stopped their hour-long concert.
Before the Lion Mantises could strike the concert stage, Sandy had already materialised a dome of sand to protect all music members, especially the Zither Mistress. She felt confident that the only person who could subvert this particular situation would be her alone.
Shu who was hiding at the back of the island had also strengthened the sand dome with its own barrier of sentient roots so that Sandy could refine her sand dome and make it even harder for the chimaera soldiers to penetrate. She too did not forget to reinforce the ground to prevent any ambushes from below.
Understanding the current situation, Ke Mi changed her genre of music. It was a drastic shift from pop music to her own magical tunes. Immediately, the Lion Mantises who were on a rampage experienced a sudden decrease in their speed, allowing the Orcs to finally counterattack.
Unfortunately, the Lion Mantises quickly revealed their true weapons, the mantis blades that were grown from their hands and proved their lethality as weapons. With the crown’s energy, their blades’ sharpness were enhanced multi-fold, allowing them to cut through the Orcs’ weapons easily and bisecting them in the process.
With such a gamechanger on the defensive battlefield, Qiu Yue who had been having her dinner in the middle of the night had been alerted by the Goblin telecoms operator to check out the situation. Simultaneously a rough analysis by the System warned the tactician that their current defences were definitely inadequate to hold the line.
“Shit.” Qiu Yue, still with a spoon in her mouth, quickly opened the list of monsters available for deployment on the war room table.
“Dread Reaver, Flame Ripper. I believe it’s your debut. Currently, Ke Mi is slowing their advances, but there is no guarantee that her music can hold them for long. Even so, its a matter of time the Lion Mantises overcome and remove the slowness debuff. Be careful, the Orcs which had been equipped with enhanced inscription weapons had their swords and axes sliced through like a hot knife through butter. I entrust the two of you who have unique weapons to be the ones to remove the new intruders from the current equation.” Qiu Yue sent them the orders, and the System immediately teleported the two General Goblin’s sons onto the battlefield, right above a pair of Lion Mantises.
A chop from the top and a clean slice diagonally removed the Lion heads from the pair of chimaera soldiers, and that act itself were sufficient to catch the attention for the rest of the Lion Mantises.
“Heh, different aura from the normal demons. They’ve obviously been strengthened way too quickly.” Dread Reaver stated as he held his black sword up and pointed at another Lion Mantises.
“Must be the crown that Moloch was talking about.” Flame Ripper held his dagger at the ready on his side as he pulled his bow, conjuring a flame arrow. The others including the demon soldiers somehow gave space for the Goblins and Lion Mantises to fight as both sides instinctively knew that interfering or getting too close to them would more or less mean death on their part.
“You all handle those two… odd-looking Goblins. Afterwards, take care of the rest of the group. I shall personally destroy that metal ship.” Artha, the leader of the Lion Mantises chimaera platoon, had just received those orders from the Ravenous Archduke.
The demons had made it a priority to handle the Stalingrad as its bombardment had been causing a lot of trouble for the temporary checkpoint. With so much energy whirling inside him, Artha simply wanted to get that power out as soon as possible. (Or maybe, he just wanted to use the power that was raging within.)
As the chimaera Platoon acknowledged their leader, Artha took flight out of the combat zone and headed towards the Stalingrad while the rest rushed towards the two Goblins who currently posed the biggest threat against them.
With Ke Mi’s musical aura that caused a slowing debuff on the demons, Dread Reaver held his black sword up high, and illusions of the hooded reaper with long hair came out while the ground got filled with nothing but an abyssal void. Not one but six of them were hovering right above him in all cardinal directions as they simultaneously faced the rushing chimaeras and chopped their heads off into two.
“Death’s Domain.” Dread Reaver whispered as another Lion Mantises tried to move in furiously with a burst of speed, but the moment he entered the black void zone, his body was cut in half with no other action taken from Dread Reaver.
“Tsk, sometimes, I am jealous of your powers.” Flame Ripper complained via the System Channel, so as to not reveal any secrets to the Lion Mantises.
“You do know that I can only use this once a day? Besides, the range is extremely limited. Not to mention the amount of mana it consumes.” Dread Reaver argued back as the void faded away when he finished talking and the Goblin of Death sheathed his sword, waiting to fight the next opponent brave or stupid enough to come forth.
“Hah, compared to you, my powers need coercing to come out. Unless Ifrit feel bored enough or the opponent proved to be a challenge, he won’t come out.” Flame Ripper said as he lit his bow and fired an arrow. The Lion Mantis who took the shot was confident of its armour, but when the arrow hit it, the chimaera soldier suddenly went into flames and burnt
into crisp, causing the others to be wary.
“I won’t pity you on that. Still, these Chimaera soldiers are learning our tactics way too fast for comfort.” The Death Knight replied as he attempted to perform a killing blow, but his sword got deflected.
“At least, your initial attack reduced the numbers we are fighting by nearly half.” Flame Ripper acknowledged as he took another shot. Surprisingly the Lion Mantises he had been aiming at, had managed to barely dodge. Were it not for Ke Mi’s slow debuff, it would have definitely been an easy feat for the Lion Mantises. The Avatar of Ifrit then threw his bow back into his storage ring and lit his daggers on fire.
The two Goblins were sure that speed and finesse would be the crucial factors to win this fight. They were clueless that the chimaera soldiers themselves were beginning a second evolution triggered by their dwindling numbers and the real threat of their entire group being wiped out from existence.
