Four Split Personalities

If everything had gone according to Black Hoof’s mental script, the outcome should have been as follows...

The Duke Fernan reduced to nothing but bones would have been easier to explain than Duke Fernan’s head being chopped off.

However...

"There’s something interesting."

Hg Core, unscathed, stood on the unscathed ground and casually asked Black Hoof, "Do you have anyone stronger?"

"Impossible!!!"

At that moment, the latter had completely plunged into a state of chaos. He looked at the dwarf in front of him in disbelief, as if he were Stone Music charging forward. His hands swung out a blur of axe shadows in a completely chaotic and frenzied assault, screaming as if he had lost his mind, "Why won’t you die! Why won’t you die! Why won’t you die!!"

Since the opponent’s assault had obviously become a complete mess, Hg Core just raised his shield in a common manner, casually blocking Black Hoof’s attacks while coolly explaining, "If you’re referring to that last strike, simply put, I moved to meet it the instant you attacked, then I unloaded the blood qi, force, and inertia from your weapon, so I’m still alive."

Black Hoof seemed to have gone completely mad from the shock, his messy attacks becoming faster and his blows heavier, his voice growing louder and louder, "How could you possibly have unloaded my Earth-breaking Mountain-splitter..."

"It’s not about your technique, sir."

Hg Core shrugged his shoulders and explained calmly, "The principle of unloading is not complicated, as long as I..."

"Now is the time!"

Black Hoof suddenly let out a bellow, the madness in his eyes clearing in an instant, his lips curling into a very villainous, cunning smirk, "Now’s the time to complete the mission!"

The next instant, the several dozen assailants who had been watching the battle from behind charged forward at top speed. Having received the signal from Black Hoof, they completely ignored Hg Core Fernan and headed straight for Clive Bresen, spreading out widely!

Although it seemed like a lot of time had passed, it had been less than three minutes since Black Hoof and his men encountered Fernan. The designed Zijing Guard and Royal Guard had not yet reacted, so with insiders in place, the defense of this position was still wide open to this group of people.

As for Black Hoof’s previous irrational behavior, it was naturally an act...

That said, this guy couldn’t have reached his current position if he were brainless. Under his facade of brute force was hidden a cunning soul. So, after his repeated assaults had failed, this LYB decisively changed strategy, engaging Hg Core with seemingly disordered attacks while secretly signaling his subordinates. Those in tune with him quietly informed the Zijing Guard under Ribault’s command and quickly came up with a rather practical plan.

Meanwhile, after issuing the command, Black Hoof immediately switched his attack style seamlessly. The previously disorganized attacks became sharp and disciplined, full of patterns, and came just as Hg Core had adapted to his wild hacking. This shift in high-frequency combat was very difficult for anyone to adjust to, so even if Hg Core could remain unscathed like before, in theory, it would be difficult for him to stop the other attackers’ free advance. One should note there were more than seventy people involved; even if Fernan could intercept a few, the impact on the overall situation would be negligible. Clive was still bound to die.

However, "in theory, it’s very difficult to free a hand" and "even if Fernan could intercept a few" were actually meaningless phrases.

So...

Bang!

"Ah!"

A Thief, nimble in form and previously part of the attack on Fernan, cried out in alarm and stumbled to the ground awkwardly.

Bang!

"Urgh!"

A Mage who had cast float on himself, moving erratically as if skimming over water, bulged his eyes and grasped at his lower back as he fell down.

Bang!

"What the..."

Two knights charging shoulder to shoulder simultaneously fell from their mounts, their helmet visors flattened as if they had been struck by a door panel.

Bang!

A half-orc ranger caught a glimpse of a dark shadow in his eyes, then felt a tightness in his chest, failing to catch his breath and fainting on the spot.

Bang!

An orc warrior charging headlong staggered on the spot, circled his eyes like the spirals of mosquito coils, and sat down on his bottom, with a large bruise appearing on his forehead.

Bang!

A thief in stealth cried out in pain, clutched his knees, rolled forward twice, and after flopping about, utterly failed to get up.

Bang!

Bang bang!!

Bang bang bang!!!

With a series of "bangs," Black Hoof, who was already just reflexively swinging his weapon, was thoroughly startled. He saw very clearly as Mercury Core Fernan in front of him fiercely threw his rectangular shield, then pulled out a small round shield with a radius of only thirty centimeters from behind to continue blocking his successive attacks. Five seconds later, the shield that had flipped over four of his subordinates whistled back, caught in the hands of the dwarf in front of him, who nonchalantly stopped a heavy and forceful chop, and then...

And then, to his damn surprise, the dwarf threw the small round shield again, which also turned into a phantom and spun out, flipping over five or six people before obediently flying back into Fernan’s hand.

And that wasn’t the end of it. After catching the small round shield again, Mercury Core actually took advantage of his unsteady footing to throw out two shields at the same time, then pulled out something slightly bigger than his head, at first glance resembling a discus ’shield’ to hold in his hand, waving it as casually as fanning himself, neutralizing his follow-up attacks!

The most outrageous part was when the long rectangular heavy shield and the small round shield that had already knocked down more than twenty people flew back, Mercury Core threw out that ’discus’ again, then caught the round shield in a backhand, blocking a side slap from Black Hoof and flinging it, catching the rectangular shield, blocking another powerful chop from Black Hoof and flinging it, and finally managing to remove the round shoulder armor from his left shoulder, all the while casually disarming Black Hoof’s moves amidst the three shields flying all around.

Black Hoof had given the order for a free charge, so these attackers were naturally not advancing in a line during the charge but instead attacking Violet’s formation from both sides and even from above at varying speeds. And this was precisely why they were firmly blocked before the ’one-man defensive line’ of Mercury Core Fernan, whoever was at the front always getting knocked down with a "bang." Although the injuries were not serious, they were certainly not light, and if they got up and continued, they would just be knocked down again, in an endless cycle.

In Black Hoof’s eyes, this was almost like a paranormal event, he felt that those shields were alive!

"This is called a Shield Technique, the Fernan Shield Art."

Mercury Core Fernan calmly explained as if he had seen through what he was thinking: "It’s something that everyone in the Fernan family starts practicing from a young age, as you can see. It doesn’t have any powerful force, but if it’s a situation like this where you want to get past and I don’t want to let you, it can be quite advantageous."

"How can this be reasonable!"

Black Hoof was truly panicked now, as the number of people knocked to the ground had exceeded thirty and was still increasing!

"It’s nothing remarkable, of course, the process of practicing the shield is quite tedious, being hit over two hundred times a day is routine. I had a cousin who couldn’t stand it anymore and sneaked off to join the Justice Sect to become a Holy Knight," Mercury Core said as he flung his ’shoulder armor,’ caught the rectangular shield whistling back, and smoothly intercepted Black Hoof’s second [Extreme Earth-Crushing Mountain Strike], chuckling, "As the Family Head, naturally, I couldn’t run away, so I had to grit my teeth and continue practicing this craft, becoming..."

By this time, more than half of the attackers had fallen...

Black Hoof was pushed back several steps by the rebounding force, his face showing despair.

But Mercury Core Fernan simply propped the heavy shield gently on the ground, shrugged his shoulders...

"Becoming Violet’s—Empire Iron Gate."

Chapter 535: The End