Chapter 160 - 114: Floating City (2)
But against the people now charging forward, they were hopelessly outmatched.
The assault team was composed of Yuan Xiaobo, Rose, Dong Lin, Niu Armor, and Lin Yan.
Yuan Xiaobo, Dong Lin, Niu Armor, and Lin Yan were all Legendary-grade heroes. Of them, Yuan Xiaobo, Niu Armor, and Dong Lin also possessed powerful defensive skills.
The immense gap in their attributes made it impossible for the creatures to break through the squad’s defenses; in fact, they would only end up injuring themselves.
The squad advanced into the center of the Floating City at incredible speed. By this time, the Haiqiu Race’s outer defenses had already been breached, and a number of mutated creatures had broken into the city’s interior.
"Rose, Dong Lin, I’m leaving these mutated creatures on the outside to you. I’ll take Lin Yan and Niu Armor into the Floating City to eliminate the enemies inside."
"Yes!"
"Leave it to us."
After receiving their affirmative replies, Yuan Xiaobo led Lin Yan and Niu Armor deep into the Floating City.
After killing more than a dozen mutated creatures, Yuan Xiaobo gave another order.
"Let’s split up!"
"With Rose and Dong Lin guarding the outside, no new mutated creatures should be able to get into the Floating City."
"True!" Lin Yan and Niu Armor nodded in agreement. The two outside had powerful area-of-effect abilities that were extremely useful for crushing weaker enemies. Even if another Legendary-grade hero appeared, they wouldn’t have to worry about a two-on-one fight.
"So, all we need to do is quickly eliminate the mutated creatures that got in here, and we can save everyone in this city."
"And we have to be fast!"
"Right!"
The three of them quickly split up, heading in different directions to begin sweeping the Floating City for the mutated creatures that had burrowed inside...
Outside the Floating City, Dong Lin immediately unleashed his Frigid Cyclone, and an intensely cold whirlwind formed around him.
He then directed the whirlwind to move slowly outward. Any mutated creatures in its path were instantly frozen solid and died.
Don’t be fooled by the fact that these were ice-based Extraordinary Creatures; their resistance to cold wasn’t particularly outstanding. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be holed up in the jungle beneath this icy plateau—they would have spread across the entire world long ago.
Meanwhile, Rose also unleashed his abilities. He used "Swallow Death," absorbing the Death Energy from the slain mutated creatures into his body. He then used "Death Energy Diffusion," spreading the Death Energy outwards to inflict continuous damage and debuffs on the surrounding mutated creatures.
After becoming a hero, the range of Rose’s skills had become incredibly wide. Coupled with the bonus from his attributes, his damage output was extremely high.
The mutated creatures around the Floating City, just as they were preparing to evade the approaching Frigid Cyclone, were assaulted by the Death Energy. Their health points inexplicably dropped to zero, and they collapsed, unable to get up.
Immediately after, the Frigid Cyclone swept past, freezing their corpses into blocks of ice.
The mutated creatures didn’t notice the Death Energy. They only felt that the whirlwind was immensely powerful. Their instincts drove them to attack the creatures making such an annoying noise, so they all tried to find ways to avoid the cyclone, only to be killed by the encroaching Death Energy. And so, more and more mutated creatures died in silence.
"Amazing!!" The mutated creatures had no idea who was responsible, but Dong Lin did. He turned and gave Rose a thumbs-up. ’This big treant didn’t seem that impressive in fights before,’ he thought. ’I didn’t expect his area-of-effect ability to be this strong—killing without a trace. And the more enemies die, the stronger he gets.’
"Heh heh!" Rose gave a simple smile, and the Death Energy he was emitting expanded outward another layer.
The mutated creatures in the distance finally realized something was wrong. ’The whirlwind is still far away, so how did our comrades right next to us die?’
Realizing there was an unknown attack, the remaining mutated creatures scrambled back to the central area in a panic and dove into the deep pit.
Inside the Floating City, in the main control room, a member of the Haiqiu Clan excitedly reported, "City Lord, the Aituo Beasts outside—our name for the mutated creatures—are all retreating!"
"What’s happening?"
"We don’t know. All the external monitors on the Floating City are offline, so we can’t see what’s happening. The Energy Detector shows two abnormal energy signatures outside the city. The Aituo Beasts lose their lives upon contact. I think they must be fleeing to avoid this dangerous natural phenomenon."
"Are those two energy signatures causing any damage to our city?"
"Reporting, none detected so far. We believe they only exist on the surface; otherwise, the Aituo Beasts wouldn’t be hiding underground."
"Good. Keep monitoring them!"
"What are the three beings who broke into the city doing now?"
"Reporting, they are moving through the corridors and slaughtering Aituo Beasts. We haven’t detected any other actions from them."
"Excellent. I don’t know why they’re helping us, but we should still thank them properly. Be sure to manipulate the corridors to guide them toward the Aituo Beasts."
"Yes, Lord City Lord."
With the Haiqiu Clan People in the city center manipulating the corridors, Yuan Xiaobo’s group of three made swift work of their task. They didn’t need to hunt for the mutated creatures; they just had to keep moving forward, and there would inevitably be more creatures ahead. All they had to do was kill, kill, kill.
The Haiqiu Clan People were also very satisfied. Theirs was the last Floating City to fall. It wasn’t because they were strong; on the contrary, their weakness relegated them to logistics and support fire from the rear. When their power source was destroyed and they crashed, they had all but given up hope of survival. After all, Floating Cities much stronger than theirs had already been wiped out, while the Aituo Beasts’ numbers showed no signs of dwindling.
He never expected powerful reinforcements to fall from the sky. A group of unknown lifeforms had suddenly appeared and begun to slaughter the Aituo Beasts. They not only drove off the creatures on the perimeter but were also helping to clear out the ones that had infiltrated the city. If he wasn’t so unsure of their attitude toward the Haiqiu Race, he would have gone up to thank them personally.
The City Lord of the Floating City was relaxing as he watched the large screen, which showed footage of Lin Yan killing an Aituo Beast. She leaped lightly beside an Aituo Beast, and a thorn shot out from her hand, piercing its body. Beautiful flowers would then bloom from the beast’s corpse as their roots, deep within its body, rapidly absorbed its massive frame, leaving behind a field of flowers after its death.
"Such a beautiful and deadly attack."
The City Lord was deeply moved. No matter how many times he watched, the beautiful, unfamiliar woman on the screen was just as graceful as she was lethal. It was a shame that his Haiqiu Clan People had not mastered such abilities.
’The world has been changing for so long. Other species, so long as they survived, have all grown stronger to some degree. Why is it that only we, the Haiqiu Race, have not changed or grown stronger?’
The City Lord was bewildered and furious at this unfair world.
Under a screen some distance away from him, an operator muttered under his breath, "If it weren’t for those collaborators back then, our world would never have ended up like this!"
Perhaps the City Lord had voiced this complaint too many times, and the operator had grown tired of hearing it. What was supposed to be a private thought was spoken aloud, and as luck would have it, the City Lord heard him.
"I have said this before: my father and the others did what they did for the sake of this world! If it had not died, if it had been allowed to stay in our world any longer, things would have become even worse."
"I’ve said this many times. I’m surprised there are still stragglers who think otherwise. Guards! Drag him out and execute him."
"No~~~ Lord City Lord, I was wrong, I shouldn’t have said that..." The operator was seized by two Guards and dragged out of the command room.
"Lord City Lord, this is bad! Target Number 1 is heading for the command room!"
"What’s going on? Didn’t I give orders to close all blast doors leading to the command room?"
"Reporting, when we were rerouting the corridors just now, blast door #645 was not closed, allowing the target to take a branch path that leads directly to the command room."
"Who was controlling blast door #645? Step forward now, and I might spare your life!" the City Lord roared, furious.
No one in the command room answered. Everyone kept their heads down, silently focusing on their work.
The Lord City Lord was a man of his word. When he said he would spare your life, you certainly wouldn’t die. You would just suffer a fate worse than death.
"What? Is everyone in here dead?"
His adjutant quietly approached his side and pointed to the spot where the operator had just been dragged away. The City Lord froze for a moment, understood the adjutant’s meaning, and then calmed down.
"Can we still stop him from reaching the command room?"
"Lord City Lord, we can’t. Target Number 1 is in the reception corridor leading to the command room. When this corridor was designed, it was for welcoming important guests, so it has no other blast doors. Only blast door #645 isolates it."
"Damn it!! That bastard set me up even as he was dying!!!" At that moment, the City Lord wanted nothing more than to subject that operator to death by a thousand cuts.
"Forget it. Tidy up. Prepare to welcome Target Number 1!"