212 the danger of a protagonist-esque partner 5 (1/2)
Since one projectile had successfully smashed into the ground without much difficulty, it was natural to assume the presence of others.
The group of people under Shen Haoren's lead clenched their teeth in dismay, their bodies twitching with fatigue and agony.
And to be fair… there were quite a lot of stone boulders raining over their heads.
Boom!
A powerful blast of nature's artillery splintered into fragments in front of Shen Haoren's feet, causing the middle-aged man's countenance to warp with agony.
The Young Master of the Shen Family howled as his dwindling reserves of spiritual essence mobilized to mitigate the subsequent shockwaves from injuring those behind him, before waving the double-headed war hammer in fury.
”Damned giant, see how I smash your head into a million fragments!”
Shen Haoren cursed as his chubby fingers roamed his pockets for another coin, the war hammer in his right hand twirling in a full circle as his eyes narrowed onto the environment before them.
The middle-aged man's heart sunk with pain as he pitched forth a golden coin embossed with the symbol of Great Yong, tossing the metallic disk into the air along with his aspirations.
Whoosh!
”Tak – damn!”
However, the Earth Giant's reply to his preparations was another stone bullet larger than his entire body aimed directly towards his head.
The middle-aged man grunted as the spiritual essence he had infused into the hammer had to be forcefully withdrawn to compensate for the taxing consumption required to construct the defenses necessary to withstand the earthen giant's assaults.
The gold coin was thus forgotten, landing onto the soft earth with a faint emission of sound.
The tendrils of grass eagerly swarmed around the newcomer, their hopes of stealing a little portion of vitality squashed after they were exposed to the painful realization that what awaited them was nothing more than an inanimate object devoid of life.
As they were forced to retreat for the umpteenth time in the span of a single hour, Tang Shiqi's lips drew into a downcast grimace. The youth's eyes remained fixated onto the back of Shen Haoren, a river of startling thoughts swarming through his mind.
They were only able to survive due to the middle-aged man's concentrated efforts in either smashing apart the incoming projectiles or diverting their trajectories to mitigate the damage as much as possible.
Given how Shen Haoren had additionally launched five more strikes against the Earth Giant, his spiritual essence reserves were practically nonexistent.
The dust storm that prevented their senses from aptly observing the actions of the giant made of soil and stone similarly prevented the Earth Giant from precisely targeting their location.
Thus, the stone projectiles were akin to artillery bombardments; crudely empowered and difficult to eliminate a threat, but spectacular in roughening up a person's morale.
The constant fear of having stone splinters slash deeply into the ground besides the foot was one thing, but the young girl's peculiar reaction was another…
Boom!
A second cannonball of stone smashed into the hole-ridden ground a few meters away from Tang Shiqi with great velocity, the secondary shockwaves blowing the youth headfirst into a previously formed cavity.
Crawling out of the crater and poking his head to examine the dreadful plains, the youth of the Tang Clan's gaze inadvertently landed onto An Fei's figure.
In the midst of terror and a war-ridden plains devoid of cover or security, the mysterious young girl was dancing.
Regarding her dance, Tang Shiqi could not discover any rhythmic pattern to the movements, nor could he discern any intentional purpose. When a shockwave struck the earth, the young girl spun in circular movements as she either retreated, stepped forward, or pirouetted to the side.
Compared to the others who had elected upon the route of constructing a defense that was resilient to the incoming ravage of stone, An Fei's dancing was akin to a cotton ball floating in the air in the middle of a hailstorm.
Since there was no resistance against the attack, it was natural that there would be no incurred harm.
”External martial arts technique…”
The youth hoarsely muttered, his eyes flashing with a tinge of shock. Tang Shiqi steadied his breath to manipulate the ubiquitous and contravening stone held against his chest to inspect the mystery to greater detail, but was forced to repel the scattered splinters of stone aimed towards his head.