Chapter 475 (1/2)
Hao Ren admitted that he had underestimated the vengeful spirit; not because of its combat ability mind you, but its bizarre nature.
He found that the enemy was not something quantifiable, and it was beyond anything that he had ever faced before!
Hao Ren did not consider himself a battlefield veteran, but he had been in a couple of hard fought battles, especially one on a bizarre battlefield with so many races: it had elven magic, demonic powers, human technology, and even gnomish “ingenuity”, but he had yet to meet anything close to a natural phenomenon!
A seemingly endless veil of white mist had descended upon them from every direction. The pungent smell of burnt rubber was strong and pieces of blue crystalline rained from above as the gun was fired. But the damage dealt paled to the scale of the predicament that they were in.
Blurry silhouettes were appearing by the dozens in the thick mist, and the shadows let out shrieks and screeches as they darted around the group. From time to time a few of the shadows charged forth. Becky’s sword was blazing bright now, and she gave one of the charging shadows an upward slash. The hit connected only for the shadow to reform somewhere not too far away. “Is this a vengeful spirit?!”
“It’s one of their ‘phenomenons’!” Nangong Sanba shouted at the top of his lungs. The snowstorm around them had gathered strength, first turning into a blizzard, then into a snow tornado. The screeches and howls faded against the raging storm. “The spirits are shapeless! You don’t know if you are fighting the real thing. Until it is despatched into another world, anything you face, may or may not be it!”
Hao Ren’s shield too started crackling, the energy field in the air was strong enough to activate the shield. He realised that the spirit’s attack too was shapeless. The blizzard around them, the energy field in the air, the shadows, the lightning in the distance… All these are the spirits. It seems like it’s mode of attack was to create a hostile dimension for its enemies, and let them perish within.
Lily swung her claws towards the shadows that were charging in her direction, and the werehusky was getting frustrated by the moment. The enemies were formless, and she wasn’t sure if her attacks even connected. Her precious tail bristled as the storm grew.
Nangong Wuyue was holding up a mist barrier, but it was an arduous task to maintain it. “The water element here is unnatural! It’s difficult to maintain the barrier!”
“Any ideas?!” Hao Ren turned towards Nangong Sanba, “We cannot fight this battle of attrition!”
“That’s the only way!” Nangong Sanba and Vivian shouted back. Vivian then explained by they could only hold on. “The spirits can’t die, but they will sooner or later exhaust their energies. Only then we can sent them back to where they came from. Just take out everything it throws at us until it cannot conjure up anything more. We’ll win then!”
“F*ck me! I hate that the most!” Hao Ren grumbled. The storm around him however paid no heed to his feelings and it was closing it like a thick wall, threatening to crush anything within. The party was now insignificant dots within the eye of the storm. Seeing the situation as it is, Hao Ren finally pulled out a new toy from his Dimensional Pocket.
It was a silver box, with Aerym words saying ‘Handle with care’ on it. Hao Ren pulled open the lid, and within the box were a bunch of matchbox-sized cubes. Each and every cube had red, white and black buttons on them.
Nangong Sanba was still shooting his quarrel towards the shadows in the distance, acting like he was the main DPS class. He noticed Hao Ren taking something out and turned to ask, “What’s that thingmajing?”
Hao Ren threw one of the cubes towards Nangong Sanba. “Take off that ring, and press red, white and black in sequence, then think of the girls that you’ve slept before, ask her to give you strength, and toss that cube as hard as you can!”
Nangong Sanba had long decided it was prudent to listen to the pros, and just followed what Hao Ren had instructed. Pulling the ring out and pressing the buttons in quick succession, he stood there for a moment recalling something. Hao Ren yelled as he saw Nangong Sanba just standing there. “Throw the bloody thing!”
“HEEYAHH!” Nangong Sanba threw the cube with all his might, and yelled. “I haven’t even finish recalling….”
A sharp noise, almost like metal sheets being torn apart blocked out his voice. The cube had exploded in midair, releasing a flash of white light before a semi-translucent sphere formed suddenly around it. As quickly as it formed, the sphere retracted, taking the entire space with it. Within a mere second, nothing was left there.