Chapter 1416: Stagnant Nation (1/2)

Things happened so suddenly that even Qianye failed to deal Noxus a good blow to his weak points.

The little fellow simply stood there in a daze. Having no time to explain things in detail, he roared, “Hide!” Then, he picked the little girl by the neck and tossed her away.

Noxus’ gaze followed the girl into the distance as she vanished into the forest. Only then did he glance back at Qianye with an ambiguous expression.

Qianye stood watching the arachne warlord with the azure sword in hand.

Noxus said, “Are you planning to fight me?”

“It’s not like I can run away.”

“True.” Noxus swung his spear horizontally, sending out a wave of radiance spanning hundreds of meters.

At that moment, streaks of grey energy appeared in the surrounding and weakened the force of the spear radiance. By the time the attack had arrived before Qianye, it contained less than half of its might and was blocked with relative ease.

Noxus was visibly moved. “This domain, this origin power…”

He banged his shield and axe together, summoning a hazy golden glow that resembled an all-encompassing spider net. The arachne warlord’s domain ranged thousands of meters, almost blotting out the sun and sky.

Judging from its nature, the spatial laws within seemed to have been affected. This meant that Qianye would not be able to escape even with Spatial Flash.

Spider webs appeared constantly in the void and drifted down onto Qianye’s body. These webs felt sticky to the touch and uncomfortable, to say the least. This was Noxus’ domain, Stagnant Nation.

The warlord was calm enough, but the distant sword emissaries were dumbfounded.

The movement restriction imposed by Noxus’ domain was famous throughout Evernight. Ordinary dukes wouldn’t even be able to move after touching the spider webs, and even grand dukes would be slowed down significantly. It was easy to guess the outcome of fighting Noxus at melee range in his domain.

Noxus could sense that Qianye’s bloodline aura was that of a duke but probably not a grand duke just yet. Yet he could move around under the effects of Stagnant Nation with little to no impediment.

In the face of Qianye’s charge, Noxus swung his axe down with a growl.

Qianye blocked the blow with his sword and was duly slammed to the ground from the impact.

This time, neither party held back. The clash between sword and axe sent ripples that shattered all rocks within a hundred meters. The ground they were standing on had sunk by one meter.

Noxus raised his eyebrows. “Good strength! Let’s try this!”

He lifted his spear and, instead of thrusting, swung the shaft at Qianye like a staff. Qianye was parrying the warlord’s axe with his right hand. Seeing the incoming spear, he formed a fist with his left hand and blasted out several eruptions of the Excavator.

Yet another rumble shook the entire area. A clearing that was close to a thousand meters wide appeared in the mountains, sinking down almost ten meters before coming to a stop.

A mere duke had charged in to contest the arachne warlord in physical strength. It was already a great feat if Qianye wasn’t slapped to death, but he had actually managed to take both blows from the warlord. One had to know that Noxus was no ordinary great dark monarch. In terms of physical strength, he was far above Sousa and overwhelmingly stronger than the vampires and demonkin.

Qianye’s body trembled ever so slightly, but he managed to block the incoming attacks. In the end, though, Qianye only had two hands, while Noxus had four arms in his spider form.

Noxus’ shield whistled over at great speed and slammed Qianye away.

The warlord didn’t relax after swatting the enemy away. He gave chase immediately, swinging his axe and shield at the target. His empty hands weren’t idle, either—they followed up with punches, slaps, and chops. Sometimes, he would even hold his spear with two hands and try to smash Qianye with it.

Qianye held on with great difficulty and actually remained standing amidst the torrent of attacks. He could no longer deal with the flurry when Noxus started using his front limbs and was duly slammed away.

Qianye flew hundreds of meters away and produced a deep pit as he slammed into the ground. He staggered up soon afterward and stretched.

Noxus’ gaze froze. “Not even a fracture? Good! Try my secret arts this time…”

Bang!

Noxus’ body was jolted about a palm’s breadth to the side. He looked back to find that Little Zhuji had appeared out of nowhere and slammed into one of his hind legs with her shield. This impact was so great that even Noxus was caught off guard and almost lost his footing.

Despite her unstable footing, she tossed the shield away and grabbed an axe from her back. She swung the weapon with a loud cry and struck Noxus’ limb.

The warlord seemed rather amused after seeing this. He simply stood there without making any movement, allowing the girl to hit him as hard as she wanted.

Noxus’ gigantic spider body trembled fiercely as the axe fell. The little girl’s axe actually cracked open Noxus’ exoskeleton and sank halfway in!

This was Noxus’ shell after all! The arachne warlord’s shell was one of his best protective gears, far stronger than a grade nine armor. Even Qianye’s azure blade only managed to hack slightly deeper than this.