79. Ancient Battlefield (2) (Patreon)

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The massive beast stared at the human commander with burning hatred in its eyes. He took a few steps to the side. The beast mirrored his steps, as the two circled around each other. It was stepping gingerly every time it put weight on its front right leg, though Jian suspected that it was a feint. Demonic beasts were notorious for their unholy vigor and tenacity. Any wound that wasn't crippling or deadly would be shrugged off in short order.

If Jian could see such a thing, the experienced human cultivator who had met the beast in battle could naturally see it as well. He moved into melee combat with caution, not showing any arrogance at the sight of his opponent's injury.

He was no longer aiming to finish the fight in a single blow. Instead of launching any more wild haymakers he struck out with a series of quick jabs, punching forward with his hammer quickly enough that the air cracked at its passing. The massive beast was nimble for its size, but in the face of the human's lightning attack it couldn't do anything but take a beating.

Of course, the light jabs of a master still hit with terrible force. Jian would have been smashed into paste if he had tried to withstand a single one of the rapid-fire strikes. For the monstrous demonic beast, each individual blow might not be crippling, but the damage still added up. The monster's awkward backwards shuffle did little to slow down the cultivator's onslaught.

Finally, the beast was forced to reveal its trump card. It recoiled back from the cultivator's last strike before lashing out with its front legs. All of the signs of damage that it had been showing had vanished and it moved with the same speed and vigor that it had shown at the beginning of the battle.

How could the human champion be caught off guard by a lumbering beast a second time? He had clearly been waiting for the monster to act, darting out of the way of its strike with an uncanny change of direction.

The sudden attack did put a temporary halt to the one sided pummeling that the beast had been suffering. The beast's attack was short-lived, though, as it's aggressive attack left it open to a devastating counter-strike. The cultivator smashed his hammer up into the monster's underbelly with a crackle of breaking ribs. The massive beast was lifted up off the ground by the force of the impact. When its feet touched down once more it staggered, obviously in great distress.

The cultivator didn't waste the opportunity. He launched another series of quick jabs that all landed home on the beasts head. The light in the beast's eyes gradually dimmed as it moved aimlessly, losing any sense of coordination.

The cultivator didn't go for the killing blow until the monster was truly helpless. This time, when he wound up and brought his hammer down, there were no surprises. The hammer simply crushed the skull of the monstrous beast, finishing it off in a single moment.

The entire battlefield was frozen in place as the hammer came to rest. Jian found himself holding his breath. The moment ended when the body of the massive beast toppled to the side with a great crash.

The entire army of cultivators shouted in triumph and surged forward with new confidence. As the only side with a high level cultivator in the fight, moving together in a unified whole, they were invincible. They crashed into the stunned line of beasts with terrible momentum. Jian could see individual beasts doing their best to fight for their lives. Some of them even managed to trouble their opponents for a time, but in the end that was all they could do. The battlefield was covered with the broken bodies of demonic beasts as the humans continued to push forward.

Just as the human army looked invincible, another horrifying pressure sprang up. Jian turned to look at the source of the oppression and saw that an ominous figure had appeared on top of another nearby cliff. It was larger than a human, but not as big as the massive beast that had just been defeated. Despite the smaller size, the threat Jian could sense did not lose out to the massive beast, and if anything seemed even worse.

Jian felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Even without facing in his direction, he could feel that the beast was a deadly threat.

The silhouette of the figure looked strange, until it suddenly threw itself off of the cliff. Two misshapen lumps on its back were revealed to be massive batlike wings as they unfurled and turned its headlong plunge into soaring flight, carrying its serpentine body through the air.

It couldn't be a true dragon. A true dragon would hardly need to make a move in order to wipe out the army below. Even if this beast only had a trace of the blood of dragons in its veins, it would be more than a match for all but the very strongest human cultivators.

The human army hadn't been idle. While the cultivators had frozen in surprise the moment that the flying monster's aura was revealed, they had snapped out of it and begun to move even before it threw itself into the air. They abandoned their previous attack and moved back into a defensive formation. The beasts that they had been driving before them were still reeling backwards, leaving the humans unmolested as they braced for the attack of their new foe.

Not that it did them much good. The pseudo-dragon unleashed a breath attack as it flew overhead that smashed into the front line of cultivators with immense force. The unfortunate cultivators who were hit directly were smashed directly to death, while the men on either side were tossed flying through the air.

The few individual cultivators attempted to strike back, launching a few scattered attacks at the beast as it flew overhead. Several of them struck home, to no apparent effect. The pseudo-dragon continued flying at a steady pace, ignoring the massed army below.

After passing over the entire army, the pseudo-dragon leaned into a leisurely turn and came around for another attack. On the ground, the other beasts had begun to regroup and were moving to attack the gaps ripped in the human formation by the first aerial strike.

The pseudo-dragon's head leaned back as it prepared to unleash its breath attack once more. Just as it was bringing its maw to bear, a streak of light flashed up from below. Only the recent improvement to Jian's eyesight let him track its flight and realize that the flying figure was the formidable cultivator who had fought off the first extraordinary beast.

The pseudo-dragon tried to redirect its breath weapon to swat down the aerial threat, but the human cultivator was too nimble. He was pushing off the air somehow, zig-zagging back and forth as he closed in on the pseudo-dragon with his hammer at the ready.

Jian held his breath as the man closed within striking distance. He let out a heavy sigh when the beast's tail lashed out and caught the cultivator flush in the chest before his hammer hit home. The cultivator was sent flying downward like a meteor. A puff of dust obscured him as he hit the ground.

The cultivator's sacrifice hadn't been in vain. He had forced the pseudo-dragon to expend its breath weapon to little effect on the army on the ground below. The reprieve let the army form up to face down the opportunistic attack from the wave of beasts as a cohesive group. When they came together with a terrible crash, it was the beasts that came off the worse for it.

Jian feared that this would be only a momentary reprieve, as the pseudo-dragon was already wheeling around for another pass. In the face of absolute strength, high morale and group cohesion were useless.

Or so Jian thought. The next time the pseudo-dragon unleashed its breath attack, it splashed harmlessly off of a golden glow that appeared some distance over the head of the human army. Squinting, Jian could see tiny strands of energy connecting each of the cultivators to the protective shield.

The army didn't just have access to combat formations, but to combined techniques. By combining the efforts of every individual cultivator together, they were able to endure what should have been a lethal blow. It was as if a colony of ants somehow worked together to push back a stomping boot.

It was an amazing feat, but Jian feared that it wouldn't be enough. If all they could do was stave off death, then they would have no option but to stand there and be beaten until their shield was overcome. The flying beast came around for another attack. Just as he'd feared, while the shield was able to ward off the blow, the glowing image had noticeably dimmed. It looked like it would hold out for another attack, but beyond that the army would be in jeopardy.

The humans would need another trump card to save their lives. Jian glanced at Meirong and saw the concern written all over her face. He'd hoped she would have a treasure that could turn the tide, but it seemed that whatever life-saving talismans she had been given were only enough to protect herself, not to save an entire army.

Another flash of light drew Jian's attention back to the battlefield. He thought that it was a new attack by the human army, but he was disappointed to find that it was just the sun peeking over the horizon. He had lost track of time as the grueling battle continued on through the entire night.

A closer look revealed that this might be the human's trump card after all: the bodies of the demonic beasts on the battlefield began to dissolve and go up into smoke as the rays of sun swept over the battlefield. The living beasts shied away from the sunlight, turning to flee from the cultivator army.

The pseudo-dragon gave a reluctant roar, casting down one last futile attack before it dashed away, seeking shelter from the sun. While it looked like it was suffering from the sun's rays, the beast was able to push through it for long enough to get away. The beasts on the ground were not so lucky.

The beasts were unable to reach the shelter of the shadows cast by the hills surrounding the plains before the sunlight pinned them in place. The shrieking beasts writhed in pain before dissolving into wisps of smoke. Soon, all that was left on the battlefield was the human army.

Well, almost. Looking closely, Jian could see that the wisps of smoke lingered. Even if the beasts were no longer physically present, they still cast a pall over the field. The streamers of smoke rose up above, forming into a sort of low-lying haze. It couldn't block the sun completely, but Jian still felt a chill as he stared at the resentful remains of the mob of beasts.

"I'd say it's time we introduce ourselves," Meirong said.

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