Free Web NovelChapter 197: The Battle for Herald City - Part 2
What was once a coherent army had now turned into a chaotic mob that, while still moving forward, was now full of holes.
Every time Celestina had shot, she had aimed for places where she sensed Third Order Wild Beasts, eliminating a couple dozen of them with her opening assault along with hundreds of others in the First and Second Order.
The number of beasts which were wounded or sent into a frenzied panic was several times higher than that, but even after dealing such a massive blow to the enemy, Celestina didn’t relax in the slightest. She knew that despite taking out a few hundred beasts, the tide before her was composed of many thousands, all being driven forward by a cunning and dangerous leader, one that wouldn’t give up after only suffering such a minor setback.
What’s more, although the power the Firestorm Arrows displayed was impressive, to say the least, using them was not cost-free.
Celestina’s entire goal here was to buy time for the civilian evacuation to be completed, so she opted to use the most shocking and intimidating method in her arsenal, but doing so had also drained nearly a quarter of her entire Spirit Qi reserves and heavily taxed her meridians, making it impossible for her to fight at full strength for at least the next 10 minutes.
Fortunately, she wasn’t alone on this battlefield.
The instant Celestina’s barrage ended, a series of rapid bangs rang out from her right and left as the Spirit Initiates began firing their own arrows.
Of the Spirit Initiates on the battlefield, 3 of them were elite archers, while another 2 of them were at least proficient in using a bow, so between the 5 of them, they were able to fire at a rate of 4 to 5 arrows per second, which was quite an astonishing pace.
What’s more, every arrow sent flying was capable of killing a beast and piecing through it to hit others behind the intended target.
It wasn’t nearly as dazzling or impressive a show as the one Celestina had just put on, but it was still an extremely deadly assault.
The 5 Spirit Initiates archers continued firing for nearly 4 minutes straight, unleashing over 1,000 arrows between them, their accuracy increasing as the horde drew closer, eventually reaching the point where 9 out of 10 shots were fatal hits.
Unfortunately, even though Celestina’s opening salvo had disrupted the horde’s momentum, the leading beasts had all but closed the gap and were now preparing to pounce.
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As three beasts charged towards her, two boars and a rather large deer, Celestina strapped her bow to her back and replaced it with her obsidian spear.
Letting out a slow breath, she relaxed her stance and stepped forward.
For an instant, Celestina’s figure blurred as she seemed to phase right through the beasts, re-appearing just a step behind them, her spear still loosely held in her grip with not a trace of blood on its blade.
The 3 beasts also continued forward a few steps before all collapsing, each one with a single hole pierced into its body where its heart was. It was an astonishing display of skill, using the minimum amount of movement and strength to swiftly take down several enemies at once, yet Celestina made it look easy.
While it was and impressive sight to see, it was actually not Celestina’s preferred method of combat in this situation as the focus and mental strain required to execute such delicate and precise movements was quite draining, making it harder to continue fighting for an extended period of time. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
However, with her meridians still throbbing, it was impossible for her to simply slice and smash her way through the beasts around her at the moment.
Before Celestina could even re-adjust her stance, a large lion-like beast lunged over, its maw opened wide enough to snap her in half.
Shifting her weight, Celestina pushed off the ground with her right foot, spinning to her left as she used a single-handed grip to swing her spear up and slash through the lion’s neck, decapitating it in a single stroke before landing gracefully in a defensive posture and blocking the claws of a wolf that tried to attack her from behind.
Batting the wolf away with the butt of her spear, Celestina side-stepped another lunging attack from her right as she unleashed a wide sweep, cutting down several more beasts which had swarmed around her like moths to a flame.
And so, Celestina continued, weaving in and out of her attackers, cutting them down or sending them flying in a deadly dance of death, all while remaining within a roughly 30 metres radius of her original shooting position.
In a similar fashion, the 7 Spirit Initiates also engaged in battle, their swords, spears, and axes all reaping lives left and right, though they were each only responsible for half the area the General was.
Vanessa, like her mentor, was both a master of the bow and spear, but her combat style was quite distinct from the one Celestina was currently employing, using aggressive footwork to rapidly slashing and stab, preferring to bleed out the beasts rather than kill them directly.
This method might have seemed cruel on its face, and it was, but it also allowed Vanessa to quickly build up a large number of foes chasing her around, blocking the path of others trying to get through.
In terms of crowd control and delaying the horde, it was a sound tactical move.
The other military Spirit Initiates each employed their own tactics, some of them smashing beasts with giant axes and shields, others swiftly slashing through them with short swords. Regardless of the method they chose, each of these masters was now heavily engaged with dozens of enemies, drawing enough blood from the beasts to turn solid ground beneath their feet into a reddish mud.
For his part, Arnold Baker, after putting away his hunting bow, pulled out a rather thin sword, one that was designed primarily for thrusting and slashing, and began dodging around the beasts, often stabbing them several times in quick succession.
This kind of weapon was not ideal for dealing with multiple enemies, especially larger ones like the beasts in this stampede, but as a Spirit Initiate, Arnold was able to make up for his lack of stopping power with rapid, repeated strikes.
Celestina and her allies were going all out to hold back the beasts, but it was like trying to block an ocean with nothing but your body, so it naturally wasn’t long before leaks began to appear.
