"Archers—loose!"
The drum cadence shifted. Along the parapet the Eagle Army drew and released in rolling waves. With the Taotie packed so tightly below, even blind fire found targets—yet arrows thudded uselessly against hide like old leather.
Thick skin, low penetration. Unless you hit the eye tucked in that armpit seam, bows barely annoyed them.
The horde slammed the Wall.
Fenric's eyes flashed. A flying blade slid between his fingers and dropped; mind power snapped it into a silver streak.
Puff. Puff. Puff.
Blade after blades knifed under forelimbs, drilling those hidden eyes. System chimes poured in:
You killed a Taotie. +100 points.
You killed a Taotie. +100 points.
You killed a Taotie. +100 points.
The prompt sound of the system sounded so pleasing to the ears, which made Fenric kill more vigorously.
He flooded his mind power—mind force fanning flying blades like guided rounds, then yanking them back to hand for re‑use. Five flying blades under active control at once is his limit; beyond that, accuracy tanked. Even so, his kill rate was obscene.
Within minutes, Taotie corpses mounded four deep below his section of wall. His point counter rocketed—thousands banked.
Cool!
No wonder online guides say that personal instances are jackpots when you obtain them.
It's worlds apart from public runs.
"AHH!!!"
A ragged scream cut through the din.
Fenric snapped his head left. The Crane Army—women on ziplines—were taking losses. Their dive‑stab tactic demanded dropping into Taotie faces, landing a killing thrust, then yanking up on the retrieval line. With numbers swelling below, divers were being snatched mid‑haul, dragged into churning jaws.
He spotted Commander Lin Mei, personally leading runs, breath fogging, armor streaked, narrowly dodging clamps of teeth. Each dive was a bungee of death—brutal on stamina. Sweat pearled along her pale brow; but she never hesitated.
Fenric's mouth tightened. At that pace she's going to get tagged. He split a thread of attention to cover her lane while he kept farming.
"Swish!"
His points finally crossed 8,000.
Perfect. He opened his status and leveled Armament Haki to Proficient. Hardened flow surged; he could armed both arms—and his legs—at will now.
He grinned—then heard the shout:
"Commander Li!"
He whirled. A Taotie had snapped Lin Mei's return rope mid‑recall. She plummeted into the swarm, landing in a spray of dust and claws.
…That wasn't in the original plot. His stomach dipped. Did killing those two outlanders butterfly the script?
No time to ponder. He vaulted the battlement and dropped.
Lin Mei hit hard, rolled, and whipped her spear in a clearing arc, buying a heartbeat of space. Taotie surged from all sides. Her face blanched—but she didn't scream. Soldiers die in battle; she accepted that.
But as she was thinking of that, a shadow fell across her.
Fenric cratered in front, armor ringing. Black Blade Shusui flashed free as he simultaneously flung all twenty forged flying blades. His Mind power roared to max.
They whirled midair—an invisible cage of steel—sawing through Taotie necks and eye seams in a shrieking halo.
Fenric stood, Shusui leveled across his body. Anything that broke the perimeter got hewn in two.
For a frozen instant, in the storm of blood and green gore, he stood unmovable—
like a god of war descended!