Chapter 1619: A Weird Retreat
Once the blade was fully saturated with black flames, Jinju Ren released in a single thrust towards her opponent’s direction.
[Hellfire Monkey Strike!]
Months ago, Zhen Liu and his family had to face down a beast called the Satan Monkey, a weird evolutionary form that a Dragon Thief Monkey achieved after absorbing an ancient power source.
The beast was not slain, despite Zhen Liu and Blazejudicator blasting the thing to hell and back; instead, its spirit was absorbed into the [Dragon Taming Saber] that Jinju Ren was now leveraging against some asshole claiming to have a dragon-slaying weapon.
If he was full of shit, then this next attack was going to turn his weapon into slag while he himself was going to be reduced into a pile of smoldering ash.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t full of shit.
As the jet of black flames rushed towards the bastard, he lashed out with the [Dragon-Cutting Broadsword] and actually split the flame in two, causing it to instantly sputter and die.
Jinju Ren was surprised by this sudden event, but she didn’t look displeased. If anything, she looked thrilled at the challenge.
"Haha! Is that all you got, dragon girl?"the enemy Aether Lord taunted with a laugh. "If so, I’m going to enjoy cutting you next."
"Oh, I definitely got more in store for you," Jinju Ren retorted as she began to channel the power of a different tamed dragon-blooded beast in he saber.
Arcs of dragon force empowered lightning began to dance around her body as the shadow of a giant otter swam around her.
"And I’m looking forward to stress testing that sword of yours!"
...Action cliffhanger because I can...
"Now that’s extra interesting..." General Legante muttered as he continued to watch the display before him.
After he had locked on to the weird foreign warrior that seemed to know how to handle the Raidmen soldiers, he had made sure to keep a close eye on them during the battle to see what he was up to.
Evidently, this was the right idea.
In a matter of moments, Legante saw as this foreign warrior took out not just their Raidman but also one of the False Guards that the Theocracy had been using as of late. In those same moments, he also witnessed how he had captured one of the Raidmen and one of the False Guards.
"What an unusual treasure...hmmm. Liutenant."
"Yes sir?"
"How much longer do you estimate until we can secure Mercenarytown and establish a siegeable foothold?"
"Give me a moment."
The lieutenant’s eyes went white as he began to channel his aether into a utility aether art that enhanced his thinking abilities.
It took him a total of ten seconds to provide his commanding office an answer. Although it wasn’t exactly a good answer.
"Our initial estimates were that it was going to take us an hour at most to clear out the rabble and claim the town as a forward base of operations. However, the recent interference of unaccounted forces has messed with our calculations."
"Ah, you mean the dragon-blooded girl and her friends?"
"Yup."
Illustrating this issue, General Legante manipulated the display to focus on a dark-skinned, dragon-blooded warrior woman armed with a weird sword, engaging with one of his elite warriors, an Aether Lord named Grahara.
At this moment in time, Grahara and this mysterious dragon-blooded girl had their blades locked with one another, with the former exhibiting a most unusual power.
"That aura...that’s the aura of a dragon-blooded beast, correct?"
"Yes, milord. That mysterious swordswoman has been noted to use techniques that seem to summon dragon-blooded beast spirits. We are unsure if it’s the blade itself or the woman herself performing this deed."
"Hmmm."
General Legante continued to watch the battle unfold...but only for a few more seconds.
Eventually, he gave an order that his lieutenant thought was rather strange.
"Sound the retreat. I can already tell that committing our forces any further will just lead to more unnecessary losses at this rate."
"But sir! Don’t we outnumber them three to one?"
"We do, but I get the feeling that those two interfering youngsters are going to be more trouble than they’re worth," Legante explained. "Besides, I get the distinctive feeling that by retreating, we’ll be able to get our hands on something that will help us finally win this war. Or rather...perhaps it would be more accurate to say, we’ll get our hands on ’someone’ that will help us win this war once and for all."
...Timing is a bitch...
BWOAM! BWOAM!
"What’s that sound? Is that a horn?"
"Are they calling for reinforcements?!"
"No...I think that was a retreat call!"
"Wait, what the fuck?"
At this moment in time, Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai, Antonio, Lythero, Olstenna, and Rianna were thoroughly engaged with the warriors from the Erupting Dawn Empire, while Jinju Ren was locking blades with an elite warrior that they managed to identify as being someone named "Grahara the Vicious."
From the way they were fighting, including Grahara, these soldiers were acting as if they would rather die in battle rather than retreat with their tails between their legs.
Alas, the moment they heard that horn call, though, they all retreated like it was the most logical tactic in their arsenal. Of course, some of them made sure to try and get the final word in before leaving.
"Tsk! Looks like we’re going to have to save this dance for next time, dragon girl. Hopefully you keep your head attached to your shoulders long enough for me to claim it."
"Funny. I was going to say the same thing!"
Over the past few minutes,Grahara and Jinju Ren had been locked in a stalemate, neither side being able to get a clear advantage over the other despite their efforts.
As such, Jinju Ren knew that firing a parting shot at Grahara was going to be mildly pointless...but she still chose to do so anyways.
Before Grahara could fully disengage, she fired off an ice-based attack that the bastard managed to cut down like all of her other attacks. However, the shrapnel from the destroyed ice block still managed to scratch the man’s [Regalia] in the process.
"Tsk! How annoying," Jinju Ren grumbled as she watched her opponent retreat.
As she was watching the rest of her party stopped fighting as well in order to join her.
"Any idea why these guys are retreating?" Zhen Xing asked the others.
"If I had to guess, either they’re actually doing a tactical retreat because of some unseen factor that we didn’t participate in," Antonio speculated. "Or their leader got taken out and they’re now freaking out over it."
"So...it probably involves Xiao Liu?" Zhen Tai asked with the faintest hint of sarcasm.
"You’d actually be wrong this time around."
"Huh?"
Zhen Liu arrived to rejoin with his friends shortly after the rest of the enemy warriors had retreated from Mercenary Town.
As they looked over the man, they noticed that he had significantly fewer kaijin accessories on his person than before.
"But to better explain myself, I actually have no idea why a retreat was sounded while we were fighting against these bastards," Zhen Liu honestly answered. "I was actually busying myself securing samples of the corpse puppets on both sides of this war."
"More corpse puppets?!" Lythero asked in annoyed shock before realizing the rest of Zhen Liu’s words. "Wait a minute, did you just say both?"
"Yup," Zhen Liu nodded. "Both."
"That can’t be a coincidence," Rianna commented.
Zhen Liu proceeded to explain to his friends how not only were the Erupting Dawn Empire using weird corpse puppets that were being controlled by these blobs of slime that were made of condensed aether, but that the Sacred Flame Theocracy were using their own version of undead warriors that were empowered by knock off versions of that weird orb he picked up in Soot Snail Town.
This revelation caused Zhen Liu’s friends and allies to exchange looks of concern and obvious suspicion.
Zhen Liu could immediately tell why.
"Before anyone says anything or suggests anything, surprisingly, it doesn’t have to do with the power of [Chaos] or any of my predecessor’s," Zhen Liu said before any of them made any speculations. "Well, other than the [Sacred Flame], maybe, but you all already knew that."
"Fair enough."
"Besides, if it is anything like that, then Nepherage and the others will have the answers by then... hopefully."
...Speaking of the Kaijin...
"Retreat! Retreat!"
The funny thing about battles is that they are always a mess from beginning to end.
That many people colliding into each other, with the sole goal of killing each other, makes it very hard to keep track of who goes where.
As such, it becomes remarkably easy for people to either disappear during retreats...or join in without anyone realizing it.
Which is why, despite suffering losses, none of the Erupting Dawn Empire soldiers batted an eye when a trio of consisting of two women and a giant of an old man joined their retreat.
They just assumed it was the remnants of a defeated unit.
"Retreat! Retreat! Get back to the gate!"
