Chapter 338 - Where Are They?
After being thanked, Leon waved it off nonchalantly with a simple reply, "Don't mention it."
Despite his calm attitude on the surface, he felt slightly pressured by Sabertooth's vigorous aura.
Every advancement in the Great Warrior Realm was a significant leap in strength. After one breakthrough, Sabertooth was much stronger than Leon.
Sabertooth was not targeting anyone in particular, but seeing how Leon could resist his powerful aura and keep his composure, he could not help but be slightly impressed.
He silently acknowledged the person with a nod before saying, "I would like to talk more, but it will have to wait."
Leon nodded in agreement.
"Well then, let us talk later. I'll be sure to repay this favor once we overcome the Bone Calamity." Sabertooth stated before he grabbed his saber and dashed in Chief Valencia's direction.
Countless Bone Soldiers and Bone Knights blocked his path to Chief Valencia's side, but he swept them away with ease.
After achieving the High-rank Great Warrior Realm, his physical strength had reached a staggering 150 thousand jins.
"Congratulations on your successful breakthrough, Big Brother Sabertooth!"
"Hahaha! This is great! Now we have one more High-ranked Great Warrior in our Darkmoon Tribe!"
The warriors congratulated Great Warrior Sabertooth one after another as he passed them by. The warriors watched Sabertooth's back grow smaller in the distance with a look of excitement and determination as they clenched their fists.
"Our victory is guaranteed, but opportunities to advance our strength in times like these are rare! C'mon, brothers! We must work harder! I don't believe that I won't be able to break through at least once today!" A warrior rallied.
The Darkmoon Tribe's warriors were obviously weary from battle, but they never stopped pushing their bodies.
After killing so many Bone Soldiers and Bone Knights, their bodies had also been tempered a fair bit. Although it was not enough to reach a breakthrough, they were nearing the verge of one.
They just needed to push a little harder to overcome their body's limits, and the breakthrough will come naturally.
Some might view the Bone Calamity as a great disaster, but it was also an excellent opportunity to grow stronger. As they say, disaster and blessings always go hand in hand.
"OOHHH!"
The warriors roared with motivation and determination. The prospects of becoming stronger fueled their tired bodies with new energy as they fought with greater ferocity.
While the Bone Army dropped rapidly in numbers, Leon did not follow Sabertooth to assist Chief Valencia. There was no need to. Instead,
With his [Spirit Eyes], he had seen Chief Valencia slaying 3 of the 7 Bone Kings. It was unknown how many times they have fallen under her blade, but they have hit the limit of their revives.
The remaining 4 Bone Kings were naturally no longer able to stall Chief Valencia and began dying even quicker under her blade.
She was worthy of being the strongest warrior of the Darkmoon Tribe. Her strength was unrivaled.
"Chief Valencia, I've come to help you!" Sabertooth shouted as he neared the tribal chief.
After Chief Valencia felled another Bone King, she gave him a sidelong glance and calmly said, "Your help is not needed here."
If a Battle Master like her needed help against mere Lesser Demons like the Bone Kings, she would be considered an incompetent warrior.
"Right…" Sabertooth stopped in his tracks with slight embarrassment, before saying, "…Then I will go help the others!"
"Go on." Chief Valencia shooed him away before softly snorting, "Wanting to steal my prey?"
Bone Kings were juicy preys packed with lots of Darkness Profound Energy. How could she let others steal her prey after she did all the hard work?
Sabertooth overheard her words and ran away with quickened steps. It did not take long before he got close to another battle between a Bone King and a Mid-rank Great Warrior.
"Brother Blackbear, I've come to help!"
"Piss off!"
"Ahem, alright."
…
Each time undead beings are killed with Soul Weapon, a portion of their power is absorbed and refined by the Soul Weapon. However, it was not much compared to what the last kill has to offer.
By now, Chief Valencia had slain the 7 Bone Kings a total of 67 times. The last 3 Bone Kings were all on their final life.
"Come and accept your deaths, Bone Kings! Let us end this once and for all!" Chief Valencia roared with great vigor, intending to finish the battle quickly.
"Accept our deaths, you say? No, no, no. You can destroy our vessels, but our souls will forever be with our lord. With our lord's protection, we can never truly die. We are imperishable." One of the 3 Bone Kings said with a smirk.
The Bone Kings seemed to have accepted that they would fail, but they did not seem to treat it as a big deal.
"Is that right? Well, I do not really care! I'll just have to kill you every time you come back!"
"You—"
Another Bone King was shattered into bone fragments by Chief Valencia's sudden attack. She was not intent on listening to the Bone King's idle chat as she continued to hunt them down one by one.
"Such an impatient human, hmph! No matter. We will see each other again sooner than you think!" The last Bone King spoke ominously as its skeletal structure hit its revival limit and fragmented.
The blob of darkness within the Bone King's skull was soon absorbed into Chief Valencia's Soul Weapon, but a small part of the darkness managed to slip away and disappeared into the void.
Shortly after the Bone Kings were all slain, the Darkmoon Tribe' warriors were finally able to get close to their tribal chief.
"Chief Valencia, the Blackwind Tribe had sent their distress signal for help. What are your orders?"
"En, I saw. Clean up the remaining Bone Demons on the battlefield and give our fallen brothers and sisters proper burials first. We will decide after we are recovered." Chief Valencia said.
They would naturally help the Blackwind Tribe if they could, but not at the expense of their own people.
Chief Valencia swept the battlefield with her gaze and saw that her warriors were not ready for another big battle. And to be honest, she was not optimistic about the Blackwind Tribe's situation either.
…
As the battle against the undead entered the final stages, Behemoth-class Bone Demons began to appear more frequently.
Leon and Lumi toured around the battlefield and assisted many Great Warriors in taking down these giant creatures. The Behemoth-class Bone Demons simply could not resist her formless soul attack.
Many warriors began to break through and advance their strength to a higher level during this time, but only a few were able to step into the Great Warrior Realm.
Sometime later, the battle finally ended with Chief Valencia cutting down the Behemoth-class Bone Knight the size of a small mountain.
"It's finally over! We did, brothers and sisters! We managed to defeat the Bone Army in under a day!" A warrior rejoiced with heartfelt relief.
Although the battle duration lasted under 14 hours, it was incredibly challenging and hard-won. If not for the help of outsiders, they would have been forced to fight defensively and drag the battle out for much longer.
While some were rejoicing at the end of the battle, some were also mourning for the fallen warriors.
After the battlefield was cleaned up and the bodies were rounded up and laid down in rows outside their Darkmoon City's gate, Chief Valencia walked down one of the empty aisles. To her left and right were all bodies of fallen warriors, some of which were even familiar faces.
"What's the number of casualties?" Chief Valencia asked with a grave expression.
"A total of 3092 of our warriors were lost, Chief. Among them were 2327 Fighters, 753 Warriors, and 12 Early-rank Great Warriors." A Great Warrior reported.
3092!
Chief Valencia closed her eyes painfully. Unexpectedly, they had such a high casualty count! That was one-fifth of their available fighting force! It would take years to recover from such heavy losses!
After some time, Chief Valencia reopened her eyes with a firm and unyielding look.
"Send our fallen brothers and sisters back to their families and arrange a proper grand burial for them. Their names must be recorded on the Great Tombstone. They had fought valiantly and given up their lives for the survival of our tribe. They deserve to be eternally remembered."
"Thank you, Chief! I will have it done right away!" The Great Warrior said gratefully with slightly red eyes. His little brother was among the fallen.
After the Great Warrior left to make the arrangements, Chief Valencia's aura suddenly turned sharp as she called Ironhead.
"Yes, Chief!" Ironhead stepped forward and answered. Beads of cold sweat began to form on his forehead under Chief Valencia's pressuring gaze.
He knew what the Chief would be asking. Even though he knew he was not at fault, his life could still be forfeited if he did not answer carefully.
After all, a scapegoat might be needed to appease the fallen warrior's families' fury if the culprit of the Bone Calamity was not found.
"I sent you to find people in the Black Swamp, where are they?"
It was a simple question, but Ironhead felt like death was staring right at him.
At the same time, all the surrounding warriors focused their gaze on Ironhead once the question was raised, hoping to hear a satisfactory answer.
Leon and Lumi were found among the crowd. While Lumi was inwardly feeling nervous, Leon had his fist slightly clenched despite wearing a calm look.
He felt heavy-hearted and guilt-ridden as the number of deaths weighed down on him.
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