Su Li stumbled back, facing the mangled stump that was left of his forearm.
He looked up only to find that the silver figure gave him no moment to recover. With the ethereal feathers atop their helmet fluttering in the wind, the knightly figure in glistening armor had rushed forward and drove her terrible spear straight through his heart.
But it was not simply his heart that was ripped apart. The aura surrounding the spear mangled his torso and tore him apart. Only half of his perfectly refined upper body, the damage had barely missed his dantian.
Blood welled up in his throat, spurting from his mouth. Unable to support himself any longer, he collapsed on the ground. When he felt death approaching, he realized that he had been unable to avenge his nephew.
Would his sister blame him? Maybe. That was if she even got the chance to see him again. Since his dantian was undamaged, he retreated to his nascent soul and escaped the dying shell. He had some preparations in place to regain a body.
It would be a grueling journey to reclaim his power, but afterward... he would have sworn revenge at this point, but he doubted this warrior would survive facing the Great Fang Family. They could rampage at the gate and cut down figures like him, but he was far from the strongest in this place. He was not even a Fang or an external elder.
He just hoped his sister would survive, then they could reunite after he made his comeback. However, when he moved to escape with his soul, toward the place where his revival formation was prepared, he felt a sudden pull.
It was like an energy that messed with Su Li's senses. Could a soul even feel vertigo? Inadvertently, he traveled in a direction not of his own choosing. Flying toward the outskirts of the mountain, he witnessed the foothills below.
His very being shook. Drawn across the landscape, surrounding the whole mountain were lines glowing in an evil red light. A foreign power was shaping a terrible formation. It was this power he could not oppose that guided him to a specific place where he was met with darkness, confinement, and a sense of vulnerability.
His very being shuddered facing this incomprehensible situation.
...
While the body of the uncle fell not far from the nephew, Monique looked at the surrounding scene. Most of the gawkers and guards had been blown away together with the pieces of ruins, leaving her in the deserted crater of their short exchange. She cleared her throat before she used the magical megaphone to enhance her voice.
"Who is next? The uncle of the uncle? You know, I expected this to go a little quicker. I heard a lot about the readiness of you people to defend your pride and territory. I was almost sure you would choose to come all at once.
Well, as they say, if the prophet will not come to the mountain, then the mountain must come to the prophet," she said as a matter of fact and released the contents of her inventory. Thousands of golems appeared inside the golden curtain as Monique emptied half her inventory. 50 stacks of 99 Golems each.
500 of these golems were the Golem Knights clad in epic armor, the rest were the mass produced golem knights. It was a tremendous army that suddenly appeared in the heart of the Fang Clan. Monique felt her overall power rise as she went from duelist to army commander in a heartbeat.
"Destroy anything in this outer ring. Don't stop those who escape. Show no mercy to those that attack," she gave her command as Chosen of Athena, empowering all 5000 golems at once. The noise knights rushing into battle fused into the sound of ocean waves that crashed into buildings and courtyards, toppling anything in their way.
Of all members of Minas Mar, Monique had brought the most golems by far. As the chosen of the goddess of war strategy, it allowed her to use her skills most efficiently.
"Nyctimene, can you give me a view of the battlefield?" She summoned the owl of Athena to share her vision and gain a better idea of the situation.
~No Problem.- The owl answered with a chuckle and rocketed off into the air. From above, the golems resembled a swarm of locusts that ravenously destroyed anything in their wake. Fights and explosions were happening across the outer ring as fights ensued, and formations and mechanical traps were activated.
Many had already fled the outer ring, but they were not the majority. Entrenched in their own manors and trusting their defenses, many members of the Fang Clan were ready to resist. Monique was able to witness many interesting sights.
There were traps as one would see them in dungeons. Walls that moved to crush intruders, pit falls, arrow traps, and iron spikes. Considering that the spikes and arrows managed to damage the mass-produced golems, they had to be made from at least uncommon metals or possess a special enchantment.
With the supposed scarcity of materials of the Voracious Cloud Continent, this probably showed their wealth more than any luxurious decorations. One could also say that these great clans and sects hogging all this stuff for traps was part of the reason for the scarcity...
The traps were no big problem for the golem army, although the ordinary ones received some damage. The bigger hurdle was their magical traps and defenses. Some bigger manors had their own secondary barriers and traps.
Some effects she could see with her own eyes, like clouds of swords surrounding some of the biggest manors in this outer ring. They were circling those places like schools of fish and would attack intruders like angry bees.
Other places activated more elemental defenses, like shards of ice or walls of flame that shot lances of fire at the attacker. There were also effects she only noticed because, as the commander, she got updates on the status of her troops in a secondary log.
Apparently, there were A LOT of illusion traps all across this place. However, Golems were not affected by illusions, as those targeted the senses of humans. But that didn't mean they were able to resist all unseen arrays,
Several squads of golems had been trapped in place by imprisonment or sealing formations. Some were caught in invisible chains, others were trapped in reverse barriers. It didn't make a big difference in the greater scheme of things, but it was intriguing. Monique made some mental notes for the future.
As dangerous as these defenses seemed, they couldn't stop the golem army. The mass-produced golem soldiers may suffer under the various magical defenses, but the enemy was quickly dismantled by the Golem Knights and the attacks of magicians among them.
As much as the Fang Clan members may have splurged on their defenses here, not even the swarms of swords were able to put a scratch on the repurposed orc warriors. One could say Minas Mar had splurged more.
It had been a minute or two since the battle began when there was finally movement beyond the second barrier. It seemed like pulling out an army did the trick. As the outer estate faced unprecedented damage, a slew of cultivators rushed out.
Men and women in tight combat attire, all held in shades of ocre where flooding into the outer ring to attack the golems. Using Nyctimene's sight, Monique was able to estimate their average level to be around 90, with a considerable part close to 100.
1v1, they could overpower the golem soldiers. In groups, they were able to stall the Golem Knights. The effortless assault of the golems slowed down, halting completely in some place. The situation had finally turned into a proper battlefield. It was time for her to join the fray.