Book 9, Chapter 28

Battle Of Flesh

"I'm going to Faelor with you," Macy stated the moment she saw him. Given how she had arrived even before he could, she had to have teleported over the moment she sent her response.

“Are you insane? Those are the reapers, you’ll die!” Richard barked. Macy was Prince Tumen’s only daughter, and the one with the strongest bloodline in her family. If she was killed in action in Faelor, that would mean he had finally offended all three major human empires.

“Do you or do you not want information on the alter world?” Macy smiled, “I’ll tell you when I’m in a better mood.”

Richard stared her in the eye, “This information is important to me, enough that I don’t mind an altercation with your father. I won’t stop you if you insist.”

"Then what are we waiting for, let’s go!” she stepped in behind him, following him through the portal.

……

When Richard stepped out of the portal, he immediately ordered the rescue party headed for Gangdor to personally fight the reapers and estimate their strength. At the same time, the cloned brain sent him an urgent message that Gangdor’s army had been surrounded, having been locked in fierce battle for over an hour.

Richard’s face sank as he calculated the time, knowing it would be too late even if he tried to teleport over. As he rushed to the command centre, however, he was relieved to find that the team sent to retrieve Gangdor himself was almost at the battlefield. Seeing that light quickly approach, he relaxed ever so slightly and waited for updates.

……

Gangdor screamed wildly as he threw the last of his javelins, the speartip lighting on fire as it pierced into the body of a metre-long machine and blew it up from within. However, even as he panted and looked into the skies, he saw more than a dozen more of that size and hundreds of smaller machines circling around, energy beams falling on his warriors like rain.

However, the aerial threat wasn’t even the greatest danger this time. Fighting his soldiers all around the battlefield were creatures that were a strange mix of flesh and machine, each only a metre and a half tall with reversed knees like demons. These creatures had four arms connected to their torsos, two holding swords while the other two held guns shooting destructive beams of light. Powered by metallic skeletons, they were extremely fast and strong, even level 10 elites finding it difficult to block their blades.

There were over ten thousand of these reaper warriors in the snowy fields, and the number was still climbing! Enormous flying ships constantly flew over from the distance, dropping hundreds of them into battle with every trip!

The reaper forces were reinforced every minute, but Gangdor’s troops received no such support. His soldiers were all experienced warriors that were worthy of being considered elite, but more than half of them were already dead and more were falling by the minute. The brute waved his giant axe and slashed three attackers in half, but even as he let out a grunt his eyes were drawn to a corner of the battlefield. Hundreds of corpses were being dragged over by beetle-like machines, their armour peeled before the flesh was cut and compressed into cubes. The machines even had some sort of film they used to cover these cubes and maintain their form!

Every incoming transport ship was filled with cubes of flesh before returning, leaving only a bloody puddle where the warriors had been. Not even half a bone was wasted; the beetles were processing it all before the battle was even done!

Two flesh warriors dragged a bulky corpse to the processing site, a bald head catching Gangdor’s eyes. That man was his best friend in the army!

“FUCK YOU ALL!” the brute’s eyes went red as he charged towards the fallen general, slashing apart anything in his way. The flesh warriors seemed to give up on their original targets and jump at him in droves, but he turned into a whirlwind that sliced them all apart. Its glow was starting to dim, but his legendary armour still managed to deflect most of the attacks.

Gangdor was like a lion caught amongst a pack of wolves. He dished out far more damage than he took, but every step forward was growing more and more challenging.

“Break out immediately, run south!” Richard’s voice suddenly rang out in his consciousness. However, the brute’s eyes only flashed with bloodlust at the sight of thousands of corpses being processed, his hands trembling with sheer rage at the disrespect. For the first time in what might have been forever, he defied orders and continued to attack, roaring thunderously as he trampled the flesh warriors he killed.

At some point, his legendary armour started to crumble. One portion on the back was torn away by a leaping flesh warrior, giving an opportunity for multiple energy beams to brand his back. The warrior than thrush a sword into his body with all its strength, but even amidst an anguished cry he flipped the thing around and smashed its head with his axe.

“GANGDOR! BREAK OUT, HEAD SOUTH IMMEDIATELY!” Richard’s voice rang once more, this time much more strict. An ancient contract that had almost been forgotten burnt in the strongman’s mind, compelling him to follow orders with a splitting headache.

However, the bald man looked at the slaughterhouse nearby and only growled louder, “BOSS, LET ME SCREW THESE SONS OF BITCHES!”

Gangdor rushed towards the processing centre with a roar, but hundreds of flesh warriors swarmed and pinned him down. The violent headache was replaced by sharp physical pain, but his aura burst forth to the fullest as he stood up and sent them all flying. The legendary armour finally disintegrated, flying in all directions from the eruption, but even as that explosion killed a number of enemies even more took their place.

The brute panted and looked around, only to discover that he was the last one left standing on the battlefield. His twenty rune knights, half-dozen generals, the shadowspears… they were all gone. He staggered for a moment, drawing a deep breath of cold air.

However, he still continued towards the slaughterhouse, towards the tens of thousands of reapers ahead. The northern army was destroyed, and he planned to follow the brothers he had fought with for more than a decade. Any number of enemies he could kill was good enough.

Two lines of black suddenly streaked across the sky, eye-catching lightning blinding everyone present. The smallest warplanes suddenly crashed to the ground, while many larger ones even emitted green smoke and started flying away. A figure no smaller than Gangdor dropped from the sky, heavy shield crashing into the ground and sending dozens of flesh warriors flying.

“His Excellency sent me to retrieve you,” the man turned around, revealing a face Gangdor recognised to belong to a legendary warrior called Ironshield. He wanted to say something, but the moment he relaxed his vision suddenly went black and he fell to the ground.

Ironshield grabbed him before he could crash, carefully placing Gangdor on his shoulders before waving his shield again to send the next set of flesh warriors flying away. He then leapt into the sky, a messenger zipping over and taking them away in an instant.

Another messenger continued to circle the area, the legendary mage on top sending several lightning bolts towards the most clustered areas before retreating. A few of the larger planes and dozens of tiny ones chased behind, but a number of chain lightning spells blew them all up and allowed the mage to fly away.