Chapter 162

: Bitter Battle
Translator: TYZ Editor: TYZ
Her long black hair was drifting in the wind and her eyes were as cold as frost. The blue-armored Shi Xueman was flying.
The blood mantis could sense that danger was coming. It erected its feelers and pulled back the top half of its body, then positioned its scythe-like claws to protect its front. It compressed its sturdy and powerful lower limbs like springs, preparing to pounce forward at any moment.
Accompanied by a deafening whizzing sound, the snow-white spear pierced towards the blood mantis’s head.
A demonic red glow suddenly erupted in the blood mantis’s eyes. Its scythe-like claws, which had been storing energy in preparation for an attack, lunged forward, forming a red streak that struck fear into everyone’s hearts.
The white streak of light and red streak of light collided head-on. Just as everyone thought that it would be a head-on collision, the spear in Shi Xueman’s hand suddenly disintegrated into a cloud of white mist.
The sudden change in Shi Xueman’s attack caught the blood mantis unprepared.
The white mist engulfed the blood mantis, causing its attack to miss. The blood mantis sensed that something was wrong.
It spread its wings and prepared to escape from this weird mist; however, at that moment, its thin, red-colored wings seemed to be covered in a thick, glue-like substance. No matter how hard it tried, it could not fly.
Shi Xueman’s unimaginable attack had reduced the blood mantis’s lightning-fast speed significantly, giving everyone the opportunity to strike back.
Sang Zhijun’s arrows rained down on the blood mantis like a torrent. The blood mantis did not have the slightest bit of fear with regards to the incoming arrows and began to thrust its scythe-like claws forward.
Tink, tink, tink!
A melody suddenly resounded amongst the densely-packed collisions. The blood mantis’s body froze.
The Melody Arrow that Sang Zhijun had secretly hidden within the rain of arrows began to work its magic.
Jiang Wei’s muscles tensed up, revealing the veins on his arms. The bowstring of the Stone Mountain Bow, which was as tall as he was, had been pulled back so far that the bow resembled a full moon. The Stone Mountain Bow required unique, heavy arrows to be effective. The Wolftooth Heavy Arrow loaded on the bow was solid and thick, only a tad smaller than a javelin.
All of his elemental energy was channeled into the Wolftooth Heavy Arrow. He knew his strengths and weaknesses well. If the others were finding it so hard to launch a successful attack, then his normal attacks would definitely not work.
There was only one chance for him to launch an all-out attack.
Boom!
With a loud, metallic boom, a dazzling beam of light instantaneously appeared before the blood mantis.
The somewhat dazed blood mantis continued to display its powerful fighting abilities. At the critical moment, it raised its left claw in front of its body.
Clang!
The sound resembled the impact of a battering ram crashing against an iron city gate, sending shivers down everyone’s spines.
The powerful impact sent the blood mantis flying backwards. Its lower limbs were trying to hold on to the ground, leaving two deep claw mark tracks gouged into the ground. It flew back approximately seven meters before it could stabilize itself.
Everyone was overjoyed when they saw that the blood mantis was in a shaky and miserable state. Its left claw was broken, revealing a frightening wound that was bleeding non-stop. The red-colored armor on its body was densely filled with pin-sized holes. These holes were created by Shi Xueman’s cloud of mist.
The cloud of mist in the air started to shrink rapidly, transforming back into the snow-white spear and returning to Shi Xueman’s hands.
At that moment, Ai Hui picked himself up from the ground where he had fallen, hard.
Upon seeing the wound on the blood mantis, his face did not show any sign of joy. He could only yell,
Be careful!

In the Wilderness, dire beasts that were severely injured would have one of two reactions. They would either turn and run away, or they would become even more aggressive. The more powerful a dire beast was, the more likely it was to adopt the second reaction. That was because stronger dire beasts had been through more killings and were more ferocious; they definitely would not easily give up a fight. Right now, the blood mantis did not show any signs that it would escape!
Just as Ai Hui finished yelling, the blood mantis flapped its wings and slowly flew up into the air.
Ai Hui’s facial expression changed. He just remembered another strength that the blood mantis possessed: low-altitude flying, also known as treetop flying. Treetop flying involved flying at high speeds while staying below the height of the treetops, which was around ten meters.
Insects were the ones that usually specialized in low-altitude flying. Their flying speeds were not fast, but they were extremely agile, making them
treetop assassins
.
In contrast, birds belonged in high-altitude zones. The more ferocious a bird was, the higher it would fly. Some large-scale beasts could even stay in extreme-altitude zones for an entire year without flying back down even once.
Elementalists’ azure wings were of a similar nature to those of the birds; they were more suitable for high-altitude flying. Maneuvering in dense jungles was not the azure wings’ forte…
Ai Hui choosing the cloak, Golden Wind, was for this reason; for the city which was densely packed with buildings, low-altitude flying would be more suitable. His [Gale Bat Blade] could also exhibit a similar effect, but the [Gale Bat Blade]’s flying path was more predictable as it could not make as many maneuvers as the cloak.
Although this was the case, damn it, he had just gotten the cloak and had not even had the chance to use it once.
Before he could make any moves, the hovering blood mantis surged forward.
A red flash appeared before everyone’s eyes; however, to their surprise, the blood mantis was not flying towards them, but to a wall nearby.
In an instant, Ai Hui knew what was going on. His facial expression changed drastically as he snarled,
Left side!

Fatty was well-coordinated with Ai Hui. Without any hesitation, he dashed towards Ai Hui’s left side and raised his heavy shield.
When the blood mantis reached the wall, it used its powerful lower limbs to give the wall a kick.
Boom! The powerful impact from the kick sent the bricks in the wall flying everywhere. The blood mantis’s speed was greatly increased, so much so that its form could no longer be caught by human eyes.
A demonic red scythe glint landed on Fatty’s shield like a meteor.
Boom!
Fatty, who was wearing a heavy armour and holding a heavy shield, flew backwards and crashed into a fence. He looked like a kicked ball.
The recoil that the blood mantis received was also harsh. It flew back as if it was being tugged by a string tied to its back. Its body suddenly drifted up into the air and started swaying like a drunkard.
Everyone was shocked by the might of its attack. With the heavy armor and shield, Fatty weighed up to a few hundred kilograms. They had also seen Fatty’s God-given strength in action, but one strike from the blood mantis had still sent Fatty flying off.
Such terrifying power from one strike…
Even Shi Xueman, who was the most powerful among them, had her face turned deathly white. The strength of this blood mantis struck her deeply with fear. At that moment, her first reaction was to look for Ai Hui.
She did not know since when Ai Hui had become the person she subconsciously sought help from. It might have been because of his calm and easygoing attitude, or his unwavering confidence.
Anyways, where was Ai Hui?
Her eye pupils abruptly constricted. Unexpectedly, Ai Hui was below the blood mantis!
Ai Hui was extremely focused at that moment. The sword embryo in his forehead was throbbing intensely, as if it was going to jump out at any moment.
The blood mantis’s strength had almost reached the level of a dire beast. If Ai Hui was to encounter such an enormous monster in the past, he would have immediately run away as far as possible. It was a joke for the few of them to deal with a monster that was at the same level as a dire beast.
Now, however, where would they run to?
The entire Central Pine City was surrounded by blood fiends, where could they possibly run to?
The only way for them to survive was to go all-out and fight.
He had watched countless dire beasts being hunted and he had survived a close encounter with one before; however, in this dangerous situation, he still trembled with intense fear. It engulfed his entire body, stimulating every muscle and nerve, causing them to tremble involuntarily.
Actually, he knew that he wasn’t someone who treated death nonchalantly. He was actually very timid and scared before the prospect of death. Nevertheless… nevertheless, at this moment, Ai Hui forced himself to be cool-headed.
He became so calm that not a single emotion ran through his mind.
Only by staying calm could he find a way to survive.
He must survive.
He was emotionless. All he could see was the swaying body of the blood mantis above his head. He could see that the previous impact had opened up the blood mantis’s wound even more, causing its bleeding to be more severe. He could smell the unique fragrance of the blood poison in the air. He could see that the stiff and rigid body of the blood mantis was recovering rapidly.
Shi Xueman was filled with intense embarrassment. Since when had he gone over?
Her teammate was fighting with an all-out effort, and yet, she was so scared that she had lost all of her fighting spirit. An imposing figure appeared in her mind. If her father were to see this scene, he would be very disappointed in her….
The intense feeling of embarrassment and her sense of responsibility were burning her like a scorching flame. The fear in the girl’s eyes disappeared and was replaced by determination.
Traces of white-colored mist emitted from her back. They kept on extending and wafting through the air.
The mist at her back was nimble and graceful, swaying slowly like how plants swayed in water.
With a twist of her body, she looked as though she had just broken out from shackles which had been binding her, and disappeared in an instant.
The next moment, she appeared before the blood mantis and stabbed her spear towards its eyes.
The blood mantis sensed that danger was coming and started hissing. Its scythe-like claw swept through the air and blocked Shi Xueman’s attack.
The blue-armored girl that was drifting in the mist had a determined look on her face. Her attacks got faster and faster.
The blood mantis tried its best to fend off the attacks, but it still got stabbed eventually. Two more bloody holes appeared on its body, causing it to turn even madder.
Suddenly, Shi Xueman, who was about to land on the ground, noticed that there was a green glow on the blood mantis’s head. Without any hesitation, she channeled the elemental energy in her body and disappeared, reappearing in the next moment on the other side of the blood mantis.
She channelled all of her elemental energy into her spear. Synchronizing her body with her spear, she thrust it forward!
This thrust was extremely powerful. A ruthless look flashed across the blood mantis’s eyes, and without showing any signs of dodging, it lunged its claws forward!
A red-colored scythe glint landed viciously on the power-concentrated spear tip.
Boom!
Shi Xueman fell, whizzing down through the air. She looked as if she had been struck by lightning.
It did not go well for the blood mantis either. All the wounds on its body ruptured, causing blood to spurt out from them. Its body began to sway again and its head was slightly lowered.
At this point in time, the green glow on top of the blood mantis’s head started to form numerous green flower patterns that wrapped around its body.
Pop, pop, pop!
Light and compact explosions could be heard within those patterns, following which, many black-colored shackles were expelled explosively from the patterns. Once these shackles made contact with the blood mantis, they automatically shackled its body parts.
The shackles had tightly bound all the joints of the blood mantis.
Duanmu Huanghun had thrown an entire packet of Shackle Seeds into his [Viridescent Flower]. His face turned pale-white and his body swayed, following which, he collapsed to the ground. After activating so many Shackle Seeds, the elemental energy in his body had been completely depleted.
At that very moment, Ai Hui took action.
The immensely heavy Dragonspine Inferno in his hand felt weightless to him. The intense fear and desperate desire to survive pushed him into a state of extreme focus. Every single trace of elemental energy in his body was pristine and pure.
They flowed like a river, changing form and direction irregularly. Two elemental energy cords flowed into his left and right hands’ palaces respectively.
The elemental energy cords began to vibrate lightly.
[Crescent Moon!]