Book 4: Near Blood - 205: Presenting a Gift 2
Gargantuan Souls belonged to the Origin Races, not the Intelligent Races.
They possessed inherently large physiques, accompanied by an equally large strength and appetite.
In comparison, the Clay Giants were made of elements, making them fundamentally different from Gargantuan Souls. Despite their similarly large bodies, their essence was still elemental, making them part of the Elemental Races.
Apparently, the Primordial Continent contained the Beasts, the Gargantuan Souls, and the Elemental Races during its earliest history. In the end, the Beasts emerged victorious.
The Gargantuan Souls and the Elemental Races became weaker because of this, so they lost the most fertile ground. In addition, they had a harder time than the Intelligent Races in adapting to new environments. The defeated Origin Races could only walk down the path of extinction.
Today, the Gargantuan Souls possessed a small territory within Ravager territory, and they eked out a difficult life there.
Because they weren’t servants of the Ravagers, the Ravagers tried to capture or kill them at every opportunity. However, the unique attributes of their territory allowed them to survive, albeit not without suffering.
The Gargantuan Souls, as one of the Origin Races, possessed immense power. Their defeat had only resulted because of their low intelligence and numbers. It had nothing to do with their individual strength.
A fully-grown Single-Eyed Giant Demon’s strength was at least at the Demonic Lord level, which was more than enough to cause most people to fall into despair. Even Ravagers were apprehensive about fighting them.
And now, Su Chen had actually sent his soldiers against this kind of a target.
If that was the case, they should have been left to face the Jagtooth Wolves two months ago - at the very least, they would have had the chance to counterattack.
Anubi felt his heart hurt a bit for the first time - after all, these people were humans that had sworn loyalty to him.
Even he, who glorified slaughter, felt like this was too much of the waste. At the very least, they should be killed one at a time, preferably by him, so that he could experience the amusement that came from destroying something beautiful. He would rather that than have them all destroyed by a Single-Eyed Giant Demon like now.
This was how he felt when he suddenly heard Su Chen’s reply, “The opposite might be true, Your Majesty.”
“What did you say?” Anubi was stunned.
Su Chen waved his hand. “It’d be easier for you to see for yourself.”
As the Single-Eyed Giant Demon took the stage, the battle began.
Because it was a member of the Origin Races, it possessed the innate ability of controlling Origin Energy. However, it preferred to use its physical body as a weapon due to its massive size.
The giant swung its massive iron hammer at the human soldiers with a barbaric howl.
Two months ago, those soldiers would’ve been flattened on the spot.
However, these people had virtually transformed within just two months’ time.
There were now three Light Shaking Realm cultivators amongst the seventy-three soldiers; in terms of strength, Le Feng alone was enough to deal with the Single-Eyed Giant Demon.
However, Su Chen had instructed him not to display too much strength, so Le Feng kept himself in check and didn’t exceed the limits of what should have been possible at the peak of the Yang Opening Realm. His main goal in this battle was actually to protect the other soldiers and limit the number of casualties. Unless it was absolutely necessary, he was forbidden from revealing his true strength.
It was only under these kinds of circumstances that the Single-Eyed Giant Demon could even have a fair fight with the human soldiers.
As the Single-Eyed Giant Demon began to attack, the thirty soldiers on the field drew their swords.
Apart from Le Feng, who was at the Light Shaking Realm, there were four more Yang Opening Realm cultivators and twenty-five Blood Boiling Realm cultivators. If you took Le Feng out of the picture, they were roughly equivalent in strength to the giant. This was Su Chen’s special arrangement. Only when their strength was even would the battle be more spectacular. And only when their strength was even could they squeeze everyone to the greatest extent, which would serve as even better training.
When they struck with their swords simultaneously, streaks of sword Qi flew through the air.
Because they possessed Soul Armaments, their Sword Qi was exceptionally fierce, and even the attacks from the Blood Boiling Realm cultivators left behind deep scars.
Even though those wounds weren’t deep, there were many of them, and combined they still posed quite a threat to the giant demon.
Sword Qi flew recklessly through the sky. The Single-Eyed Giant Demon was instantly sliced open by dozens of swords.
The demon howled with dissatisfaction. The massive hammer in its hand descended, but the soldiers were incredibly nimble and managed to dodge in time.
The thirty soldiers were split into five six-man teams, with Le Feng and the four Yang Opening Realm cultivators each leading one. They advanced and retreated as if each team was a single person, and they displayed incredible coordination amongst themselves. They weaved back and forth, some attacking and some defending, putting on a good show against the Giant Demon.
Even though the Giant Demon was powerful, it couldn’t even touch the agile humans. It howled with anger, but the only reply it got was an accumulation of wounds.
They were like thirty nimble flying birds attacking a single dumb bear.
“What beautiful teamwork. They’re putting on quite the show. This is the most exquisite, precise gladiator battle I have seen yet,” one of the Ravagers chuckled.
“That’s true,” another Ravager added. “Even though I like watching more direct, simple, barbaric fights, I must admit that these kinds of ‘delicate’ battles are also quite fun to watch.”
“It’s almost like embroidery. That’s quite an interesting way of putting it. The most surprising thing is that a Ravager was the one who taught them to fight like this.”
“And then taught it to humans.”
“Heavens, what kind of a world do we live in? It seems like things are totally upside down.”
“Hahahaha!”
The Ravagers all began to howl with laughter.
The Ravagers weren’t unaware of their own wildness and madness. In their eyes, this was normal, and even correct.
Only humans would be such sissies about everything.
As such, this was partly due to the Ravagers’ undervaluing of intelligence.
“But regardless, they are going to win,” Su Chen replied.
“That might not be the case,” Kenwo chuckled coldly. “The Single-Eyed Giant Demon is of the Origin Race too. Their strength is not so simple.”
The Single-Eyed Giant Demon had a very powerful physique, but that didn’t mean that it could only fight with its physical body.
Indeed, just as Kenwo had said, the Single-Eyed Giant Demon began to change its battle tactics when it realized that brute force alone wasn’t going to get the job done.
It howled and unleashed a violent punch, and a blood-red light began to glow behind its back.
As the blood-colored light shone more intensely, the Single-Eyed Giant Demon’s slow movements began to pick up pace.
Suddenly, it shot forwards, closing in on its opponents with unprecedented speed as it slammed its hammer down.
“Bloodthirsty Fervor! So there are still Giant Demons that choose to take the purely physical route?” the Ravagers exclaimed in shock.
As an Origin Race, the Giant Demon possessed an Innate Origin Skill, and different Gargantuan Souls could choose to take different routes.
This Single-Eyed Giant Demon obviously preferred to strengthen itself with Origin Energy, making it quite similar to Ravagers in that respect.
The Giant Demon, whose speed had been increased, was not nearly as easy to dodge this time.
The soldiers had no way out against the hammer descending from the sky.
They didn’t rely on their agility to escape this time. Instead, they flew into the sky, meeting the hammer strike head-on. Sword light flew from the tips of their swords, crashing into the hammer and causing brilliant, multicolored light as well as a shower of sparks to scatter everywhere.
This massive iron hammer was actually unable to penetrate the sword formation.
“Whoa!” All of the spectators on the scene cried out in shock.
“They blocked it!”
“They actually blocked it!”
“I must be seeing things! How the hell did they block it?”
The Ravagers began to yell loudly. They didn’t dare believe their own eyes.
The Single-Eyed Giant Demon was simply too powerful. Even amongst most Demonic Lords, it was an incredibly fearsome existence - not something that a few Yang Opening Realm cultivators plus a bunch of Blood Boiling Realm cultivators alone could deal with.
Only Su Chen knew what was happening.
During that collision, Le Feng had displayed some of his strength.
He had managed to control it well, so no one was able to tell, making it seem like the formation itself was responsible for blocking the hammer strike.
That was enough.
The Single-Eyed Giant Demon’s attack was fruitless, and the human sword formation transformed again. Thirty streaks of sword light simultaneously congealed to form a massive sword that descended towards the Giant Demon’s forehead.
This sword strike was so shockingly powerful that even the Giant Demon howled in fear. The iron hammer seemed to be unable to withstand the attack, greatly shocking the Ravager onlookers.
Having fought with the humans for so many years, these Ravagers were very clear how strong the ones before them were.
Humans had much more cooperative strength than them, but for it to be effective they needed to train up their oneness for years and years.
If this was a set battalion amongst the human army, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. However, these soldiers were all captives from different garrisons, battalions, and squads of the Heavenly Might Battalion. Some of them had never even seen each other before, not to mention train together.
For them to have this much teamwork in such a short period of time was really shocking.
Actually, the truth of this matter was very simple.
Part of this was because of Su Chen’s strict training, but more importantly, the common starting point of the Immaculate Cultivation Technique greatly increased their innate compatibility. Also, it was two different matters entirely for them to obey Su Chen versus a Ravager, so in principle it was a completely different matter. Of course, there was no need for Su Chen to divulge this.
If the Single-Eyed Giant Demon couldn’t defeat its opponents with brute force, then it was going to lose.
Even though it tried to use a few other Origin Skills afterwards, demonstrating its shocking strength, Le Feng’s hidden protection secretly nullified all of the Giant Demon’s attacks.
In the end, the thirty human soldiers easily defeated the Giant Demon with only three light casualties.
All of the Ravager spectators exploded with energy the moment the Giant Demon toppled to the ground.
Anubi himself stood to clap his hands.
He said to Su Chen, “Beautifully done, my head of internal servants. This is the best gladiator match I have ever seen.”
Su Chen said, “Thank you, Your Majesty, for your praise. It is a great glory for me.”
“How did you do all of this?” one of the Ravagers asked.
“As you have seen, I trained them. This training is not just to get them to capitulate, but also to increase their strength,” Su Chen replied.
“Increased their strength? Are you referring to their training?” A voice spoke at this point in time.
It was the God of War, Averigus.
“Of course,” Su Chen replied.
“Getting them to this kind of level in just two months...... You can train humans, so can you train Ravagers in the same way?” Averigus asked.
Su Chen cracked a slight smile. “Of course, Sir Averigus.”