Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 47, The Angel Battle Formation
It was deep into autumn already. The cold autumn wind howled across the land like icy blades as an elite squad of knights galloped forward.
“Faster, faster!”
With Albert dressed in simple armor leading the way, the group quickly galloped forward on the desolate road, with several dozen knights following behind Albert. By Albert’s side, there was a middle-aged man, the one and only expert of the ninth rank under Albert’s command.
As for Lyndin and the other five, they were also wearing ordinary knight’s armor and wearing gray knight’s helmets. Just from appearances, one wouldn’t be able to tell that Lyndin and the others were any different from the rest of the knights.
“Remember.” Lyndin said quietly to the five men with her. “When we catch up to Linley, once Albert gives the order to attack, each of you will split up and follow these knights to surround Linley. With Linley off-guard, we’ll execute the Angel Battle Formation. Remember, no matter what, don’t be too hasty with your attack. You absolutely must await my order.”
“Yes, Lord.”
The five all nodded.
A hint of a smile was on Lyndin’s lips. “Giddyup.”
The sound of hoof steps continued to ring out, and the squad kicked up clouds of dust in their wake. In the blink of an eye, they had travelled a great distance.
Linley had intentionally lowered his own speed to allow this group of people to catch up. Naturally, after just a short period of time at full gallop, Albert’s squad saw Linley’s figure.
“He’s right ahead.” Albert was very happy, and he immediately began to shout, “Faster, faster!”
Those knights began to call out loudly as well, and they prodded their horses to gallop even faster. Within the thunder of their hoof steps, this group of knights quickly neared Linley.
“Remember, hang on to Haeru’s neck. Haeru will take you to my place first.” Linley instructed softly.
Jenne looked at Linley with concern. “Big brother Ley, what about you?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll just get rid of this bit of trouble.” At the same time, Linley glanced at his Blackcloud Panther, Haeru. Mentally, he ordered, “Haeru, you can go now. Remember, protect Jenne.”
“Growl.”
Haeru let out an arrogant growl, and then slowly began to speed up before suddenly transforming into a black blur, disappearing far away, without giving Albert’s men any chance to stop him.
“Clatter.” The group of knights totally blocked Linley’s forward path. They didn’t block the Blackcloud Panther from leaving, because they couldn’t block him. As for Lyndin and the others, they were capable of blocking the panther, but they were happy to see it leave.
After all, their target was Linley!
“Jenne!” Seeing this happen, Albert couldn’t help but grow angry.
Turning furiously towards Linley, Albert sneered, “Punk, you had your magical beast take Jenne away? Hrmph, let me tell you, Jenne is mine. As for you...let me send you off to the Netherworld. Haha...everyone, attack!” Albert pointed angrily at Linley.
With the clatter of hoof steps, the dozens of knights immediately surrounded Linley.
Linley just stood there in the middle, not caring in the slightest. Bebe only stood arrogantly on top of Linley’s shoulders, using his beady little eyes to stare disdainfully at the knights.
“My Cousin Jenne isn’t for the likes of you to touch. You should consider what lowly status you have!” Albert said arrogantly. He had the feeling that everything was now under his control.
Linley only calmly glanced at the surrounding knights.
“I originally wanted to get rid of the Radiant Church’s forces. I didn’t expect that I would have attracted this group of useless fools.” Linley shook his head slowly. But right at that moment...
“Boss.” Bebe suddenly stared at the knights. “Danlan is there.”
“Danlan?” As though a bucket of cold water had been poured on Linley’s head, Linley shivered once. “The Radiant Church’s forces are with them?” Linley began to be cautious.
“I can smell her scent.” Bebe said confidently. “She thought that by putting on a helmet and some armor, that I, Bebe, wouldn’t be able to discover her?”
Linley still didn’t call forth any of his weapons.
There was no need to rush to using weapons.
When the weapons suddenly appeared from his interspatial ring at the critical moment, that would catch the opponents off-guard. Linley paid no heed to Albert, who was still arrogantly spouting his nonsense, and instead carefully paid attention to the surrounding knights.
“Charge! Kill him!”
Albert ordered arrogantly.
But just at this moment, a cruel voice rang out as well. “Kill!” Suddenly, six rays of gleaming white light suddenly connected with each other. In terms of appearance, it was exactly the same technique as had been used by the six Special Executors to trap Linley.
That combined formation attack actually was the Angel Battle Formation.
But in terms of power, when actual Angels used this formation, it was far more powerful.
“Swish swish.” Those six rays of light, when connecting, pierced through the bodies of several of the knights that were in the way. Three of them died immediately, while eight were heavily injured.
“Aaah!”
One of the knights was pierced through the chest, leaving a small hole behind. This knight immediately toppled off his horse. He screamed twice, then fell silent.
“Haha, it’s been almost nine years. The Radiant Church hasn’t learned any new tricks.” Linley began to laugh loudly.
“What’s going on?” Albert was terrified.
The middle-aged man by Albert’s side was quite experienced. His face immediately changed, and he shouted, “Quick, leave! Those six are not the disciples of Haydson; they are from the Radiant Church, and they are all experts of the ninth rank. Leave! If you tarry, it’ll be too late!”
Albert was useless in most aspects, but his fleeing instinct was top notch.
“Giddyup, giddyup!” Albert no longer cared about killing Linley at this moment, as he hurriedly galloped away alongside that middle-aged man.
Some of the knights were trapped in the midst of that Angel Battle Formation. Terrified, some of them thought to try and flee out, but as soon as they ran into that white light, their bodies turned to ash, as though they had been burnt by an extremely high temperature flame.
“Hrm? It seems to be more powerful than that of those six Special Executors.” Linley sighed in praise.
“Flee.”
The remaining knights all fled at high speed, while those who did not had all been killed by Lyndin. In the entire desolate landscape, only Linley, Bebe, and Lyndin’s squad remained.
“Boom!”
The armor covering Lyndin and her men split apart as they returned to their normal appearances. One woman and five men. Lyndin’s group stared very confidently at Linley.
“Linley, aren’t you afraid?” Lyndin laughed coldly at Linley.
Linley glanced at Lyndin. “I must admit, your acting abilities are extremely formidable. You were able to successfully play the part of a headstrong young lady. However, you weren’t aware that eight years ago, at the city of Hess, I killed six Special Executors who also used this combination attack.”
“Crack, ripple...”
As Linley was speaking, those black draconic scales pierced through his clothes, while those cold, gleaming spikes erupted one at a time from his spine, his forehead, his elbows, and his knees. A long draconic tail sprouted from behind him as well.
Linley’s eyes had become that cold, remorseless dark gold color.
“Linley, we aren’t the same as those six.” Lyndin said calmly. “Today, you will definitely die.” As she spoke, the density of the light increased once more, seeming to even cover the sky above the area.
Linley’s dark golden eyes swept the six of them. In a cold voice, he said, “I have to tell you something. I....really dislike this formation attack.”
Linley still remembered that dream-like white glow.
“Grandpa Doehring.” Linley could clearly remember the scene when, eight years ago, Grandpa Doehring had sacrificed himself to kill those six Special Executors. From that day forth, Grandpa Doehring had forever vanished from the universe.
“Kill him.”
Lyndin ordered coldly.
“Whoosh!” Lyndin’s group charged forward towards Linley, and that cage of light began to shrink at high speed. Anything and everything touched by that light was turned into dust.
It was utterly unblockable.
“Radiant Church. Haha...” Linley laughed coldly at the six attackers. Kicking off from the ground, he leapt towards one of the attackers.
“How sad.” Lyndin stared coldly at Linley’s attempt to resist.
When joined forces, their defense was incredibly high. No one below the Saint-level could harm them at all. They didn’t care about Linley’s attack at all.
“The first one!”
Linley’s voice suddenly rang out like a bolt of thunder, as from his hands, the adamantine heavy sword suddenly appeared. Transforming into a blur, the adamantine heavy sword slashed through the air, smashing against the body of one of the attackers.
“How laughable.”
The six of them didn’t care at all. That Angel of the ninth rank originally didn’t even bother dodging, but the strange thing was, Linley’s blow hadn’t caused the white light to activate and block it.
Profound Truths of the Earth – Hundred Layered Waves!
Linley’s dark golden eyes stared coldly at the man.
This Angel of the ninth rank only felt a very queer sensation, as though giant warhammers were suddenly smashing against his internal organs again and again. His light-style power was totally useless against this sort of attack!
“Boom!” “Boom!” “Boom!” .....
Those strange attacks continue to reverberate in the Angel’s head as well as body.
“Ah!”
The ninth ranked Angel slumped to the ground. The Angel Battle Formation, now lacking a person, had been destroyed, and the white light disappeared. Lyndin and the other four stared at this scene in astonishment. They couldn’t believe it.
Linley quirked his lips.
That white light had been light-style energy; in essence, it was the same as battle-qi. But the Profound Truths of the Earth which Linley used was a totally different sort of attack. Whenever it encountered an obstacle, it would transmit through it, with only a bit of reduction in attack power. No obstacle could totally block it.
This so-called combination attack, before the Profound Truths of the Earth, was nothing but a joke.
Linley’s full-power attack had disintegrated the internal organs of an Angel of the ninth rank in a single blow. He was dead as dead could be, and his soul vanished from the world.
“You...you killed him?” Lyndin and the other four were stunned.
The Angel Battle Formation had been broken, just like that.
“Formation attacks are useless against me.” Linley’s remorseless eyes swept them with his gaze. “That’s one of you down. Now for the rest of you.”
In the Yulan continent, anyone, including Saint-level experts, would die once their bodies were destroyed.
When these Angels who had descended into human bodies fought, even when they went all out, they weren’t actually destroying their own bodies. They were just ignoring their bodies’ ability to contain their power, in essence overloading them.
This sort of overloading technique would cause the body to slowly break down.
This sort of break down was gradual. Only after, say, thirty seconds, would the body have decayed to the point where the soul could no longer survive in it.
But since Linley reduced the Angel’s internal organs into paste with a single blow, even if the Angel wanted to go all out at this point, it was too late.
“Lord?” The other four looked at Lyndin.
A holy light was suddenly shining from Lyndin’s face. “Since this mortal has such an unusual attack, we no longer need to worry about our lives. Prepare to return to the embrace of the Lord.”
“Yes, Lord.”
Their eyes were very cold and calm. Their faces began to shine with holy light as well.
“Swish, swish...” A pair of illusion-like white wings suddenly sprouted from the backs of those four men. In the blink of an eye, those four ‘ordinary’ men each now were winged, and they flew into the sky.
Four humanoids with wings were flying in the air. Seeing this, Linley was shocked.
“Angels! They are Angels!”
One of the legendary, powerful races had just appeared in front of him. Even the weakest two-Winged Angels were terrifyingly powerful early-stage Saint-level experts.
“Kill.” Lyndin issued her order, not wasting any time at all.
This was because the bodies of these four were already beginning to emit blood, which was constantly flowing downwards. Clearly, their bodies were already starting to crumble, and their blood vessels were beginning to collapse. The early-stage Saint-level energy was beyond the capacity of these bodies.
They didn’t have much time.
They had to kill Linley as quickly as possible.
“Whoosh!” With a flap of their radiant wings, the four Angels transformed into four white blurs as they charged towards Linley.