Primary Nature—Bone-Melting Artillery!
Tens of thousands of spikes, with each spanning a metre in length shot out from the 38 Centingers, making an arc before they approached Ellora City, intending to decimate the latter.
But shortly before they had launched their attack, Gudora commanded the soldiers to shoot the arrows. Typically, when the Centingers unleashed a large volley, they remained steady to accumulate power.
For a few seconds, they remained stationary targets, unable to move, for doing so would throw off their aim, not to mention cause the accumulating Prana to go haywire. That few seconds was the perfect window to target them and Gudora had been aiming for exactly that.
Right as the Centingers shot their spikes, arrows rained down on them, seeping poison upon contact. It was a Thermal Poison, one that resulted in an oil fire. And the more this fire burned, the more it sucked the body's fat contents, using them to generate more oil to fuel itself.
Thermal Poison was the most effective against them and hence was used right from the start.
Eight thousand Body Stage cultivators had shot two arrows each, resulting in a whopping sixteen thousand arrows, all imbued with Thermal Poison, resulting in a sea of flame in the region with the 38 Centingers.
"Screeee!" One of the Centingers at the forefront screeched in pain, for it had been targeted the most. Its centipede upper body dug into the ground as the rest of its body followed suit, burrowing deep in a matter of seconds.
With the oxygen cut off, the fire died out soon enough. The Centinger circulated Prana through its body and mended the damage, surfacing a good ten minutes later. But the moment it came out, its body caught fire once again.
Thermal Poison would continue to burn as long as it had fuel to do so. And as it had already seeped into the Centinger's shell, it will catch flame the moment it surfaces.
Screeching in pain, the Centinger burrowed back. And this time, its centipede upper body wiped off the Thermal Poison using its Primary Nature.
Capable of selectively targeting and able to permeate through all other surfaces, the moment the Centinger focused on the Thermal Poison as the target, its Primary Nature destroyed it, not affecting its body in the slightest.
It then took a few more minutes to heal its injuries and surfaced, this time not catching fire. It looked around, noticing that the rest of its rivals were still burrowed underground, recovering. Grinning upon realising that it was the fastest to recover, its centipede upper body gobbled a bunch of Slump Lizards and digested them to replenish its expended Prana.
It then charged at Ellora City.
A few minutes earlier, the moment the eight thousand Body Stage cultivators shot two arrows each, they retreated to the back, as another eight thousand came front.
Watching the artillery projectiles approach them, these eight thousand Body Stage cultivators activated their Human Avatars, causing their hands to transform into liquid metal.
This liquid metal had the properties of hardening into any shape they desired, hence was versatile enough for all situations. Moreover, the mineral, Parff was the most abundant mineral in the region. At the Intermediate Iron Grade, and with its abundance, Parff was the most common mineral sought after by the soldiers.
In order to conserve their Prana, all the soldiers only transformed their hands, for that alone was enough for their attacks. Transforming their entire body would only be a needless waste of Prana.
Large metallic discs formed in their hands as the Body Stage cultivators rotated like a spinning top and launched the discs in the air. One after another, the metallic discs arched through the sky and gradually lifted themselves, causing their flat surfaces to face the incoming projectiles.
Rata-Tata-Tat!
Thunderous ringing sounds echoed in the region as the artilleries melted through the metallic discs one after another. But in response, the power in them was being expended, causing both their momentum and melting potency to drop.
The metallic discs flew to a distance of a kilometre from the city walls, as a result, capable of intercepting the projectiles early on.
"Shields!" Gudora roared upon seeing many spikes make their way past the metallic discs. At his shout, the reserve four thousand Body Stage cultivators roared before puffing out frosty air that spread out like a blizzard.
The ability was activated in unison, coordinated to move as one unit. Like a fierce avalanche, it blasted forth with force and slammed into the spikes, reducing their momentum as a layer of frost formed on them.
The moment the layer of frost became large enough, the cultivators that had unleashed the blizzard were able to treat the incoming projectiles as their Spirit Weapon, activating their psychokinesis to the max to reduce their momentum.
But even then, not all the spikes were slowed down. Many slipped through the metallic discs and, hence hadn't lost any momentum and potency. Those spikes pierced through the blizzard and closed in on the city wall.
Forming the final defensive line were Gudora and his family of Royalty. They unleashed a thin crystal mist and layered it at the end of the layer of blizzard. The moment any spikes touched the crystal mist, they would know and focus their power on the region to fully crystallise and shatter the projectiles.
Moreover, standing before the soldiers were cultivators with Parff, having created large dome-like shields.
Soon, spikes spewed out like a torrent and slammed into these shields. The majority of them had lost all their power and were in pieces, with a good fraction of their bodies turned into crystal dust.
But at the end of the day, human errors existed in a projectile battle. As a result, some spikes managed to preserve enough power through everything as they slammed into the defensive shields and punctured a hole.
Most, if not almost all of them were stopped eventually within the thick shields. Some managed to pierce through even that and slammed into the soldiers, eliciting screams from the targets whose bones began to melt.
"Treat them, hurry." Gudora said and shouted, "What's the casualty?"
"Three dead and fourteen injured." Gudora's eldest son made the report, "The injured can return to battle once treated."
"Then, hurry." Gudora then issued another command, "Retract the frost mist and create pathways to launch our projectiles. We have less than eight minutes before the second volley arrives!"
Centingers were experts in long-range warfare. And with enough food at their disposal, the battle was bound to take some time.
The mating season lasted an entire three months, so the Centingers weren't in a hurry. Moreover, once they surfaced and saw the bare minimum of deaths caused by their attacks, they only became more excited.
The tougher the opponent, the greater the generated points when the threat is vanquished. In excitement, they rushed for a hundred metres and unleashed another artillery strike, intending to close the gap bit by bit.
Five kilometres was the farther end of their attack range. They intended to probe the enemy from afar and gradually pressure them by inching closer little by little. Once they have a complete understanding of the enemy, they would go in for the kill and enter close combat.
If Gudora fails to kill them by then, his city will be destroyed.