I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 164: The First Wave

This jade green wolf was none other than Chonk, who had brought his army towards the Tempest Branch Alliance in order for him to become the sole ruler of the Tempest Cliff. After saying what he had to say, he turned around and looked at the ethereal looking being on his right, becoming silent as he pondered for a while. Eventually, he opened his mouth to say to the ethereal looking being, “Initiate Code 11, mass destruction variant.”

“Got it, Master,” the ethereal looking being replied to Chonk’s words, before maintaining its silence for a bit. While being silent, a pulsating aura of power started to emanate from its body as quite a large amount of energy particles were making their way towards it. These energy particles were soon absorbed by its body, increasing the size of its body before turning around to look at the great amount of Inanimates behind it. Not long after, it then spoke, “Everyone, code 11! Aim your strongest skills towards me!”

Afterward, it looked back at the army of Inanimates opposite where it was, focusing on the crimson red branch that was standing at the very front. Soon after that, it looked at another Inanimate, a slightly shocked aura emanating from it for quite a bit before chuckling.

It then said inwardly, “Herellia, it seems you’ve improved quite a lot since I left. Trust me, even though I’m not bound by contract, I’ll help you defeat Chonk.”

“But Aurus…you’re quite a fearsome being.”

This ethereal looking being was none other than Horell, who had become a Pseudo-Animate after leaving the Tempest Branch Alliance. He could not help but feel regret that he was called by Chonk in order to become one of the leaders of this operation, though he could not do anything as Chonk was the one saved him, being his master.

After muttering a few sentences inwardly, Horell, who had his back faced towards the Inanimates, felt a great aura emanating from behind him, reaching a level of ferocity that did not lose out to the maximum power he could unleash.

“Well then,” Horell said softly. “Let’s start this operation.”

Horell turned around and expanded his aura to envelop all of the Inanimates who had their abilities charged. After looking at every single Inanimate, he then shouted, “Aim…”

“Fire!”

…

On the other hand, a tense silence enveloped every member of the Tempest Branch Alliance. Although they had prepared a lot of trump cards for this war, they still could not help but think at the back of their souls that they would surely lose against this war. They were up against two Animate level beings for fuck’s sake!

Ignoring the tense silence in the air, Aurus, who was somewhat near the front, made his way towards Herellia’s side, teleporting in an instant. At the very instant he had teleported, he focused his sense of vision towards the opposing army, noticing that a great aura, that did not lose out to the auras emanated by the two of them combined, emanated from the opposing side.

Aurus could not help but look at Herellia, sensing a nervous aura emanating from her. Knowing that removing nervousness would not do any good, Aurus then muttered to Herellia, “It seems they’re preparing to wipe us out at the first attack. Do you have any plans?”

“I do,” Herellia replied, still nervous. “Though I’m not sure if my plan would hold up against the power of their attack.”

“Believe in our members,” Aurus said not long after in response, surprisingly easing Herellia’s nervousness. “They’ve prepared quite a lot for this war. I’ve also given everyone equipment sets that boost their combat abilities. Don’t you think we’re at the peak of preparation?”

Weeenggg…

Just as Herellia was about to respond to Aurus’ statement, Herellia could not help but sense a spike in the aura from the opposing side. Aurus could not help but notice this as well, seeing very well that every Inanimate on the opposing army was about to attack them. Not long after, every Inanimate fired their skills, prompting Herellia to command a few members to cast movement speed enhancing spells on everyone, only to stop midway as she noticed that all of them aimed their skills towards one of the stronger beings in the opposing army.

Of course, Herellia knew very well who the Inanimates were aiming at. From the aura she had sensed from this being, she could not help but mutter to herself, “What are you planning to do, Horell? Do you still remember our promise?”

Whoosh!

In an instant, all of the skills fired by the Inanimates had congregated towards Horell, who had spoken the name of some spell, which was unfortunately left unheard by Aurus and Herellia due to their distance. Nevertheless, the two of them could see the effects of the spell, leaving both of them in stupefaction.

“What the…” Aurus could not help but say.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Herellia, on the other hand, muttered to herself before turning her body to look at the members behind her.

Not waiting for Horell to make his move, Herellia shouted, “Those who have movement speed enhancing spells, cast it on everyone right now!”

Fortunately, due to most of the members being silent, Herellia’s voice could be heard among all the alliance members, allowing those who do have movement speed enhancing spells to cast them at the shortest amount of time possible.

At the very instant Herellia could see that everyone had a movement speed buff on them, she then shouted, “Make your way towards the main hall! Also, initiate Code 3!”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Unlike how Animates would retreat with the intent of preserving their own life, the members of the alliance made their way towards the main hall in a way that would surely stupefy Animates, moving along in an orderly manner. Once the first few members had entered the hall, they would hastily move towards the outer edges of the hall, leaving the entrance for the other members to get into until the hall slowly fills up towards the center.

Aurus and Herellia did not take long to enter the main hall, with Aurus teleporting and Herellia flying at incredibly great speeds. Since they were more or less the commanders, it would make sense for them to not be in the front lines, with Herellia looking throughout the main hall to see if certain members of the alliance had already entered the hall.

Fortunately, those members were already inside the hall, prompting Herellia to shout, “Code 3, ready?!”

“Ready!” One of the members on one corner of the hall had shouted in response. Not long after, a few more members had shouted the same thing, allowing Herellia to look at the opposing side with more ease.

“Alright,” Herellia shouted, before adding, “Activate!”

“[Code 3: Impenetrable Fortress]!” Not long after, the members who responded to Herellia’s question all shouted simultaneously, hastily conjuring a barrier of blue energy that covered a radius far larger than the size of the main hall. This sight could not help but surprise Aurus as he said to Herellia, who was beside him, “When you say the alliance has trump cards, I seriously wasn’t expecting this.”

“Although it looks bland, it can defend against attacks at my peak strength,” Herellia said not long after, explaining the strength of the move that was just used. She then looked at the members who conjured the spell, before looking at the gradually intensifying aura emanating from Horell. At that point, she said, “Though I’m not sure if it could handle an attack at that level.”

“How about I help out?” Aurus pondered for a bit before responding. Herellia looked at him for a bit, wanting to say something, but Aurus made his move before Herellia could reply.

“[Boundless Spirit Domain]!”

Whoosh!

In an instant, a large domain appeared in the main hall, enveloping all of the alliance members with the feeling that they could exert more power with their skills, as well as use their skills more times than before. This also affected the members that conjured the spell from earlier, the barrier of blue energy surrounding the main hall instantly intensifying in strength.

This move from Aurus left Herellia at a loss for words, taking quite a while for her to say, “With this enhancement, I think we can…”

“We’ll have to see if we survive then.” But before Herellia could finish her words, Aurus interrupted Herellia, telling her to focus her attention towards the ethereal looking being, who had already reached its limits, evident from the aura that was emanating from it.

“[Code 11: Inanimate Shattering Beam]!”

Whizz…

Not long after shouting the name of the spell, a large beam hastily made its way towards the entrance of the main hall, with the intent of wiping out all of the members of the Tempest Branch Alliance. Fortunately, this beam was stopped by the blue energy barrier conjured a while ago, warping quite a lot under the force of the beam. All of the members inside the main hall, which was being protected by the blue energy barrier, could not help but fall silent as they hoped the blue barrier could withstand the power of the beam.

Unfortunately, just as it seemed that the beam was about to weaken in strength after ramming against the barrier for so long, all of the members of the alliance heard a voice come from the opposing side. This voice came from none other than Horell, shouting, “[Energy Burst]!”

Whoosh!

At the very instant he was finished, the strength of the beam had intensified by threefold, instantly shattering the blue energy barrier protecting the members of the alliance. The members of the alliance could not help but hastily make their way towards the outer edges of the main hall, seeing as the beam was heading towards the center. Nevertheless, they still shouted their voices of concern towards the beings at the center of the main hall, namely Aurus and Herellia.

Just as Herellia was about to make a move against the beam that was heading for the two of them, Aurus was ahead by her, teleporting closer to the beam before muttering under inwardly, “[Grand Spiritas Deification].”

Fwoosh!

In an instant, the aura that Aurus emanated had now surpassed what Herellia radiated a while ago, around threefold the intensity of Herellia’s. This instant jump in power made everyone look at the origin of the aura, slightly surprised that Aurus was in front of the beam.

Fortunately, Aurus had a plan in mind to combat against the beam, activating his own barrier skill without hesitation, allowing him to become the focus of the beam, saving the others from the force of the beam. Of course, he could not hold on for long since he was pretty much fighting against the power of a Pseudo-Animate after calculating the strength it exerted on him.

And so, he decided to fight against the attack…with an attack of his own.

“[Nine Realms’ Myriad Spellswords]…”

In that instant, a blade that was slightly harder than the size of his body had conjured over him, before emanating an aura of the underworld not long after. Eventually, the aura of the underworld emanating from the blade had reached a tipping point, prompting Aurus to use it to slash at the beam.

“[Sword of Pride].”

Whoosh!

In an instant, the blade had slashed the beam in two parts…then four…then eight. The blade slashed multiple times before dissipating into thin air, reducing the size and energy of the beam until it had become negligible. Unfortunately, due to the beam being cut into smaller beams, that meant that the multiple beams had scattered throughout the hall. Fortunately, almost all of the members of the alliance were equipped with a competent defensive skill, allowing them tank the beams that had lost a lot of its energy.

And so, with that, the Tempest Branch Alliance had survived the beam that aimed to wipe all of them out.

Whoosh!

Aurus teleported back to Herellia’s side after cutting the beam into multiple smaller beams, slightly chuckling at the aura of stupefaction radiating from Herellia. To snap Herellia from this stupefaction, Aurus said, “We can’t have our leader show her full strength at the very start now, can we?”

“…” In response, Herellia remained silent, her mind in slight disbelief at the power Aurus just showed. In her mind, that level of power had already exceeded her previous peak of strength, making Herellia wonder inwardly as to how much Aurus had improved in combat power after evolving to S-grade Inanimate.

…

Seeing that the beam he shot out could not eradicate the Tempest Branch Alliance, rather than get angry, Horell smiled inwardly, muttering to himself, “It seems Chonk is going to have to sacrifice a lot of troops for this war, unlike the previous two.”

Nevertheless, his external expression was still angry, radiating an aura of regret as he turned to look at Chonk, who was now at the very back of the army. Maintaining a respectful tone, he then said, “Master, Code 11 has been initiated. Unfortunately, Code 11 was unable to wipe out the Tempest Branch Alliance. Should we proceed with Code 15?”

Chonk, who was on the receiving end of Horell’s question, pondered over Horell’s suggestion for a bit, before opening his mouth to say, “Save Code 15 for later. Unlike the two previous alliances, they seem to have a more intelligent leader. We should gauge their overall strength first. Tell 10 willing Inanimates to form a team, their mission to find out the strength of the members of the Tempest Branch Alliance.”

“Got it,” Horell replied respectfully to Chonk, before asking all of the Inanimates in Chonk’s army on who was willing to be part of the first team that would fight against the alliance.

…

While that was happening on the opposing side, the Tempest Branch Alliance was in a state of solemnity, with each and every member filled with the intent to help the alliance out.

“Initiate Code 5. Buff everyone’s abillities up.” After composing herself from the shock of Aurus’ improvement, Herellia decided to make sure that every alliance member was at their peak condition. She was also doing this in the case that Chonk decided to have everyone in his army charge towards the alliance.

“Leader, I think you should look at the opposing side.” While Herellia was commanding the members in an efficient manner, telling those who were injured to be healed and buffing everyone’s abilities up, a member came close to her and said.

“Hm?” This attracted Herellia’s attention, prompting her to look at the opposing side with a bit of silence. Seeing what the other side had done, Herellia pondered for a bit before shouting, “Everyone, listen up!”

This shout attracted the attention of all the alliance members, even attracting Aurus’ attention as well. With all of their attention towards Herellia, she continued to speak.

“The other side has sent a party of 10 towards our alliance, probably with the intent to gauge our strength.”

“Now, we can’t let them move arrogantly in front of our alliance, right?”

“We’ll send a party of 10 in response to what they’ve done. To make them think that we’re weaker than they thought, we’ll be sending 10 normal members of the alliance.”

“Of course, one member shall be the leader of this small party. Would anyone like to volunteer?”