Chapter 358 The Main Battle (3)
"It looks like the battle there is going to reach its climax soon," Basil remarked as he saw Anthony lead the Paladins, the Battle Mages, and the Knights to engage in combat with Goap.
Basil approved of their braveness, but he couldn't help shaking his head at the people's stupidity. Had they not let Goap get rid of the Prayer that had shackled him, their winning chance would have been higher.
While they still could win against Goap now, Basil was sure very few of them would survive the battle. Goap was burning his life span to squeeze out the power lying dormant in him, so his current power was incomparable to before.
On top of that, he hadn't even assumed his True Form yet, which would even amplify his already absurd power. Unless Anthony and the others were quick to adapt, there would be no way for them to survive.
Boom!
"It seems that I have to get serious too." Basil turned his eyes too Scylla. "We have already enraged her enough to force her to use her everything against us."
After her fall, Scylla became incomparably fiercer than before. She no longer hit the troops Basil led half-heartedly.
For the past few minutes, she had been attacking them with an intention to destroy the Formation and obliterate the people inside it in one go. It was still manageable, but overwhelming regardless.
"Deacon, are you ready to send that Demon into oblivion?"
"Yes, Master!"
Deacon was aware that he wasn't strong enough to produce such an attack, but he was determined to exhaust himself to fulfill his Master's expectation. With the power provided by the Formation, it wouldn't be impossible.
Instructing Deacon to create his signature air spheres, Basil immediately wrapped the seven spheres with wind blades that were as sharp as Durendal the moment they were formed.
He was synchronized with Durendal's Sword Soul at the moment, which was why those wind blades of his became more lethal than they already were. Releasing the air spheres in the next moment, they hit Scylla in a second.
Screech!
Scylla managed to block the seven spheres with her tentacles, but it took all her attention away from anybother attacks. Fortunately for her though, she had a strong Miasma Barrier to block all of them without minding them much.
... At least, that was the case for the other's attacks.
Boom!
"Gah!"
The moment Deacon's modified air spheres broke through her Miasma Barrier, Scylla couldn't help a yelp. The four tentacles she had used to block the air spheres were shredded, leaving her shocked by the power they possessed.
For the first time since they began their fight, she received a quite severe injury. It was still meaningless, of course, but the fact that she was injured was still enough to bewilder her.
"Kaaak!"
Charybdis, under Scylla's order, opened her mouth and amassed a ridiculous amount of Demonic Mana. A dense ball of Mana made an appearance not long after; Charybdis didn't waste a single second to shoot it out of her mouth.
Swish!
The dense ball of Mana was rapidly rotating as it split the air. The destructive aura it was exuding could even be felt from inside the formation despite the fact they were separated by a massive Magic Barrier.
The people, of course, weren't just staying idle and watched as the ball closing in on them. They infused as much Mana as they could to the Barrier to improve its sturdiness, so they could have a higher chance of surviving the attack.
"[Heaven Piercer]!"
Flash!
A moment before the ball of Demonic Mana touched the barrier—just as they embraced themselves for impact, one of the most powerful Arts of Basil pierced, and dispersed it in less than a second.
The thin and rapid beam, which was Basil's Art: [Heaven Piercer], kept advancing towards Scylla, even after destroying the Mana ball. Scylla blocked it with one of her tentacles, and instantly regretted it the moment it easily pierced through her tentacle.
"Keugh! This human lad...!"
Due to her big body, she couldn't move fast enough to dodge Basil's Art. The moment his Art pierced her tentacle was the moment when she knew her abdomen would get pierced.
As she put her hand on the hole in her stomach, she channelled her Miasma into her abdomen to close the hole. Spells and Techniques were spammed at her, but she ignored it and focused on her waist instead.
Her blood that was dripping down from her abdomen fell on one of the hound heads around her waist. Already livid, she finally decided to go crazy and show the humans why there were nine hound heads around her waist.
Raising her head as she looked at Basil murderously, she was greeted by Basil's ridiculing smile. Clutching her hand in anger, she opened her mouth, and screamed even louder than the sound of a volcano eruption.
"Close your ears!
"KYAAK!"
The shrill scream of Scylla that was already extremely ear grating was amplified nine times by the nine hound heads around her waist. The sound ruptured one's eardrums, destroyed the ground, split the air, and even drove one to insanity.
It was also very hard to completely block the sound since one could not only hear it in one's ear, but also one's head. Many people fell victim because of this fact.
In this case, Basil was the only one who could remain calm. He had created a layer of vacuum around his head; not even the vibration of the sound could reach him, so he heard nothing but silence.
Deacon was doing the same, but judging by how bothered he was, it was easy to tell he couldn't exactly replicate what Basil did. He was still holding on regardless, so it could be said he defended himself well.
Iliana and Ione were less bothered than Deacon, but their method of defending themselves from the attack wasn't what Basil and Deacon used. They merely sealed their eardrums, and let their Mental Fortitude hold off the effect of the sound.
Being a Pacifer means they had trained their soul since they were young, so their Mental Fortitude was ridiculously better than anyone. Of course, they could do well.
Crack!
When the mind destroying scream stopped, the people's sigh of relief was hitched by the emergence of thousands of 3 metres tall, two-headed dogs called Tartarus Watchdogs.
Roar!
Tartarus Watchdogs earned their name due to their striking similarity with Cerberus, the guard of the prison of Gods Tartarus. Believed to be its offsprings, Tartarus Watchdogs were said to be the one who chased after the Gods that escaped Tartarus.
Of course, it was nothing but a story to make them look more intimidating than they should; however, their ability was still not something one should look down upon.
They could bite literally anything—even a Ninth Circle Mage's Mana Barrier—due to the Curse their teeth had. They could run tirelessly, and they wouldn't stop chasing their targets until they got said target or got killed.
If the human army didn't kill the Tartarus Watchdogs before the dogs reached them, their destruction was assured. The dogs would rip apart the Barrier, chewed on them the moment they were within range.
"Well, I thought she would do something more impressive than summoning mere imitations of Cerberus."
Luckily, they got Basil, who had slain the Cerberus in his past life to prevent that. He wasn't intimidated in the least bit in spite of the fierce aura the Tartarus Watchdogs were exuding; in fact, he found it funny for Scylla to summon them.
"Don't waste your Mana to cast fancy Spells! Use Earth Magic and pierce their heart from below!" Basil shouted. Naturally, he knew the perfect way to kill Tartarus Watchdogs.
The simple instruction was executed immediately. They still couldn't help but wonder, however, what such a simple attack could do to the dogs.
Squelch! Squelch!
Much to their surprise, it did more than they had ever thought. The moment the earth spikes they had created with Earth Magic emerged from the ground, the Tartarus Watchdogs were pierced without any resistance.
They also died instantly, which made the whole situation more bewildering for the people, who had expected a fierce fight with the dogs.
"What the... Just how many things that lad knows?!"
The people weren't the only one surprised by what had happened. Scylla also couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Basil knew Tartarus Watchdogs couldn't sense attacks from below them.
p
Spreading her Demonic Mana throughout the battlefield, Scylla materialized her Domain.
The ground below the army immediately turned into the bow of an absurdly massive wooden ship that could contain them all at once. Seeing around, they found themselves in a strait, bound to perish in the whirlpool that was caused by Charybdis.
The people who had participated in the clearance of Goap's Obelisk couldn't help getting goosebumps at the scene. They could somehow know what would happen next.
"Haaah~ Ahh~ Hear the sea, it's calling thee... A happiness thou canst foresee is waiting thee~"
As tens of thousands of beautiful singing women with the lower half and the wings of a bird hovered above them, the people who were familiar with Sirens immediately cursed loudly as they told the others to shut their ears.
The beautiful singing made it hard for them to shy away from it, but upon knowing what it would do to them, the people immediately covered their ears to block the singing.
"Ka-ka-ka! Let us see how you will organise them this time, lad!" Scylla laughed at the scene gleefully, unaware of the fact that Basil could still communicate with the people through [Wavelingo].
She thought she had managed to disrupt the Formation by merely taking away their hearing. When the Formation remained intact, naturally, she was surprised.
'Forget about Scylla, maintain the Formation, and kill as many Demons as you can,' was the only instruction Basil gave to the people through [Wavelingo].
No one questioned him, and immediately did what he instructed; they knew he would take care of Scylla by himself. They remained calm and mind their task, and thus the Formation was maintained.
"Well, well, I am about to kill another ancient being, aren't I?"
Basil smirked as he looked at Scylla, who was standing on the rock near the land on the left side of the strait while looking at him murderously.