The Last King Of Darkness
Chapter 165 - 121: I’m Done Being Human

Chapter 165: Chapter 121: I’m Done Being Human

The moment the monsters stepped into the range of the firelight, flames erupted on their bodies, sending clouds of black dust and firelight shooting upward.

They charged towards Sword Pass, dragging black smoke and firelight with them.

This was Rod’s first time participating in an official war between Trolian and the darkness.

Although there were only thirteen of them, a peculiar sense of excitement arose in their hearts as they stood on the towering city walls and saw the continuous stream of monsters charging towards them.

Bang bang bang.

Three loud noises.

Three giant arrows tore through the air and plunged into the mass of monsters, shredding the bodies of dozens.

Beowood, Reslin, and Anna turned the winches, pulling thick steel cables as thick as a man’s thigh, loading giant arrows as thick as two people, and adjusting the angle of a bed crossbow as large as half a house, aiming at the monsters.

Abundant Spiritual Energy surged within their bodies, enabling them to maneuver this iron giant much larger than themselves.

Especially Anna, her petite figure next to this cold iron giant resembled a small flower, yet she operated the bed crossbow as cleanly and efficiently as two broad-shouldered, bear-like men.

With the second round of shooting, a massive rift was torn in the tide of monsters.

In Rod’s sight, he could clearly see the souls of the monsters dissipate in the air along with their shattered bodies, and a large amount of black dust rose like thick smoke, then vanished in midair.

These monsters were nowhere near as strong as the Corruptor.

Their soul waveforms were very smooth, and their True Names formed by the oscillations of their souls were clearly visible.

"Cowardly Demon."

"Ghoul."

All the monsters were of these two types.

They were short in stature, hunched in body, covered in black fur, with long claws and frightful teeth, their faces ghastly and their cloudy eyes flashing red, unfeeling to the fire burning on their bodies.

Their ranks were not high, and the Spiritual Energy diffused through their bodies was weak, utterly unable to withstand the impact of the giant arrows.

Their only advantage was their number, but within the range of the Guardian Fire, they burned en masse, and their numbers did not have much effect.

The monsters charged to the base of Sword Pass, where a wall solidified by Spiritual Energy blocked their path, its emitted breath causing the monsters to frantically attack.

But unlike the Corruptor, the city walls did not budge, nowhere near the load limit of the Spiritual Power Generator.

Meanwhile, on the city walls, the trainees each used different methods, attacking the monsters from above.

Some used bows and arrows, some threw javelins, some spread their fingers shooting energy bullets, others continuously waved their hands, creating massive Wind Blades to slice through groups of monsters.

Others shot True Silver Bullets like they were free and threw Thunder Stones constantly.

Dark Leaf had to remind, "Rod, True Silver Bullets are not reimbursable, and except for the City Defense Army, Thunder Stones aren’t either."

Rod responded with slight irritation, "I know, I have money."

Dark Night sighed, "Alright, don’t waste too much; resources are limited."

Rod couldn’t care less, reloading with one hand, shooting with another, charging with a hand into the gray bag, and throwing Thunder Stones with another.

As a single young man, his one-handed skills were exceedingly proficient.

However, perhaps due to the chaotic scene on the battlefield, Rod hardly ever obtained a Complete Soul; it was almost all Soul Fragments and Souls Without Spirit.

Why is that?

Rod furrowed his brows, recalling the text of the "Dark Devourer."

Its Star Energy is "Soul Erosion."

Could it be that my "Erosion" wasn’t frequent enough?

Or is it that if a monster isn’t ultimately killed by me, I don’t get a Complete Soul?

This indeed made sense, but the Corruptor had been hit directly, definitely struck by the final blow.

Why then did I also only obtain Souls Without Spirit?

Unable to clear this dilemma at the moment, Rod could only set it aside and focus on hunting the monsters.

The battle didn’t last too long.

Soon, the flying monsters they had seen earlier landed on the city walls.

Rod saw their names:

"Blade Demon."

These monsters were huge and bulky, their bodies covered with black stones, and their hands were two massive stone blades.

However, flames still burned on the stones, continuously turning parts of their bodies into black dust, rising with the dancing flame tips like statues set ablaze.

Dark Leaf shouted, "Close combat, protect the bed crossbow, Beowood, Reslin, Anna, keep shooting."

Under his lead, the trainees turned to engage the "Blade Demons" in combat.

"Be careful, Blade Demons are Middle Rank Mature Level monsters, demon species, with very high defensive power and strong melee capabilities. Don’t gang up on them! Spread out and wear them down with ranged attacks."

Despite saying this, Dark Leaf was the first to meet a Blade Demon’s heavy slash barehanded, then immediately followed with an elbow thrust forward.

His strike pierced through its body.

Rod clearly saw the monster’s Spiritual Energy shatter into pieces, and its soul was also blown apart, leaving a large hole. The Blade Demon’s carcass fell, turning into countless particles of black dust rising up and in an instant, only a pile of ashes remained.

The instructor was very strong.

Seeing him getting chased and beaten by the Corruptor before, Rod had thought he was weak.

It seems that Corruptor was indeed exceptionally powerful.

A fleeting distraction passed, and Rod quickly engaged in battle.

His fighting style was completely unlike Instructor Dark Leaf or anyone else.

He didn’t cautiously approach his enemies by following any fighting style or combat training. Instead, he walked over with many openings and no guard, suddenly pulled out a gun, and with a bang, the Blade Demon shuddered violently and knelt on the ground.

At some unknown time, his hand, now translucent, ferociously plunged into the body of the demon. At the moment he pulled it out, the demon’s body collapsed like a broken frame onto the ground, turning into a cloud of black dust.

Clean and decisive, swift and fierce.

Not only the trainees, but even Dark Leaf was shocked.

But in the heat of battle, there was no time for talking.

Huge Blade Demons kept descending from the sky, and soon, the empty city walls were filled with monsters.

Middle Rank Mature Demons possessed significant killing power, being the main force in the monster groups and causing the most casualties among combatants.

Although the members of the covert branch were elites, their experience was relatively shallow, and their coordination was not well-practiced, resulting in quick injuries.

The command center decisively deployed the emergency unit, and Steel Hand, along with dozens of combatants, joined the battle, quickly reversing the situation.

An hour later, everyone finally cleared the Blade Demons off the city walls.

The empty city walls were now covered in monster ashes, and the injured combatants were taken by the logistics personnel to the medical room for treatment.

Since Sword Pass lacked professional medics, they could only use conventional methods of healing.

Karamon was a battlefield medic and typically didn’t enter the medical room.

Most of the monsters below Sword Pass had been turned to ashes by the Guardian Fire.

However, although the Guardian Fire on the ground had a stable field, the overwhelming number of monsters had reduced its strength, visibly shrinking the range of the light.

The Spiritual Power Generator had also suffered significant damage. According to Mina’s report, the generator had consumed over seventy percent of its energy, and the reserves of Black Crystal, the main energy source, were not plentiful.

Steel Hand’s face showed a trace of worry. Although the monsters were vanquished, the Dark Tide was far from over.

This was just the beginning, and they had already suffered considerable losses, contrary to what they had expected.

Dark Leaf, Beowood, and Reslin came over together.

"Commander Steel Hand, something isn’t right," said Dark Leaf, his face also very somber.

"Our losses are too great. In one battle, we had twelve minor injuries and three critical injuries. If not for some unexpected factors, the losses could have been unimaginable," said Beowood gravely.

Reslin nodded, "The troop deployment on the city walls needs to be stronger."

Steel Hand appeared troubled, "But our overall combat strength isn’t substantial, and we aren’t well-stocked on resources either."

Dark Leaf said, "We’ll just have to think of ways to conserve. The bed crossbows are the most resource-efficient weapons. The materials for the giant arrows are all common and very cheap. We must use them more to kill enemies."

"Right, make the most of our own strength to eliminate the monsters."

The three discussed these matters on the city wall, while logistics personnel quickly gathered the monster ashes left on the city wall and battlefield.

Cleaning up the battlefield was essential, as monster ashes contained residual powers and had many uses.

In the Royal City, there were people specially assigned to collect these. They were called the Collectors.

After each battle, the Collectors would clean the battlefield and collect the embers.

Rod watched as they placed chunks of monster ash into special urns and swept away the useless dust. He glanced at the complete power he had obtained from the Blade Demon he had killed himself, thinking he should ask them for two chunks later. He still had two Sun Stones, just enough to make two Soul Ashes.

This stuff looked pretty fierce.

Rod had confirmed that the monsters he killed personally did not exhibit the previous phenomena.

The only exception was the Corrupter, but perhaps that was just because the "Spiritual Quartet" was too powerful.

The amount of a monster’s soul captured seemed related to the degree to which the soul had been eroded by the Dark Devourer.

Of course, Rod wasn’t entirely clear on how it worked.

The gains from this battle were quite good. Soul Without Spirit had skyrocketed from 700 to 21100, along with a large number of Soul Fragments and Complete Souls.

It seems the sewer is truly just a sewer.

Damn it, never going there again.

Your king of the sewers has defected!

——

After the discussion, Steel Hand and others swiftly adjusted the defense mode, strengthening the combatants on the city walls, although this inevitably reduced the personnel in support and emergency units.

They also optimized the battle deployment, ensuring that at any given time, there was at least one Middle to High Rank combatant on the city walls.

Even so, the situation did not improve much.

The intensity and variety of monsters in the subsequent battles exceeded expectations, and some appeared with significant destructive abilities.

They inflicted severe damage to Sword Pass Fortress and were tough to eliminate due to their thick hides.

The energy in the Spiritual Power Generator depleted quickly, and the Black Crystal used up too rapidly, with the reserves about to run out. Everybody was as frantic as ants on a hot pan. Steel Hand continuously sent messages to Giant Fortress requesting supplies, but received no response.

Only when Rod heard about the situation, he exclaimed, "You guys again?"

As soon as he said this, everyone in the basement turned their heads, staring at him in stunned silence.

They were staring at his wide sleeves.