There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 524 - 517. Nothing Is Sure in the Battlefield

Chapter 524: Chapter 517. Nothing Is Sure in the Battlefield

Riding the giant serpent that shredded the battlefield, once again, Bassena became the person who reached the farthest point on the battlefield. Alone, he charged toward the enemy’s camp, hovering behind the dunes of the fifth lane.

Well, he wasn’t exactly alone.

Stakes of darkness fleeting around him, piercing into anything trying to come close. A specter rushed toward him, and several little copies of him, darker than the night, pounced at the creature, pushing it back to the third lane where other espers were ready to take it on.

"Good job," Bassena patted the stakes, who nuzzled at him the way the shards would nuzzle against Zein.

Like a boat going against a harsh current, he and his little army of darkness pushed through the hordes that seemed endless. Where they came from, he had no idea. Perhaps from more dungeons the Fallen Star managed to summon, or perhaps the number of beasts they had faced before was nothing but an appetizer. After all, they were yet to reach the heart of the Deathzone itself.

Whatever it was, Bassena knew this was what they would be facing in the future; countless beasts and more higher-level entities. And at the top of that pyramid was the Fallen Star; the real one, not this clone.

But if he couldn’t even face this clone, how could he face the real Fallen Star?

With this thought, Bassena trudged forward, watching the many eyes carefully.

The eyes, however, never looked at him.

Those many eyes, most of it--if not all--were trained to one point. It made Bassena sick thinking about who was at the other end of that gaze, but it also gave him the needed distraction as he mowed through the field and gradually approached the clone.

"It’s not impossible..." he muttered, crouching on top of the serpent’s head, laying low to avoid the incoming energy attack.

He counted the time in his mind and watched the eyes to see which one would blink. The most efficient time would be just a second--or the split second after the attack. Holding his breath, he watched one of the eyes on the left side start to move; an eerie lid started to go down like a black curtain of a stage.

In the time it took for the eyes to shoot its energy attack, Bassena roused his mana, shaping it into a long, thick stake that could pulverize a whole building in the green zone, and released it.

Just as the energy attack left the eyes, a giant sharp nail pierced it; black against white, with a disgusting squelching sound that immediately overridden with a thunderous howl that shook the entire desert.

It wasn’t only the humans on the third lane, but the miasmic beasts and the elemental spirits too, felt the chilling scream rattling their bones.

But the fragments--the fragments were howling in unison and unleashed the fury of their creator like a chain reaction. Miasmic storms lashed out from their body, even those who still hadn’t reached the breaking point. The espers who were late in jumping back got thrown from the belting wind, some of which contained devastating poison.

Bassena glanced with a clenched jaw at the sudden mass of berserk, but he had no leeway to worry about his subordinate since the dozens of eyes were now looking at him.

Immediately, he covered his whole body with his black scale--a wise move, since the mountain wiggled in anger and dozens of giant tentacles lashed out.

The ground was split and scattered as the tentacles struck down; the air vibrated in turbulence from the whipping motion. Anything around the titan was annihilated; the dunes scattered and the beasts pulverized. But the center of this destructive move was the giant serpent and its black-scaled rider, who received devastating strike upon devastating strike.

The giant serpent was pierced brutally by dozens of tentacles, which got shredded in return. But some managed to break through and scatter the joining spike, crumbling the serpent structure.

The scattered spike, however, flew to the black-scaled rider and created a thick, spinning protective cocoon around him. Each time the tentacle broke the spike, another one would replace the layer, making it unbreachable.

In the middle of this cocoon, Bassena let out a breath of relief. "It’s not impossible," he repeated as he managed his breath again. "If I pierced all of its eyes, it shouldn’t have any outlet to release the attack."

At least, that was his conjecture. The tentacles came from the void-like mountain, but it was purely physical. The energy attack, meanwhile, came from the eyes, like a faucet to a water tank. If he broke all the gates, then he wouldn’t have to worry about the energy release. And if Bassena held the physical attack in this place, none would reach the third lane.

"Yeah," Bassena nodded, calling the stakes to latch into his body, creating a sleek armor. Like a dark knight emerging from the darkness, he stepped out of the cocoon with another concentrated mana in his hand; this time in the shape of a spear. "Let’s do this."

* * *

"It focuses on Commander right now," Kei exhaled heavily.

She had no idea if she should feel relieved or worried. On one hand, she had all the confidence in Bassena--because who else could face that gargantuan enemy if not him? But that one attack also made the battlefield progress considerably faster, with the fragments entering their berserking state so early all at the same time.

"I don’t think we’ll need to worry about the energy attack right now," Zein said. "Even if It releases an energy attack again, Bas will attack the eye first, so you can utilize the tanks and barrier magician to the fragment team."

"Great," Kei nodded and exhaled in relief. She immediately assigned each defender and barrier magician to the fragment raid teams--something they truly needed now that the fragments had turned berserk.

With more defenders and shields taking the brunt of the fragment, some of the espers now had a chance to retreat to the rear and received both healing and cleansing. The guides and healers moved around the battlefield under the protection of the hunting squad members to give rapid healing and cleansing and kept the raid going smoothly even with the unexpected berserk.

Meanwhile, the three five-star damage dealers fleeting around the battlefield to assist where they could. The moment one of the team managed to subdue the fragment, they came to pour their mana into the fragment core and cease the physical body to materialize.

Once the fragment was nothing but a hissing dark purple crystal, Senia moved the fragment into the reinforced tube with the help of the elemental spirits, and the support team would bring the tube to the command base, placing it inside the sealed chest.

"Phew...this is good," Kei stared at the screens hovering in front of her.

Colorful dots filled the screens, with each color representing the espers’ role, as well as the guide. Thanks to Bassena’s attack earlier, the beast’s number was reduced drastically, and it didn’t take long for the marksmen to kill the rest of them.

"Please go back for guiding, and I’ll assign you to the Specter and Fragment strike team," Kei announced through the marksmen’s channel before glancing at Zein.

The guide was standing not far from her, behind his clansman’s shield. His bright blue eyes shone behind the goggles, staring at the spectacle in the distance.

And what a spectacle it was; the Serpent Lord had turned his giant serpent into a tough armor that helped him fleeting around, dodging the tentacles coming ceaselessly at him. Each tentacle was as thick as a building, and even with the armor, it still hurt if he got hit by it. After some time, it was no longer possible for Bassena to keep dodging, so he started to wield his scythe and cut through the tentacle while looking for an opportunity to pierce the eyes.

So far, he had only managed to pierce three before the clone started to pull the tentacles closer to defend against his attack. It had become more difficult to approach the eyes, but it also meant the clone focused more on fighting him, which was a good thing.

And yes, it was more difficult, but...

"It’s not impossible," Bassena repeated the words like a spell.

Back in the third lane, Kei looked at Zein’s hand, which was gripping a black dagger tightly. "Don’t worry about him," she said. "He’s not an idiot like Zhan."

Zein chuckled at that. Yeah; Bassena wasn’t the type who would jump headlong to a fight and keep going when he thought it was impossible. He knew his capacity and calculated things thoroughly--that was how he could become a Saint class at such a young age.

He nodded, although his hand still gripped the Black Pearl tightly.

"Well...rather than the Commander, we should worry more about ourselves," Kei shrugged, and Zein smiled before patting the scout and proceeded to guide her too.

She might not be using her dagger, but she had been using her scouting skill to oversee the whole battlefield.

"Scouts, screen the surrounding area and make sure--"

[Ma’am!] a shout suddenly rang through her earpiece. [The ground! There’s something on the ground! CH297-474--fifty meters! Forty--]

"Vacate the northwest!" Kei yelled to the speaker, turning her head toward the intact Watchtower, where several teams were still fighting around it against some Specters. "Cleared out the north Watchtower!"

[Twenty...]

"Cease attack! Retreat! Suppo--"

Kei’s frantic yell was suddenly cut off by a slight quake and a heavy groaning sound. Before the attack teams could fully get hold of what happened, however, the ground erupted. With a shrieking sound, a Stone Eater broke through the stone and sand, throwing the espers to the air, and some into its mouth.

[Another one from--]

Not even two seconds after the first one surfaced, the ground shook and erupted again. In a dreadful scenery, Kei watched as the second, and then the third and fourth Stone Eater surfaced, breaching their defense line...

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