Rise of The Demon General

Jin Fung charged out of the city and bashed any Cryanids on her path using her metal gauntlets. She was always better when taking an offensive action rather than adopting a defensive stance. She felt miserable earlier when defending her post. Now that she was on the move, she could truly let loose.

All the Cryanid soldiers and flies turned into paste with each punch of her fists. Even when she was at the front, taking the brunt of the enemy’s swarm, her followers behind still had trouble catching up.

In a short few minutes after they forcefully charged out of the city, they were deep inside the enemy’s formation. The Cryanids adjusted their movements. All the nearby Cryanids stopped charging into the city and came after them. These Cryanids surrounded them before pouncing.

From this, Jin Fung was inclined to believe in Amon’s theory. The commonly known Cryanid swarm would continue rushing toward their objective even when a group of enemies penetrated their formation. They would ignore the dying brethren beside them. These, however, changed direction. It highly signaled that some intelligence was driving the swarm.

Jin Fung looked to the East, where Amon said the supposed leader was. A wall of Cryanids was seen there, both on the ground and in the sky. They didn’t move. This further supported Amon’s theory.

A Cryanid Wasp swooped in from the sky. It attempted to sting Jin Fung with its poisonous tail. It missed. Jin Fung counterattacked with a punch, which sent the Cryanid Wasp reeling back.

Cryanid flies joined in after the Cryanid Wasp stopped Jin Fung’s movement. They used their massive number to their advantage. Jin Fung’s fast punches were not enough to keep them at bay, even when each of her punches killed them easily.

Their swarming made it hard for Jin Fung to move around. The Cryanid Wasp returned then. Additionally, a second Cryanid Wasp approached from behind her. With a pincer attack, they stabbed their tails at the immobilized Jin Fung.

An explosive shockwave radiated out. The Cryanid Flies swarmed around Jin Fung were tossed like ragged dolls. Some were torn apart by the force. All had their wings broken. They could no longer fly even if they survived. The only ones that weren’t repelled by the explosive shockwave were the two Cryanid Wasps.

The Cryanid Wasps’ poisonous tails hovered an inch from Jin Fung’s body. They couldn’t push in any deeper. A layer of powerful repelling force covered her body. This grey layer darkened her entire body.

She performed a double punch in opposite directions, hitting the two Cryanid Wasps in front and behind her. When her fists collided with the Cryanids’ bodies, they didn’t send the Cryanids flying like before. Instead, grey orbs exploded from the point of collision. These grey orbs quickly shrank back to a tiny dot. As they did, the parts of the Cryanids’ bodies, where the orbs enveloped, were ripped away. Where the orbs were, the flesh of the Cryanids was gone.

These implosion punches killed one of the two Cryanid Wasps. One survived because Jin Fung didn’t hit its vital part. Its survival didn’t last long, though, because she followed up with the same punch to the surviving Cryanid Wasp’s head. The grey orb reappeared and removed the Cryanid Wasp’s head.

Both the dark grey repelling field that protected Jin Fung’s body and the implosion punch were arcane arts of the gravity elements. With these powerful defensive and offensive arts, she turned to the right and headed to the masses of Cryanid that remained stationary.

"Everyone! With me...!!!" She thundered.

Her followers were having difficulty dealing with the Cryanids swarming them from all sides, but they followed her lead. All the leaders with the Slayer ranks rushed ahead and helped Jin Fung open the path. As they progressed, the number of strong Cryanids blocking their way increased.

A Cryanid Whale used its massive body as a wall, blocking their advance as the other Cryanids jumped or attacked from the flanks. Even Jin Fung’s implosion punches were rendered ineffective. The grey orbs resulting from her punches could only remove small chunks of flesh from the large Cryanid. This flesh loss quickly regenerated as the Cryanid Whale’s outer flesh was made of elastic fat.

Aside from its ability to regenerate its protective outer layer, it could shoot poisonous spikes from the large pores all over its body. There was no telltale sign. The spikes just shot out of the pores without warning, and since the pores were all around the body, the spikes hit everything in the Cryanid Whale’s vicinity.

Many failed to dodge the spikes. Only those with powerful defensive arts who had already activated these arts survived the sudden attack. Weaker cultivators of the Acolyte Realm died instantly after being impaled by the spikes. Malicious Stage cultivators who were hit were paralyzed by the poison and soon became easy prey for the Cryanid Soldiers. Only those of the Fiendish Stage could still fight even after getting stabbed by the spikes. They were still weakened by the poison, though.

The spikes couldn’t hit Jin Fung because her gravity layer warded them. With that protection, she focused on her offense. Her aether accumulated on her two fists. With a thundering shout, she shoved both fists deep into Cryanid Whale’s fatty skin.

She released the accumulated power using an explosive art. A column of grey energy burst out of the opposite side of the Cryanid Whale. This column expanded and almost split the Cryanid Whale’s large body in two. When the grey energy subsided, a large, gaping hole was in the center of the Cryanid’s body. The hole was large enough for a person to walk through. The Cryanid Whale no longer moved or regenerated.

"Onward!" Jin Fung roared.

As they proceeded, the Cryanids that remained motionless all this time finally moved. In unison, these Cryanids moved toward the incoming threat. From the cultivators’ perspective, the way the Cryanids moved was like a massive wall rolling toward them.

Most were intimidated by the sight. Not Jin Fung, though. She grinned, instead. "Haha, that’s more like it. Come at me, you motherfucking disgusting bugs!"

She charged headfirst and crashed into the Cryanid wall. Her followers were inspired by her bravery and continued to advance despite the certainty of being overwhelmed by the enemy. In reality, they had no choice. The Cryanids were everywhere. They were already in too deep. The only way out was to keep punching forward and hope for a miracle.

*

"It’s time!" Amon gave the signal and dashed forward.

Xou Liang yelled for everyone to follow Amon.

They hid their position between two blocks of tall slum buildings while fighting the Cryanids that approached. Amon left the fighting for the others while he climbed onto the building’s rooftop to monitor the situation. Once he saw the protective details around the Cryanid’s command center move, he gave the command to advance.

Not many Cryanids were between them and their targets, so they could charge at their fastest speed. Amon had instructed everyone beforehand. Speed was key. If one of their comrades was blocked by a Cryanid and must fight, they must keep advancing, even if that meant leaving their comrade to certain death. The priority was to reach the enemy’s command center.

Though most of the protective details of the command center had moved away, some remained. These remaining ones noticed Amon’s fast-approaching troops. They immediately rearranged themselves to face this new threat. However, since this new threat came from the opposite direction from the first one, not many were available to form a defensive formation.

Amon turned into a flash and rushed forward using Invisible Phantom Flash. Xou Liang followed closely. The other Slayer-ranked leaders also dashed forward and used their arts. In a blitzing assault, they demolished the Cryanids blocking their way and arrived at the enemy’s command center.

"What...?!" Xou Liang and almost everyone else responded in surprise to what they saw before them.

Standing at the center of a group of Cryanids were two humanoid Cryanids. What was most surprising about them was not their appearance, but their aura. Instead of giving off a natural aura like spirit beasts, they exuded a cultivation aura like human cultivators. From their aura, one of the humanoid Cryanid was at the Intermediate Fiendish Stage, while the other was at the Peak Fiendish Stage.

The two humanoid Cryanids looked at each other and made weird clicking sounds with their jaws. From the look of it, they were communicating.

Amon turned to Xou Liang and said, "From your look, I assume this is the first time you have encountered beings such as those two?"

"Encounter? I have never even heard of a spirit beast practicing cultivation. Those two are spirit beasts, aren’t they?"

"Whatever they are, they are responsible for this invasion. If you want to save your city, then they are our targets. Attackkk...!!"

With that attack command, everyone lunged forward. However, one of the humanoid Cryanids screeched. The screech was also an attack command. All the remaining Cryanids around the two charged toward Amon’s group. At the same time, the ground erupted, and a colossal worm emerged.