Chapter 146: That Didn’t Work
It wasn’t long after Benton sensed the last of the rank five beasts near the village dying that he received the notifications. Yang Xiu advanced her attack technique to Large Success. Even better, Yang Ru did the same for both his primary techniques.
There was no similar notification for Kang Lin, but that lack was fine. Benton already felt better about the village’s chances for a successful defense with the twins’ powerup.
Not long after—way too short a time, actually—the rank six beasts appeared to his spiritual sense. The good news was that there were only thirty-one of them. The bad news was that they were spread out over at least a half mile instead of being grouped together. Killing all of them before they reached the village was going to be a chore and a half.
Best get to it, then.
Benton Quickstepped to one end of the line of beasts and triggered Chain Lighting. Since gaining the ability to form Concepts that supercharged his qi upon reaching Golden Core, he didn’t need to worry about using an opposing aspect to overwhelm a shield. Rank six beasts, the equivalent to the peak of Foundation Establishment, were no match for his Lightning.
The technique also held an important advantage over his Void arrows—it left most of the bodies intact. Not undamaged, obviously. But intact. Even better, the all-important core wasn’t harmed in most cases.
To achieve a better result, he would have to target arrows with a tiny bit of qi in order to selectively penetrate a beast’s body with just the minimum amount necessary to kill it. The monetary benefit of leaving intact skins, more meat, and risking less damage to other valuable materials would be great. The cost, however, would be in time.
Dedicating that much effort to each creature would mean that some, perhaps a lot, would get past him, making him choose between going back to eliminate them or continuing forward. Too many rank sixes chanced overwhelming the defenders and trusting the static defense of the shield with their lives. If he instead retreated back to the village, he risked the very real chance of the next wave catching him there and having to engage Golden Core equivalent enemies in close proximity to the people he was trying to protect.
Frankly, he just wasn’t all that worried about preserving every single tael. Benton electrocuted the beasts with abandon.
The only real disadvantage of the technique was that it required line of sight to target, meaning he had to move to the beast, find it with his eyes, and then trigger the lightning. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
That procedure quickly revealed the problem with his plan. As beasts increased in rank, the disparities between physical characteristics grew. Some were focused on Strength. Some Toughness. Some Stealth or Perception. Others Speed.
As soon as his first attack landed, the fastest among the horde stopped maintaining pace with their fellows. They scattered, all making for the village with haste.