Chapter 83: Extermination protocol
A pillar of purple light erupted from the spot where the Thunder Wings had been. The symbols along the walls all lit up simultaneously, and a mechanical voice echoed throughout the space.
[Central treasure detected as dismantled.]
[Conflict exceeding permissible threshold detected.]
[Treasure reclamation process failed.]
[Activating extermination protocol.]
[All unregistered units will be classified as targets.]
Metal doors hidden within the walls swung open all at once.
Dozens of retrieval puppets stepped out.
Their bodies were forged from black metal, with blades or magic barrels mounted on both arms. Most radiated Silver-rank energy, but six among them reached Gold-rank.
The moment they appeared, they locked onto the nearest targets.
One puppet crashed into the Beastkin group.
Brakk swung his war axe and knocked it away, but three more were already advancing. The Elf contingent was also hit by magic blasts and had to erect defensive barriers.
Korr led the Stoneweavers backward, forming a circular formation.
"The puppets don’t discriminate targets. Protect yourselves."
The room instantly descended into chaos.
Aldren looked at the symbols glowing on the puppets’ chests, then raised his hand to touch the cracked green stone on his forehead.
Blue light spread rapidly outward. A very faint energy fluctuation swept across the room.
The puppets attacking the Elf group stopped immediately. Their heads swiveled toward Ethan, as if they had just detected a more important target.
Not just them.
The majority of puppets in the room changed direction all at once.
Korr noticed the anomaly immediately. The core on his chest blazed bright, his crystal eyes locking onto Aldren.
"You’re interfering with their targeting."
Aldren kept the green stone active and answered calmly. "I’m simply helping them locate the treasure that was taken."
"You’re pulling every puppet toward Ethan."
"The Thunder Wings are on his body. It’s only natural they’d choose him."
Korr watched the blue fluctuation linking the stone on Aldren’s forehead to the control symbols. He knew the male Elf was lying, but before he could act, dozens of puppets had already charged in a single direction.
Ruo Yan watched the metal army flooding toward them, her expression turning grim.
"They’re targeting Ethan."
Laira stepped forward, her new wing spreading wide. Crimson flames and purple-silver lightning surged around her body simultaneously.
"Then we destroy them all."
Behind her, the Necromancer raised its broken staff high. A massive black magic circle opened across the ground, covering nearly half the room.
White bones pushed up through the cracks in the stone.
One arm.
Ten arms.
Hundreds of arms.
An army of Skeletons crawled out of the ground in unison, raising shields in front of Ethan.
The retrieval puppets slammed into the Skeleton army.
The sounds of clashing metal, shattering bone, and exploding magic rang out without pause. The Skeletons in front held for only a few seconds before being hacked apart by the blades, but the row behind immediately stepped up to fill the gaps.
The Necromancer stood in the center of the magic circle, the broken staff glowing continuously. Every time a Skeleton was destroyed, another crawled up from the ground.
Ruo Yan raised both hands, hundreds of Soul Threads connecting to the puppets around her.
"Laira, the front is yours. I’ll hold both flanks and the rear."
Laira didn’t turn around.
"Don’t let anything get near Ethan."
"I don’t need you to tell me that."
A Gold-rank puppet broke through the Skeleton line and charged forward. Laira slammed her wing down, and over a hundred Thunder-Iron Feathers detached, assembling into a massive blade.
She swung her arm.
The Thunder-Iron blade cleaved across the puppet’s body.
The metal armor was cut deep, purple lightning racing inside to destroy its energy core. The puppet collapsed, but two more immediately stepped over its remains.
Ruo Yan directed two wooden puppets to grab the legs of one, while the Necromancer raised a Bone Shield to block the other.
Laira charged in, punched through the first puppet’s head, then swept the second into the wall with her tail.
But they weren’t only facing retrieval puppets.
Brakk and the Beastkin were still outside, and Aldren was continuously directing the Elves to fire arrows through every opening on the battlefield.
Aldren no longer ordered his people to attack head-on. He simply had them wait until Laira or Ruo Yan was pinned down by the puppets, then aimed at Ethan.
Korr saw how he operated, and his voice turned colder.
"You’re using the defense mechanism to kill them."
Aldren dodged a puppet’s blade and answered, "I’m simply making use of the situation. If you feel that’s wrong, you’re welcome to keep watching."
A Gold-rank puppet suddenly changed direction and lunged toward a young member of the Stoneweaver clan.
Korr immediately punched the ground.
A wall of metalite stone shot up, blocking the attack. Two other members seized the puppet while Korr drove his hand through its chest and crushed the energy core.
He looked at the green stone on Aldren’s forehead.
"You’ve scrambled the entire system. If we don’t destroy these puppets, no one leaves here alive."
Aldren didn’t respond.
Korr didn’t waste more words on debate either. He turned to his clanmates, his gravelly voice cutting across the battlefield.
"Destroy the retrieval puppets. Do not attack Ethan or his two Partners."
Eight Stoneweavers advanced at once.
They didn’t go near Ethan, but they intercepted a portion of the puppets Aldren had been steering in that direction. The pressure on Laira and Ruo Yan eased, though the sheer number of enemies remained overwhelming.
The battle dragged on.
No one had a chance to rest.
...
Two hours later, the ground was buried under white bone and metal debris.
The Necromancer kept summoning Skeletons, but the pace had slowed from before. The green flames in its eye sockets had grown weaker, and the broken staff had developed many new cracks.
Laira stood in front of Ethan, fresh wounds covering her body. The Thunder-Iron wing still functioned, but every time the feathers detached, the base of the wing sent a stab of pain that made her shoulder tremble.
Ruo Yan directed the three wooden puppets to guard three sides. The Soul Threads had cut deep grooves into her fingertips, blood running continuously down her palms.
Aldren still hadn’t entered the fight directly.
He stood behind the Elf formation, occasionally using the green stone to redirect the retrieval puppets’ targeting. Every time a group of Beastkin or Elves tired, he immediately rotated them out for fresh ones.
Laira and Ruo Yan had no replacements.
All they could do was keep standing.
...
Five hours in, the Skeleton defensive ring had shrunk to half its original size.
The Bone Shield around Ethan had been broken seven times.
Each time, the Necromancer rebuilt it, but both the thickness and the regeneration speed were noticeably declining.
Ruo Yan knelt on one knee, using her teeth to pull a thread connecting to the puppet on the left taut. Her wrists had gone numb, but she still refused to lower her hands.
Laira stood less than five meters from Ethan.
She no longer charged out proactively. She only used fire or the Thunder Wings to repel enemies when they entered her range.
Brakk was also injured badly. One shoulder had been scorched by lightning, and his chest armor bore multiple cuts. But he still had enough strength to keep fighting.
Aldren looked at the state of both women and smiled.
"They’re almost out of energy. Keep going."
Brakk breathed heavily and said with irritation, "I’ve lost four of my people."
"After we take the Thunder Wings, the Red Fang warband will receive a third."
"How do you plan to divide it when the treasure is already inside two bodies?"
Aldren looked at Ethan.
"Cut the Primordial Armor out first. Take the other half from the dragon’s wing. As long as the cores still exist, we’ll find a way to reassemble them."
Brakk didn’t ask further.
He led his people forward again.
...
By the eighth hour, Aldren drew a slender sword from its sheath.
Laira could no longer use short-range teleportation. Every time she tried to control too many feathers, the Solar Flame Seal shuddered violently, causing the red patterns on her chest to flare in chaotic bursts.
Ruo Yan only had enough strength left to maintain a very small number of Skeletons.
The three old wooden puppets were in worse shape than before. One had lost its left arm entirely, another could only operate on one leg, and the last one had a large crack running from shoulder to chest.
Aldren knew the moment had arrived.
He raised his sword.
Twelve Elves immediately spread out, erecting a green array around the room. Hundreds of vines sprouted up, not attacking Ethan but binding Laira, Ruo Yan, and the Necromancer.
Laira burned through the vines around her, but the moment she stepped forward, Brakk was already charging in.
The war axe swung horizontally.
Laira blocked it with the Thunder-Iron wing. Lightning erupted, but Brakk had wrapped both hands in insulating beast hide this time. He wasn’t blasted away like before, only sliding half a step back before pressing the axe down harder.
Laira clenched her teeth, both feet sinking into the stone floor.
Behind her, three Elves simultaneously vanished from the array.
Ruo Yan sensed the spatial fluctuation too late.
They appeared right behind the Bone Shield.
One carried a spear. The other two drew bows.
The magic spear drove straight at Ethan’s chest.
Ruo Yan wrenched her fingers, but the Necromancer was tangled in vines. The nearest puppet was over ten meters away.
The spear punched through the cracked Bone Shield.
The wooden puppet missing an arm suddenly spun around.
It threw itself in front of Ethan.
Thwack!
The spear pierced straight through the puppet’s chest.
The Elf tightened his grip on the shaft and activated the magic.
Boom!
The puppet’s entire chest and head exploded. Wooden shards flew everywhere, and the Soul Thread connecting it snapped instantly.
Ruo Yan’s hand froze.
In her mind, a very small space went blank, a space where a familiar feedback from the puppet that had accompanied her for years had always existed.
Now that feedback was gone.
Ruo Yan didn’t cry out.
She yanked the remaining thread and pulled the small gray core from the wreckage back to Ethan’s side. After setting it down, she immediately directed the two remaining puppets to attack.
One puppet severed the spearman’s neck.
The other used its body to ram the two bow-wielding Elves, shoving them out of the defensive perimeter.
Ruo Yan looked at the puppet’s core lying next to Ethan, her eyes darkening.
’I’ll fix you.’
She didn’t know if she could.
But right now, she had no time to think about it.