The tremors caused by the Bone Giants’ charge weren’t something that could be underestimated.
Their tremors caused many people in the surroundings to fall on the ground and to be buried under the sand – unable to be seen by the other people and Undead that ended up trampling on the unfortunate victims.
As the surrounding trembled clouds of sand were whirled up. They filled the surroundings, covering the Bone Giants and blasting in Daniel’s direction. Daniel ought to be affected by the grains of sand shooting toward him. However, he didn’t pay much attention to the sand. He summoned one of his artifacts instead.
The Artifact was a crimson mask that covered his entire head. It enhanced his perception and other senses drastically.
Danny summoned a few more Silver Qi Swords which he controlled to rotate around their own axis before they were thrown at the three Bone Giants. Then, he charged at one of the Bone Giants. He kicked his feet from the ground and jumped high in the air. He landed on one of the Bone Giant’s ribs and intended to jump higher when he noticed something that attracted his interest.
He pushed himself up by kicking his feet from the rib and jumped on the shoulders of another Bone Giant. The Bone Giant had been attempting to slash Danny, only to end up hitting its brethren.
The heavy longsword strike was strong enough to inflict a deep gash across the Bone Giant’s rib. Seeing how little the Undead cared about friendly fire, Danny couldn’t help but test something.
He moved on the Bone Giant’s shoulder and got closer to its neck. The Bone Giant – on which he was standing – tried to shake him off, but Danny was tenacious enough to play a little game of rodeo.
However, the rodeo did not last for long. It was over once both of the remaining Bone Giants slashed at Danny, ignoring the fact that their longswords were too long and that their slash would impact heavily on the other Bone Giant’s neck.
‘They’re not sentient Undead, are they? Is that why the Primedival Pyramid considers this battle an initial trial? Or did the Primedival Pyramid lower the difficulty level of the initial trial after sensing the Tier of everyone in its proximity?’ Daniel Fang wondered.
It was common knowledge that ancient ruins would adjust their difficulty level to a certain degree according to the strength of the infiltrators. Ancient ruins had come into existence because the Will of the Origin Expanse wanted the younger generation to find ancient relics. It was unknown what the Will of the Origin Expanse was trying to achieve by strengthening the Lords living in the Origin Expanse, but it was quite easy to tell that the Will worked hard to create golden opportunities for those who were willing to take the risk.
The Primedival Pyramid’s lowest difficulty must have been chosen, restraining the full combat prowess of the Superior Creatures, and the Mythical Existences.
Danny had only been fighting a single Mythical Creature at the 2nd Tier – while it was still a youngling – but he knew that it was much more deadly and far more intelligent than the three Bone Giants together.
Even with the combined effort of Danny, the Lamia Queen, the Awakened working under him, and his strongest Summons, it had been impossible to kill the Mythical Existence at the 2nd Tier.
What seemed impossible at that time, didn’t look the same right now. Right now, Danny was confident that he could outwit the Bone Giants, ensuring that they would kill each other in their haste to hit him.
‘The lowest difficulty is something I can easily deal with. The Initial trial is also something we can finish without sustaining heavy casualties!’ Danny told himself, moving through the air with tremendous speed.
He manifested Silver Qi Swords beneath him to start running away to avoid the two Bone Giant’s sword slashes. The third Bone Giant suffered from the impact of the two heavy swords. It didn’t die, but its neck cracked. Deep cracks had been formed, creating an opportunity for Danny.
He used more than a quarter of his energy to release a crescent-shaped sword qi blade, cutting through the neck of the Bone Giant.
Afterward, he continued to move through the air using Qi Swords as stepping stones. After using several perfectly purified potions to increase his strength momentarily, his body felt recharged and his energy storage was rapidly replenished.
The origin energy inside him felt much stronger than usual as well. This made it even easier for him to move around mid-air.
Daniel didn’t use his Soultrait to move around in the air under ordinary circumstances. But it was much easier to deal with large enemies while facing them head-on. He could change his altitude easily by jumping high in the air and creating more Qi Swords whenever he was about to fall down, or jumping down and manifesting a Qi Sword when he was close enough to the ground.
He could even use the Qi Swords as a springboard to kick his feet with tremendous force and accumulate more momentum. And that was exactly what Danny did once he found out that the Primedival Pyramid’s lowered difficulty restricted the sentience of the Bone Giants.
The other Undeads weren’t restricted that much, but the Bone Giants and the Necrosphinx’s intellect and battle instincts were restricted – almost as if the Primedival Pyramid tried to turn the Mythical Existences into mere Superior Creatures to help him fight them.
Danny didn’t have to understand the Will’s reasoning to put restrictions on ancient ruins. The only thing he paid attention to was the fact that his army was much stronger than the others. He could clearly determine that the teamwork of his army was exceptional, and that his people didn’t have a problem dealing with the Anubirats and other powerful creatures such as the Giant Ghoul Serpents, and Crypt Ghouls.
On the contrary, the other Lords’ armies were facing a huge issue; they couldn’t even stall the Necrosphinx.
𝒏𝑜𝓋𝗲𝗅𝐧𝓮xt.𝗇𝓔t
They allowed the Anubirats to wreak havoc alongside the Bone Giants and gave the Kleshabits enough opportunities to stay far in the back, killing one powerful Summon after another with their deadly arrows.
Danny was tackling two Lesser Mythical Creatures at the 3rd Tier on his own, using most of his trump cards. It might be idiotic to reveal and use his trump cards, but Daniel was fully aware of his combat prowess, and that he would never be able to fight the Bone Giants if not for the exotic potions and his Epic Tier-3 Sword Artifact.
Nonetheless, he didn’t underestimate the Bone Giants. A single mistake and everything would be for naught.
The Other Lords didn’t use their trump cards yet. They were too conscious of the other Lords and were unwilling to reveal their secret trump cards before the final battle. After all, the final battle would be held once the Primedival Pyramid had been conquered. That was what they’d promised each other.
But Danny didn’t think the same as the other Lords. If he could ensure the survival of his subjects in the struggle of the Primedival Pyramid’s conquest, he would have a numerical advantage against the other Lords.
The number of their casualties was extremely high. That might also be related to the vast number of their armies.
After all, each of the three Lords had an army numbering close to 100,000 entities respectively.
But their vast number was all these Lords had. None of them had the means to properly and meticulously nurture 100,000 Warriors, forget about equipping each of them with valuable potions and Armaments.
Their living expenses were already enough to eat a big chunk of their territories’ income.
Meanwhile, Danny was more content with a small army with extraordinary armaments and potions. The instructors in his territory were able to focus on his subjects’ training, while the smaller army of warriors was able to create groups with tacit understanding and individual strategies. All in all, Danny’s army might seem insignificant if one looked solely at their numbers, however, their combat prowess and intellect was exceptional. One of them was enough to deal with five Summons of any of the other Lords, and they wouldn’t lose out either.
Danny’s only worry was the Necrosphinx and how fast he could finish off the remaining Bone Giants. The Awakened under him, and his strongest Summons were having a hard time against the Necrosphinx. So far, two of his Awakened had died, while the rest had gotten serious injuries. It was only a matter of time before they would die.
By the time the Necrosphinx was set free even Danny’s well-trained army wouldn’t be able to deal with this monstrosity. Understanding the predicament, Danny circulated more energy through his body. The Reinforced Sword Qi around his sword grew denser.
Danny appeared in front of one of the Bone Giant’s head, thrusting the sword deep between its eye sockets. Then he released the compressed Reinforced Sword Qi with a burst. The Bone Giant’s Skull began to crack. It didn’t break immediately, but Danny didn’t panic. On the contrary, he unleashed more energy to create a second and third burst of Sword Qi to shatter the Bone Giant’s skull.
In the next moment, the last remaining Bone Giant appeared behind Danny. It slashed at him, not caring that the full impact of its attack cut easily through its brethren’s neck, causing the rest of its body to collapse and crash onto the ground like a house of cards.
Danny created a Qi Sword beneath him, and propelled himself off the Qi Sword to jump lightly in the air, easily evading the Bone Giant’s sword as it passed by. He then created another Qi Sword vertically next to him. Danny tilted his body and jumped to the Bone Giant using the Qi Sword as a springboard.
He used every ounce of strength inside his body to shoot forward while using most of his remaining Reinforced Sword Qi to expand his Sword Artifact.
The next moment, Danny shot through the air like a cannonball, his sword piercing through the Bone Giant’s Skull upon impact.
Now only the Necrosphinx was left to fight through his energy storage was as dry as the Sacred Desert.