Refining the Heavens 4 (炼天四)

Chapter 16: The Barbarian Lords

A bright moon hung high above.

Instead of its usual gentle white light that pour down onto Gaia, it had been stained red tonight.

The soil below was soaked with blood and small mounds of corpses littered the battlefield.

The Snowdrifts tread upon the scorched land with shattering breaths and limbs shaking with exhaustion.

The unceasing killing had taken a toll and over five hundred had fallen during this time. Their enemies fared much, much, worse with more than ten thousand lying dead all around.

It was a spectacular result, all things considered.

Their foes gave them a wide berth, frightened yet not daring to leave.

The stench of death and blood was enough to make veteran warriors cry.

In the past two days, the enemy had learnt just how formidable are the young leaders of the Snowdrifts; their age unbefitting their strength.

Nine captains, Lucas, Gigas, Watts, Lee, Sasha, Silvers, John, Long, and Lan Lei from the Resounding Thunder family, each led a team to cut down their enemies.

Lux Cixton, Tommy Styrkur, Alan Walker, held down a front apiece and prevented the enemy reinforcements from overwhelming their position.

Luciette, Alucard, and Kairos led small groups that decimated scores of barbarians. Using the feint retreat tactic – springing unexpected attacks then luring enemies into heavy fire while constantly moving - their attacking abilities caused their enemies to pale in fear.

The fifteen disciples under the lead of Ah Gui, Ah Pui, and Selena, assassinated enemy Chiefs silently.

Jim brought chaos in the form of poisons, traps, and hidden weapons, wherever he went, his flying daggers rained down on all who tried to run away from him.

The Fiend Edge - a long spear, looking immaterial and dimly glowing - hovered around, striking down all who dared to challenge him as the saboteur crossed the battlefield.

Von Cixton bombarded where the enemy were the densest like a fearsome Ki Cannon that caused the stoutest hearts to quiver, and Edward sniped down the heavily armored as though they were naked.

Besides them, the support staffs were working just as hard behind the scene and their importance cannot be underestimated.

In charge of equipment were the two members of Alucard's team, Fauna the inscriptionist and Flora the blacksmith.

Lugh was in command of the medics.

Lastly, Leaf, Snow, Small, and Smaller, were responsible for coordinating every team in battle. The timing to attack or retreat depended on them and any mistake is paid in blood, but they delivered with perfection.

Against this group, the barbarians finally realised that the small fries can only become landfill no matter how many are sent against them.

In order to stop the Snowdrifts, the Frosthral could only send in the generals and high rankers.

But when thousands of A and S rankers charged them, their enemies returned into that infuriating formation, the Grand Bagua Array.

The force of every attack was transferred down the rank and file and eventually dispersed, or worse still, the impact was sent back to the attackers.

In the end, their commanders were forced to trade lives for lives.

When in combat, the barbarians feared nothing.

They would walk into a blade to tear out an eye from their foes. Plenty had died without leaving so much as a scratch on the Snowdrifts and through the deaths of their brothers, they went mad with bloodlust.