"Cough... cough cough..."
Amidst the dust and smoke of the explosion, a surviving mage struggled to crawl out from beneath the corpses of his companions.
He was covered in blood, one ear bleeding incessantly from the shockwave, and his head was buzzing so loudly he could hear almost nothing.
He stared blankly at the hellish scene around him; his former companions had all been turned into charred, mangled corpses.
Fear, like a cold tide, instantly submerged him.
"Terrifying..."
He trembled, letting out a desperate groan.
However, his groan was soon interrupted by a series of heavy footsteps.
He struggled to lift his head and, through the gradually thinning smoke, saw a group of figures carrying long sabers striding toward him.
Leading them was a tall woman wielding a long saber.
It was Akomann and her Ember Fire Legion.
Akomann's eyes were as cold as ice.
She looked at the mage position that had been blown to smithereens, smelled the stench of char and blood permeating the air, and spat with a cold sneer.
"Clean up the rest."
Akomann spat out those few words and swung the long saber in her hand.
"Yes!"
The warriors of the Ember Fire Legion behind her brandished their long sabers and charged into the smoke and sea of fire.
"No! Don't come over here!"
The mages and guards who had survived the explosion—either heavily wounded or scared out of their wits—let out desperate screams as they watched these barbarians who looked like demon gods descending to earth.
They tried to resist; some attempted to chant spells, while others tried to raise their weapons.
But before these frenzied Ember warriors, all efforts were in vain.
*Squelch!*
A mage had just raised his staff, and before he could utter half a syllable, a long saber descended from above, splitting him in two from head to toe.
Blood and internal organs spilled across the ground.
Another guard cavalryman mustered his courage and lunged his sword at an Ember warrior.
The warrior didn't dodge or evade, allowing the longsword to strike his thick leather armor coated in fireproof ointment with a dull thud.
The longsword only penetrated a few inches before being caught by the tough leather and powerful muscles.
A look of terror appeared on the knight's face.
The Ember warrior, meanwhile, bared a hideous grin, and his long saber whistled through the air, lopping off the knight's head.
*Splurt!*
A pillar of blood shot into the sky!
It was a one-sided massacre.
Once these mages lost their distance advantage and were closed in upon, they were even more fragile than ordinary people.
Akomann's gaze swept across the chaotic battlefield and locked onto the distance, beneath the flag belonging to the Roland Empire commander.
Just as Akomann was leading the Ember Fire Legion to clear the mage positions, Wu Liang moved.
He leapt down from the command platform, his figure becoming somewhat blurred the moment he touched the ground.
"Shadow Step!"
"Sprint!"
At this moment, he pushed the innate talents of the Fox and Dog Clans to their absolute limits.
His speed was so fast that he left a string of afterimages in the air.
He charged at high speed toward the remnants of the Mage Corps that had just been dazed by the explosions.
"Protect the Master Mages!"
A few loyal guard knights finally reacted from their shock and tried to form a defensive line.
But Wu Liang's speed was too fast.
So fast that their eyes simply couldn't track him.
"Berserk Blood Boil!"
During his Sprint, the blood within Wu Liang's body began to boil frantically.
Surges of violent power erupted from every cell in his body.
His muscles bulged at a visible rate, and his entire being radiated a terrifying aura that made one's heart skip a beat.
Like a cannonball fired from its barrel, he slammed hard into a squad of Imperial infantrymen trying to intercept him.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
He used no weapons.
He relied solely on the purest physical impact.
Those Imperial Soldiers wearing full plate armor were like people hit by a high-speed charging beast.
Their armor dented instantly, their bones shattered, and they were sent flying while coughing up blood, losing their lives before they even hit the ground.
Wu Liang's speed didn't slow in the slightest.
He crashed into the panicked mages and guards.
"Die!"
An inhuman low growl escaped Wu Liang's throat.
He threw a punch.
*Boom!*
The violent wind from his punch formed a visible shockwave.
A guard knight directly in front was blown away, man and shield together.
The armor on his chest was completely caved in, forming a terrifying fist print.
Wu Liang reached out with a backhand and grabbed the head of a mage who was preparing to cast a spell.
In his hand, that mage was like a small chick, utterly powerless to resist.
*Crack!*
Wu Liang exerted force with his five fingers, and that head wearing a mage hat was crushed like a walnut by his raw strength.
"Mercy! No!"
The surviving mages completely broke down.
The mages screamed and scattered in flight, having lost all will to fight.
Expressionless, Wu Liang rampaged through the crowd.
Punches, kicks, elbow strikes, knee strikes... every attack inevitably took one or several lives.
"Stop him! Quickly, stop him!"
Arthur Merlin's eyes were nearly splitting with rage.
He had just escaped from that deathly barrage under the desperate cover of his personal guards; before he could even catch his breath, he saw a scene he would never forget.
That barbarian leader, that bastard who had snatched away his sister, had actually charged into their Mage Corps single-handedly, as if entering an uninhabited land!
Those were their most precious assets!
But now, they were like a flock of lambs waiting for slaughter, being wantonly massacred by a monster.
Arthur's eyes turned red instantly.
"Kill this bastard for me!!"
Arthur raised his knight's lance and, ignoring his guards' dissuasion, turned his horse around and launched a charge toward Wu Liang's position.
"Kill!"
Arthur roared as his warhorse galloped forth.
The dozens of personal guards behind him followed without hesitation.
The most elite cavalry of the Griffin Knights Regiment were Arthur's personal bodyguards, each possessing the strength to take on ten men.
They launched a counter-attack toward Wu Liang, who was in the middle of his killing spree.
Wu Liang felt the sharp killing intent coming from behind him.
He kicked away a cavalryman trying to ambush him and turned his head, just in time to see those eyes filled with anger and hatred.
It was Annia's idiot brother.
A cruel curve appeared at the corner of Wu Liang's mouth.
Just in time.
He didn't dodge; instead, he stopped his slaughter of the others and simply stood there quietly, watching that elite knight squad draw closer and closer.
Three hundred meters.
Two hundred meters.
One hundred meters.
In Arthur's eyes, only Wu Liang's figure remained.
He poured all the energy in his body into the lance in his hand.
On the tip of the lance, the white light of Battle Qi condensed into a single point, radiating a bone-chilling coldness.
He wanted to use this strike to pierce through Wu Liang's heart!
However, just as he was less than fifty meters from Wu Liang.
Wu Liang moved.
He bent down and thrust both hands into the soil beneath his feet.
"Roar—!"
Accompanied by a violent roar, Wu Liang's arms suddenly exerted force!
*Rumble!*
A massive chunk of rock over five meters in diameter, along with soil and grass roots, was forcibly uprooted from the ground by him!
That rock must have weighed several tons at the very least!
But in Wu Liang's hands, it seemed as light as nothing.
Holding this giant rock, he exerted force from his waist and spun around violently, like a discus thrower, hurling the giant stone with all his might toward the charging Arthur!
*Whoosh—!*
The massive rock, carrying a terrifying whistle, crashed down toward Arthur and his personal guards like a true meteorite!
Arthur's pupils instantly contracted to the size of pinheads.
The anger and killing intent on his face vanished in this instant, leaving only endless shock and fear.
Is this... is this the kind of power a human can possess?!