Chapter 160: Siege Battle, The Odd Winged Statue

Chapter 160: Siege Battle, The Odd Winged Statue

Boom!

A deafening, thunderous roar echoed through the vast cavern, causing the stalactites on the ceiling to tremble violently.

Amidst the chaos, cries of battle and agony rang out, one after another.

Helm-clad hyenas, dogheads, and lizardfolk stood on the city walls, their eyes bloodshot as they fought desperately against the stone golems.

Despite the relentless deaths of their comrades under the massive fists of the golems, these usually cowardly creatures showed no fear, as if they had been driven into a berserk frenzy.

Behind them, a group of mind flayers floated in the air.

They appeared like giant eyeballs, with a maw full of sharp teeth at the center of their bodies, surrounded by long tentacles that ended in small, glowing purple eyes.

A closer look revealed that the slaves under their control also had a hint of eerie purple light in their eyes.

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

Grayish beams of energy pierced through the battlefield.

The mind flayers’ illusions had no effect on the puppets, so they resorted to their beams to counter them.

Puppets were continuously shattered by these beams.

For both the defenders and the attackers, the slaves and puppets on the front lines were mere expendables.

Thus, neither side hesitated to sacrifice their forces, throwing more and more troops into the fray.

From the moment the battle began, it had escalated into a fierce and brutal struggle.

In the distance, Xeman and Core watched the scene with grave expressions.

This was their first time witnessing an underground siege.

Before the battle, they hadn’t realized the gravity of the situation, but now, the gruesome reality of the battlefield deeply shook them.

In a war where even knights were mere cannon fodder, the power of a second-level apprentice wizard was woefully inadequate, and a single misstep could mean death.

The pride and satisfaction they had felt from advancing to the second level of apprenticeship vanished with the deafening cries of battle.

The knights behind them, clutching their sword hilts, couldn’t hide their nervousness.

After all, this was their first real war.

Compared to the skirmishes they had encountered during explorations, this battle was on a whole different scale.

However, touching the magical rune constructs hanging from their necks somewhat alleviated their tension.

Boom!

A loud explosion echoed from a distance, accompanied by a cloud of dust rising into the air.

The crumbling city walls, unable to withstand the golems’ relentless assault, finally collapsed.

The path to the inner city of Giant Eye was now clear.

Seeing this, the Red Widow, the commander, immediately ordered a full assault.

Boom! Boom!

Led by the higher-tier stone golems and elite dual-blade spiders, the legendary puppet squad charged forward, joining the battle with a fierce momentum.

The knight guard followed closely behind. With Captain Sheen’s command to “activate the constructs,” everyone gripped their rune constructs and infused them with martial energy.

In an instant, strange black patterns spread across their exposed skin.

An invisible aura enveloped them, as if they were clad in an intangible armor.

Their auras surged, and the knight guard’s morale soared.

“Charge!”

Sheen swung his sword forward and led the charge, riding a black rock leopard.

The other rune knights roared and followed suit.

Five hundred rune knights surged forward like a black flood, overwhelming the defenses of Giant Eye.

Xeman and Core exchanged a glance, activated their rune constructs, and cast a shield spell using their protective rings before mounting their black rock leopards and joining the fray.

The wind scattered the dust, revealing the situation inside.

After the walls collapsed, the mind flayers retreated further, and more slaves surged forward in a tidal wave, attempting to halt the attackers’ advance.

However, in front of the charging rune knights, these expendables offered little resistance.

Dogheads and lizardfolk fell one after another under the enchanted weapons.

The knight guard, like a sharp blade, tore through the defenders’ formation, leaving it in disarray.

Buzz!

A beam of energy shot from a distance, striking Sheen but stopping just a centimeter from his body, deflected by the rune construct’s invisible force field.

Sheen’s body wavered slightly, and he turned to face the source of the beam, a mind flayer. He snarled and charged in that direction.

At the same time, Xeman and Core located the mind flayers hiding in the rear and charged at them.

Capture the leader first.

The slaves were driven to fight without fear due to the mind flayers’ control. Once the mind flayers were eliminated, the slaves would regain their senses and scatter.

Closing the distance, both of them simultaneously raised their hands and hurled rune gems.

The gemstone in mid-air burst into a dazzling red light, and with a whoosh, it transformed into a surging wave of flames that crushed forward, plowing a wide path through the dense ranks of the enemy!

Xie Man and Cole didn't hesitate, following the path to quickly charge toward the Beholders, chanting spells as they went and firing off several magic missiles with their hands!

Pfft! Pfft!

The magic missiles pierced through the spherical bodies of two Beholders, instantly killing them!

The remaining Beholders were instantly thrown into panic, the tentacles and eyes surrounding them glowing with an eerie light.

A wave of invisible, eerie vibrations instantly enveloped Xie Man and Cole.

However, the two remained unfazed.

Before the charge, they and the entire knight guard had consumed clear-headed potions, giving them high resistance to illusions and enchantments.

Unless it was the Eye of the Hive Mother herself, the Beholders' control abilities would have no effect on them.

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

With the help of the rune gemstone and spells, Xie Man and Cole, just the two of them, overwhelmed over a hundred Beholders.

In contrast, the beams fired by the Beholders at the two couldn't penetrate the four-layered defenses formed by magical runes, protective rings, shield spells, and energy particle barriers.

In no time, dozens of Beholder corpses littered the ground.

At the same time,

As two apprentice wizards, the knight guard, and numerous legendary puppets joined the battle, the scales of victory began to tip in favor of the attackers.

The defenses of the Beholder city crumbled, and they were quickly pushed back to the city center.

Squeal!

A shrill scream suddenly erupted from behind the enemy lines.

In an instant, Xie Man and Cole felt a daze in their heads.

But soon, a sharp cry woke them up.

Xie Man instantly regained his senses, his eyes wary as he looked into the distance. Amidst the dense cluster of Beholders, a relatively smaller but more formidable Beholder floated, with hundreds of tentacles, far more than a regular Beholder, connected to its spherical body.

The eyes at the ends of the tentacles glowed a bizarre purple-black.

Meeting those eyes, Xie Man felt a wave of dizziness and quickly looked away.

Illusion!

It's the Eye of the Hive Mother!

Xie Man and Cole quickly realized this, their hearts tightening.

Beside the Eye of the Hive Mother were four Beholders that were visibly larger, each a mutated variant.

Their tentacles, in addition to eyes, were also lined with sharp claws, slicing through the air with a sharp whistling sound as they swung.

Moreover, these mutated Beholders rode on fearsome giant insects.

"It's the Eye of the Guide!" Cole said gravely.

Xie Man nodded solemnly.

He had seen descriptions of the Eye of the Guide in books, and they matched the mutated Beholders before them.

The Eye of the Guide typically appeared in Beholder groups ruled by the Eye of the Hive Mother or the Eye of the Overlord, and was a common mutated variant.

Their eye beams weren't stronger than those of regular Beholders, but their melee capabilities far exceeded the norm, excelling at riding giant insects into enemy ranks to wreak havoc.

They were among the few melee-oriented Beholders!

At that moment, the four Eyes of the Guide were frantically waving their clawed tentacles, trying to block a streak of blood-colored light.

That blood-colored light was the Red Widow!

The beautiful vampire was enveloped in a thick cloud of blood mist, exuding a sinister and cold aura.

Each time she raised her hand, blood mist would gather in front of her palm, forming a blood-colored spear that shot through the air toward the Eye of the Hive Mother.

The four Eyes of the Guide struggled to block her attacks.

Squeal! Squeal!

Feeling threatened, the Eye of the Hive Mother let out a shrill scream.

As the sound spread, the surrounding Beholders intensified their attacks, firing gray beams that struck the blood mist surrounding the Red Widow.

The blood mist visibly darkened and faded.

"Annoying vermin!"

The Red Widow snarled.

She suddenly stopped, holding out her right hand, her eyes glowing intensely with crimson light.

In an instant, the dozens of Beholders surrounding her let out a chorus of agonized screams as countless blood droplets seeped from their bodies, spiraling toward the Red Widow's hand to form a blood sphere!

The Beholders, drained of their blood, became shriveled corpses that fell to the ground.

Immediately after, the blood sphere in the Red Widow's hand rapidly transformed into a blood-colored spear, even more vividly crimson. With a flick of her wrist, it shot through the air like a bolt of lightning, instantly impaling one of the Eyes of the Guide and pinning it to the ground!

The Eye of the Guide convulsed as if electrocuted, then fell silent.

After doing all this, the Red Widow's face paled, clearly indicating that the move had taken a significant toll on her.

The surrounding Eye Fiends seized the opportunity to attack the Red Widow, but a deafening boom echoed through the air. A visible distortion landed among the Eye Fiends and exploded with a thunderous crash, instantly tearing dozens of them to shreds.

Crushing Soundwave!

Boom!

A Gilded Golem burst into the midst of the Eye Fiends, unleashing a storm of blood and gore. Every Eye Fiend in its path was blasted into a mist of blood, and it quickly approached the Nest Mother's Eye, coming within ten meters.

Three Director Eyes attempted to block its path, but the Gilded Golem tore them apart with ease.

Finally, the Nest Mother's Eye was punched into a pulp!

Seeing this, the Red Widow couldn't help but be amazed.

Each Director Eye possessed the power of a First Circle Legendary, and there were hundreds of Eye Fiends guarding them. She had struggled to take down just one Director Eye, but the Gilded Golem had effortlessly broken through the defenses and slaughtered the Nest Mother's Eye and three Director Eyes like slicing through butter!

This power was truly terrifying!

"This is the strength of a Third Circle Legendary puppet."

The Red Widow was in awe, and her respect for Su Nan, who could create such a powerful puppet, grew even more.

With the death of the Nest Mother's Eye and the Director Eyes, the Eye Fiends soon fell into chaos, scattering in all directions.

Unfortunately, the entire Giant Eye City was already surrounded by puppets.

Outside, puppets blocked their escape, while inside, wizard apprentices and Magic Sigil Knights hunted them down. The fate of these Eye Fiends was already sealed.

After more than an hour, the cries of battle in Giant Eye City gradually subsided.

The Eye Fiends were nearly all wiped out, and those who survived were captured by the Magic Sigil Knights and imprisoned. They were to be sent back to Dark Lake City to be used as experimental subjects for the base.

The surviving slaves were also imprisoned, to be used as laborers for repairing Giant Eye City and mining.

After hastily arranging everything and leaving a knight guard to watch the prisoners, the Red Widow, Xie Man, and Cole quickly headed to the Nest Mother's Eye lair.

Upon entering the lair, they headed straight for the treasury.

When they opened the treasury and saw the mountains of silver ingots, all three of them broke into smiles.

"These big eyeballs are quite wealthy," Xie Man remarked with a laugh.

"Considering they control a silver mine, it's not surprising."

Cole's eyes scanned the cluttered treasury, and he soon found a box. Upon opening it, his eyes lit up.

"Mithril!"

Inside the box was a piece of mithril.

Cole picked it up and weighed it in his hand, a wider smile spreading across his face.

"At least three kilograms."

Xie Man and the Red Widow were also filled with delight.

Before the assault on Giant Eye City, Su Nan had given orders to search for mithril as soon as they captured the city.

With this piece of mithril, their teacher (master) would be very pleased.

After securing the contents of the treasury, the three of them began to search the entire lair.

A short while later, at Xie Man's call, they regrouped in a spacious cavern.

In the center of the cavern stood a statue.

The statue's appearance was bizarre, resembling a cluster of wings with a long tail extending from the middle, trailing behind.

"What kind of creature is this?"

Xie Man and Cole looked at the Red Widow, who was more knowledgeable about the creatures of the Underworld.

The female vampire frowned in thought for a moment, then shook her head. "I've never seen this creature before, nor do I recognize it."

Cole frowned, puzzled by the situation in the cavern.

"Why would the Eye Fiends place such a statue here, and why in such a large space with only one statue?"

Xie Man's eyes roamed the cavern for a moment, then a spark of realization lit in his eyes. "Worship!"

Seeing the puzzled looks from Cole and the Red Widow, Xie Man quickly explained.

"Think about it. Could this be a place of worship for the Eye Fiends?"

"And this statue, the object of their worship."

Cole and the Red Widow were taken aback, but upon further thought, it seemed plausible.

The cavern did indeed look like a worship hall.

However, they had never heard of Eye Fiends having a faith.

After a moment of fruitless contemplation, Cole decided to stop dwelling on it. "Let's take this statue back to the teacher."

Xie Man and the Red Widow had no objections.

Summoning a golem to carry the statue, the three of them left the lair.

While the caverns where the Eye Fiends lived were spacious, the hygiene conditions were abysmal.

After just a short time inside, all three of them were quite uncomfortable.

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(End of Chapter)

Chapter end