Chapter 1000 Thousand Cuts

Qian Tiao's Qi Accumulation Strike was incomparably fierce.

Like a summer thunderstorm, it roared past with lightning and thunder.

With just this one strike, dozens of mechanical armors were cut to pieces in the thundering sword light.

The officer's armor could barely remain intact, while the soldier's armor was almost cut in half. The blade cut through the thick defensive armor, revealing the limbs of the operators inside, blood spurting, revealing red and white flesh and bone...

The tens of thousands of eyes focused on the central arena of Morros City-State were dumbfounded.

…

Qian Tiao's strike stunned everyone present.

Whether it was Mafa and the North Sea Fleet people in battle, or the onlookers and informants watching the fight.

They stared at the mechanical armor that was suddenly cut open or exploded in the battlefield, each one shocked and speechless.

"One strike to cut sixteen mechanical warriors, including a [Colonel]-class armor? Heavens, when could a light swordsman break the defense of a high-level mechanical armor! Apart from those top swordsmen, I'm afraid no one can do this..."

"What's going on with this Dawn Group! A fifth-tier Sword Saint, domineering... there's actually such a monstrous professional? And that Rakshasa Golden Body phantom, is that a talent ability?"

"No wonder they dared to attack, so they had such a swordsman to counter mechanical armor. Now Mafa's mechanical warriors are in trouble..."

"Hard to say. Although Barrett and this Rakshasa Sword Saint have extraordinary strength, they only have so few people after all. As far as I know, the North Sea Fleet has at least three full fleets in the city, with over 200,000 troops available. Moreover, Oleg and a Vice-King level expert are also there. Once those experts arrive, this group has no chance of getting out alive."

"..."

Barrett was strong, but after all, he was a long-established veteran, and it wasn't too surprising that he advanced to the seventh tier.

But the sudden appearance of the armor-piercing Sword Saint made the news merchants feel like they had discovered a new continent, and they were all amazed.

But still, no one was optimistic about their ending, because a large support force from the North Sea Fleet had arrived outside the arena.

At the same time, on a tower a few kilometers away from the central arena.

Ekaterina was also watching the fierce battle from afar.

Beside her, an old butler watched the intensifying battle, his face showing concern.

Because at this time, they had already seen several support teams from above, tens of thousands of people converging on the arena from all directions in the city.

Seeing that his young lady hadn't given the order for a long time, the old butler couldn't help but remind her, "Miss, should we take action to help now? If we wait any longer, once the encirclement is formed, even if we take action, it won't be possible to change the situation."

Ekaterina stared into the distance with a deep gaze, remaining silent for a long time.

After thinking for a moment, she shook her head and said lightly, "No need. Since he took action, he naturally has the confidence."

The old butler looked troubled, "But..."

Ekaterina naturally knew what the old butler was worried about, and her starry eyes flickered, seemingly with doubt, as she murmured, "Even if that mysterious 'Mr. Mirror' comes and can stop Oleg, it's impossible to turn the tide. I'm also very curious, how can they stop the 200,000 enemies in this city."

…

Mechanical armor has very strong defense.

Normally, if the opponent can't break through the defense of the mechanical armor, it is almost invincible.

Even if they have the ability to slowly consume the armor's defensive coating and barrier, it will definitely cost dozens of times more to finally destroy a mechanical armor.

Therefore, mechanical armor, especially officer-level armor, can restrain most melee-type professionals in the middle and low-level professional domain, such as swordsmen, knife wielders, fighters, assassins...

And is rarely restrained.

Light swordsmen, in particular, are definitely professional restrainers. Even Sword Saints would find it very difficult to deal with Colonel-level and Major General-level mechanical armor, almost just scratching the surface.

But mechanical armor also has a "critical point" for its defense value.

When physical damage penetrates beyond this point, it's like cutting melons and vegetables.

And coincidentally, "Void Grafting" is one of the few things in the alchemy domain that hard counters mechanical armor.

It can amplify the professional's attack penetration.

And Qian Tiao's fusion of the [Void Ghost Hand] greatly increases her physical penetration ability, allowing her sword Qi to easily penetrate rune armor, cutting iron like mud.

After breaking the defense, mechanical warriors are just a bunch of slow-reacting iron lumps to agile swordsmen.

Just like the situation before their eyes.

After Qian Tiao can break through the armor of mechanical armor, the knife in her hand is no longer a scraping knife, but a slaughtering knife.

After she accumulated Qi and broke sixteen mechanical armors with one strike, her figure moved like a ghost among the Royal Mechanical Legion.

Mechanical arm?

One strike cuts it into two sections with blood spurting out.

Rune guns?

Equally smooth cutting.

As long as she avoids the thick defensive armor, every strike creates a gash. Cutting some key parts can immediately cause the mecha to crash and be scrapped.

This is impossible for almost any other fifth-tier professional to do.

Qian Tiao moves close to the mechanical armor group, and these bulky iron lumps are almost full of flaws.

Mechanical armor, like humans, also has many weaknesses, mechanical joints, power boilers, energy pipelines...

Because Suren had previously harvested Mafa's "Submarine Mechanical Research Institute," and captured a group of mechanics, he had also supplemented Mafa's top-secret knowledge of mechanical armor.

These days, Suren has carefully popularized the structure and weaknesses of mechanical armor to everyone in the Dawn Group in detail.

Now Qian Tiao not only has super armor-breaking ability, but also has surgical precision cutting ability.

She is performing a surgical operation, bringing nightmares to this group of mechanical warriors!

…

Qian Tiao moves among the mechanical warriors, and in a few encounters, she has paralyzed and exploded thirty-four mechanical armors.

Although these Mafa mechanical guards also reacted immediately, the mechanical city formed an iron bucket formation that was impossible to break through, but their firepower output was also limited.

This also greatly reduced the pressure on Barrett.

But at this time, the top expert of the North Sea Fleet finally arrived. Oleg's right-hand man, the quasi-eighth-tier professional "Steel Bone General" Augustine Hurt!

This is one of the top ten pirates on the Bounty Hunter Guild's pirate bounty list, with a bounty of up to 5.033 billion Reese, and also the highest-level naval general who defected from Ruin.

Before the person arrives, a domineering aura comes like an avalanche.

That burly figure leapt from afar, appearing in the air above the arena.

Almost at the same time, Qian Tiao seized the opportunity and slashed at the figure in the sky.

With a "swoosh," the crescent sword Qi broke through the air.

Augustine glanced at it, snorted coldly, and casually made his fist metallic into a golden luster, and with one punch, he smashed the strand of sword Qi that could cut through mechanical armor on the spot.

Qian Tiao was not surprised at all. The intelligence had detailed information about this guy, the [B-037-Steel Body] second-stage talent, with almost invincible defense!

This is why he has been wanted for so many years, but has never been caught.

Although Augustine is not eighth-tier, eighth-tier professionals may not be able to kill him!

This guy blocked Qian Tiao's attack, and then punched twice in a row, one towards Qian Tiao, and the other towards Barrett, who was entangled with Samigina!

Qian Tiao agilely dodged, and the force of the punch blasted a pit several meters deep in the ground.

Barrett's eyes shrank, and he didn't mean to dodge, looking like he was preparing to take it head-on.

Although he knew he would probably be injured, if he didn't block it, this punch would also shatter the chessboard space due to the powerful energy!

…

As soon as Augustine made a move, the pirates of the North Sea Fleet breathed a sigh of relief.

With this "Vice-King" present, it was enough to suppress the scene.

But what no one expected was that before Barrett could take the punch, a figure wearing a black and red cloak quickly swept past, silently taking the punch.

Looking closely, it was an old man wearing classical aristocratic clothing. He was wearing a red and black cloak, his face was pale and a little scary, and he exuded an eerie aura that was incompatible with this era, like an ancient nobleman walking out of an oil painting.

Augustine frowned immediately when he saw the person coming: "Vampire? A reclusive old fellow from Synodia Province hiding in a coffin..."

Being able to take his punch meant that a top-level vampire had come. He looked unfamiliar, and was likely an old vampire who had been dormant for more than a century.

However, the strength of the person coming was secondary. What was more surprising to the North Sea Fleet was why a vampire would come to support the Dawn Group?

Hibernation was more important than anything else to that level of old monster, who could invite him to take action?

Even Empress Ruin probably didn't have this qualification!

A bad feeling surged into Augustine's heart.

No one present except the people from the Dawn Group recognized this vampire elder.

He was Mr. Mirror's second-generation bloodline, "Blood Duke" Moore Wordsworth, a vampire who had lived for seven hundred years. This time, only vampires with "high seniority" were qualified to contribute to Mr. Mirror's call.

Wordsworth took the punch, and the cloak behind him "poofed" open, turning into a pair of huge fleshy wings, and his face also turned into a blue-faced, fanged demon.

As soon as he transformed, the elegant and noble aristocratic temperament he had just had instantly became extremely evil, and a terrifying laugh like sandpaper came from his throat: "Jie jie jie... it's been a long time since I've been able to enjoy the blood's blood freely."

Vampires are abyss races, and their bloodline has a brutal and bloody nature.

If people studied history, they would definitely be able to see the terrifying deeds of this vampire Grand Duke in the history books of that era. He once made all the nobles in northern Ruin tremble.

Wordsworth's body overflowed with a thick layer of blood mist, which was the "blood-sucking domain" unique to top-level vampires.

With a flap of his fleshy wings, he flew towards the pirate crowd, so fast that people only saw a string of phantoms.

A terrifying scene appeared!

Wherever the blood shadow passed, the blood mist turned into dense swarms of small bats. Wherever they passed, first and second-tier pirates fell like wheat being harvested, and their corpses turned into dried corpses in a blink of an eye. Even mechanical warriors, as long as they had exposed skin, would be sucked into dried corpses in a blink of an eye.

After Wordsworth sucked blood, his originally shriveled and old body became more and more full, and in a blink of an eye, he became a cold and handsome middle-aged vampire, and the blood Qi barrier on his body became even more vigorous.

When bullets hit his body, it was like hitting a steel plate, making a "clang," "clang," "clang" metallic crisp sound.

Even if alchemy bullets of the Holy Light system injured his body and created bloody holes, he could recover in a blink of an eye through blood sucking, returning to its original state.

This is the vampire's talent ability, blood sucking self-healing.

There was only a sneer left on the face of this top-level vampire.

The high-level professionals of the North Sea Fleet watched, wanting to stop this top-level vampire from reaping, and "Steel Bone General" Augustine even personally intercepted him.

But vampires are undead, and their bodies, except for being burned by Holy Light damage, are only marginally affected by any other physical or magical attack. Even if most of their bodies are blown up, they can recover by sucking blood.

One undead, one strongest defense.

You can't kill me, and I can't kill you.

The two fought inextricably, and it was impossible to tell the winner in a short time.

Moreover, more than one high-level vampire came.

Seeing that some pirates threatened the chessboard space guarded by Barrett, someone immediately came out to block them. Five or six old antiques from hundreds of years ago came out one after another.

…

The successive "accidents" made the intelligence merchants a little confused.

How did this Dawn Group get in touch with high-level vampires?

The battle in the arena became more and more intense, and although the Dawn Group didn't have many people participating, each one was surprisingly amazing.

All the onlookers didn't recognize the identity of this vampire elder, only Ekaterina on the distant tower raised her eyebrows and muttered to herself, "A vampire with quasi-eighth-tier combat power, looks like the 'Blood Marquis' Olvik Waters from five hundred years ago, or the 'Blood Duke' Moore Wordsworth from seven hundred years ago... they are all amazing figures. But in this way, the identity of that 'Mr. Mirror' seems even more special."

…

Suren is the protagonist of the Dawn Group, and Princess Sticka even knew that Suren had a super-large storage space and had sucked in the "Submarine Mechanical Research Institute." Therefore, among the North Sea Fleet's killing targets, anyone could be let go, but this Suren must be left behind!

Wherever he appears, that place must be the main battlefield.

More and more pirates poured towards the arena, and fleet commanders and squad captains also rushed over.

Although these people in the Dawn Group who have appeared so far are all formidable, capable of taking on a hundred, they are still gradually falling into a disadvantage in the sea of people tactics.

Just as the two sides were fighting fiercely, the situation on the battlefield suddenly changed.

Two figures appeared out of thin air.

The disappeared Suren finally came out of the chessboard space.

And in his hand, he was pinching Onis, who had been beaten bloody.

"Stop!"

Suren roared, and both sides fighting in the arena looked over.

Using Oleg's second son as a hostage was still very useful.

With this said, the pirate side, the mechanical warrior legion also stopped together.

It had to be admitted that Onis was indeed very strong, born with "courage," and his fighting skills were deeply inherited from the war god of the Roman Empire. Among the fifth-tier professionals, Suren felt that apart from particularly strong existences like Qian Tiao, no one he had seen could compare to this guy's melee ability. And that was under the condition that he had lost his power of faith and his strength was greatly reduced.

Although Suren was confident that he could kill him, it was not easy to capture him alive.

Fortunately, after some effort, in the chessboard space, the home ground of a puppeteer, he barely survived and was captured alive.

Their Dawn Group didn't come here today just to fight, the most important purpose was to rescue Kai.

Capturing this hostage alive was also the most crucial step.

From the first moment he took out the golden spear, it was for this moment.

…

Suren held Onis's neck in his hand, and could end this guy's life at any time.

He looked at Princess Sticka, who was heavily guarded in the distance, and directly stated his conditions: "I want to use this person's life to exchange for a friend of our Dawn Group."

With this said, everyone turned their attention to Princess Mafa on the distant stand.

Princess Sticka's face was gloomy, and she didn't speak, but she wasn't surprised at all.

The prophecy pointed to that "Kai."

This slave was the most important bait in this ambush.

However, it didn't matter now, the fish had already entered the net, and the bait didn't matter.

Only looking at the calm Suren and his group in the distance, she felt a trace of unease in her heart.

These people have already seen this situation, why are they still so calm?

Whether it was the bizarre destruction of the temple before, or the sudden appearance of the vampires, it all made people feel that something was wrong.

But now Oleg had arrived in person, and there were still 200,000 troops in the city that could be mobilized.

Princess Sticka couldn't think of any flaws in their plan.

Seeing that the Mafa princess didn't speak, Suren didn't hesitate at all, and slashed with the black scythe in his hand, directly cutting off one of Onis's arms, "Are you not agreeing?"

The arm fell to the ground, and blood splattered everywhere.

This action also made the pirates grit their teeth.

No one expected that Suren would dare to cripple Oleg's most talented son in front of everyone.

Things were done to the extreme, and these people couldn't survive even if they surrendered.

Princess Sticka's face turned cold, and naturally she couldn't watch Onis be killed, and shouted angrily: "Bring the person out!"

After waiting for about a few minutes, several mechanical warriors slowly escorted Kai out.

Suren narrowed his eyes slightly.

Kai's condition was very good. According to the intelligence, in the past month or two, he had been in high-intensity gladiator matches, and had successfully achieved seventy consecutive victories, stabilizing his fifth-tier state. Moreover, Princess Sticka seemed to have found a graft [Hell Baron's Demon Horn] that was highly compatible with his [Red Demon] talent in order to cultivate a powerful combat slave. This had made him undefeated in the arena.

Across a hundred meters, Kai looked at Suren and his group, with a bitter expression on his face.

Suren looked at Kai, and a subtle gleam flashed in his eyes. He didn't say much, and said to Princess Sticka in the distance: "Release the person, give me the key to the slave collar, and Kai's personal belongings."

Princess Sticka didn't agree, but said coldly: "You release Prince Onis first!"

Suren listened to these people making conditions, and without any expression on his face, he raised his knife and cut off Onis's other arm, "Now, are you still going to bargain with me?"

Seeing this, Sticka's face also turned cold.

The mechanical warriors who were escorting Kai immediately understood, and were about to cut off Kai's arm as well.

This was obviously a threat, and also a bit of revenge, she didn't want to be passive in the negotiations.

But with this statement, not only was Suren not threatened at all, but he put the blade of the scythe against Onis's neck, and there was no hesitation in his eyes that he was being threatened. He said in a cold tone: "This is the last time."

Seeing his actions, the people from the North Sea Fleet really didn't dare to move.

Although the other party also had a hostage in their hands, Suren was sure that the other party didn't dare to gamble.

The life of a "prince" and a slave, they couldn't afford to gamble, and they didn't think it was necessary.

Anyway, they were all in the encirclement, and it didn't make sense to worry about releasing the slave or not.

It would be better to exchange Onis back sooner, and the broken arm might still be able to be reattached.

Moreover, Suren also knew that the other party wasn't just making conditions, but was stalling for time.

Because the longer they dragged on, the tighter the encirclement would become, and the "prism barrier" that prevented void displacement could be deployed more tightly.

He identified what the blue light in the sky was, and there were no secrets to what these people were doing.

He wasn't surprised at all.

…

Princess Sticka naturally couldn't watch Oleg's son be killed because of her obstinacy.

Unable to delay any longer, she could only say: "Release the person, give them the key!"

The Red Demon was released, along with the key to the slave collar on his neck, the communication ring of the Mirror Organization, a box containing the limbs of the Fallen Angel, and a storage ring.

The important things were all here, and there was nothing to say.

At this time, Qian Tiao walked to Kai and inserted the key into the hole of the slave collar.

With a "click," the collar opened, and Kai regained his freedom.

In the distance, Princess Sticka urged: "Now you can release the person, right!"

Seeing this, Suren raised a grin at the corner of his mouth. Then he waved the black scythe and, without any hesitation, directly beheaded Onis in his hand.

No one thought that he would dare to kill the hostage directly.

It was said to be an exchange, but it wasn't said whether he should be alive or dead. For an enemy who had once tried to kill him, Suren didn't want to leave any future troubles, waiting for some revenge drama.

Just at the moment of waving the knife, a woman covering her face in the distance screamed in horror: "No!"

Princess Sticka's expression also changed instantly, and she shouted: "Kill them!"

This order was not directed at the pirates, but an order to Kai!

With this order, Kai's eyes suddenly became violent, and a red demon horn on top of his head also grew wildly, and his aura became as hot and violent as hell lava. His muscles burst, revealing large areas of red skin, and he grabbed forward with his big hand.

A sneak attack by a close person, there was no time to dodge at all, and he was about to grab Suren, who was the closest.

But Suren glanced at the corner of his eye, but his expression showed no surprise at this change.

At the same time, a cloaked figure moved to his side half a step in advance, and then pointed forward with his hand.

Kai, who had not yet completely transformed into a hell red demon, was suddenly stopped by that slender finger on his forehead.

It was this seemingly weak finger that stopped Kai, who was like a monster.

Under the cloak, Pandora's blood-colored eyes emitted a strong mental suggestion, and the violent emotions in Kai's eyes instantly became confused and turbid, and then became clear and refocused.

He suddenly stopped and looked at his hands, as if he had lost a part of his memory, "What did I just do?"

Suren smiled: "Welcome back, Mr. Kai."

Kai then woke up, "Was I just mentally enslaved?"

Suren nodded.

He didn't guess that Princess Sticka would definitely use a means on Kai.

Even if it wasn't used to trick people, such a strong slave had to be tamed, and mental means had to be used to ensure loyalty.

Unfortunately, when they first came to Morros City-State, when there was no conflict between the two sides, Suren had met Kai once with Pandora, and then planted a mental suggestion in his heart.

As long as the mental means used by the other party were not higher than Pandora's Tsukuyomi genjutsu, he could awaken the reason in his heart at any time and suppress all mental enslavement means.

Princess Sticka was able to release people so readily because she thought she had enslaved Kai.

Unfortunately, Suren had anticipated this before he even started.

It wasn't a particularly clever calculation, but when you know what cards the enemy has in their hand, and then think of ways to deal with those chips, there will be few surprises.

…

Now that Kai had been rescued, and Onis had also been killed.

Like the fuse of a dynamite barrel, it had burned to the end, and the real life-and-death battle was coming.

Suren had never had any luck, thinking that he could rescue people and teleport away instantly.

Because at this time, the [Prism Barrier] in the distant sky had long been deployed.

The people from the North Sea Fleet had been deploying it from the beginning, and had calculated all the time for exchanging hostages.

This was a top-level space restriction, not a space blockade, but a space killing method. The killing intent of this barrier was to artificially create some dangerous "space fragments" within the scope.

It was like someone had sprinkled glass shards in the river, and someone stepping on it would immediately be stabbed with blood all over their feet.

As long as Suren teleported blindly over a long distance, touching any piece of broken glass, he might be pierced by space fragments.

Estimating the distance from the arena to the port, if he didn't encounter 100,000 pieces of space fragments along the way, there would be 80,000.

Teleporting over would immediately be riddled with holes and die on the spot.

The people from the North Sea Fleet had once seen Suren's ability to teleport over long distances in a targeted manner, and it would be strange if they didn't have targeted measures.

Now that teleportation was impossible, they could only break through the encirclement.

The previous battle was just an appetizer, the real show was just beginning.

About a hundred thousand troops had already piled up outside the arena.

But Suren was not afraid at all.

Human sea tactics?

As a Golemcrafter, Suren was not afraid of this, especially now that he had advanced to the fifth tier.

On Oleg's side, it was certain that Mr. Mirror would stop him, and the top professionals of the North Sea Fleet would also be stopped by Barrett, Qian Tiao, and Mr. Mirror's bloodlines.

The rest was up to Suren to perform.

His eyes sharpened, and his hands changed hand seals like shadows, and the light of the alchemy array lit up under his feet.

As this technique solidified, endless dark spiritual power poured out of his body crazily.

In the sky, a huge cross was rapidly condensing.

The cross, which was originally only a hundred meters in diameter, was now growing madly, three hundred meters, five hundred meters, one thousand meters...

There was no intention of stopping at all.

Until the range of this cross covered the entire arena and a large area nearby, Suren stopped.

"Equivalent exchange" applies to any alchemy. Theoretically, there are two major factors that affect a technique, one is skill proficiency, and the second is energy.

Suren's attainments in puppetry were not absolutely unique, but there were not many stronger than him in this plane. A technique of this level was just within his control.

And the [Isaac Alchemic Heart] provided him with an inexhaustible supply of dark spiritual power, which meant that his technique had no mana restrictions.

At this moment, Suren's eyes flashed with an unprecedented domineering luster, and he murmured in his heart: "Golem Art · Grand Theater of Horror!"