Chapter 390: Surge Assault

Rod smiled and shifted his next words into the 【Far Speech Chain】.

【Rod: Tobeka isn't that important. If anything goes wrong, just abandon her without hesitation. Your safety matters most to me.】

Lady Kali stiffened for a beat, a barely perceptible panic flickering through her eyes, but she quickly rearranged her face into a scowl and shot him a cold glance.

"Got it. Get lost."

Tobeka, however, grabbed the hem of Rod's pants in terror: "Don't go—this elf wants to harm me and my child."

Rod callously pulled his leg free: "She's saving you. Someone will explain the whole story to you later. For now, just behave."

He paid no more attention to them.

He put some distance between himself and the women, then launched into another earth-shattering leap. Mid-air, he cast 【Flight】, and with two vigorous bursts of 【Repulsion】 as thrust, he banked hard and shot south at full speed.

What needed to be hidden was the 【Victory Pod】 and the overall strength within the forest.

Rod had no intention of concealing the fact that he had advanced to seventh-tier. Of course, a whole set of trump-card skills would still go unused.

Endless forbearance and retreat would only invite the other side's mounting encroachments.

He needed to make Coral Bay understand that the current Shi Ying Town, though not exactly powerful, was absolutely not a target to be bullied at will.

If you dare to come attack, don't even dream of retreating unscathed.

Boom!

Within the yellow sand curtain of the night sky, a vacuum region of white gas burst open with a roar.

A straight line, like ripples cut through a water surface, swerved sharply downward.

The thick, almost tangible spiritual force it carried slammed down like a colossal siege hammer!

The violent tremor and rumble of a meteor strike instantly echoed through the empty dusk hills.

Rod, in a white shirt and dress pants, a golden cross sword in his right hand, looked as though he had just hurried over from a banquet.

Clang—

The magic ring on his hand, 【Backlight Canopy】's anti-stealth effect, crumbled into powder.

A sphere of light rose into the air, then scattered pale-blue magical powder downward.

As the magical powder fell, the figures of the dark elves ambushed at this location were revealed.

Most of their faces wore bewilderment.

But they were all seasoned veterans; they reacted in an instant, drawing staves and weapons alike.

This dark elf incursion comprised three squads in total.

One: an infiltration squad that had slipped into town to assassinate Dimia and Rosalia.

Two: a unit tasked with crafting flesh-and-blood bombs to threaten and control the management, sowing chaos.

Three: the main combat force standing before Rod now, composed of dark elf warriors, archers, and mages skilled in combat magic.

Once the assassination mission was complete, the main combat squad would launch simultaneous attacks from multiple directions, using the cover of night and chaos to swiftly seize key positions—city gates, towers, main streets.

"Come on, I'll take on ten of you."

Rod raised his golden sword and grinned ferociously.

Though there were well more than ten here, of course.

The first to arrive was a volley of arrows.

The arrowheads carried a blood-red spiritual force, reeking of brimstone, carrying enough force to pierce armor.

The dark elf force he faced was one squad within the main combat group, numbering around a hundred, ranging from third to sixth tier, with third and fourth tier making up the bulk. Only two were seventh-tier—one a caster, one a melee fighter.

Rod could see that seventh-tier caster rapidly casting, layering various enhancements onto the dark elves of the same faction on the field.

【Group Bear's Endurance】

【Group Ox's Strength】

【Group Cat's Grace】

【Group Energy Resistance】

【Group Fire Shield】

"Mere arrows."

Spiritual force surged within Rod.

The golden cross sword suddenly swept from left to right in a horizontal slash. As the blade swung, spiritual force gathered at tremendous speed, forming a massive four-to-five-meter spiritual sword that, like a slap, smashed the volley of arrows in mid-air into scattered fragments.

Immediately after, the dark elf warriors in black armor charged in like a black tide.

Rod's eyes blazed like torches, flickering with a cold, fierce light. The effect of 【Precise Prediction】, pushed to its extreme, let him read the movements of every enemy before him.

His left hand thrust forward, and a pure-black slime cross sword sprang out, caught in his grip.

Slicing—

What followed was a rapid flurry of sword swings accompanied by countless low, sharp whooshes of cutting air.

Rod didn't even bother using spiritual arts.

The twin swords moved in his hands like living things, dancing wildly with his motions into trails of gold and black. Wherever they passed, dark elf warriors' armor was cleaved open with ease, blood spraying in all directions.

So what if they had magical enhancements? So what if they had armor?

【Dragon Strength】【Surging Might】【Keen Spiritual Force】【Fungal Warrior Physique】 lent their aid to every swing.

Wherever he went, sprays of blood flew.

Like an unstoppable flood, none could stand in his way.

The dark elf mages tried to halt his advance with spells, but volleys of energy magic bombarded him to no effect—at most they could only stagger him for a heartbeat.

Throwing the originally orderly dark elf formation into brief chaos.

"Seeking death!"

A furious roar erupted.

Rod followed the sound and saw an enormous cone-shaped black-gold war hammer coming straight at his head, the wind of its passage whistling sharply.

The might it carried was tremendous, the spiritual essence upon it forceful and heavy, reaching the high tier of seventh rank — nothing like the stinking fish and rotten shrimp he had dealt with earlier.

It was that seventh-rank dark elf warrior making his move.

This dark elf's body had swollen to three meters tall, muscles knotted and bulging, exaggeratedly defined in block after block, his arms thicker than his waist.

He should have been wearing armor, but the violent expansion of his body caused by the dark sorcery had split the armor open, exposing large stretches of unprotected muscle.

Rod did not retreat a single step. With a cold face he swung the 【Devotion Body Sword】 in his hand to meet it head-on.

Clang!!!

【Sharpness Check Triggered】

【'Devotion Body Sword' Sharpness: 69】

【'Black-Gold War Hammer' Sharpness: 21, Heaviness: 82】

【Result: Failure!】

Heaviness?

That was something new.

The blade of the golden cross-sword snapped in response, half the sword body soaring into the air.

The dark elf, like a little giant, bared a vicious grin.

The golden sword in hand was one of Shi Ying Town's Warden Rod's signature traits; it was said that golden sword was no ordinary weapon, and that it had accompanied him in slaying many powerful foes.

Now that his famed weapon was broken, what threat could a swordsman possibly pose?

He mustered his strength to raise the war hammer once more, wanting to earn himself the renown of 'the man who slew Warden Rod.'

But the Warden before him showed not the slightest hint of panic or fear.

He saw the other man suddenly twist his upper body, spinning like a whirlwind in place for nearly a full circle, his left leg swinging up in the motion.

A textbook turning back-kick, immensely powerful and heavy, came crashing down.

His heel, as if he had measured the distance and timing precisely, struck the broken cross-section of the flying, falling broken blade exactly right, driving it straight into the dark elf's thick, stubby neck.

Pfft—

Blood burst forth.

The dark elf, war hammer raised high, froze his entire body for an instant.

(End of this chapter)