Chapter 868: The Comical Battle in the Valley of Babtali (Part 12)

Jier did not give an inch, retorting, "That's what I should be saying."

Seeing the Dwarf Warrior ahead raise his sword to strike, Jier retreated several meters; this action actually made the Dwarf let out a scoffing laugh.

Jier's face flushed slightly, but with his helmet's faceplate blocking the view, no one could see his expression, so Jier stubbornly said, "Glowing dwarf! Today, let me, a tall Human, teach you a thing or two about the principles of combat. Combat, you see, isn't something you can win just by blindly charging and hacking."

As he spoke, Jier dodged the heavy sword strike the opponent unleashed after rushing out of the ruins.

"You can split lake water with a downward strike, but can you keep it split forever? The lake water will always converge again, and without any loss. At that moment, what can your brute strength do then?"

While Jier spoke, he leaped, jumping onto the second floor of another Dwarf residence a dozen meters away, crouching on the stone railing of the eaves, reaching out to pluck a brightly blooming flower from a stone pot, holding it before his faceplate to take a deep breath, sniffing the fragrance of spring.

"I think something's wrong with your brain? Why would I have nothing better to do than hack at lake water with a sword? Don't run! Take this sword—"

The Dwarf Warrior 'Shishou' moved his feet rapidly, accelerating his charge, dragging his greatsword diagonally across the solid dirt ground, carving out a deep furrow.

But this did not hinder the Dwarf's charge in the slightest; instead, it gave the Dwarf Warrior ample opportunity to build up power during the charge. By the time he reached the house, 'Shishou' stood firm, using the momentum of the charge with both hands to swing the greatsword from bottom to top, first slicing through the ground he had been hugging, then continuing upward to slice through the stone exterior wall of the Dwarf house, and finally using that momentum to leap up, with the greatsword carrying his entire body as he swung down toward the Human Knight on the second floor.

But Jier simply jumped forward with ease from his crouching position, landing lightly behind the Dwarf. He stood firm and turned around, his gaze following the Dwarf Warrior's figure, muttering to himself, "What a slow movement..."

The Dwarf's upward sword strike sliced through the exterior wall of the house, not only missing his target again but also causing the greatsword to shatter the wall into many small rock fragments under his immense strength.

These scattered rock fragments flew into the sky and then, under the influence of the planet's natural gravity, splashed down onto the surroundings.

With a clatter, the large and small rock fragments smashed many of the flowers and plants the Dwarves kept on the second floors of their houses, and the dirt ground was pelted with pits and holes.

After the Dwarf's sword strike missed, he landed on the second floor of the Dwarf house in an awkward posture. As he quickly stood up, fingernail-sized rock fragments kept raining down on him and everything around him.

'Shishou' glanced at the smashed flowers and plants with a grim expression, subconsciously swallowing hard: "Oh no... after this is over, my friends are going to beat me to death, aren't they?"

Jier was much more composed; he swayed his feet slightly left and right, took two light steps forward, and dodged the few large rock fragments falling from the sky. As for the smaller ones, Jier didn't need to dodge, letting them strike his body, leaving white marks and sparking tiny flashes against his Metal Armor.

His eyes remained fixed on the intensity of the light shrouding the Dwarf. Seeing that the light on the opponent had dimmed a little more after this strike, Jier was not discouraged; instead, he curled his lips in excitement.

"Very good..."

He raised his left hand and hooked his index finger at the Dwarf. Although, due to minor cultural differences between the races, the Dwarf Warrior didn't immediately understand the Human Knight's gesture, 'Shishou' quickly realized that the opponent was provoking him!

Like a glowing bull, 'Shishou' was filled with rage; clearly not my match, only knowing how to dodge, and now he dares to have the nerve to provoke me?

Death wish!

Without saying another word, 'Shishou' used his legs to leap from the second floor of the house. With a boom, the already damaged second floor collapsed directly into the interior of the first floor under the force.

As for 'Shishou', he used this to leap high into the air, channeling Divine Power into his greatsword, and then struck down violently from the sky.

Jier on the ground felt something was wrong, and immediately followed his intuition to run sideways, running faster and faster, sprinting toward the other end of the village square.

The Dwarf Warrior in the air roared, "Look at me! This is the great power of the God of Strength—"

Having said that, most of the bronze-colored shimmering Divine Power from his body surged into the greatsword in his hand. The Dwarf Warrior locked his eyes on the desperately fleeing Human Knight and threw the greatsword at him with all his might!

Once the greatsword left his hand, it erupted with a light far more brilliant than when it was held in his hand, like a setting sun or a mountain-top boulder collapsing. With the vibration of the air across the entire sky as a backdrop, it fell from the sky with a terrifying, heavy momentum that was visible to the naked eye, though not moving at high speed.

Boom——————

The ground in the center of the Cunzi jumped violently upon impact, causing a large area of surrounding houses to bounce as well. While the stone-built houses were sturdy, they lacked sufficient elasticity when facing the tremors from the earth, so a large circle of Dwarf houses collapsed with a crash, especially those in the center of the village, which collapsed most thoroughly.

In the next circle outward, after the houses jumped, landed, and shook, most of them also had their most fragile wall sections collapse.

In the circle further out, the Human wooden houses, being further away and due to the building materials, mostly just shook violently. Although the houses did not collapse, the Villagers hiding inside dared not stay in their homes for shelter any longer.

They didn't even care about their precious valuables, opening their blocked doors one after another, pouring out of their homes in a swarm. Only after reaching their own slightly more open courtyards did they feel much safer.

The cats, dogs, and poultry in the courtyards jumped about, fighting each other in a panic.

The house cat scratched the house dog's nose, the house dog bit the poultry's wings, and the poultry, in turn, flapped their wings wildly in the air while stretching their necks to peck at everything that came near.

It was a scene of total chaos.

However, the men couldn't spare the time to help the women in their families tidy up the situation; they all looked toward the center of the village with worry. Although there was no specific news, most people knew that all of this was caused by an outsider, a Human Knight.

Several elderly people, supported by their children, looked from afar at the huge column of dust rising in the center of the village, and couldn't help but recall the Dwarf Soldier guard they had seen in their youth, who had created such a shocking scene when he rose up with his power to drive away a Magic Beast that had broken into the Valley.

"Is that person back? Or is it one of the Dwarves in the Valley? Or perhaps the Knight?"

They did not know the answer; they only told their families to be prepared, to make all kinds of preparations.

Not only preparations to fight alongside the Dwarves, but also preparations to fight alongside the outsider Knight against the Dwarves.

On the roof of a Dwarf house in the second row near the center square, Jier twitched his lips, suppressing a groan of pain. The surroundings were filled with dust and smoke kicked up by the massive impact, and at the same time, the various rock fragments and broken debris falling from the sky were even more numerous.

It was as dense and spectacular as raindrops.

"Cough, cough..."

Choked by the smoke, Jier grabbed his cloak with his right hand and shook it vigorously, stirring up a wind to blow away the smoke and dust around him.

A strong wind was also blowing in the surroundings, causing the mushroom-shaped dust column, which was at least several dozen meters high, to shift.

Therefore, after waiting a moment, Jier finally saw the specific destruction caused by the attack he had desperately dodged.

It was truly terrifying; the scene before him reminded Jier of what he had seen in his previous life, ground that had been bombed by ton-class aerial bombs. Except for the lack of a fire caused by the bombing, it was exactly the same.

Further ahead of the Dwarf houses that had completely collapsed into ruins was a massive crater at least ten meters in diameter and several meters deep.

Jier understood at a glance that relying solely on the power of the throw, even with a body reinforced by the Dwarf Warrior's Divine Power, it was impossible to produce such destructive power from the kinetic energy of the impact alone.

Clearly, the Divine Power the opponent channeled into the weapon was the ultimate answer to such destruction.

It was like explosives, tons of explosives detonating, and all of this was the result caused by Divine Power.

Jier looked at the massive crater ahead with worry, then used his left hand to touch his torso through his armor. He worried that the Divine Power within his own body might have such an effect as well.

But then he thought, if the vast amount of Agriculture God Divine Power in his body could really have such an effect, it might actually be a good thing. He was only afraid that the Agriculture God Divine Power would be useless; even if the quantity was large, if it lacked direct offensive power, that would be the end of it.

"I hope you, old man Agriculture God, can be of some use. Look at that guy, the God of Strength, how imposing and powerful he is."

Jier shook his head, accelerated his run forward for two steps, and then leaped with force. With his infinite energy, his movements were agile, not looking like someone who had been fighting numerous Dwarves until now and was exhausted.

In this way, the Divine Art ability of the Agriculture God could not be said to be completely useless; it could only be said to be somewhat useful.

"Hoo... hoo... hoo..."

At the very center of the village square, the Dwarf Warrior 'Shishou' was half-kneeling on the ground, panting. The expression on his face was very strange; he had both the self-satisfaction and fulfillment of having eliminated a strong enemy, and a grotesque look of impending doom as if he were about to suffer a disaster.

The corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward while panting, but his brows and eyes were drooping, as if he had already foreseen being criticized and disciplined by his friends and coworkers later.

"Although I am very sorry to everyone, the destroyed houses... I will rebuild them for everyone with my own hands... anyway, it seems I am no longer lacking in strength."

He shook his head, only able to think of what would happen next in a positive light.

But just as he thought he would suffer criticism and trouble for destroying everyone's surface houses during the battle, which he felt was the most miserable outcome that could follow, Thump! A sound of a heavy object landing came from the area in front of him, obscured by dust and smoke.

The wind blowing from outside the Cunzi was blowing from Jier toward 'Shishou', so 'Shishou', still shrouded in dust and smoke, could not see what had landed in front.

However, not seeing it did not mean he could not guess.

The corners of his mouth twitched, and he felt something was wrong.

They had exchanged blows more than once or twice; he was still somewhat familiar with the landing sound of human metal combat boots after a high jump.

"Impossible!! Impossible!!! Such immense power... it's impossible for anyone to survive!"

He widened his eyes, staring at the dust and Mist gradually being blown away in front. On his eyes, there was still a thin layer of bronze shimmer protecting him, ensuring that even in the dust-filled conditions, his eyes would not be blinded by the dust.

"Cough, cough! Truly terrifying, but a problem has arisen."

Following the sound of a cloak being whipped, the dust in front was blown away, revealing the figure of the Human Knight stepping forward.

Unharmed—no, there were a few white scratches on the armor left from top to bottom.

"How is this possible? This isn't right, what use is this thin armor of yours? It's inferior stuff that can't even block a single sword strike of mine—" 'Shishou' simply could not believe that in the face of such a powerful attack just now, the opponent had not sustained the slightest damage!

"Ah... this? Sorry, didn't I say before, no matter how great your strength is, what result can you get when slashing at lake water? It's the same principle. I must admit I underestimated you; I couldn't pull off an attack with such momentum. But no matter how great the attack's power is, what does it matter if you can't hit your target? Just now, I ran a couple of steps, then jumped, and ended up being pushed away by the air wave stirred up by your attack, landing on the roof of the row of houses behind."

Jier shook his head: "It's just a pity for the flowers and plants planted on the surrounding houses. They are all beautiful things and should be appreciated, not destroyed in a battle."

Lifting his head, Jier stared at the Dwarf Warrior, carefully judging the intensity of the Divine Power blessing on the opponent's body while he spoke.

The bronze shimmer was still there, but it was already extremely dim.

Clearly, just as he had guessed, it was impossible to release an attack of such power without consuming something.

The state of Divine Power blessing that combined offense and defense—what actually gave Jier a headache was not the opponent's excessive attack capability, but the body that was as hard as iron and steel, blessed by Divine Power.

In a blessed state that could even block a hunting thrust with bare hands, Jier had no other means to break through the opponent's defense unless he used the Heartfire Dagger's flame-spitting attack without regard for Magic Power consumption.

And now, after an offensive with massive consumption, how much Divine Power did the opponent have left to use for defense?

He had already won this battle.

It seemed like he was only dodging and retreating, but the one who won was him. This experience also left Jier with many thoughts.

But now was not the time for a post-battle review.

Jier lifted his chin: "Picking up from what I said before, now, a problem has arisen."

The half-kneeling Dwarf felt the change in atmosphere, but he was empty-handed at the moment; subconsciously, he gripped a piece of Stone by his side.

"Now, how will you fight and respond to me?"

There was a teasing tone in the Human Knight's words.

Clang—

Drawing his Long Sword again, the Human Knight held the sword in one hand, pointing directly at 'Shishou'.

Neither of them moved, maintaining a static posture.

But the wind around them was still blowing.

The dust, the dust that had shrouded a large area, was finally blown away by the wind, leaving the center of the Cunzi and blowing toward the forest at the other end of the Valley.

"Hey—they're over here! Everyone follow!"

On the dirt road of the Cunzi leading from outside to the center, several Dwarves carrying heavy metal two-handed weapons, led by a Dwarf holding a large metal box, walked over quickly. The Dwarf in front saw the two of them and shouted directly.

As if the stalemate had been broken by the incoming Dwarves, Jier instantly lowered his body and charged forward. The two were only five or six meters apart; in less than the blink of an eye, Jier had rushed up.

The Dwarf 'Shishou' instantly threw the Stone he had been charging with strength, but the Human seemed to have reacted, or perhaps he had seen this move coming, and slightly dodged during his charge, avoiding the trajectory of the Stone thrown by 'Shishou'.

The Stone was like a fired cannonball, whistling through the air, passing through the huge depression in the ground, and smashing into the ruins of the Dwarf houses with a boom.

The Stone shattered into powder the moment it hit, but the impact force was transmitted entirely to the broken wall of the ruins. Then, this half-collapsed wall seemed to have been punched by a giant, scattering more fragments of Stone that splashed toward the more open area behind.

The moment he returned to the fight, Jier locked his eyes on every move of the Dwarf Warrior. After seeing through the opponent's counter-attack of throwing stones, he used the momentum of kicking off the ground to charge, slightly turned his body to dodge, and then thrust his Long Sword forward violently.

The Dwarf Warrior tried to reach out to block, but Jier bypassed the trajectory of the opponent's arm, relying on the length of the weapon in his hand and the fact that human arms are longer than a Dwarf's, to thrust straight at the front of the Dwarf's neck.

This was a vital area; directly in front was the throat and trachea, on the sides were the arteries and veins, and in the center was the spine. Each one was an important bodily pipeline for life, and this was exactly what Jier wanted.

Pierce it!

Sss—

The moment he struck, Jier saw the painful expression on the Dwarf's face, but he instantly realized something was wrong!

The counter-shock force on his hand was immense, as if he had thrust directly into a heavy metal shield no less than steel, and the sound was also wrong. It was not the sound of piercing flesh, but rather the feeling of a blade scraping hard against a solid surface.

"Damn it!"

As soon as the words fell, Jier's arm rotated and swung, and then his right shoulder, combined with the strength of his whole body, slammed heavily into the short Dwarf's body.

One after the other, the two flew out heavily.

The Dwarf, hit at high speed, took the vast majority of the force, so he kept rolling backward on the ground. Because of the remaining shimmer of Divine Power on his body, he looked like a golden copper ball, a shiny golden egg, rolling and spinning as he crashed into the ruins of a Dwarf house on the other side of the square.

Jier, meanwhile, used his palms and soles to scrape the ground halfway, maintaining a steady deceleration until he stopped.

He glanced at the several Dwarves who had rushed into the square behind him, his eyes narrowing, because the attire and weapons used by these Dwarves were much the same as those of 'Shishou', whom he had been fighting all along.

This reminded him that not long ago, these people seemed to have set out together to find him for a fight.

He hoped not every one of them was as powerful as 'Shishou'.

Jier thought this, and then, acting on the idea that it is better to break one of the enemy's fingers than to injure all ten, he stepped forward again, killing toward the Dwarf Warrior 'Shishou', who had just climbed up from the ruins.

Seeing the enemy coming again, 'Shishou' coughed. His throat was very painful; although the opponent's sword hadn't pierced his neck just now, blocked by the Divine Power which took the vast majority of the force, the remaining force, injuring him there, still made him very uncomfortable.

"Ptooey!"

He spat out a mouthful of blood, looked at the charging enemy, looked left and right, then bent down and picked up a piece of Stone, weighing over a hundred kilograms, that was originally part of the stone wall.

"Ahhhhhhh!!"