Chapter 36: The Might of the Earth Element, The Destruction of the Bandit Gang

Earth elementals are creatures that live in the Earth Elemental Plane.

Except when summoned, they rarely leave their home.

Their forms resemble humans, their bodies constructed from the stone slabs within the great hall.

Their faces are cold and expressionless; two polished, round stones serve as their eyes at this moment.

Seeing this, Tuls let out a wail: "I clearly summoned a super-large earth elemental, yet a group of large earth elements has appeared?"

"Could it be that those earth elements are too greedy and dissatisfied with my tribute?"

"Impossible! Earth elements are pure and kind beings; how could this happen!"

Tuls felt even more pained.

Summoning creatures from other worlds is not so simple; without powerful magic power to bind them, whether they obey upon arrival is doubtful.

They might even attack the summoner.

Tuls is not a mage and naturally possesses no magic power.

Summoning earth elements relies on a summoning ring.

He had attempted to summon them several times before, reaching agreements with the earth elemental tribe on the other side.

To make earth elements act, one must offer some earth elemental crystals.

Depending on the quantity of crystals, a corresponding number of earth elements are sent to act.

Previously, Tuls treated these agreements as a joke.

After all, dragons are greedy creatures; how could one expect them to part with their treasures?

But now facing a life-or-death crisis, the dragon's instinct was cast aside.

He hurriedly summoned an earth elemental to save the situation.

The result was that instead of one first-tier super-large earth elemental, four unranked large earth elements appeared.

This is the root of Tuls's pain; unranked ones cannot compare to first-tier ones.

Even four of them, this is not something mere quantity can make up for.

But with matters thus, Tuls could only accept his fate; he quickly signaled the four earth elements to advance and attack.

He was still somewhat stingy, unwilling to summon again.

Besides, summoning earth elements can only be used once a day; having earth elemental crystals is useless.

The four earth elements were gigantic; their five-meter height alone, just by standing, was intimidating.

The Giant Scorpion Bandit Gang began to panic again; they usually killed humans.

Where would they understand the data on earth elements?

Seeing this height, they already had thoughts of retreating.

Slaying dragons, slaying what dragons!

Hurry home! The initial thought of getting rich was cast aside; one's own life is more important.

"Do not panic! These earth elements are merely large in size; in reality, their movements are slow."

"Look closely; their movement speed is less than half of yours."

"As long as you carefully dodge, you can bypass the earth elements and attack the young dragon."

"That young dragon has no real ability; just treat it as a cow to be slaughtered."

Fang Shi's indifferent words rang out among the crowd once more.

Pat and others looked and indeed found things as Fang Shi had said.

The earth elements, under Tuls's command, were attacking with full force, yet still moving slowly.

They themselves could easily bypass them.

Especially Harris, after hearing Fang Shi's words.

He rushed to the front of one earth element first and began playing a game with it.

In Harris's eyes, the earth element was far too sluggish; although every punch struck heavily, leaving a pit when it hit the ground,

the speed of the punches was excessively slow, relying basically on gravity for acceleration.

Yet Harris could dodge these with ease.

This made him recall the fun of teasing the rich man's old dog in his childhood.

That old dog was already very old, its movements trembling, yet it was unusually fierce.

Seeing people, it would bark and pounce, attracting a group of children to tease it.

Harris was one of them, and because of this reason, he embarked on the path of the rogue.

Seeing Harris teasing the earth element,

the crowd's courage grew again.

They began to imitate him, circling around the earth elements.

Some even bold ones passed back and forth beneath the earth elements' crotches.

Tiring the earth elements out as they turned their heads back and forth.

The Giant Scorpion Bandit Gang had never seen elemental life before.

For such strange-looking supernatural creatures, everything seemed so novel.

"Bang!"

A bandit, taking advantage of the earth element's unpreparedness, slashed its body with a knife.

The result was only a one-centimeter deep scratch left on the earth element's body.

On a human, this would at least have peeled off a layer of skin and caused blood to spill.

But the earth element, except for its energy core, is rock inside and out, with no difference.

Moreover, the Earth Elemental's massive body meant this injury didn't even count as a flesh wound.

"No good, my blade can't cut in."

"Mine either."

"What do we do? This monster is completely unkillable."

Pate, unable to bear the sight and finding it shameful, said, "Stop playing. Rush forward immediately and kill that little dragon."

"My lord already told you to go around. Who told you to fight these monsters?"

Having spoken, he took the lead, bypassing the Earth Elementals and charging toward Turs.

Seeing their leader advance, the other bandits hurriedly followed.

Turs still stood in the center of the high platform, facing the charging bandits, showing not a shred of panic.

He sneered, "Do you really think elemental life is that simple?"

"If they were truly just shields, why would I have sent them forward?"

The moment Turs finished speaking, the four Earth Elementals suddenly accelerated, crashing into the bandits like bulldozers.

The speed was so great, a complete opposite to their previous sluggishness.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The bandit members who had not moved far from the Earth Elementals were directly knocked flying by the rampaging Earth Elementals.

They didn't even have time to scream; their internal organs must have ruptured and killed them long ago.

The remaining people were stunned by this sudden turn of events; a few who were close were splattered with flesh and blood.

Even Pate lost his composure; this dragon-slaying operation had seen so many twists.

First, Fang Shi suppressed everyone with his pressure, then the dragon's roar intimidated them, followed by the arrival of the Earth Elementals.

Not only was it a series of setbacks, but each one was insurmountable.

Pate no longer believed Fang Shi's nonsense.

He finally understood: nobles are nobles; where would they care about their lives?

He was nothing but cannon fodder.

All his various expectations were merely one-sided wishes.

Since death was inevitable either way, he might as well flee.

But someone ran even faster than Pate: Harris.

He was the one who had been cautious throughout the entire process.

Don't be fooled by Harris always leading the way to dismantle traps; even just now, facing the Earth Elementals, he was the first to charge up.

In reality, that was all his performance.

After others charged up, Harris had already conveniently retreated a bit.

Having provided his proof of loyalty, he did not immediately follow to pursue the giant dragon.

This allowed Harris to withdraw in time when the Earth Elementals executed their charge.

It was then that the thought of fleeing arose in him.

Harris couldn't believe it; at this critical moment, the Earth Elementals had already been distracted by the bandit members.

If Fang Shi didn't take this good opportunity to slay the giant dragon now, would he really come here to trouble him?

"Swish!"

A sword light flashed; Harris's pupils contracted, and he tried to dodge to the side.

But the sword light's speed was truly too fast, and with Harris fleeing at full force, the inertia was too great; he simply couldn't dodge in time.

"Whoosh!"

In that moment of falling into eternal darkness, Harris saw his own feet and shoes, and a patch of blood-red.

"Slash attack activated."

"You dealt 31.5 damage to the target."

"The target received fatal damage."

"Target dead."

"Extracting target's soul energy. You gained 210 experience points and 21 survival points."

Fang Shi calmly sidestepped, avoiding the blood flower shooting skyward, and glanced at Pate.

Pate felt chilled all over by that glance, and his running body came to a halt.

"Go back. As long as the monsters obey, you will definitely survive in the end."

Pate gritted his teeth and said, "No, no. You've been lying to me all along, haven't you? I..."

Before he could finish speaking, Pate drew his blade and slashed directly at Fang Shi.

He had just witnessed Fang Shi's strike; although far stronger than himself, it did not reach the level of a First-Rank powerhouse.

Could it be that Fang Shi was not the so-called First-Rank powerhouse?

Rather, a First-Rank powerhouse had killed the goblin heads and left.

Fang Shi happened to be there, pretending to impersonate him and bluffing them into submission.

This thought flashed through Pate's mind, but he no longer had the energy to verify it.

Pate's attention was focused more on the blade swinging toward Fang Shi.

Stimulated by the pressure of life and death, this strike unleashed his full power.

It was the most perfect strike of his life.

Whether timing, angle, or force, everything was so perfect.

Pate believed that if he took Fang Shi by surprise, he could definitely inflict damage on him.

Perhaps, he could escape because of this.

Even more, kill Fang Shi and wash away the shame.

As the blade wind drew near, Fang Shi gave a cold laugh.

【Multi-Strike — Double Strike Hand (Damaged)】

【Multi-Strike — Double Strike Leg (Damaged)】

Vast, tremendous force burst forth from Fang Shi's hands and feet.

Facing the attack from Pade, he easily dodged by turning his body sideways.

Then he thrust his sword straight through Pade's chest in one stroke, and with a flick of the blade, ground everything into pulp.

"Piercing Attack activated."

"You dealt 31.5 damage to the target."

"Slash Attack activated."

"You dealt 31.5 damage to the target."

"The target received fatal damage."

"The target is dead."

"Absorbing the target's soul energy, you obtain 210 experience points and 21 survival points."

"A person's life — morning flowers fade by dusk, summer grass sleeps through winter — fragile and monotonous, tenacious and unwilling, yet in the end, there is always death."

Fang Shi withdrew his long sword, and Pade collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The fresh red blood seeped into the dark brown stone slabs on the floor.

He turned around coldly, facing the bandit gang members who had broken through the earth element encirclement, and said lightly, "Are you all prepared to meet death?"

How would the bandit gang members dare answer? They scattered and fled in all directions.

When facing a giant dragon, if I can't outrun the giant dragon, can't I still outrun my companions?

But today, Fang Shi was determined not to let a single one of them escape.

"Bang!"

Several cracks appeared in the bluestone-paved ground, and in an instant Fang Shi arrived at the tunnel exit.

Blocking the only passage.

Seeing Fang Shi's move, despair overflowed in the hearts of the bandit gang members.

A wolf ahead, a tiger behind.

Once the earth elements finished slaughtering behind them and caught up, they would never be able to run again.

No matter what, they had to pick one path.

"You demon!"

"Whoosh!"

A headless head shot up into the sky.

"You'll go to hell!"

"Whoosh!"

Another head rolled to the ground, its eyes still wide open in death.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Fang Shi fought as he retreated, killing the charging bandits while pulling back — blocking the passage and avoiding being surrounded at the same time.

In an instant, every member of the Giant Scorpion bandit gang who tried to flee was killed by Fang Shi.

As for their threats and curses, Fang Shi couldn't care less.

If curses were that easy to fulfill, why bother leveling up? Just curse monsters to death every day and be done with it.

"Experience: 4512"

Fang Shi gazed into the distance at the stone dragon atop the high platform, and the earth elements rampaging everywhere beneath it.

A faint smile appeared.

Next, came his time to slay the dragon.