"Uncle Zhang! Uncle Fan! Let me help you!", with that words Huang Wen joined the fray.

He might not have Pan Wei's strength and lately he focused more on to raise his spirit stat rather than his physical stats, but previously he already invest so much on his agility that it was few points higher than Pan Wei's.

"Huang Wen be careful!", Zhang Hu shouted when he saw Huang Wen joined in.

He was worried because Huang Wen didn't wear a full armor and might attracted enemy's snipers to aim at him.

"I understand Uncle Zhang.", answered Huang Wen as he parried Pan Wei's attack.

Zhang Hu and Fan Zheng couldn't pay more attention to Huang Wen since Pan Wei was a dangerous opponent, they should focused on him, any opening in their defense might result in disaster for them.

Now with Huang Wen joined in, Pan Wei was losing his ground. Whenever he tried to attack someone, the other two would use that chance to attack him. It was impossible to defend two attack that were coming at the same time, thus he was forced to pull back his attack and retreated. Within no time, Pan Wei now must used all his strength and struggling to defend himself.

Zhang Hu and Fan Zheng, actively moved to take a position which would cover Huang Wen from Feng Jin's snipers as much as possible. It wasn't possible to keep the position for a long time, since the situation changed every seconds, but since they kept moving, it wasn't easy to aim at someone either.

Once and a while, Fan Zheng's sword, Zhang Hu's spear and Huang Wen's bastard sword managed to pass his defense and struck Pan Wei's body.

Thanks to his armor, Pan Wei didn't receive heavy injuries, but even as the armor absorbed most of the force, some would be still transferred to his body. Pan Wei swore and cursed whenever their attack hit on target but he used to pain and it even burn his fighting spirit even more. Pan Wei tried to break away from Huang Wen, Fan Zheng and Zhang Hu, but how would they let him had his way. Zhang Hu, Fan Zheng and Huang Wen tightly kept Pan Wei in the middle while they formed a triangle around him.

Cao Meng watched the duel and roared, "Feng Jin, why don't you send Yan Liu to help?"

Feng Jin smirked and answered, "I didn't know that Pan Wei planned to fight like that. Didn't you see I already sent Yan Liu to deal with the zombies."

Cao Meng snorted and said angrily, "Then what the hell are our snipers doing? Pan Wei was fighting against three men! Why don't you command your snipers to aim at his opponents?"

Feng Jin shrugged his shoulder, "The opponents wore armor, just like Master Pan Wei. Wouldn't it be a waste?"

Cao Meng grinned and said, "Hmm... but the third one doesn't wear any armor..."

Feng Jin watched the fight and smiled, "Ah... I didn't notice it. Of course I will help. Yong Tian, tell our snipers to aim at that young man."

Cao Meng and other Pan Wei's supporters could only grit their teeth. Feng Jin had the strongest military power within their alliance, which was the reason why he became their leader. All machine guns and sniper riffles in their alliance, belong to Feng Jin and only his men allowed to use it. Soon after Feng Jin gave the order, there were twenty snipers looking for an opportunity to shoot Huang Wen.

It was hard since they kept moving, Pan Wei's supporters raised their voice from times to times but they couldn't refuse the fact that it wouldn't be easy to shoot Huang Wen when the four of them fought so close like that.

They waited for the right time, but they didn't have to wait for long now. Pan Wei, Zhang Hu, Fan Zheng and Huang Wen had fought for more than an hours. Such thing certainly drained their stamina. Huang Wen arrived later, but he spent lots of his stamina to sprint and among them all, perhaps his stamina was the lowest.

After such a long battle, their stamina nearly depleted and naturally they didn't move as aggressively as before. They stopped moving incessantly, rather they watched the opponent's for any opening before attacked.

Pan Wei was tired but he still maintained his form well, beside he had his armors. During the fight, several times their attacks were right on target but Pan Wei's armor protected him well.

Now they aimed for the gap between the armors, but of course Pan Wei wouldn't let them had it easy.

It was during that moments, the snipers got a good aim at Huang Wen.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!", three snipers made the shot.

"Huang Wen!", Zhang Hu and Fan Zheng shouted almost at the same time.

"cling... tink... tink...tink...."

To their amazement, the bullet hit an invisible wall, it slowed down when it reached few inches into Huang Wen's body and finally stopped few millimeters before touched him, before fell to the road. Even Pan Wei was surprised to see it.

Pan Wei dared to face the guns because he had full set of armors imbued by magic that could stop bullets even grenades. He secretly found it the first day when they cleared Nanping from demons and zombies. Accidentally he met couple mid level demons like Baihu and killed them. When he found the armors, he and Cao Meng secretly tested the strength of the armors and delighted when they found the armor and shield could even stopped bullets and explosives.

It would change the balance of power, indeed so far army was the most important factor to decide the power of each faction but with such armors, Pan Wei could walked leisurely and slaughtered any men who dared to stand on his way.

They planned to demonstrate the armor in front of all their men today but unexpectedly Zhang Hu and Fan Zheng could stop Pan Wei's advance. Actually, if Feng Jin instructed his snipers to aim at them, then Pan Wei would be able to run amok among Zhang Hu's army as soon as they shot Zhang Hu and Fan Zheng.

But Feng Jin and Pan Wei was competing to lead the alliance, how could Feng Jin allow such thing to happen. Using Fan Zheng's and Zhang Hu's armors as an excuse he refused to instruct his snipers to interfere. Cao Meng who knew Pan Wei's strength, decided not to press on that issue, since he believed Pan Wei would win the fight at the end, and his victory would be even more glorious that way.

Who knows, a third person appeared and Pan Wei now was struggling. Cao Meng couldn't stay quiet and pressuring Feng Jin to use his snipers to help.

Feng Jin was forced to help, after all Pan Wei was his ally and he already showed everyone that despite Pan Wei's individual strength, they still needed his military power, which was the reason he became their leader. When finally the snipers shot, everyone from both faction felt relieved. It will be the end for Zhang Hu.

Feng Jin secretly admitted that as soon as Pan Wei won the fight, they would simply rolled over the Zhang Hu's army.

While Pan Wei's supporter relieved that their pillar of strength should survived the fight. If Pan Wei was killed, then they who previously opposed Feng Jin would not have any one to back them up. Their fate was in Feng Jin's hand, the one they used to oppose almost in every turn.

Few more snipers took a shot but as the sounds rang in the silence of the battle field, all eyes were focused on Huang Wen who stood valiantly and the bullets that meekly rolled on the street after weakly bounced from his body. In that instance, Huang Wen's existence became even more other worldly than Pan Wei. Every one who watched it lost their mind for few moments.

Suddenly one of Zhang Hu's men shouted his name, "Huang Wen!"

Soon every one shouted his name and the voice of 8,000 men were rumbling on Jianzhou Bridges, "Huang Wen! Huang Wen! Huang Wen!"

No one realized that Huang Wen was stood there in cold sweat. He was so close from being shot to death. On his way to Nanping, Huang Wen broke through another two levels and raised his Bloodlust mastery after so many times fighting close to activate the Berserker state. At the same time, his Invisible Shell skill also improved to another level and the cost to activate it was reduced in half.

His current stat was :

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"Huang Wen: Male"

"Level: 26 (113/535)"

"Class: None"

"Title: None"

"Strength: 10 (10)

Agility: 30 (30)

Vitality: 12(12)

Stamina: 4/15 (15)

Spirit: 5/33 (33)

Health: 11/11 (11)"

"Active Skills : Fireball (master), Invisible Shell lvl. 2." 

"Passive Skills : 3rd eyes lvl. 1, Bloodlust lvl. 4, Martial Art (Style : Xing Yi Quan, two handed sword) lvl. 3."

"Equipment :  Baihu's Bastard Sword, Generic boot (Agility +1)." 

Thanks to that, he fought against Pan Wei for close to an hour and still had 15 points of spirit points. During the fight, Huang Wen was kept moving around Pan Wei in order to make it hard for enemy's sniper to shoot at him without risking to shoot Pan Wei.

As soon as they stop moving, he activate Invisible Shell and maintained his stance for a while as he calmed his breath, trying to deactivate Bloodlust. Yes, at the fourth level of mastery, finally he had some control over the Bloodlust skill. Although it was still automatically activated, but now given enough time, he could consciously deactivate it during battle.

Zhang Hu with his eyes still fixed on Pan Wei asked Huang Wen, "Huang Wen, are you alright?"

Huang Wen nodded his head, "Yes, don't worry Uncle Zhang, during my journey to Nan An, I got a defensive skill. I'm not afraid of guns."

Fan Zheng smirked, "What a boy...."

And then he turned to Pan Wei, "Now who's the real turtle here heh?"

Pan Wei's eyes bulged as he stared at Fan Zheng, but what for? Fan Zheng surely couldn't be intimidated by such thing.

Zhang Hu sighed and said, "Hero, I must admit your courage, but why do you serve coward like Feng Jin?"

Pan Wei spitted on the road, "Feng Jin...., I'm no servant of him. I just allied my self with him, but he isn't my leader."

Pan Wei turned to Huang Wen and asked, "How about you boy? You had the skill, then why do you serve other?"

Huang Wen answered, "I serve the people, since Uncle Zhang Hu put people in his priority, so I gladly serve him. I never saw him did something against my principles, so I see no reason to stand against him."

Pan Wei snorted, "You're too naive boy..."

Huang Wen answered, "Maybe I am naive. Maybe I'm just used by him but as I'm following his order, I did nothing that against my conscience. So I can stand before you now with clear conscience. You can jeer at me or mock my choice. It doesn't bother me at all."

Pan Wei gritted his teeth, "I guess that's means we have to fight until one of us die huh?"

Zhang Hu was watching Pan Wei's expression all the time, he could feel Pan Wei was shaken by Huang Wen's skill and began to feel this fight wouldn't end up nice for him. One of the strategy when your power wasn't overwhelming your opponent, was to give them a path to retreat. Otherwise, when your opponent felt cornered, they would fight desperately and even if you won the battle, the casualties would be extremely high.

But gave them a chance to flee, they would take it. Thus you won the battle and save your people at the same time.

Of course that would be mean, that they would become a threat in the future but if he insisted on destroying them now. It would greatly reduced your strength and a third party would take the benefit.

Zhang Hu quickly said, "No... you're not Feng Jin's servant right? And our target now, is Feng Jin and Feng Jin alone. If you and your men leave Nanping then there is no need for us to fight to death. May I ask your name, are you happened to be Master Pan Wei?"

Pan Wei nodded his head arrogantly, "Hmm... so you've heard my name and are you Master Zhang Hu?"

Zhang Hu nodded his head, "Yes, I am. We do heard about Master Pan Wei's extra ordinary strength and charisma, today we're able to prove it. Facing someone like Master Pan Wei, I'd rather meet you again as friend than as enemy. So how about my offer?"

Pan Wei hesitated for a moment before answered, "Hmmm... leaving Nanping? Its easy for you to say that. If we have to leave Nanping then where should we go?"

Zhang Hu smiled, "If you agree to take your men away from Nanping, then following the river you could take Sanming for you and your people. You're not the kind who serve some coward like Feng Jin, why don't you use this chance to separate yourself from him?"

Fan Zheng added, "Look, Feng Jin's attention was focused at us now. You could sneaked your men and leave through the south-west of Nanping. Once we win this battle, I will send half of Feng Jin's supplies along with half of his ships to you. You can then use it to go to Sanming. With your strength, it won't be hard to secure Sanming for you and your men."

Zhang Hu spoke, "And later, when we occupy Nanping and you occupy Sanming we could work together to secure our territories. You could expand to the west and we'll expand to the east. When enemies attack one of us, the other would send reinforcement. We will be allies not only in name. Feng Jin call you it an alliance, but he insist on having his own authority while the rest of you must do as he says. With us, you will have your own territory and we have our own. You can't even trust him, he who betray his own people."

Fan Zheng said, "If we fight against each other, the one who take the benefit is Feng Jin. If you leave Feng Jin that means you gave us a hand in winning this battle. You will keep your strength, while we spend our strength to fight each other. Of course you make it easier for us to win, but at the same time you get benefit as well."

Pan Wei's expression changed, it was obvious that he was considering Zhang Hu's offer seriously. Zhang Hu, Fan Zheng and Huang Wen watched with anticipation.

Next : Chapter 53.