No one knew when the Saint Empire troops planted all these booby traps, but the time needed to set them up must’ve been considerable. The weakness of the War God Tattoo is time. When Esley asked Kairos for a solution, this is the answer the young commander had come up with. While it’s impossible to fully defend their rear, Kairos lined the whole area with all kinds of time-consuming defensive formations. Besides the Weapon Formation and the Five Elements Shield array, there are also Lucas Flare’s Ice World Array that could slow down invaders and his Hundred Sword Array that could freely control to attack enemies. Of course, without his heirloom jewelled sword, the Sword Array is only an imitation that could control merely twenty swords and with less firepower. The replicated jewelled sword used to set up these arrays are all created – almost too effortlessly – by the Master Smith, Siegfried.
Besides that, there are numerous Lee Hei’s Black Needle Spheres scattered across the ground, each containing over ten thousand specially prepared poisoned needles, and countless activated stratagem plates contributed by everyone in the Snowdrifts that had such treasures. These treacherous treasures were thrown across the field, hidden under a layer of snow. When the barbarians stepped near them, they will be dragged into all kinds of illusionary or binding arrays.
Of course, all these protections had to be placed together in order to grind down the lifespan of the attackers. Otherwise, those near-immortal fighters under the effect of the War God Tattoo couldn’t be stopped.
Of course, the booby traps had to cover both ground and air to be effective, and thus only very limited areas could truly be protected and thus it only accounts for twenty percent of their rear.
The remaining eighty percent had to be covered with Time Runes. Of course, it’s impossible to draw that many Time Runes and keep them activated with Spirit Stones so they are limited to sixty seconds – or five hours of draining - to deter the entire suicide squad that the Frosthral have. Avoiding the Time Runes will be their downfall, but, the enemy doesn’t know that and they are fooled by the success of breaking through one barrier after another, not knowing that only more layers awaited them.
To make such preparation this under the eyelids of the menacing Frosthral Feudal State troops can only be described as unthinkable.
Reynold took a look at this and his expression instantly turned aghast. The Saint Empire soldiers did not just arrive! If the siege just began, then who lay down these traps?!
At this time, the Briar Root Cannons had just been pushed into position and the cannoneers fire their first shots under the command of the White Emperor.
Green seeds the size of human heads flew with sound barrier breaking speed and dug deep into the ever-growing soil mound bridge that the disgusting Cave Troll are building.
Instantly, poisonous thorny roots expanded with alarming speed and grew into the ground to kill the Cave Trolls. Whenever a creature was touched by a thorn, hideous and painful boils appeared across its flesh. The pain crippled the victim as roots started growing across its body, wrapping it up like a deadly net, covering it completely and consuming it.
Instantly, the mound stopped growing and had signs of breaking apart.
But within the soil and rock heap there are frenzied activity. As many trolls as the roots kill, more will take their place. A super colony of Cave Trolls cannot be underestimated. The reason why monster horde is feared as a calamity is because of the sheer numbers of deadly creatures present.
Instead of becoming frightened by the Briar Roots, a vicious gleam flashed across the trolls’ eyes. After the initial few hundred that died, the remaining the trolls started chanting, all of them are A ranked creatures or above.
As their strange guttural voices thrummed with power, dirty black miasma rolled out of their mouths like rotted breath.
The Troll Magic quickly covered the poisonous roots, and the rapidly growing plants quickly shrunk as if in great pain.
The repulsive fog decayed away anything living that is not their own, and soon the Briar Roots died and the trolls continued shifting more soil upwards.
Above them, the Snowdrifts’ frontliners charged fearlessly with Kairos leading the way.
Noticing that the did not work, the cannoneers brought out their next weapon. A Void Cannon.
The entire Ku Kang Camp only have three of these, but each is an incredible armament.
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They aimed one directly at the soil mound, letting the cannon drain power from its energy sources. Within seconds, ten top-grade Spirit Stones turned into ash as a small crystal meter on the weapon glowed with green light.
The amount of energy from a single top-grade Spirit Stone is enough for an F ranker to use all the way to B rank, or for a B ranker to forcefully break through into A rank or even S rank. But it is called top-grade because it allows a Peak Triple S ranker to recharge a single full-powered attack, a single Paramount Unit; granted that this measurement is made according to the strength of the weakest of that rank, since the difference of strength varies too wildly at that stage.
For example, Syriong might be one of the ten guardians of the Silent Lambs Empire, but he is considered the bottommost in their ranking, while their ace fighter is rumoured to be able to handle several cultivators at Syriong’s level at the same time.
On Gaia, to determine who is the strongest, they created measure of power called Paramount Unit. When a cultivator reached Peak SSS, the strength they have is a single Paramount Unit and Syriong is rumoured to be between two to three Paramounts. However, when the five top-grade Spirit Stones were consumed, the power that the Void Cannon unleashed instantly reached ten Paramounts.
A dangerous light glowed at the cannon’s muzzle as strange glyphs that line the barrel sparkled like the stars. The defenders looked enJarled at the shot fired. Their expressions displayed the absolute confidence they have with the Void Cannon.
This armament is one of the top killing weapons on the entire Gaia and had once taken out a commander of Esley’s level that strayed too close.
Even if caught off-guard, it wasn’t easy to kill someone like Esley, Reynold, or Syriong. To survive the harsh murim, the higher rank a cultivator is, the more his defence will overtake his attack. Except for the rare few, it takes thousands of years on average to become a Peak Triple S ranker. If one wasn’t capable to survive, the practitioner would’ve long been dead.
Yet, such a cultivator taken out by a cannon can attest to the prowess this weapon of war has.
Then, a beam of black light fired from the Void Cannon blasted the half-formed soil bridge.
Kairos who is charging at the foremost quickly placed his Swallow before himself. It is the only action he could do against an attack at such speed. Likewise, those behind him tried desperately to defend themselves the moment the cannon was brought out, each knowing the feared reputation of the siege weapon.
This time, the target is far too close.
The black light dyed everything into the darkest shade of the night, and for a moment, the defenders could only hear the terrifying screech that the cannon left behind.
Without a doubt, the White Emperor Reynold is the most concerned person with the result.
He had seen the enemy’s trump card charging at the front and almost couldn’t control the laughter bubbling out.
Yet, as he waited to see the outcome, a puzzled expression overtook him. That’s strange, a person of Kairos’ calibre shouldn’t be killed that easily. Could a Void Cannon really take out someone who is so multi-talented that he could overwhelm experts of every trade?
Will Kairos really not know of the power a Void Cannon has and be shot point-blank by it like that idiot commander in the past?
When the howling in their ears finally faded, their vision was restored as well.
The White Emperor who has his eyes wide open in full attention is the first person who managed to see past the fading smoke and ash. With his cultivation, it wasn’t surprising.
His pupils constricted rapidly. The scene before his eyes is unbelievable.
The Snowdrifts covered by a blue barrier and weapons giving off wisps of white smoke remained intact. Not a single person was wounded.
The Star Rune Weapons had absorbed away the bulk of the ten Paramount Unit cannon fire, while Alan’s wide-area shield leeched away the rest of the impact.
Kairos who stood at the front, spun his weapon and returned it to his side. Then, as though nothing had happened, he continued leading the charge as the Cave Trolls underneath returned to building their soil bridge for them.
At this sight, the aides of White Emperor turned pale with fright. Their commander started shivering. Shaking like a leaf before a young teenage.
They had never seen Reynold act like this ever before.
“L… Lord Reynold!”
A few loyal men shouted in alarm, hoping to bring him back to focus.
With a trembling hand, the commander of the Ku Kang Camp waved them away.
His eyes unfocused, and under his breath he is muttering, “Kairos Astroire… He has Triple S ranking?”
The aides immediately turned back and look at the mound that had grown to ten meters tall. At the front most the young lad in battle armour and holding a long two-ended polearm had a fearsome glint in his eyes.
He had dispersed most of the blast from the Void Cannon by himself, without a powerful cultivation, it’s impossible.
When the aides looked at him carefully there were all shocked. It is hard for them to detect Kairos’ rank who is still a distance away, but they soon came to a grim conclusion, it is as the White Emperor says he is at Triple S rank.
“He really is at Triple S rank!”
“How can this be?”
“No, he is already at Peak SSS!”
“What… wasn’t he at Entry S rank only?”
Kairos’ rank is a heavily scrutinised piece of information by all the superpowers on Gaia. If he had a small breakthrough, even the emperors and kings at the end of the world will hear of it before the end of the week.
In that case, then this teen before them… He couldn’t have break past eight minor stages in such a short time.
… Unless, this person isn’t him?
White Emperor Reynold ignored them, still mumbling to himself while the others eavesdropped daringly, “Triple S rank, Cave Trolls, Ku Kang Tunnels, pre-emptive Protection Arrays. No… even the Blood Brothers Ritual before that! This isn’t a siege… This is an assassination!”
The White Emperor pieced all the puzzles together and came to a frightful conclusion. Both the attacks heading towards the north gate and the still-forming soil bridge are mere distractions.
The enemy is already amongst them.