Black-Skinned Mountain Monster

At noon on the sixth day, the blazing sun hung high overhead beneath a cloudless sky.

Nine Red Eagles circled at an altitude of over a thousand meters, swaggering as they displayed their might, but they did not attack because the Deer Demon's army had yet to arrive.

Thus, Zhang Yang had still gotten one thing wrong: he had assumed the Deer Demon would know the exact time he established his village, after all, the commotion caused by establishing a village had been so great.

In reality, however, the Deer Demon had appeared a full nine hours later than he had estimated.

As for the reason, it was simple once he thought about it. The Deer Demon could not see the white light that appeared when the Village Building Order was placed, nor could it see the white light that appeared when the village was successfully established. Thus, it had no idea when the establishment was complete. It had to wait until daylight, when visibility was good, and spot the two newly added buildings from afar before it could confirm the matter. Only then did it gather its troops and come to attack.

Those extra nine hours had allowed Zhang Yang to enchant five more white-quality Imprisonment Spears.

He had initially been quite pleased, but the moment he saw the Deer Demon leading the Deer Race soldiers, he became highly vigilant once more.

It had to be admitted that the Deer Demon was a terrifying opponent: shrewd and calculating, full of schemes, and whenever it struck, it was like a lion pouncing on a rabbit, giving its all.

If Zhang Yang had not gained an even more powerful trump card, he might have chosen to flee immediately, because the strength the Deer Demon had brought was simply too extravagant.

First were two hundred Azure Wolf Demons. Next came a hundred Deer Demon warriors wearing specially crafted armor. They stood five meters tall, with enormous antlers growing from their heads. The antlers bore no ornaments at all and were razor-sharp, like clusters of long spears.

Those Deer Demons were also clad in iron armor and wore iron deer helmets. Each one held its head high and pawed the ground, neighing without cease. On a battlefield, they were none other than unstoppable heavy cavalry.

But what made Zhang Yang most wary was a giant monster the size of a small mountain. It stood over fifteen meters tall, and every step made the mountains sway and the earth tremble. It wielded a Wolf Tooth Club over ten meters long and more than two meters in diameter, and a single kick could topple a towering tree.

Against a monster like that, the small fortress Zhang Yang and the others had hastily built would not withstand even one blow.

"Wu Yuan, can you deal with that giant monster?"

"Village Chief, I'm no match for that giant monster, but the magic weapon you made can certainly heavily wound it. The only problem is that we'll lose our means of killing the Deer Demon."

Wu Yuan pondered. What he said was entirely correct. The Deer Demon's methods were unfathomable, and its soul was even stronger than Zhang Yang's. If it also possessed some terrifying spell, then without a means of killing it swiftly, the outcome of this war would be obvious.

"Then we'll give up on killing the Deer Demon for now and kill the giant monster first. And I'll bet there's a very good chance it'll be scared away!"

Zhang Yang took only a second to consider it before making his decision.

Because death meant they could not be resurrected, leaving them with nothing, every uncertain factor would make the Deer Demon hesitate again and again. This could be seen from the trap it had laid and the army it had mobilized and personally led: it was an incomparably cautious fellow.

Thus, once the giant monster was killed, the Deer Demon would have to consider whether its Level 3 Protection could withstand the deterrence of Wu Yuan throwing an Imprisonment Spear.

Of course, Zhang Yang had also considered killing the Deer Demon first—capture the bandits by capturing their leader. But that fellow had stationed itself a full three hundred meters away this time and activated Level 3 Protection at the first opportunity. It was clearly guarding against Wu Yuan, a Captain-Level Soldier, launching a desperate assassination attempt.

Therefore, as long as they killed the giant monster first, Wu Yuan could charge in alone and scare the Deer Demon away.

"Yes, Village Chief. I understand."

Wu Yuan nodded heavily. Under the current circumstances, wiping out the enemy completely was nothing more than a fool's dream. Defeating the enemy and frightening them away would amount to gaining precious breathing room. As long as they had enough time, they could make more Imprisonment Spears.

Just as Zhang Yang's side had settled on its battle strategy, the Deer Demon on the opposite side launched an all-out attack without another word.

More than two hundred Azure Wolves and over a hundred armored Deer Demons surrounded the giant monster the size of a small mountain and charged toward the hill. Their advance actually showed some organization.

In the sky, the nine Red Eagles also accelerated their circling, but they did not dive in to attack immediately. Clearly, they were waiting for Zhang Yang to activate Level 2 Protection. At that point, they would dive down at once and blast Level 2 Protection open, creating a wide-area shockwave that would make no distinction between friend and foe.

"Then have it your way!"

Zhang Yang stared from afar at the Deer Demon, snorted coldly, and gestured to Wu Yuan. Then, within the fortress, he activated Level 2 Protection.

Sure enough, four Red Eagles immediately accelerated and dove down. Their wind-blade attacks alone were enough to blast open Level 2 Protection.

The remaining five Red Eagles spread out fifty meters away, preparing to join the battle in the second wave. They were quite skilled with this tactic.

Too bad!

Two seconds later, Zhang Yang immediately shut off Level 2 Protection. By then, the four Red Eagles had dived to an altitude of fifty meters, while the other five had closed in to one hundred meters.

At that very moment, in another area, Wu Yuan led nineteen elite soldiers in throwing the wooden spears in their hands at the same time.

Amid sharp whistles tearing through the air, twenty wooden spears shot into the bodies of the nine Red Eagles like the fangs of death, easily blasting into every one of them without a single miss!

The training over the past six days had been highly effective.

In the blink of an eye, nine Red Eagle corpses came plummeting down.

In the first round, Zhang Yang's side had achieved a complete victory!

After activating the Level 2 Protection barrier again, Zhang Yang leaned out over the stockade wall and deliberately raised his middle finger at the distant Deer Demon. He wanted to see whether he could lure it over. Even if it came within a hundred meters, Wu Yuan's strength and the Imprisonment Spear might be enough to kill it.

But the Deer Demon ignored him completely, still hiding steadily within its protection barrier three hundred meters away.

"Roar!"

At that moment, the giant monster the size of a small mountain let out a thunderous roar of rage. It suddenly accelerated, charging to the base of the hill in just a few steps, leaving only a little over fifty meters between it and Zhang Yang's stockade wall.

"Wu Yuan, move!"

"Archers, focus fire on the Azure Wolves!"

"Everyone else, use wooden spears to focus fire on the armored Deer Demons!"

Zhang Yang issued commands in rapid succession. The instant his voice fell, Wu Yuan had already leaped onto the stockade wall. An Imprisonment Spear flashed from his hand. With a sonic boom, no one could even see the wooden spear's shadow.

Almost simultaneously, a thunderous explosion erupted near the giant monster's neck, blasting open a bloody hole as thick as a barrel!

The Imprisonment Spear's binding effect activated the next instant. The giant monster had only just raised its Wolf Tooth Club before it was bound in place. This gave Wu Yuan an even greater opportunity. In the blink of an eye, he threw four more Imprisonment Spears in succession, all of them blasting into the giant monster's eye sockets. The poor monster had been so fearsome, yet it did not even have time to scream before those four Imprisonment Spears blasted a blood hole the size of a water vat through its head. It died in an instant!

The might of the Imprisonment Spear was simply terrifying.

But thinking about it, it was only natural. This was a white-quality magic weapon, and it had been thrown personally by Wu Yuan, a quasi-hero. It was only normal for the damage to be so terrifying.

At that moment, Zhang Yang was both shocked and delighted. He was shocked by the might of the Imprisonment Spear and delighted that they had gained so much right at the start of the battle.

There was no need to mention the residual souls of the nine Red Eagles.

The giant monster Wu Yuan had just killed had actually yielded a complete demon soul!

"Successfully annihilated the enemy village's hero, Level 19 Black-Skinned Mountain Monster."

"Because the opponent was a village hero, successfully captured a complete Mountain Monster demon soul. Can be sold."

"Obtained 600 Energy."

"Obtained one Fragment of Hope (Gray). Can be sold."

"Obtained a Mountain Monster heart. Can be sold."

"Obtained 200 units of Mountain Monster blood essence, containing a large amount of Demonic Energy. Can be used to draw Battle Rune Talismans or refine magic weapons."

"Obtained a hero-level weapon, Giant Wolf Tooth Club."