Battle X Tremors X Attrition
Its speed was completely disproportionate to its size.
The ground trembled like a drumhead beneath its hooves, and when it swung its trunk, it created a gust of wind that carried away gravel.
Jiang Ye pushed off the ground with his right foot, and his whole body sprang out sideways.
The elephant's trunk swept across the spot where he had just been standing, slamming into the concrete and creating a shallow crater the size of a washbasin, with cracks spreading two meters in all directions.
He landed and rolled half a circle, then knelt on one knee with his right hand on the ground.
"Rabbit Escape."
Shadows surged from his palm, and thousands of black rabbits emerged from cracks in the ground, like a pot of exploding ink spilling across half the workshop.
The Max Elephant's crimson eyes were momentarily overwhelmed by the tide of black rabbits. Its trunk swept across, shattering more than a dozen clones in one go, but even more rabbits surged out from the shattered afterimages, rushing one after another to pounce on its limbs and trunk.
Rabbit Escape cannot stop Max Elephant, but it can disrupt its vision and judgment.
Jiang Ye needed just these few seconds.
"Muddy."
A giant black and white dog silently leaped out from the shadows of the side wall, its fangs bared, and bit down on the Max Elephant's left hind leg Achilles tendon.
The Max Elephant pain, kicked off with its hind legs, sending the Divine Dog: Totality's massive body flying to the side. It twisted half a circle in the air before landing on all fours and lowering its front body.
This bite didn't tear the skin open, but it deflected the Max Elephant's charge by half a step.
Jiang Ye withdrew the Rabbit Escape, and his left hand had already formed a second hand shadow.
The thumbs hook together, and the four fingers spread out like wings.
"Nue."
Purple lightning struck down from the shadow of the steel roof frame, the skeletal mask of the Nue appearing blindingly white in the electric light.
Instead of swooping down on the Max Elephant, it circled around the roof, the wind pressure from its wings swirling the gravel and iron filings above the Max Elephant into a hazy gray mist.
The Max Elephant raised its head to chase the reddish-brown shadow, its trunk swinging into the air. But the speed of the nymph was amplified to the extreme in the open space. It grazed past the tip of the elephant's trunk, its claws tearing a shallow gash in the elephant's ear.
Max Elephant's attention was divided into three parts.
The remaining Rabbit Escape scrambled beneath its feet, the Divine Dogs bit its leg from the side and rear, and the cere from above its head tried to draw its gaze.
Jiang Ye stood in the shadows ten meters away, his right hand reaching into the Shadow Space, his fingertips touching a cold metal cylinder.
He pulled the safety pin, but instead of throwing it, he crouched down and rolled the bomb flat along the ground.
The metal shell slid along the concrete to the side of the Max Elephant's forelegs and paused for a moment.
Boom!!
Flames and shockwaves surged upwards, blasting the Max Elephant's right foreleg to the side, causing its massive body to lose balance and crash to the ground.
Concrete fragments and scrap metal were sent flying all over the workshop by the shockwave, and the steel frame of the ceiling groaned under the strain.
Jiang Ye didn't give it time to stand up.
He pressed his hands down sharply, the shadows of his hands slamming onto the ground. The shadows Max Elephant from all directions, entangling its limbs and torso, like countless black Chain pulling it downwards.
The Max Elephant struggled, emitting hoarse bellows, and the screen bulged and tightened repeatedly.
A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of Jiang Ye's mouth, his vital energy was rapidly declining, and his Aura Nodes were burning hot from excessive output, as if someone were pricking his skin with a red-hot needle.
"Give me... back."
His voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible, but his hand moved down another inch.
The screen closed suddenly at an accelerated speed, and the outline of the Max Elephant collapsed and distorted in the blackness, forcefully pressed back to the ground.
The last faint cry of an elephant rose from the depths of the earth and then vanished.
Only Jiang Ye's breathing could be heard in the workshop.
He knelt in the concrete rubble, his hands bracing against the ground, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, splashing onto the grayish-white gravel and leaving a small dark stain.
The shadows returned to calm, Max Elephant's outline lay hidden deep within, much more stable than before.
The subjugation is not yet complete, but the previous round of suppression has worn down its will to resist. When it is summoned again, it will be weaker than it was today.
Just as he was about to stand up, the ground beneath his feet suddenly trembled strangely.
The tremors were very fine and frequent, as if something was moving through the deeper soil.
The word that Shattered Eye had described popped into his mind.
The ground is breathing.
Jiang Ye's pupils contracted for a moment.
He looked down at his shadow, the shadow spreading out from his feet and extending down along the cracks in the concrete.
The shadow thread encountered something in the soil, something slippery and wriggling in segments.
Worm!
The Grey Elder's men arrived faster than he had expected.
And they weren't there to deliver a message; they went directly to the foot of the steel casting workshop.
A harsh roar came from outside the Iron Wall, indistinct through the iron wall, but the urgency and anger in the tone were unmistakable.
Then came sporadic gunfire, followed by the dull thud of shields hitting something.
Jiang Ye propped himself up on his knees and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
He looked down at the shadows at his feet, which had Max Elephant to calm. The elephant lay hidden in the depths, while the outlines of the Divine Dog: Totality and the Rabbit Escape quietly lingered beside it.
He walked to the iron gate and placed his palm on the cold metal.
"Iron Wall."
His voice wasn't loud, but the walls of the steel foundry were made of sheet metal, so the sound bounced back and carried a buzzing echo when it reached the outside.
"Open the door."
The sounds of fighting outside stopped for a moment.
The latch turned, the iron door was pulled open, and Iron Wall stood in the doorway. A fresh crack was embedded in the edge of the giant iron shield, and there were several marks of mud and slime mixed on the shield surface.
A dozen meters behind him, a dark, human-shaped silhouette was emerging from the ground, with only half of its head and two arms that looked like they were made of twisted mud showing.
"Alliance Leader."
Iron Wall, panting heavily, turned his head and spat in the direction of the mud figure.
"This thing burrows out from underground; it's indestructible, and it grows back even if you cut it off."
Jiang Ye looked at the Worm- shaped creature struggling to rise from the soil. The blood at the corner of its mouth hadn't dried yet, but the smile had already curved upwards.
"Tell Gray Beak that we don't need to buy signal flares."
He turned his head and said something to the Iron Wall, then stepped out of the steel casting workshop, his shadow spreading silently on the ground behind him.
"Tell Shattered Eye to move the northern perimeter cordon back two hundred meters."
"If Grey Elder wants to play underground games with me, then let him see how far his Worm can go here first."
He raised his right hand, and the shadow of a wolf's head silently formed between his fingers.
When the Divine Dog: Totality emerged from the shadows, Iron Wall noticed that its paws were still stained with Max Elephant blood, and its black and white fur stood up slightly in the grayish-white light.
Meanwhile, on top of a pile of scrap iron 300 meters north of the steel casting workshop, the window of an extended bulletproof sedan was rolled down half an inch.
Grey Elder sat in the back seat, holding a tin wine glass in his hand, his charcoal-fired eyes gazing in the direction of the steel casting workshop.
"Elder."
In the front passenger seat, a tall, thin man wearing sunglasses turned his head, his voice hoarse.
"The Worm's air was being suppressed by something."
Grey Elder took a sip of wine, holding the rim of the glass to his lower lip for two seconds.
"That brat hid something in the steel foundry."
He put down his wine glass, a glint of something unreadable flickering in his cloudy eyes.
The man in sunglasses remained silent.
He tapped his fingers lightly on his knee, dried mud embedded in his fingernails.
As Grey Elder gazed in the direction of the steel casting workshop, a slow smile curved his lips.
You go over there too.