The fire had fused Zhang Guangming"s body permanently to the throne chair that he had wanted so much. For the dignity of his uncle, Michaux didn"t carve up his body as he did to the other traitors.
Although Michaux was a compa.s.sionate leader, he was not a softy, and he upheld his bottom line more fiercely than anyone else. If it were during peacetime, Michaux might have spared Zhang Guangming"s life. However, during this time of turmoil, the last thing humans needed was infighting.
"Young master, are you alright?"
Michaux waved a hand and said, "The lord of the Divine Will had betrayed the sect. Fang Zhengnan, I now declare you as the new lord of the Divine Will! Lead our man to take the city now…I don"t want to see any rebellions."
"Yes, my lord." Fang Zhengnan quickly gathered his troops and charged out of the city. What Zhang Guangming failed to understand was that even if Michaux were dead, he still wouldn"t be the next in line to inherit the t.i.tle.
Seeing Zhang Guangming was dead, everyone cheered with relief. No one liked this inept and arrogant prince anyway.
…
The next day morning, w.a.n.g Tong, Xiao Yuyu, and the other field medics started toward Maersa. Although Xiao Yuyu held a hard expression, she was beautiful as ever. The war didn"t exclude women from the battlefield, for they had as much strength as men.
Their Maglev whizzed through the streets as Xiao Yuyu watched w.a.n.g Tong in the driver"s seat, her heart filled with mixed emotions. However, she knew that as long as she was with him, she would not feel lonely ever again.
Meanwhile, one of the metropolises behind the front line, the Magellan, was on fire.
"Mathew, lead a unit to stop those two giant a*s Zergs in the southeast corner."
"My lord, let"s pull back for now. We can"t handle the golden dark one."
"Pull back? Pull back to where?"
"My lord, there will be firewood to burn as long as the green hills stay. If we keep going like this, we will exhaust all of our elite units in no time."
"Then, let me die with them! Someone else can be the city lord in my stead. If I allow the Zergs to ravage the city like this, how could I call myself the protector of the city?"
Song Zhong was only a level nineteen warrior; however, he had two legendary warriors under his command. In the past, the two legendary warriors had pushed back many Zerg"s raids and were hailed as the heroes by the local civilians. Their victories had inspired not only those inside the Magellan, but also those who lived in the suburb areas. As long as the legendary warriors were with them, no one would fear the Zergs.
However, after they defeated a golden dark one, they finally had caught the dark lord"s attention. For the second wave of attack, Moye sent in five golden dark ones and five golden giant Zergs. The city was overwhelmed in seconds, and both legendary warriors were killed while protecting the people. Although the two legendary warriors were able to drag three golden dark ones with them to the underworld, their death had left the humans vulnerable to the savagery of the remaining two golden dark ones.
Even then, the city Lord Song Zhong didn"t regret his decision of fighting back. If he had to die today on the battlefield, then so be it.
As the giant Zergs inflicted ma.s.sive damage to the city"s structures, the golden dark one picked off human warriors one after another. Any human warrior who was level eighteen or above was a fair game.
"Brothers, this is a good day to DIE! Charge!"
Two golden dark ones swooped down from the sky. The goal of their mission was to punish those humans who dared to fight back. They need to completely subjugate the humans, both physically and mentally; making them their most obedient slaves and test subjects.
The strongest element in Humans was their will, while the strongest element in the Zergs was their bodies. Moye was eager to find out what the humans would be like if he strained the human body beyond its limit.
Surprisingly, the human warriors inside the city felt no fear for such torture. Fear for death should be the strongest emotion of the humans; however, the defenders of the city charged into the Zerg formation with abandon as if they were seeking death.
Song Zhong and his comrades could have chosen to stay inside the bunker and call it "preserving the green hills." However, if everyone acted like that, the Zergs would never be defeated. Although the two elite human soldiers had paid the ultimate sacrifice, there were at least three less golden dark ones in the world…It was worth it!
As the two legendary warriors fell to the ground, more soldiers rose against the Zerg and continued to carry their banners.
Kom!
A giant Zerg"s leg was blown off, and the human soldiers swarmed toward it to finish it off. The Zerg fought back by spitting fire at the soldiers; in a blink, a couple of soldiers were reduced into ashes. However, the rest of them were unflinching as they continued their charge. When they reached the defenseless limping Zerg, they chopped it up into pieces.
Although the Zergs were powerful, they were not invincible. As long the human soldiers fought bravely as a team, they should have a chance of surviving the onslaught.
Although Song Zhong was the highest commander of the city, he fought along with the ordinary soldiers on the ground. While protecting himself with a blade, he watched as his soldiers fell to the ground one after another. Before long, he realized that all of his personal guards were killed, and he was now standing alone on the battlefield.
KOM!
Something knocked his blade to the ground and dealt a blow on his body. He was sent flying by the powerful strike, and before he had landed back to the ground, a dark one kicked him in the head. He heard the crunch when his skull broke, sounding loud as a clap of thunder in his ear.
He was level nineteen, and was still not powerful enough to even make a scratch on the dark one.
KOM!
His body rolled around when it hit the ground. The fractures in his bones were nothing to a warrior like him. However, the death of his soldiers p.r.i.c.ked his heart like sharp needles.
What attacked him were two dark ones, who executed a team combo on him which comically, at least to them, resembled the two of them kicking a soccer ball.
When they finally got bored of their plaything, they landed back to the ground. Song Zhong was too weak to be even taken as a test subject, so they killed him outright before they left the city.
Despite their victory, the losses of the three golden dark ones was a huge blow to the Zergs. Unlike the primitive Zergs, dark ones were a rare breed, and breeding one required tremendous resources. It would take the Zergs a while to recover from such losses.
If humans all over the Mars fought half as bravely as Song Zhong did, the Zergs" plan of conquering the human world would have to be sent back to the drawing board. Luckily for them, so far, most human cities had been focusing on defense and avoided conflict.
Song Zhong mustered his remaining strength to open his eyes; he wanted to see what those dark ones looked like so that he would haunt them as a ghost.
One person, then two and three…one by one, they came to him. They were helpless civilians: women, elderly, and children. Their husbands and sons had died at the front line, and now it was their turn to protect their city Lord who had sacrificed himself for them.
As more and more citizens gathered around Song Zhong, forming a meat s.h.i.+eld, the dark ones flew back and were shocked by the development. Their goal was to quell the human"s will to fight; it seemed that they had failed miserably.
Four Giant Zergs charged at the crowd; if the Zergs couldn"t teach humans to fear them, they might as well kill all of them.
The Zergs closed in, but no one moved.
Suddenly, a beam of white light shot at the giant Zergs and the force in the light pressed them to the ground until they were reduced to pulp. A haughty figure stood where the Zergs were killed, wearing a set of s.h.i.+ny armor.
The G.o.d of War had answered his believer"s prayers.
The other two giant Zergs veered toward the Einherjar and picked up speed. The Einherjar swayed slightly to the left and dodged the attack; meanwhile, he punched at the two Zergs squarely in their heads. The thick craniums of the Zergs was squeezed until it cracked and then shattered. The two hulking frames collapsed to the ground like a rag doll, brain matter splattered everywhere.
In a blink, four giant Zergs were removed from the battlefield forever.
The two dark ones recognized the Einherjar. They swooped down on him while shooting him with hundreds of sharp bone shards. The Einherjar didn"t dodge the barrage of shards.
Did it hurt? It didn"t matter. It had been centuries since the last time Zachery felt pain. Pain meant war, and therefore, pain was good.
He took one step and flew himself closer to the two dark ones. The two were shocked by the speed at which the Einherjar had approached them. They turned around and shot more bone shards at Zachery.
Zachery didn"t dodge either, because he didn"t need to. The bone shards were so fragile; they simply shattered as soon as they hit their target.
In a heartbeat, Zachery was right in front of the dark ones. He reached out his oversized hands and grabbed onto the two dark one"s heads, one in each hand. The two dark ones struggled to break free from the hold as they kicked their feet and waggled their bodies.
However, resistance was futile.
Zachery kept his hold on the two murderers and looked to the crowd for their opinion on what to do with them.
"Kill!" Someone shouted.
"KILL! KILL!" Everyone joined in.
The pirate king smiled satisfyingly as the head of the dark ones turned into two blobs of mush in his hands. When he landed back to the ground, he picked up Song Zhong and announced solemnly, "In the name of the G.o.d of War, I anoint you as the Knight of Onslaught."