Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 668: Chapter 668. No Escape

The giant rock drills stopped midway as if they had hit a solid object. They continued to spin inside the sand. Terrible sounds of friction reverberated loudly. A sudden booming sound was heard, followed by the rock drills bursting into pieces. After that, the soft sound of water trickling was heard.

Water emerged from the ground around the sand prison. It began to flow radially. It swirled around the sand prison. The water continued to build up as its flow speed increased. Soon, a whirlpool was formed with the sand prison at its centre.

This whirlpool sucked all the battle puppets in the vicinity. It then rose. The whirlpool went higher into the air, engulfing the sand prison, and transformed into a watery hurricane. The sand prison was slowly broken apart by the forceful power of the water and wind.

”Tch, fighting a Lord Stage cultivator is indeed fearsome,” Amon remarked. ”He still has this much energy to spare after all that.”

By then, the sand prison was already completely unravelled. The sand particles could be seen drifting along the water hurricane. Shou Zou was already free but could not be seen. He remained inside the water hurricane, which turned slimmer but longer. Its top part bent down and formed what looked like the head of a snake. This snake was staring straight at Amon.

The titanic water snake opened its mouth, revealing the grinding turbulence inside. It dove toward Amon, attempting to swallow Amon whole.

The Beta Puppet came in the water snake’s path, and it was not alone. Around him was what was left of the giant centipede puppet. They revolved around the Beta Puppet in a ring-like pattern. The words of power along their body glowed.

The Beta Puppet erected its energy shield. It pumped all its energy into this shield. The two shields in its hands combined into one big shield, covering its entire body. This shield further resonated with the words of power along the centipede puppet. The centipede’s barrier-generating power synchronised with the Beta Puppet and reinforced the energy shield, which now became a giant barrier shield.

The titanic water snake bit into this giant shield. Since the snake was not an actual being, its head was smashed into a massive splash of water. Losing its head didn’t stop the assault. Its hurricane body continued to push against the giant shield. The spinning power of the hurricane was like a giant drill that bore into the shield. The pressure drove the Beta Puppet and the centipede puppet down toward Amon.

The Alpha Puppet didn’t stay idle. It flew toward the water hurricane from the side, and stabbed its chainsaw sword into the twisting water. Its power, however, was not the water hurricane’s match. It couldn’t resist the radial force. It was dragged around the hurricane’s surface. It tried to fight the force and ended up snapping its chainsaw sword. The chainsaw sword was sucked inside the hurricane while the sudden momentum flung the Alpha Puppet and caused it to crash into the ground.

The water hurricane continued to push the giant barrier shield. Amon commanded the battle puppets to assist. The battle puppets swarmed under the Beta and centipede puppets. They grabbed the two from behind and pushed. With their combined strength, the barrier shield stopped moving back.

Amon was buying time. He didn’t believe Shou Zou could maintain this water hurricane for long. Furthermore, the Earth Elemental was not yet defeated.

The sand that flowed inside the water hurricane began to gather. Unlike normal sand, this sand didn’t clump together in contact with water. Each granule remained separate and moved as if under the will of a sentient being. These granules slowly came together under the powerful waves that formed the hurricane.

They didn’t flow in random directions, though. They recombined near the core of the water hurricane, where Shou Zou was. Shou Zou was too focused on controlling the water serpent that he didn’t notice the Earth Elemental reforming next to him.

By the time he paid attention to his Lord Sense, the Earth Elemental was back to its humanoid form. Its hand became a giant fist that defied the force of the water around it. This giant fist slammed into Shou Zou.

The impact sent Shou Zou crashing out of the water hurricane. Once he was out, the water hurricane lost its anchor. It stopped twisting and dissolved. A massive amount of water dropped to the ground before vanishing.

”Hah... hah...” Shou Zou was panting. He had expended an insane amount of aether to create that water hurricane. There were also new wounds in his body. Some of the earlier rock drills touched him before they were destroyed.

All the battle puppets with flight units surrounded Shou Zou. ”There will be no escape,” Amon uttered.

Shou Zou gritted his teeth. He was a Lord Stage cultivator. To entertain the thought of escaping was the ultimate humiliation. He didn’t retort to Amon’s words, though, because that thought indeed briefly crossed his mind just now.

Amon waved his hand, and the battle resumed.

Shou Zou crushed all the standard battle puppets that dared come near, but those puppets were simply disruptions. His true opponent remained the Earth Elemental. The Earth Elemental again conjured numerous large rocks, which it swung like giant flails at Shou Zou. However, a few of its sandy tentacles were now coiling the Lord cultivator, hindering his movements.

None of the battle puppets could deal meaningful damage to Shou Zou even when they landed hits on rare occasions. The ones that could threaten Shou Zou were the Earth Elemental, the Alpha Puppet, and Amon’s ceremonial dagger. Yet, Amon kept throwing the battle puppets at Shou Zou nonstop, all in an attempt to confuse Shou Zou.

Shou Zou had trouble pinpointing the true attacks amidst this chaos. It was especially so with the attacks from the Alpha Puppet, which he could not sense. As time passed, his wounds continued to pile up. Some of which had him bleeding badly.

His grave situation finally forced him to accept reality. If he insisted on continuing this battle, there was a high probability that he would perish. The fear of death overcame his pride. He performed a wide swing that destroyed many battle puppets, broke the sand tentacles wrapping his body, and dashed in the direction he observed to have the least number of battle puppets.

Sadly for him, Amon had every angle covered. The Beta Puppet appeared where Shou Zou was heading. With its energy shield, it stopped Shou Zou’s dash. The Alpha Puppet came from behind and hit his back with his Morningstar flail.

Shou Zou grimaced from the pain. He endured it and counterattacked with a circular swing. His swing caused a radial shockwave that beat the Alpha and Beta Puppets back, as well as crushing the other battle puppets that started to surround him again.

While he managed to drive those battle puppets back, the Earth Elemental caught back up to him. It erupted before reaching him, turning into a sandstorm that swirled around him.

Shou Zou couldn’t fight the Earth Elemental when it was intangible like this. He detonated his energy, causing a shockwave. Sadly, it was not strong enough to blow away all the sand surrounding him. His wounds and fatigue were worse than he thought. He was much weaker than before.

The sand converged on him. Once it did, it solidified and multiplied in weight. With Shou Zou entombed inside, it crashed into the ground. Shou Zou was again incapacitated inside a sand prison, and he no longer had enough energy to use the water hurricane, which he used to break out of this prison the last time.

A small part of the sand broke apart, revealing Shou Zou’s head. He was panting, his hair was dishevelled, and his expression was one of defeat. He could no longer resist. Amon walked over with his ceremonial dagger in hand. The Alpha and Beta Puppets flanked his side.

”Any last words?” Amon asked.

Shou Zou spat at Amon before grunting. He was channelling energy to break free from the sand confinement. His attempt was futile. The sand refused to budge.

Amon lifted his ceremonial dagger.

The battle puppets around him suddenly moved. They flew in one direction and formed a line. Amon looked over and saw an army heading his way. One person left this army and came at high speed. A strong shockwave blasted away the battle puppets that attempted to block this person.

”Hm...” Amon had the Beta Puppet stand facing the direction from which the person was coming.

”Amon, do not kill him!” Princess Huang Er exclaimed as she approached.

She attempted to force her way past the Beta Puppet as well. But when she bumped into the Beta Puppet’s energy shield, she was the one who recoiled from the impact. This stopped her from coming near Amon.

”Why?” Amon asked her.

”He is the sovereign ruler of another country. Helping the locals to defeat him is one thing. If you kill him, Echos will go down in history as a country that has executed Kazhan’s ruler. Even if his reign is over, he still has supporters. The people of this country will never forgive Echos. You will bring about an eternal taint in the relationship between Echos and Kazhan.”

Amon grinned. ”Why should I be concerned about that?”