Rise of The Demon General

Chapter 691: Chapter 691. The Reaper

While Lin Li, disguised as Amon, and Xan Chi laid waste to the zombie beasts, the real Amon, hidden behind the dark shroud, battled the Soul Flayer, accompanied by his two high-tier runic battle puppets.

Amon sensed Sura Yao’s approach, and so did the Soul Flayer. Sura Yao was a Peak Spirit Stage cultivator. While he was among the strongest in the surface world, the Soul Flayer had the power of a Beginning Lord Stage. The Soul Flayer sent one of its tentacles thrusting toward Sura Yao.

Normally, the attack would be too fast for a Peak Spirit Stage cultivator to dodge, but Sura Yao exhibited a reaction speed that almost rivaled Amon’s danger sense. He stepped to the side and spun his weapon, a long scythe, to deflect the thrusting tentacle.

The dodge took the Soul Flayer by surprise, because it failed to react to Sura Yao’s next swift counterattack.

Sura Yao’s long scythe spun at high speed. Flames burst as the spinning intensified, making it seem like Sura Yao held a flaming wheel. He threw the flaming wheel forward, which struck the Soul Flayer’s side.

Sparks were produced from the friction between the flaming wheel and the Soul Flayer’s hard hide. Unfortunately, the flaming wheel wasn’t strong enough to rip through the Soul Flayer’s strong defense. The Soul Flayer shrugged, and the flaming wheel was shaken off.

The flaming wheel flew back to Sura Yao. The flames dispersed when his hand grabbed the scythe’s shaft.

”Hit its wounds,” Amon said with a voice muffled by the darkness shrouding him.

Sura Yao didn’t do or say anything in response. He performed a second assault by swinging his scythe forward. Multiple wooden branches materialized from that swing. They spread over a large area. Each branch made a sharp turn. Their pointy ends aimed at multiple spots on the Soul Flayer’s body.

While Sura Yao acted as if he didn’t hear Amon’s advice, Amon saw that he heeded it. All the sharp branches were targeting the various wounds in the Soul Flayer’s body.

These wounds were inflicted by Amon and his two puppets throughout the battle. The problem was that these wounds kept healing as the battle progressed. The Soul Flayer never stopped absorbing its dead zombies to heal itself, so its wounds never worsened.

The Soul Flayer lifted its two rear feet and kicked backward. The kick produced an explosive shockwave that obliterated all the wooden branches before they could touch its body. It then sent one of its tentacles at Sura Yao in retaliation.

Sura Yao dodged the incoming tentacle again. Contrary to the previous flames, his counterattack this time produced a stream of water. His body moved left and right with unpredictable patterns as the water stream formed a river.

The Soul Flayer’s tentacle tried to catch Sura Yao, but it kept missing him by a hairbreadth. Sura Yao’s scythe finally hit one of the Soul Flayer’s yet-to-be-healed wounds. By targeting the wound, the blade of his scythe dug deep enough to draw blood.

The Soul Flayer growled, more out of annoyance than pain. Most of its attention was on Amon and the two battle puppets. It thought that it could chase off this new nuisance with only one tentacle. It was wrong.

Amon didn’t find Sura Yao’s prowess surprising. Not considering Lord Stage cultivators, Sura Yao was considered the best combatant in Gyleth Marx. His accomplishments in the military earned him a nickname, the Reaper. He was considered an equal to Echos’ military legend, Jiang Tong, who was known as the Immortal God of War.

Amon had compiled intel on Sura Yao long ago. From the intel, Amon knew Sura Yao was a gifted practitioner who could easily learn arcane arts of multiple elements despite having no affinity to said elements. His expertise even allowed him to create arcane arts from four different elements.

The arcane arts Sura Yao had created were called the Climate Festivals, which consisted of four arts. He had displayed three out of the four arcane arts. The flaming wheel was the Summer Heat. The swing that conjured the wooden branches was the Spring Harvest. The confusing slashes accompanied by the stream of water were Winter Flow. There was another art he had not used. The art’s name was Autumn Fall.

Aside from his unique arcane arts, his weapon was also unusual. The long scythe was a low-tier runic weapon with a special ability. When the yellow blood of the Soul Flayer touched the scythe, the words of power on the scythe flared to life.

The scythe’s blade turned dark red and began to emit red mist. Following the alteration, the scythe became a blur. Sura Yao used a martial art named Death Carnage. The scythe struck multiple spots on the Soul Flayer’s body with blinding speed.

This time, he didn’t strike existing wounds. This was not because his accuracy was affected by his martial arts’ speed, but because he no longer needed to. The red mists that followed his scythe seeped into the Soul Flayer’s body with each strike.

This was the scythe’s special ability. Once the weapon tasted a victim’s blood, its attack could now bypass the victim’s defense. These indirect attacks couldn’t be compared to having the scythe ripped into one’s inside, but they still caused enough pain and damage.

The Soul Flayer roared in pain from having its insides intruded upon by the scythe’s red mists. It turned to Sura Yao, whom it now saw as more than a nuisance. It sent two of its tentacles at him.

Sura Yao managed to dodge the first tentacle, but the second one caught his right arm. Without hesitation, he used his scythe to cut off that arm. The first tentacle that missed him returned and targeted his head before he fled. He swayed and avoided a direct hit, but the tentacle knocked his mask.

The mask shattered, revealing Sura Yao’s face.

”You are a woman?” Amon asked.

Sura Yao’s face was that of a woman who should have been beautiful if not for a long scar that ran across her face. She wasn’t given the time to worry about her face being revealed because the Soul Flayer sent a kick using one of its hind legs.

She failed to dodge the kick but managed to block using her scythe. The block was not effective enough. The shaft was pushed into her body, and the impact of the kick still hit her. Several of her bones broke. She uttered a pained cry as she flew away. Without her mask, she cried with her original voice. The cry removed everyone’s doubt about her being a female.

Sura Yao’s intervention diverted the Soul Flayer’s attention. This gave Amon and his battle puppets an opening.

The Alpha and Beta puppets rushed forward under Amon’s silent instruction. The Beta Puppets rammed into the Soul Flayer using its energy shield. The Alpha Puppet slipped in and drove its chainsaw sword into the Soul Flayer’s shoulder.

Roaring from the pain, the Soul Flayer grabbed the Beta Puppet using its tentacles and slammed it into the Alpha Puppet. Amon stole an opportunity to perform his slash when that happened. His black, flaming sword sliced past the Soul Flayer’s eyes, cutting its eyeballs.

The Soul Flayer roared even louder after losing its sight, but Amon knew it was only temporary. Scores of dust from the disintegrated zombie beasts had arrived to regenerate the eyes. The blind Soul Flayer relied on its senses to fight in the meantime. It unleashed its laser beam at Amon point-blank.

Amon sensed the danger, but he was too close. The laser beam struck his chest. Thankfully, the Elder God Veil was strong enough to resist the beam for a few moments. This allowed him to move away. The Soul Flayer adjusted the laser beam to follow Amon, but Amon managed to shift away by the time the beam finally pierced his dark shroud. The beam tore his side and drew blood.

Amon gritted his teeth to suppress the pain. He couldn’t afford to be distracted in this fight, even from pain. He was prepared to face the Soul Flayer’s advance. However, the Soul Flayer’s attention was not on him.

The Soul Flayer’s eyes had reformed. His new eyes were looking at the side opposite Amon. He was looking at Sura Yao.

Amon was at first confused. He only realized the reason after noticing the irregularity using his cultivation sense. His sense informed him that a continuous stream of energy was flowing from the Soul Flayer to Sura Yao. He also noticed Sura Yao’s injured body was rapidly healing. Colors returned to her recently pale face. The most obvious tell was her severed arm, which was regenerating at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Amon understood then that just as the Soul Flayer absorbed energy from the zombie beasts to heal itself, Sura Yao was absorbing the energy from the Soul Flayer to heal herself. She was reaping the Soul Flayer’s life force.