At my order, my immense Celestial Guardian roared his acknowledgement before twisting in midair to pounce on Xue Tu. With so many of the Bog Ghouls eliminated by his lightning, there wasn't much left for him to do. Besides, by now I was able to conjure up a new pride of Constellation spirits who could help mop up the remaining rank F Minions.

"Leo! Leo Minor!"

I had chosen the majestic lion for a reason. Leo's element was fire, and fire was particularly effective against the undead.

"Regulus!"

A golden beam of light seared through the marsh, disintegrating scores of Bog Ghouls. Those that escaped the blinding spell's wrath were eviscerated and beheaded by the smaller Leo Minor, their lithe forms leaping nimbly across the swamp.

"Kuh!"

While my newly appeared Constellation spirits, the Silver Wolves mercenaries and I were taking care of the Bog Ghouls, Anastasia began to pressure Xue Tu back with the a.s.sistance of my White Tiger. White lightning danced across the clearing, illuminating the swamp and temporarily lifting the gloom that had permeated it since primordial times. Gritting his teeth, the leader of the Blood Slaughter Sect threw out his hand desperately in an attempt to conjure a new blood barrier to defend himself.

"!!!"

However, while he was distracted by the ferocious Celestial Guardian, Anastasia seized the opportunity to sneak up upon him and stab him in the back. Fortunately, Xue Tu's reflexes saved him and he dodged it by a hair's breadth before countering with a blood spear that coalesced around his arm and thrust out with incredible velocity.

Anastasia flipped backward, the b.l.o.o.d.y spear succeeding only in cutting a small segment of her dress, splitting the fabric apart to reveal white skin. Adjusting her position, Anastasia whirled around and kicked Xue Tu in the neck, causing the poor guy to topple over facedown into the mud.

"Gah!"

Coughing and spluttering, Xue Tu hurled another barrage of blood spikes at her, but Anastasia succeeded in vaulting over the crimson thorns and landed a few meters away. As she did so, while Xue Tu's eyes were fixed on her, White Tiger mauled him from behind, causing a fountain of blood to spurt into the air.

Xue Tu staggered, but he swung his hand back to launch another volley of gigantic blood spears behind. White Tiger agilely leaped up, bouncing from one spear to the next and swiping those that he was unable to evade, shattering them into red crystals. Spinning around in midair, the immense Guardian of the West slashed at the blood mage, who conjured a s.h.i.+eld to defend himself. Despite the protection from the physical attack, torrents of deadly electricity streamed forward to electrocute him. Crying out, Xue Tu backed away as his body began to fume.

At that moment, Anastasia closed in with her daggers, but he managed to kick his foot upward and sending a blood blade flying at her face. Throwing her head back, Anastasia just barely avoided the hurtling blood bladed, which pa.s.sed centimeters away from her retreating chin, and flipped backward elegantly to land on both feet again.

Gnas.h.i.+ng his teeth in frustration, Xue Tu prepared to launch another attack, but his spell was interrupted by White Tiger. The enormous beast raked his claws against his back, or tried to, but the blood mage was quick to react, ducking under the lethal claws before spinning away to safety. He bought himself more time by throwing another row of blood lances at the advancing Celestial Guardian, forcing the latter to keep his distance.

The guy was truly skilled. I couldn't help but be impressed. Even when facing an ex-a.s.sa.s.sin and one of my Celestial Guardians at the same time, he was still able to hold his own.

But not for long.

"UGH! I can't believe a Divine Spirit Realm pract.i.tioner like me is being suppressed by a couple of Spirit Rotation Realm brats!" Xue Tu bellowed in rage.

I actually stopped in the middle of battle to stare at him in utter astonishment.

"…huh? What realm? Did he just say pract.i.tioner? What the f.u.c.k is he talking about?"

"No idea," Anastasia said with a shake of her head, looking equally bewildered.

"He's gone nuts," one of the Silver Wolves mercenary muttered. The rest of his comrades murmured in agreement and nodded. All of them held blank stares, while a couple exchanged weird glances.

"That lunatic sounds like he's fantasizing about some cultivation novel or something," one of those who had weird glances said.

"Oh, G.o.d…" I groaned as I buried my face in my palm. "I hate that f.u.c.king word. Please, stop using those terms 'cultivation,''realms' or 'pract.i.tioner.' I'm begging you."

Xue Tu must have heard me, for him suddenly rounded on me, his face contorted in fury. To my incredible surprise, he began jabbing his finger in my direction and ranting wildly, spittle flying out of his frothing mouth.

"MU CHEN! You son of a b.i.t.c.h! I'm going to kill you! I swear I'll kill you!"

"WHO THE h.e.l.l IS MU CHEN!?" I bellowed back, a vein popping in my temple. "You've got the wrong guy! My name is Richard! I'm the protagonist of Summoner Sovereign, not The Great Ruler! Get your facts right!"

"I don't care! Since you're the protagonist, I must harbor an inexplicable and illogical hatred against you!"

"What the f.u.c.k?! Why?! At least come up with a legitimate reason, or this is just lazy writing!"

"B…because…" Xue Tu stammered, and then straightened up. "How dare you breathe in front of me?! You're courting death! I'm going to kill you in broad daylight!"

"…"

"…ahem. Kneel!"

"Excuse me?"

"How dare you still stand in front of me?! Die!"

"Come on, dude." I was clutching at my head. "You've got to come up with something better than that."

"How dare you not kiss my feet?! I'll have you crippled!"

"f.u.c.k you. Seriously, can you think of a more realistic reason? Do arrogant young masters actually go around demanding that everyone they meet kiss their feet!? Stop exaggerating!"

"Um…how about this? How dare you not allow me to rob and murder you?! I'll still kill you anyway!"

"This is getting nowhere," Anastasia said with a sigh. She was still holding her daggers tightly, but curiously enough she had made no move to attack the raving Xue Tu. "Are the two of you done with your Manzai comedy act? Can we resume fighting?"

"That's it!" Xue Tu snapped his fingers, his expression brightening when he glanced at Anastasia. He then jabbed a finger at me. "How dare you steal my woman from me!? I love her more than you do! I won't allow you to take her from me! I'll kill you!"

"Excuse me? Who the h.e.l.l is your woman?" Anastasia demanded furiously. "I've never met you before in my entire life. How the f.u.c.k would you fall for me, you disgusting creep?!"

"But I'm the leader and young master of the Blood Slaughter Sect, I deserve to get everything I want by virtue of existing!"

"WHO THE h.e.l.l CARES?!" Anastasia shrieked before she threw a poisoned dagger at him, and Xue Tu slapped it away with a blood appendage. "You can be the f.u.c.king crown prince of the Amazerian Empire for all I care, and I'll still kill you, you b.l.o.o.d.y man-wh.o.r.e!"

"You have a point there…" Xue Tu glanced warily at the poisoned knife he had just swatted away. Then he suddenly had an epiphany. "Oh, I know! You're the one who stole Lilith Porter from me! I'm so in love with Lilith…she's my woman! She's mine! Yet you seduced her and took her away from me!"

"Richard, is this true?" For some reason, despite the sweet smile on Anastasia's pretty face, her voice sounded very dangerous.

"Of course not!" I snapped, more from fear than outrage. It was never a good idea to upset a girl who was an ex-a.s.sa.s.sin specializing in killing with poisons. Even if I was immune to poisons, she could still figure out several dozen ways to kill me.

"It doesn't matter if it's the truth or not!" Xue Tu hollered. "As long as it's a legitimate reason for me to kill that b.a.s.t.a.r.d for being a protagonist, I couldn't care less if it was entirely fabricated!"

Anastasia no longer bothered to listen to his nonsense, and she lunged forward to slash at him, but Xue Tu defended with his blood barrier. At the same time, White Tiger pounced on him, slas.h.i.+ng a path through his hastily conjured blood s.h.i.+eld and nearly tearing his spine in half. Xue Tu dropped to the ground and rolled away, desperately flinging blood spears to keep the rampaging Celestial Guardian at bay.

Panting, he got to his feet, blood mingling with sweat as he swayed unsteadily.

It wouldn't be long before he fell now. Even so, I briefly wondered why he even bothered to show up at all. He must have known that he wouldn't be able to break through the Silver Wolves' defenses and defeat all the mercenaries just by himself. Okay, he had a horde of Bog Ghouls to a.s.sist him, but they were pathetic Minion-cla.s.s rank F monsters that couldn't even stand up to a breeze spell from an amateur wind mage.

A disturbing thought struck me. What if this guy was a diversion, and the enemy's true objective was something else?

"Eagle, this is Astra. Status on Genius?"

Genius was the call-sign for Professor Porter. Brent picked up my call and responded immediately.

"Genius is fine. Nothing untoward in the site. They're still excavating the tomb." He must have realized the urgency in my voice, for he swiftly added a second later. "West, South and East patrols see no sign of any other enemies. Only the North has been attacked so far. But we'll keep an eye out for any trouble."

"Yeah. It's strange that we have a single human enemy carrying out what seems like a suicide attack on our lines…" There was something about this whole situation that bothered me, but I still couldn't place my finger on it. "We're cleaning up what's left of the enemy, but we'll continue to stay alert here as well."

"Excellent."

Before Brent could sign off, however, Xue Tu bellowed.

"I WANT TO SEE HENRY PORTER!"

"Whoa!" All the soldiers grimaced and clamped their hands over their ears at the shrill cry. Even I wasn't immune, wincing and staggering from what seemed to be a sonic a.s.sault. d.a.m.n, but that f.u.c.ker almost caused me to be death.

"Who was that?!"

To my surprise, Princ.i.p.al Porter's voice hissed from the other side of my com bead, extremely faint but just barely audible.

"No, it's nothing, Professor…" Brent was saying, but Porter overruled him.

"Someone wishes to see me?"

"Just some trespa.s.ser trying to…"

"Oho. Interesting. Mind if I take a look?"

"No! Professor, it'll be too dangerous…"

"That's why I hired you. You'll be escorting me and keeping me safe, right?"

I didn't hear the rest of the dialogue because Brent shut the receiver from his end. Glancing at the swamp, I watched as the last of the Bog Ghouls were hunted down and slaughtered by the mercenaries. Surprisingly enough, we hadn't sustained any injuries. Thanks to their disciplined volleys of fire, the soldiers succeeded in dropping all of the Bog Ghouls before they reached within a hundred meters of the barrier.

The Silver Wolves mercenaries really deserved their legendary reputation of being among the best. I couldn't help but be thoroughly impressed. Now, with his troops of summoned Minions annihilated, Xue Tu was completely alone.

Despite realizing that his plan had failed and the odds were stacked against him, Xue Tu didn't give up. He deflected Anastasia's daggers with a couple of blood blades and pulled back. Conjuring a new armory of blood weapons, he readied for one last-ditch attempt.

Before he could launch his spells, however, a strong voice resounded firmly across the tomb.

"Stop!"

All of us turned and caught sight of Professor Porter ambling to view, his stature strong and imposing as ever.