Aisi watched Li Xi's figure charging bravely into battle, yet she felt no fear. After their sacrifices, they would return to the divine kingdom; death was rebirth. Unless the gods themselves were annihilated, they would exist as heroic spirits. It was a pity that Li Xi, so young, had to die with her.
Li Xi's main body stood at the cave entrance, watching the attack of the lesser demons being held off by his shadow clones, successfully rescuing Aisi and the others.
His wings unfurled in the wind, and with a 'bang,' his feet shattered the ground. With a resolute attitude, he charged towards the horned demons, dragging his executioner's blade. His movements were immense and his killing intent was palpable; even a blind person could sense the incoming attack.
Aisi and the others immediately saw Li Xi, who had transformed and was flying down. The unique aura of the dragon made everyone who had resigned themselves to fate regain hope. Looking at his pair of red dragon wings, "Reinforcements! It's a Dragonborn!"
Dragons were always a symbol of strength. Anything associated with the word 'dragon' was a powerful calming agent.
Upon seeing Li Xi, the horned demon's previously calm and indifferent face was suddenly filled with unbridled rage. His roars, capable of shattering the heavens and earth, broke their order of surrounding without killing. Before Li Xi even landed, they leaped up to attack him.
Countless fist-sized fireballs shot from the horned demons' hands towards Li Xi. Even though Li Xi was not yet within range, it did not diminish their determination to fight him to the death.
This was the complete opposite of their previous tactic of using lesser demons as cannon fodder against the human defense line. From their very first encounter, both sides knew that only one would walk out alive today.
At the same time, not only the horned demons, but even the mindless lesser demons, who only knew how to charge and attack, stopped their assault on the human defense line upon sensing Li Xi's aura in the sky. They halted their advance, baring their fangs, and as if oblivious to pain, thrust their fingers into the cliff face, climbing upwards. Their flesh was torn, exposing white bone, but they showed no regard.
In their haste to attack Li Xi immediately, these lesser demons paid a heavy price. The entire cliff face was instantly covered in lesser demons. Li Xi's sudden appearance had agitated all the demons in the canyon.
Amidst the roars and growls of countless demons, Li Xi's appearance was like a drop of water falling into boiling oil. Even Li Xi, who had been prepared, almost braked sharply in mid-air.
His mind was filled with questions. He hadn't stolen their brides, killed their parents, or cuckolded their fathers. Why were they looking at him as if they wanted to devour him?
Just as Li Xi couldn't understand why these demons were so frenzied, a sudden, unusually hot burning sensation came from his brow.
Li Xi immediately remembered that the last horned demon, Tyler, whom he had killed, had placed a curse on him with his life. According to Cynis's explanation, this curse was used to locate other demons. The state of the canyon demons was a result of this curse. Li Xi hadn't taken the curse seriously before, but now he realized it would be best to stay away from demons in the future.
"Abyssal Cursed One, you will surely die today. Your soul will forever sink to the lowest depths of the abyss."
The horned demon raised his four-meter-long greatsword and uttered the most malicious curse towards Li Xi.
"I fear your group of puny weaklings. Whoever loses today is a grandson."
He let the small fireballs hit him. His dragon scales, capable of withstanding level three damage, were impervious to these fireballs. Li Xi crashed onto the ground with the immense force of a falling cannonball. The air vibrated, and lesser demons within three meters of him instantly had their internal organs shattered by the invisible, powerful shockwave. They spat blood mixed with internal organ fragments and fell limply.
But in the next moment, countless lesser demons were not intimidated by Li Xi's might. With red eyes, they pounced. From all directions, the ground, the cliff face, and some lesser demons climbed over the bodies of others to attack Li Xi. If they could have plucked even a single hair from Li Xi before dying, it was likely that lesser demons willing to sacrifice their lives could stretch from the prime material plane all the way to space.
It was a scene like a rampaging beast horde fighting over a piece of food, or a crowd of thirsty men fighting over a beauty.
Even though Li Xi swung his executioner's blade like a windmill, he was submerged by the tide of lesser demons within two breaths.
The number of horned demons exceeded the fifteen Li Xi had seen, reaching a full twenty. Because they were a bit far from Li Xi's position, they directly swung their longswords, disregarding the cost, cleaving through the lesser demons in front of them, or simply crushing the lesser demons beneath their feet like ants. Every time they lifted their massive feet, all that remained were lesser demons crushed into flat pancakes.
Shadow Clone Li Xi watched from afar as all the lesser demons charged towards his main body. In front of him, there were no living lesser demons left, only piles of corpses. The lesser demons who had been attacking him moments ago had all rushed towards his main body. The shadow clone even saw a lesser demon with half its head severed, still charging towards the main body despite its injuries.
If he had known that this curse had such an attraction to demons, like flowers to bees, why would he have bothered splitting into a shadow clone? He should have just transformed and appeared with his main body. It was an embarrassing situation, having to split half his strength to rescue Aisi and the others. A miscalculation, a miscalculation!
Seeing that all the demons were going to kill his main body, the shadow clone quickly turned back to Aisi and took out all the holy water. "Aisi, let's leave quickly while we have the chance."
Aisi hadn't spoken yet, but the others objected, "Every Abyssal Cursed One is a hero of our people. How can you be so cowardly? If you want to leave, go. I will fight alongside the hero until death against the demons."
"That's right. Since the teleportation array isn't working, and it's still over 400 kilometers to Cardo City, it's better to stay here and kill more demons than to be picked off one by one on the road. Perhaps if we all work together, we can achieve victory."
"Glory must not be desecrated, nor shall death."
The mercenaries and priests who had survived two days of fierce battle had already put their lives aside. Every one of them had friends or relatives who had died at the hands of demons. Asking them to leave now was truly difficult.
Aisi's tone was the same, "The duty of a priest does not allow us to flee, and moreover, we cannot travel far in our current condition. However, you can leave. Hurry back and report this situation to the city lord, and ask him to quickly send someone to seal this teleportation gate, so that our sacrifice will not be in vain."
Li Xi couldn't reveal that the Dragonborn was himself. He was confident in his ability to handle the battle, but Aisi and the others staying would only be a hindrance. It wasn't that he was unwilling to tell the truth, but he felt that something was very strange about this situation, with an air of mystery everywhere. He needed to reserve some strength and not reveal all his trump cards.
Looking at Aisi, who was prepared to face death with a heroic spirit, Li Xi gave a sweet smile. "Since you're not leaving, neither am I. We will die together if we must."
Aisi's face instantly turned red up to her ears. The priest of the God of Wealth beside them watched the scene like an audience member, "How touching! To have someone with you before death. You are so fortunate."
Aisi suppressed a smile at the corner of her lips. "Since no one is leaving, we cannot just sit here and wait to die. Aimber, you've practiced spatial magic. Take a few people to check the teleportation array and see if you can change it from one-way to two-way. If it works, we can bring reinforcements through the teleportation array."
A priest wearing a six-pointed star emblem on his chest immediately led three warriors up the mountain.
Aisi looked at the remaining people. "Don't relax. Quickly restore your stamina. If we can take advantage of this nameless hero distracting the demons, and we go to close the demon portal, victory will also belong to us."
"Yes, Lady Aisi."
Everyone began to eat and replenish their energy. When they had recovered enough strength to fight, they would charge towards the demon portal.
Li Xi had just depleted all his chakra, but after eating a few Rations Pills, he had recovered more than half. He stood beside Aisi, guarding her, and looked at the pile of lesser demons that had piled up five to six meters high, worrying about his main body.
There were too many. It seemed the teleportation gate had opened directly into the lesser demons' home. They were pouring out ceaselessly. Although gaps could still be seen in the demon pile revealing the glint of the executioner's blade, even an iron man couldn't withstand such an onslaught.
Li Xi, his main body, was well aware of the shadow clone's worry. But he was waiting for the opportune moment, slowing down his attack speed and allowing the lesser demons to bite and tear at his body, letting their acidic saliva corrode him. As long as he had his dragon scales, these lesser demons, who were not even level one, could not harm him at all.
The heavy footsteps of the horned demons could be clearly heard amidst the cacophony of the lesser demons' struggles. Their angry snorts sounded like war drums in Li Xi's ears. Several sharp sword strikes, without regard for anything else, were aimed at cleaving Li Xi along with the countless lesser demons. Just as the sword strikes were about to land on Li Xi, he tossed a green spinach pill into his mouth.
As he swallowed, his originally slender body suddenly began to swell. Heat emanated from his entire body. A power three times stronger than before Li Xi had split into a clone erupted from the small pill in his stomach, rushing uncontrollably to all parts of his body like a raging flood. The executioner's blade, which had felt somewhat heavy in his hand before, now felt as light as a toothpick when he wielded it.
The horned demons' greatswords fell along with countless lesser demon corpses. Just as the horned demon believed this Abyssal Cursed One was also bound to die beneath his blade, Li Xi's body trembled slightly. All the lesser demons hanging on him like ornaments were flung off. The demon pile, piled four to five meters high on his body, collapsed from the air waves emanating from his body. Looking at Li Xi, apart from his clothes being tattered, he was completely unharmed by the prolonged assault.
The surging power reverberated. He kicked his executioner's blade heavily with his foot. Under Li Xi's immense strength, the executioner's blade was instantly propelled like a launched cannonball, breaking the sound barrier. In an instant, he swung it over a dozen times around himself. The sword qi storm was like a dormant volcano erupting suddenly. Countless lesser demons were torn to shreds, and the several greatswords of the horned demons, which were about to strike him, were all knocked away.
"14"
Li Xi silently counted the number that only he knew.
With strength several times greater than that of a mountain ape, he needed no other ninjutsu. He just swung and hacked. Even if a mountain stood in his way, he could cut it into powder. Even if a river blocked his path, he could kick it askew.
No matter how many lesser demons there were, Li Xi ignored them. A mere bump from his body was enough to shatter their bodies.
When the twenty horned demons reached him, Li Xi transformed into a giant spinning top. The sound of the executioner's blade cleaving the air was like the low hum of a demon from hell. The two horned demons closest to Li Xi, their first greatsword strikes having been deflected and sent flying, didn't even have time to begin their second move before they were cleanly and efficiently sliced to pieces by the high-speed rotating executioner's blade, like a planer.
As for the lesser demons cut to pieces by the executioner's blade, their numbers were immeasurable. Before their fragile bodies even touched the executioner's blade, they were pulverized by the wind blade generated by the blade.
"13"
Li Xi's offensive style caught the horned demons off guard, but under the influence of abyssal consciousness, they had no choice. They had only two paths: either step forward and kill this Abyssal Cursed One, or be killed by him.
Like moths to a flame, even knowing it was a dead end, the demons could not resist their suicidal charge.