Chapter 157 Chaos

A sudden commotion from outside interrupted the discussion. Hao Ren turned his head towards the palace entrance. "Did Lanina arrive with her people?"

But the next second he knew he was wrong, because what followed was a series of piercing screams and continuous explosions!

"Enemy attack!" A demon hunter warrior suddenly flashed into the hall, his body wrapped in a magical flowing light. "The east tower is under attack!"

Before the uproar outside, Tu Tanning seemed to sense something. He looked at the weapon rack not far away. The moment the enemy attack alarm sounded, his figure flashed and disappeared before everyone's eyes. The next second, he appeared a dozen meters away, carrying a huge, warhammer-like cross, striding towards the palace gate, while loudly ordering, "Harrell, take people to the Rune Hall! Zoe, lead your people to the east tower! The rest of you, follow me!"

Hao Ren and Vivian exchanged glances and rushed out after Bai Huo.

The Elder Council's new wave of attacks came earlier than expected, and it was extremely fierce. When Hao Ren and the others rushed out of the palace, the outside was already a sea of ​​fire. Explosions were constant, and the shouts of killing shook the sky. In the dark and empty space, demon hunters from the Elder Council kept flashing in to attack. They were extremely easy to identify—ordinary demon hunters wore uniform black clothes, but the elite soldiers of the Elder Council had two bright silver edges on the collar of their black combat uniforms. This was their mark of honor as an elite combat unit, but it also became the best feature for identifying friend or foe in this melee.

Several triangular, narrow aircraft flew in from the darkness. These aircraft, resembling giant skateboards, had heavy crossbow cannons and enchanted guns installed on both sides. They swept over the palace, constantly projecting bright lightning spears and explosive enchanted crossbow bolts. After a burst of indiscriminate bombing, fully armed Elder Council warriors jumped off the aircraft, rushing towards the palace gate like a pack of beasts. The palace guards had already organized a resistance. They rushed to the nearest crossbow cannons and rune stones, using these defensive weapons fixed to the ground to launch fierce counterattacks, while the elite soldiers brought out by Tu Tanning pounced out from one side of the defensive line, directly engaging in close combat with those Elder Council members who flashed out from the darkness!

Holy silver blades danced in the darkness, enchanted crossbow bolts tore through the air with a deadly scream, holy flames blazed, and Leta runes emitted dazzling light under the agitation of magic! The demon hunters used exquisite and complex combat skills to launch a grand melee. The entire square around the palace and the large void outside the square were engulfed in a gorgeous and deadly storm of fire. In the center of this melee, Hao Ren watched the scene with dazzling eyes, and for the first time directly saw how the most powerful supernatural race on this planet displayed their deadly combat skills.

Every demon hunter was a battle-hardened warrior, a skilled killer, and a weapon master proficient in dozens of weapons and hundreds of combat skills. No one in this world put all their energy and talent into honing their combat abilities like them, and no one was born with so many skills for combat. At this moment, the battlefield was full of constantly flashing hunters and dazzling rune imprints, like a swarm of bees entangled in a storm. Everyone became a hunter, and everyone became prey!

After a brief moment of amazement, Hao Ren quickly got into the state. He took out his long guns and short cannons from his personal space and followed Bai Huo to the most intense battle. "Let's go up and help!"

The Elder Council's demon hunters were obviously much stronger than ordinary warriors in terms of individual combat effectiveness. They were not only skilled in all demon hunter equipment, but also used many rune powers that were extraordinarily powerful. Hao Ren originally thought that these warriors had been stationed in Corpus for many years and that their combat skills had become rusty, but after fighting, he found that these people were also amazing in experience and skill. He rushed into the battle group with a shield, and immediately received at least a dozen magic bullets as a "welcome"—even in the melee, the Elder Council warriors immediately locked onto him, the stranger who suddenly broke in to disrupt the situation. Hao Ren's idea of ​​sneaking in to take advantage was simply unrealistic.

Crossbow bolts struck, setting off a series of sparks on the rigid shield. Ghost-like enemy soldiers occasionally emerged from close range, stabbing out with weapons from various tricky angles. Hao Ren concentrated his attention and dodged the attacks in the enemy's siege, dodging twenty times, and being cut more than seventy times in a row...

He thought for a while, and felt that he was not suitable for competing with these weapon masters in moves…

So he had to continue to use his strengths, which was to open his shield, stand in the crowd, and shout, "You sons of bitches!"

A whirlwind-like white shadow rushed past Hao Ren, circled around a few times before stopping. Lily emerged from this whirlwind, holding ice and fire claws, her hair flying in the air, looking majestic. An Elder Council warrior suddenly appeared behind Lily, slashing his holy silver short sword at her neck, but Lily subconsciously turned around and kicked the enemy back without even looking. She even had the leisure to complain to Hao Ren, "Landlord, why hasn't your combat skill improved at all?!"

"Nonsense, I don't have your beastly intuition!" Hao Ren shouted as he looked around. There were more and more demon hunters from the Elder Council at the moment. The palace platform was full of intense fighting, and the enemy's target was clearly not just this palace: he saw that the top of the Star Cluster Tower not far away was also erupting with fierce fighting. That was the entrance and exit of the tower.

However, the exit of the Star Cluster Tower was protected by a layer of translucent light barrier, and heavy troops were stationed on the suspended stone platform in front of the exit. It was difficult for the Elder Council to break through this line of defense for a while.

In the chaos, Hao Ren finally found Bai Huo's figure. He remembered that he hadn't asked a question: "How did they break into such a close range? Didn't you say that the defense line near the tower was very stable?"

"Because the battle situation has deteriorated in the two days since I left!" Bai Huo replied loudly. "How long will it take for reinforcements to arrive?"

"In theory, they should be here by now," Izhaks's rough voice came from the side. He had already transformed into a demon form at this time, his body burning with逼人的fierce flames. Ordinary Elder Council soldiers could not get close to him at all, and Elizabeth was sitting on Izhaks's head, constantly throwing huge lava fireballs around, just like the auxiliary turret installed on the old demon's head. Izhaks looked at the direction of the Star Cluster Tower, "Lanina led the team... wait, I actually let Lanina lead the team!?"

Hao Ren didn't understand what Izhaks was exclaiming about at first, but after a while, he suddenly remembered that succubus sister's god-like sense of direction, and immediately exclaimed, "Holy crap! She wouldn't have already gotten lost to the South Pole at this time, would she?"

Lily circled around from some direction again, and happened to run to Hao Ren's side at this time: "Not necessarily! There's only one road from the legion portal to the Ice Fortress, and it's a straight line!"

"She got lost walking in a straight line in the Demon King's City back then," Izhaks said with heartache. "Can you believe she walked in the opposite direction?"

Bai Huo listened to them discussing this chilling situation, and felt more and more cold sweat, but the current situation left her no time to be distracted by other considerations: "In short, stabilize the defense line first! These enemies should just be here to consume us. The sentries didn't find that the enemy has reinforcements. If the situation is deadlocked, they will retreat!"

Hao Ren could only believe Bai Huo's judgment, and continued to act as the group battle MT in a mess, throwing various explosives to the most dense place in the Elder Council formation—for those demon hunters who had unlimited teleportation skills, various grenades with explosion delays were not very threatening, but this kind of area-of-effect weapon could disrupt their rhythm and formation well. After the offensive rhythm was chaotic, it would be difficult for them to launch more powerful combined magic or rune weapons.

The melee continued, and it seemed that, as Bai Huo said, the enemy had no reinforcements. After the first batch of Elder Council members who came by aircraft "landed", no new enemies were seen to replenish them.

But Hao Ren felt a sense of disharmony from it—the battle had been going on for a while, why hadn't the enemy retreated yet?

He looked up at the direction of the Star Cluster Tower, and suddenly found that unknowingly, the enemy's offensive focus had shifted from the command post to the vicinity of the exit platform of the Star Cluster Tower, and a large number of Elder Council warriors were gathered in the void outside the platform. They did not participate in the battle, as if waiting for some opportunity.

Half of the tower garrison was held back at the palace, and almost no one noticed these subtle changes.

"Crap!" Hao Ren's heart tightened, "Their target is still the platform over there!"

Bai Huo's figure flashed to his side: "But the gate of the Star Cluster Tower has a screen..."

Before Bai Huo finished speaking, a white light that shot from the distant void interrupted all her next words.

This white light bombarded the side of the exit platform of the Star Cluster Tower, accompanied by the crisp sound of glass breaking and a large area of ​​twisted electric light. The platform was directly divided into two, and the protective barrier that originally covered the gate of the tower was shattered like brittle glass.

Even a third of the entire top of the tower was blown off.