Chapter 015: Truly Despicable

Tata Tong was also a fairly sensible warrior. Upon seeing this situation, his first reaction was to gather the dwarves together, rather than, like Tata Tie, focusing on chasing Du Fan.
“Too bad, the best opportunity for an ambush has already passed,” Du Fan sighed inwardly after seeing the dwarves huddled together.
But once the dwarves were grouped together, Du Fan began using wind magic to move swiftly and nimbly around them, keeping them in a state of constant tension. In this way, the trapped dwarves were completely under control.
It was a strange sight—ten people surrounded by five!
Nai Xiu and the three mages reduced their attacks. The situation was no longer as tense as before. Earlier, Nai Xiu and the three mages had to do their utmost to prevent the skilled dwarves led by Tata Tong and Tata Tie from approaching them. But now the situation had changed. Now, they only needed to maintain the current state, preventing the trapped dwarves from scattering.
On the other side, Basha was fighting evenly with Tata Jin. According to the information Tata Jin had, Basha was just a low-level saint-class dwarf warrior. However, he had no idea that Basha had already absorbed a divine essence, meaning his cultivation level could no longer be simply classified as low-level saint-class.
Although Basha was still classified as low-level saint-class in terms of cultivation, the presence of the divine essence greatly enhanced his explosive power, recovery ability, and sensitivity to elements in the world. With the divine essence slowly activating within him, Basha fought evenly with Tata Jin.
As for Liu Yi, relying on his true divine artifact, his agile movements, and the fighting instincts hidden within his angelic bones, he would occasionally come up with brilliant tactics, putting Tata Yin in constant danger. But it seemed that Tata Yin wasn’t in immediate life-threatening danger.
While moving swiftly, Du Fan analyzed the situation on the ground, and then he even managed to stabilize himself right in front of Tata Tie.
“Tata Tie, isn’t it shameful for you guys to huddle together like this? Look at you—so many of you, yet you’re being defeated by just us five, hiding like turtles. Does your Tata clan all act like turtles?” Du Fan teased.

“Hmph.” Tata Tie let out a snort through his nose but said nothing. It was unclear whether he had suddenly realized the situation and decided to remain unshaken, determined to ignore whatever insults were thrown at him, or if the fourth of the Tata family’s Metal Four Brothers simply didn’t understand how infuriating it was to describe a person as a despicable creature like a turtle.
“Tata Tie, is all you can do snort? Have I scared you so much that you can only snort?” Seeing Tata Tie’s calm and unflappable demeanor, Du Fan couldn’t help but insult him once again.
“Smash him!” Tata Tie roared.
Amidst his furious shouts, along with Tata Tie himself, a total of six dwarves swung their axes at Du Fan in unison. The eight gleaming axes (note: two dwarves were using double axes) all aimed at Du Fan at once, blinding him. These axes were considered top-quality weapons among the dwarves, shining with sharp white light.
“Damn it, just attack if you’re going to!” Du Fan cursed quickly and ran away at top speed, causing all eight axes to strike empty air.
As he ran, Du Fan didn’t idle away. With a toss of his hands, he sent a wind magic scroll and a fire magic scroll into the circle surrounded by the dwarves.
First, the fire magic scroll exploded, unleashing a level-six fire spell—Blazing Flame. It created a massive flame in the midst of the dwarves!
Then, the wind magic scroll also exploded. It contained a level-three spell—Tornado. Though not very powerful, it was cast right amidst the Blazing Flame, intensifying the fire as the wind fanned it out, spreading the massive flames everywhere!
Originally, the flames from the Blazing Flame were already much hotter than ordinary flames. With the wind blowing, many of them turned into smaller fireballs that scattered in all directions!

Two such spells were unleashed, instantly breaking through the defensive positions that Tatta Copper and Tatta Iron had painstakingly built. The flames that suddenly appeared among the crowd startled the dwarves; those closest to the flames quickly changed positions. Then a whirlwind blew, scattering the flames everywhere, and countless fireballs were also sent flying in all directions! As a result, the range of the blazing flames expanded greatly, turning the area into a sea of fire that engulfed the entire group of dwarves. They hurriedly tried to escape in all directions! While the dwarves frantically fled from the sea of fire, Du Fan had already prepared himself nearby. Once again, his movements were as stealthy as those of a ghost, and his Frostfall Blade flashed like a bright lightning bolt, swiftly piercing the chest of a level-9 dwarf warrior! The dwarf warrior immediately let out a scream. Without waiting, Du Fan pulled out Frostfall Blade and rushed at another dwarf! The dwarf Du Fan attacked was the level-8 dwarf warrior whose left arm had been cut off by Du Fan earlier. Even though he was already severely injured, the intense movement as he ran out of the sea of fire caused severe pain in his wounded left arm. Before the pain could subside, the level-8 dwarf warrior suddenly felt a chill on his back. Looking down, he saw a gleaming sword protruding from his chest. With a thud, the dwarf collapsed to the ground, lifeless. “Sigh, why bother?” Du Fan shook Frostfall Blade and sighed. “If you had let me kill you with that first strike, you wouldn’t have had to endure another strike and suffer such pain for so long.” Just as Du Fan killed another dwarf warrior, a piercing shriek was heard in his ears, followed by a dwarf’s scream. Nai Xiu also took action—she shot an arrow at a level-9 dwarf warrior, which entered through the back of his head and exited through the front. The dwarf only had time to scream before collapsing and dying! At that moment, two dwarf warriors who were frantically trying to escape from the sea of fire suddenly found they couldn’t lift their feet. Looking down, they saw green vines covering their legs! Those vines continued to grow at an astonishing speed! Both of them were level-9 warriors, and they both let out loud roars as fiery red combat energy emerged from their legs!

Those green vines were summoned by two of the three magicians. The vines conjured by these holy-grade magicians were extremely tough; it took two level-9 warriors three attempts to pull their feet free from them! By the time the two level-9 warriors could move again, Nai Xiu and Du Fan had already denied them any chance to continue fighting. Du Fan beheaded one of the level-9 warriors with a sword, while Nai Xiu’s arrow pierced the heart of another level-9 dwarf warrior! The last remaining level-8 dwarf warrior, while trying to escape the sea of fire, suddenly found himself trapped in a swirl of black mist. Soon, screams of agony could be heard from within the mist. In that murky mist, it was possible to see the dwarf warrior’s flesh withering away bit by bit. Tata Tie and Tata Tong had already fled the sea of fire. With eyes filled with anger, Tata Tie tried to rescue the dwarf warrior trapped in the mist, but Tata Tong firmly held him back. That black mist was actually Corrosive Mist cast by a magician! Fortunately, Tata Tong stopped Tata Tie; otherwise, if he had rushed into the mist, he would surely have ended up with his flesh completely drained by the corrosive mist. Soon, with a thud as something fell in the mist, the mist dissipated, and a withered dwarf corpse dropped out. In just a short time after Du Fan threw out two magic scrolls, six dwarf warriors had already been killed. Now, only two level-9 dwarf warriors remained by Tata Tong and Tata Tie’s side. For Tata Tong and Tata Tie, this was a battle filled with utter humiliation. Warriors could only gain the upper hand against magicians and archers by engaging in close combat. Moreover, it could be said that as long as warriors could get close to archers and magicians, the balance of victory would completely tilt in their favor—of course, on the premise that the warriors, archers, and magicians were roughly at the same level of skill. Initially, Tata Tong and Tata Tie believed that with twelve warriors on their side and enough time, it was a hundred percent certain they could approach Nai Xiu and the three magicians. Once they got close, victory would be within reach. But then Du Fan suddenly appeared—someone who was skilled in both magic and combat, and what’s more, he specialized in wind magic! Not only that, but his skill level was also holy-grade!

A saintly-level master of both magic and combat! A saintly-level wind mage combined with the combat prowess of a saintly-level warrior—add to that the tactic of ambushes used by this freakish individual! For a being of such high rank, this is simply an outrageous behavior! It completely disregards the dignity and grace expected of a master of that caliber!
Having to deal with the remote attacks from archers and mages while simultaneously facing ambushes from this twisted master of both magic and combat forced their side to fight defensively at all costs!
By this point in the battle, Tata Tong and Tata Tie felt extremely frustrated—it was as if they possessed immense power but had no way to use it! Not only that, but they didn’t even get a chance to use it!
Du Fan avoided fighting Tata Tong and Tata Tie altogether, instead targeting those level-8 warriors for ambushes! How shameless! It filled Tata Tong and Tata Tie with rage!
Though angry, the two were utterly helpless! What was even more despicable was that this saintly-level wind mage threw magic scrolls at their own troops, taking full advantage of his position. How could such a high-ranking warrior resort to such tactics?
In the eyes of Tata Tong and Tata Tie, Du Fan’s behavior was simply vile to the extreme!