Chapter 232: Conspiracy?

“Five Elements! They’re here. Now there’s hope! Brother, we’ll hold off those little guys while those big ones take care of them. No problem!” Like the others, the man beside Rod suddenly became excited upon seeing these people appear and spoke to him.
On the contrary, Rod was filled with doubts. Who exactly were these guys? Was “Five Elements” their name? Five people—that made sense. But what abilities did they possess to make everyone so excited at their arrival?
“Stop standing around! Hurry up! They’re about to start!” The man pulled Rod and urged him.
“Oh, they’re here!” Rod was slightly stunned before turning and following the man forward. Soon, he reached behind those men known as the Five Elements. With no time to think further, they immediately joined the battle.
With a loud cry and flashes of purple light, four beams of purple energy shot into the sky. Rod felt the elements around him instantly become frenzied, targeting the five men ahead. In less than ten seconds, the four warriors had gathered a thick layer of combat energy around themselves, forming armor that covered their entire bodies in an instant.
“Combat Energy Avatars!” Rod couldn’t help but exclaim in awe. Indeed, within just ten seconds, these men had completed the formation of their combat energy avatars. The fastest was the man in the middle, who took less than seven seconds. Rod was certain he had finished forming his avatar in that time. He understood perfectly what this meant—it meant the man had mastered the control of combat energy and mental strength to the utmost, achieving perfection in forming combat energy avatars!

Thinking that it took several minutes for him to condense his combat energy into a physical form, Rod felt ashamed. Truly, these were powerful warriors—all four of them were Saint-level experts, and it was clear they had been at that level for a long time, at least at the mid-to-high stage of Saint. Looking at the mage on the other side, who was chanting spells to conjure magic, Rod knew he was at least a Archmage level. It was a team of five Saint-level fighters! And it was the ideal combination of four warriors and one mage—one could imagine how terrifying their combined power must be. No wonder seeing them appear had so greatly boosted everyone’s morale. The power these five could unleash far exceeded that of the other scattered Saint-level experts; it was incomparable.

Although Rod had already seen six or seven Saint-level experts on the city walls, they were scattered and each defended their own area. It was impossible for them to fight together as unitedly as these five. More importantly, they clearly had years of experience coordinating with each other, allowing them to maximize their strength under such circumstances.

“Kill!” A deep voice rang out, emitted by the man in the middle. Instantly, the four warriors transformed into four shadows and charged straight down at the city, disappearing into the Earth Bears to engage in battle.

At the same time, the female mage’s magic was also ready. A massive fire spell was sent toward the other magical beasts below, creating a defensive wall between the Earth Bears and the rest of the beasts, preventing them from helping the Earth Bears fight back against the attacks of those Saint-level warriors.

Roars filled the air, dust billowed, and continuous booms echoed, with cold glows flashing constantly. Rod didn’t have time to observe further. As the battle on the other side began, the battle here also started instantly. With the Earth Bears distracted, the pressure on their side dropped sharply.

At this moment, the enemy’s strongest offensive force also became their weakness. With the Earth Bears occupied, they could no longer launch coordinated attacks.

The remaining magical beasts, though of Imperial level, were few in number—only a dozen or so. Compared to other areas, this place could even be considered the safest.

After all, magical beasts were still just beasts and couldn’t coordinate well. Soon, with everyone’s efforts, they were divided into several factions fighting among themselves.

The crisis on the east side of the city wall had dissipated, and it was time for a counterattack. The imperial-level warriors and gold warriors had rushed to the foot of the city to join the battle. Under the cover of the magicians on the city walls, they were within a magical barrier and could launch their final counterattack with confidence. In groups of two or three, led by an imperial-level warrior, it was relatively easy to deal with an imperial-level magical beast. This also demonstrated the strength of the defending forces—including reinforcements and mercenaries—there were nearly fifteen imperial-level powerhouses, two saint-level experts, and dozens of gold warriors on the east side alone! One of the two saint-level experts went to assist Wuxing in fighting against the Earth Bears, while the other engaged the saint-level magical beast leading the attack. The battle there was the most fierce, with continuous crises. Meanwhile, the imperial-level warriors fought with ease. Rod, as an imperial-level warrior, had performed exceptionally well before, and this time he led two gold warriors alone to attack an imperial-level unicorn lizard. Against the unicorn lizard, Rod’s skills of Dragon Subduing and Sky Piercing were fully utilized, leaving no chance for the lizard to counterattack. With the support of the two gold warriors, he defeated it and rushed to assist in the other battles. Faced with this dangerous situation, these magical beasts were no pushovers either. The leading saint-level magical beast, seeing the situation turn sharply and its previous advantage vanish, let out a furious roar that reached the clouds. Following the roar, all the magical beasts in the area went wild, as if ordered, launching their final counterattack at all costs, using desperate efforts to deliver the strongest attacks. Caught off guard, three imperial-level warriors and several gold warriors were killed outright by the enemy’s relentless attacks, closing their eyes in regret as their blood sprayed everywhere. “Danger on the west side! Help! Quick, we can’t hold on!” Urgent cries from the city walls made everyone’s hearts pound. Turning around, they saw countless magical beasts gathered densely at the foot of the west city wall—almost two-thirds of them concentrating on the west side to launch an attack, seemingly aiming to make it a new breakthrough point. There were countless corpses of magical beasts and soldiers on the ground, but nothing could stop their frenzied advance!

“Go to the west to provide aid, hurry! Just leave a few people here to hold them off!” Wu Xing couldn’t help but shout at Rod and the others regarding the situation over there. Nothing could go wrong—once the west was breached, all their efforts would be in vain.

“Brother, hurry! Let’s go assist the west!” With the situation in the east temporarily stabilized, the man who, like Rod, had dealt with his opponent, shouted at Rod after hearing Wu Xing’s call.

The two of them, along with a few Golden Warriors, quickly climbed onto the city walls and rushed westward, hoping to offer some help.

The air was filled with the stench of blood. No one had time to feel discomfort or nausea. At this critical moment, everyone was fighting desperately. Upon reaching the west wall, they found it already tilted—clearly severely damaged. If they didn’t stop these magical beasts from attacking soon, everything might truly be lost.

Looking at the dense swarm of magical beasts, Rod sensed something was off. It didn’t seem as simple as it appeared!

According to what the man had told him, the appearance of the main magical beast symbolized the climax and most critical moment of the battle. Yet, the situation over there had stabilized just with Wu Xing’s efforts, which left Rod puzzled. If things were that simple, the beast horde wouldn’t cause such heavy casualties and destruction. The empire only needed to send a few Holy-level warriors, along with reinforcements from the continent, to fend off the horde. So why did such casualties and crises keep occurring?

Clearly, the enemy must have some scheme. Thinking of this, Rod’s expression tightened—he realized something was wrong. He felt they had been deceived.

It had only been a few days since the beast horde appeared. Logically, there shouldn’t be a final assault yet. But today… there was only one reason: the enemy had changed its tactics. Given the urgent situation in the west, the so-called main magical beast army was merely a decoy—a tactic to divide forces, with the west possibly being the true target of the beast horde!

Thinking of this, he broke into cold sweat. There weren’t many experts in the west now—only two saints were present, and the number of imperial-level warriors was minimal, most of them being gold warriors! Such strength made Rod dare not continue imagining further. If his guess was correct, the enemy still had hidden tactics unused. For those magical beasts with such intelligence levels, an intelligence equivalent to that of a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old was enough for them to devise more covert attack plans in such a chaotic situation. Moreover, Rod suspected there was a mastermind behind this whole affair.

“Where is the commander? Something is wrong!” As all these thoughts connected, Rod found it increasingly strange. Sweating profusely, he quickly grabbed the man beside him and asked.

“He’s at the central command. What’s the matter?” Looking at the precarious situation in the west, the man replied casually, clearly anxious. After saying that, he joined the crowd to fight back against the magical beasts!

Watching the man leave, Rod stood alone for a moment, frowning. He exhaled deeply, shook his hand forcefully, and turned toward the center, determined to go find the commander and clarify the situation ahead of time. Even if his guess was wrong, it wouldn’t cause much damage. It was necessary to take precautions. Otherwise, if things were indeed as he suspected, once the real main force appeared without any backup, the city would surely fall!