Chapter 353: Taboo

As Kreir looked at Abil's mutilated body, his whole being, and even his own soul and will to fight trembled uncontrollably. He was well aware that if that fierce attack had been directed at him, if that giant sword that did not miss at all with Geminder's weapon struck his body, then his fate would most probably not have been any better than becoming a pile of meat paste just like his goblin companion.

On the other hand, Inac, the Second Order goblin archer, stared wide-eyed at Kurano's lifeless body. Then, as if thinking on something, he looked at Geminder, and seeing him seemingly calm, he realized that he might soon see the main leader of the goblin race angry again as he had only seen him once in his short life.

Meanwhile, Bai Zemin completely ignored any fear, suffering, or surprise the goblins might be feeling. He took the opportunity where even the Unclassified goblins seemed to be stunned due to the surprise of seeing two of their leaders falling like flies and turned to stare into the distance.

"How long do you think you can hold out?" He asked as he picked up his radio.

In the distance, Shangguan Bing Xue's communicator lit up and Bai Zemin's voice came out of it a moment later. 

She looked at the army of approximately 30,000 goblins that seemed to have frozen and after thinking quickly for a moment she replied, "If it were only me, I have absolute confidence that sooner or later I can annihilate them all. But the problem is that if I want to protect the people here, that won't be possible."

"What about the barrier of Nangong Lingxin?" Bai Zemin asked hurriedly.

"Wait a moment," Shangguan Bing Xue replied and after a few seconds turned back to the communicator, "Nangong Lingxin can extend her barrier in a straight line up to a maximum of 100 meters at present but she can only keep it up for 1 minute at most since the larger the size of her barrier the greater the Mana consumption to maintain it up."

Bai Zemin's mind was racing at lightning speed as he considered every possible solution to the current problem.

Letting just over 700 armed men of which about 1/3 did not even have a 50% chance of hitting the enemy's head from 100 meters away fight against an army of over 30,000 enemies was no different than sending them all to die. Even with the support of approximately 300 soul revolvers, things would not change much as the goblin level was too high despite being Unclassified.

Even if 1000 humans somehow managed to resist a rain of thousands of bone arrows and the melee attack of the goblins, the survivors in the middle of the defensive formation would definitely be slaughtered.

What Bai Zemin needed was time, time for his troops to mature even a little more; enough to stand and fight for themselves. Only then would all his efforts be worthwhile. However, with all the things that were happening in such a short time it was basically impossible for the humans to grow up quietly.

After thinking about it for a moment, Bai Zemin remembered something and hurriedly asked, "Bing Xue, now that your main skill evolved to Second Order, do you think you can set up an ice barrier big enough to enclose everyone and protect them?"

In the end, Bai Zemin could only rely on Shangguan Bing Xue for this, There was no way he could divert his attention while facing three Second Order existences of which one of them was capable of launching ranged attacks.

After a moment of silence, Shangguan Bing Xue's reply reached his ears.

"If it were two nights ago, I'm afraid that doing such a thing would not be possible.... But the Mana consumption of my skill was greatly reduced after evolving to Second Order, and I acquired a second activation. Although I'm not 100% sure, I'm at least 90% confident that I can withstand the large-scale Mana consumption of a giant defensive barrier for approximately ten minutes."

"Ten minutes..." Bai Zemin muttered to himself as his eyes glittered uncannily.

"Do you think you can beat those three in ten minutes?" Shangguan Bing Xue asked through the transmitter with some insecurity in her voice.

Although she was quite far away from the center of the actual battlefield, the truth was that even from her position she could sense five terrifying auras unknown just a moment ago. However, not long ago two of those five powerful auras disappeared without a trace leaving only three remaining.

Shangguan Bing Xue soon realized that Bai Zemin must have used some powerful skills and mysterious methods to wipe out two enemies in such a short time. However, such powerful skills usually had a long cooldown span or high Mana consumption so it was impossible to use them continuously and could usually only be used once per fight.

"I'm afraid that ten minutes later or it might even be a little earlier depending on the enemy's attack intensity I will run out of Mana." Shangguan Bing Xue said in a serious manner, "By that time, even though I will be able to stay alive without any problems thanks to my melee ability and stats, my overall battle ability will fall tremendously. I definitely won't be able to protect the rest."

Bai Zemin's reply was not long in coming from the other side of the communicator.

"That's fine. Ten minutes is more than enough and even if it was half that will do as well." 

Shangguan Bing Xue blinked her beautiful eyelashes in amazement upon hearing Bai Zemin's extremely confident tone and wondered if he was planning to make some kind of suicide attack. Otherwise she could not understand how he could finish such a difficult battle as the one he was about to experience in such a short time.

However, so far Bai Zemin had never been arrogant to the point of blindness so she finally decided to trust him without hesitation.

"Okay. I'll do my best then."

Immediately after the communication was closed, Shangguan Bing Xue activated her Ice Maker skill. 

The frost mist gathered in her palm swiftly and under her exquisite control, it solidified to make what appeared to be small ice stakes. In just an instant, she had formed dozens and dozens of small ice stakes. However, Shangguan Bing Xue did not stop here as her work was not yet finished and these ice stakes were no more than useless creations without the next step she was about to take.

After taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and activated the second ability of her Ice Maker skill; the ability to create traps and activate them at will.

She focused all her will and a small frown that did not diminish her beauty in the slightest appeared on her face automatically, this being proof enough to show how much effort she was putting into this. After all, this was Shangguan Bing Xue's first time using the second activation of her Ice Maker skill.

Even if she knew the theory of how to use this second activation thanks to the rune engraved inside her soul, it did not mean that she would immediately become an expert just because she had the knowledge.

It was similar to driving; even if you know the theory of how the pedals and gears work, theory and practice were two completely different things.

After several seconds, she finally finished and slowly opened her eyes to look at her creation.

The ice stakes were the same as any ice stake Shangguan Bing Xue had created before to claim the lives of her enemies. However, if one looked with careful eyes one would easily notice that inside the slightly bluish ice there was a strange white-colored mist hovering constantly.

After finishing, Shangguan Bing Xue approached several soul evolvers and instructed them gravely to very carefully begin staking the stakes around the grounds they were currently occupying.

Less than a minute later, she received confirmation that all the ice stakes had been placed as she instructed.

Now all that was left was to wait for the bang that would most likely herald the beginning of the end.

* * *

At the base, Bai Zemin decided not to immediately attack Geminder or any of the other two goblins. He even decided not to attack the army of approximately 100,000 goblins surrounding him and instead waited patiently.

Of course, the reason he did not attack was not out of kindness to the enemy by any stretch of the imagination. The real reason he didn't attack was to wait until his Shadow Blink skill was off cooldown again.

Shadow Blink had become one of Bai Zemin's most powerful and deadly skills from the moment it evolved and mutated from its previous weakened version. Furthermore, this skill only had a short cooldown time of 60 seconds which while not making it too practical for non-stop combat, given the current circumstances Bai Zemin couldn't help but thank the goblins in his heart for being so generous.

Approximately 50 seconds after Kurano's death, Geminder slowly stood up. His expression was extremely serious and the goblin's eyes seemed to spit fire as he looked at the human from a short distance as if he wanted nothing more than to eat him alive.

Bai Zemin sensed his gaze and naturally looked at him. However, his expression was indifferent and cold as if Geminder's anger was nothing more than a joke in his eyes; something unworthy of even mentioning let alone something to pay attention to.

"You killed Abil and Kurano." Geminder spat under his breath and seemed to be doing his best to contain the volcano of anger inside him about to erupt.

Kurano and Abil? Bai Zemin looked confused before he realized what Geminder was saying thanks to the records he had just absorbed not too long ago.

"Kurano? Abil?" Bai Zemin sneered with a playful smile, "I didn't know that you, foul beasts, are also brave enough to name yourselves."

Bai Zemin absolutely detested the goblins' behavior. He abhorred this race of greenskins who raped as if it was something fun and was willing to do anything to annihilate them until there was not even a trace of their existence left.

If his words could make Geminder suffer, he would gladly do so. In the process, he would also make the enemy lose their ability to reason, which would make things easier for him sooner or later.

"Ke.. Kekeke..." Geminder laughed oddly as did all the goblins. He glared at Bai Zemin as he spat out viciously word by word, "I.... Swear... That... I will... Peel... Your... Skin... Millimeter.... By.... Millimeter... Then.... I will do my best to keep you alive while I let even the lowliest soldier have his fun with your loved ones before finally taking their lives with my own hands in front of your eyes.... I want you to feel what I felt then and what I feel right now."

The playful smile on Bai Zemin's face slowly faded, bit by bit until all that remained on his face was the very representation of indifference.

Without words, without warning, his feet erupted with over 700 Strength points and the ground exploded into countless pieces that flew everywhere uncontrollably. However, Bai Zemin's body was no longer there.

As if by prior agreement, Geminder also disappeared from his previous position and an instant later the ground exploded just as it did with Bai Zemin an instant before.

Geminder's silhouette became bigger and bigger in Bai Zemin's eyes. Without hesitation and without thinking too much, he swung his greatsword backward and then stopped dead in his tracks as he used centrifugal force to slash forward with all his might.

Geminder also slashed furiously with his claymore while gritting his teeth and the hatred in his eyes seemed capable of piercing all defenses.

* * * * * * *

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