Chapter 0768: Banner's Drive
The fifth division charged towards the thousands of Fiendish Devils in teams of three. Like hundreds of sharp blades, they pierced straight into the army of Fiendish Devils with terrifying force and tore apart an opening in the densely packed forest.
Resonant power rose into the air like smoke signals of different colors.
Faced with the aggressive charge, the tens of thousands of Fiendish Devils remained emotionless and simply rushed up instinctively. The two torrents of attackers collided violently, creating a reverberating roar. The ground trembled furiously.
Li Luo and the trio of Zhao Yanzhi, Mu Bi, and Li Shi led the charge at the forefront. Li Luo had the Golden-Jade Onyx-Elephant Blade in his hand and lightning sparks underneath his feet. In a flash, he appeared in front of a Fiendish Devil.
The power of dual resonances formed a halo-like wrapping around the straight blade in his hand, ringing with a humming buzz. Confronted by the violent fist of a Fiendish Devil, he stabbed his blade right into it in a direct clash.
The blade pierced right through the Fiendish Devil's fist, and the glowing, sharp sword smashed its body into pieces before it could even recover.
Upon defeat, a strand of earth fiend energy flew out into the air.
In their first encounter, Li Luo had managed to gauge the strength of a Fiendish Devil to be equivalent to that of a Lesser Fiend Palace Cultivator. This was similar to the other ordinary banner members, but it only had brute strength and lacked intelligence. Still, there was strength in numbers.
There were about ten times as many Fiendish Devils as them. It would still be really tedious to clear them all up.
"Sub Leader, these are just the small Fiendish Devils. The Big Fiendish Devils will surely appear later, and they are comparable to a Silver Fiend. If we do not contain them quickly, they will become a threat to the other banner members and cause us to lose our numbers," Mu Bi shouted from afar.
"Big Fiendish Devils? Silver Fiend?"
Li Luo's eyes lit up in surprise. There was a huge disparity in strength between the two.
As the violent battle continued, rays of resonant power exploded repeatedly.
Although the Fiendish Devils had an advantage in numbers, the fifth division was not any weaker. They diminished the number of Fiendish Devils at an amazing pace with their skillful cooperation. In contrast, they had only lost about ten banner members so far.
Unfortunately, this situation did not last long.
Bang!
In the raging battleground, ten rays of shocking energy suddenly burst out into shockwaves and blasted dozens of banner members away.
When Li Luo turned over to take a look at what had happened, he saw a group of gigantic Fiendish Devils. They had silver bodies flowing with powerful energy.
“They must be the Big Fiendish Devils that Mu Bi mentioned earlier.”
"Banner members at the Greater Fiend Palace Tier, form groups of ten and surround the Big Fiendish Devils!" The others will continue slaying the small Fiendish Devils!" Zhao Yanzhi gave the instructions as Li Luo was ultimately new here. He was still unfamiliar, so it would be better for the experienced members to give commands in such situations. This had been previously discussed with and approved by Li Luo.
Following Zhao Yanzhi's order, the elites of the fifth division emerged from the crowd. They had reached the Greater Fiend Palace Tier and were stronger than the rest.
They formed into groups of ten to besiege and suppress the Big Fiendish Devils.
However, this was a risky move. After all, the Big Fiendish Devils were on the level of Silver Fiends. So while they had the numerical advantage, they would still be seriously wounded and knocked out if they got careless.
It was evident that the fifth division started losing banner members at a faster rate as soon as the Big Fiendish Devils appeared.
Moreover, Li Luo noticed more Big Fiendish Devils running towards the battlefield from afar.
The commotion had clearly alerted all the Fiendish Devils on layer twenty-eight.
Zhao Yanzhi, Li Shi, and Mu Bi had managed to trap a Big Fiendish Devil while Li Shi, strongest of the trio, rained down furious and repeated stabs on it with his golden spear. Each attack penetrated the body of the Big Fiendish Devil and slowly depleted its health.
On the other hand, Mu Bi was geared towards defense and took countless beatings from the Big Fiendish Devils without moving a single step.
All of a sudden, the battle came to a stalemate.
Li Luo was no longer as relaxed as a moment ago. The Fiendish Devil Cave was harder than he had imagined.
Moreover, this was just the first day of the expedition. It would definitely get tougher over the next two days.
As for attaining harmony, he had to save it for the Fiendish Devil Leader and could not use it here. Despite its formidable strength, it was not something he could use for long, and he would be totally exhausted after each use.
Boom!
As Li Luo was lost in thought, there was another explosion of resonant power not far away. There were two Big Fiendish Devils charging towards them with a cyclone of terrifying earth fiend energy around their bodies. The banner members that came into contact with it were sent flying into the distance. They vomited blood and retreated from the battle.
Zhao Yanzhi and the other elite banner members were too caught up in their battles to help. There was no one around to stop the rampage of the two Big Fiendish Devils.
Seeing this, Li Luo grabbed his Golden-Jade Onyx-Elephant Blade tightly and went ahead to face them head-on.
"Sub Leader, don't be reckless!" Li Shi warned eagerly when he saw Li Luo.
Zhao Yanzhi and Mu Bi were also shocked. It took the combined efforts of the three of them to stand up against one Big Fiendish Devil. Was Li Luo thinking of going against two Big Fiendish Devils alone?
Although Li Luo had demonstrated his ability to damage someone at the Silver Fiend Tier during training, that was him using all his power with a Duke Art.
Faced with the two Big Fiendish Devils at present, Li Luo was bound to suffer a fatal attack from another Big Fiendish Devil if he exhausted all his strength now.
However, it was too late for anyone to lend a helping hand now. In a flash, with the sparks of lightning appearing under his feet, Li Luo instantly appeared in front of one of the fastest Big Fiendish Devils.
“Roar!”
With a blurry face and steel-like body, the Big Fiendish Devil let out a roar like a wild beast, shattering the air with its terrifying sound waves. It then charged towards Li Luo.
The Big Fiendish Devil grew bigger and bigger in Li Luo's eyes. Nevertheless, he grabbed onto his blade tightly and showed no fear.
BOOM!
The Big Fiendish Devil cried out and swung its giant fist. The earth fiend energy wrapped around the gigantic fist like an impenetrable armor of iron.
The ground was cracked open by the titanic punch.
Sound waves blasted out like sonic booms.
Unfettered, Li Luo held onto his sword tightly, and the light of dual resonances appeared around the blade.
At this moment, Zhao Yanzhi and the trio were dumbfounded.
They had realized that Li Luo was not going to use his Duke Art!
How could a Lesser Fiend Palace cultivator like him go up against a Big Fiendish Devil without a Duke Art?!
However, it was too late for them to do anything now. Right in front of their eyes, Li Luo's blade with the dual resonances struck against the behemoth that was the Big Fiendish Devil.
At the moment of clash, two astonishing forces of energy collided and sent the ground underneath cracking open like a spider web.
The shadows of Li Luo and the Big Fiendish Devil crossed each other.
What surprised Zhao Yanzhi and the others the most was that Li Luo was not repelled by the Big Fiendish Devil's punch. Instead, his blade circling with dual resonance power slashed right through and cut off his foe’s thick arm.
"What?!" The three of them were stunned.
How had a Lesser Fiend Palace cultivator like Li Luo sliced through a Big Fiendish Devil in a face-to-face confrontation?!
Zhao Yanzhi's eyes flickered as she studied Li Luo closely. It was only at this moment that she discovered that the light around Li Luo's blade was flowing with a special energy that strengthened his strikes.
She examined it carefully and realized that the special energy had actually been supplied by... them?
Wait, no. It was from the fifteen hundred banner members of the fifth division.
"This is..."
Zhao Yanzhi, Li Shi, and Mu Bi looked at each other in surprise.
"Banner Drive!"
In simple terms, Banner Drive was a blessing belonging to one banner or one division. It could be utilized to gather the power of the banner members and enhance oneself.
This was akin to the power of harmony, but whilst harmony could allow one to exhibit greater prowess, it could only last a short while.
In contrast, Banner Drive was weaker in power but could be sustained over a longer period of time as long as banner members were in the vicinity.
Li Luo’s previous slash was boosted by its might.
In other words, that swing was so strong because it comprised the power of the whole fifth division.
But the most surprising fact to Zhao Yanzhi and trio was that in the whole Twenty Banners, one hundred divisions, and the one hundred Sub Leaders, only less than one fifth of them had managed to master Banner Drive.
How long had it been since Li Luo became the Sub Leader? In the short span of a few days, he had acquired what other Sub Leaders could not achieve even in a year.
The trio was extremely surprised by this.
No matter what, the facts were in front of them. No matter how unbelievable it was, they could only stare in bewilderment.
What else could they say?
Some people were truly gifted.