Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Battle of the Blackwater River (Part Two)

The heavily armed human soldiers at the front line collided with the alien warriors, plunging instantly into a deadlock. Faces twisted with exertion and rage, both sides swung their weapons madly at opponents before them. In terms of physique, orcs and centaurs were far superior to humans, but the humans held an absolute advantage in equipment. The majority of the orcs and centaurs wore no armor, their torsos bare save for a strip of animal hide at the waist; even their weapons varied widely in quality—many wielded clubs of stone, bone, or wood, and those with iron arms were a rare few.

By contrast, every human soldier was armored, the front ranks of heavy infantry gripping shields in one hand and sharp longswords in the other. In terms of gear, the humans were overwhelmingly superior. The two sides struck a balance, and as soon as their lines met, the battlefield erupted in screams and slaughter, yet neither side could gain the upper hand.

Normally, both armies would remain locked in stalemate for a while, until the human commander committed the mages to the fray, gradually tipping the balance in favor of the humans. Then, two hours into the battle, the orc side—unable to withstand the pressure—would gamble on a decapitation strike, ultimately succeeding in assassinating the human commander.

That was why Chu Cheng had entered the fray at the very start: to break the orc coalition as early as possible. The decapitation tactic only worked if the orcs had not yet collapsed; if their lines broke too soon, such a ploy would backfire, trapping the three orc leaders attempting the assassination deep within the human ranks.

Less than a minute into the frontline clash, Chu Cheng, relying on his formidable strength, forced his way to the front, rudely bowling over a pained and twisted orc and throwing himself alone into the orc formation. His solitary charge immediately drew the attention of the orcs, and several clubs came crashing down upon him at once.

A ringing of impacts resounded above Chu Cheng’s head as a transparent ripple spread out, passing through the surrounding orcs and exploding fifty meters away. A group of orcs who had not yet reached the front line clutched at wounds that had appeared out of nowhere, looking about in bewilderment, their sleep-crusted eyes wide with confusion.

Ten seconds later, these orcs fell, clutching their inexplicable wounds, their bulging eyes full of terror and incomprehension.

“Yes, that’s the feeling!” Chu Cheng exulted inwardly. “It’s my time to shine!”

With a flourish of his twin blades, he engaged the orcs around him in a convincing display of combat.

Thus, a bizarre scene unfolded on the battlefield: a group of orcs besieged a lone human, weapons clashing fiercely, yet neither side seemed to take any damage. Instead, orcs in the mass fifty meters away would suddenly drop dead, the spectacle thoroughly uncanny.

To avoid attracting attention, Chu Cheng set his damage reflection to target enemies fifty meters away. At such a range, there was no way the orcs could realize he was the cause.

With his spatial refraction skill upgraded to Level 2, Chu Cheng could now absorb and reflect up to one hundred points of damage per attack, instead of thirty. In one cycle, he could unleash a thousand points of true damage—ignoring defense and resistance. Ordinary level 25 monsters didn’t even have a thousand health points; a single cycle could kill them instantly.

But that was merely the ideal scenario. In reality, the battlefield was so crowded that only a few orcs at a time could attack him, and with level 15 orcs dealing just fifty to sixty points of damage per strike, one cycle of reflected attacks would only amount to five or six hundred damage, with the occasional spike when an orc warrior used a special skill.

Still, orcs themselves weren’t especially robust; a level 15 orc had only five hundred health. Whether or not they used special skills, they’d be wiped out in a single round.

The battlefield teemed with these low-level soldiers. Squeezed into the orc ranks just a dozen meters from the fighting line, Chu Cheng slaughtered the ordinary orcs with abandon. Every two or three seconds, he could kill ten; in a minute, he could bounce over two hundred to their deaths—a terrifying efficiency. In just a few minutes, piles of orc corpses littered the ground.

On a smaller scale, the orcs would already have broken, but in a battle of tens of thousands, a thousand dead meant little. So far, not even the orcs realized so many had been lost.

It was chaos, pandemonium—the entire mass surging forward, every ounce of focus fixed on the front line, adrenaline surging. No one had time to spare for the unfortunates trampled underfoot.

Though the orcs remained oblivious, others on the battlefield noticed. A team stationed at the right flank of the human army observed the changes and quickly spotted Chu Cheng, who was exploiting the chaos among the enemy.

They too hoped to change the course of battle, but their plans differed from Chu Cheng’s. Without his outrageous talent, they dared not face tens of thousands of orcs head-on; instead, they aimed to influence events via the human command.

The pivotal turning point at the Battle of Blackwater River was the orc’s successful decapitation strike. Their own plan was to sabotage this assassination. So from the start, they had been edging toward the center, waiting for the main orc force to clash with the human command, when confusion would reign and the formations would break, allowing them to slip in.

Watching Chu Cheng move like a fish in water amid enemy lines, orcs toppling in droves from his reflected attacks, Sun Yu, Pan Yue, and the others felt a tangle of emotions. Seeing a rival perform so brilliantly was vexing, yet his actions weakened the enemy, increasing their own chances of victory—an ambivalence that gnawed at them.

Behind the human army, atop a small hill, more than twenty people stood surveying the battlefield. Had Chu Cheng been there, he would have recognized among them the homeroom teachers and teaching assistants from the seven senior classes, as well as Mo Han, whom he had met before.

The teachers were spread about, but at the center stood a white-haired old man and a bald, muscular giant.

“This young man is impressive. His name is Chu... something, isn’t it?” the old man inquired.

Duan Yuqin answered promptly, “Chu Cheng from Class Five!”

The white-haired elder stroked his beard and praised, “In just this short time, he’s used his talent to kill over a thousand orcs—an excellent efficiency. By the way...” He turned to look at Mo Han. “I recall you reported to me before—wasn’t he the first to earn Revered Reputation?”

Mo Han nodded quickly. “To be precise, he achieved Revered Reputation within his first month in this realm.”

“Hmm, very impressive.” The old man nodded, then asked the muscular man beside him, “Where does he rank on your list?”

The musclebound man replied at once, “Top three!”

“A fitting rank. And the other two?”

“Sun Yu and Pan Yue from Class One.”

“These three... Not bad at all.” The white-haired elder nodded, then cautioned, “Remember, the chief purpose of this year’s entrance exam is to select the absolute elite. Combat strength is important, but potential matters even more.”

The crowd fell silent, pondering the vice principal’s words.

The muscular man nodded as well. “That’s exactly the standard I’m following!”

Having said this, Du Zhaotian spoke no further, focusing intently on the battle. The other instructors, however, exchanged glances, each with their own thoughts.