The Era of Gods

Chapter 99: Challenge

Translator: 549690339

Just like Lin Xiao’s school, Level One High School certainly has public Divine Realm Login Cabins, but unlike personal exclusive Divine Realm Login Devices, in addition to entering one’s own Divine Realm option, there is also a local network option that allows entry into the local network of Level One High School, which is to access a public Divine Realm unique to Level One High School.

Actually, the Divine Artifact Platform that appeared during Lin Xiao’s final exam was a small local network, accessible only to those with permission.

The local network at Level One High School was a small void city situated in Subspace, only accessible by students of Level One High School and limited to enrolled students; students could not enter it when they were on vacation at home. Therefore, when Lin Xiao arrived on a massive platform, aside from their group of seven, there were only a few distant figures drifting by, presumably students or teachers who were still at the school.

Shang Xiaoxue, who apart from that conspicuous blonde hair exhibited no other abnormalities in reality, immediately displayed his uniqueness upon appearing in Subspace: his blond hair was a roaring flame, instantly increasing his swagger by tenfold.

He looked at Lin Xiao with a sinister smile as his hands made a crackling sound from the movement of his bones. He chuckled and said,

“Come, each side select a thousand members of their Clan for projection. A

Hero counts as a hundred Clan members, and you pick the terrain.”

As he spoke, a light screen popped up in front of Lin Xiao with a list of settings.

He had never played with it before, but had seen it and knew how to adjust it, but he didn’t adjust it, instead he just clicked random and confirmed, turning the light screen green.

“Not bad, going for random!”

The few people watching with interest perked up, Lin Xu’s gaze settled on Lin Xiao’s face, he was also quite eager to see for himself the strength of his nephew… who had received an invitation to the Super Newcomer Summer Camp.

After both sides confirmed, Lin Xiao felt the Void suddenly heavy and collapsing, his consciousness sinking into the Abyss, crossing who knows how far and arriving before a gigantic orb of light, slowly descending upon one face of the orb.

Inside the orb was a small plane, smaller in area than his own Divine Realm, filled with barren hills. A multitude of small hills ranging from a few tens to a hundred meters high spanned the entire plane, making it an exceedingly complex terrain.

Randomly ended up with such terrain… not too friendly for the Naga merpeople.

But it couldn’t be helped, he was the one who had chosen to be random, and now he saw at the other end of the plane, light falling down from the heavens, nearly nine hundred Centaurs covered in thick armor appeared on a hillside slope, led by a Centaur much more robust than his counterparts.

Centaurs are an Intermediate race, half horse and half man, adept at mounted archery and equally skilled in frontal assaults, a well-known Strong Fighting Race.

These Centaurs stood over two meters tall, with a shoulder height of around one meter six; the strong ones were about one meter eight. Their human bodies stood over two meters five, dressed in thick armor, with a massive steel ramming horn on their chest, holding long-handled sabers, and carrying a quiver on the back with more than a dozen short javelins, truly armed to the teeth.

Especially the leading Centaur, standing nearly twice the height of a regular Centaur, looking like a strong elephant.

It seemed to be a Centaur Hero, and since there was no Aura around him, he probably wasn’t an Epic Hero.

Compared to the nine hundred tough-as-nails Centaurs, Lin Xiao’s subordinates were far inferior.

Only the Hero Fishman Slarda and four hundred Naga merpeople were rather impressive; the five hundred small Fishmen just couldn’t bear scrutiny, especially on this dry barren land where neither Naga nor Fishmen were well adapted.

As soon as the subordinates on both sides appeared, the onlookers outside the arena were stunned, exchanging bewildered glances without speaking for a long while.

In fact, they really wanted to curse about what these creatures were, with more than half being Fishmen. Who still uses Fishmen for battle nowadays?

However, those people had also received invite letters to the Super Newcomer Summer Camp just like themselves. It was easy to be embarrassed by making premature judgments before the actual fight had occurred, so the observer from Ancient City pinched a strand of his silvery hair and said,

Let’s just watch for now. Perhaps these Fishmen aren’t ordinary Fishmen after all.”

But he didn’t quite believe his own words. One might not have seen pork, but who hadn’t seen pigs run? No matter how you looked at it, those were just ordinary Fishmen, at best leveled-up Fishmen. Still, they were Fishmen and at most Level 2 at the peak. How could they fight against Centaurs, who averaged Level 2 and were armed to the teeth?

According to the rules, they were not allowed to enter the fray or provide divine art support during this kind of challenge, but they could still command from outside the arena.

Lin Xiao pondered for a moment, and did not issue a Divine-mandate, but rather observed the battlefield. At this time, the hero Slarda had already swum to the top of a small mound, lifting the giant anchor in his hands and smashing it down fiercely, creating a large crater at the top and causing chunks of rock to fly out and hit the approaching Naga.

He raised his anchor and shouted passionately,

“The call from Seboleks, this is the great Lord of the Ocean’s trial for us.

Warriors, show your courage, let the enemy know our prowess, defend the majesty of the Supreme creator!”

“Hoorah!”

The thunderous shout, accompanied by the simultaneous slap of the Naga tails against the ground, caused the rocky terrain to quake, and the morale among both the Naga and Fishmen was extremely high.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao suddenly dismissed the Divine-mandate he was about to issue. Perhaps, they didn’t need his command—they were doing well on their own.

Especially Slarda, who had become more powerful with each passing moment since becoming a hero and adapting to the hero’s strength. This was the afterglow of a life essence transformation, after all, fashioned from the essence of a demi-god body to create an Epic Hero, with an initial strength comparable to the Fifth Level. But this was merely the beginning, and his limit was definitely more than the Fifth Level.

As he continued to fight and activate the divine blood essence within him, his strength would only grow stronger. The potential limit of an Epic Hero could reach up to Level 9 Legend.

Of course, that was a matter for the far future. He had only recently been promoted to hero and was still at the fifth stage, but he was already one of the best among the Fifth Level. Moreover, the hero template bestowed upon him a strength far beyond that of ordinary troops. Heroes, in general, could challenge beyond their rank, and the epic template was self-explanatory.

Under his watch, Slarda loudly commanded teams of Naga or Fishmen to move positions, and Lin Xiao was very surprised. He was actually capable of simple troop formation, something Lin Xiao had never taught him.

The Fishmen formed the front line as cannon fodder, with Naga behind, and there were also left and right wings as well as reserves; it was quite crude, but it was indeed an arrangement of troops, which was a live adaptation of Lin Xiao’s command during the final exam.

This was a pleasant surprise for him; a hero that couldn’t command was merely a warrior, but a hero that could was a leader, and for him, a leader was definitely more valuable than a mere warrior.

He felt that it was time to take a moment to seriously cultivate Slarda’s talent in this regard. Perhaps it could bring him a tremendous surprise as well.

Having decided not to interfere and to let Slarda take the lead, Lin Xiao simply let go completely. He didn’t stay around and directly flew above the sphere to meet up with the others in the Ancient City.

Lin Xu furrowed his brows and asked in a hushed voice,

“Why aren’t you going to command?”

He waved his hand and said,

“No need, 1 have heroes sufficient to command.”

His words made several people nearby glance sideways, with many eyes revealing sneers. Tang Ling lowered his voice to his companion and said,

“This pauper is even better at showing off than 1 am. Let’s see if he can keep it up after losing.”

Compared to the Centaurs who were armed to the teeth, the Naga merpeople who still couldn’t manage a piece of iron weaponry or armor for everyone did indeed make Lin Xiao look like a pauper; he indeed had many things to prepare.

“Da da da!!!

The thunderous sound of horse hooves rose from the back of a small hill, audible from a distance. On the other side of the hilltop, Slarda, stationed at the center, raised his anchor and shouted,

“Stop, climb the slope!”

“They know how to take advantage of the terrain?”

This responsive command surprised and delighted Lin Xiao.

It wasn’t just the clan’s intelligence that impressed him, but in Slarda’s actions, he saw his own reflection. This proved that the clan in which he placed great hopes was walking the path he had envisioned – the legendary path of the Saints.

From the Vault of Heaven above, one could clearly see nearly nine hundred Centaurs, led by the Centaur Hero, forming a line over a kilometer long and sweeping across. Their hooves kicked up, raising clouds of dust and gravel that could be seen from afar.

As they neared the small hill, the Centaur group split into two to circle around this somewhat steep hillside. But halfway through, the right flank suddenly heard Shang Xiaoxue’s voice:

“Right flank, prepare for combat; left flank, speed up and get around.”

No sooner had the order been issued than the Centaurs saw a group of Fishmen coming around from the back slope of the hill. They were taken aback at first, then burst into excitement.

The Centaurs had been expecting some enemy, but they didn’t anticipate it would be a group of ragged Fishmen, especially dust-covered and dirty, making them look in quite a sorry state.

The leading Centaur Hero, wielding an exceptionally thick and long sabre, pointed at the Fishmen and laughed heartily,

“Warriors of the Centaur Tribe, the great God of the Centaurs is watching us from God Country. It’s time to showcase our strength and add to the supreme glory of the God of the Centaurs with the blood of the heretics!”

He raised his sabre high,

“Kill!”

He leaped up vigorously, his movements swift and powerful, stones beneath his hooves scattering in all directions as he raised his sabre, preparing for the strike.

The two sides closed in rapidly, and when the small, waist-high Fishman was less than fifty meters away, the Centaur Hero recalled the terror on the faces of enemies he had charged at before. Killing any enemy in sight and pleasing the great God of the Centaurs was his only belief. He had locked on a target and had just pulled out a javelin to throw.

Suddenly, his target darted in an instant, turning into a blur that his eyes could barely catch, flashing in front of him and slamming into him fiercely.

With a heavy thud, the Fishman warrior’s bone spike exploded into a shower of bone fragments, and he himself was sent flying back, falling to the ground. His hands that held the weapon were covered in blood, a large swath of scales on his chest shattered, bleeding profusely, as he lay twitching on the ground, unable to get up.

The Fishman warrior had been killed outright by the terrifying recoil.

But the Centaur Hero didn’t have it easy either. The Fishman warrior, equipped with the profession of an all-powerful warrior, was on par with a Level 3 military unit, not much different from these Centaurs. The Salted Fish Charge’s fivefold critical hit made him feel constricted in his chest.

However, their defense was too strong. That full set of Armor Card really armored them to the teeth, and coupled with the poor quality of Fishman weapons, the sudden critical strikes caused them to shatter under the immense force. The Centaur Hero was left with just a slightly deformed armor and some discomfort from the impact.

Other Centaurs, not as mighty as the hero, were either broken by the brute force or taken by surprise and knocked over.

As other Fishmen rushed into the burst range of the Salted Fish Charge and rose up in rebellion, a series of muffled weapon-breaking noises erupted, interspersed with occasional gruesome tearing sounds. Some quick-reacting Centaurs struck timely blows, cleaving the rising Fishmen in two.

In an instant, a hundred Fishmen erupted, but only a dozen or so Centaurs were brought down, and not a single one died.

From this first bout, the Fishmen were disastrously defeated.

“Hahaha, what am 1 seeing? They dare to challenge us with this?”

Tang Ling couldn’t hold back anymore and pointed at the scene within the plane, laughing uproariously.

Ancient City didn’t say anything, but his expression was strange, his eyes not showing the same disdain as the others.

Lin Xu didn’t say anything either, similarly staring thoughtfully into the plane, wondering what they were thinking..