Chapter 164 Sly and Crafty! (2)

All of a sudden, Oni saw that the opponent charging at him was a beautiful young girl, and he was angered until his face was red [1. The phrase used here directly translates to ‘angered until his nose was twisted, but I went with the english version]. However, when Shangguan Fei’er got closer to him, he realised that something was up… he could clearly see her Physical Jewels faintly below her armour, and the number was definitely not what he had expected!

However, by this point, it was too late for him to think too much. As the Regiment Commander, and the strongest powerhouse of the entire Heavy Infantry Regiment, he could only do his best to give their opponents a heavy blow on the nose to teach them a lesson. On the battlefield, there was no such thing as mercy. Although his opponent was a young woman, he would not harbour thoughts of holding back.

Shangguan Fei’er was just too quick. In that short period of time when Oni’s psyche was readjusting himself, she had already reached in front of him. Her right fist opened up in a palm grab towards Oni’s throat.

Oni gave a grim laugh, his left hand lifting up at lightning speed in a parry of Shangguan Fei’er’s incoming hand. At the same time, his right fist struck out, his powerful Heavenly Energy surrounding his fist and striking out ahead. His Physical Jewel was Strength, and with this punch, he had used almost eighty percent of his Heavenly Energy, aiming to defeat his opponent with a single blow to boost the morale of his troops.

A gleam of disdain flashed in Shangguan Fei’er’es eyes, and her body only moved slightly to the side. At that moment, all Oni could see was that Shangguan Fei’er seemed to actually twist in a strange movement, and his powerful fist filled with Heavenly Energy felt as if it had all the strength in the world, but nowhere to use it. In a flash, there was a blur before his eyes and Shangguan Fei’er’s hand towards his throat had twisted in an unbelievable angle to instead grab onto the wrist of his punching fist. The next instant, Oni felt Shangguan Fei’er close in on him.

Oni’s combat experience was also extremely abundant, and he instantly reacted by circulating all his Heavenly Energy, bursting forth from his body. With his Heavenly Xu Stage cultivation level, he planned to use his Heavenly Energy and thick armour to take her attacks head-on. At the same time, his arms exerted full force in bringing them together, attempting to grab hold of Shangguan Fei’er in a bear hug.

In this, he did not have any dirty thoughts, more a subconscious reaction to subdue his enemy. However, in doing so, he had deeply offended the Little Demon Girl in front of him.

In Shangguan Fei’er’s heart, besides her Little Fatty, what other man had the qualification to hug her?

A pull and a throw. Oni felt a sharp pain on his wrist, and he was shocked to find that Shangguan Fei’er’s fingers were like metal hooks, easily piercing through the thick armour around his wrists, her own Heavenly Energy moving in a cockscrew motion that forcefully broke through his protective Heavenly Energy aura. Next, he saw her jump right up, and his own arm went numb. All he could do was watch Shangguan Fei’er’s last action as her knee savagely smashed into the center of his chest armour.

With a loud crash, Oni’s body flew like a cannonball. Despite all his heavy armour, he had been directly smashed more than twenty yards away by Shangguan Fei’er’s angry strike. That was also after she had dispersed some of the attack at the last moment to hold back, otherwise the blow might have shattered several of his ribs.

The two of them had exchanged blows just too quickly, and from the distance, it just looked like a single person had charged out from the Peerless Battalion, clashing right into the strongest powerhouse of the Heavy Infantry Regiment, Oni. However, in just the time it took to draw a breath, Oni had been sent flying away.

This was also the reason why all the watching officers had their jaws agape.

In their wildest imaginations, none of them would have even dreamed that the situation would reach such a level so quickly. After all, Oni was a powerful seven-Jeweled Heavenly Jewel Master!

Before they could react, the rest of the two sides smashed into each other.

What were all these Peerless Battalion fellows? Most of them were bellicose and loved to fight. Originally, in the army, none of them were of good temper, and that was one of the reasons why they had been sent to the various Ruffian Battalions. Now that they were in the Peerless Battalion, the several consecutive victories had given them the confidence of gaining victory. The three thousand of them who had been selected were definitely the most elite amongst the entire Peerless Battalion, amongst them were the original one thousand five hundred Peerless Battalion soldiers who had first followed Zhou Weiqing. These few days, these ‘old’ soldiers had worked extra hard indeed after being showed up by the newcomers. The cultivation of Physical Jewel Masters was not as tough as Heavenly Jewel Masters, and all of them had more or less some improvement in their Heavenly Energy. Amongst them, there were still quite a few various Main Company Leaders, Company Leaders or other ranking officers, definitely not an easy bunch to deal with.

As both sides crashed into each other, the result was unbelievably different from all the expectations of the waiting spectators.

Right in front of them, the Heavy Infantry soldiers were being sent flying like tin cans being kicked around. In a blink of an eye, almost a few hundred soldiers had been sent flying just like Oni. As for the Peerless Battalion side, they had not even suffered a single loss.

In such a massive clash of close combat, sometimes strength was more important than skill. As such, the most outstanding performances were definitely the two thousand Gold Crow and Berserker Tribe warriors that had just joined the Peerless Battalion.

Without mentioning the Berserker Tribe first, just the ladies of the Gold Crow Tribes were like war goddesses descending from the heavens. Their average weight was more than six hundred jin, and though they were not in any armour, they already weighed more than those Heavy Infantry soldiers in their full armour.

Previously, when they had fought against the charge of the Wolf Cavalry soldiers and Unicorn Cavalry soldiers, even without proper equipment and weapons, they had managed to hold those two powerful foes at bay for so long, holding out until Zhou Weiqing brought in reinforcements. Just from that alone, one could imagine how powerful they were at close combat.

The fight styles of the lady warriors of the Gold Crow Tribe was simple, just one action no matter what their opponents did - charge, dip shoulder and ram.

The actions might be simple and straightforward, but it was definitely effective. Most of those Heavy Infantry soldiers which had been sent flying were done so by them.

Of course, the Berserker Tribe warriors were no weaker than the Gold Crow Tribe warriors. Their weight might not be comparable to them, but their fighting prowess was no weaker, perhaps even more powerful. After all, the Berserker Tribe was famed for their ferocity and love for battle, and as their name suggested, their frenzy in battle. When in combat, they could use a bloodline power of theirs, Berserking. A Berserker Tribe warrior who had entered Berserk mode would have his skin turn even harder than metal, and his strength would also increase drastically, becoming no lesser than that of a Gold Crow Tribe warrior. In that state, they were also immune to pain. At least in terms of hand to hand combat, they were definitely far superior than the Gold Crow Tribe warriors.

These Berserker Tribe warrior, each at least two metres tall, directly faced their opposing Heavy Infantry soldiers, and they actually just dared to grab them and lift them at directly, throwing them savagely out into the distance. As for the Heavy Infantry soldiers’ attacks, they did not even bother defending themselves, allowing the attacks to smash into them, though they did not even leave any mark.

As compared to these two powerful tribe warriors who were extremely suited to close combat, although the Peerless Battalion soldiers were all Jewel Masters and equipped with their titanium mail, their efficiency in close combat was no match. This was just a sheer difference in physical prowess, but that did not mean their results were weak at all.

After having trained with Shangguan Fei’er in close combat for so long, all of their close combat capabilities had gone through a qualitative leap. Furthermore, all of them were Jewel Masters, and with their Heavenly Energy, even if their opponents were carefully selected, well trained and powerful, dressed in full armour, they still held the advantage.

The powerhouses of the Peerless Battalion were just too many, and even when the opponent’s Battalion Leaders, Company Leaders or various officers came out, the officers of the Peerless Battalion immediately rushed to meet them. As such, the fight was just still fully one sided.

Convulsions was a term that would be descriptive of an illness, but using this term now on all the spectating Northwest Army officers would be extremely accurate.

Their face muscles were all twitching involuntarily… none of them had expected that this would be the result of the fight.

The clash had only started for a few minutes, and the Heavy Infantry soldiers were falling like wheat being harvested.

Indeed, the Heavy Infantry soldiers indeed had much shocking power on the battlefield, but at the same time with such heavy armour, once they fell down it would be rather difficult for them to get up, especially after taking such heavy blows.

Yet, on the reverse side, for the Peerless bAttalion, there were at least twenty to thirty powerhouses running wild around the Heavy Infantry Regiment unchecked, wreaking havoc all around. Every time anyone of them took action, one Heavy Infantry soldier would fall. Furthermore, besides a very small number of Peerless Battalion soldier who had met with the opponent officers and were beaten down, they were able to get up easily, hoping that Shangguan Fei’er had not noticed them. Although their titanium mail was extremely light, in terms of defense it was not inferior to their opponent’s full plate armour. After all, it was titanium alloy!

In a matter of moments, Shangguan Fei’er did not even bother continuing, as the outcome of the fight was already too clear - a total crushing victory.

Fighting close combat? With an entire punch of Jewel Masters... or a warriors with superior bloodline skills and attributes? Even if it were a WanShou Empire army Regiment taking the place of the Heavy Infantry Regiment, the Peerless Battalion would not be afraid of them.

Shen Ji stared with his jaw agape at the scene in front of him. He did not know when, but Hua Feng had rode up next to him casually, saying in a low tone: “Legion Commander Shen Ji, don’t you think you should end the fight in advance? If we keep beating on the Heavy Infantry Regiment, I’m afraid their confidence might be destroyed. Furthermore, we are after all going to be cooperating on the battlefield, and we are all allies, it won’t be too good to have our relationship strained too much.”

Upon hearing Hua Feng speak, only then did Shen ji come to his senses. However, when he heard those words, they just seemed so cutting, so mocking. He truly felt like pushing this fellow down to the ground and beating him up!

This was truly getting the advantage and still rubbing salt in others’ wounds! Afraid of destroying the Heavy Infantry Regiment’s confidence? Those Peerless Battalion soldiers were like hunting wolves or tigers, even some of those fallen Heavy Infantry soldiers, they would continue beating them up. Was this how they showed their ‘fear’ of destroying others’ confidence? Where was there any sign of mercy or leniency?!

“Stop! Everyone stop!” Shen Ji used all his Heavy Energy into his voice, and it reverberated all the way into the distance.

Well, the Heavy Infantry soldiers all stopped. After all, they truly beaten. However, on the Peerless Battalion side, there was no sign of any of those ruffians wanting to stop. At least the Berserker and Gold Crow Tribe soldiers were more honest; as soon as they heard Shen Ji’s command, they immediately stopped.