Chapter 232: Is It Over?
Over five hundred Magical Beasts died in one go, while a few hundred more were heavily injured. In an instant, William had crippled almost a tenth of the Elemental Beast Tide!
The Cultivators increased the intensity of their attacks, wiping out the injured Magical Beasts and sending William a wave of Potential Points for the assists. The large corpses became an obstacle for the Tide, preventing many from keeping a solid footing as they advanced.
The captains took advantage of this and ordered everyone to focus their attacks on Beasts that were trying to cross over their dead companions. The bodies continued to pile up further, until it was like an unsurpassable wall that the Magical Beasts had to go around.
William returned to his duties as a healer, making sure everyone was at full strength. When someone was low on Mana, he took their place temporarily while they consumed Mana Regeneration Pills, wiping out enemy after enemy with extreme skill and precision.
Those that knew William's true identity were stunned at his battle prowess. They had seen videos of the NPC releasing his Life Domain, and even of him battling thousands of Core Formation Cultivators by himself. They knew he wasn't showing even a fraction of his real strength.
Yet, with just three Elements and not even using his Domains, William was treating the Region Event like a walk in the park. If they could see William's Cultivation, they might be even more surprised.
Many of Blue Moon City's higher-ups that were present on the wall took note of William's contributions and decided to reward him later. While he still had a long way to go, "Yuming" had so far limited the deaths to the single digits.
For a battle of this scale, that number was unheard of!
Each of the higher-ups nodded in approval as William rushed into the battle once more. They were impressed with his strength and stamina, but none of them felt threatened by William's power. Instead, they felt William would be a great asset to their City.
Each of his Elements were the best form of support, enough to defend an entire army by himself. Who wouldn't want that person on their side? If William could fight with them during future Beast Tides, they had a better chance of stopping this calamity.
The battle raged on for hours. Thousands of Magical Beasts died, while less than a hundred Cultivators died in return. Most of the Cultivator deaths were Players, who became arrogant after killing a few Magical Beasts and died to some nasty tricks not long after.
Some were struck in the feet by a scorpion's tail from underground, paralyzed and unable to dodge the next attack from their opponents.
Others misjudged the speed of the Sandicores and failed to dodge a fatal claw strike or their bodies were corroded over time when hit by a nasty Magic Spell from the Plains Vultures.
Most of these instances happened while William was resting, so he wasn't able to prevent their deaths. Either way, he didn't blame himself for it. He had already done quite a bit on the battlefield, and the casualties were less than one percent.
When there were only a thousand Magical Beasts remaining, Sections Two and Four retreated to rest and start clearing away the battlefield, while Sections One and Five moved inward to cover their allies.
With so few enemies remaining, the two Sections would just get in the way.
William didn't let up during the fight at all. He had both the lives of his friends and family to fight for, and Potential Points. He wasn't going to give up on either.
His figure teleported between the now three Sections, controlling the fight with even greater ease. Before healing his allies, William would choose to deal with their opponents first, his reaction time pushed to its max as his body often appeared in the path of enemy attacks.
Wherever William was, a pair of Earth Walls rose to canalize the Magical Beasts into forming a straight line, then he launched long and thick Earth Spikes that would impale them the same way Jenny did. If one Spike didn't work, he used multiple to pierce the Beasts through and through many times.
-Developed a new Magic Spell: +1 PP
-New Spell: Earth Skewer
"Yuming, over here!" someone shouted while holding an injured friend. The man's arm was hanging onto the rest of his body by a thread, and venom was coursing through his veins at high speed.
William teleported over and held the arm in its normal position, causing the injured man to lose consciousness from the pain. He channeled a mix of Poison and Life Magic into the man's body next, detoxifying the poison like he had done many times while simultaneously healing the arm.
There was a scar remaining, which William left intentionally to hide his talents, but the arm would work just as well as before. He performed a quick scan to make sure nothing else was wrong with the man, then teleported away before his friend had time to say thanks.
The moment he exited his teleport point, William was greeted by the massive fist of a Sand Golem that was a bit larger than the others. William marveled at the Magical Beast at the very peak of the Golden Core Realm, wondering how it had evaded his attention for so long.
With a flick of his wrist, William shot a dozen tiny needles of Earth that targeted the joints of the Sand Golem, its arms hanging limp and legs separating from its body as the joints were shattered into tiny pieces.
The battle ended not long after, the Cultivators wiping out the remaining Magical Beasts with great skill. After fighting for hours against the same types of Beasts, many had become accustomed to their tactics and moves.
A good portion of Blue Moon City's Cultivators had been to the Foam Desert before, so this knowledge helped many of the NPCs to remain alive despite a few setbacks.
William took the initiative to directly store five hundred of the most intact Magical Beast corpses from the battlefield in his Space Ring, since his Titanium Space Rings had over five hundred cubic meters of space each.
Even if each of the Magical Beasts were five times their size, William could still store well over sixty thousand Magical Beasts. Most Golden Core Magical Beasts ranged from 10 to 15 meters in size, while the Golden Core Sand Golems were a bit larger at roughly 22 meters.
That being said, as long as they were stacked nicely, the Magical Beasts would hardly take up any room in his Space Rings. When peering inside his now partially filled Space Ring, William felt a bit gross, but at least he knew the corpses would be kept in good condition until he found a use for them.
I should put shelves in the Space Rings so I don't have to stack the corpses on top of each other. Everything should get their own special place.
Ooh, I can even categorize them by their Elemental Affinities. William's mind was filled with many new ideas for his Space Rings and opted to make the necessary adjustments at the next opportunity.
William joined up with Carl while waiting for the System to announce his Quest complete and scoured the battlefield, looking for rare Magical Beast materials that could be added to his collection.
Blue Moon City would surely claim a portion of his spoils, but Carl explained that the Cities tended to let the battle's participants take most of the items.
To ensure that the materials from battle still ended up going towards the City's development, Blue Moon City would usually purchase the materials at 90% of their market value from Adventurers that had no use for them.
It was a win-win situation for both parties, since the Adventurers could clear up some room in their Space Rings while the City could replenish their stocks. Only a small percentage of Cultivators were like William, able to directly make use of Beast materials for their own trade skills.
Whether it was Alchemy, Forging, Tailoring, or even Cooking, William had many ways to use the materials he earned. For him, selling these precious materials was a waste.
I'm sure Master would be happy if I brought some of these back for him too. Maybe he'll teach me something interesting...
William was a loot goblin, but his Master had lived a long time and had a trick for everything. Sacrificing a small portion of his spoils was more than worth it in exchange for Riyald's teachings.
Just as the battlefield was nearly cleared away of Magical Beast corpses, one of the Cultivators that was tasked to pull security ran up to the walls with great haste. He shouted up to the higher-ups on the wall, who were already furrowing their brows at something in the distance.
"Seniors! There's another Beast Tide heading our way!"
The higher-ups nodded to each other and called down to the runner, "How many did you see?"
"Not many, maybe a hundred, but they're all in the Nascent Soul Realm. And..." his face was visibly nervous.
"And?"
"There's a man leading them!"