Chapter 11 - Slim Victory
As Han Wu gave his order, all of his 2.6 billion locusts flew up into the air. They covered the sky like a massive black cloud, before raining down onto the Crimson Goblins.
But the Crimson Goblins weren’t pushovers either. They raised their claws and conjured balls of fire before launching them at the locusts.
Every single fireball took down ten locusts in one go. Han Wu observed the battlefield as several hundred thousand locusts were burned per second while the Crimson Goblins took only a miniscule amount of damage from the locusts.
Han Wu carefully planned the timing of his attacks and gave out another order.
Explosions ravaged the field as the Bomber Locusts exploded.
The Common locusts shielded the Bomber Locusts with their bodies in order to get the explosions to occur closer. When they were in range, all 5 million hidden Bomber Locusts exploded onto the Crimson Goblins.
The sound of explosions rang non-stop and the Crimson Goblins were finally injured. The explosions of the 5 million Bomber Locusts had left injuries of various degrees on 6000 of the Crimson Goblins. Additionally, the explosions had killed 400 Crimson Goblins directly.
Still, this was an insignificant loss to the Crimson Goblin army. They still had the numbers necessary to continue their assault.
Han Wu had no choice but to activate his killer move earlier than he had hoped.
He ordered the Magma Locusts to attack. All 400,000 Magma Locusts braved the hail of fireballs, and charged into the Crimson Goblin army before exploding.
The lava within their body burst forth and rained down onto the Crimson Goblin army, then turned the ground beneath the Crimson Goblins into a sea of fire.
Some of the previously wounded Crimson Goblins were affected by the high temperature and were cooked to death.
But as Elite Crimson Goblins, many of them were able to endure the high temperatures and charge past the field of lava thanks to their fire resistance.
This sacrifice of all of his 400,000 Magma Locusts had not been nearly enough. The assault had merely killed 3000 Crimson Goblins. While the remaining 6500 Crimson Goblins had varying degrees of injuries, they still had the strength to doggedly march towards Han Wu’s Core.
The sea of locusts did almost nothing to slow their march. Many of the spectating teachers and students were certain that Han Wu was done for.
“What a shame… Han Wu is in an even more precarious situation than when he faced off against Zhang Gang’s army. I doubt that his Heroic Steelcutter will be enough to hold off the remaining invading force.”
“In the end, locusts are still too weak. Not even a mountain of resources are enough to make up for this weakness.”
“Haha! Let those Crimson Goblins crush his Core! Let’s see if he will ever dare to be so arrogant again!”
Xu Mei couldn’t bear to watch. Even she thought that Han Wu was going to lose.
She opened up a secret channel to send an encrypted message to Han Wu. “Han Wu, give up. Remember that it is not a stain on your honor to give up a hopeless fight. As long as you endure, you can grow stronger and win on a later date. I know you. You are someone that can grow if given the time to do so.”
But Han Wu shook his head resolutely. “Ms. Xu, I have already decided to change classes. Even if it means destroying my last soldier, I will endure to the bitter end. That being said, have faith in me. After all, I still haven’t lost.”
Steely began to rampage on the battlefield.
The Crimson Goblins had the advantage in numbers and soon the hail of fireballs managed to injure Steely. However, thanks to his strong body as a Heroic life form, he was able to continue fighting despite his rapidly accumulating injuries.
He wielded all four Hurricane Greatswords deftly, and slaughtered any Crimson Goblin that dared to approach Han Wu’s Core. His blades felled so many enemies that the ground around the Core was stained blood-red from their corpses. Many of the weaker stomached students couldn’t bear to watch the gory scene, and hastily stopped spectating the test.
The tide of the battle soon tipped in the invaders’ favor. Even though Steely was a strong Heroic life form, he could barely withstand the assault of 6500 Crimson Goblins.
As a result of the fireballs which continued to rain down incessantly, Steely’s body was covered in wounds and scabs. His energy was spent and he was doing his best to survive by using all four Hurricane Greatswords as shields.
It was clear to everyone that Steelcutter Swordwind was on the brink of death.
But even then, he had been able to cut down 5000 Crimson Goblins. It was a testament to his valor and the ferocity of this war.
The remaining Crimson Goblins were channeling and fusing their fireballs to launch a final attack on the stubborn Heroic life form before them.
Liu Letian could barely contain his joy as he fantasized about the vindication he would feel upon watching Han Wu’s Core get crushed.
But then, something unexpected happened. The ground of Han Wu’s divine realm started to quake.
The Crimson Goblins stopped channeling their energy and turned towards the direction of the sound.
Everyone saw a well-equipped army of dwarves charging out from the forest. The dwarven army was only 900 strong, but their armor and weapons were the top of their line.
“Protect our God!” The one leading the charge was none other than the elder dwarf.
With his rallying call, all 900 dwarves hollered and charged at the Crimson Goblins.
The remaining 1500 Crimson Goblins were so shaken by the sudden appearance of the dwarves that most of them still weren’t able to fully process the situation by the time that the dwarves had routed them. “Kill those bastards!”
The elder dwarf smashed his hammer onto a Crimson Goblin’s head, scattering his brains. The other dwarves soon caught up and started an intense melee with the Crimson Goblins.
The sounds of killing and explosions rocked the battlefield once more as the war continued.
The spectators were equally surprised to see the dwarves appearing too. They were astonished to find that Han Wu was also nurturing an army of dwarves in addition to his locusts. They also judged that Han Wu must have been nurturing the dwarves for quite some time based on how well-equipped they were.
One of the more careful teachers noticed that the dwarves Han Wu was nurturing were the same ones from Zhang Bin’s core race.
It was indeed a surprise to them that Han Wu had managed to turn the dwarves into a loyal race in just two days.
One of the teachers exclaimed, “What a genius! With his strength he could easily become one of the top ten strongest students for the year!”
The reason Han Wu took the test was to change classes so all of the teachers were hoping that Han Wu would join their class. To them, Han Wu was like a walking bag of money with no strings attached. If Han Wu joined their class, the respective homeroom teacher’s performance review for the year would be greatly increased! Naturally, they would be rewarded handsomely for such an outcome.
If Han Wu manages to pass the test, I will do my best to entice him to join my class! Those were the collective thoughts of all the teachers.
After seeing a chance to fulfill their greedy desires, they began to excitedly anticipate the results of the test.
The clamoring sound of war slowly died down within Han Wu’s divine realm. The spectators were absorbed by the war as the dwarves and Crimson Goblins fell one by one.
Who would win?
The answer was soon revealed when the final Crimson Goblin was killed by the elder dwarf.
Han Wu was ultimately victorious, though he had paid a terrible price.
He had lost almost all of his locusts and his dwarves. Only 54 dwarves remained alive after the war. Thankfully, the only Heroic life form he had, Steelcutter Swordwind had lived. His Steely had survived!
While everyone’s minds remained enraptured by the war that they had just witnessed, Xu Mei announced the results.
“Victory belongs to Han Wu!”
Even though she had seen the whole battle with her own eyes, she was still in disbelief at the results. To her, Han Wu’s victory was nothing short of a miracle.
Before Han Wu left his divine realm, he used Increased Growth twice to increase the reproduction rate of his units to deal with pressing matters of his diminished population.
He walked out from the landing pod to find his classroom filled with different homeroom teachers.
The teachers were all extending an invitation to the three students in a bid to make them join their class.
“Qin Shuang, you are welcome to join my class. I have a suitable resource that would enhance your Thunder Sparrows.”
“Zhang Xiaolong, I have a secret method to raise those from the Demon race. I will pass on this knowledge to you if you join my class.”
“Han Wu, I am willing to provide you with a stronger dwarven army if you join my class.”
***
The negotiations and invitations lasted a long time, but Zhang Xiaolong didn’t answer any of the teachers’ offers. His gaze was fixated on Qin Shuang, while Qin Shuang stared at Han Wu.
Upon seeing this, every teacher realized that the key to recruit the other two lay in first recruiting Han Wu.
Han Wu ignored the invitations of the teachers and asked Xu Mei, “Ms. Xu, may I ask why my test was so difficult?”
Xu Mei answered plainly, “The difficulty of the test was determined by every homeroom teacher of your year. They usually conduct a vote to determine how hard the test should be.”
Suddenly, the nine homeroom teachers who agreed to raise Han Wu’s test to the highest difficulty realized their mistake and fell silent.
Han Wu requested to see the votes of the homeroom teachers and Xu Mei obliged.
Nine of the homeroom teachers were silently cursing Liu Letian when Xu Mei showed Han Wu the votes.
The two homeroom teachers who had gone against the flow were glad that they had done so. The one who surrendered their vote was merely glad, while the other homeroom teacher was silently evaluating Han Wu’s every move.
Han Wu ignored the other nine homeroom teachers completely and asked the two teachers, “What can you offer me if I join your class?”
He needed resources, while the teachers wanted to get accolades on their records by accepting Han Wu. Both of them had their needs and Han Wu was confident that he could obtain quite a few rewards based on his performance in the test just now.
The two homeroom teachers gave him a direct answer.
“Han Wu, today I have witnessed both the strength of your dwarven army as well as your talent in raising them. If you join my class, I can give you a troop of 10,000 dwarves. With them you will be able to easily secure a top-ten spot, and have a chance to be admitted into one of the top colleges.”
The second teacher countered, “Han Wu, the core race is more important than just some dwarves. I have several useful resources for progressing insect-type races. If you join my class, I can help you complete an evolution path for your locusts.”
The rewards from the two teachers were worth a lot, but Han Wu agreed with the second homeroom teacher. The core race was more important.
He asked the second teacher, “Teacher, may I know your name?”
“My name is Tian Wen.”
Han Wu nodded. “Mr. Tian Wen, I will join your class.”
Before Tian Wen gave his answer, Qin Shuang had already followed up. “Mr. Tian Wen, I want to join your class too.”
Zhang Xiaolong also quickly announced, “Mr. Tian Wen, I will join your class too!”
Tian Wen was pleased at gaining three talented students in his class!
He was certain that this year he would surely get the reward for the most competent teacher.
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