The first rule of invading a fortress built on the back of a giant tortoise is to check the floorboards. The Chimera Corps, in their bloodthirsty haste, neglected this step.
As the first wave of winged abominations landed in the courtyard, their claws scraping against the obsidian tiles, the Tortoise Ancestor made his displeasure known. He didn't roar; he simply flexed his shell.
CLICK-THWACK.
Hundreds of Star-Iron spikes, sharpened to a needle point and hidden within the gaps of the floor tiles, shot upward. It was a mechanical synchronization of earth magic and dwarven engineering. The sound was like a heavy rain hitting a tin roof, followed immediately by the collective screech of a hundred pierced monsters.
"Clean up on aisle four!" Su Ye shouted from the guard tower, swinging his shovel to knock a stray Bat-Man out of the air.
The courtyard erupted into a chaotic melee. The Thunder-Clap Baboons, emboldened by their new employment and fancy pirate hats, surged forward. They didn't fight like wild beasts anymore; they fought like hooligans. They utilized the "Scrap Arsenal"—a pile of looted pirate junk Su Ye had designated as ammo.
One baboon smashed a Chimera with a frying pan. Another used a stolen spyglass as a club. The Baboon King, looking majestic in his admiral's hat, dual-wielded two broken table legs, beating a scorpion-human hybrid into submission with the rhythmic precision of a drummer.
"Hold the line!" Luo Bing commanded from the center of the yard. She was a blizzard of motion. Her sword didn't cut; it froze.
"Ice Phoenix: Flash Freeze!"
She swept her blade in a wide arc. A mist of absolute zero washed over a group of diving Hawk-Chimeras. Their wings snapped frozen in mid-flap, and they fell from the sky like stones, shattering on impact.
"Nice sculpture work!" Su Ye complimented, sliding down the ladder. "Gao Ming! You're up! They're adapting to the darkness!"
"Let there be light!" Gao Ming stood atop the barn roof. He pulled a lever on a contraption he had built—a massive array of stolen mirrors and lenses focused on Little Sun.
The golden chicken puffed its chest and flared. The mirrors amplified the solar light into a blinding, strobe-light beam. Gao Ming swept the beam across the sky like a lighthouse of seizures.
The Chimeras, whose eyes were adapted for the gloom of the Dark Sect's dungeons, shrieked as their retinas were assaulted. They flailed blindly, crashing into walls and each other.
"My eyes!" A Chimera screamed. "It burns with the brightness of a thousand suns!"
"Actually, it's just one sun and twelve bathroom mirrors!" Gao Ming corrected theatrically.
Despite the successful defense, the sheer numbers were overwhelming. For every Chimera that fell, two more landed. They were climbing the walls, their claws digging into the Star-Iron.
"Master!" Lin Fan yelled, his voice amplified by his gauntlets. "Seismic sensors detect a heavy unit! Incoming! Twelve o'clock!"
A shadow fell over the gate.
A massive creature landed with a force that cracked the reinforced pavement, bending the floor spikes flat. It stood ten feet tall. It had the lower body of a rhinoceros, the upper torso of a giant, and instead of arms, it wielded two massive, biological scythes fused from Mantis blades.
This was Commander Raze, the leader of the Chimera Corps. A Tier-5 monstrosity stitched together from the most violent predators of the Wildlands.
Raze roared, a sound of wet tearing meat. He swung a scythe arm.
SCHLICK.
He sliced through a Star-Iron lamp post like it was butter. He swung again, decapitating a stone statue of the Tortoise (which annoyed the Ancestor greatly).
"Warden!" Raze bellowed, his voice bubbling through a distorted throat. "I will peel you out of this shell!"
He charged toward Su Ye. The Baboons tried to stop him, but he swatted them aside like flies. Luo Bing fired an ice spear, but it shattered against his rhino-hide armor.
"Tier-5," Su Ye noted, not moving. "Heavy armor plating. Hydraulic muscle structure. But poor peripheral vision."
Su Ye didn't draw a sword. He didn't cast a spell. He whistled.
"Zhu Zhu! Bowling ball mode!"
Zhu Zhu, who was busy eating a fallen Chimera's boot, looked up. He saw the charging rhino-man. He understood the assignment.
Zhu Zhu inhaled. He inflated himself into a perfect sphere.
Su Ye ran forward. He didn't run away from the monster; he ran at it. As Raze raised his scythe for a killing blow, Su Ye slid on his knees like a soccer player celebrating a goal.
"Lin Fan! The Beat! Now!"
Lin Fan slammed his hands together. BWOOOONG.
A directed sonic pulse hit Raze. It didn't hurt him, but it vibrated his inner ear. The Rhino-Chimera stumbled, his balance compromised for a split second.
That was all Su Ye needed. He grabbed the spherical Zhu Zhu and, using his momentum, bowled the pig directly between Raze's front legs.
"Strike!"
Zhu Zhu rolled under the heavy beast. Once underneath, Zhu Zhu deactivated "Ball Mode" and activated "Void Spike Mode." He simply stiffened his bristles and expanded his shadow.
The Rhino-Chimera tripped over the sudden obstruction. A ten-ton monster moving at full charge, tripping over a pig, is a disaster of physics.
Raze flipped. He face-planted into the Star-Iron floor with a sickening crunch. His own momentum drove his scythe arms into the ground, pinning himself.
Su Ye hopped up, spun his shovel, and slammed the flat of the blade onto the back of Raze's head.
BONK.
"Nap time," Su Ye said.
He placed his hand on the stunned creature's neck.
Zzzzt.
He entered the Spirit Plane. It was a chaotic nightmare. Hundreds of animal souls were screaming in agony, stitched together against their will.
"It's loud in here," Su Ye whispered. He saw the core—the human soul binding it all together. It was twisted, broken, and full of hate.
"I can't fix you," Su Ye said sadly. "You're too far gone. But I can separate you."
Su Ye channeled the Ancestral Link. He didn't try to tame the beast. He called out to the Rhino Ancestor and the Mantis Ancestor within the creature's blood.
"Your contract is void," Su Ye declared with the authority of the System. "This body is a prison. Evict."
The biological glue holding the Chimera together—the dark alchemy—snapped under the pressure of the Ancestors responding to Su Ye's call.
Raze screamed as his body began to reject itself. The rhino skin sloughed off. The mantis blades detached. The dark magic holding him together evaporated. In seconds, the terrifying Commander was reduced to a pile of inert biological parts and a very confused, naked human cultist shivering in the fetal position.
"Biology," Su Ye lectured the unconscious man, "requires consent."
The remaining Chimeras, seeing their invincible leader deconstructed in ten seconds, froze. The hive mind broke. Panic set in.
"Retreat!" a Bat-Chimera screeched. "He unmakes us! The Warden is a flesh-wizard!"
The Chimeras took flight, abandoning the stable in a chaotic rout.
"Let them go!" Su Ye ordered, stopping the Baboons from chasing. "Save the ammo!"
He looked up at the sky. The battle for the stable was won, but the war was escalating.
Above them, the flagship Black Manta was glowing. The front of the massive ship was opening like a jaw. A purple light began to gather in its throat—a cannon the size of a lighthouse.
"Master!" Lin Fan pointed, his face pale. "Energy spike! That's a Void-Cannon! They're going to vaporize the entire mountain!"
"They realized they can't capture us," Su Ye wiped slime off his shovel. "So now they want to erase us."
"The barrier won't hold that," Luo Bing said, clutching her sword. "That's ship-killer class magic."
"Then we don't let them fire," Su Ye said.
He ran to the catapult they had built on the roof of the barn (originally designed for launching trash bags).
"Zhu Zhu! Get in the bucket!"
Zhu Zhu looked at the catapult. He looked at the giant glowing cannon in the sky. He shook his head. Squeal! (Absolutely not!)
"It's an all-you-can-eat buffet!" Su Ye promised. "Pure energy! Void flavor!"
Zhu Zhu hesitated. Void flavor was his favorite.
"Get in!" Su Ye grabbed the pig and stuffed him into the basket.
"Gao Ming! Calculate the trajectory! Aim for the throat of the ship!"
"Calculating wind shear and dramatic tension!" Gao Ming adjusted the crank. "Ready!"
"Little Sun! You're the afterburner!"
The chicken hopped onto the pig's back, facing backward.
"Launch!" Su Ye pulled the lever.
THWUNG.
The catapult arm snapped forward. Zhu Zhu and Little Sun were launched into the sky.
"Project Flying Pig is a go!" Su Ye yelled.
Mid-air, Little Sun unleashed a jet of solar fire from its beak, acting as a rocket booster. The pig-chicken missile accelerated, breaking the sound barrier.
On the bridge of the Black Manta, Admiral Kuang watched the projectile incoming on the screen.
"Is that... livestock?" Kuang squinted.
"It's closing fast, sir! It's heading for the main cannon barrel!"
"Fire! Fire now!" Kuang screamed.
The Void-Cannon fired. A beam of pure, destructive purple energy erupted from the ship.
It met Zhu Zhu in mid-air.
Any normal creature would have been atomized. But Zhu Zhu was a Void-Swallowing Swine. To him, a beam of void energy wasn't an attack. It was a funnel.
Zhu Zhu opened his mouth.
SCHLORP.
The beam didn't hit him; it went into him. He swallowed the front of the beam and kept flying up the stream of energy, eating it as he went, like a cartoon character eating a giant spaghetti noodle.
"He's eating the ammo!" The gunner screamed. "Backflow! Backflow imminent!"
Zhu Zhu slammed into the barrel of the main cannon. He was bloated, glowing with the power of a starship weapon. He wedged himself tight in the opening.
He couldn't hold it anymore.
BUUUUUUUUUURP.
He released the energy. But because he was facing into the ship, the energy had nowhere to go but back into the firing chamber.
BOOM.
The Black Manta's main gun exploded from the inside. The entire front of the flagship shattered. Fire erupted across the deck. The ship listed violently, smoke pouring from its nose.
Zhu Zhu and Little Sun, propelled backward by the recoil of the burp, arced gracefully back toward the stable.
Su Ye ran with a baseball mitt (looted) and caught the pig.
"Safe!" Su Ye grinned.
The enemy flagship was burning. The fleet was scattered. The Chimeras were fleeing.
"We won?" Gao Ming asked, peeking out from behind a barrel.
"No," Su Ye looked at the smoke clearing from the enemy ship. "We just got their attention."
From the burning wreckage of the Black Manta, a figure rose. He wasn't flying on a glider. He was walking on the air itself.
It was Admiral Kuang. But he had changed. He had crushed a crystal in his hand, and now his skin was covered in black scales. He radiated an aura that made the Sky-Eater beneath them whimper.
Tier-6. A Martial Lord.
"You destroyed my fleet," Kuang's voice echoed across the sky, calm and terrifying. "You mocked my sect. You humiliated my beasts."
He drew a sword made of black shadow.
"Playtime is over, Warden. Now, I will handle this personally."
Su Ye put the pig down. He cracked his neck.
"Tier-6," Su Ye muttered. "That's above my pay grade."
He looked at the Concentration Stone.
"Old Man Sky," Su Ye whispered. "Does this mountain have a fly-swatter?"
Zzzzt.
"No," the mountain rumbled. "But it has teeth."
Su Ye smiled.
"Everyone inside!" Su Ye shouted. "We're going to bite him."