Legacy of Hatred

’Is that a battle formation?’ Liam wondered.

While Liam didn’t know much about the other two noble arts, he had learned the theory behind them, as well as a few iconic names.

Battle formations were a specific application of formations that relied on direct, coordinated control, unifying the power of those involved, elevating it beyond the sum of its parts.

The golden giants were quite physical, but Liam could spot darker silhouettes inside. There were cultivators floating among that solid light, seemingly ten each.

The shape was also quite fitting. While lacking many details, the giants clearly represented men, being perfect for the Church, at least in theory.

Of course, as something worthy of earning a specific name, battle formations were powerful. The giants felt like branching experts, even being stronger than some of the actual powerhouses on Liam’s side.

Liam didn’t hesitate, adjusting his aim to fire the arrow he had just created at the dark silhouette behind one of the giant golden heads.

If battle formations required cultivators to work, Liam could just take them out, but the plan turned out to be naive. The ethereal arrow didn’t even reach its target. The light the giant released dispersed its Qi before it could get too close.

Size aside, the giants even seemed to have some sort of permanent defensive technique, and their functions didn’t stop there.

The giants had started to move as soon as they materialized, and their target was obvious. The center of the new encirclement featured the densest gathering of enemy cultivators, so they pointed their huge hands at it.

Blinding light accumulated on the palms before proper beams shot out. The casting had been almost immediate, but that didn’t speak for the attack’s destructive power.

Waves of golden light spread across the ground, eradicating it, washing over tens of cultivators. When the beams dimmed, only charred, leveled soil was left. The experts hit in the blast had entirely disappeared.

That wasn’t all. After the ethereal arrow had disappeared, Liam resumed firing at the unprotected cultivators, claiming a few additional lives. With the branching experts fighting in their midst and the enemies outnumbering them, it didn’t take long before someone escaped the makeshift encirclement.

However, the giants merely turned their heads in the direction of the escaping cultivators, and the spots where their heads should have been flashed a few times. Afterward, massive golden explosions expanded, catching those who had left the encirclement.

It seemed that the Church wouldn’t allow escapees, which was the whole point of that purge, forcing Liam to switch tactics.

’If they help the Priests...’ Liam sighed internally.

The giants made the numerical advantage in terms of powerhouses null. Even if they only bought time, more Priests could arrive because of that.

Honestly, leaving was the best choice. Unleashing the fan’s true speed would likely save Liam from those impossibly fast beams, but the thought didn’t even cross his mind now.

Everyone was moving as planned. Red Boar had even intercepted the Inquisitor for Liam. He only saw teammates now, and he only knew of one treatment for them.

The fan made a sharp dive while Liam kept firing. He eventually jumped off of it, landing on the charred ground to continue launching arrows from that worse position, only for his Qi reserves to decrease sharply.

’Get them,’ Liam voiced a mental order.

The Sky-Splitting Bolt had been necessary due to the distance, required piercing power, and target. Liam simply needed his best move against a branching expert protected by all those hindrances.

However, the cultivators inside the giants were rooting experts at best. The fan might not have the best piercing power, but speed could compensate for it, and the weapon was more than enough to deal with those targets.

Before anyone could notice anything, one of the giants’ heads started to fade. Its right shoulder came next, and part of its torso followed.

By then, the head had completely faded, revealing a beheaded cultivator. The corpse fell into the rest of the giant, only for nothing to welcome him. That light had also stopped being solid.

Part of the enormous silhouette still existed, but more beheaded corpses fell, heading straight for the ground. In a few seconds, the giant completely disappeared, and Liam threw a Qi-Storage Pill into his mouth so that the fan could deal with the second.

There was some shock among the groups inside the formation. One of their best weapons, a proper rank 3 technique, had been vanquished in no time.

The Church had enough troops to recreate the giant, but the event was an undeniable blow to its morale. The fan’s existence even made the practice quite pointless. After all, it would expose any cultivator in the battle formation to that deadly weapon.

But Liam didn’t get to enjoy the small victory. He barely had the time to fire another arrow before his arm snapped straight, catching something that had almost flown past him.

Red Boar’s breath was ragged as Liam put him down. He still wielded his huge hammer, but its flames were all but spent, revealing its many dents.

Liam put the Black Bow aside and summoned his greatsword. He even hid plenty of tools in his long, ample sleeves as he turned toward the source of the problem.

The young man with the branded forehead walked calmly through the no-man-zone created by the previous beams, his face showing no trace of struggle or exhaustion. He stopped at some distance from Red Boar and Liam, his gaze falling on the latter once more.

"You are the one who stole His Excellency’s inheritance," Inquisitor Cornelius announced. "You smell odd."

The hood hid it, but Liam’s expression grew feral. He knew what the Inquisitor was talking about. He also smelled the same thing after all, and he knew what it was.

’The Dragon King would definitely make me out,’ Liam realized. ’He would smell the Ancestral Snake on me.’

Luckily, it seemed that the Inquisitor didn’t have a nose as sharp as Liam’s. He couldn’t feel the kinship, but that probably was due to his worse lineage.

Chances were that the specific lineage was also to blame. After all, Lancelot hadn’t exactly smelled anything on Liam, although he had probably suspected things in his own way. His talk about a dark fire had suggested as much.

"Red Boar," Liam called. "Can we kill him if we fight together?"

"Do we have a choice?" Red Boar snorted, straightening up.

Liam didn’t reply. He threw another Qi-Storage Pill in his mouth as a fuming shape reached him and hovered above his shoulder. The fan had finished dealing with the second giant, but the next battle promised to be far from easy.

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