Chapter 1372 I Dare to Stop the Ruler-level Creatures, Too! Translated by XephiZ Edited by Aelryinth The Northguard Fortress... As the ancient wall disappeared, the Yoked carried out their new wave of attacks. The soldiers of the Northguard Fortress had no choice but to face the Yoked head-on. Many Mages had to go down the wall and hope they could survive while being surrounded by the Yoked. They had to send someone to destroy the Cursed Runes that were enhancing the Yoked’s defenses. Otherwise, even Advanced Spells were not enough to kill the Yoked! To do that, the Mages with the Wind Element, Shadow Element, and Earth Element had to sneak into the enemy’s army, resulting in lots of casualties. The majority of them never returned. They were either intercepted by the Yoked or dragged away by the Underworld Monarch Frog’s tongue when they accidentally got too close to the creature. Several Advanced Mages died to the Underworld Monarch Frog. The soldiers of the Northguard Fortress had no choice but to risk their lives just to keep the army of undead at bay. “Watch for the Yoked with several layers of Runes on them. They are the key targets!” Zhao Manyan yelled. Many soldiers had died in the first wave. Zhao Manyan had volunteered to help; he could not sit back, knowing they were short on numbers. He was now with the troop entrusted with taking out the Yoked who were distributing the Runes! Lingling’s analysis and observation discerned that there were two kinds of the Yoked. One was the Yoked that received the defensive Runes from the Underworld Monarch Frog. The other kind were Runic Yoked, who were distributing the defensive Runes to the rest of the Yoked through the chains. In other words, the Underworld Monarch Frog could not directly transfer the defensive runes to the Yoked at the front. It could only transfer the Runes to the Runic Yoked, and let them distribute the Runes to the rest of the Yoked. It was a great weakness of the Underworld Monarch Frog. In other words, even without relying on the ancient walls, they just had to kill the Runic Yoked first, and the rest of the Yoked would turn into ordinary Warrior-level creatures. They would then be vulnerable to the magic blasts and the Advanced Spells. The Runic Yoked’s defense was not enhanced by the defensive Runes, so it was possible to kill them. Unfortunately, most of these Runic Yoked were very close to the Underworld Monarch Frog, so when the Mages were close enough to attack the Runic Yoked, they were also within the attack range of the Underworld Monarch Frog! It was difficult to keep track of the range. Many Mages had already died! Zhao Manyan also had an unyielding spirit too. He had volunteered to join the front line and drive the Underworld Monarch Frog back to the Underworld at all costs. In terms of defense, Zhao Manyan was clearly no weaker than the Yoked strengthened by the defensive Runes. Most importantly, despite their outstanding defense, the Yoked’s attacks were only average. If both sides were similarly sturdy, why would they bother wasting their time on the Yoked? As a result, the troop that Zhao Manyan was in managed to break through the Yoked’s defense and go right at the Runic Yoked hiding at the back of the army. “I’ll attract the Underworld Monarch Frog’s attention. Get it done as quickly as possible!” Commander Bin Wei was fighting in the front line now. She used the demon lilies to move through the air and approach the Underworld Monarch Frog rapidly. The Underworld Monarch Frog’s eyes bulged from their sockets. Similar to true frogs, it had bad eyesight. It could only see things that were moving quickly. Its eyes rolled upward, obviously watching Bin Wei. It suddenly flicked its tongue out and snapped a huge demon lily in half! Bin Wei crossed her hands in front of her and pulled her fingers apart gently. Something was moving in the air. It was completely transparent initially, but barely visible when the dust swept past. Countless vines scattered above the Underworld Monarch Frog. Poisonous and thorned, the vines grew rapidly as soon as they made contact with the Underworld Monarch Frog. They completely covered the monster, who was like a small mountain of flesh, in an instant! The Underworld Monarch Frog let out a loud croak and shook itself. It shattered the thorny vines to pieces with ease. The vines were clearly not strong enough to penetrate the Underworld Monarch Frog’s body. If the vines could inject their poison into the Underworld Monarch Frog, they would paralyze the creature temporarily. The Underworld Monarch Frog locked its gaze on Bin Wei as its body suddenly sank a little. The yellow ground began to crack apart as it could no longer withstand its weight. The Underworld Monarch Frog bounced up into the air, its pitch-black mouth lunging at Bin Wei like a terrifying abyss. It did not matter which direction Bin Wei tried to dodge in, as it would not make any difference at all. The Underworld Monarch Frog’s mouth was big enough to swallow a cloud. Bin Wei quickly grabbed up, feeling a strong sense of death approaching! An invisible vine appeared in her hand out of nowhere. Its other end was connected to the clouds. With a mere thought, the vine dragged Bin Wei high up into the sky at its fastest speed! The black mouth had already trapped her, but just as the Underworld Monarch Frog was about to close it, she soared higher into the sky. Bin Wei looked at the vine that had descended from the clouds and let out a relieved sigh. She had the Cloud Vines and the Demon Lilies, two special plant species. The Cloud Vines allowed her to move freely in the air! However, just as Bin Wei was feeling relieved after escaping from the Underworld Monarch Frog’s mouth, the creature flung its enormous tongue at Bin Wei as it was falling, taking her by surprise. “Water Curtain!” Zhao Manyan quickly tossed a huge Water Curtain into the air. The Water Curtain stood between Bin Wei and the Underworld Monarch Frog, blocking the deadly tongue. Bin Wei was quite experienced. She immediately soared higher with the Cloud Vine after receiving the help to distance herself from the Underworld Monarch Frog. BANG! The ground cracked into pieces when the Underworld Monarch Frog landed heavily. The surrounding Yoked and Mages were knocked to the ground by the enormous impact. Zhao Manyan had long braced himself for it, yet he still staggered a little... Unfortunately, a Yoked that was knocked flying by the impact happened to come right at him! Zhao Manyan managed to react in time. He avoided the crash by twisting his body beyond the normal capabilities of a human in mid-air. “It’s a Runic Yoked!” Zhao Manyan turned around and instantly noticed the brighter Runes on the Yoked. They were desperately searching for the Runic Yoked, but one of them had suddenly shown up right in front of them. Zhao Manyan stabilized himself and slammed his palms onto the ground heavily! Obvious ripples appeared along the ground and swiftly spread to the spot where the Runic Yoked had landed. The perfectly-timed wave knocked the Runic Yoked back toward Zhao Manyan like a fish’s tail flip. “Get him!” Zhao Manyan yelled at the soldiers around him, since he did not really have any move that could kill the creature instantly. Several destructive spells were fired at the Runic Yoked before it could even land, blasting it into pieces, that were then burned to ashes by a Fiery Fist: Nine Halls! As soon as the Runic Yoked died, the Yoked receiving the defensive Runes through the chains connected to it basically lost their armor. It was very easy to identify the Yoked that had lost their defensive Runes. The soldiers on the walls of the fortress cheered whenever they saw the Yoked without their outstanding defense, followed by a rain of Elemental Spells pouring down on them. Those Yoked had no chance of survival against spells after losing their defenses! “Well done!” Bin Wei exclaimed, standing on a Cloud Vine. Her impression of Zhao Manyan changed completely after seeing him take down another Runic Yoked for the troop. His Water Curtain had come at a very opportune time, too. She might have died if not for that! The Underworld Monarch Frog was an unusually slow but powerful creature. Most attacks could not inflict any damage on it, but if they managed to dodge a few of its attacks, the fleshy creature would have to rest for a period to recover its strength! “There’s one here!” the captain of a Summoner troop riding a Fiery Wolf yelled from not far away. The man was extremely bold. He had woven through a few hundred Yoked alone and dragged the Runic Yoked out with him. He was handling himself perfectly even after taking on a group of the Yoked on his own for more than ten minutes. “Don’t let him run away. Eyes of the Rock Demon: Petrify!” Zhao Manyan cast the Advanced Earth Spell decisively when he saw the man was being chased by a huge number of the Yoked. Zhao Manyan’s casting speed was a lot quicker than the rest of the Advanced Earth Mages. As a Mage who owned a Soul-grade Earth Seed, his performance in a battle also significantly outmatched the Advanced Mages who only had normal Spirit-grade Seeds! A few dozen of the Yoked froze in their tracks when Zhao Manyan glanced into their eyes. Another Earth Mage using the same spell only managed to petrify nine Yoked, who managed to break free from the spell just a brief moment later. “My Earth Element has received the Blessing of the God’s Seal, its base damage is 1.5 now,” Zhao Manyan explained with a smile when he saw the defeated face of the captain beside him. “You have a Soul-grade Earth Seed, your Earth Element’s base damage is 1.5, and every defensive spell you cast seems to be enhanced by a special Rune. It’s similar to the Runes that the Yoked have...” the captain observed aloud, while catching his breath. “Yeah...” Zhao Manyan nodded. An uproar arose from the troop ahead. The soldiers were quickly backing toward them. “Underworld Monarch Frog, it’s coming toward us, retreat!” “Retreat, quick!” The Yoked that they were struggling to kill were not the scariest enemy to the soldiers. The one that would bring them despair was the Underworld Monarch Frog. No one, apart from General Bin Wei, could possibly stand a chance against its tongue! “It’s about to shoot its tongue out, dodge it!” “It’s impossible, its range is too far!” the soldiers cried out in fear. Zhao Manyan fixed his gaze on the Underworld Monarch Frog with a determined face. He muttered, “It’s why I dare to stop a Ruler-level creature’s attacks, too!”