Volume 5: Protracted War Chapter 33 Peaceful Coexistence
The "heavenly calamity" has dissipated. At the same time, Wu Ma has established a spiritual connection with me and has returned to the state of being under my command. In addition to feeling its joy for successfully surviving the calamity, it also feels deeply grateful to me as its master.
But the trouble was not over yet. Before I could breathe a sigh of relief, I felt strong hostility from all the nearby undead creatures, even Red Star, towards Wu Ma, the Knight of . The weaker zombies were more afraid, dragging their slow steps and hurriedly running away. Although the black warriors and dark knights were not so timid, they did not dare to move too far forward. They swayed back and forth in place, waving their weapons in vain, looking a little anxious and uneasy. The terrifying knights led by Red Star were divided into several groups, slowly approaching Wu Ma, who was independent in the center, and were about to launch an attack.
Although the undead creatures nearby are all my subordinates directly or indirectly, they generally act according to their own instincts when they do not receive clear orders. Facing the "public enemy of the undead" the Knight of Destruction, they are naturally irreconcilable. The incompetent ones choose to escape, while the powerful undead like Red Star quickly reached a consensus to take the initiative and join forces to kill Wu Ma in order to prevent the disaster from happening.
Wu Ma also immediately felt the hostility and the threat from Red Star and other terrifying knights, and responded quickly. He raised his shield, brandished his sword, and rode his horse with high morale. He was ready to fight to the death and never surrender, as if he wanted to face off against all the powerful men on his own.
Although I still don't know how strong the Destruction Knight is, it has just survived the "heavenly calamity" and is weak and broken. It is difficult for it to stand steadily. How can it fight against Red Star? It is courageous, but it is too unwise. As the "public enemy of the undead", everyone wants to get rid of it as soon as possible. If you only know how to be brave and fierce, you may not live for too long. But then I felt Wu Ma's consciousness, which made me laugh. On the surface, he pretended to be fearless, but in fact, he was ready to flee. Once the war broke out, he would never confront the enemy head-on. He would seize the opportunity to break out of the siege as soon as possible. Fortunately, the Destruction Knight is not an ordinary person with a simple mind and strong limbs who relies on force. He knows how to judge the situation and do what he can. Only in this way can he survive better. Otherwise, there are many strong people in the "dead space". Even if he escapes the "heavenly calamity" by chance, if he acts rashly and does not know how to advance or retreat, he may still die one day.
I hurriedly stopped the internal fight that Wu Ma and Hong Xing were about to start. Fortunately, this is the territory of zombies. I have absolute dominance. In addition to zombies, other races of black warriors, dark knights, and horror knights are all my subordinates. There are no outsiders present. If it were in the high-level undead creature area, with other powerful undead creatures nearby, I am afraid it would not be so easy to calm the situation. Even if I forced them to give up the hostile actions, the two sides still showed no signs of giving up their past grudges. They occupied their own side and were clearly divided. It was clear that they were on different paths and could not work together. Hong Xing and the others hated and were hostile from instinct, while Wu Ma was arrogant and bloodthirsty, and the spiritual imprint engraved in their souls could not be eliminated by a mere "soul contract". I had no choice but to let them get along like this for the time being and see if they could slowly develop feelings. Alas, it was really troublesome. As I expected before, having a knight of destruction also meant more trouble.
I will be resurrected soon, and I don't have much time online today. I don't have more time to mediate the tense relationship between Wu Ma and Hong Xing. Besides, this is not something that can be improved overnight. I just issued a death order to both parties. No matter what time, they must not have internal strife or conflict among themselves. Hong Xing took all his non-zombie subordinates back to the high-level undead creature area to take care of Tao Tao. This was also helpless. Although Wu Ma, who was previously a post-natal dark knight, was despised by his peers, under my orders, other dark knights could barely take on the responsibility of protecting him, and the lower-level black warriors assisted him in killing enemies. Now that he has become a knight of destruction, no undead creature is willing to approach him, the "undead public enemy", and they are extremely repulsive. We have just met and are not familiar with each other. We mainly act according to instinct. In order to avoid friction and conflict, I have to let Wu Ma stay alone in the zombie territory to recuperate. Before I return to the "dead space", I will never allow him to act privately or step out of the zombie territory. You can kill ordinary zombies to replenish your energy slightly, but you cannot provoke the Millennium Corpse King or even the other three Corpse Kings, so as not to anger everyone and further stimulate hostility, causing the situation to get out of control. This is the only relatively safe area in the "Dead Space". Under the strict orders of me, the First Corpse King, the news of the appearance of the "public enemy of the undead" Knight of Destruction will not be spread, and other powerful beings will not notice it and rush over to hunt it down.
After arranging these things, I watched Red Star and the others leave, and the other three corpse kings and Wu Ma promised not to harass each other. I was a little relieved and had time to check the status attributes of Wu Ma, a "rare species" of destruction knight. I was busy with other things before and didn't see it carefully. Now I look carefully. Although both the man and the mount are dark, the most eye-catching thing is their eyes. In the closed one-piece helmet, there are two blood-red eyes, like two small balls of burning flames, emitting blood-red light, beating restlessly, burning, exuding endless killing intent, and filled with the desire for destruction.
The type without a horse is naturally the Destruction Knight, and there is an additional note - "survived a 'heavenly tribulation'", which should indicate its strength. The more times it survives the "heavenly tribulation", the stronger it will be. The mount is also different, with a new name - Bone Armor Dragon Horse. Just looking at the name is quite impressive. It is covered with a layer of bone armor from head to tail, which increases its own protection ability. Although it is in the shape of a horse, it is not tall, but its strength is far superior to its peers. It has a strong physical attack power. Although it has an extra layer of bone armor, it seems to be a bit heavier, but it does not affect its speed. It is still very agile. After trotting for a few laps, it feels that its speed is still higher than that of the Red Star. No wonder it was surrounded before and had the confidence to rush out. It also has a unique skill "Tail Whip". As the name suggests, it is to swing its tail to attack the enemy. It is usually an ordinary bone tail. Once the skill is activated, it can instantly transform into a soft whip made of a series of sharp bone knives. When it is suddenly used against the enemy, it is absolutely hard to defend against. The length of the "Tail Whip" is determined by the user, and can be up to three meters long. It is as fast as the wind and can attack with a thought. It has strong lethality. It can deal with multiple targets in a line, or surround and concentrate on attacking one person. I tested it with the "Undead Shield" I use to protect my body. Not only did the three shields shatter with one blow, but I also suffered considerable damage.
The mount is not weak, and Wu Ma, as a knight, naturally has more powerful means to fight the enemy: skill "bloodthirsty attack" - sacrifice half of the defense to double the attack power; skill "devour" - can quickly absorb the soul energy dissipated by the killed undead creatures, without having to pose a fixed posture and spend a long time like other undead creatures; skill "assault" - can achieve the same effect as the "flash combo" of the horror knight, can be launched continuously at will, no need to charge, and there is no time limit for casting; skill "destruction field" - a layer of faint black aura is generated within a three-meter range around the body, and all creatures entering this field will reduce their attack power, defense power and agility according to their respective strengths, with the lowest being zero, that is, those with super strength will not be affected by the "destruction field", and the highest is 10%. Even extremely weak skeletons and zombies will only reduce their attributes by 10%. Except for me, the owner who has engraved its soul mark, any other creatures, including Tao Tao and Red Star, my two pets, will be affected by the "destruction field".
Although Wu Ma was very dissatisfied with the decision to restrict its actions and only kill low-level zombies, and repeatedly "appealed" to me, but was rejected sternly, I dare not rashly release it to other places alone. It was seriously injured and its ability was greatly reduced. Without my personal supervision and assignment, it could not get the help and support of other subordinates such as Hong Xing. I really couldn't predict what dangers it would encounter. I didn't have any experience to learn from, and I didn't know the mentality and style of the Destruction Knight. I was worried about it acting alone, so it would be safer to wait until I came back and take it with me. At least I could drive other subordinates to protect it, and it wouldn't be alone.
After resurrecting and returning to the base, I was immediately forced offline by the system. I was worried about Wu Ma's situation. I wondered if his temper had improved after evolving into a Destruction Knight, and whether he could still completely obey the orders of his master. On the second day, I entered the "Dead Soul Space" almost immediately. Fortunately, although Wu Ma's zombies had left a smoky mess in the zombie territory, leaving no one behind, causing widespread panic and commotion, according to the reports of the zombie kings, they had almost never stopped killing, but they still obeyed my orders, neither exceeding the range of activities designated for them, nor causing trouble for the Millennium and Ten Thousand Years Corpse Kings, which made me feel more at ease. What I was most afraid of was that the Destruction Knight was too murderous and difficult to tame, which would be difficult to deal with.
Although a lot of zombies were killed, they were too weak and did not help Wu Ma recover from his injuries. It was just better than nothing. Even though he killed them all, Wu Ma was unwilling to waste too much time on them. As soon as they saw me, they urgently asked to move to the area where high-level undead lived, and speed up their recovery and growth by devouring more powerful soul energy. This was also a necessity for the survival and development of the Destruction Knight.
I naturally had no reason to reject Wu Ma's reasonable request, but I did not immediately take him into the high-level undead creature area to take a big tonic as he wished. In the next few days, I carefully selected a group of hundreds of horror knights, mainly Horror Giant Bear Knights, including Red Star, Horror Tiger and Mad Lion Knights, and brought them into the zombie territory, forcing them to live do activities together, hoping that they can cultivate feelings, deepen understanding, understand that everyone is a companion, and be able to eliminate the hostility between each other due to innate influence. After all, I can't always follow Wu Ma, and I don't feel at ease with him alone in the "dead space". In order to ensure his safety and accelerate his growth, I must let Red Star and others assist him. More people will do things better. What I need is not the current Wu Ma, who is at best at the same level as Red Star, but I am looking forward to it evolving to be more powerful, and then it will be of greater help to me. Like Tao Tao, it is a long-term investment. Moreover, when I summon them to fight in the future, they will not appear alone. As the most likely powerful subordinates to be summoned, they will inevitably need to cooperate with each other and fight together. If they are still strangers like now and behave unrelated, I am afraid they will miss the opportunity and hinder me. I will never do without training them. Wu Ma has just evolved and should not be too adaptable to the new identity and habits. Theoretically speaking, it is in the larval stage, which is a stage that is easier to accept "transformation". Education should start from the "baby". Once the nature is strengthened, it may not be so easy to reverse it.
Hostility is the instinct of the Destruction Knights and other undead creatures. It cannot be fundamentally eliminated, but it should be suppressed through acquired training. At the beginning, Wu Ma and Hong Xing still showed great hostility. Even when they approached each other under my forced command, they were just waving their swords and making empty threats, which looked more like a hostile relationship. After spending a long time together, the relationship improved a little. At least on the surface, they no longer showed hostility, but they were still in a state of disharmony, and it was impossible for each other to provide any substantial help. I did almost nothing all day long, and I was always forcibly "brainwashing" them, instilling the creed of peaceful coexistence and mutual cooperation. The hard work was even more tiring than fighting.
After a few days of contact, I have a better understanding of Wu Ma, the Destruction Knight. His current strength is not that strong. It is estimated that he can barely fight Hong Xing to a draw, and that is without using the "life-seeking flying gun". However, Hong Xing has absorbed the soul energy of "law enforcer" Santos and has undergone "secondary evolution". His strength has increased a lot compared to when he was hatched. From this perspective, Wu Ma, the Destruction Knight who has just completed his evolution, is still very strong. Moreover, his extremely crazy killing habits and "devouring" skills allow him to grow faster, which is unmatched by Hong Xing and other horror knights.
