The Golden Throne

Chapter 198: Battle of attrition

“Do not test my patience, child. Do you think that I do what I do without knowing the possible consequences? Have you ever thought of what would happen if this idea of yours didn’t work? How many innocent would die? This isn’t my first rodeo. I have seen mistakes made by the irresponsible, and I know that I wouldn’t want to make the same.”, Feng Huang said.

Liu Feng stood there. He paused for a while and started contemplating.

“Was the suggestion that I gave good? Am I just doing this for my own comfort, or because this will actually make a difference? Maybe she is right. We should just drag this until the demon is exhausted and can no longer fight. I mean, she has fought these things before, and this is probably the best way to do this.”, Liu Feng thought to himself.

All of a sudden, Liu Feng saw himself in the air. He looked around with confusion, and saw that he was in the arms of Arad. 

“You are spacing out in the middle of a fight, Liu Feng. That is not exactly the best thing to do, especially when we want to keep the plant away from any possible energy sources.”, Arad said.

“He called me Liu Feng? But he always called me master before? Forget it, I have more important things to worry about.”, Liu Feng thought to himself, but he quickly disregarded that line of thought, and focused on the fight.

“Sorry I spaced out. I won’t do that again.”, Liu Feng nodded.

Arad put him down, and jumped back into the fight almost instantaneously. Liu Feng ignored the obvious tension in the air, and joined the fight along side Arad. He was injuring and bruising the tentacles that were crashing down on him. Because his physical strength was also much greater than an average human, his normal punches packed quite the weight behind them.

With the addition of Liu Feng, the fight which looked pretty desperate before, was more manageable. Liu Feng was contributing to the fight as much as Feng Huang and Arad. This was mainly because the both of them had to make sure that they wouldn’t injure the demon too much. So, they were attacking the demon with the same power that Liu Feng was attacking the demon.

Liu Feng felt his brow was full of sweat. He cleaned it off as he launched another barrage of attacks. Behind him, Arad and Feng Huang, who had been fighting for at least two hours more than him, were going at the demon non stop.

The tentacles were now losing their dark black color, and they looked more grey now. The plant itself was looking like a shriveled rose, far past its prime.

“The fight might finally come to an end.”, Liu Feng sighed as he relaxed a little.

“The fight is far from over, human. There is still the mother plant’s off spring, that might be strong enough to summon demon soldiers here. And the mana that the mother plant has saved up has only gone down by ten percent. That only means that it is not able to heal fast enough. There is still a long time to go. Do not relax, or it will cause only problems for us.”, Feng Huang cautioned Liu Feng.

Liu Feng’s face turned serious as he nodded. He did not expect this fight to be this tough when he joined, but he had no intention of backing down. One thing that Liu Feng hated to do was quit in the middle of something.

He jumped up, and he charged towards the plant to hit the plant once more. But this time, when he hit the tentacle of the plant, the tentacle felt slimy. Not able to hit the tentacle properly, Liu Feng’s fist slipped. He started falling into the interlocking web of tentacles that the demon did have.

Seeing this, Arad, who was nearest to Liu Feng, quickly rushed in to swoop Liu Feng out of trouble.

“This is why I told you to stay out of this fight, human. You weigh us down.”, Feng Huang said with anger.

Liu Feng had no words to counter Feng Huang. Just now, he almost died, and Arad had to stop what he was doing to save Liu Feng.

“I need to recover. I used up too much energy.”, Liu Feng said.

“No one is stopping you. You are too weak for the mandragora to care. It only attacked you till now because you attacked it.”, Arad said as he turned around and joined the fight once more. 

Liu Feng sighed. “Since when did I become the factor that is weighing down the team?”, he thought to himself.

“A midlife crisis is not what you need right now, child. What you need to understand is that you cannot be the center stage of every fight. I have no idea why Pyrus did not tell you to stop, but I will gladly give you the words of wisdom you need right now. Do not fight in this battle. It is not yours. You should not participate in this. The madragora is special because it is a rare plant. That species of demon has killed more enemies than even the demon generals. Having the privilege to kill a mandragora is an honor, and you are taking it from them. A human does not have the right to kill a mandragora. Sit aside and wait for the fight to finish.”, Primitus said all of a sudden.

“A human has no right to land the finishing blow? What kind of logic is that?”, Liu Feng asked.

“The mandragora is special because of its lineage, and the special powers it gets with birth. And killing one is special because it is a mandragora mother plant. Now, when we are taking the species as a whole, isn’t it fair that the right to kill it goes to the species that suffered the most in the hands of a mandragora?”, Primitus said.

“The phoenix lost its subordinates to one, and the dragon child, well hundreds of dragons fell to mandragoras in the past. But you humans are not that precious. You have no care for even your own lives. You have no right to participate in this.”, Primitus continued.

“What kind of bullshit logic is that?”, Liu Feng wanted to say, but he stayed his mouth. He did not want to offend another person. He sat in the meditative pose and started gathering the lost mana.

After a while, he reopened his weary eyes. The fight was still going on. Even after so much time had passed, Feng Huang and Arad were attacking the demon with the same ferocity as before, if not more. 

Liu Feng got up, but he did not enter the battle. After hearing what primitus said, even if he did not understand the logic behind the whole situation, and even though he did not approve of it even a little, he did not want to offend the two any further. They were the strongest of the army, after all, and offending them would do him only bad.

He moved away, and towards the exit. He did not want to be a part of this fight any more. Even though he was leaving, the two behind him did not even bother to check on him. It was like they had nothing else to do in the world, except to battle the monster in front of them.

“Ah, I have no idea how things turned out like this. I wanted to help, but I got the cold shoulder. What bad luck.”, Liu Feng cursed.

He left the scene of the fight, and he could no longer see their terrifying figures. He could see his horse, lying patiently on the ground. He smiled as he walked towards the majestic black horse.

The horse neighed when it saw Liu Feng. Liu Feng quickly undid the rope that was tying the horse’s freedom and hopped on to the saddle.

“I wasn’t meant to be here. Let us go.”, he whispered to the horse as he stroked its mane.

The horse seemed to understand him perfectly well. It rode like the wind, back the route that Liu Feng came from. Liu Feng saw the exact same buildings, and a few more people on his way back, but nothing new.

“Nothing that I didn’t expect. I should have just stayed in the camp. I wasted my time coming here.”, Liu Feng gnashed his teeth.

“Do not underestimate the power of knowledge, child.”, Primitus suddenly said.

“I never did.”, Lucas replied.

“Then how did this trip become a waste? You have learnt that something called the mandragora mother plant existed. Who knows when that information will come in handy?”, Primitus said.

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