Green Monster Epic

Chapter 899: Hidden Rules

The battle raged fiercely below the city, and the clash of experts in the sky was equally dangerous.

With his combat domain unfurled, enveloping a thousand-meter radius, the hobgoblin chieftain Allen faced six or seven elven figures whose chests heaved with exertion. Their rapid breaths and fair faces were covered in beads of sweat, mixed with faint traces of scarlet blood. Their eyes were filled with solemn concentration and pain.

In addition, there was a druid transformed into a massive silver dragon and another into an earth-elemental ironback bear. Relying on the powerful vitality and racial traits of magical beasts, they acted as meat shields to restrain Allen, this powerful Saint. However, they were also covered in wounds and looked rather pathetic.

Allen, single-handedly fighting against several opponents, remained calm and composed. Although his body bore the marks of battle, he still seemed to be handling the situation with ease.

The power of the combat domain was simply too strong, especially for Allen's fighting style. It perfectly complemented him, compensating for his weaknesses and severely limiting the elves' inherent advantages.

If it weren't for the demigod archer Alicia and a demigod assassin lurking like a ghost to the sides, distracting Allen and splitting his combat power, this elite elven squad would likely have been defeated by Allen long ago.

With a wave of his arm, several powerful bursts of raging energy detached from his blade and swept across the scattered elven ranks. Just as everyone was dispersing, Allen stomped his right foot in the void, creating a ripple as his tall hobgoblin figure quickly vanished from everyone's sight.

Clang!

Clang clang!

Several arrows shot towards him head-on. Alicia, positioned a thousand meters away, continuously drew her bow, not daring to relax or hold back in the slightest, all to restrain the powerful Saint-level figure.

Even for a powerful force like the Elven Kingdom, Saint-level figures would not easily get involved in wars or battles. They were more like strategic deterrents, meant to intimidate surrounding forces. This was because everyone had a tacit understanding: Saints were essentially incarnations of deities, not only few in number but also incredibly powerful. Any action they took would cause tremendous destruction, and it was difficult to find effective means to restrain them.

Like Allen now, the overwhelming force he displayed once his domain was unleashed made breaking through the blockade formed by these ten or so experts seem effortless. However, he was still new to using his domain and needed to slowly explore its intricacies through practical combat, familiarizing himself with the changes in his own strength.

Any battlefield or force, given enough time and space for a Saint, would confidently be able to gradually erode and kill their target. The enemy's so-called scale and numbers were no longer things that Saints cared about. In their eyes, any number of troops or powerful forces were just paper tigers, easily pierced. The only trouble was that it would take some time.

And having reached the Saint level, they often had plenty of time. At least in the millennia to come, they wouldn't have to worry about having no fun to spice up their dull lives.

But precisely because they were too powerful, all forces were wary of them. If Saints from all sides were to appear on the battlefield, then regardless of who was stronger or weaker, it would inevitably lead to a lose-lose situation.

Even if the stronger side had enough strength to inflict heavy damage, or even annihilation, on the weaker side, as long as the weaker side's Saint didn't fall – and they were almost impossible to kill – it would mean that the Saint's unrestrained acts of revenge would be difficult for the stronger side to deal with.

In ancient times, there was a case where two great duchies engaged in a war of annihilation. In the end, the defeated nation had a Saint-level expert who was loyal to his homeland. Unwilling to see his country destroyed, he spent three hundred years seeking revenge, and actually managed to drag the duchy that had annexed his country to its death.

In light of too many such historical events, and no one knew how long ago it started, the rulers of various countries, the church forces, and Saint-level experts had a tacit agreement: unless it was a matter of civilization or the life and death of a force, Saint-level figures in the secular world would not easily get involved in war.

Of course, there were exceptions. As the supervisors and enforcers of this unspoken rule, the church forces would always deploy their Saints for their own interests, such as the incident where the Pope of the War Church fell, which Allen had experienced before.

As the earthly messengers of the world's most powerful and mysterious deity, the church forces had always been high above and detached from the secular world. They set the rules for the secular world, supervised the operation of the rules, but they themselves rarely followed the rules they set, simply because they had a powerful deity behind them for support.

Moreover, compared to the secular kingdoms' dispersed control over vast territories, the church forces only needed to establish grand cathedrals and temples in densely populated major towns to listen to the teachings of the gods and receive divine grace. They didn't need to disperse their power like political institutions.

Concentrated power was naturally not easily targeted and eliminated by enemies. At the same time, the clergy members of temples and grand cathedrals could use methods such as divine descent, making it difficult for even Saint-level beings to break through in a short period of time, or even pose a threat. Naturally, they didn't have to worry about being retaliated against by Saints.

The church could ignore the rules they had established with the secular forces, but the secular forces themselves could not underestimate the value of these rules, because they were all clear that such rules were more beneficial than harmful to them, effectively controlling the intensity of their conflicts and preventing the situation from spiraling out of control.

However, the newly advanced hobgoblin Saint Allen simply didn't know these rules hidden beneath reality, because before this, he wasn't qualified to come into contact with these hidden rules.

It was precisely this sudden change brought about by the information gap that put the Elven Kingdom's army in a difficult situation, unable to come up with effective means to deal with this wilderness chieftain who was displaying the might of a Saint.

Under the coverage of the combat domain, the elven experts' movements were far less agile than before. Every time they moved or attacked, they had to expend more energy and stamina.

But Allen, who had trapped them in this situation, was like a fish in water. The space within the domain was completely dominated by him. With a single thought, the air above his direction of travel seemed to be evacuated, allowing his speed to increase to the limit, no less than that of a demigod-level expert specializing in speed.

With a casual slash or chop, Allen mobilized the power of the entire domain space, increasing the power by nearly a factor of two. In the past, he needed to concentrate his power and mind to create spatial cracks on the blade's path, but now, by observing carefully, one could see thin, hair-like black lightning appearing and disappearing intermittently.