BXBX NOVEL volume 2 - 160
“For Madara!!!” The Skeleton Lord’s angry roars echoed in the night sky. The pillars of light had flashed three times before it finally dissipated—
“Marsha above, that fool—”
Rothko’s Soul Fire in his eyes danced when it saw the remnants of the beautiful flames. He cursed once through his teeth before he slid weakly against the wall.
He shook his head. To think he once thought himself as a genius.
============ Iamas’s POV =============
Iamas’s eyes narrowed as he threw down a mercenary’s corpse. His stable Soul Barrier was quivering widely. Scarlett’s earlier technique had managed to pierce through his barrier just for a few moments before he restored it and made it even stronger.
[Something is causing my barrier to shake— But there shouldn’t be an existence that’s more powerful than me.]
Suddenly everyone in the inner city felt their souls shake, almost as if something screamed at them. It first spread from the mercenaries nearest to the city gates, to the skeleton soldiers which had their Soul Fire dimming as though a wind had threatened to extinguish them.
The battle stopped momentarily.
Scarlett got up slowly. Blood was streaming down all over her injuries, and she wiped her the blood on her chin with her fist. Her amber eyes still held an obstinate glare, but momentarily looked up to the sky. She had felt her soul tremble as well.
Something cracked loudly, and she reacted immediately by looking for the source of the sound.
She discovered black fragments falling over her head before it disappeared into thin air. More cracking sounds spread across the battlefield, and she saw fragments raining across the streets.
Iamas grunted in pain.
[Someone has forcefully broken apart my barrier?! How is this possible!]
His Soul Fire felt like it had been turned to ice when it held the possibility that there was something out there that could defeat him. Suddenly a shining orb of light streaked across the sky, like an impossibly bright firefly.
More of them quickly appeared and moved across the battlefield in a disorderly manner. Everyone’s confused gazes followed them as they streaked across their heads. The lights suddenly became dazzling like stars.
A Holy Aura was gathering in the vicinity.
“Dragon Knights, attack!” Someone yelled.
The first beam of light suddenly descended from the sky, piercing through the darkness and illuminating the ground. The nearest mercenaries were just in time to see it penetrating through three skeletons as the beam of light moved in sudden and impossible angles.
Skull, ribs, and pelvis.
They looked on with agape mouths as the three skeletons scattered onto the ground with broken bones, before they started burning up and turned into ashes.
The second beam of light started to pierce through the air, the third—
The night turned into day as lights continued to flash across the battlefield, raining down onto the undead like they were being commanded by a divine entity. In the blink of an eye, the Bonethorn Skeletons were turned into grey ashes one by one. Two rounds of the attacking beams had decimated the skeleton army, leaving but scant few unharmed.
“Marsha above!!! Quickly, destroy these remaining filthy existences!”
The mercenaries immediately cheered after a stunned moment.
Cornelius watched the attacking beams in a daze. He was guarding Sifrid by her side. While he was delighted with the sudden turn of events, he could not help but wipe his sweaty palms and glance at his pale adjutant beside him. They recognized the youth’s voice.
They truly did not expect him to have this power.
But he quickly understood what he needed to do and decisively gave out his command:
“My brothers, break through the enemies’ line of defense! Do not waste this chance!”
The furious roar marked the change of the battlefield’s tide.
Iamas recomposed himself upon hearing the roar. His eyes turned to a particular alley shrouded in smoke and fog. Two angels abruptly appeared and flew into the air before descending onto him in a split second. Their swords were nearly upon him, but he calmly swung at each attacker once, knocking them back and causing their glowing feathers to flutter in the air.
He did not relax.
A significant amount of mana was gathering in the sky; magic formations were swiftly forming and converging into a giant sphere. Without any warning, it rapidly turned into an immense boulder that shot towards Iamas with blinding speed. His pupils quickly shrunk as he realized he could not avoid it in time—
[Laws of Magic that materializes into physical objects, there’s a Master Wizard who’s able to cast high-level Circle Spells here!]
The earth shook when the massive boulder crashed onto the ground, causing a cloud of dust to spread everywhere.
He had tried to sunder the projectile with his scythe, but the impact forced him off his steed. He fell flat on his face and had to push himself off the ground. After the cloud of dust had been dispelled caused by his body’s impact, the mercenaries had already suppressed Graudin’s army.
The undead general watched the city’s cowardly soldiers escape from his side. The battle was over. The air was stifling and painful to breathe in, and not simply because it was filled with dust and smoke.
There was one final chance. He finally saw Brendel appearing in the streets.
In order to win the battle he had to destroy the orbs of light, but there was no time to go after them individually. He was certain that Brendel was the one controlling these bizarre objects, and if he killed the youth everything would be solved, and the scales in this battle would turn towards him.
He scoffed coldly and placed his scythe horizontally across his chest.
Brendel had found Iamas earlier and commanded Ciel to attack him. It was an old opponent in the game, and he had not changed at all.
[Bleah. He’s still wearing that ridiculous get-up with a pretentious mask. He even has the same old strategy of capturing the enemy’s leader. He probably hasn’t gotten the Blood of the Evil Dragon, so it’s easier to handle him though.....]
But Iamas did not know that his intentions were seen through by Brendel. Ciel and the Mercenaries of Lopes were participating in the battle, leaving only the two angels who were guarding him. He had never seen or heard the citizens of heaven guarding a mortal before. He concluded they were quite strong from the earlier exchange, but it was not as if he had no chance in bypassing them.
He moved in a blur, darting across the battlefield three times like an elusive shadow. Each time he did so, he ran across hundreds of meters. Brendel simply reacted by calling back every single Dragon Knight to form multiple rows and fired into a sector at the same time.
The chaotic golden pillars of light pierced through the ground, and for a single moment, it appeared as though a golden forest had suddenly sprung up in the streets. The Dragon Knight Formation had no need for accuracy as the numbers alone made up for the deficit.
Each single strike from the beams of light was the equivalent of a Silver-ranked spell, and even someone as powerful as Iamas was not able to openly show himself under the barrage of ten-odd strikes happening in a second.
He swung his scythe and tried to strike the beams of light with his own dark beam of energy, successfully wiping out seven Wind Spider Spirits.
The Holy Sword Card was able to provide the attacking strength of a Silver-ranked spell if it was attached to something, but it did not affect anything else. The Wind Spider Spirits’ defenses were as weak as paper against his attack.
When he realized his strike was effective, he tried chasing them, but the orbs of light immediately scattered everywhere and shot at him from a distant range. When he moved at high speed with his ability, he found they had gathered once again and suppressed him with heavy firepower.
[The enemy seems to predict every single move that I make!]
Other than the first strike which managed to get a lucky hit, he found that he was unable to gain any advantage at all. He had to slow them significantly in order to evade the attacks.
Brendel divided the spiders into eight groups and commanded the angels to take the skies. When he discovered Iamas’s location, he quickly directed six groups of spiders to fire quick separate shots to steer him, while the remaining two groups shot concentrated beams of fire to deal a powerful blow o him.
It proved nearly impossible to hit him, but Brendel slowly cornered Iamas into a dead alley, while the two groups of spiders waited there in ambush and fired through the wall. The intense power of the beams demolished the flimsy bricks and blasted against Iamas, but the latter managed to direct his Soul Element to form a thick barrier against it and defended him.
Before the beams were able to melt his barrier, he managed to escape the corner and the game repeated itself.
The Mercenaries of Lopes watched the battle between Brendel and Iamas unfold in absolute shock. Ciel was earnestly explaining to them with a dignified expression as though he understood everything:
“...... To be clear, a game always have three rules. Techniques, equipment, and stats. As you can see for yourself, the techniques of our Lord and his excellent equipment are giving the result you see now. He once taught me that any one of them will be effective, and I thank him for teaching me.”
He nodded, bragging all the way without really understanding what was happening: “Now that I have become a Master Wizard, I am very grateful to our Lord for teaching me this secret.”
Dia could not suppress her giggles.
“Ciel,” Brendel’s teeth were grinding against each other before he yelled at him: “You had better join this fight right now—-”
“Of course, my lord. I am already preparing a spell,” Ciel immediately gave a reply: “But I’m seeing a lot of soldiers with their symbols somehow related to the Randner’s house?”
“They are indeed under Count Randner’s house.”
“My Lord, you offended another house?” The young wizard was shocked: “Marsha above, you must have offended many people in your previous life too.”
“Shut it. Based on your theory, we should have been hung the previous time we went against a noble,” Brendel constantly changed the positions of the Dragon Knights and replied with amused annoyance: “At most, we will get hung again.”
“You are quite right.” Ciel raised his eyebrow.