by Weiqi Wang
PLONK!! A wall emerged in front of Kastico and blocked Naclad’s vancoblade. Chelonad and Gazbell were prepared this time, and the three Masters continued their battle in the next moment.
Kastico, on the other hand, was sweating to see the deep score left on the wall in front of him. Kastico knew that he wouldn’t be able to help much in a Master-level battle; the reason he had decided to stay had never been to fight Naclad, but to guard for his Death magic.
‘You two will regret it if he finds an opportunity to snipe at you again!’ Watching the battle, Sandoray spoke to the boys through clenched jaws. ‘Fly away, now!’
‘If we fly away he’ll certainly start sniping at us!’ Halgon disagreed. ‘Plus it’s 2v1 there. I bet we can win this.’
‘You guys ever see anyone insta-cast a vancoblade?’ Sandoray was thunderous. ‘Tell you what, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen that spell insta-cast! And he did it twice!’
‘And failed. Twice.’ Soarame was on Halgon’s side — yes, there were risks, but it was a freaking Master-level battle to watch, for god’s sake! Every single Expert wizard would be willing to watch such a battle, even at the risk of his life — Soarame would bet all his 205 ruby coins on that!
BOOM!
Chelonad pounced at Naclad at lightning speed, but Naclad was nimble enough to dodge it, leaving the ground behind him smashed open. Ignoring the rumble, Naclad spelled a series of vancoblades at Gazbell, who sent a similar number of blazebombs back to him. The vancoblades travelled terrifyingly fast, so that Gazbell had to predict the trajectories and dodge beforehand to avoid being chopped into halves; the battle was therefore extremely dangerous.
Soon enough, everyone was anxious as they began to realize that Sandoray was right — Gazbell, although a Master too, was not a match to Naclad and therefore had to position himself behind Chelonad from time to time, using him as protection against the vancoblades. Fortunately, the vancoblades couldn’t cut through the tough scales of the giant boa, despite that they did leave heavy scores on them and make Chelonad grunt painfully.
‘That doesn’t look good!’ Halgon clenched his fists. ‘How come he’s so powerful?’
‘If you want to leave, now is probably your last chance.’ Sandoray punched the cell. ‘Get the heck away from here!’
‘Then what?’ Soarame stared at Sandoray. ‘If they lose, where do you think we can go?’
‘Go to Challengers’ Palace! That building is special!’ Sandoray urged.
‘Special enough to protect us from a freaking Master?’ Soarame wasn’t convinced.
‘What do you want, then?’ Sandoray was mad. ‘You want to die now, or you want to try your chances?’
‘We’ll certainly try, but our chances are from the Godmade!’ Soarame pointed at the broadsword at distance, which would have attracted everyone’s attention but was being ignored right now due to the ferocious battle. However, that didn’t mean the sword had stopped freezing everything around it — in the past several minutes it had frozen up quite a large area, bringing harshest winter to the battlefield. Actually, if it had not injured Naclad in the beginning, the battle would have been even harder for the school side.
‘I’m not capable of controlling it, but maybe you can!’ Soarame urged Sandoray. ‘Try it!’
‘I can’t — it’s a freaking Godmade!’ For a moment, Sandoray really wondered how Soarame had brought it here, but she knew now was not the right time for wondering. ‘But I can take advantage of it… maybe!’ With that, Sandoray started to chant, and Soarame could see enormous Water Elements around them instantly starting to dance. Seeing the blue dots aggregating into a huge number of short strings, Soarame figured out what incantation Sandoray was chanting — it was a famous Master-level spell, purgatory storm!
Sandoray looked madly excited. Although she was a top-class Expert wizard, Sandoray had never succeeded in this Master-level spell before, no matter how hard she had tried. But this time, due to the existence of the Godmade and the spreading Water Elements, she decided to give it another try — all the participants in the battle were Masters, so she had to cast a Master-level spell in order to help — and it actually worked!
‘WHAT?’ On the other side, Naclad sensed the threat from Sandoray, but he was too busy to do anything to her. So he grabbed a chance to pull out a scroll and throw it up; the scroll stretched out and burnt itself into ashes, at the same time casting the powerful spell within it —
‘Absolute bubble?’ Soarame and Halgon called it out at the same time. It looked very similar to the spell that Sophie had used in the beastide, only so much bigger. But due to the bubble Sophie had been trapped back then, and if it hadn’t been for Soarame’s rescue she could well have ended up dying there. Now Naclad had actually decided to do the same thing to himself?
BOOM BOOM BOOM — Gazbell’s blazebombs poured on to the bubble just after it was formed. The bubble was dented here and there as if it might break, but it bounced back out after shaking left and right. Everyone could see the bubble becoming thinner and thinner due to the blazebombs, and Gazbell was exhausting himself in the effort to continue the savage bombing. He could see that Naclad was chanting a long and difficult incantation inside the bubble — it would never be a good idea to let him finish it!
Meanwhile, Chelonad was spitting poison on to the bubble too, and it looked as though it would give way at any time. Sandoray also finished the first Master-level work of her life and couldn’t wait to spell it — a wave of sharp, thick icearrows pierced through the air and landed on the bubble. But, the next second, Sandoray looked vexed and held back the remaining arrows, because the bubble actually seemed to grow thicker.
‘The bubble absorbed the arrows?’ Soarame screamed out. ‘Because they are both water?’
‘That’s probably why Naclad chose it!’ Halgon smacked his own head. ‘He was aiming to trick Sandoray in the first place!’
‘This man…’ Soarame had almost forgotten that this “Ericson” had always been the smartest one among his friends; it was not the best idea to count on him making silly mistakes.
‘Thanks, my lady.’ It didn’t take Naclad too long to finish his incantation. His hands were now covered in dark brown smog, and he waved them to summon a number of large figures around him — they appeared to be corpses of different kinds; most were animals, but some looked human. They all had one thing in common: they were all skinless, thus looking horrible. Soon enough, the corpses started to move!
‘Skinless corpses?’ Seeing the muscles and tendons of the corpses tightening as they made movements, a bell rang in Soarame’s mind. He had heard the skin-peeling story from “Ericson”, so he couldn’t help making different guesses on the corpses.
‘So many Expert-level ones!’ Gazbell didn’t have time to care about the skin part, because he recognized the unexpectedly high power of the magimal corpses. ‘Where did you get these bloody things?’
‘Mind your own business.’ Naclad sneered. ‘If you don’t want me to blow this campus up, let Soarame go with me now!’
‘No, you aren’t taking him.’ Kastico stepped forward. ‘And you stay too!’
‘Show me!’ Naclad withdrew the bubble and all the corpses leapt out. Kastico was well prepared for this and instantly spelled his Lightning at them. At the same time, Chelonad, Gazbell and Sandoray all engaged in the battle — Chelonad and Gazbell were still aiming at Naclad; Sandoray used her remaining icearrows to help Kastico against the corpses.
‘We should do something too!’ Soarame was anxious to see that their number advantage was being completely reversed due to the Death magic. It was astonishing to watch a bunch of sickening-looking corpses besieging Kastico, surrounding him. Meanwhile, another bunch were diving at Sandoray, opposing the purgatory storm along their way.
‘Don’t be stupid! We will only drag them down!’ Halgon turned down Soarame’s suggestion right away. ‘Those corpses are stronger than you think! With Death magic they are probably even harder to be
at now, because they won’t fear anything!’
‘HOOWWLL!!’ The corpses were making weird roaring noises during their attacks. Fortunately, although they had no fear, they had no intelligence either. Therefore, they wasted a large part of their magic capacity, so most of their attacks were fairly straightforward and predictable. Thankfully, Kastico’s Lightning magic did counter them a lot harder than other lineages, so he was able to stand against the majority of them. In comparison, Sandoray was having difficulty dealing with the rest despite the fact that her purgatory storm was a Master-level spell. Seeing Kastico knocking down the corpses one after another — although they got back up again in a few seconds — Sandoray was resentful that she couldn’t do the same thing.
PLONK! Just when several corpses were about to pounce on Sandoray, the cell suddenly dashed by and knocked them over — Halgon was driving it. ‘Careful, professor! Shall we get help from other professors?’
‘No, don’t!’ Sandoray yelled while fighting. ‘Their contributions wouldn’t be worth the risks here! I’ve told them to stay out of this and take care of the students!’
‘But maybe Dean Harries…’ Kastico was trying to suggest something, but got cut off in the noise of the fight.
‘Watch out, Chelonad!’ Gazbell suddenly warned him, but it was too late. A stream of blood sprang from Chelonad’s flesh under his scales — Naclad had been aiming all his vancoblades at one spot so that they could gradually cut it open. Despite all Chelonad’s twisting and turning to try and dodge them, and Gazbell doing what he could to hinder, Naclad still succeeded in his aim!
The next second, a blast of icearrows stopped Naclad from his follow-up attacks. Sandoray had decided to take risks herself and help her colleagues again. This irritated Naclad; he turned around and waved his palm — chop —
WING — A vancoblade approached Sandoray in a split second. Thanks to the enriched Water Elements all over the place, Sandoray managed to insta-cast a thick iceshield before the attack arrived. The vancoblade was significantly weakened after cutting through it, and then stopped by another iceshield behind Sandoray’s — Soarame’s.
‘Thanks, Soar!’ Sandoray was very pale. If Soarame hadn’t finished his iceshield in the last second, she could have ended up in two pieces.
‘Watch out, Sando…’ Soarame didn’t have time to finish his alert before a bear-like corpse tackled Sandoray from the side. ‘Kastico, HELP!’
‘Sandoray!’ Kastico hurriedly spelled a Lightning bolt at the corpse on Sandoray. The spell numbed it right before its hard bite got her, so Sandoray managed to break away. However, part of her body had been etched by the pus all over the corpse; bloody flesh could be seen through the large holes on her gown.
‘Damn it!’ Sandoray was worried to see her Water spells not working very well to heal her wounds. But then, a green ray was cast on them, and they started to heal much faster — it was Snower. This stunned Sandoray. ‘How did…?’
PLONK! Halgon drove the cell to knock off more tackling corpses, trying to buy some time for Sandoray. Soarame also had been spelling windblades from the window, but they worked more like harassments instead of attacks, because the corpses were surprisingly tough. However, the harassments did attract their attention — most of them started to leave Sandoray and pursue the cell.
‘Sandoray, are you okay?’ Soarame looked over at Sandoray, yelling. Although Sandoray’s wounds were healed, the torn parts of her gown were not; so Soarame hurriedly turned his gaze away. ‘Halg, are they alive or dead?’
‘They seem to have a simple mind of some description, but they are dead.’ Halgon had been observing and thinking. ‘Thank god they can’t spell much magic, otherwise…’
PLONK! An ape-like corpse punched on the cell and interrupted Halgon. Thanks to the toughness of the cell, it didn’t show any sign of damage, but it did bump the boys up and down.
‘We can’t last long like this! These freaks are unkillable and they don’t feel pain!’ Sandoray yelled after putting an icearrow into the ape’s empty eye socket — but it was only knocked back but not knocked over. The ape shook the ice out of his skull and pounced at Sandoray; but strangely, it fell over halfway.
‘Vines?’ Soarame was puzzled for a second on seeing a bunch of vines wrapping up the ape. ‘Aertiuno! It must be him!’
‘Soarame, everywhere you go, there come troubles!’ Aertiuno’s voice sounded from a big tree. Then the tree was opened from the middle — there seemed to be a tunnel inside — and a blonde man dashed out. ‘Sandoray, leave these to me! Go help Gazbell!’
‘Thanks!’ Sandoray was relieved to see Aertiuno’s vines twining up the corpses from their legs. Although the corpses were strong enough to tear the vines apart, there were more coming for them. So all of the corpses around Aertiuno were bundled up quite soon, although they were still making weird noises and trying to break out.
Aertiuno, on the other hand, became more serious and started to chant. In Soarame’s Magneer vision, a wave of green dots emerged from the trees all around and gathered towards Aertiuno, then spread out from him to the corpses.
Life magic! Soarame was so excited that he finally had a chance to witness a vivid demonstration of this superior magic type. In his vision, as the green dots infiltrated into the corpses, the brown aura on them became dimmer and dimmer, as if it was being neutralized. Finally, the brown was gone for good, and the corpses fell over one after another!
‘How dare you!’ Naclad had noticed what was happening. ‘Since when did this school house a freaking elf?!’
‘Since a freaking thief stole our Godmade!’ Aertiuno stared at his mortal enemy in the air. ‘I’m here for you, the thief!’
‘You made it! You killed them?!’ In the cell, Soarame was screaming. ‘Oh right, Life is the direct opposite of Death!’
‘I didn’t kill them — they were dead in the first place.’ Aertiuno said. ‘But you are right; I did sterilize them.’
‘Can you sterilize that guy too?’ Halgon asked, pointing at Naclad.
‘No. He’s been 1 v 4 and able to hold it. That means his power has probably reached the level of a Legendary Master! ’ Aertiuno’s voice was laden with anxiety. ‘So I won’t be a match for him, but I can cut down his underlings!’ As Aertiuno talked, he never stopped attacking the corpses around Kastico.
‘A freaking tree clown!’ Naclad was outraged to see more of his soldiers being both bundled and sterilized; this was without a doubt a big problem for him. Naclad’s facial expression changed several times rapidly, as if he was making a hard decision. Then he squared his jaw and pulled out another scroll —
‘What is this?!’ In the next second, everyone was astonished to find that they could hardly move anymore, as if they were entrapped in a quagmire. As they struggled to break out from the invisible constraint, Naclad suddenly disappeared.
‘JIAAAAHHHHHH!!!’
Before anything else happened, a sharp screech of pain sounded from Chelonad. Due to the invisible constraint, it was extremely hard for everyone to turn around for a look, but most still saw the giant boa falling from the sky in the corners of their eyes.
‘What’s happening?!’ Gazbell was frightened as he saw a wound that went down to the bone on the boa’s back, from which the blood was gushing like a fountain. As the giant body fell, Naclad’s shape showed up behind it!
‘This feeling…’ Meanwhile, Soarame was shocked to feel the invisible constraint. Unlike everyone else, however, he actually had a clue about it —
‘IT’S GODREALM!’
‘What?’ While everyone looked confused, Gazbell was terrified to hear this — as a Master, he had heard about Godrealm but never experienced it.
‘How do you know?!’ Naclad was even more terrified. He just couldn’t understand why a school boy could figure out his secret weapon, but he didn’t waste any time making for his next move —
‘AWWW!’ Gazbell screeched terribly. A vancoblade detached his entire right arm from the shoulder
; then a hard kick landed on his chest, knocking him far away!
‘PRINCIPAL!’ Watching Gazbell’s body and his wand dropping separately, everyone panicked. Naclad’s move had been so fast and determined — only then, Chelonad’s giant body landed. After a loud crash, it started to sink into the crack, due simply to the weight.
‘Soarame, thanks for proving your value. I can’t believe you even know about Godrealm.’ Looking towards the cell, Naclad’s expression gradually changed — from startled to overjoyed. ‘We’ll have a nice talk after this, and you’ll tell me what else you know!’
‘For now, let me see…’ Having defeated the only two Masters, Naclad was no longer in a hurry. He took time to look around. ‘Who’s next?’
‘ECRIF!!!’ Soarame finally had to yell this name for help. However, there was no response whatsoever. This puzzled everyone for a second, but they were too busy to worry too much about it.
‘STOP! I’ll go with you!’ Seeing that his final secret weapon had failed, Soarame had no other choice. ‘All you want is me, right? You got it!’
‘It wouldn’t have end up this messy if you’d said that earlier, would it? Do you know how PRECIOUS those FREAKING SCROLLS ARE?’ Naclad’s eyes were red, bristling with anger. ‘Now you want to beg for a pardon? TOO FREAKING LATE!’
‘AHHH!!!’ Kastico’s body was suddenly thrown upwards, flying towards a tree — a spear was visible in his chest, pinning him to the trunk!
‘Your Lightning counters my Death?’ Naclad emerged by the spear out of nowhere. ‘Here’s your chance to prove it.’ The spear was shining a brown aura in Soarame’s eyes — just like those on the corpses before — so there must be a Death spell of some sort on it.
Kastico was apparently suffering great pain; his hands were holding the spear, sparking Lightning. ‘How… did you…’ Then he lost consciousness.
‘If you survive, I’ll tell you.’ Naclad sneered and turned to Aertiuno. ‘And what did you call me just now? Say it again!’
