Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Everyone in the camp was awakened by the piercing screams and charged out of their sheds, one after another. Asa and his companions immediately casted illumination spells. Seven or eight balls of light flew up into the sky and lit up the camp and everything around it, but there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.
Han Jin happened to see the shapes of Irwin and the few young men, and his heart jumped. They didn’t seem alive, and besides, everyone had tried to group together, but they still stood there like they were petrified!
“Attack!” Chipango ran up with a twisted expression on his face, his finger steadily pointing toward a direction. “Abyssal Ghost Snake! There is an Abyssal Ghost Snake there!”
Yalina was approaching Han Jin, and her expression immediately turned ugly when she heard Chipango. Maybe she lacked combat experience, but when it came to knowledge, even the old men of God’s Language Academy didn’t know as much as her. She knew perfectly well what kind of holy animal the Abyssal Ghost Snake was!
Yalina raised her wand, and a ball of lightning flew down from the sky. It slammed into the ground, and then spread out into a ring of electricity.
A thunderous roar came out of seemingly nowhere, and an enormous creature abruptly appeared on the previously quiet grass. It looked like a wyvern, but dozens of times greater. In addition, while wyverns were usually green, the Abyssal Ghost Snake’s whole body was pitch black. And just like the night sky, occasional sparkles of light would appear on its body, like the stars above.
But the proportions of the Abyssal Ghost Snake seemed unbalanced; its body was shaped like a duck, while its wings were very short and looked pitiful. It shouldn’t have any capability of flying. Its neck looked like a snake, slim and long, and appeared very agile. Its head was triangular, while its beak was as sharp as a sword and looked extremely vicious.
The Abyssal Ghost Snake didn’t have any scales, but its body was covered in short fur, which was also where the sparkles were coming from.
Moxinke, Reg, and the rest of the team let out a sigh of relief after finally seeing the true shape of the Abyssal Ghost Snake. Even though it was about a dozen meters tall with its neck raised, its awkward body was quite larger than then Hydra. One of the basic skills of a mercenary was to be able to recognize and judge a holy animal’s power, and their experience was telling them the Abyssal Ghost Snake was no threat.
It was simple. One could recognize how holy animals like the Gale Wolves, Flash Leopards, Earth Bears, and others, hunted by simply looking at them. For example, no one could possibly think the Treefolk relied on their speed. You could learn a lot the instant you glanced at their basically nonexistent legs.
All holy animals had to obey the law of evolution, and after countless years, the powers which each holy animal relied on to survive had become obvious. All you needed was a pair of observant eyes to guess exactly what it was.
The Abyssal Ghost Snake’s body was way too clumsy with only two short legs, while its neck was too slim and too long. This meant it did not possess exceptional close quarter combat skills, and looked more like a holy animal that excelled in water, which meant it would be severely hampered in a forest environment. As for magic, they had a magus. Aside from a Giant Dragon, what kind of holy animal could suppress the power of a magus with magic?
The Abyssal Ghost Snake roared again. Now that it had been exposed, it no longer had anything to worry about and instead walked straight toward them. But the Abyssal Ghost wobbled around as it walked, and looked like a ridiculous drunkard.
But Yalina didn’t laugh. She again raised her wand, and a dozen magic detection rings exploded around the camp, a process she repeated before every fight at this point. She then activated the defense matrix in the camp, and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Come back! Retreat…”
As the Abyssal Ghost Snake approached, the ground started to shake. The few frozen shapes near the barricade fell backwards, and their bodies shattered.
Yalina froze, Asa froze, and the rest of the young magicians all froze. Afterwards, Asa charged out with an enraged roar, “Irwin…”
A few other magicians charged out alongside Asa. They desperately wanted to know what had happened to their friend, but just then, a flash of light appeared before them, and quickly spread into a sea of flames.
Yalina didn’t even have time to enchant her spell, and could only cast an ice wall as fast as possible to block Asa and the rest of his companions.
The flame slammed into the ice wall with a boom, and only paused for a moment before shattering the ice wall. But that pause was enough time for Asa and his followers to realize how reckless they were. They all cast magic shields and desperately tried to retreat.
The rolling sea of flames instantly swept across a dozen meters in the blink of an eye and swallowed Asa and his companions. The few female magicians and deacons, who had retreated to the back, screamed in horror at the sight.
The flame waned a bit, and Asa and his companions stumbled out. He and two other magicians were still in decent conditions. Although dimming, their magic barriers were at least still protecting them. The last magician, however, was completely ablaze. He screamed in pain and desperation as he tried to dive out of the fire.
“Come back!” Moxinke roared in anger, and tried to charge forward to assist Asa.
“No!!” Yalina’s scream of terror was even louder than him. She knew about Abyssal Ghost Snake’s special power, and a seventh-grade warrior like Moxinke had no chance of surviving the curse!
“My Lord, that Abyssal Ghost Snake hashad casted four curses already. It’s not an adult yet!” Chipango screamed as if he werewas a scout.
One after another, human shapes appeared on the hillside and quickly charged behind the Abyssal Ghost Snake. A few thieves abruptly appeared outside the camp. Yalina’s magic detection ring hadn’t expired yet, and they happened to run into it, but they appeared to be very arrogant and decided to simply walk into the camp with their daggers.
Yalina took a deep breath and swung her wand forward. A ball of lightning shot out and struck the torso of the Abyssal Ghost Snake, spread into countless arcs of electricity, and eventually formed a web which trapped both the Abyssal Ghost snake and the two men who were mounting it.
The men on the Abyssal Ghost Snake cried out in surprise and immediately forced out a magic barrier, but all that did was make a bulge in the electric web; it didn’t destroy the web at all.
“Raphael!” Yalina called out before focusing on incanting her spell.
Han Jin threw out three charms, and three wooden puppets appeared out of nowhere to protect Yalina. As for himself, he didn’t rush into battle, and instead quietly looked forward. On one hand, he knew Yalina was weakest when casting powerful spells, but on the other hand, he didn’t have the time to reforge his flying sword yet. Instead of joining the fight, he would be of more use protecting Yalina.
A flash of green flashed by, and the thieves who had just charged into the camp were instantly tightly wrapped in vines. The arrogance on their faces instantly disappeared and were instead replaced by surprise.
“How…?!”
“Treefolk Arrow…”
Sunier appeared beside a shed. She nocked an arrow, drew her bow, and took aim at the thieves. Even though she wasn’t as powerful as Edwina, shooting still targets was an easy job. With every arrow she shot, a splatter of blood appeared.
Closer. The mercenaries charged closer. Even though the Abyssal Ghost Snake was trapped by the electric web and their thieves were being picked out, one by one, in front of them, they still had a relaxed expression on their faces as if victory was already in sight. Some of them were even smiling.
“You should run while you have the chance…” Suddenly, a lazy voice came from inside the shining electric web.
The mercenaries were all stunned in place and shifted their gazes toward the shape which they could tell was the Abyssal Ghost Snake.
With a giant boom, a dozen meter long Giant Dragon, which was made purely out of flames, dove toward the electric web.
“What are you waiting for? If you don’t want to be slaughtered by Nine Grid Thunder Call, this is your last chance to escape,” the lazy voice continued.
The mercenaries tried their best to turn and run away from the hill, which formed a stark contrast with their initial arrogance. Clearly, their relaxed attitude was not based on their confidence in themselves.
The dancing dragon of flame violently tore at the electric net, which also started to dim at a visible rate. But unfortunately, Yalina’s spell was also completed!
“You guys are pretty lucky, and Master Magus here wasn’t as dumb as the rumour made her out to be.” The lazy voice sighed. “But… that won’t change anything.”
Yalina wasn’t in the mood to argue, and besides, saying ten thousand words wasn’t as effective as casting a spell. She slowly raised her wand, and the sky flashed. Giant pillars of lightning fell from the sky, one after another, and slammed into the ground. A deafening chain of explosions sounded on the ground while branches and dirt flew everywhere.
The whole world had turned into a world of lightning. All that everyone could see was the flashing lightning, and all they could hear was the deafening thunder!
Unlike the other powerful electric based spell Chain Lightning, which released all of its power all at once, Nine Grid Thunder Call needed to persist for a while.
As Yalina slowly lowered her wand, the flashing thunder finally calmed down, but to everyone’s astonishment, aside from a field of ruin, there was no one there! The enormous Abyssal Ghost Snake had disappeared without a trace, along with the two men on its back!
Yalina bit her silver teeth, and a dozen more magic detection rings flew out. Gibran, who was charging toward the frontline, happened to be affected and became visible. He hurriedly stopped himself and raised his hands to show he didn’t mean any harm. “What was that? What happened?!”
