Chapter 257: Arrival! Encountering an Evil Dragon Archer Team
"How are we still not there?! And where are all of the Evil Dragon Followers at?"
"Can you lower it, you idiot. Do you have a death wish?!"
"I'm too tired. I can't run anymore."
"We should be nearing the Path of Evil by now, right?"
In the depths of the untouched and wild Southam Demon Forest, three blurry figures quickly advanced. Suddenly, the three figures darted into a mist covered forest of giant firs and stopped as they dropped to the ground and panted unceasingly.
From a bird's eye view, beyond this giant fir forest was a sunken mountain valley covered with large clusters of shrubs and prickly brambles and then yet another untouched forest of giant, umbrella-like trees. Only these trees were even older, and half of them had died from natural causes. Nonetheless, every tree was covered with green vegetation and fauna. Countless vines hung across, causing the trees to seem interwoven with each other.
These two giant forests acted like walls for the valley within, which intermittently released clouds of magenta smoke.
An air of evilness and dark powers seemed to be constantly emanating from this hidden valley.
……
A path which seemed wide enough for only two people to walk side by side sprawled out from within the magenta smoke and into the dark forest.
After approximately a hundred meters, the path abruptly disappeared, causing travellers to feel as if they had suddenly been swallowed by the giant forest.
Above a fallen withered away tree not too far from where this path ended, an Evil Toutou crouched motionlessly.
This weirdly scarlet Evil Toutou was around three times larger than a normal one, causing its exposed fangs to look especially terrifying as strange arcane energy fluctuations pulsed outwards from its body.
Its giant eyes were full of savagery and fierceness as its gaze swept across the dark forest before it like a staunch sentry.
At this moment, an unusual look of fear flashed through the eyes of the Evil Toutou as a feeling of being stared by a predator surged through its body. It shuddered in place.
A person whose body seemed to be radiating with a bloody aura rose up behind it.
There was a loud spurt as the person's fingers penetrated through the Evil Toutou's neck and cut several of the Evil Toutou's major blood vessels.
But no blood splattered out.
It seemed to have all been devoured by the person's fingers.
After the Evil Toutou was killed without a sound, three more people, one tall and two short, emerged from the shadows.
The killer of the Evil Toutou raised his hand, causing a glint to flash across his glasses. It was Belo.
"We've finally managed to make it here. With this, we have successfully completed our mission."
Minlur, Chris, and Moss all seemed exhausted, yet their faces were filled with energy and excitement.
"I wonder if Ayrin and them have also completed their mission… if they have also succeeded, then they shouldn't be far from us…" Chris wondered to herself as she hid the Evil Toutou's corpse beneath a thicket of vines and began to condense arcane particles.
……
"All of you wake up!"
"If you all remain looking so tired and weak, then we will not be eating dinner!"
"Countless arcane teams have already entered this area. If you all don't wish to die, then hurry up and open your eyes for me!"
A group of strangely dressed archers marched through the dark and dense forest in an orderly fashion as the captain, who headed the march, continuously screamed at his subordinates behind him.
Their upper bodies were mostly bare except for their vitals, which were covered by thick brown leather patches, revealing large portions of their skin. The left sides of their faces were covered by iron masks inlaid with a transparent crystal right over the eye.
"Ayrin, what are you doing?"
At this same time, Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham had finally finished making their way through a marshy swamp and entered the area bordering Fallen Shadow Valley called Forest of Evil on their map. Having completed yet another arduous portion of their trip, Rinloran and Stingham immediately began resting and replenishing their arcane particles. Stingham watched as Ayrin immediately took out yet another scripture and began to earnestly read through and analyze it instead.
"That's right!"
A lightbulb went off in Stingham's head as he said to Ayrin, "Boss Ayrin, can you let me see that Death's Energy: Shadow Ball technique?"
"Eh, brave warrior Stingham, do you wish to learn this skill as well?" Ayrin asked as he looked at Stingham in surprise.
"I originally felt that this black magic skill was very perverse, but after seeing the shadow ball floating around you for so long, I've come to the decision to learn it as well because of the mysterious and cool appearance it creates." Stingham enviously looked at the ball of dark purple light floating beside Ayrin as he swept his hand through his hair and yearningly said, "As long as I am able to get rid of this disgusting zombie armor and replace it with that shadow ball, I will definitely seem more awe-inspiring and handsome than before."
"Seeing how even a brainless fellow like you was able to learn it so quickly, I will definitely be able to learn this skill in an instant without any effort," Stingham added after a short pause as he scornfully looked at Ayrin.
"It indeed seemed pretty easy to learn," Ayrin calmly replied as he chuckled and dug out the Death's Energy: Shadow Ball scripture and handed it over to Stingham with a smile.
"How can this be?!" Stingham shouted several minutes later, his eyes full of disbelief, as he failed his first attempt.
"What went wrong? How could the most handsome me make any mistakes?"
Several more minutes passed.
"…… How can I still not succeed?!" Stingham shouted as he failed yet again. His mouth hung wide open in shock.
More time passed. By this point, Stingham seemed to be on the verge of going crazy.
"What's wrong?"
Ayrin perplexedly looked at Stingham as he said, "It's not difficult. So how come you can't succeed?"
"It's clearly extremely complex and difficult. How can I learn this… that guy definitely just got lucky and coincidentally managed to learn it. That's why he is intentionally saying these things," Stingham angrily roared in his heart as he felt the urge to spit blood. But at this moment, Ayrin suddenly closed the scripture in his hands as he muttered, "This Far Sight also doesn't seem to be very difficult. Let me try it out."
Zap…
The space before Ayrin suddenly began to tremble as a transparent and pulsating crystal of light appeared before him and condensed into a transparent eyeball.
The transparent eyeball lingered before Ayrin for less than a second before suddenly dispersing into an even less visible cluster of mist and shooting forwards into the distance.
"Wow! So useful!"
Ayrin couldn't help but excitedly cry out, "It feels just like I am walking and observing the things around me!"
"What?! You managed to learn another one of the Black Witch's skills?"
Stingham's face immediately turned ugly.
"This guy's learning abilities… he's truly a monster!" Rinloran took a deep breath as he calmed his shocked heart. Afterwards, as he looked at the speechless Stingham, he couldn't help but spit out, "Idiot!"
"So strong, it can actually allow me to see so far away!"
Ayrin was completely motionless as he completely submerged himself within the skill's marvellous sensations.
His body hadn't moved an inch, but he was still able to move around and thoroughly observe their distant surroundings.
The strange entity created from arcane energy seemed to be somehow connected with his mind. As it scoured the surroundings, Ayrin felt as if he was controlling an avatar of himself through the Forest of Evil.
"It's gone at least a hundred and something meters by now… I wonder just how far it can go."
Out of curiosity, Ayrin used his mind to control the cluster of mist to go even farther. In the blink of an eye, it quickly travelled another hundred meters.
"It seems like it can travel at least four to five hundred meters away!"
After controlling it forward for another couple of moments, Ayrin finally felt his connection with the cluster of mist begin to weaken as the visions he saw became increasingly blurry. It seemed like four or five hundred meters was the current limit of the skill.
But it was already enough to completely shock him.
This was because in a battlefield like this where the complexity and obstructions of the terrain around them made it difficult to see more than ten meters around them, this skill was unbelievably useful.
"What's that?"
At this moment, the blurry figure of a strangely dressed archer suddenly emerged in Ayrin's mental picture.
"Rinloran! Stingham!" Ayrin quietly and anxiously shouted.
The Evil Dragon Archers!
Ayrin immediately matched the appearance of the figure before him with the description from the Office of Special Affairs. It was an Evil Dragon Archer!
In the past several years, the Evil Dragon Followers had failed to delude any particularly talented arcane masters into defecting because these particularly talented arcane masters were always able to succeed in obtaining glory and lordship, and becoming famous atop Doraster even without the Evil Dragon's powers.
Thus, although the Evil Dragon Followers were terrifyingly strong, they still had far less peak level arcane masters like Liszt than the two kingdoms.
To create more powerful arcane teams, the Evil Dragon Followers used methods to recruit large numbers of less talented arcane masters – many of which who could not even open three gates – and trained them to become archers. Through usage of special arrows created from the bones and crystals of demonic beasts, these less talented arcane masters were still able to pose a threat to the strongest of arcane masters.
Before determining the location of Fallen Shadow Valley and launching the assault, the two kingdoms had believed that the numbers of Evil Dragon Archer squads were very low. However, now that the fight had begun, they realized that there was a shocking number of these archer squads. Practically every single Path of Evil around the valley was patrolled and guarded by one.
"What's wrong? Is it the enemy?" Stingham asked in response as his eyes immediately lit up.
"Come with me, but don't make any noises!"
A glint flashed through Ayrin's eyes as he quickly moved into the forest without any hesitation.
