Chapter 281: Shocking Power
"What is this?"
Although the Dark Queen Mermaid's current state was extremely pitiful, Ayrin's attention was instead attracted to the fountain and the black branch floating over it.
He could clearly sense the abnormal aura of darkness emanating from the black water and trace it as it was then absorbed by the floating black branch and transformed into an even stranger and more profound aura.
"This…"
Rinloran's body violently shook as his icy mien suddenly became full of anger. His current expression was indescribably hideous.
"What is it?" Ayrin asked as he sensed Rinloran's abrupt change.
"A fragment of the Tree of Life… they actually dared to befoul a fragment of the sacred and pure Tree of Life using a Fountain of Darkness! And then they used it to nurture dark creatures and undead!"
Rinloran's strained voice seemed to be the most enraged and icy it had ever been.
"This is a fragment of the Tree of Life?"
Ayrin froze.
He couldn't understand why Rinloran was so angry.
He didn't understand just how pure and sacred of a symbol the Tree of Life was to the elves. He didn't understand that to the elves, the Tree of Life was more important than their own lives. He didn't know that the ancient Elven Kingdom had fallen during the Era of the War with Dragons due to an invasion by the Evil Dragon King and an army of undead.
And right now, the Evil Dragon Followers had desecrated a fragment of the Tree of Life and were using it to create such foul creatures!
"You were born from within this Fountain of Darkness and branch of the Tree of Life… no wonder the Evil Dragon Follower was able to summon you to battle!" Rinloran shakingly said in an icy tone as he turned and glared at the cornered Dark Queen Mermaid.
Stingham had only ever seen Rinloran so full of killing intent a single time during the entire national tournament – it was when Rinsyi had heavily injured Nikita. Thus, he felt extremely nervous as he stepped in front of the Dark Queen Mermaid, spread his arms, and shrieked, "What are you doing, Rinloran? Don't you dare harm my girlfriend!"
"Idiot!" Rinloran cursed loudly as he moved towards the Fountain of Darkness and jumped.
As he swept over the top of the fountain, he forcefully extended his still injured left arm and grabbed the floating black branch.
The moment Rinloran's hand touched the black branch, his skin began to corrode.
"What's going on? Rinloran, your hand! It's corroding!" Stingham shouted.
His eyes bulged in shock as he watched Rinloran continue to grasp the branch and ignore the corrosion of his hand.
"Dark arcane energy is invading his body! Rinloran, what are you trying to do?"
As Ayrin rushed to Rinloran's side, he realized that the black branch was actually a rootless sapling. Yet somehow, it still contained an extremely strong vital energy, as if it was a branch which had just been broken off the Tree of Life.
Although the branch was firmly in Rinloran's clutch, Ayrin could still feel his skin tingling from the attack of the aura of darkness as he approached.
"Rinloran, I suggest you throw it away after all! Otherwise, your entire hand will rot away. You will lose your hand!" Stingham screamed as he watched Rinloran's hand continue to deteriorate as he continued to clutch the branch.
"Idiot, you don't know anything! Would you just shut up for a moment?!"
Rinloran murderously glared at Stingham as he shouted, "Mother Nature's Blessing!" Following his invocation, countless faint blue points of light appeared over Rinloran like glittering stars and then quickly flowed to his hands and into the desecrated Tree of Life sapling like water.
Ayrin immediately understood what was happening as he cried out, "Rinloran is trying to use one of his innate elven skills to cleanse the sapling of darkness!"
"Rinloran, I only spoke because I care about you. Yet you treated me so poorly in response! Our friendship is over!" Stingham angrily shouted as he stomped in rage.
"What friendship is there to break when we weren't really friends to begin with!"
Rinloran didn't even look at Stingham as he icily shouted, "Having a teammate like you has only brought me shame. You will only ever drag us down!"
"You?!" Stingham's face turned green as he replied, "You dare say that my handsome, divine, and talented self am dragging you down?"
"Please. Your handsomeness is merely your own belief. That's why no girls are attracted to you," Rinloran sneered.
"You…" Stingham choked, "You already know how afraid I am of the curse, yet you still deliberately make fun of me!"
"Mother Nature's Blessing!"
Rinloran glanced at Stingham and then began ignoring him once more as he used the same skill several times in succession, sending countless star-like particles of faint blue light streaming into the desecrated sapling.
"You dare ignore me?!" Stingham felt insulted and undermined by Rinloran's attitude as he shrieked, "Fine! Then I shall no longer see you as my friend. The moment this mission ends, I will refuse to be on the same arcane team as you any longer!"
"Alright, alright. Stop fighting you two," Ayrin pleaded.
"Don't bother. We have already drawn a line between us!" Stingham shouted.
Seeing Rinloran and Stingham argue with each other, the Dark Queen Mermaid was a little bit dumbfounded.
But it seemed to have felt Stingham's protective intentions as the steely eyes with which it watched Stingham ever so slightly softened and showed less fear.
……
……
"Boss Tranquil Water, we have lost contact with both the Jade Ghost and Firestone teams!"
At this moment within the tent atop a Devil Snake Tree which was not far from Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham, a bald, one eyed man with a hooked nose rushed in and hurriedly gave a report to the young captain.
"What?!"
The expressions of the young captain and the two other arcane masters who had been leisurely waiting for an opportunity to appear abruptly changed.
The young captain who had been sitting cross legged immediately stood up and began urgently issuing commands.
"Have the Ghost Claw team return immediately!"
"Release our signal flare!"
But right at this moment, his expression rapidly changed once more as arcane particles abruptly shot out from his hands melted into the air, forming a transparent stream of water around the entire tent.
"Careful!"
Boom!
The water heavily collided with something, but they couldn't see what it was due to the darkness.
The explosion had caused the entire upper half of the Devil Snake Tree to burst.
All four of the arcane masters who had been within the tent were sent tumbling backwards through the wildly flying droplets of water.
"Shauna!"
The pupils of the young man who was called Boss Tranquil Water abruptly shrunk.
He watched as two figures, one tall and one short, emerged from behind the tree with Shauna, the petite female captain of his Jade Ghost team, in their clutches. Shauna was currently incapacitated and leaking blood from her mouth as the taller of the two figures clutched her neck.
"Brother, this enemy seems to be pretty strong. The strength of their arcane particles is about the same as mine."
A very thick and slow voice rang out. Indeed, the two who had appeared were the two Allen Brothers.
"Dancing Water. This should be none other than the captain of the Kingdom of Doa's Icefrost Corps, Cold Current arcane master Tranquil Water," the shorter Allen Brother confidently explained to the taller one.
"Who are these two? They are so powerful!"
Tranquil Water felt his breath stop as he helplessly watched blood flow from the mouth of the unconscious Shauna. He could feel his heart tearing.
"Let go of her!" He shouted towards the two Allen Brothers.
"Should we let go of her?" the younger Allen Brother asked the older one.
"Isn't your lightning spirit still hungry? Let it eat her," the older Allen Brother casually replied.
"Okay."
The younger Allen Brother didn't hesitate as a cluster of green light arced out from his back.
A figure even taller than the taller Allen Brother wiggled out from the younger Allen Brother's back and appeared before Tranquil Water and the other three arcane masters.
"Lightning spirit?"
"This is the White Haired Lord! It's actually that monstrous lightning spirit!"
Tranquil Water and the other three arcane masters helplessly froze as the light fully materialized behind the younger Allen Brother. It had a mouthful of sharp fangs, a giant, white hair covered head, and a belly which swelled like a toad's. Yellow currents of electricity constantly flickered atop its body as it released extremely strong arcane energy fluctuations and a tyrannical aura.
"No!" Tranquil Water let out a heart rendering cry.
But the moment he screamed was already too late as the creature roared and swallowed Shauna's petite body and began to chew.
"Go die for me!"
"Water Rendering Boundary!"
Blood began to flow from Tranquil Water's mouth as his lips cracked.
Arcane particles spewed out from his body like tidal waves.
An extremely strange domain energy abruptly descended.
The area containing him and the two Allen Brothers flooded with crystal clear water as they were separated from the rest of the world.
There was no pressure pressing down on the Allen Brothers or the lightning spirit, yet their bodies began to swell as if they had been soaking in water for dozens of days in a row.
"Brother, you were right. Like this, he really did immediately use his strongest skill."
The three seemed to be on the verge of exploding when the calm and composed voice of the younger Allen Brother abruptly rang out.
A golden light abruptly enveloped the bodies of the younger Allen Brother and the lightning spirit as if they had been covered by gold dust.
The unique arcane energy fluctuations of a domain skill began to ripple through the air once more.
Tranquil Water felt a chill rush through his body.
His powerful Water Rendering Boundary was still intact, yet it was unable penetrate the thin golden barrier of light.
"What kind of domain is this? It can actually block Boss Tranquil Water's Water Rendering Domain?!"
The faces of the three other arcane masters completely paled.
