Chapter 854: Terrifying Crusaders (Three in One)
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Abel saw the advanced cruiser marching towards him at a speed too fast for the eyes. He had been activating the “instantaneous movement” the whole time with his left hand. His body would appear and reappear to the other side of the battlefield very often. What happened next was quite surprising for him. The enemies’ would have lost their target since he knew that his charging ability couldn’t change directions. He didn’t know that the “charging” technique could change direction.
He thought to himself, “It’s a race, then. Your charge ability versus my instantaneous movement. We’ll go.”
Simultaneously, two spell runes for the “instantaneous runes” flashed out of his two hands. He disappeared from where he was under white light. He then appeared on the other side of the battlefield. Having yet to become a full-fledged wizard, his strongest point wasn’t his talent to cast lightning but the speed at which he cast his spells. The other wizards had to take years of practice drawing spell runes in a few seconds, but if he wanted to, he could do the same thing in less than a second. He could activate the Horadric Cube with his power of the Will, and the spell would literally appear within an instance as the runes would be drawn on their own.
Still, he didn’t think that he would win against the advanced crusader in front of him. He wasn’t going to try closing in, either, as there was no telling how strong the attacks might be. He was also trying to keep his distance from the advanced crusader before he knew what Abel was capable of. Abel’s casting speed did catch him by surprise. Even the “charging” ability that he was so capable of was interrupted because of this.
Still, when the advanced crusader just came to charge at the group spells, the “prayer” spirit light rings quickly switched and turned into the spirit qi light ring of “holy freezing.” This switch took place in the middle of his charge. When Abel noticed it, the blue light already appeared on him, leaving ice frost all around his body. That got Abel pretty badly. Within an instant, the blue ice frost covered his entire body and slowed him down by a ma.s.sive amount. The effect of the holy freezing was continuous. The advanced crusader must be very experienced in dealing against advanced wizards. Abel was fast, but he was also fast in the regard that he could find just the right counter in a very short span of time.
The advanced cruiser’s “charging” speed was pretty much the same as the speed in which Abel was casting his charge on Black Wind. Black Wind was the fastest thing on land at this point. Its natural-born speed and the underworld’s “special quickening” effect was unmatched. That being said, even this was not enough to outpace the advanced crusader. It really just showed how scary the “charging” ability was in the hands of a genuine crusader.
Still, just when the ice frost was covered all over Abel’s body, his druid spirit had already taken one bottle of the “melting potion” and consumed it. A yellow light flashed across his body, and the ice mist that was on him was suddenly gone. He was going to vanish under white light, but the advanced wizard’s “charge” rushed in front of him. Before contact was made, a “bone wall” was generated at the front of the advanced crusader, making it impossible for the advanced crusader to change course.
Then, a loud thump. The knight’s big sword in the advanced crusader’s hands became more deadly as the “charge” was activated. It crushed the bone wall, leaving a bunch of shattered bones on the ground. Abel saw the one that was coming out to help him. He didn’t think that it was possible to call for help, as the one that came was a Tauren with a longhorn on his head. It was a Tauren priest, not the usual that he’d see with a mask over his face.
The first impression of this Tauren priest was quite simple. First, he was very thin. He had a very large long robe all over his thick frame, not many muscles, and a skin that was closely tapped to his skeleton. His eyes seemed quite alive, though. It wasn’t as lifeless as he’d see from the other priests.
The Tauren priest called out loudly as eight skeletons surrounded him, “My name is Giant Horn, human wizard. I’ve come to help you!”
“My name is Abel,” Abel bowed and gave his thanks, “Thank you for helping back then.”
He did get out by himself just then, but Priest Giant Horn helped when the real trouble came. The favor had to be returned.
Abel’s eyes looked towards the other side. The large gate of the Wizard Union was just closed. Two red-cloaked law enforcer wizards were attacking the crusaders non-stop with their “instantaneous movement” spells. Since there weren’t any advanced crusaders around, the remaining crusaders formed to block the spell attacks. From what it looked like, the two red-cloaked law enforcer wizards had just stalled the twenty crusaders. About one hundred others were either already or coming to the city, and they were going against the wizards and other occupational holders that arrived.
It didn’t take Abel much time to really notice how terrifying the crusaders were. As long as they were intermediate, any intermediate wizards or orc warriors would be guaranteed to die in one or two strikes. It was quite unfair, actually. If the crusaders weren’t killed instantly, most of their injuries would be treated by the sacred qi light ring. This would make things really bad if there weren’t so many occupational holders around.
The advanced crusader was also starting to notice what was going on. He turned back, and after noticing Wizard Lamar, he made a “charging” movement straight towards him.
“Watch out, Wizard Lamar!” Abel screamed, unleas.h.i.+ng a streak of lightning from his hand. Perhaps there was a problem with proximity. The attack didn’t hit when he activated the spell right after the advanced crusader activated his charge. It was quite shocking. He never missed with his lightning spells, but ever since facing this advanced crusader, the odds became much lower than they should. He was lucky that he had the “nouris.h.i.+ng potion” with him.
It seemed like it was impossible to hold on too long. He made a light tap on his chest. From then, a giant steel figure walked out of the black hole that was in front of him. It was also at this point that Wizard Lamar heard his warning. Out of instinct, Wizard Lamar vanished under white light, meanwhile dodging a knight’s big sword that pierced through his shadow. He was trying to recover from his fear, but the advanced crusader was already rus.h.i.+ng to the front gate of the Wizard Union, slamming the gate the moment they could.
There were defensive circles drawn all over the gate. They were useful in blocking the attacks most times, but against this advanced crusader, a giant crack was already left on the gate under the first hit. It wasn’t for the extraordinarily durable door, that strike might’ve just shattered the gate. At this point, it would take just one second for the Wizard Union gate to open. If the advanced crusaders decided to make their way in, everyone knew what the consequences would be.
While Abel, Priest Giant Horn, and the two red-cloaked wizards were trying to hold off the advanced crusaders just then, if a real fight was to arrive, any one of them would die in just one hit.
“The gate’s about to open!” Wizard Lamar screamed in terror. A strong sense of powerlessness emerged from within him and Wizard Chapman. It seemed like the crusader squad was just about to break through the gate in two minutes.
Abels said loudly, “Protect that door, Johnson! Don’t let anyone in.”
At the same time, a large dark shadow appeared right in front of the Wizard Union gate. It was holding a long spear flas.h.i.+ng in lightning as it slammed towards the advanced crusader. It felt just like when he was trying to teach Johnson how to use a lance. Once the advanced crusaders were about to break the gate open with their final strike, they felt a great sense of danger rising on top of their heads. It was the first time they ever felt this after coming out of the teleportation portal.
A light flashed across the knight’s s.h.i.+eld in his left. He added a “divine s.h.i.+eld” buff over himself, and very quickly, he tried to deflect the lightning spear that was coming to him. It made him take five steps backward. Abel could not help but think that there was something ridiculously outrageous with this opponent’s defensive capability. This was Johnson, a ten-meter tall summon creature that was made entirely of fine steel. Forget about human bodies. Even a thick iron wall was no match for its spear. Still, the advanced crusader’s s.h.i.+eld managed to block all the effect unleashed from its lightning long spear.
Strangely enough, as the advanced crusader retreated. This was when the large door of the Wizard Union was opened. Johnson made a step forward and stepped right in.
Priest Giant Horn turned towards Johnson and turned back to Abel, “Is this your summoned creature, Wizard Abel?”
“Yes, Priest Giant Horn,” Abel nodded.
Priest Giant Horn continued to ask, “So how did you turn a metallic stone monster into, you know, the form that it is in now?”
Abel didn’t really know how to respond to that. This was the first time that someone would notice a metallic stone monster inside Johnson. He had to squint his eyes a little to get a better look at Priest Giant Horn. The skeletons beside him, too. Unlike the ones that were summoned by the Holy Continent’s orc priest improved variant of the “resurrection of skeletons,” they were called out by the original form of the spell.
Priest Giant Horn couldn’t help but rub the longhorns on his head, “So sorry, Wizard Abel. I forgot that it’s not okay to intrude into other people’s secrets.”
Abel replied honestly as he did receive help back then, “Okay. Johnson is not a metallic stone monster. I’ll give that to you straight.”
It took Priest Giant Horn a while to notice that the name was actually Johnson. He tried to reply with a dry (physically) smile. It looked kind of terrible, but Abel could see the sincerity behind it. Priest Giant Horn didn’t understand what methods Abel used to transform it, but as long as it was not a metallic stone monster, it would not be something that the priests would be capable of changing.
While Abel was still speaking to Priest Giant Horn, the advanced crusader launched an attack at Johnson. It was the same “charging” technique. The lightning long spear in its hand dotted towards the direction in which he was going very quickly. However, the advanced crusader’s body made a sharp turn, which made the strike miss completely. Abel was starting to notice what was wrong. Johnson was fast and strong, but it lacked the techniques to attack flexibly. Without flexibility, it would have no ways of actually striking a powerful melee opponent like, say, this incredibly advanced crusader.
Since Abel ordered it to guard the gate, Johnson decided to make a chase and instead, stood completely still in front of the gate. The advanced crusader got very close to Johnson when the hit missed. Because of how ridiculously tall Johnson was, it was extremely hard to start another fight with the advanced crusader.
So the advanced crusader swung his knight’s big sword heavily onto the armor plate on Johnson’s leg. The t.i.tanic divine armor had a hole ripped straight out of it, making Johnson’s entire body shake heavily. It wasn’t just Johnson, though. The advanced crusader also shook. At the same time, blood gushed out of his mouth. Johnson wasn’t the metal stone monster, but it did have one inside to repel all physical attacks thrown at it. The heavy hit did break its divine armor open, but the repelling force was still so great that it bounced right back to deal a great load of damage to the one attacking.
Johnson lost another chance to attack as it was shaken by the hit. The advanced crusader was slamming its leg with the s.h.i.+eld in his right. He was doing this despite being injured. As the s.h.i.+eld made a hit straight on, a white rune flew straight into its body, causing it to enter into a state of unconsciousness. To seize the chance, the advanced crusader’s sacred qi light ring switched again. This time, a blue light ring appeared at the bottom of his feet like streaks of water ripple. It was the terrifying power of the “focus” sacred qi light ring, which had the ability to increase physical attacks by several times.
Under the advanced crusader’s frantic attack, the divine armor on Johnson’s leg was completely cut open. The multi-surfaced metallic spheres on its legs were destroyed one by one by the fire, freezing, and lightning attacks that were emitted out of his knight’s big sword. It might be the biggest injury that Johnson’s ever sustained, actually. Throughout all this time, it’s been using the fine steel across its entire body and the elemental resistance rune on it to resist both physical and spell attacks. That turned out to be useless if the enemy was an advanced crusader. It had no ways of defending, and instead, had to take the attacks very pa.s.sively.
Of course, it wasn’t like the advanced crusader’s attack was worth nothing. He attacked and spat out blood simultaneously, which dealt a heap of damage to Johnson.
Boom.
Johnson fell very quickly as one of its legs was destroyed. Its heavy body could no longer keep balance, and it was just starting to wake up from its fainting state. The advanced crusader was in great joy as he readied himself to hit the head. As far as he was concerned, the head should be where Johnson’s vital point was. Johnson responded quite quickly, too. Instead of trying to attack, the divine armor was put back into the portal bracelet. The multi-surface metallic spheres quickly changed shape as they sunk deep into the inner part of the body.
For a moment there, Johnson became this ma.s.sive sphere that was not capable of unleas.h.i.+ng any sort of attack. There was only one intent behind this: to allow the advanced crusader to hit as much as he wanted. The advanced crusader’s face changed completely when he saw this. He just crushed Johnson’s leg, but to break the head was completely something else. If he really wanted to do Johnson in, the whole process would’ve taken about several minutes. He didn’t have a few minutes to wait, though. Johnson just stalled him for some time, and after two minutes, more elites would come here through the teleportation circle.
For Abel, he knew how strong Johnson’s defensive capability was. If it was in any danger, the druid spirit would have reminded him in time. No, it wasn’t like he didn’t want to summon Flying Flame or White Snow. This was a large city. He didn’t want to risk having Flying Flame and White Cloud being shot down by the air defense system. Of course, it wasn’t like he was just going to wait here, either. Within one ‘instantaneous movement,” he teleported straight towards where the one hundred crusaders were. Of course, the two red-cloaked law enforcer wizards were still stalling twenty by themselves.
One hundred was quite the number. The crusaders rushed to attack in every direction, killing off many humans and orcs in their way. They were actually easier to deal with than the advanced crusaders, actually, as his elemental attacks would work spectacularly against the advanced crusaders.
The fight became very messy as the advanced crusaders were in extreme proximity with the city’s occupation holders. Abel was restricted from using his area spells, so as soon as he closed into the battleground, he unleashed a streak of the “lightning chain,” which locked onto the enemies he marked onto automatically.
“Advanced wizards! Retreat! Retreat!”
A Bearman saw the crusader that was fighting in front. He was zapped right where he was standing. Instead of attacking immediately, he screamed so that the occupation holders knew that they stood absolutely no chance. They all left the battlefield quickly after hearing the growl. That’s when the crusaders also came. After seeing Abel, they quickly gathered and made a formation that was designed to attack advanced wizards. If they were scattered, the advanced wizards would’ve killed them one by one. It was this collective, though, that got them to quickly disperse out.
“May honor be with my lord!”
Instead of meeting with the other crusaders, one of the crusaders used his “charge” to rush towards Abel. He wanted to break the spell that Able was forming in his hand. This was an intermediate crusader, by the way. He knew the consequences of attacking his own, but he chose to sacrifice himself so the others could intercept Abel’s spell attacks. However, as soon as he unleashed his “charge,” a lightning sphere shot at him right on. Yes, he did learn the “lightning resistance,” but the advanced “lightning blizzard” spell was attacking automatically by units of seconds. It was simply too fast for him to make a real response.
As the lightning sphere hit him, his body fell not so far from Abel’s front. Abel unleashed a “fireball” with his “leaf” magic staff and struck the intermediate crusader straight on. The intermediate crusader’s body was entirely covered in flame by the level twenty fireball. He turned into a pile of ash before he even had the time to scream in agony. By sc.r.a.ping through what was leftover, he could find armor, a knight’s big sword, a s.h.i.+eld, and a stone that was glowing white.
“The light stone!” he thought to himself, at the same time sensing the greed of the surrounding occupation holders. As adventures and bodyguards of royals, the reason they came here was more for this light stone than to have a bloodbath with these crusaders. That was just how much it was worth it to get the light stone. The wizards would pay a ridiculous sum just to get them.
With his “telekinesis,” Abel put away the light stone without giving too much to look towards it. The look he had was quite different from when he was looking towards the one hundred crusaders. These were all light stones, the very precious resources that the wizards training so hard to get. With that in mind, he immediately decided to cast a “blizzard” spell that generated dark clouds on top of the crusaders’ heads. From there, a “firewall” spell appeared and was thrown to their feet.
“May honor be with my lord!” the crusaders screamed as strange light flashed out of their bodies. The three sacred qi continued to switch beneath their feet. It was “lightning resistance,” “freezing resistance,” and “fire resistance.” The crusaders at the front row had s.h.i.+elds raised on the ground. Together, they formed a streak of energy that was like combat qi, but much stronger.
A snowflake fell onto about a dozen of these crusaders. Ice frost covered their body, but the freezing element’s damage was distributed evenly to all the crusaders. It was the same for the fire element damage of his “firewall” spell. The damage inflicted was resisted and re-distributed back to all of the crusaders. The crusaders inside the formation prayer and spheres of the “holy light bullet” appeared from their hands and were shot towards Abel.
“Not a formation for brave men, as far as I have it,” Abel said, meanwhile using the “instantaneous movement” to avoid the attack of the “holy light bullet.” By the way, these “holy light bullets” were not really aimed to hit him. It was more to disrupt him from using his spell attacks.
“Your defense or my attack. Which is it?” Abel thought to himself as he showed himself once more. He started entering into an endless streak of casting spells. This time, instead of using just multiple types of spells, he only used the “firewall,” which was the one that dealt the most damage out of all his spells. The formation was actually making the crusaders move slower. It was quite resilient in its structure, but the speed at which they were moving was simply too slow. This made it easy for him to strike them with the strongest attack he had up his a.r.s.enal.
The “firewall” spell rune appeared in both his left and right hands. From then on, two “firewall” spells appeared in the crusaders’ formation, and in less than half a second that they were cast, another two firewalls appeared in the midst of these crusaders. It didn’t take them long to be covered in a sea of flame, making it impossible to maintain their formation. When they tried to disperse themselves on the field, less than forty of them managed to really get out of the sea of flame. About one hundred and forty of them died.
Dots of light stones flashed right on the ground, but no occupation holders on the field wanted to grab onto them. The spell that was just cast was too terrifying for them. The “firewall” might be an intermediate spell, but their runes were the most complicated of all the intermediate spells. He would’ve had to continue casting them with his two hands, which was something that was supposed to be possible in just imagination.
Abel had several tens of streaks of “firewalls” erupting in front of those occupation holders in a very short period of time. It killed all one hundred forty crusaders. He didn’t even use the “telekinesis” this time. Instead, he used his power of the Will to grab the light stones into his portal bag. The remaining crusaders were gravely injured because of this. If the surrounding occupation holders weren’t so afraid, they would’ve marched forward to s.n.a.t.c.h their battle reward.
“I’ve come to help you, Wizard Abel!”
With a loud, violent shout, Priest Giant Horn came rus.h.i.+ng in with his eight skeletons. He was brave enough to cast the “aging” curse onto the crusaders that couldn’t move. From then on, the skeletons went forward and easily cut the crusaders up. Seeing this made the nearby occupation holders feel moved. When they realized that Abel wasn’t stealing the orc priest’s achievement, they thought about joining. They didn’t actually go, however. Priest Giant Horn already cast a “poison explosion” as soon as the first crusader fell. A poison mist was covering up an entire battlefield.
Abel wanted to laugh at Priest Giant Horn. Priest Giant Horn definitely did this on purpose. It was hard to see many expressions on his dried face, but Abel could see the pride in his eyes.
Just then, Abel killed a total of one hundred and forty crusaders in total and received one hundred and forty light stones. He thought that the harvest was plentiful in itself. As he could not collect all the goods, he decided not to collect what the forty crusaders got. Also, he’s got the equipment of all of the crusaders on the ground. He was a grandmaster blacksmith, one that excelled in the knowledge of the gears in the dark world. Because of that, it was easy to tell that there was nothing that met the eyes. Perhaps it had to do with how dangerous this operation was. These crusaders didn’t bring anything good with them.
Thus, the group’s gears were for him to share with the occupation holders who came to partic.i.p.ate in the fight. Originally, he would do the same with the forty crusaders, but boy, Priest Giant Horn, as the thug among the orcs, stole everything, just one poison explosion. Just when Giant Horn was about to pick up the pieces of light stone, streaks of white light flashed across, and ten-something advanced wizards teleported themselves from amidst the Wizard Union.
“Leave with me!” the advanced crusader screamed to his twenty followers as he saw that the operation could not continue. From there, he took out a potion bottle from his pocket, and with a painstaking look, he opened the lid and drank all the potions within. Countless streaks of lightning sacred qi light ring appeared beneath him. They were the most powerful out of all his aggressive spells, but the way they worked was actually quite unpredictable. The sacred qi light ring had a value jumping gap that was very random. It could go from almost nil to about three hundred, and the number would be one most of the time.
After seeing the advanced crusaders drink that potion, he became confident that there was a chance to use the “sacred push” sacred qi light ring. He had enough confidence with it, the confidence to borrow it to bring away all the crusaders that were with him.
“May honor be with my lord!” the advanced crusader slammed heavily on his chest with his right hand. From then on, he and the twenty crusaders activated their charge and headed to the teleportation portal.
“Stop them!” Wizard Lamar screamed with a pale face that had sweat all over it, “They’re trying to run!”
He spent too much mana today. Just then, he and his partner just stopped a total of twenty crusaders by themselves. Their exhaustion erupted as soon as the crusaders left.
Meanwhile, an advanced wizard near the advanced crusader teleported right in front to face him directly. The spell was cast, and the advanced crusader brought his twenty crusaders to be near in about one hundred meters from the advanced wizard. Just when the advanced wizard was about to draw a spell rune, a streak of lightning suddenly flashed out beneath him. The hit was very discrete, so much so that he almost had no time to really guard against it.
Anyways, as the spell runes in his hands were dispersed, his body entered into a state of shock. The advanced crusaders didn’t close in to attack him. He needed to bring the twenty crusaders back to where he came from. Compared to the ones that died in this battle, these surviving ones were his true main force.
So the advanced crusaders continued to rush towards the teleportation portal straight on. The terrifying “holy shock” struck lightning straight towards all the wizards and occupation holders that were approaching them. While the lightning attack’s strength was not strong, the zapping effect would immobilize all those who tried to move. As for the advanced wizard’s spells, apart from some of the faster middle-low level ones, the ones that could deal a lot of damage never really hit the squad as they were moving at high speed.
The advanced crusader screamed towards Abel as he was about to enter the teleportation portal, “The name’s Menken! We’ll meet in the holy battle! I remember you now!”
If it wasn’t for Abel, he would’ve accomplished his mission today. Everything was supposed to go very smoothly if it wasn’t for the two red-cloaked law enforcer wizards and Abel, the advanced wizard.