Chapter 201: Hurry up old dog!
Grunting beneath his breath, the dark grand magus Edwin soared into the sky like the branch of a willow tree whipping into the air. As he did so, Han Shuo’s sharp knife-like palm cut through the air.
Stuck in Edwin’s heart, the Demonslayer Edge seemed to be under the draw of an immense force and forcefully flew out of his body, flying through the air.
Fresh blood dripping from his back, Edwin’s expression was an ugly grimace as he chanted a magic spell. Another hand of death appeared in the air and started hurtling down upon Han Shuo like a mountain. An enormous aura covered Han Shuo’s body, making it very difficult for him to breathe.
A thought grew in his mind as the Demonslayer Edge flew towards Han Shuo like a rainbow. He suddenly activated the “Art of the Demonic Ninth Heavens” and shot through the enormous aura surrounding him as the hand of death reached his head. He shot towards Florida’s escaping group.
When the second blow missed, Edwin distanced himself from Han Shuo. The speed at which he flew towards the horizon was clearly much nimbler than Archmage Emily.
Perhaps Han Shuo would have be able to meet him head on if the opponent had been Florida. But Edwin was a dark grand magus. Such potential was most definitely sufficient to overwhelm Han Shuo. So once the situation turned ugly, he needed to withdraw immediately.
“Treacherous little brat. Your death is certain!” Edwin bellowed hoa.r.s.ely from above. Unexpectedly, he ignored Belinda entirely as he shot straight towards Han Shuo.
Defeating him was out of the question, but as for escaping… The flexibility and speed of the “Art of the Demonic Ninth Heavens” instantly displayed its power, gradually increasing the distance between Han Shuo and Edwin.
Suddenly, a group of ten or so people appeared before him. Florida hovered midair, his long hair billowing. Below him, a few elite members of the Rainbow Sickle Mercenary Band sprinted through the thick shrubbery at lightning speed.
This time, Rainbow Sickle’s target had only been Han Shuo in their trip from the Valley of Suns.h.i.+ne. Therefore, they had only mobilized some experts. But who would have thought they would be so unlucky as to run into Edwin, someone with a grudge against Florida’s grandfather, and fall into such a miserable state.
Even though they were escaping in the same direction, Han Shuo’s speed had clearly surpa.s.sed Florida’s group. The fact that he would be able to catch up to these people had also been part of Han Shuo’s plans.
Laughing coldly, Han Shuo approached them from behind, using the flexibility granted by the Art to leisurely suspend himself on the bodies of Florida’s group. With Han Shuo’s chant, lance after lance of bone spears pierced towards Florida like arcs of electricity flas.h.i.+ng in midair.
“d.a.m.n it!” Florida, in the midst of running for his life, suddenly heard the whistling sounds of bone spears breaking through the air. He turned his head back and discovered a sinisterly smiling Han Shuo looking down at him with a cold smile. In that moment, Florida couldn’t help but swear.
A ball of eye blinding light shot out from Florida’s staff. A “Radiant Slash” spell was flung out and pulverized the three bone spears. At the same time however, the difference between the levitation spell and Han Shuo’s Art was made apparent. They had both chanted spells, but Han Shuo’s speed hadn’t been affected at all, whereas Florida’s originally swiftly moving speed had decreased by a third.
A strange wind sound quickly approached from the distance and Han Shuo understood that Edwin was swiftly catching up. A mocking smile hanging from his lips, Han Shuo once again slowed down and clung to Florida’s trail like a ghoul. He chanted the bone spear spell again as another three bone spears flew out.
Florida wasn’t afraid of Han Shuo, but he was inordinately afraid of Edwin. If it hadn’t been for Edwin’s pursuit, Florida would’ve absolutely stopped and brought his significant prowess to battle Han Shuo. However, he also obviously didn’t want Edwin to catch up to him because of Han Shuo. Therefore, he could only continue his defense and reduce his speed again and again.
“Chief, we’ll hold him off for you, you get out of here!” At this moment, some of the Rainbow Sickle experts out in front of Florida suddenly halted as one of them yelled loudly.
They’d all witnessed Edwin’s strength just now. If they stayed, they might be able to hold back Han Shuo, but they’d never be able to defend against Edwin. Speaking these words at this moment meant that they’d already made their plans to die.
“Alright, I’ll get revenge for you!” Florida was a ruthless person alright. Although he was a bit pained, he still decisively accepted their suggestion and glared ferociously at Han Shuo, then turning and das.h.i.+ng forward.
Two crossbows suddenly locked onto Han Shuo as two mercenaries’ sharp eyes gave Han Shuo a p.r.i.c.kling feeling of danger. Two sounds pierced through the air as two bolts brought a terrifying air current with them. They shot towards him with a speed and accuracy beyond Han Shuo’s imagination.
The quickly advancing Han Shuo had to rapidly back up. He didn’t dare rush another step forward. In this process, some of the archers notched their bows and took aim at Han Shuo. Their skill was in stark contrast to Belinda’s methods just now. Since Han Shuo had already taken to the sky, he was hard pressed to evade the danger from below and had to back up once again.
Han Shuo hesitated and planned on immediately changing direction. At this moment, the Rainbow Sickle mercenaries beneath him suddenly started panicking. A milky white, respondent server aura suddenly shot out from their midst as Trunks appeared on the back of his manticore. He was waving his sword around with a cold expression and forced the mercenaries back so that they had no energy to spare for Han Shuo.
“Trunks!” Up in the air, Han Shuo was flabbergasted by the disturbance below and he couldn’t help but dive down to exclaim in joy.
“Fly through the air to keep hara.s.sing Florida. I’ll handle these traitors on the ground who should’ve died a thousand, ten thousand times! We’ll chat when we get back to the Valley of Suns.h.i.+ne!” Trunks threw back his head and flashed a brilliant smile. The charming, handsome Trunks was attacking the experts of Rainbow Sickle from the back of his manticore.
“Trunks, don’t you bully others to the extreme!” The expert who had spoken before suddenly glared ferociously at Trunks.
“Bully others to the extreme?! Haha! The old chief was so good to you and none of you guys said anything after that animal Florida took control. You just blindly followed behind him. How dare you say these words to me now!” Trunks laughed as if he’d heard something hilarious, but his smile was even colder than the frosty night wind and his tone spoke of a hatred etched bone deep.
Edwin’s figure was drawing closer, drawing a cold laugh from Trunks. Trunks lifted his head once again and urged Han Shuo on, “Bryan, hurry and go. Take advantage of this opportunity to kill Florida!”
“Alright, that old monster behind us is a tough bird. Run away immediately if he draws near and don’t meet him head on!” Although Han Shuo didn’t understand why Trunks hated Florida that much, he guessed it must have something to do with the Rainbow Sickle mercenary band. The experts present here seemed to be acquainted with Trunks, and so this meant that there was some type of relations.h.i.+p between them.
Han Shuo realized that he wouldn’t be able to measure up to Trunks’ strong belief in him if he didn’t immediately give chase. He darted through the air like lightning and shot for Florida. Edwin arrived shortly after Han Shuo’s departure as well.
He cast a glance down and didn’t linger when he noticed that both Florida and Han Shuo were absent. He followed Han Shuo’s trail and seemed to be completely unconcerned with Trunks and those of the Red Sickle mercenary band below.
Han Shuo had already gotten a taste of Florida’s abilities earlier, he definitely wouldn’t be able to live in peace if the latter didn’t die. The place of extreme water was located within the valley, so he needed to stay here for a while longer. If Florida didn’t die, he’d have no end of trouble in the future. So even if Phoebe hated him for it, Han Shuo needed to kill him!
The flying art of a demonic cultivator enabled Han Shuo to slowly catch up to Florida when he circulated his magical yuan to the utmost, even after lingering halfway.
When the bone spears once again whistled through the air, Florida almost wanted to spit blood in his anger. He now knew that Han Shuo wanted to go down with him and have them both die to Edwin. In his irritation, he truly wanted to stop and fight Han Shuo to death.
“Just what do you want? When that old monster Edwin catches up to us, neither one of us will be able to escape!” Florida roared out furiously at Han Shuo, as the scene from earlier repeated again; Florida used the Radiant Slash to hack Han Shuo’s bone spears into pieces.
“Heh heh, it strikes my fancy today that I’ll die with you!” Han Shuo had an incredibly refres.h.i.+ng and relieving feeling after venting the dejected feeling he’d felt from being suppressed by Florida in the last two days.
Even with Edwin catching up to them, Han Shuo was confident that he could make use of his magic to get away. With Han Shuo’s understanding of mages, he could also be certain that Florida wouldn’t be able to maintain flight for too long, and thus this was why he’d done this.
“Crazy, a f*cking madman!” Han Shuo’s words finally caused Florida to start cussing.
Because Florida and Han Shuo’s speed had decreased, Edwin’s figure appeared from behind them at this moment and his odd cackling traveled to them first.”
“Hurry up old dog! I’m waiting for you!” Han Shuo even had the time to laugh wildly and look back at Edwin, egging him on with his words.
“You better pray that I don’t catch you, or I’ll make you regret that you’ve ever lived!” Edwin was absolutely incensed by the mention of “old dog”. Even the injury on his back seemed to throb with more pain after hearing that.
Han Shuo had long since pulled out the arrow that Belinda had shot into his calf, and this was when his durable body showed off its capabilities. His blood had stopped flowing out of the wound, and apart from some minor pain, there was no impact to Han Shuo’s movements.
When the three bone spears once again shot out, Florida had to reach out a hand and defend himself. Han Shuo made use of this time to release a dark mist spell. It was night to begin with, and there was no other light in the sky apart from a crescent moon. When the dark mist spell appeared again, it shrouded Han Shuo and Florida in a patch of darkness in which even one’s own hand couldn’t be seen.
“d.a.m.n it!” Florida emitted blinding light from his magic staff, but could only illuminate a small patch around him. He scrambled to defend himself against the bone spears and thereby decreased his flight speed even more.
“Kid, I’ll take your life first to pay back some of your grandfather’s debt to me!” Edwin had finally caught up to them, but Han Shuo slipped away like a bit of smoke and vanished in the direction of the Valley of Suns.h.i.+ne, leaving behind only Florida who’d been obstructed by the three bone spears.
Han Shuo wouldn’t be so stupid as to conceal his traces in front of a dark grand magus. When the mental strength of a freak like this covered everything, even someone truly dead would be revealed to him. Therefore, Han Shuo could only use the advantage of his speed to leave this place of danger as soon as possible and leave Florida behind to bring up the rear.
As Han Shuo’s figure slowly faded into the distance, the dark mist magic also started to dissipate. When Florida once again saw the clean moonlight reappear in the desolate night sky, he was also greeted with the sight of Edwin, enraged to the point where steam was spewing from his face.
“In the name of the G.o.d of Light, bind all darkness, Shackles of Light!” Florida panicked when he saw Edwin and didn’t think at all before he released the light magic spell, Shackles of Light.
Hula hoops of light sparkled with clean, pure light and rolled beneath the bright moonlight, surrounding Edwin. The bands of light were filled with the purest of light elements and had an enormous restraining power.
“This little fellow has such a high grasp of comprehension in light magic at such a young age. He will surely become a thorn in the side of our Calamity Church in the future. It looks like I can’t allow you to leave alive today!” When faced with the shackles of light, the dark grand magus Edwin neither panicked nor grew frantic, and his angrily scowling face from earlier regained its peace.
He chanted out a dark magic spell and waved his staff at the approaching Shackles of Light. A boundless surge of energy seemed to want to rip into everything as it churned the two bands of light closest to him into pieces.
Suddenly, the remaining bands of light all formed into one string as lightning started sparking and crackling all over the bands of light. The Shackles of Light had originally only be able to restrain enemies, but it had suddenly turned into an enormously strong killing machine in the span of a second and tried to churn Edwin into pieces.
“Heh, you’ve got some skills alright to be able to combine thunder magic with the Shackles of Light.” Edwin exclaimed softly as he was completely enveloped in the radiant flashes of lightning and bright light.
An inky black magic s.h.i.+eld covered Edwin, and three Hands of Death appeared in the air, grabbing the Shackles of Light. They pulled apart the bands of light with brute force and the violently sparking lightning found it completely impossible to injure the Hands of Death.
“Pfft.” Florida spat out a mouthful of fresh blood and then ran blindly away, seemingly unwilling to spend another moment there.
Melding together the light and thunder magic was obviously out of his control, and he’d been hit with the backlash of expending too much magic. That had resulted in immediate, significant injury. However, Edwin had easily broken through such a strong blow, displaying that the differences in their strengths were indeed too hard to cross. Florida knew that he would be hard pressed to escape death if he stayed for another moment.
Although Edwin had broken through Florida’s spell, it had taken him some time to do so. When Edwin then cleared away the remnants of the magic, he discovered that Florida had once again disappeared.
Florida was wavering through the sky in flight at this moment due to expending too much mental strength. However, the valley had finally appeared in front of him, and he’d be able to make it to safety before long.
No matter how much the Cairo and Rainbow Sickle mercenary bands were at odds with each other, the Cairo mercenary band still had to follow the rules of the valley. So once Florida entered the valley, whoever tried to kill him would face the attacks of all the a.s.sembled powers.
Add to that the fact that most of the Rainbow Sickle band was stationed within the valley, Edwin would be able to do nothing to Florida once he made it inside.
However, when he saw the border of the valley, Han Shuo’s coldly smirking figure appeared at the same time and blocked the way that he needed to take, obviously not planning on letting him make it inside alive!