Chapter 305: Hiding
The seven grand duchies included the Helon Duchy of Helen Tina, Bavenden Duchy of Alec Ambridge, Boulet Duchy of Burt Zili, Bonton Duchy of Randy Allard, Na.r.s.en Duchy of Benedict Sackville, Etman Duchy of Argi Gilles, and Bisli Duchy of Nehem Beige.
The combined size of the seven grand duchies wasn’t much smaller than the Lancelot Empire, but the seven grand duchies fought all year round and never seemed to stop. This battle was being conducted right outside of the Helon Duchy, the current partic.i.p.ants being the Helon, the Na.r.s.en, the Etman and the Bonton duchies.
Grand duke Benedict of Na.r.s.en Duchy was in the prime of his life. He coveted Helen Tina’s beauty, hence his cooperation with Helon Duchy against the invasion of Etman and Bonton duchies to win the beauty’s heart.
Benedict desired Helen for her beauty as well as her duchy. However, Helen had always maintained a tepid att.i.tude towards his aggressive pursuit. This tickled his heart, making him even more eager to please her. Benedict often accepted Helen’s invitation to personally led the army of Na.r.s.en Duchy in skirmishes.
Helen wore a bright red magic robe, a mysterious magic pattern on her high, protruding chest, and her long red hair elegantly flying in the wind above the mountain. Helen looked like a dazzling G.o.ddess of fire as she rode the red-feathered fire phoenix.
On the cliff beneath her was grand duke Benedict of Na.r.s.en Duchy in clean, exquisite formal attire. He stood next to a luxurious carriage, a calm and confident smile on his face. His eyes were watching the soldiers of Etman and Bonton duchies advance deep into the mountain.
Han Shuo arrived in the sky above the mountain valley. Glancing down on the raging battle, he recalled Troda’s wealth being buried hidden here and momentarily zoned out.
This place was completely different from the mountain valley with the mithril mine. The mountain was formed purely from the deposits of type of very durable rock. The darling of the earth–the earth elite zombie, could move unimpeded within the soft soil, but he couldn’t do so at will with this rock solid mountain.
If the metal elite zombie could be refined in the place of extreme metal, its ability to destroy stones and drill through mountains would enable it to enter easily. Unfortunately, the metal elite zombie was currently un.o.btainable, since the location of the place of extreme metal was still unknown. Han Shuo could only helplessly watch the grand battle occur on the mountain while thinking of another way.
Han Shuo stood on the sky, his vision scanning the entire mountain valley. He frowned, wondering if he should make use of this chance to enter. Troda’s wealth was hidden at the spot beneath the carriage where Benedict was standing next to. Troda hadn’t placed all of his wealth into the s.p.a.ce ring, likely because he was scared that someone would a.s.sa.s.sinate him to seize his ring.
Troda had also been quite a player. He’d had three lovers and two sons in the Helon Duchy. He’d already made the appropriate arrangements for his most trusted mistress. Once she learned of his death, the wealth in his mountain would become the pillar of support for this mistress and his sons.
Therefore, Han Shuo needed to quickly clean out the four hundred thousand gold coins worth of treasures when the news had yet to reach her ears.
As Han Shuo raptly watched the scene below and tried to think of a way, Helen Tina below suddenly discovered his gaze. She frowned, a magic staff embedded with an enormous flame stone abruptly appearing in her hand.
This magic staff had the ability to increase the effectiveness of fire magic. Helen raised it and pointed at Han Shuo. A blazing fire coalesced into five human-sized fireb.a.l.l.s, flying straight towards him on the sky.
“Hateful woman!” Han Shuo softly cursed. The fingers on his left hand danced adroitly, shooting out rays of faint purple flame. The rays wove into a glacial net, tightly enveloping the five huge fireb.a.l.l.s.
Sizzling sounds and faint smoke instantly appeared when the magic net, woven from the purple spellfire of the Mystical Glacial Spellfire, wrapped around the five fireb.a.l.l.s. The cold air instantly snuffed out the fire elements within the fireb.a.l.l.s. The fire remnants s.h.i.+mmered as they slowly scattered down, forcing Helen to pull on the hood of her magic robe.
“Who is it?” Helen Tina looked up only to see a small black spot under the sunlight. She withdrew her contemptuous att.i.tude and asked cautiously upon seeing her fireb.a.l.l.s easily destroyed.
Han Shuo paid no heed to Helen Tina and snorted before flying off towards the back of the mountain. He intended to temporarily depart this troublesome area and think of other methods later. At the back of the mountain, he saw Helon soldiers hauling enormous war equipment to the top. Han Shuo intended to kill a soldier and changed outfits in order to enter the main battlefield.
Helen Tina started panicking upon seeing Han Shuo fly to the back without any words but a snort. She looked down and shouted to Benedict, “You take care of matters here. The magic cannons are being delivered to the back of the mountain, but a dangerous character has appeared. I need to immediately go and take a look.”
Helen Tina patted the fire phoenix without waiting for Benedict Sackville to reply. The super rank magic creature had brilliant, fiery red feathers that swayed and sashayed as the phoenix flapped its wings and flew up, bringing the bright red robed woman to the back like a gout of blazing flame.
The magic cannons contained a strange kind of magic element. This element seemed to repulse the s.p.a.ce rings. The cannons couldn’t be placed directly into s.p.a.ce rings and could only be pushed up slowly via human power.
Helen Tina had crafted the strategy for this grand battle for a long time, the killing blow being precisely the bombardment of magic cannons from the high att.i.tude of this mountain. She had been planning this for far too long, using enormous effort to lure two grand duchies to the same place. She absolutely would not let anyone destroy her plan. Therefore, she expended full force in stopping Han Shuo when she saw him fly to the back.
Han Shuo had yet to apply his plan when a red silhouette quickly flew over. In the sky, five huge but slender, vivid fire snakes twisted their roughly seven meter long bodies before shooting at Han Shuo from five different directions.
The fire magic “Mad Dance of Fire Snakes” could only be casted when a fire mage advanced to the rank of archmage. The ring that Helen Tina wore on her left hand enhanced mental strength. Add to that the magic staff embedded with the flame stone, she was able to release five fire snakes instead of three that an ordinary archmage could summon.
The five fire snakes meandered in the sky, the extremely high temperature creating sizzling sounds in the air. The fire was so violent that it seemed that it would only need a short while to burn Han Shuo to ashes.
Han Shuo was stunned. He had originally looked down on Helen Tina, thinking she was only a woman with wild ambitions who only knew to use schemes and beauty to gain power. He hadn’t expected her to have real strength. This terrifying strength coupled with her extraordinary beauty surprised Han Shuo greatly.
Snow white bones shot out like flowers in full bloom, becoming as soft as silk threads. They were woven into a ma.s.sive white bone s.h.i.+eld under Han Shuo’s manipulations. Endless darkness blotted out the dazzling sunlight. The dark fog completely shrouded this s.p.a.ce while the white bone s.h.i.+eld materialized in front of Helen Tina.
The fiery red halo of the five fire snakes wasn’t enough to light up the surroundings. As the sunlight was blotted out, the snakes lost their targets and turned to entangle the white bone s.h.i.+eld instead, burning it to crisp. Helen Tina suddenly couldn’t feel a hint of Han Shuo’s presence anymore.
The dark fog disappeared as quickly as it came, dispersing upon just a breeze. When the sunlight returned to scatter upon the hill, Han Shuo had already vanished from the air without a trace, leaving behind only the burned bone s.h.i.+eld that was cut off from it supply of magical energy. The s.h.i.+eld shattered into small, inky black pieces and scattered down.
Taking out a pair of snow white gloves with silver embroidery, Helen Tina promptly caught a falling piece of bone. She was shocked upon looking at the pitch black piece in her hand, her eyes vigilant as she swept a glance around and murmured, “Turns out he’s a d.a.m.nable necromancer. Just who is this person?”
Mumbling to herself for a bit, Helen Tina still had no clues. She naturally thought that Han Shuo had taken advantage of the dark fog to escape. Turning to look at the soldiers busily pus.h.i.+ng the cannons, she ordered, “Hurry up, move all of these cannons to the top of the mountain.”
The bare chested soldiers were hard at work and all shouted “Yes!” upon hearing the order. Everyone snuck a glance at the G.o.ddess of their heart and felt themselves full of an inexplicable energy, their strength suddenly spiking up.
On a huge rock, a soldier lightly rested his hands on the carriage containing the cannons. A trace of ridicule flas.h.i.+ng in his eyes, he glanced at Helen Tina in the sky like a vicious beast lurking in the dark looking at its prey. He whispered with a chuckle, “Helon Duchy, Helen Tina. You pillaged Brettel City to fatten yourselves, now it’s time for you people to spill some blood.”