Chapter 316: Teamwork
Aside from fire grand magus Marceau, the group included one thief, one priest, two mages and three swordsmen. The strength of these adventurers weren’t weak. Their average age was around forty and they were all experienced fighters.
Marceau seemed to be the leader among these adventurers. Therefore, they immediately readied their weapons to attack Han Shuo as soon as her words sounded.
The two mages below were a lightning adept mage and a water archmage. They were the first to make a move. The opening salvo was several sizzling lightning and thunder b.a.l.l.s, their electric sparks bursting out to smash into Han Shuo. The water archmage waved his magic staff around to release some sharp, cold s.h.i.+ny icicles that hurtled fiercely at Han Shuo from below.
The priest chanted a magic restoration spell, after which a silver halo enveloped Marceau’s body. Her mental strength had previously been overspent, but the effect of the silver halo restored it from depletion. s.h.i.+mmering light circles sparkled on her old, wrinkled face.
One of the two senior swordsmen instantly stepped over to protect Marceau. Two huge iron s.h.i.+elds were erected at the front. The s.h.i.+fty eyed thief slipped through the thick forest like a rac.o.o.n, setting up traps and readying them.
Han Shuo was still advancing straight towards Marceau. He had already taken note of this group’s appearances and various strength thanks to the two yin demons. As he flew, he took out the bone staff, spreading out a thick ma.s.s of black fog around himself. Han Shuo vanished in the midst of the thick smoke.
The lightning b.a.l.l.s and icicles all collided into the thick black fog. However, as Han Shuo’s body had suddenly disappeared, these attacks could no longer find their target. They turned to crash into each other instead, creating huge explosions.
When the lightning b.a.l.l.s and icicles dissipated into nothingness, the thick black fog also gradually spread out as well. The team of adventurers led by Marceau had also finished their preparations and were staring at the center of the fog. The three swordsmen had temporarily switched to being three archers as they raised their bows, waiting only for Han Shuo to show himself.
However, there was no trace of Han Shuo in the clear blue sky when the thick black fog dissipated. He had vanished without a sound or a shadow. The adventurers who were ready to attack him head-on could only look at the sky in puzzlement.
Rumble…
Dirt mounds suddenly emerged from the ground without a warning. The adventurers had been paying attention to the sky were caught off guards by the movements underneath. Grand magus Marceau and the water archmage were the first to fly up.
The three swordsmen reacted swiftly. They grabbed the iron s.h.i.+elds to block the earth from attacking the lightning mage and the priest. The attacks threw the swordsmen up into the air, but most of the impact was lessened by the s.h.i.+elds. The swordsmen were meant to be meat s.h.i.+elds in battles, so they weren’t injured much.
The thief had extraordinary sensitivities. Leaping with the tips of his feet like a monkey swinging on the trees, he used prearranged silver silk threads to swing to a towering tree and avoided all of the attacks from the mounds.
He landed on a big tree before using a dagger to cut off some rope. A tree trunk whittle sharp suddenly flew out straight towards Han Shuo, who was hiding behind a tree.
Upon seeing the thief’s action, the rest of the adventurers immediately aimed their attacks at that tree. In a blink of an eye, dozens of attacks rained down in all directions. Han Shuo, who’d originally thought that they wouldn’t be able to find him, could only awkwardly jump out from behind the tree.
As he defended against the various attacks, an ice arrow nailed his thigh, a lightning ball exploded and hit him with its flying sparks. Han Shuo’s whole body became numb, his hair that’d just grown out all stood erectly upright.
“Kill him, he’s been hit!” The thief shouted loudly.
The priest chanted a long incantation, and three dizzying beams of radiance shone upon the three swordsmen. Now that the spells of “Strengthen Armor, “G.o.d’s Blessing,” and “Brute Strength” had been cast, the light churned in gorgeous fas.h.i.+ons in their chest as they ferociously rushed Han Shuo.
What a horrifying combination of adventurers! Han Shuo’s heart jumped with fright for a moment before he rapidly retreated into the woods. His speed was very fast as he quickly left the three reinforced swordsmen in the dust and waited for an opportunity to make a move.
This adventurer team obviously had practical battle experience. Otherwise, it couldn’t have been possible for them to coordinate so tacitly. They had great trust for each other, and when the priest, the mages, the swordsmen and the thief united, they created enormous offensive power. Han Shuo had initially thought he could easily deal with them, but his head now ached with the conundrum of dealing with them.
The power of the three swordsmen had been increased a level thanks to the priest’s magic, but Han Shuo was confident he could neatly kill them in a few minutes even if he faced all three of them at the same time. However, the mages who were staring at him as if looking at prey certainly wouldn’t let him succeed. The priest was hard at work casting magic at the three swordsmen, constantly supplying them with energy. This wasn’t something Han Shuo could hold up against.
Han Shuo pondered as he remained concealed before finally realizing that this team didn’t have a light mage. He immediately took this opportunity to summon a great deal of dark creatures in secret, while casting the Canopy of Necromancy at the same time. When the wood elite zombie appeared, he hid at a big tree the thief was standing on on, and utilized his control over plants to order the tree to wrap around the thief as per Han Shuo’s command. The soft tree branches turned into deadly weapons, instantly drilling through the thief’s body.
“Cadi!”
The adventurer team was forming a firm, defensive formation. When the tree branches penetrated the thief, the priest let out a big, shrill scream in agony. The thirty-odd years old woman seemed to be the wife of the thief. His death dealt her a great blow.
“There’s a druid here, be careful everyone!” Marceau hastily shouted out a reminder.
The three swordsmen on the ground immediately waved their broadswords to clear away all of the plants around them. As for the priest, she still looked around in caution despite the fury in her heart. Not finding her target, she stepped into Marceau’s s.h.i.+eld. She started cursing crazily with grief, releasing spell after spell to probe where the enemy was.
“So, so many people!” Probing with her magic, the priest sensed the sudden presence of many people in all directions. This awoke her from the blindness of her fury, she mumbled as she looked around.
“How many? How many people?” Marceau asked urgently with great anxiety.
“A lot, too many!” The priest answered. She glanced at the thief’s body and pleaded to Marceau, “Get his body first, hurry!”
“Take Cadi’s body, leave this place! d.a.m.n it, now that I think about it, he’s also a necromancer!” Marceau shouted out loudly. The three swordsmen risked their lives to rush towards the thief’s body.
It was too late. Accompanied by rustling sounds from the thick forest, a great horde of undead creatures slowly appeared. There were amongst them an evil knight on a fire-spitting skeletal warhorse with his two meter long bone lance raised high, his ice cold, emotionless eyes nailing the three swordsmen.
Ten enormous hate warriors with rotting bodies were behind the hate knights, each holding either a big mace or a long spiked pole. Under the deathly aura’s manipulation, they slowly flocked towards the adventurer team standing in the middle of the scene.
The hearts of Marceau’s group became increasingly heavier upon the appearance of the undead creatures. When a swordsman brought back the thief’s body, Marceau immediately ordered, “I’ll open up a path. You guys leave this place now.”
Six fire snakes flew up, their raging flames bringing about a burning high temperature. This was something extremely horrifying that also upset the undead creatures. The high temperature would burn their cold bodies uncontrollably, with the fiery red flames sweeping away the thick smell of death. Their souls would then fell into an endless abyss.
Therefore, the undead creatures instinctively retreated when the five fire snakes flew out to hinder the two hate warriors, not wanting to suffer any agony from the flames. The two hate warriors only drew near after Han Shuo gave them orders again. As for the evil knight of a higher rank, he moved firmly towards the flames to attack the adventurers.
Undead creatures were born afraid of fire. However, the higher their level, the less their fear of flames. The hate warriors could just manage to hold on, while the evil knight wasn’t afraid at all. He charged forward in accordance to Han Shuo’s commands.
A gout of flame came cras.h.i.+ng in from not too far away. The few low rank creatures such as skeletal and zombie warriors were immediately charred to cinders. Even the hate warriors constantly retreated backward, not daring to be near to those flames.
The big headed fire elite zombie was within the light of the flames. He’d yet to be able to exercise control over the flames on his body, so he’d actually accidentally burned his own kind. Still, he heeded Han Shuo’s order like it was an imperial edict and opened his mouth wide to swallow the fire snakes released by Marceau, not letting her take advantage of the flames to flee from the undead creatures.