Chapter 91: Snipe

  The Kalendor Basin was located in the southwest of the Empire. To the west of the basin were vast mountains, and to the north was Bracada, the border between the Empire and the Barbarian Highlands.

  The mountains surrounding the basin were actually originally part of the open-air section of the Dwarven Empire's Stone City. More than three hundred years ago, some humans crossed the mountains to settle here to escape wars. In the last century, mountain roads were carved due to commercial development, and the area was nominally incorporated into the Ainfast Empire. However, strictly speaking, this was dwarven territory, so the humans in the Kalendor Basin were completely autonomous. Their long-term isolated life had maintained a dull, rigid atmosphere and lifestyle, like the permanent canopy of coal ash and smoke mixed with clouds overhead—drowsy and oppressive.

  But in the past year, the situation here had greatly improved. After the orc city Oufu was established in the Barbarian Highlands, a road was immediately carved through the mountains northwest of the basin. The highest quality ore on the continent and the finely crafted weapons and tools of the dwarves could now be traded throughout the continent via Oufu, no longer limited to export to the Empire. Trade had brought rapid prosperity and bustle to the basin. With a new shortcut to Oufu, merchant caravans from the Empire headed to the basin daily, and several small towns at the mountain pass entrances on the outskirts of the basin had also prospered.

  At noon, the town at the foot of the mountain welcomed another caravan. Merchants and guard mercenaries, some riding horses and others in carriages, cheerfully discussed their upcoming trip to the orc city along the way. Only in the last carriage were two people wrapped in tattered cloaks, leaning against each other as if very tired. These were two wanderers the caravan had encountered halfway, who seemed to have suffered serious injuries when found, allegedly being pursued by bandits. At their pleading and the cost of a few silver coins, the caravan agreed to take them to Oufu.

  Just as the caravan arrived at the town entrance, a cry echoed through the clouds and mountains. In the distance, a black figure flew out from deep within the basin, waving its wings. The huge black figure landed on a platform in front of a cave on the mountain opposite the town, which was an entrance to the dwarven underground city. There seemed to be two or three figures on the black creature.

  Most people in the caravan were seeing such a creature for the first time and exclaimed in surprise. A merchant who had been to Oufu explained this strange giant creature tamed by orcs. The caravan slowly entered the town, where they would rest before entering the Kalendor Basin and traveling through the northern mountain road to Oufu.

  The caravan stopped as soon as it entered the town because the road was blocked.

  What was blocking the road was strange, or rather not a thing, but a tea table with two people drinking tea.

  These two appeared to be an old man and a middle-aged man based on their stature and hair color. Both were dressed ordinarily, but wore exquisitely crafted silver skull masks that completely covered their upper faces, leaving only their mouths visible.

  These two strange individuals had been sitting there since morning. The town's sheriff had come to inquire and intervene, but the old man just waved his hand, and the sheriff was immediately thrown high like a ball, landing inexplicably half-dead. After that, no one dared to approach. The townspeople also avoided the area from a distance.

  The caravan hesitated for a moment in front of these two strange individuals. The leader was an old merchant who didn't want to cause trouble. Looking at the eerie masks and their posture, he decided to take a detour.

  Just as the caravan was preparing to turn, the old man sighed and said in an extremely strange voice: "Still won't come out on your own? Want to involve more people? It's a pity that even if everyone in this town willingly serves as your meat shields, you still won't escape."

  The old man's cold voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly.

  Responding to him was a clear female voice from the caravan reciting aloud: "Great God of All Things, grant me your gift of life to drive out evil and darkness."

  Three green lights shot out from the caravan and shone on three trees by the road. The trees emitted a strange creaking sound and actually thickened at a speed visible to the naked eye, then trembled. Deformed thick roots and branches emerged from the ground, and the three trees actually stood up like people and walked toward the two individuals.

  But the two remained seated. A thick white lightning flashed from the old man's hand, instantly extending among the three transformed trees. Amidst a fusion of electric crackling and the explosion of breaking trees, the three trees immediately turned into a ground full of wood chips.

  But just as the old man raised his hand, a slender figure suddenly sprang from one of the caravan's carriages. In his left hand was a short bow, and in his right hand was not an arrow, but seemingly a long wooden stick casually broken from the carriage. In the air, he had already drawn the bow and placed the wooden stick on it. The moment his feet touched the ground, the wooden stick had already left the string and shot out. The entire movement was as smooth as silk, like a fish turning in water, completed in one go without any hindrance or delay.

  The bow wasn't powerful, and the ordinary wooden stick shot out wasn't fierce either. In fact, the wooden stick twisted on its own in mid-air. But it twisted more and more violently, and while twisting, it rapidly grew several branches, a few green leaves, and was covered in sharp thorns. In the blink of an eye, it became a strange vine twisting like a living snake, with bared fangs and claws, twisting toward the old man.

  No arrow could be more lethal than this highly toxic man-eating vine. It wasn't even necessary to hit a target; as long as the vine sensed the life force emitted by living flesh nearby, it would pounce there, desperately trying to burrow into the flesh and squeeze into the internal organs. The paralyzing poison attached to the vine's surface could not be resisted even by a physically strong Ogre.

  The middle-aged man let out a strange sigh, tilted his teacup, and the tea inside spilled out, then quickly transformed into a small blue fireball flying toward the man-eating vine in mid-air.

  This small fireball wasn't even as big as a fist, but just by approaching without even touching, the man-eating vine turned into a ball of black ash before it could even catch fire. The fireball passed through the ashes left by the man-eating vine and continued to fly toward the person who shot that arrow.

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  Just as that person shot the bizarre arrow, another person jumped down from the caravan's carriage. After the middle-aged man poured out that ball of flame from his cup, the newcomer immediately extended his hand, and a fireball with a diameter of at least one person flew out from in front of him, fiercely carrying a momentum commensurate with its size, it roared to meet the pitifully small blue flame.

  A loud boom echoed through the surrounding mountains. These two fireballs, so different in size and momentum, collided with equal force. A large number of houses on the street collapsed, and flames scattered everywhere. But the two sitting individuals remained at their table, not even the teacups on it were shaken over.

  The caravan was already in chaos. The merchants and mercenaries climbed up and hurriedly turned to run, cursing the two unlucky people they had picked up along the way. Unexpectedly, they were people being hunted by great mages.

  The two who jumped out from the caravan didn't run. The turbulent air blew away their tattered cloaks, revealing their true appearance. A young human man and a stunningly beautiful elf maiden. The elf maiden held a verdant green leaf tightly in her hand, and the green light emanating from it slowly spread over her body, enveloping her.

  "So the Leaves of the World Tree have such a great effect in the hands of an elf. The natural magic borrowed from it reaches such a high level. No wonder Master Aiden alone couldn't handle them." The middle-aged man nodded looking at the wood chips on the ground, then looked at the man who had cast the fireball. His voice also sounded strange, with the same feeling of being stuck in the throat as Master Aiden's. "So that's the boy? Just a fool who can't use magic. What a waste of the effects of Sunlight Baptism and the Leaves of the World Tree."

  Ten days ago, Master Aiden finally found Ethan and his companion quietly heading to Oufu. Without a word, he directly attacked to kill them. Without the magic amplification of the Sunwell, under Master Aiden's masterful air magic, Ethan and his combat ability were completely worlds apart. But what neither of them expected was that the elf maiden Luya, who was beside them, used the Leaves of the World Tree to perform many unimaginable natural magics. Caught off guard, Master Aiden severely wounded both of them but was also bitten by a magically mutated highly poisonous spider. Ethan took this opportunity to use a mutually destructive tactic to drive him back and hid in the forest with Luya. Master Aiden, severely poisoned, didn't dare to pursue and had to temporarily retreat while calling for his companion Asri, who was searching for them in another direction.

  Now that the target had been found, Master Aiden slowly stood up.

  "Wait a moment." Ethan suddenly shouted.

  Master Aiden didn't wait. Lightning was already flashing in his hands. He was here to kill, not to talk. With the two top mages on the continent joining forces, even if the opponent had a divine artifact, there would be absolutely no room for struggle, let alone negotiating terms.

  "If you don't stop, I'll tear this thing up." Ethan suddenly snatched the Leaves of the World Tree from Luya's hand. "I heard that if this thing is torn, it becomes useless."

  Master Aiden's movements abruptly stopped. The eyes behind his mask burst out with a light as sharp as his lightning, but his tone remained as flat as before. "If you dare to tear this thing, I absolutely have ways to make you regret it."

  "Anyway, I seem to be going to die anyway, so what's there to regret?" Ethan's veins showed on his hand.

  "No, you won't die." The veins behind Master Aiden's mask also surfaced. But Ethan couldn't see them. "I will capture all your relatives and friends that you know and are familiar with, bring them before you, let you watch as the flesh on their bodies is sliced off piece by piece, and finally I'll turn you into a living zombie."

  "Want to bet?" Ethan's eyes stared directly at the eyes behind the silver mask, his tone equally flat. "Are you betting that I'll tear it or not?"

  After a long while, Master Aiden said lightly: "What do you want me to wait for?" His strange voice sounded like he was sobbing.

  Ethan could tell that these two Necromancers had something like a magical device in their mouths to change their voices. Every member of the Necromancer Guild in human society was a famous figure; not only were masks necessary, but their voices also needed to be altered. He leisurely asked: "I just have a few questions to ask. After I'm done asking, we can discuss anything."

  "Ask."

  "Didn't you invite me to join your Necromancer Guild?"

  "So Vedenina already told you?" Master Aiden sneered. "But it wasn't us, just Lady Vedenina's own wishful thinking."

  Ethan took a long breath. Although he had suspected this since confronting this Necromancer in the Whispering Woods, he only dared to truly confirm it now. He was secretly glad he hadn't used that teleportation scroll to throw himself into a trap. At the same time, he felt some disappointment; the imagined way out was ultimately just an illusion. He paused, then asked again: "How did you know we would take this route and wait for us here?"

  "Would you dare to carry the Leaves of the World Tree around randomly? Since you're not returning to the Magic Academy to find Ronis, you could only be heading to the Tulalion Forest to the west. And this is the nearest route to the west. We've been waiting here. For a divine artifact like the Leaves of the World Tree, I can sense it within ten miles, so we just needed to drink tea here and wait for you to deliver it to our doorstep."

  "You want to kill me, does Vedenina know?"

  "Whether she knows or not doesn't matter. This is the joint decision of all members except her."

  Ethan took a deep breath. His expression twitched slightly. He still looked at the eyes under Master Aiden's silver skull mask and asked: "What exactly do you want to use this thing for..."

  "Stop the nonsense. He must be stalling for time." The other Necromancer, who hadn't spoken, slowly stood up. "His breathing isn't chaotic, his heartbeat is very normal. He's not panicked at all, as if he has a plan. But the gap in our strength is obvious. So the only explanation is that he seems to be waiting for some reinforcements."

  "Reinforcements?" Master Aiden seemed to have heard a joke, and even his mask moved due to the smile beneath it. He looked up and glanced down at the town as if it were just a pile of ant nests at his feet. "Respected friend Asri. What reinforcements could there be here? The dwarves sending an army? What kind of army or mage could deal with two Necromancers like us?"

  But Asri didn't answer, instead looking at Ethan and saying: "If you want to tear it, then tear it. If the Leaves of the World Tree shatter, they will transform into the source of life force and return to the Sunwell. We'll just have to wait a few more years to get it anyway." As he spoke, the magical fluctuations around him became more intense.

  Ethan's face darkened. He returned the Leaves of the World Tree to Luya, then faced the two and bent down. The light of battle aura began to shine on him.

  The look in Master Aiden's eyes behind the mask returned to the lightning-like sharpness.

  Asri put his finger to his hand and bit it, drops of blood dripping from his earthworm-like curved fingers. The blood that fell on the bluestone ground automatically drew a magic circle, and then he chanted a spell: "Flames of Destruction hidden in the abyss of hell."

  Ethan suddenly stood up and rushed toward the two Necromancers, the light of battle aura trailing a faint light and shadow behind him.

  Luya put her hands together on the Leaves of the World Tree, and a green light instantly covered her entire body. Countless tiny branches and leaves began to emerge from the ground at the feet of the two Necromancers.

  A ring-shaped electric light spread from Master Aiden, and those tiny branches and leaves were torn to pieces by the lightning before they could grow. But he didn't pay attention to these, his eyes locked on the rushing Ethan. But at the same time, he suddenly heard a crisp sound beside him, and the corner of his eye caught the figure of his companion falling.

  Asri's worm-like lips were still moving, still chanting that powerful spell but without making any sound. Because his neck had completely twisted around. When he suddenly discovered he could see his own back while concentrating on casting magic, his mouth opened wide, but his scream, like the spell, was stuck in his already twisted throat, and then he collapsed limply like a snake without a spine.

  Master Aiden's surprise lasted only half a blink, and he immediately used a reaction completely disproportionate to his age and appearance to transform the magical power originally intended to defend against Ethan into flight magic, shooting up like a frightened vulture. Ethan's punch rushing toward him only grazed his trouser leg.

  As soon as he rushed into mid-air, he looked down. But he saw nothing, only the table where he had been drinking tea above rapidly enlarging before his eyes.

  That wasn't magic; no magic could turn a table into a cannonball. That was pure strength. The real sound of wind from the table was more terrifying to Master Aiden than any magical fluctuation. At such speed and power, even wood that wasn't particularly hard would be enough to completely shatter all his old bones if it hit him. He hurriedly waved his hand, and a wind blade formed by vacuum slashed at the table.

  The table shattered in response, with wooden fragments exploding like fireworks all over the sky.

  But the collision and breaking sound couldn't mask another sharper sound, one that even the fastest crossbow bolt's air-splitting sound wouldn't be as fierce. After the tabletop broke apart, Master Aiden saw a table leg below. This smaller piece of wood was approaching him with ten times the speed, ferocity, and power of the table just now. The vision-obstructing table was originally meant for him to shatter.

  The momentum of the instant flight spell couldn't be changed, and even a high-level mage couldn't condense a third spell in such a short instant. Looking at the small piece of wood that was about to pierce a transparent hole through him, Master Aiden risked his life, using the air magic he had refined for a lifetime to barely move his body a little to the side in that brief instant.

  With a "whoosh" sound, Master Aiden's entire arm scattered into the sky like paper. He screamed, but his body didn't stop at all, continuing to fly diagonally upward, leaving a trail of blood before disappearing into the dim, low clouds.

  In just the blink of an eye, these two top mages, one had fled severely injured, and the other had become a corpse lying there.

  Ethan looked at the person beside him and said with sincere admiration: "You're still as formidable as ever."