Chapter 130: Trump Card (Part 2)

  The female knight channeled white magic into the crystal in her hand. An intensely brilliant light erupted silently from the crystal’s face aimed at the crowd. The basement instantly filled with light—light so dense it seemed almost tangible.

  A shriek more piercing than a slaughtered pig’s erupted from the slender man’s throat, replacing his earlier pig-like roar. He had timed his charge well, landing right before the knight. The blinding light—so intense no one dared look directly—bathed him at close range. A foul, scorched stench instantly filled the basement.

  The slender man’s scream didn’t continue. A weapon, hurled from behind, pierced through him, ending his suffering. His corpse, propelled by the blade’s momentum, toppled forward, landing squarely on the crystal in the knight’s hand. His body blocked all the light. The scorched stench intensified dozens of times over, as if dozens of pounds of rotten meat had just been burned in the basement.

  The female knight kicked the half-charred corpse away and stood up. She dropped the now-shattered crystal. Though pain still contorted her features—the broken bones couldn’t heal instantly—this respite, combined with her own white magic prowess rivaling a high priest’s, was enough for her to recover some strength.

  The man stepped forward and pulled his blade from the slender man’s corpse. The dark red on the blade deepened further, and the faint scent of blood in the air grew heavier. The knight’s face darkened instantly. Only now did she notice the weapon on the charred corpse she’d kicked away—it was unmistakably the evil weapon radiating bloodshed and dark energy. She’d been careless! This had been a perfect opportunity to disarm an opponent.

  Sylka and the others also rose. The man’s timely strike had used the slender man as a shield. The others had closed their eyes and dropped to the ground in time, with only a few unlucky bandits suffering minor burns. Now, the looks everyone directed at the Temple Knight held no more caution or fear. In their eyes, this knight—significantly wounded, her most threatening auxiliary magic dispelled, her final trump card expended—was no different from a lamb.

  Sylka laughed. His expression seemed composed of just two words: ferocity and lechery. His muscles rippled as he boomed, "I’ll give you a chance. Strip off everything you’re wearing, and then..." His voice and expression suddenly froze. He hadn’t seen the expected despair or fear on the knight’s face.

  The Temple Knight looked utterly wretched now. Bloodstains obscured the Radiant Battleplate’s glow, and more blood marred her face. Her originally handsome, bright features now seemed savage—not just from the blood, but from fury and fighting spirit at their peak. Suddenly, she drew two more items from her belt. They were unmistakably magic scrolls. With her injured hand, she hastily unrolled them. A torrential wave of magical energy washed over everyone, so potent it could be felt on the skin.

  Sylka’s expression stiffened. He realized he’d misjudged. The quality of the Temple Knight’s equipment, the sheer number of artifacts—it was beyond anything his ragtag band could imagine. Clearly, due to inexperience and overconfidence, the knight simply hadn’t used these high-value items before.

  One scroll ignited. Flames roared, radiating magical energy. In an instant, the fire grew, transforming into a massive humanoid figure made purely of flame. The other scroll turned to dust that fell to the ground. The dust caused the earth to surge and deform. Moments later, it too became a giant humanoid figure of soil.

  Both elementals stood over five meters tall, their heads brushing the basement ceiling. Even Sylka’s massive frame seemed childlike beside such monsters. No fighting was needed. Their sheer size and appearance alone were enough to shatter an ordinary person’s will.

  "Elemental Summoning?" Everyone was stunned, especially the mages Axsis and the old man behind. This was the pinnacle of magic every mage dreamed of casting. For decades, they’d dreamed of commanding such elemental puppets. Yet now, they saw it—unleashed by an enemy.

  The watching bandits finally erupted into panic. They began shoving desperately toward the passage entrances. Sylka’s intimidation was great, but it was nothing compared to the threat of two top-tier elementals. Especially the scorching heat radiating from the fire elemental—proximity alone could burn a person half to death.

  Sylka didn’t bother restraining his men this time. In fact, he himself was considering flight. The knight chanted prayers, casting auxiliary white magic on herself and the two elemental giants. While likely not as terrifying as the Radiant Battleplate’s layered magics, it was still daunting enough.

  "Go, Arrow of Bitter Ice!" Axsis mustered his courage, expending all his mana to launch an ice arrow. A white ice spike, capable of piercing an ordinary person clean through, flew toward the fire elemental. It sank into the flaming body. The flames where it struck merely dimmed for an instant before flaring back to life. The fire elemental took a massive step, instinctively moving toward its attacker.

  Axsis was so terrified his legs gave out. He collapsed onto his backside. The bandits fled even more frantically. The narrow passages couldn’t accommodate so many at once. Some clambered over others’ heads and shoulders, a desperate, maggot-like scrum. Screams and roars blended into a cacophony that filled the already cramped basement.

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  Sylka trembled. Though the experts beside him hadn’t fled, he knew he was defeated. The Shamushi Thieves’ Guild, painstakingly built, might be destroyed here and now. He fought down the primal urge to roar and charge the temple bitch in a final, suicidal frenzy. Reason told him he must focus on how to escape…

  "ALL OF YOU, GET THE FUCK BACK HERE! DON’T RUN!" A thunderous roar exploded, making everyone’s eardrums ache. The panicked crowd instinctively froze at the sound. After all, Chief Sylka’s authority was deeply ingrained in them. Moreover, the sheer force of the voice was staggering.

  But the most stunned person was Sylka. Because he hadn’t roared.

  The one who had roared was the man holding the dark crimson strange blade. This fellow had remained expressionless since the start, speaking without force. Aside from a large appetite and impressive skill, nothing about him stood out. Who would have thought he’d take it upon himself to roar like this now?

  He didn’t just roar for Sylka; he acted for him. He lunged toward a bandit desperately shoving toward a passage entrance. Then he drove his blade into the bandit’s body. The bandit’s mouth gaped, but no scream emerged. Instead, a strange hissing sound escaped. The bandit’s body rapidly withered and deflated.

  Not just Sylka and the others were stunned; even the female knight was baffled by the man’s actions.

  The man wasted no motion. He withdrew his blade. A spray of blood shot forth, assaulting everyone’s nostrils. The blade, once dark crimson, was now vividly red. A mass of blood coalesced on the blade. Withdrawing it seemed to have drained the bandit entirely. Then he stabbed another bandit beside him. That one too collapsed like a deflated balloon.

  The female knight was the first to recover. She waved a hand at the two elemental giants. "Kill him! Now!" The giants immediately took massive strides toward the man. Axsis, who had been moments away from being incinerated by the fire elemental’s feet, narrowly escaped death. He scrambled and rolled toward the wall.

  The two giants took only two or three strides to reach the man. The fire elemental lunged at him with its entire body. The earth elemental raised an arm the size of the man’s torso and smashed it down. Beneath the giants’ colossal forms, the man seemed utterly insignificant. He should have been effortlessly reduced to a pile of ash or a smear on the floor.

  By now, the man had killed four bandits. What he held in his hand was no longer a blade, but a massive glob of fresh blood.

  The stench of blood was dizzying. Bandits near him could feel its cloying stickiness on their skin. Amidst the bloodshed, the man’s own demeanor seemed to turn savage. Facing the two elementals, each more than twice his size, he suddenly swung his blade upward with a roar: "DIE!"

  A wave of crimson light replaced everything. Only those with keenest eyes, like Sylka, could see clearly. The blood on the blade transformed into an even larger blade of blood. White fighting spirit energy erupted from the man’s body. He swung this blood-blade upward diagonally, cleaving through the two elementals.

  The blood-blade shattered into a spray of crimson light. A sharp hiss echoed, like tearing through impossibly thick paper. The fire elemental giant was cleaved in two. The stench of blood vaporized by the intense heat was nearly suffocating. The two halves of the fire elemental instantly collapsed into a pile of ash. The earth elemental’s arm was severed cleanly at the shoulder, falling to the ground and shattering. Its massive body swayed and collapsed onto its backside.

  The violently shifting situation left everyone reeling. The two elemental giants had already stunned everyone beyond measure. Yet, in the blink of an eye, the monsters that had struck terror into every heart were destroyed as suddenly as they had appeared. If not for the blood splattered across the entire basement and the deep gouge carved into the ceiling—testament to that impossible strike—they would have thought they were dreaming.

  The earth elemental had no senses, no thoughts, no mouth. It couldn’t scream. It merely rose clumsily to its feet. The basement suddenly fell silent, broken only by the man’s long, drawn-out exhale and a strange, soft cracking sound.

  The cracking came from the female knight. Her whole body trembled. The Radiant Battleplate emitted soft clinking sounds as it vibrated. Her expression was complex: shock, disbelief, fear, and internal struggle. Suddenly, she gritted her teeth and shouted at the earth elemental, which had just risen: "Stop them!" She turned and ran toward the passage she had entered by.

  "The bitch is trying to escape!" Even Sylka needed a moment to react. But the earth elemental giant had already planted itself squarely before the crowd, blocking their path. Only the man was unhindered. He leaped into the air and chased after the fleeing Temple Knight.

  The man had just followed the fleeing Temple Knight into the passage when he heard the sound of rushing wind behind him. He spun around. A bandit was flying through the air, flailing wildly. Instinctively, he extended his blade. The bandit’s flying body automatically impaled itself on the blade. Then came Sylka’s roar: "USE THAT BLADE! KILL THE BITCH FOR ME!" So, Sylka had deliberately thrown the bandit at him. The man paused, then turned and continued his pursuit upward.

  "So this bastard’s trump card is this formidable." Sylka watched the man’s retreating figure, muttering to himself. He licked his lips savagely, then turned to face the massive earth elemental. Even missing an arm, this magical puppet was no easy foe.

  "By the grace of the Lord, may the Lord’s light shine upon the valiant warrior." A white light flared around Sylka. The young man knelt, chanting a prayer, casting a white magic spell on Sylka—a high-level Prayer Spell, no less. Against a massive monster like the earth elemental, ordinary weapons were useless. Only Sylka’s strength, combined with the two-handed greatsword, would be effective.

  Fuck his god. Sylka felt a twinge of revulsion at the white magic prayer. He cursed viciously in his heart. He was also somewhat surprised and wary that this young man, who looked barely twenty, could use white magic. But now wasn’t the time to investigate the source. With a roar, he lifted the greatsword and charged the earth elemental.

  The young man immediately cast a Prayer and Haste spell on the druid werewolf. The druid joined the fray. Within moments, the already heavily damaged earth elemental collapsed under the assault of the greatsword and claws, crumbling into a pile of dirt.

  His strength, agility, and reflexes significantly enhanced. Experiencing this "Lord’s light" for the first time, Sylka had to admit this so-called Lord was probably somewhat useful. No wonder the Temple Knight, layered with multiple white magics, had been so formidable. He led the charge toward the passage, roaring: "MOVE! CHASE HER DOWN! KILL THAT TEMPLE BITCH!"

  Emerging from the basement into the mansion above, they immediately heard the sounds of combat and explosions coming from the front hall. In the short time they’d been below, the battle above seemed to have intensified many times over. Everywhere bore marks of violent impacts and sword strikes. Half a corridor had collapsed, destroyed by some unknown force. A significant portion of the mansion was now open-air wreckage. On the ground lay a large pile of debris from the earth elemental, plus two or three bandit corpses left outside, already withered and shrunken.

  They rushed into the front hall and immediately saw the battle nearing its end. Both combatants looked even more battered than they had in the basement—covered in dust and blood. The female knight had stumbled back into a corner. The man leaped into the air. Just like the strike that shattered the fire elemental, the bloodlight on his blade surged. A blade formed of solid blood slammed down onto the knight.

  BOOM! The knight screamed. The wall behind her was also cleaved by the blow, collapsing and burying her beneath the rubble. Blood sprayed everywhere, painting the ground a glistening, crimson layer.

  "YEAH! FINALLY KILLED THE BITCH!" Sylka let out an animal-like howl. His crimson tongue lolled far out, twitching involuntarily.