Chapter 239: Firefight (Part 4)

  The bodies of the two air great mages closest to the ground were sliced in two. Under the mantis's giant scythes, their bodies seemed as fragile as paper. Also sliced apart were two air elementals. Their cloud-like bodies were first cut into several pieces by the scythes, then blown away and dissipated by the immense wind force as the mantis passed by.

  "What kind of monster is this?" The great mages, including Master Aiden, were all stunned by what they saw. However, Master Aiden was the first to react, casually striking out with a bolt of lightning.

  The lightning struck a mantis squarely, and its huge green body was immediately covered in electric sparks. But this giant insect did not, like a Pegasus, become charred black all over and plummet headfirst. Its massive form only paused for a moment before immediately pouncing straight towards Master Aiden with the agility and speed unique to insects.

  Looking at the mantis's giant scythes rapidly approaching, Master Aiden didn't even have the courage to test whether his instant-cast Thunderblast Bomb could be faster than this insect's pounce. He channeled his flight spell and darted away at an extremely sharp angle, like a startled fly. He knew he absolutely could not withstand a single attack from such a colossal monster.

  The sound of the wind from the mantis's giant scythes as it swooped past nearby was sharp enough to be painful. Master Aiden could even see the patterns on the enormous weapon. Not even needing it to be its main killing weapon, the sharp barbs on the mantis's other limbs were enough to make one's blood run cold.

  Having just narrowly missed this mutated insect by a few meters, he gathered his magical power, preparing a Thunderblast Bomb, only for Master Aiden to discover that the mantis had already turned back. He had to dodge again.

  It wasn't that he couldn't throw a Thunderblast Bomb in such a short amount of time; it was that he really had no confidence he could kill such a monster in a single hit. Even if he could shatter those two terrifying scythes, as long as that massive body could still move, and his own body was momentarily stalled due to casting, being hit once by that angular, hard body was absolutely not something he could endure.

  While dodging again, Master Aiden also noticed that there was a female Elf on this mantis that was relentlessly pursuing him.

  Just because Master Aiden was able to dodge, it didn't mean the other great mages' flight spells could be so consummate. Two great mages were just a little slower, and with a scream, were torn into several pieces under the claws of the other two giant mantises.

  In an instant, of the great mages who were previously unharmed while dealing with dozens of Pegasus knights, four had already lost their lives. The other great mages roared, either throwing out magic or summoning and commanding air elementals to attack the three giant monsters. But although these things were huge in size, they completely retained the unique mobility and flexibility of insects. Two Thunderblast Bombs failed to hit them at all, and the few lightning bolts that struck seemed to cause them no harm at all.

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  Two more great mages screamed, and along with the air elementals they rode, were cut into pieces under the mantis's scythes. Meanwhile, the mantis controlled by the female Elf continuously pursued and harassed Master Aiden. The sharp sound of the wind from its two giant scythes waving nonstop prevented him, the most powerful combatant, from stopping for even a second. One large and one small, one green and one white, two shadows continuously chased and turned in the air.

  The appearance of these three War Mantises completely turned the tide of the battle in mid-air. The Elves on the ground watched and finally breathed a sigh of relief, while the mages on the other side, who had already begun to approach the War Ancient Tree, were a mix of shock and anger.

  Several air great mages screamed, falling from the sky in several pieces. A person cut in half at the waist, especially when cut so sharply and cleanly in two, doesn't die immediately. A great mage with only half a body even maintained some of his flight spell, drifting down like a broken kite, trailing a path of blood and the organs from his abdominal cavity, landing before the group of mages on the ground.

  He fell to the ground. He looked at the companions around him, as if wanting to say something, but only moaned a few times before finally breathing his last.

  "Quick, send half the people up to help." Several air great mages on the ground immediately summoned a dozen or so air elementals. More than twenty great mages jumped onto the bodies of the elementals and soared upwards, using Hurricane Aegis to push aside the sky-filling arrows.

  This group of mages on the ground had already advanced to a position several hundred meters before the War Ancient Tree. At this time, nearly all the The Withered Wood Wardens in the entire forest had gathered here, densely packed, surrounding the elemental giants and mages inside in three layers deep and three layers out. And at this time, the Elven archers around the The Withered Wood Wardens were no longer in the hundreds, but in the thousands. In addition, there were over a hundred unicorns trying to squeeze into the almost impenetrable encirclement.

  As soon as these twenty great mages left, the mages' advance immediately slowed down. The capacity of the Hurricane Aegis had reached its limit. The dense rain of arrows was no longer a drizzle or a shower, but a true downpour. Even if it were really just rain, with that quantity and weight that could almost block one's line of sight and blot out the sun, it would be more than enough to drench a person half to death.

  After tentatively using a few attack spells, almost all the mages had to go all-out on defense. Flame shields, stone armor, water curtains, and ice walls all came out together, blocking the arrows that were almost heavy enough to crush people to death.

  The attention of all the Elves was focused on these two heart-stopping battles. No one noticed that someone had entered another part of the forest.

  The Mana Divine Eye above the Templar's head spun, and his finger already pointed in the direction of the sky-reaching War Ancient Tree. "It's there. The three unusual fluctuations are all there. One has already faded, another is slowly recovering and influencing the entire forest—that should be the Sunwell His Majesty mentioned—and the last one should be the thing His Majesty wants, but it's in the sky right now."

  "In the sky?" Knight Tamika looked up. They were already in the forest; looking up, they could only see through the dense branches and leaves.

  "It's overlapping with a very strange and powerful magical life form, circling and rotating at great speed. It seems to be pursuing the strongest magic-user. And two other lifeforms of the same kind are fighting the mages."

  "We wait," Knight Tamika said flatly. "Until only one side remains."

  "Eh." The Templar seemed to have suddenly discovered something, and the white magic eye on his head suddenly turned in another direction. "Two people are approaching the forest from that side, and they are also heading directly in that direction... They're not mages or Elves, but they seem very strong."

  Knight Tamika chopped the air with a wave of his hand, as if cutting off someone's head. "Kill them. We don't need anyone else interfering here."

  The benefits for the fisherman are usually only reaped by a hidden third party. And this third party can undoubtedly only be one. Especially someone who rushes in here at this time, with such an obvious target, must be eliminated.