Chapter 237: Firefight (Part 2)

  "Eh?" On the road not far from Aery City, a man who was spurring his horse and traveling this way looked in the direction of Whispering Woods, utterly astonished.

  Beside the man was a blonde woman in full knight's armor. She also seemed to have sensed the magical fluctuation coming from the air, turned her head, and asked the man, "What's wrong?"

  "In any case, it can't be anything good. Let's go, quickly." The man's expression changed. He spurred his horse and galloped off in the direction of Whispering Woods. After a moment's pause, the female knight also immediately spurred her horse to follow.

  On the other side, much farther away, high in the sky, three air elementals carrying three people were also speeding towards this place.

  "My lord Tamika, it's in that direction." Above the Templar's head floated a white magical eyeball. This eyeball wasn't too large, but it was exceptionally flexible as it rotated and scanned above the Templar's head. Now, its brightly white pupil was looking forward.

  "Can you sense the thing His Majesty the Pope tasked us with?" Knight Tamika's face was still as wooden as ever. The air elemental he was riding was speeding forward at high altitude. The wind made it difficult for the other two Templars to even keep their eyes open, and they had to almost shout to speak. Only his remained the same; his voice was not loud, but it was clearly transmitted to the ears of the other two.

  "There are three very strange magical fluctuations, all of which I have never sensed before. For now, it's not yet clear which one His Majesty wants." the Templar answered, and then he took a breath. The magical eyeball transformed into white magical fluctuations and returned to the space around his body.

  After using this magic, the Templar seemed somewhat strained. This white magic's Mana Divine Eye requires great perseverance and sacrifice to cultivate through asceticism, and very few can learn it. Using it also consumes a considerable amount of magical power, and in terms of convenience and precision, it cannot compare to the water magic's Mana Divine Eye. But the unique perceptive acuity of white magic gave it an immense sensing range. When in use, the person was almost like a living magical map.

  To be able to use this kind of magic, one must be an absolutely scarce talent. Just like Knight Tamika, they also belonged only to the Pope.

  "Also, the mages of the Tower of Fangs have begun to fight. I can sense that the strongest among them seems to be casting a great magic spell in the air. They should also be going for that thing. We are..."

  "Take everything, kill everyone." Knight Tamika answered. His face was still as wooden as before, his words as simple as a block of wood, and his voice as if he were describing a block of wood.

  Arrows rained down from all angles and all directions, blanketing the mages. The dense surrounding The Withered Wood Wardens and ancient trees became the best cover for the Elven archers. The mages seemed to hardly be able to see where these arrows were coming from. But these arrows did not have much effect. The outer circle of the dozens of mages was protected by nearly a hundred elemental giants forming a circle. Even if the Elves' precise shots could pass between these elemental guards, they were only effective in consuming some of the protective magic on the mages.

  Every mage here was of the master rank. The elemental protective magic they cast had already reached a pinnacle of perfection. Especially the Hurricane Aegis surrounding each mage. Once an arrow got close, it was immediately blown away and scattered by the swirling wind, rendering all incoming arrows ineffective. And even if an arrow could bypass the Hurricane Aegis, each mage's body was now also coated with thick armor from the earth-element magic, which was likely ineffective even against axe chops and sword slashes. In addition, the floating fire shields and water curtains were both thick and flexible. It was simply more effective than a warrior holding a shield to guard them.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  The natural magic of the Elven mages appeared utterly fragile against the destructive power of elemental magic, especially fire magic. Whether it was The Withered Wood Wardens or poisonous vines and insects, they were almost instantly turned to dust in the raging fire and lightning, without any effect.

  If it were a one-on-one situation, the strange and varied natural magic might not have been so fragile. But among this group of mages, two or three great fire mages were specifically assigned to defense. The fire walls, flame shields, rings of fire, and so on that they summoned at will were almost impenetrable. No matter how varied or miraculous the natural magic was, no matter how many summoned poisonous insects, vines, and animals there were, or from how many strange angles and in how many strange ways they attacked, they could not get through at all.

  The mages had already entered the forest for about a li. Outside, The Withered Wood Wardens had already gathered, numbering in the several hundreds. But even so, the mages' steps had not stopped at all. Instead, they continued to forcefully pull their vast defensive circle deeper into the forest.

  In front, the giant branch-arms of the resisting The Withered Wood Wardens slapped against the earth elementals. Amid the dull sounds of impact, gravel flew and mud splattered. The earth elementals, in turn, used their giant rocky bodies to push and smash, opening a path forward. The Withered Wood Wardens were constantly being smashed into piles of fragments, and new The Withered Wood Wardens from behind would continue to follow and fill the gaps.

  The water arrows shot by the water elementals could not cause much damage to behemoths like The Withered Wood Wardens. More often, they were attacking the Elves who revealed their forms. From time to time, an Elf would scream as they were hit by a column of water, and after being sent flying and falling, their entire body would be completely shattered, little different from mud. The fire elementals continuously charged forward to ignite The Withered Wood Wardens one by one. The air elementals danced in the air, constantly using the tiny lightning bolts contained within their cloud-like bodies to attack The Withered Wood Wardens. However, these air elementals had already consumed most of the elemental power in their bodies from the long journey, and they were completely dispersed after not much time under the attacks of The Withered Wood Wardens.

  With a loud boom, the Erupting Hellfire from two great fire mages brought up a sky full of flames and fragments, like two incomparably giant fireworks blooming among The Withered Wood Wardens. Then, a sun-like light flashed past the figures of The Withered Wood Wardens, pulling a dazzling line of light from bottom to top, flying a hundred meters through the forest before rising into the sky.

  Dozens of The Withered Wood Wardens collapsed, burning. Their wooden body structures were instantly and thoroughly carbonized even before making contact with a top-tier fire magic spell like Blazing Might Shot. Along with them, more than ten Elves hidden on The Withered Wood Wardens were also instantly burned to black charcoal. Everything that could burn along the trajectory of the light sphere ignited. This single Blazing Might Shot plowed a sea of fire in the forest. As long as it was a living creature, as long as it had moisture in its body, there was no chance of survival under the power of this magic.

  This was the reason why the mages were able to advance so deep into the forest. The powerful elemental magic had destroyed who knows how many The Withered Wood Wardens along the way. At the same time, at least a hundred Elves, along with The Withered Wood Wardens, had become blackened fragments in the violent explosions and flames.

  It wasn't just fire that was deadly; ice was even more so. From time to time, giant ice balls would condense and form in the hands of the great water mages, then shoot out, drilling into the gaps of The Withered Wood Wardens before violently exploding into countless magical ice shards.

  These ice shards were not very lethal to the giant wooden bodies of The Withered Wood Wardens, but they were fatal to the frail bodies of the Elves. Each such Ice Blast could bring about a chorus of screams. The Elven archers and mages hidden behind The Withered Wood Wardens were nailed alive to the trunks of The Withered Wood Wardens by these magic ice shards with their astonishingly wide area of effect.

  The fire mage who had cast the Blazing Might Shot went soft at the knees. This was all the magical power he had left. The power of this magic was certainly astonishing, but the mana it consumed was also immense. He had already cast four such spells, squeezing all the magical power in his body dry. Now he couldn't even stand steadily.

  But it was precisely because of this stumble and fall that a green light flashed past half a foot above his head. The great mage's full head of white hair, along with a layer of scalp, flew into a sky full of powder. And another mage on this trajectory let out a scream, a huge, transparent hole appearing on his body, spurting blood, and he immediately fell to the ground. After penetrating two water elementals and one fire elemental, the green light shattered the upper half of an earth elemental before dissipating.

  This was already the third time they had been sniped by this green light since entering the forest, and each time it took at least one mage's life. This was also almost the only effective damage the Elves could inflict on the mages. But through these few attacks, the mages had also noticed that this terrifying archer seemed unable to shoot continuously and needed to wait for some time between shots. Moreover, it seemed there was only one person in the entire forest with such terrifying attacking power.

  "Over there. Thirty degrees to the right front, four hundred and eighty meters." an air mage floating in mid-air suddenly shouted. His eyes flashed with a terrifying gleam, looking as if two night pearls had been installed on his face instead of two eyes. This was the effect of continuously stacking the top-tier Eagle Eye Sharp-sight technique. His vision now was even better than that of a hawk or falcon that could swoop down on mice from thousands of meters in the sky.

  From the beginning, this air mage had been floating low in the air, doing nothing, relying entirely on the surrounding elemental giants and the Hurricane Aegis attached to himself to block the arrows. He was waiting for this one arrow to appear, waiting to find the person who could shoot it.

  As soon as the air mage's words fell, all the mages made their move. This archer, hidden somewhere and firing green light, was their only threat. Every mage who fell was their colleague, their friend. Every time they saw them fall in a spray of blood and flesh, the rage and sorrow almost drove the other mages to madness.