Chapter 172: Hunted (Part 3)

  "I have to admit, your skills in concealment are indeed excellent. No body heat is leaking out, your heart's breath is all mixed into this rain, even the sound of your muscles rebounding raindrops is the same as the ground. If I were here alone, I absolutely wouldn't have been able to discover you. It's just a pity that under Master Saye's grandmaster-level Mana Divine Eye, as long as you are a living being, it's impossible for you to hide your form within a hundred meters of him." Orrin stared at that cluster of black shadows and said slowly. The Talise beneath his feet was now completely motionless. Even the flowing blood disappeared the moment it appeared under the impact of the heavy rain, with only the Radiant Battleplate still emitting the holy light of white magic.

  Although that cluster of black shadows in the corner of the wall still showed no movement, as if indeed no one was hiding there, Orrin did not relax in the slightest. His face was still sallow, his voice was listless, and the suffocatingly heavy rain converged into streams on his face, rolling down. But the light of Battle Qi on his leather armor and sword was still shining, faint magical runes were constantly rolling, storing up power that could be unleashed at any time and under any circumstances.

  There was still silence in that spot. Orrin said impatiently, "Stop trying to be mysterious. We are both very clear on how much you're worth, which is why I dared to kill this little girl right in front of you. Isn't that right, Master Saye?"

  "Of course." A voice floated from the air not far away. The court mage, enveloped in a spherical magic shield, with the huge magical eye floating above his head, drifted out from behind a building. The magical eye was no longer spinning constantly but had stopped, its pupil, the size of a fist, staring coldly at that corner of the wall.

  The magic shield blocked out all the wind and rain. The magic robe on the court mage was dry and bright, without a single wrinkle. Even his face was serene and natural, as if he were sitting by a fireplace drinking tea, completely different from General Orrin in the pouring rain. A smug smile appeared on his face, and he said to the darkness, "When my Mana Divine Eye focuses its attention on a person like this, I dare say I understand your current physical condition better than you do. I might as well tell you, your magic power is only four-tenths of its peak state. Your Battle Qi is five-point-three-tenths. You have an injury to the ribs in your chest, and your left arm is temporarily unusable. Your combat strength can at most be considered three or four-tenths of your peak." He paused. Mage Saye raised the eyebrow at the corner of his eye, sighed, and said, "When we first found you, your Battle Qi and magic power weren't even one-tenth. In just the short time it took to deal with that little girl, you've recovered to this state. I even suspect you were transformed from a troll."

  "I wasn't transformed from a troll, but you seem to have been transformed from a crow. So much nonsense." Finally, a voice came from that darkness. The voice was not loud, but it was full of vigor, piercing through the immense sound of the rain and reaching their ears. But besides this voice, there was no other movement, still just a stretch of pitch-black darkness. "I completely don't understand. Since you discovered me long ago, why did you completely ignore me and go after that little girl? Aren't you all on the same side?"

  "It's not that we're ignoring you, but that you can't escape anyway; you're dead for sure. A beast in a cage can be dealt with a little later, but a lone little bird that happens to be encountered here cannot be allowed to rejoin its flock. We've wanted to kill this arrogant little girl for more than a day or two. A few more dead people from the church is no bad thing for Erathia. By the way, in a sense, we should also thank you for killing Eschol. Haha."

  "I really wish someone else could hear these words. Then I wouldn't have to make a move, and Lancelot would come and slaughter you." The voice in the darkness sighed, saying with no small amount of regret.

  "If someone could hear him, he wouldn't be saying this nonsense." Orrin said impatiently, looking up at the mage in the sky. "Stop wasting time on nonsense. Finish him quickly."

  "Don't you think it's a very stylish and interesting thing to speak so confidently to prey that has already fallen into a trap?" Mage Saye tutted, shaking his head, and a magic orb of illumination appeared in his hand. "Since you're impatient, we'll just have to kill him quickly. Besides, that little girl is already taken care of. Let's draw people from other places here. And let's see what the person who could kill Eschol actually looks like."

  But just as this magic orb of illumination appeared, a black shadow suddenly pounced out from the previously motionless darkness, rushing towards Orrin. Orrin and the court mage both exclaimed in surprise at the same time.

  Orrin was surprised because he didn't expect this person to charge at him in such a stupid and clumsy manner and posture. Judging from the sound of the wind, this was definitely not some kind of trick like a piece of clothing. The key was that the body was still twisting; it was clearly a solid flesh and blood body. And Mage Saye had already determined that the assassin was lurking here alone, so there was no doubt that this should indeed be that person. But this posture was neither like escaping, nor could it even be considered an attack; it was completely exposing his body and crashing towards here.

  General Orrin took a slight step back and thrust his sword straight at the black shadow's chest. With a thump, the sword pierced into the black shadow's body. The black shadow's body and limbs suddenly contracted and twitched. Blood splashed out, and at the same time, he smelled a stench like blood and pus boiled in a pot for three days.

  The court mage in mid-air was also surprised, but not for the same reason as Orrin. He was surprised because, in the sight of his Mana Divine Eye, which was spiritually connected to him, the target hadn't moved at all. Instead, he had thrown out this black shadow. This black shadow was also a living, flesh-and-blood body, and it seemed to have appeared out of thin air, as if from the air, and then was "thrown" by that person.

  The magic orb of illumination had already left the mage's hand and risen into the sky. Its ghastly white light illuminated this area through the heavy curtain of rain.

  Orrin immediately saw clearly what he had pierced with his sword. It was not the target he had expected, not even a person, but a spider about the size of a human. What was twitching were not four limbs, but eight. The needle-like fine hairs on the spider's legs, as thick as wrists, were clearly visible. The eight twitching legs were trying to give him a big hug. Green bodily fluid gushed out from the wound and the spider's mouth. If he were really hugged and had that stinking fluid sprayed on his face, then he would have no choice but to slice off his own face with a sword.

  Startled, Orrin drew his sword and flipped back to retreat, narrowly dodging the spider's embrace. And the rain was truly too heavy; the venom the spider sprayed could not travel far. It was immediately diluted in the rain.

  The spider that had missed its pounce let out a sharp hiss, like a chicken being slaughtered, bounced up from the spot, and pounced towards Orrin again. But it rammed headfirst into a curtain of rain.

  This was a coalesced curtain of rain, over a person tall, or rather, a ball of water. This ball of water had suddenly condensed from beneath Orrin's feet and risen up from the ground.

  In this torrential downpour, there was water everywhere. It was all rain. No one could distinguish whether this ball of water had been there all along or when it had flowed. The spider struggled a few times in the water, managing to move half of its body out a little, but the ball of water twisted strangely a few times, and this human-sized spider immediately turned into a meat paste of a strange color within the ball of water.

  "So that's why this mage was lurking quietly nearby for so long. And was so confident in catching me. He had secretly summoned these things." The person hiding in the corner finally jumped out. He used this spider to force Orrin back, while he himself rushed over to grab Talise's body from the ground.

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  "You?" Saye and Orrin exclaimed in unison, staring at this person.

  The orb of illumination in mid-air emitted a faint light through the rain curtain. It wasn't bright, but it was enough to clearly illuminate this person's face. Although neither of them had actually seen this person before, this appearance was already famous throughout the continent, known to all.

  After grabbing Talise's corpse, this person's hands immediately erupted with a surge of black magic fluctuations, pouring them into the Temple Knight's body. The holy light on the Radiant Battleplate paused, dimming for a moment. It seemed to have clashed and collided with this magic fluctuation.

  "Necromancy?" Orrin and the other exclaimed again.

  "For Archbishop Eschol to die at your hands, it's not an unjust death." Mage Saye nodded, looking this person, who was practically a figure of legend, up and down. "You could even kill Bishop Ronis and Duke Mrak, let alone anyone else. It seems only Necromancy could deal with these two Cardinals, whose white magic had reached the pinnacle of perfection."

  Ethan said nothing, just smiled. This smile, under the heavy curtain of rain, appeared especially strange in the eyes of Orrin and the other.

  Orrin frowned at him, asking in a startled voice, "Are you originally Sedros's subordinate?"

  "I'm just helping him out temporarily." Ethan replied flatly.

  "We thought we had trapped an injured wolf, but it turned out to be a snake, and a venomous one at that." Orrin's previously listless eyes were now full of light. "In any case, our luck is good. I recall your head is worth five thousand gold coins, enough to equip a small squad of heavy knights."

  "More than just five thousand gold coins. To personally kill this murderer who used the name of Diya Valley to kill a church Cardinal. Legend has it that Diya Valley's thanks will be politely declined, but it would be quite interesting for the church to show some gratitude. I look forward to seeing the expression on Magnus's face when he says thank you to me personally." Mage Saye waved his hand, and three pools of water in the rainy ground, identical to the one that had just pulped the spider, slowly flowed towards Ethan.

  At first, these balls of water were not large, just like small piles of water pushed by some unknown force. But once they took shape, they grew larger and larger in the torrential rain, gradually becoming four giants, each three or four meters tall. The four elemental giants stood at four different positions. They had no faces and no expressions, but they were eyeing Ethan in the middle with menacing intent.

  Ethan's eye twitched. Just as Mage Saye had said, whether it was his Battle Qi or his magic power, he couldn't even reach half of his usual level. Even at his peak, just dealing with these four water elementals would require him to go all out. And Orrin and the court mage would absolutely not just stand by and watch.

  Just as he had regained a sliver of clarity from the chaos, he had also sensed that Talise had arrived. Fleeing was just a futile way to expose his whereabouts. He had, almost on instinct, rolled into the darkest and least conspicuous corner nearby. In a daze, he also understood that standing up to escape was a dead end, and being discovered was also a dead end. So he simply curled up in the dark corner of the wall, using the meditation technique to control his body and merge with the surrounding environment.

  Slowly, the chaotic magic fluctuations in his mind began to dissolve into the surrounding, into the surrounding mental pathways, and the speed grew faster and faster. This was like a reservoir filled to the brim with water. If the water pressure couldn't break the dam but kept impacting everywhere, it would automatically form other outlets, and this discharge path would also become wider and wider, and the speed of discharge would become faster and faster. The magic power dissolving into his mind gradually merged with the power within his own body. It not only replenished his lost strength, but his mind also gradually recovered completely. It became even clearer, even sharper.

  In this torrential downpour, the power of the water element could undoubtedly be brought to its fullest. The water jets they fired from a distance could easily penetrate ordinary wooden shields. Moreover, the positions of these four water elements left no blind spots; trying to turn and escape was purely to be a target. Although he still had two or three of those magical insects from the Tulalion Forest, in the face of these elementals summoned by top-tier magic, they were no different from real little bugs. What was more fatal was the combination of a swordsman who could defeat a Temple Knight and a great mage nearby.

  Although he knew his situation was absolutely disadvantageous, Ethan was not too panicked. He had not yet reached the point of complete despair. At least he still had the strength to fight.

  And now he had discovered another interesting situation. He smiled slightly and looked at Orrin and Saye, saying, "What's wrong? Aren't you two going to make your move quickly?"

  "There's no need to rush. The main force will be here soon. We're just in charge of directing." Orrin replied listlessly. Although the Battle Qi on his body was still at its peak, he did not move. The four water elements just stood at their four corners. The huge magical eye above Mage Saye's head watched Ethan without blinking.

  If this assassin were anyone else, they might have made their move long ago. But when they saw that this opponent was actually the famous number-one assassin on the continent, the most wanted man, the murderer who had once assassinated Bishop Ronis, anyone had to be cautious. Especially since the rumors of this person relying on sinister and vicious Necromancy to charge into a thousand troops to save someone were already known to all. And yet, when he charged out, he ignored everything else and actually went straight for the corpse of the Temple Knight, grabbing it in his hand.

  The light of white magic on the Radiant Battleplate was still there. Even though she was lifeless and bloodless, Talise's face was pale yet beautiful. Even in death, the female knight had a kind of desolate beauty. But as long as she was in this person's hands, this originally valiant and upright body could become an extremely dangerous magical bomb at any moment.

  Other than the Necromancers of Diya Valley, no one had enough understanding of this kind of magic, and even being the court mage of Erathia was no exception. Although the Mana Divine Eye could clearly sense that this opponent's magic power was not much left, it was impossible to tell what kind of Necromancy he could still use.

  This was like a person facing an unknown venomous insect. Although this insect was already on its last breath, the person was still unwilling to make a move easily. What is the most dangerous venomous insect? It is the one whose toxicity and venomous power are unclear, where one only vaguely knows the attribute of "very dangerous."

  So neither Orrin nor Saye made a move. In a situation where a large number of reinforcements would arrive in just a short while, neither of them was willing to risk the danger of taking a hit from Necromancy to make the first move, even with such a clear advantage. They were both people of high status and power. They had the qualification and the necessity to be cautious, letting others be the cannon fodder. It was enough to cautiously guard him and prevent him from escaping.

  Ethan could also see their intention, so he suddenly smiled again. He moved Talise's corpse in his hand and said, "If I told you that this Temple Knight is not actually dead, and that I can bring her back to life, would you two still have the patience to wait for the others?"

  The sound of this sentence was not loud, but it happened to be mixed with a clap of thunder, rumbling into the ears of Orrin and Saye. Mage Saye's face instantly turned deathly pale, and Orrin's face became even more sallow.

  But this shock was only for a brief moment. Orrin coughed a few times and said with a smile, "Do you think we can't even tell a dead person from a living one? My sword almost cut her head off. If your Necromancy can achieve a resurrection spell that even white magic cannot, then it would be Diya Valley, not Celeste, whose glory spreads across the continent. Your Necromancy can, at most, turn her into a zombie. I believe when the people from the church arrive and see this zombie Temple Knight, their reaction will be quite interesting."

  Ethan smiled again and said, "I won't hide it from you. I did indeed want to turn her into a zombie, but unfortunately, my magic failed. Because there is still a sliver of life in her body. So I took the opportunity to use a powerful healing spell that I had originally prepared for myself, and it healed all her wounds." He extended his hand, holding Talise's body out a little, and smiled at his two opponents. "She still has a heartbeat now. If you don't believe me, you can come and feel."

  "To not die after taking that sword strike, unless she's a zombie." Orrin, of course, wouldn't go up and touch her, just answered coldly. The smile was gone from his face, because the smile on Ethan's face looked more confident, more handsome than his.

  "Temple Knights of Celeste usually have quite a few top-tier magic items on them. I'm sure you two are well aware of that. This female knight, in particular, has quite a few good things. I've seen her casually throw out two top-tier magic scrolls." The smile on Ethan's face became more and more brilliant, and his voice grew louder. "General Orrin seems very confident in that sword strike of his, thinking that this Temple Knight, like other people, would surely die from blood loss after a major artery was injured. He didn't deliver a follow-up strike to truly decapitate her, nor did he check if the Radiant Battleplate or some other piece of equipment had any triggered magic that would activate when her life was in critical condition. It's not difficult for Celeste's Cardinals to seal one or two top-tier healing spells into a magic gem."

  It was only at this moment that Orrin and Saye's faces truly turned cold. They had to admit that these were not impossible things; in fact, they were quite possible.

  If these things were true, even if there was only a one percent chance that they were true, then the two of them, no matter the price, had to take this person down here and now, to kill him, or at the very least, snatch the Temple Knight from his hand, stab her dozens of times regardless of whether she was alive or dead, and then cut off her head.

  But most importantly, what was this opponent's motive for saying this? To force these two enemies to make a move before the reinforcements arrived? Did he have enough confidence to escape or to deal with the two of them while they were pincering him? Or perhaps the body of the Temple Knight contained enough poison and magic to turn both Orrin and Saye into zombies, and it would explode the moment they attacked or tried to snatch it.

  The Temple Knight remained motionless in Ethan's hand, looking no different from a corpse. But whether it was truly a corpse, and if it was, what kind of corpse it was, this question made a trace of cold sweat begin to form on their foreheads. It was like an irresistible bait, waiting in an unknown trap for the two of them to step on it.

  In reality, the balance of power on the battlefield had not changed from the very beginning. Everything was indeed as seen by Mage Saye's Mana Divine Eye. But they never expected that this opponent would suddenly send out a magically mutated spider to attract their attention and then snatch the corpse. What they didn't expect even more was that because of a single corpse, the initiative and passivity on the battlefield were suddenly reversed.

  The prey was still in the cage, but this prey in the cage had now set a bizarre trap for the two hunters. The hunters were still the ones hunting, but who was the hunter and who was the prey, this relationship had become blurred.

  Time passed by minute by minute, and this passing of time could be fatal for both sides. The situation had become incredibly delicate.

  Finally, the court mage in mid-air suddenly burst into a loud laugh, breaking the strange stalemate. He said loudly, "Stop trying to be mysterious, kid. Do you think I can't see that you're buying time to recover your strength? Then let's see just how good your Necromancy is."

  As soon as the words fell, the four water element giants waved their hands, and four jets of water, as thick as arms, whistled towards the Ethan in the middle with a sharp sound of breaking through the air.