Chapter 74: Chapter 73: My Time Stop Can’t Possibly Be This Weak!
When Charles returned to the camp, he could no longer contain his excitement and joy.
Victory was in sight!
Looking at his own hands, Charles was even trembling slightly. He had betrayed everything he believed in for this moment. The master had already assured him that as long as he completed this mission perfectly, he would become one of them, and then he would possess the power to change everything.
At that time, he would be able to fulfill his wish!
Thinking of this, Charles closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened his eyes.
“Yes, Master, what do you need?”
Upon hearing Charles’s command, a cultist came over and asked quietly.
“How are the captives?”
Pleased with the answer, Charles nodded in satisfaction.
“Now, gather everyone immediately, we are leaving for the Dark Marsh right away.”
“Yes, it is the master’s order!”
Hearing this, the cultist hurriedly bowed his head and then turned to leave. Watching his retreating figure, Charles couldn’t help but frown. He knew well that these cultists didn’t really obey his orders. If it hadn’t been for the powerful magic he had displayed and the instructions from the master, they probably wouldn’t even consider him seriously. But these fools’ pride was only temporary. Once he also gained that powerful strength, he would make these idiots understand the proper way to treat an archmage.
After watching the cultists begin to prepare, Charles nodded and walked towards where the sanctuary warriors were detained. He didn’t trust these cultists; what if they killed some for fun while he was away? They had done it before on the road!
With this thought, Charles quickly arrived at the place where the sanctuary warriors were held. Seeing those warriors bound with chaos shackles, limp as dead fish, Charles nodded in satisfaction, then he raised his head to look at the guard beside him.
“Alright, take them away; we set off immediately!”
After saying this, Charles turned to leave but suddenly paused and turned back around.
Wait a minute… was the number incorrect?
As a mage, Charles was quite confident in his memory; he clearly remembered capturing over twenty sanctuary warriors, so why did there seem to be fewer on the ground now?
With this thought, Charles turned around intending to count them again. If those damned cultists dared to pull the wool over his eyes at this time, then they shouldn’t blame him for fiercely reporting them to the master later, making them understand why flowers are so red!
But what Charles hadn’t expected was that as he turned around, a series of lightning suddenly erupted beside him. The surrounding thunder radiance enveloped Charles entirely, forming a solid shield. At the same moment, Charles was shocked to find a young man suddenly appearing in front of him!
The appearance of a living person out of thin air startled Charles, but as a mage, his reaction was quick. He stepped back a few paces and raised his hand without hesitation, pointing at the stranger. Then he saw several magic missiles roaring out from his fingertips, flying towards the stranger.
Charles was still in shock, little knowing that Fang Zheng was just as stunned. After learning from Nymph that the mage was heading in their direction, Fang Zheng had already planned out his approach. He had John and a few other sanctuary warriors, who were in relatively good condition, dress in black robes to impersonate the cultists. Then he rearranged the others to look like they were still bound, in order to deceive the mage.
In fact, things had been going smoothly at first, especially when Fang Zheng heard they were preparing to leave immediately, he thought he could slip in and check the situation by muddling through. But the mage wasn’t a fool, and seemed to sense something was off, thinking to check thoroughly?
If they checked, they’d definitely be exposed!
So Fang Zheng didn’t hesitate to use Time Stop and pounced forward, planning to subdue the mage. What happened next shocked Fang Zheng thoroughly.
He had intended to place his sword at the mage’s neck to coerce him into captivity. But to Fang Zheng’s surprise, as soon as his sword barely touched the mage’s body, a series of lightning burst forth from the mage, and what shocked Fang Zheng the most was… his Time Stop had been unexpectedly undone!
So Fang Zheng finally experienced the fear that many anime and video game bosses feel when faced with the protagonist, wait a minute, I’m not a boss!!
Wait a second, I seem to be a boss…
At this moment, Fang Zheng felt utterly disheartened, but fortunately, his reaction was quick. When the mage launched an attack, Fang Zheng’s evasion skills he learned from the Dark Soul came into play once again. Faced with the magic missiles howling towards him, he immediately rolled to the side, trying to dodge the attack. However, during his evasion, he was shocked to see those magic missiles change direction mid-air, continuing to fly towards him.
They have homing capabilities?!
“Be careful, Mr. Fang Zheng!”
At the same moment, Fina’s voice rang in Fang Zheng’s ears, followed by a flash of white light. A translucent shield, shimmering with holy radiance, appeared in front of Fang Zheng, blocking the magic missiles flying from the sky.
“Cleric? Where did you sneak in from? Dammit, why didn’t my barrier react?”
At this moment, Charles also saw Fina standing not far behind Fang Zheng, holding her scepter high. This made him both shocked and angry. The two’s attire was unusual, and there were no clerics among the captives before. Obviously, these two were not his captives. But they had actually entered the camp and his barrier had failed to react?
The sound of magic missiles exploding echoed throughout the forest, naturally alarming the other cultists. Fang Zheng already saw a group of cultists running towards them, so he decisively resorted to Plan B—assault!
Following Fang Zheng’s command, those Sanctuary warriors also removed their black robes. They had already retrieved their armor and weapons, and now it was time to settle scores with those darned cultists.
The cultists raised their hands high, bellowing blasphemous names, then thrust their hands forward. Hellhounds, ugly as if genetically mutated, were summoned from the dim flames and lunged towards the Sanctuary warriors. Meanwhile, the Sanctuary warriors loudly shouted the name of the Goddess of Order and lit up like human-sized glowing lightbulbs, charging at the evil creatures.
Fang Zheng also gripped his longsword and charged at the mage again.
Unaware why his time-stopping ability was lifted, thus putting his powers into a cooldown, but with his body enhanced by the Zerg, Fang Zheng’s speed was well beyond Charles’s possible reaction limit. He saw the young man’s figure blur, then reappear in front of him, the longsword in his hand bursting out blinding holy radiance, swinging down at him.
“Stupid and ignorant fool!”
Charles roared, spreading his arms. Invisible sound waves burst in an instant, shattering the ground and rushing straight towards Fang Zheng.
But the holy light in Fang Zheng’s hand was not for show either.
A dazzling silver light flashed and fell, shaking Fang Zheng’s body sharply. His Sky-Cleaving Sword shone even brighter. The power of the holy light created a gap in the sound wave’s torrent. One could clearly see the shattered ground headed towards Fang Zheng suddenly split apart on either side in front of the Sky-Cleaving Sword, leaving a triangular area of stability for its master behind.
However, Charles clearly did not intend to stop there. He raised his hands, swooping through various strange symbols in the air like a conductor, while chanting spell text in a low voice. Just as Fang Zheng withstood the sound wave onslaught, Charles snapped his fingers with a flick of his right hand, and then another fireball appeared out of thin air, spinning towards his enemy. But at the same moment, Fina also cried out angrily, raising her scepter, and a beam of light turned into a blade shot from her scepter, striking at the center of the spinning fireball. Immediately following, with a loud ‘boom’, the fireball exploded instantly, the raging heat, and scattered flames forcing both parties in the battle to move away from this troublesome spot.
This was Fang Zheng’s first fight with a mage from the Main World, and he felt almost no different from facing an Archmage in a game. If it was just simple attacks, Fang Zheng was still confident that he could dodge, but this damned mage’s spells almost all came with tracking capabilities, or else they had such a wide range that Fang Zheng could not dodge. He had also tried to accelerate and slash down his opponent with his sword, but the Thunder Barrier in front of the Bald Mage made Fang Zheng grumble—it seemed the holy light could negate some of the physical damage, but it was not very useful against the conducted electricity.
This damned Bald Guy is just an electrified Pikachu!
Fang Zheng was also fortunate to have a Divine Shepherd on his side to shield and heal him, but unfortunately, Fina’s power had its limits, and she couldn’t last long under the relentless assault of the Bald Mage.
The battle had to end immediately.
Fang Zheng glanced briefly at the battlefield, then immediately made a decision. The mage was troublesome, but he was not completely without countermeasures.
Along with Fang Zheng’s shout, a blue-haired twin-tailed angelic girl appeared silently not far above his head. Seeing this suddenly appeared girl with colorful wings behind her, Charles was also stunned. But before he could do anything, he saw the girl suddenly spread her arms. Accompanying her movement, a pale blue sphere made up of triangles appeared beside the girl.
“Domain, full release!”
Along with the blue-haired angel’s shout, the next moment the sphere quickly expanded, enveloping Fang Zheng, Fina, and the Bald Mage within it.