Chapter 232: Precision Kill

Elements in nature are always in a delicate state of balance. Releasing magic to control elements is a form of artificial sabotage to such a balance. Therefore, magic creates irregular elemental fluctuations, which will not disappear until the elements return to their natural balance.

The elemental fluctuation caused by magicians was always in stages; even the banned charms were not free from natural intervention. But at that point, the elemental fluctuation from afar lasted half a day, without any sign of reduction, like a never ending song.

When the magical fluctuations appeared, the mercenaries were already at war; meanwhile, the magicians remained silent, for the time to unleash magic had not yet come. Unleashing magic too early would only trigger the attention of the enemy.

Suddenly, commotion broke out in the opposing side woods. Winston was the first to jump out; he rushed towards the top of the mountain without stopping. Saxon followed suit; then Paul and Fidi, one by one.

Out of the black clouds, more than a dozen thunderbirds suddenly descended. Each thunderbird released a lightning bolt with a similar diameter to that of a wooden barrel, each bolt concentrating towards a point in the woods. A scream later, the quietness resumed.

Nobody in Winston and Saxon’s group dared to look back, even knowing that one of their friends had been killed. Rescuing the victim would be helpless, and would only mean suicide.

They knew that should’ve been well-prepared. They’d been to the Thunder Valley before, and had enough experiences with the thunderbirds. Groups of thunderbirds could indeed pose a terrifying threat, but they were ultimately just holy animals, and there were plenty of ways to handle them.

However, the unexpected had occurred. Winston never expected that the thunderbirds were already waiting under the direction of more than a dozen Ogre Shamans. Their preparations could only fool the thunderbirds with insufficient intelligence—- it wasn’t enough to fool the Ogre Shamans!

Cervantes from the Twilight Mercenary Corps let out a smile, then promptly nodded towards his archers. More than twenty of them kneeled down and strung back their longbows.

The moment the archers gave away their presence, Winston’s group became aware of ill-intentioned mercenaries. Paul instantly rolled to the side at his max speed while he deployed the Art of Invision. Saxon roared and released the Qi of Body Guarding to his best capacity, shielding Fidi, while Winston dashed towards the top of the mountain.

More than 20 arrows were shot out at lightning speed. Normal mercenary teams would not survive such an attack; but being a mercenary team with ample battling experience and powerful members, the Reaper Mercenary Team had reacted properly to the unexpected check.

Paul was able to break away from the attack zone in time; Fidi was shielded from Saxon, who was hit by some arrows but remained unharmed with his Qi of Body Guarding and leather armor.

However, at that moment, Saxon’s group was stopped in their tracks. In the meantime, another wave of thunderbirds descended from the black clouds. Tens of lightning bolts concentrated onto Fidi, creating a huge Electro-optical ball, eventually exploding with a ‘BOOM’.

The magical shield Fidi used on himself could resist the thunder released by a few thunderbirds; but the amount of thunderbirds was just overwhelming. Even a top-tier level 11 magus would have great difficulties defending the concentrated precision attacks of the tens of thunderbirds.

The electric bolts swept through all directions, taking out Fidi without a scream. Even Saxon was thrown over twenty meters, smashing against the ground.

“Cervantes!” Winston roared, face distorted out of enragement, with the expression in his eye turning from peaceful to vicious. He had recognized the attacking mercenary corps in the distance.

Cervantes laughed as he jumped down from his hideout, looking calmly towards Winston as he got wrapped in a hot, white cloud of Qi. No matter how mad Winston became, Cervantes did not fear him in a one-on-one battle.

The five types of fighting techniques all had their respective advantages and drawbacks. The Dragon Flame Technique of Fighting, the fighting technique Winston practiced, was quite balanced between attack and defense. Meanwhile, by puncturing through magic shields and causing direct damage to the magician inside the shield, the River of Star Fighting Strength posed a major threat for magicians—- the skill was vital considering that no other fighter profession enabled damage to the magician before the collapse of the magician’s shield. The Explosive Thunder Technique of Fighting, the fighting technique Cervantes practiced, had a great advantage in melee combat. By launching paralysing attacks, the Explosive Thunder Technique of Fighting gave precious time to make life and death decisions in a close battle. Even though such paralysing attacks could only briefly stiffen a high level professional like Winston, an extremely short period of time could easily determine the outcome of a fight.

Saxon got up from the ground and roared towards the mountain. He already realized that it was likely the day when the Reaper Mercenary Team would be eliminated, and death would be imminent. Even then, he still chose to fight until his last breath.

Cervantes then drew his sword and pointed sideways. His more than a dozen magicians instantly understood his intention, and each released Magic Detections one by one, covering hundreds of meters. Paul’s invision magic had ceased to effect, but he continued to rush towards the top.

The tens of thunderbirds began descending once again, as magical fluctuations intensified wave after wave. The smile on Cervantes’ face suddenly disappeared; he then quickly looked up to the sky, “No…”

The lightning bolts crashed from atop one after another mercilessly, covering the entire mountain, causing human flesh, weapons, and countless rocks and trees to swirl from all directions. Mercenaries from the Twilight Mercenary Corps believed they could easily annihilate the Reaper Mercenary Team, with no thought that they could also possibly suffer a surprise attack.

Maybe it was just luck, maybe it was intended, but the magical fluctuations hid among the fluctuations caused by the thunderbirds, giving the mercenaries from the Twilight Mercenary Corps no alarm whatsoever. The more than a dozen magicians, without their body guarding magic deployed, were the first to be killed, while the archers that had previously taken aim at Paul fell to the ground with broken limbs. The warriors in the mercenaries did not receive a good end either; although Cervantes’ Light Thunder Technique of Fighting provided defense against the electric-based magic attacks, he had nearly lost all of his men.

Cervantes then used the Nine Grid Thunder Call. It was a trademark magic spell, allowing both sides to see who’s nearby.

Cervantes instantly turned his head angrily, seeking the hiding place of the enemy. However, before he had a chance to find the enemy, a sharp gust of wind had secretly cut towards his neck.

Cervantes was extremely fast to react, dodging towards his side, catapulting his own sword attack with his other hand. Gibran suddenly appeared in the air, rotating to avoid Cervantes’ attack. The first round was a draw: neither side had connected their attack.

Cervantes’ expression had changed dramatically as he dashed away. If Gibran was present, then so was Julia; Treant Arrow was no easy feat, and a difficult situation could only be prevented by a rapid movement.

However, Cervantes was still a bit lacking in speed. Julia and Gibran both began moving at the same time; by the time Cervantes had returned his attack after Gibran’s sneak attack, Julia’s arrows had arrived. With the Green Light’s blink, countless vines flooded from the ground, dragging Cervantes back.

Winston roared out of fury, shooting himself through midair like an artillery shell, drawing an arc towards Cervantes. He held his sword high overhead, using all of his strength and Qi. Winston’s fencing was primarily based on stabbing; his reversion of norms further demonstrated his fury. His attack was entirely unrelated to his skill, and was solely made from venting his fury.

Cervantes roared and attempted to escape, but the Treant Arrow was the nemesis of his power. Unless he possessed the power to break all the vines at the same time, escape would be nearly impossible. Each time he broke a vine, another would grow in its place, and the tie became tighter and tighter.

Winston swinged his sword down; the exploding fire immediately burned the vines into ashes. His sword had carved deeply into Cervantes’ forehead, nearly cutting his head into two halves. Cervantes was benumbed in his place for a short time, before he fell to the ground softly.

The descending thunderbirds release another round of dazzling lightning bolts. Under the direction of the Ogre Shamans, their attacks were very organized; before Paul had a chance to leave the area of magical detection, his body was already fully circled with electric lights. When they disappeared, in the place where Paul once stood, nothing remained.

An absolute precision kill, an absolute instant kill!

“Move!” Gibran shouted. He didn’t have the motivation to attack the surviving mercenaries from the Twilight Mercenary Corps, so he began rushing towards the back of the mountain.

Winston also knew that it was not a good time to vent his fury, and followed Gibran closely. Saxon, left behind, knew his ability was insufficient; there is no point attempting to rescue anyone under the siege from tens of thunderbirds; such an attack would likely mean death for himself.

From the bottom of the mountain, many black shadows dashed out from the woods; it was the group of Ogre Shamans, each of them riding a tall Gale Wolf.

Ogres were very ugly creatures. They had rough skin and were an ugly green-grayish color, with big brains and sizable eyes. Their mouths were huge and looked like basins filled with blood; coupled with exposed teeth flicking cold light, such a plain look was very frightening.

Ogres were powerful enemies. Like vampires, ogres were born with strong bodies, but Shamans, despite weaker bodies, were usually the leaders among their groups of ogres, with the ability to release magic and communicate with holy animals psychologically.

Seeing that their enemies had fled to the top of the mountain, the Ogre Shamans immediately mounted on their Gale Wolves. At that point, a person suddenly jumped up from the ground, waving a shiny green light towards the neck of an Ogre Shaman.

The Shaman was hit by the surprise attack, and his head instantly separated from his body. The person continued forward, and another Ogre Shaman decapitated seconds later.

The other Ogre Shamans dispersed in all directions. The group of thunderbirds chasing Saxon also forfeited their target and turned to protect the Ogre Shamans.

Saxon, expecting immediate death, became very pleased as the thunderbirds forfeited him as a target. Nobody wants to face death, and the expectation to die did not mean the wish of death. He used all his strength, jumped up the top of the mountain, then disappeared.

Raphael waged his Green Light, originally intending to kill another enemy. At that moment, he saw a rock two meters in diameter shooting straight towards his direction, flying with so much force that his face began to tremble from the waging wind created in the rock’s wake. Raphael’s body immediately fell back and disappeared.

The next moment, a giant man, about 5 meters in height, had escaped from the woods, reaching the location where Raphael had previously scurried to in just a few steps. He then wielded a ridiculously long hammer and smashed it down with full force. “Bam!” The ground vibrated severely as a result of the hit, making the Gale Wolves lose their stability from the shockwave. Even the Ogre Shamans had painfully covered their ears.

That giant man then continued with a few more hits, creating a huge hole by brute force. He then squatted down and searched the ground using his hand. At that moment, he raised up his head and said, stunned, “No…”

“Forget about him! Keep chasing!” An Ogre Shaman screamed.

As each of the Ogre Shamans listened to his order, just when the thunderbirds had turned, Raphael jumped out from behind another Gale Wolf, puncturing another Ogre Shaman’s body with his sword. Then, Raphael moved his body towards another Ogre Shaman, but the Shaman noticed in advance, raising his vine stick with his green-gray skin suddenly turning black. The Green Light only managed to leave a shallow scar.

Raphael, briefly confused, used his other hand to patch the fire charm. The Three True Fire instantly fell on the back of the Shaman, immediately bursting him into flames.

The Shaman’s smug grin immediately disappeared, in place of miserable screams.

Applying the fire charm interrupted the consistency of Raphael’s swift movements, slowing down his actions for a few moments. The thunderbirds in the sky then began releasing many yellow lights, circling Raphael’s body and wrapping him inside.

After a loud boom sounded, countless grains of sand and rocks were thrown upwards in all directions, however, Raphael appeared away from the explosion, fleeing undergournd.

That giant man rushed towards Rahpaels’s direction, squatting down for careful observations, but without any success.

The Ogre Shamas each looked at eachother, profoundly confused. The giant man gave up his effort as well, tossing away his giant hammer, running afar to pick up the rocks he had thrown away, observing them closely. The giant man was about five meters tall, while the rock had a diameter of nearly two meters; even with the proportions not in his favor, the giant man did not struggle as he picked up the boulder.

“What should we do?” An Ogre Shaman asked.

“Forget about him!” Another Ogre Shaman yelled, “Keep pursuing!”

This time, despite their intentions of continuing the chase, nobody moved. Each of their skins had turned black, while the thunderbirds continued hovering atop, obviously all because of Raphael.

No movement became present after the prolonged waiting. The Ogre Shamans were done waiting, choosing to move forward on their Gale Wolves after exchanging glances. However, just when they had started moving, Raphael jumped out from behind. Seeing that the skins of the Ogre Shamans had all turned black, he applied a fire charm without even thinking.

The giant man quickly tossed the huge rock after a mad roar. However, Raphael had already sunken underground; the rock missed its target and continued to roll, smashing countless trees in its path.

The Shaman hit by the Three True Fire rolled off his Gale Wolf, screaming painfully. While falling to the ground, his back rubbed against the body of the wolf, thereby catapulting the wolf into great pain as well, while the shaman rolled desperately on the ground.

“Buck, what are you waiting for? Distinguish the fire!” An Ogre Shaman yelled.

The giant man rushed in front of the Shaman, intending to slap his hands, when another Ogre Shaman yelled, “Stop! That fire is eccentric, don’t touch it with your hand!”

That giant man, briefly confused, bolted to the side, grabbing a broken tree and smashing it to the ground as the Ogre Shamans fled to the side. However, at that moment Raphael’s second sudden attack on another Ogre Shaman appeared; he too became swallowed in the fire after a fire charm.

That giant man reacted fairly fast, immediately using his feet to trample the log into halves, tossing the pieces at Raphael. However, Raphael had become extremely cautious after previously crumbling his own body using his art of the Faked Earth Corpse, hiding back underground after a single kill; the flying log didn’t even touch his shadow.

At that moment, the giant man turned truly mad, hitting his own chest with fury, yelling, “Ahhhhhhh…”

The Ogre Shamans and Gale Wolves hit by the fire were already laying in blood, but the fire persisted despite their bodies already becoming a mixture of flesh and blood. However, the intensity of the flames was not due to Raphael’s deeds; it was all due to the giant man.

Watching companion after companion die, the remaining Ogre Shamans began to show fear. That giant man would not admit defeat, running afar to pick up a huge rock and surveying the grounds in circles.

“Don’t worry about him anymore! We need to kill those people even if we only have one man left!” An Ogre Shaman screamed.

“Good!” Another Ogre Shaman agreed.

Just before the Gale Wolves were about to move, Raphael jumped up from underground, applying another fire charm. The giant man also tossed his rock, but this time, he aimed at the fire instead of Raphael.

Raphael could shoot fire charms considerably fast, but the giant man was extremely gifted in such an aspect; coupled with the huge size of the rock, the fire charm was intercepted by the giant boulders in an instant. The rock rolled through the burning fire, and the Ogre Shaman, though frightened, remained unharmed.

The group of thunderbirds unleashed their yellow lights once again as Raphael disappeared from the ground. The roaring yellow lights created a huge hole, nearly two meters deep.

The giant man, seeing that his plan was successful, madly roared in the direction where Raphael disappeared, “I… STRONG!” Afterwards, he quickly picked up his rock with much joy. Strength aside, his intelligence was quite problematic; he disregarded the advice that the Ogre Shamans had previously given him, the fire was eccentric.

The surviving Ogre Shamans surrounded the hole; their focus was at the very bottom.

“Is he dead?” An Ogre Shaman whispered.

“Probably… dead.”

The giant man, not fearful of the fire, grabbed his burning rock in laughter and turned around. Moments later, the rock dropped out from his hands. He stood there looking at his burning hands, dulled.

The noise of the rolling rock instantly got the Ogre Shamans’ attention; they turned their heads and were stunned to find the giant man’s hands grasping two fireballs, with a large fire burning in front of his chest.

“Buck! We told you not to touch it!” An Ogre Shaman screamed.

“What are you doing , Buck?” Another Ogre Shaman yelled. He asked for a reason; anyone who touched the fire would scream with pain, but Buck remained still like nothing had happened.

Buck then raised his head, all the muscles in his face trembling, “Pain…”

The Ogre Shamans were completely stunned. They weren’t aware of Buck’s condition, but the extent of his injuries were beyond their comprehension.

Buck walked to the Ogre Shamans after a few steps, pulling his huge hands down: “Extinguish… extinguish…”

The Ogre Shamans dispersed to the side immediately. The fire had extremely eccentric characteristics that the shamans could do nothing about; also, the shamans were oriented around improving the fighting ability of the whole group and controlling large sums of holy animals. In real battles, the shamans couldn’t even fight a human warlock.

“EXTINGUISH THE FIRE!” Seeing how his companions are disregarding him, even dispersing to other directions, Buck finally yelled a complete sentence in huge pain.

The Ogre Shaman only moved further back, refusing to reply.

“Extinguish the fire…” Buck, infuriated, ran up to an Ogre Shaman, pressing his hand down. He was so powerful that his slam fixed the brain of the Ogre Shaman into his chest: the headless corpse, with fire burning on his neck, fell down after a few shakes.

“Move fast! He’s mad!” The Ogre Shamans were completely startled; they each turned around, riding their Gale Wolves into the woods.

Buck, as tall as he was, caught another Ogre Shaman in a single step. His hand grasped the neck of the shaman tightly, “Extinguish… it…”

Another Ogre Shaman, seeing the situation, immediately screamed for the thunderbirds. Lightning bolt after lightning bolt concentrated on Buck, making the ground shake.

After the yellow lights dispersed, Buck was left still standing, unlike the others who got stuck in the concentrated attack. But his body was shaved considerably lean, showing bones from head to toe, blood pouring out of his body like a fountain. He then fell straight down after a shake, right on top of a stunned Ogre Shaman.