Chapter 225: Act 159 – The War of the Traveling Mage (Part 2) (Fourth Update, Seeking Support)
Brendel opened the book.
Seventeen pages, second line. His long fingers stopped there, “Unlocking this card requires a payment of one hundred wealth.” The book responded. A card floated into his hand, and Brendel lowered his eyelids, responding, “Unlock.” In an instant, a third of his accumulated three hundred eighteen wealth from a month of forgoing summoning Medisa vanished. The young man held up the card and spoke:
“Starscape Reflection, wondrous chaos—”
He pressed his index finger, thumb, and middle finger against the face of the card and displayed it downward: “Reveal card: Eternal Sphere.”
Eternal Sphere
(Wonderous Object IX)
10 Any, 10 Mana
[Treasure—Wonder/Illusion]
Horizontal placement, pay 5 Any. You choose the next card to enter the field and create a perfect replica of it.
Only one illusion can exist on the field at a time.
“Starscape Reflection, wondrous chaos—”
Brendel paid ten points of fire essence, his mana also depleting.
However, the card floated in mid-air, transforming into a mysterious magic formation. Then, a fist-sized mercury sphere surrounded by seventeen brass rings floated out of the formation, lingering not far from Brendel’s left shoulder. Cabais froze for a moment upon seeing this little object, but soon a flicker of the soul’s fire in his eyes retreated—sensitive to the magical resonance and soul strength, the undead immediately sensed something unusual:
This is a wonderous treasure, a gold-level magical item!
Cabais could hardly imagine how a silver-tier summoner and a black iron peak elementalist could summon a being of the wonder tier across ranks. Yet, he finally felt a sense of threat and could no longer allow the opponent to prepare any further! For the first time, he realized that Brendel’s words might not be empty threats—facing the bizarre elemental power of the other party, he sensed it would be difficult to win. An inexplicable urgency drove him to tighten his grip on the short spear. Cabais let out a reluctant roar from his chest, readying himself to attack.
As for that bastard Rothko, he couldn’t care less.
But Brendel also felt the sense of urgency; he spent five points of fire essence to keep the ‘Eternal Sphere’ horizontal. Then he drew the second card, the fate card he had been preparing among his four hand cards. He raised the card up, set it down, and spoke:
“Light of Mercy descends from the heavens, the messengers of God approach from the light—”
A calm gleam in Brendel’s eyes already reflected the short spear of Cabais approaching closer, but Brendel pointed forward. Accompanied by a flash of white light, pure white feathers descended from the sky, two pairs of wings protecting Brendel left and right, with two sharp metallic sounds echoing. Cabais was taken aback, lifting his head as his black sockets reflected a flicker of uncertainty for the first time—
He was forcefully halted.
The tall skeleton general watched as the short spear in his hand was blocked by two intercrossed long swords. The swords shone brilliantly, mysterious runes and patterns climbed along the blades—were a well-educated wizard like Bud here, he might recognize these ancient patterns—heavenly runes. The sacred language from beyond the Gate of Order, known only to the proud Children of Light.
Cabais raised his head.
In his eyes, two angels made of light flapped their four wings, hovering to Brendel’s left and right, lifting their chins with disdainful glances at him. Their long swords crossed perfectly, sealing off his path forward. Meanwhile, Brendel stood behind the crossed swords holding an opened black tome, raising his head to meet Cabais’s gaze with calm eyes.
“Silver Tier—”
The skeleton general nearly forced out this one word at a time.
Brendel smiled slightly at him. The fiery anger in Cabais’s eyes nearly erupted; he growled in a deep voice and retreated—silver tier could not stop him. Even if he was caught off guard by a sudden attack, in the face of true gold-level beings, a silver-tier existence was nothing more than cannon fodder. He pushed himself off the ground with his massive bony claws, leaping forward, his short spear drawing a glaring red line—Brendel stepped back and commanded the two holy angels to intervene.
With a loud bang, the two angels were knocked away.
But that was enough.
As the holy angels entered the field, Brendel had retrieved the Wind Essence Spider and Highland Minion from the graveyard (*When the holy angels enter, choose a non-black card from your graveyard and shuffle it into your deck.). Cabais only took a moment to break through the angels’ defense, yet he had already raised the gray-white Highland Minion card and flicked it forward—
“Highland Courage.”
Within a flash of white light, the long-lost, disheveled young man burst out from the formation, hugging his head: “By Martha, my lord!” Charles rolled forward, shouting in a familiar tone while covering his head: “I simply can’t believe you got me out this quickly! My lord, you know, you are truly the most brilliant Highland Knight, my lord… Ah!”
He shrieked as he ducked; an angel flew past overhead and crashed into the nearby ruins with a loud crash.
Charles quickly glanced over in fright.
Brendel merely smiled.
His fingers moved to the ninth page, third line, “Fate Card: Trial.”
“Unlocking this card requires a payment of eighty wealth.” The book responded. Brendel nodded, holding up that card: “Reveal Trial—”
He placed the card down:
Trial
(Wolf Den II)
Earth 10
[Event—Event/Exploration]
Target summoned creature gains 250,000 experience.
“The Wolf Den Altar is less a place for the Lonians than a spiritual haven—”
“Bound to?” A voice responded in his heart as the card emerged.
Brendel spread four fingers of the card toward the fearfully huddled Charles, revealing, “Bound.”
The trial card momentarily vanished, but in the next instant, another card floated before Brendel:
Highland Mage
(Knight IX)
Water 5
[Creature—Human/Wizard, Level 45 Creature]
When the Highland Mage enters the field, provides 5 reputation per week.
Maintenance cost: For each day this card remains in play, pay 2 earth essence additionally.
‘Highland Courage’
Brendel was momentarily stunned, instinctively looking up to see a white light descending from above. Charles stood in that light, his simple robe bathed in soft white light instantly revealing two mysterious patterns, while the edges of his robe acquired three rings of gray-white, marking him as a Seven-Ring Highland Mage. The involved party was momentarily dumbfounded, looking at himself before spreading his hands, a golden short staff appearing in his grasp.
“This is…” Charles exclaimed in surprise, turning around just in time to see the second celestial angel soaring past him. The young man, who had just become a high mage, immediately reached out, and it was as if a transparent cushion had formed instantly on his hand, gently lowering the light angel down. Charles raised his head to look at Brendel, his eyes filled with delight.
“Gold-level strength.”
Brendel understood. His expression unchanged, he commanded: “Charles, Time Barrier.”
The young wizard certainly knew how to cooperate with his lord; he had already seen Cabais barreling through after breaking past the two angels. Charles shook his head, thinking those bony frames were truly reckless. He pointed his short staff in that direction, speaking: “Laws of Time, Stasis and Confinement—” A transparent wall appeared out of thin air, and as this Highland Mage pushed forward, Cabais crashed into the wall.
The undead felt his movements slow down suddenly. Surprised, he looked up, only to realize another gold-level being stood before him.
A Seven-Ring Highland Wizard—
Cabais almost felt his soul fire would collapse in that moment. By Martha! Could this guy’s reinforcements be limitless? How many gold-level forces did he have under him?
The undead lord’s jaw fell open in disbelief, his soul fire dimming slowly. For the first time, he felt the shadow of failure enveloping him. Unlike warriors, while wizards have weak self-protection abilities, their offensive power could be horrifyingly strong, especially with a laws wizard like the Highland Mage; the spells were bizarre and utterly unavoidable—a soldier of the same level or even higher would generally meet their end once entangled in a law-based combat.
Let alone, it was the work of a Seven-Ring Grandmaster!
He understood his only chance was to end the fight before the opponent cast their spell, but standing before Charles, Brendel had cut off the last shred of delusion for the skeleton general.
Brendel held the great book and looked at the tall skeleton general with pity, then shook his head.
“Cabais, farewell.” He whispered.
His expression deeply pierced Cabais’s soul, who struggled within the stasis barrier, emitting high-frequency roars and howls from its chest; however, within such a transparent wall, it could only feel that layers of heavy restraints had completely bound its limbs, moving as slowly as if it were a snail. Meanwhile, Brendel finally revealed his last summoning card:
Wind Essence Spider.
At this moment, Brendel was no longer comparable to when he was at the auction house; with ample mana, he directly summoned fifty spiders to form a swarm army. When the densely packed sky-blue spiders landed on the street, everyone, including Charles, was momentarily stunned. They all looked at the young lord, not understanding why he would summon these creatures whose power was even below black iron level.
These spiders might have once triumphed by sheer numbers, but here, they were practically a lackluster presence. Unless used for reconnaissance, the much faster-moving celestial angels were far better suited for that purpose. In the eyes of Husher, Charles, and the Wild Elf sisters, Brendel’s action seemed quite wasteful of mana.
However, their opinions could not change Brendel’s mind; the young man continued on his own path. He cut through his remaining hand cards, the three left being: Holy Sword, White Sun Blade, and Golden Glory Banners.
Brendel drew the fate card: Holy Sword.
He raised the card, paid the cost, and then attached it down to the Wind Essence Spider card.
In that moment—
Everyone saw a vacuum of sacred giant swords with wings floating behind every Wind Essence Spider, as if they were holy swords hovering in the air—up to fifty in number. Just as anticipated, Brendel smiled slightly. He raised his hand, and the Wind Essence Spiders immediately organized behind him into a massive square formation.
It was like a square formed of radiant holy swords in the sky.
Brendel looked at Charles beside him.
“This…” The young wizard was momentarily at a loss for words.
“So I named this move,” Brendel turned back, quietly gazing at Cabais trapped in the barrier, and answered, “Let’s call it ‘Dragoon System’—”
He raised his hand, fingers splayed.
“Dragoon, attack—!”
……
(PS. Four updates today, how many for tomorrow? Continue to strive for support!)(To be continued, for more details, please log in, more chapters await, support the author, support legitimate reading!)
