Chapter 362: Act 121 – Fierce Battle (Part 2)
The knights were still a distance away.
But the black-haired boy had already thrown two bottles at him—alchemy bombs? Brendel frowned slightly and took a step back. He claimed they wouldn’t take lives, but the attack showed no mercy; being hit by these would likely leave an ordinary person half-dead.
The bottles exploded mid-air, scorching acidic liquid and glass fragments scattering everywhere, but just before they could reach Brendel, they were abruptly deflected by a red shield of flame that flickered with light and darkness, appearing in front of him.
The crimson blessing fire shield spell activated automatically.
However, as the white smoke cleared, Brendel found himself facing two bizarre humanoid creatures that resembled fleshy golems. Their twisted, ugly bodies were covered in alchemical magic arrays, resembling a pile of slack muscle and rotten flesh—but upon closer inspection, they were significantly weaker than golems and only slightly taller than an average adult.
These beings were called mutants, alchemical lifeforms at level twenty-five. Although classified as life, they lacked sensation, emotion, and intelligence, which didn’t violate the teachings of the temple.
At the same time, twelve spherical metallic objects appeared behind the black-haired boy—these were magical devices—Brendel immediately understood the opponent’s strategy: to buy time with alchemical life forms and use magical devices to defend and set up alchemical magic arrays, seemingly preparing for more advanced alchemy.
“Quite experienced in battle,” Brendel thought, feeling surprised. “Could they be from a special unit?”
He knew the Cruz Royal Alchemy Association had a special team composed of both experienced alchemists and battle-ready fighters, known as the War Alchemists, bearing the blood-red eagle as their emblem.
War Alchemists were themselves a combat-oriented advancement in alchemy, but Brendel didn’t expect to encounter them here.
Besides, this boy seemed a bit young.
But Brendel shook his head: “Is that all the strength you have?”
The young lord from Erluin controlled the two crooked alchemical mutants without even needing to draw his sword. He stood still, pressing his right hand forward, and the White Crow Swordsmanship immediately generated wind pressure that collided with the two mutants— the power of the Golden Field was terrifying; the mutants had no chance to resist and were sent flying backward.
The trapped noble lady screamed in fright and ducked, as one mutant nearly brushed past her golden hair. The knights in the distance reacted quickly, stepping aside to let the two mutants crash into the ground, bounce back, then one of them crashed into a fence that gave way, tumbling out and falling a hundred meters down.
“It seems the Cruz Empire isn’t as formidable as it claims,” Brendel extended his hand and asked.
The wind pressure continued to push forward, and the boy was astonished; he hadn’t anticipated that this Erluin person would be so hard to deal with. The two black iron-tier mutants hadn’t even been able to delay him for a moment.
In his previous battles, even the strongest opponents he faced would at least stall for some time against these mutants.
“Tiel’s Wall!” the boy yelled through gritted teeth, and the metal magical device immediately formed a circular barrier around him, twelve transparent circular shields barely blocking Brendel’s casually generated whirlwind.
Tiel was a renowned magic master known for his defensive spells, having invented many famous defensive spells and magical devices.
After blocking Brendel’s attack, the black-haired boy took a breath and prepared to counterattack. But at that moment, a large, sturdy hand pressed down on his shoulder.
The knights had arrived.
“Rono, you’re no match for him! Step back and use alchemy to support us; leave this guy to us!” The knight who blocked the black-haired boy was fully armored and wore a full-face helmet adorned with a purple and teal feather. Brendel could tell from the outfit that the person was a centurion.
“Captain?” The black-haired boy was startled; he had initially thought the opponent was merely a second-rate elementalist, but he had not expected the young man whom Faina had provoked to be so formidable.
“Leave it to us.”
“What about Master Karlen?”
“He’ll be here shortly.”
The knight captain turned to look at Brendel, and his cautious green eyes gleamed from beneath the visor: “Sir, is the Cruz Empire really this weak? Such bold words! Let me show you otherwise, Erluin—”
He swung his sword, and over twenty knights surged forward from either side.
At the same time, the spherical magical devices also spread out around the black-haired boy, shooting down twelve beams of light to begin drawing a secret magic array on the ground. With each node the light drew, the boy tossed a secondary moon crystal into the center of the small magic array—his constructed magic array had a total of three layers, composed of twenty-two nodes forming a three-dimensional conical synthesis formula.
The speed at which the magical devices constructed the array was astonishing, rivaling blood refining techniques. However, magical devices were expensive, and few could produce them; they were not for everyone to afford—and high-grade magical devices required top-quality amber stones to power, making Brendel think that only a financially powerful empire like Cruz could afford their alchemists such luxuries.
But were humans truly proud? The Eagle Empire of Cruz?
Brendel sneered inwardly, as the tragic outcome of the regent princess in the Amber Sword was closely tied to this so-called illustrious empire; where did those assassins come from? Duke Anlek couldn’t provide an answer, but players were too pervasive to be concealed easily.
He thought to himself that he hadn’t yet sought trouble with these individuals, but they had come knocking first, which was fine; it would help these arrogant folks understand that Vaunte was not centered around Cruz.
Just a country favored by the Temple of Fire.
He glanced at the boy, recognizing that he was preparing to draw the array for the Mist of Swift Wind, an alchemical potion that greatly amplified melee power, and he certainly couldn’t allow him to complete it.
Though the speed of the magical devices’ array construction would embarrass ordinary alchemists, it was far beneath Brendel’s notice.
The young lord extended his right hand, grasping a flame-patterned agate between his metal finger sleeves. The magic contained within the agate was ten times that of a secondary moon crystal, perfect for creating an embryo; Brendel’s thoughts stirred, and the power of the high-grade alchemical array drawn by Bahamut instantly penetrated the magic crystal, causing it to shatter.
Not far away, the centaur owner, horrified by this transformation, couldn’t help but lament— that was a flame-patterned agate!
A tangible surge of magical power erupted from the shattered magic crystal, with the crystal’s pure magic being untainted by chaos, presenting a beautiful sky-blue hue, swirling like mist around Brendel’s hand. However, in the next moment, three horizontal magic arrays crossed over Brendel’s forearm greaves, constraining this magic inward.
The magic arrays compressed forward, forming a spherical shape within Brendel’s palm with several surfaces, and the blue magic flickered within the sphere as if nurturing something waiting to hatch.
Brendel shot the sphere forward, emitting a dazzling blue light that cut through three knights and entered the black-haired boy’s magic array. The latter’s expression changed suddenly as he watched his nearly completed array dissolve into ashes in an instant.
Alchemy counter!
The other party was also an alchemist! Moreover, a combat-type!
But what shocked the boy was why the opponent’s alchemical array was constructed so swiftly? Alchemy counter was a seventh-circle alchemy spell, at least two circles higher than the Mist of Swift Wind!
Blood refining technique?
But that couldn’t be right; what advanced skills could blood refining possess? Also, the magic arrays of blood refining were red, while the opponent’s array had clearly been bright white moments ago.
The black-haired boy was filled with confusion as he stumbled back, coughing up blood and hurriedly covering his mouth, but the bright red blood still gushed forth between his fingers.
The magical counter had almost instantaneously dealt a severe blow to his insides.
“Rono!” The noble young lady ensnared in thorns was stunned, exclaiming in surprise.
The knights were equally shocked; they hadn’t anticipated the black-haired boy, celebrated as the strongest genius of the new generation in the domain of alchemy within the empire, would be severely injured by the other party at their first encounter, especially since the opponent was also using alchemy and was so young.
The knight captain was first stunned, but then his expression turned to one of anger. He couldn’t imagine the fury of His Majesty upon learning that such a genius had been harmed under his protection, nor the fate that would befall him.
“Kill him!” he shouted angrily, but immediately realized they were in the territory of druids, quickly changing his command to: “Capture that Erluin!”
“Capture me?” Brendel scoffed. “What qualifications do you have?”
He surveyed his surroundings; more than twenty knights present all had silver mid-tier rankings, indicating both the robust strength of Cruz and the seemingly complicated backgrounds of the black-haired boy and the blonde ponytailed noble lady.
But just over twenty silver mid-tiers were insignificant.
Brendel had overheard their conversation and realized that reinforcements might be on the way, so he was unwilling to waste further time on these lackeys.
He took a step forward.
An unmatched wave of energy erupted from this young Erluin lord, radiating in all directions—under the dual influence of a level sixteen master military swordsmanship and the power of the Golden Field, the sword energy of the White Crow was as sharp as substance—though Brendel did not draw his sword, the white airflow was akin to a blade.
The centurion had never dreamed that this young man had not only stepped into the Golden Field but had also attained mastery in swordsmanship—
“The Sub-Sword Saint!” the knights screamed, but they had already been swept away in a fan-shaped formation, utterly unable to resist the overwhelming power gap exceeding nearly three tiers.
In just a breath, over twenty knights from the Cruz Empire were left in disarray.
Brendel looked at these men with no surprise, thinking that if he had encountered them before heading to Schafflund’s underground, he would have wasted considerable effort to deal with them, but now they were no more than chickens and dogs.
He raised his head and saw the noble young lady weakly retracting a step.
“Y-you, don’t come any closer…” (To be continued. For more chapters, please visit the website to support the author and read legit materials!)
