Chapter 589: Act 334 – The Battle of Saintly White XVIII
Earl Victorkin never imagined that a boastful behemoth would suddenly appear on the battlefield where the two armies were engaged in combat. Such bizarre occurrences were even stranger than those in legendary tales. Little did he know that this was actually the work of Brendel. The previous night, Brendel had planted a substantial amount of shattering crystals at several sealing nodes in the ruins of the underground Temple, and once the time came, the seals would naturally explode, unleashing the ‘Berserker’ Adgar—a massive storm element—onto the battlefield.
In the game, the ‘Berserker’ Adgar was level 71, equating to the peak late-stage of the law’s general understanding of power in the world of Vaunte, having reached an ultimate state at its zenith before its strength declined after being sealed. This creature, called ‘Berserker’, certainly had a temper—elemental beings were inherently sensitive to changes in the laws, due to the contract set between Lady Martha and the four great elven kings (the Tiamat Code). This Adgar also particularly despised anyone showing off law-related spells in its presence.
This was why Charles had never intervened up to this point; as a seasoned player, Brendel would never make such a fundamental mistake. However, the North Alliance was not so fortunate. The ‘Curios’ Carglis sensed something was amiss immediately upon making a move—this great mage had started the game at level 65, making him a true power of truth, and such a powerful figure was usually exceptionally keen to dangers and hostility. He quickly perceived the enmity emanating from Adgar.
Adgar appeared as a massive cloud floating ominously above the battlefield, with a diameter exceeding several hundred meters. The gray mist in its body churned relentlessly, occasionally releasing a bolt of lightning. All onlookers had to look up to get a glimpse of this being, and where its eye sockets lay, there were two immense whirlpools of lightning, resembling electric orbs.
Upon Adgar’s appearance, soldiers of the North Alliance immediately let out terrified screams: “My God, it’s a monster!”
“Nonsense, that’s an elemental being!”
“It’s so huge!”
Many turned and fled, but Adgar had no intention of letting that slide. With a soft sound, a gold lightning arc shot towards the ‘Curios’ Carglis in the center of the battlefield.
The Old Wizard turned pale—elemental beings, due to their long lives, were significantly stronger than humans at the same level, and this one, who had slept for countless years, surpassed him by a tier. He hurriedly raised his right hand and shouted: “Law, block!”
A hexagonal transparent shield appeared above him, with each face perfectly positioned to defend against arcs of lightning. When they collided, the arcs dispersed into numerous electric snakes that fizzled outwards.
Adgar hadn’t expected that the human below had some strength—of course, this was partly due to its own weakened state, leaving it unable to contain its anger. It took a deep breath—the cloud that made up its body suddenly expanded, summoning the storm off the coast of Ampere Seale, with heavy rain falling again, while Adgar seemed to draw energy from the tempest. An ‘arm’ formed from dark clouds sprouted from its body, then swung across half the battlefield, aimed directly at Carglis.
Despite its massive size, the storm element was surprisingly agile. The soldiers on the battlefield barely noticed a change in the clouds above before a massive fist, nearly thirty meters wide and comprised of dark clouds intertwined with lightning, was already upon them.
With a deafening crash.
The lightning seemed to converge at a single point, but upon hitting an obstruction, it exploded outward like a spider web of electric sparks. That scene was reminiscent of a rushing stream colliding with a boulder in the river, splitting apart, but this stream was formed of golden-red lines.
The electric arcs were blasted backward, and right behind Carglis was a densely packed formation of archers, which resulted in dire consequences for the ordinary human soldiers. The current washed over their ranks like a flood, incinerating dozens of archers into charred remains without a sound. The luckiest among them at least lost an arm.
As the arcs faded, the Old Wizard revealed himself, his face ashen and his right hand trembling slightly. He was grateful that the protective spells from the Amber Sword did not require guidance; otherwise, that blow, based solely on force, could have left him spitting blood and paralyzed.
Elemental beings were inherent elementalisms, but that did not mean their power was weak. In fact, unlike the frail Black Iron folk, high-level beings were often capable of combining martial and magical prowess. A powerful elemental lord like the storm element wouldn’t lag behind an enlightened warrior after reaching the peak of the laws with its physical strength.
Adgar, enraged by yet another failure to strike, unleashed a storm of lightning from its body upon the battlefield, venting its fury on the ordinary soldiers. It could be said that Adgar was one of the most shameless bosses in Erluin’s history.
Casualties began to mount on the battlefield, and Earl Victorkin nearly blacked out at the sight. At that moment, the Duke Siphai, who had been supervising from the rear, finally could not sit still. Although everything that had transpired in the past two days had exceeded his expectations since the Gray Saint’s appearance, he felt that matters were spiraling out of control, and that the princess was proving to be unexpectedly elusive for capture.
Cursing the princess in his heart for possibly being struck dead by Adgar’s lightning, Duke Siphai had no choice but to order his personal knights to take action.
Before Adgar could withdraw its palm, an intense downpour suddenly ignited into a brilliant golden blaze, as a sword engulfed in roaring flames slashed down, striking Adgar’s hand.
Elemental beings were not incorporeal like ghosts, and even within the Amber Sword, incorporeal beings would still take half damage. The storm element had a 25% physical damage resistance, yet this strike still severed its hand. To outsiders, the storm element was merely a whirl of wind; even if it lost a hand, it could seemingly reinstate it. However, that was not the case—elemental beings were still biological entities, and each part of their body represented their most direct energy. While it could absorb storm powers, it did not mean it was merely the storm itself—thus, when the flaming sword wielded by Nicolas actually struck its body, Adgar let out a deafening wail that echoed through the mountains.
This time, Adgar was truly furious. Do not forget, it was not just a super-strong being at the peak of the laws, but also a boss. Brendel knew that even though the real world of Vaunte adhered to the settings of the Amber Sword most of the time, unfortunately, Nicolas and the ‘Curios’ Carglis were oblivious to this, and suddenly, a circle of golden lightning arcs appeared around them.
Lightning Cage.
This signified the second phase.
When the ‘Berserker’ Adgar appeared, it split the battlefield in two. Because Brendel was aware of the sealing breach in advance, he inflicted minimal casualties among his own troops during the explosion—besides a few who were blown away and injured in the blast, there was also the fool Carglis—while the North Alliance suffered heavy losses. The Finns and Constantine brigades, who were lured by Brendel to two mountains, along with their commanders, were completely annihilated, and the heavy cavalry and infantry of the Field brigade were nearly wiped out. Sir Field narrowly survived but was subsequently captured by arriving officers from the Royal Knight Academy.
Those three brigades constituted nearly twelve thousand men, utterly removed from the fight. The North Alliance had battled Brendel for half a morning, incurring losses that hadn’t even reached half of that figure, making this a disastrous extent of loss for the kingdom even compared to historical battles.
Moreover, the light infantry from the battlefield had either perished or been captured. Since Adgar’s attention was completely drawn by the unfortunate mage beside Duke Siphai, Brendel took the opportunity to direct his subordinates to secure the battlefield, leaving the light infantry as mere pawns. Without hope, they could only surrender.
In this manner, the North Alliance lost four brigades from the battlefield, amounting to at least a third of their forces. Furthermore, with Adgar still on the scene, the North Alliance had their work cut out for them.
Brendel looked up across the battlefield, where two massive electric cages had emerged. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought that Nicolas and the ‘Curios’ Carglis would likely face great misfortune now.
Indeed, both Nicolas and Carglis were taken aback by the appearance of the electric circles surrounding them. They were both strong figures worthy of the truth’s side, and anyone who stepped into the realm of elements would have their unique law lines surrounding them—one truth was that external laws struggled to breach their vicinity without touching their law lines.
It was similar to how Brendel had a hard time utilizing the ‘Guaranteed Hit’ skill on that knight in the temple due to controlling the law lines.
The duo had hardly contemplated such a possibility, and thus when the electric rings appeared around them, they collided unpreparedly with the shock.
Brendel could almost imagine their horrified screams—although they were prominent figures, capable of reaching this level suggested a strong character, and they remained silent. However, that didn’t mean they were unscathed. In fact, two bright bursts of electric light erupted above the battlefield, and once the electric light faded, Carglis fared better; as a mage, he possessed numerous magical items for protection against the strike. But Nicolas found himself in quite a predicament, his beautiful flame-colored hair completely singed off, revealing a shiny bald head, and wisps of white smoke still emanating from him.
It seemed that calling him Flame-Wielding Nicolas in the future would be quite the misnomer; in fact, Brendel had even thought up a new nickname for him—Cinder-Bald Nicolas.
Of course, Brendel—or rather, Sophie’s dark inner thoughts—would not be discussed here. He had long anticipated what Nicolas and the ‘Curios’ Carglis would encounter. The lightning cage marked the transition into the second combat phase for the ‘Berserker’ Adgar, and lo and behold, the world was no exception. This was essentially a boss skill, rather unremarkable in itself, but with one major feature: it could ignore the influence of law lines.
Only elemental beings, which were innately sensitive to the laws, could create such outrageous skills; the actual effect of this skill was that unless you stood still and did not leave the lightning cage’s radius, any contact with the electric arcs would result in an immediate loss of half your life.
Although the damage from this skill could be mitigated by certain magical items like shield rings or life-saving talismans, it ignored all defensive measures and magical damage reductions. In other words, even if Brendel had over 100 willpower, he would suffer whatever damage was stipulated.
Players had suffered greatly trying to deal with this skill initially, for the electric cage persisted for ten seconds and targeted all entities that Adgar held a grudge against. This meant that within those ten seconds, you couldn’t evade; you could only stand there and defend against everything the ‘Berserker’ Adgar would unleash, which was a nightmare for players back in the day.
However, to Brendel’s amusement, this skill didn’t possess a threatening nature towards Nicolas or Carglis; after all, when players first tackled this boss, their levels were not nearly as ridiculous as these two—one at level 70, the other at level 71, whereas the players back then seemed to peak around level 55.
In truth, Nicolas and Carglis could firmly withstand the ‘Berserker’ Adgar for ten seconds but suffered because they were unfamiliar with the skill. Such elemental beings typically hail from ancient times, and their skill systems vastly differ from those of the present.
Before Brendel could think further, a thunderous roar suddenly echoed across the battlefield: “Hahaha, foolish mortals.” Adgar’s laughter was brimming with arrogance, evidently pleased with landing a hit: “Under my lightning cage, you would do well to wait for the thunder’s judgment; acting rashly will only bring ruin upon you!”
The colossal voice reverberated throughout the battlefield.
Damn.
Brendel nearly spat blood at this. Although this creature held the title of ‘Berserker’ Adgar, players had nicknamed it ‘Dullard’ Adgar, and this arrogant being had a terrible habit of flaunting its skills, seemingly afraid no one could defeat it—this attitude persisted even here.
Nicolas and Carglis, both renowned masters in Erluin, were exceedingly perceptive, and they exchanged glances, each discerning the same meaning in the other’s eyes. Sure enough, as soon as the lightning cage manifested, they froze, and Carglis began casting defensive spells, leaving Adgar unable to do anything further to them.
The battle had now reached a stalemate, clearly favorable for Brendel’s side. From the princess’s perspective, this seemed like the best time to retreat; if Adgar could keep the North Alliance here for another day, they might just manage to escape Ampere Seale entirely.
Yet unexpectedly, Brendel did not show any intention of retreating. Rather, he seemed to enjoy observing the torrential downpour—what was this matter?! The princess found it awkward to command Brendel directly and instead called Freya over to inquire what was happening.
To her surprise, this future Valkyrie of the kingdom replied with a natural innocence: “Brendel is just like that, as if he cannot distinguish between urgency and calm. Back when we were escaping from Buche, even though he was on the verge of death, he still wanted to learn battlefield first aid from me—it was infuriating…”
I didn’t ask about his personality!
The half-elf princess sighed and bluntly said: “Freya, why don’t you ask Mister Brendel if we should first retreat?”
Freya then understood and, nodding earnestly, approached him leading her battle steed to inquire.
“Retreat?”
Brendel paused slightly; at this moment, the Temple of Margo’s ruins were already in combat. According to the experience in the game, players who chose to leave the dungeon at this point became Adgar’s primary target for enmity. Although he was unsure if the real world of Vaunte had similarly outrageous regulations, Brendel had no intention of provoked this somewhat muddled elemental being.
“No, we absolutely cannot retreat right now.”
“On the contrary, let everyone take a moment to rest and prepare for the forthcoming battle,” Brendel lifted his head, noting that the Crusian had yet to make their appearance on the battlefield and he didn’t believe the Temple of Fire would let things end this easily.
Even if we take a thousand steps back and say the Crusian would not interfere in Erluin’s internal conflict, assisting them in dealing with a storm elemental was only right.
The great battle had only just reached its midway point.
…(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please consider voting for it on Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation.)
