Chapter Sixty-Six: Fourth Ring
2014-11-28
Author: Soren
Three black, energy tendrils burst from the ground! They were about the size of an infant’s arm in thickness, but a full thirty feet long. As soon as the shadow energy formed black tendrils appeared, they quickly wrapped around their target. The first to be ensnared was the ogre, and the moment it was touched by the black tendrils, it stood rigid and stationary, looking like a puppet. The power of the third-ring fireball spell was equivalent to that of a howitzer, and the fourth-ring shadow black tendrils were naturally more complex than they appeared.
The highly concentrated shadow energy had a paralyzing effect; any creature touched by the black tendrils had to make a Fortitude saving throw, or be paralyzed for several seconds. Although the ogre had high strength, its constitution didn’t exceed that of a human by much, usually around 15 points, so its chances of succeeding on the Fortitude save were only fifty percent. Under Soren’s mental control, the black tendrils wrapped around the ogre, the thirty-foot length was enough to encircle it once, directly binding it from its body to its neck, gradually tightening.
“Shadow Black Tendrils: Summon 3-6 energy tendrils within a range of 100 feet, can be controlled with the mind to attack enemies, with a maximum length of 50 feet. Any target touched must make a Fortitude save, or be paralyzed for several seconds by shadow energy. The energy tendrils have a base strength of 15, with each point of the caster’s spell strength increasing their strength by 1 point, capping at 25 points. Each point of spell strength improves the duration by 6 seconds.” Soren’s Intelligence is 18 points.
With his part-time Wizard profession level 1, Soren attained 1 point of spell strength, and 18 points of Intelligence gave him 4 points of spell strength, meaning the Shadow Black Tendrils he used had a strength of 20 and lasted for 30 seconds. Although thirty seconds is not long, it was sufficient to decide the fate of both sides.
Crack!
The first ensnared ogre had its neck directly snapped by the pressure, while the other two energy tendrils swiftly coiled around the limbs of the swamp lizard and wrapped around the waist of the lizardman druid, lifting it up. The swamp lizard let out an angry roar, but even if it succeeded on its Fortitude save, it couldn’t escape the binding of the energy tendrils. Meanwhile, the lizardman druid was choked by energy tendrils, interrupting its spellcasting process.
“d*e!”
Soren’s expression twisted, and the pain brought by the plague spell thoroughly ignited his killing intent. He directly manipulated the energy tendrils to tighten continuously, causing the lizardman druid to let out a wailing scream as its spine and neck were snapped, its whole body twisting into a Z-shape. The energy tendrils with 20 points of base strength were sufficient to crush it, and a difference of more than 5 points in strength would significantly increase the damage, sometimes resulting in lethal harm. The damage during a strength contest between an ordinary person with 10 strength and a professional boxer with 15 strength is vastly different.
This is why no one present could withstand a direct attack from an ogre.
Rustle!
Thirty seconds had only passed halfway. Before the others could react, Soren quickly controlled the energy tendrils to strike out; one energy tendril continued to bind the swamp lizard, while the other two energy tendrils ruthlessly slaughtered the nearby lizardmen. An energy tendril whipped at a nearby lizardman warrior, sending it flying five or six meters away, breaking its bones upon landing. A lizardman archer, thinking to attack Soren from a distance, was directly ensnared by an energy tendril, dragged down from the five or six-meter-high fence, crashing to the ground, only to be lifted and heavily slammed back down, practically turning into a meat pancake.
A length of thirty feet meant an attack range with a diameter of 20 meters, comparable to many ranged weapons.
“What are you still standing there for?”
Soren roared, shouting, “Counterattack! Drive them out now!”
Thirty seconds was not long, yet the lethality was extraordinarily frightening. The ogre was eliminated by Soren, the lizardman druid was instantaneously killed, and the nearby enemies were thoroughly cleaned out in just fifteen seconds. With the lizardman druid’s d*ath, its animal companion, the swamp lizard, began to flee. Soren repeatedly attacked, with three energy tendrils at the center, a twenty-meter radius with hardly a living lizardman warrior in sight.
The three energy tendrils intertwined and attacked; not a single lizardman present could withstand for even a second!
“Wizards!…”
The surviving militia cried out in fear and surprise, then began to maneuver around the energy tendrils to launch their counterattacks. In contrast, the expression of the lizardmen was one of terror; the fearsome and unknown spell severely hit their morale. Especially after their leader, the druid, was killed, some nearby lizardman warriors began to flee out of fear. Spellcasters were nightmares in the eyes of all intelligent beings; they were powerful and mysterious, and the fear of spells had long seeped into their bones.
Otherwise, the monsters in the wild would not avoid those clearly capable of using spells.
The situation reversed drastically in just thirty seconds.
Soren unleashed the Shadow Black Tendrils to k*ll the remaining ogres and then took down the lizardman druid. The lizardmen that charged into the village were killed in large numbers in a short time, with over ten killed systematically; the continuous deaths of their kind filled them with fear. The terrifying power of the wizard caused many lizardmen to begin to scatter, some fleeing straight into the night.
“Did we win?”
The surviving militia murmured in disbelief, “We won! The enemies fled! The lizardmen ran away!”
A cheer arose.
Even Soren had underestimated the lizardmen’s fear of the spells. Even though the energy tendrils dissipated after thirty seconds, the fear within the lizardmen had overpowered their desire to fight. The initial casualties reached twenty percent, and Soren’s burst directly raised that to forty percent. The d*ath of their leader completely shattered their courage to continue fighting, and more and more lizardmen began to flee, panicking into the night.
Cheers spread throughout the entire village.
But following the cheers, there were heart-wrenching cries, as the militia, with red-rimmed eyes, searched for their relatives. A warrior with a severed arm endured the pain, calling out the names of his wife and children with a choked voice. Some heavily injured people lay on the ground moaning, with some unable to be saved; comrades forced to suppress their grief carried him into the embrace of the God of d*ath. If they weren’t given a quick end, they would continue to wail for an entire day, gasping their last breaths in endless pain.
More and more cries rose, all faces marked with sorrow, for they had lost many: wives, children, parents, and many familiar relatives and friends.
The ruthless butchery of the lizardmen caused catastrophic casualties, with the number of dead in the village exceeding one hundred!
…
A great fire was still burning.
Some places were completely ablaze and could not be extinguished. Survivors were busy treating the wounded while desperately trying to salvage some belongings from the fire. The cold winter was approaching, and their winter would be especially hard this year. The sounds of crying from women and children were everywhere; the men, having gone through a grueling battle, tried hard to suppress their emotions, but when they saw the corpses of their children and parents, they could not help but shed tears, even emitting cries like those of a lonely wolf.
A young man stood before the raging fire, holding the corpse of a girl in his arms. She looked only around sixteen or seventeen years old, her appearance not quite pretty, at best just fair-looking. Her skin was slightly dark, and her hands were rough, likely due to years of hard work, possibly making her actual age seem younger than she appeared. The young man stood there blankly, holding the corpse; though he made no sound of crying, one could sense his sorrow. He stood there dazed until a house collapsed in the fire, and when others pulled him away, he seemed to awaken, letting out a desolate wail!
“Ah!!”
He frantically drew his weapon and hacked at the corpses of the lizardmen, bl**d splattering everywhere.
No one stopped him.
Soren did not know the identity of the girl who had died; she might have been his lover, or she might have been a relative, but he could feel the anguish in his heart, yet he was powerless to help.
Sometimes, this world is so cruel; he had witnessed too many separations between life and d*ath.
Clang.
Soren glanced at the corpse of the lizardman druid, for the first time not hurrying to search for loot; he tore off a piece of cloth from himself, biting it in his mouth. Then, trembling, he used his curved blade to slowly cut away the rotten flesh and pus from his arm. The power of the plague spell had not yet dissipated, and this venomous spell would continue to harm him if he did not remove the rotten flesh and pus.
Suppressed cries of pain.
Soren trembled all over, methodically cutting away the rotten flesh, grimacing as he applied the potion.
…
