Chapter 697 - Forbidden Lightning Magic

Nie Yan swiftly retreated. At the same time, his gaze locked onto the arrows flying toward him.

With a well-timed slash, Nie Yan knocked three arrows out the air.

The remaining three arrows were about to hit Nie Yan. In this life or death moment, he activated Shadow Waltz.

Ding ding ding! After striking Nie Yan, the three arrows fell to the ground, blocked by the brief invincibility from Shadow Waltz.

This was Nie Yan’s first time dealing with Soaring Angel’s tracking arrow ability, and he had wasted two life-saving skills. This kind of outcome was far from satisfactory.

While Nie Yan was preoccupied evading Soaring Angel’s arrows, the other players from Angel Corps also jumped into action.

Over a dozen players closed in on Nie Yan. They were all in groups of five. The Priests waved their staffs, sending orbs of light into the sky which illuminated the ground below. The Paladins also activated their Eyes of the Divine.

“Nirvana Flame is over there!”

“Damn, he’s so fast!”

Just as they discovered Nie Yan, they lost track of him again!

Nie Yan glanced back at the enemy. These Angel Corps players were really something. They stuck to parties of five, and every member was no more than five meters from each other. Additionally, each group had a Priest and Paladin with them. It was very difficult to find an opening to attack. He was familiar with many of these players. In the previous timeline, they were all heaven defying, world famous experts of Angel Corps. He had watched many of their videos countless times over and knew they were a tough bunch to deal with.

Elsewhere in the square, Stone Splitter and three other Warriors surrounded Paladin Lafus, locking him down and preventing him from moving.

The six Mages swiftly surrounded Lil’ Gold, each of them taking a different point. Leylines lit up on the ground, forming an enormous hexagram formation.

Seeing the scene in the distance, Nie Yan’s heart trembled. Those Mages wanted to lock down Lil’ Gold with a Hexagram Binding Formation!

He was familiar with the might of this formation. If it was used correctly, it could lock down a boss for up to half an hour!

Just as the formation was about to take shape, Nie Yan had Lil’ Gold charge forward and swipe down at one of the Mages with his claws.

Afraid for his life, the Mage hurriedly blinked away.

The formation was broken for the time being.

The six Mages hurriedly shifted their positions, creating another hexagram formation on the ground.

One of the advantages of this formation was that it was quite flexible.

Lil’ Gold’s attack struck air. He let out a ferocious roar and spewed out scorching hot flames.

A Mage chanted out an incantation. Just as he was about to complete the formation with the others, Lil’ Gold caught him off guard with the Dragon Breath. He had no time to dodge.

BANG! The Mage was sent flying by the breath attack before crashing into the ground.

Lil’ Gold’s frightening attacks weren’t something these Mages could endure.

“Dammit! Lime died. Rainbow, you’re up!” Luo Bai anxiously called.

Immediately, another Mage ran up and took his fallen comrade’s place. This time they didn’t dare to be so careless. Lil’ Gold’s powerful attacks left them shaking in their boots. They definitely couldn’t allow themselves to be hit by his Dragon Breath, or else they would be killed without a shadow of a doubt!

The six Mages adjusted their positions again. After 20 seconds, a golden formation formed around Lil’ Gold. It slowly shrank before binding him in place, leaving him unable to move.

「Boss! We locked down the Golden Dragon, but Lime ended up dying,」Luo Bai reported.

「What happened? Stick to the plan and withdraw,」Soaring Angel said in a depressed tone. They had actually lost a person. Nie Yan could still revive his Golden Dragon. All he would take was a slight loss in loyalty, which could quickly be raised back up. On the other hand, they had lost a top expert who would require countless hours of grinding to regain the experience lost. The trade off definitely wasn’t worth it.

After completing the formation, the Mages quickly retreated. Just as Nie Yan was about to order Lil’ Gold to break out of the formation, he heard several sharp sounds in the air. His face paled. As he looked up, he saw five cannons firing at the square.

Lil’ Gold struggled wildly to no avail. He couldn’t break free from its constraints. Five shells arced through the sky and landed in the square. Two directly struck Lil’ Gold while three landed in his vicinity. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! He was engulfed in flames.

Nie Yan received a notification. He looked down to check.

“Bastards!” Nie Yan clenched Zennarde’s Sword, the veins in his hand bulging out. Finally, he relaxed his grip. He had lost a pet while Angel Corps had lost a top expert. He had come out on top in this trade. Angel Corps had the overwhelming advantage in numbers, and they were all top experts. It would be naive to think he could come out of this unscathed.

After killing Lil’ Gold, the Mages shifted their sights on Lafus. Hidden in stealth, Nie Yan chanted out an incantation and recalled Paladin Lafus.

“Boss, Nirvana Flame escaped,” Stone Splitter said. They could no longer find any traces of him.

“Dammit! What a rat bastard! So quick to run!”

Knowing Nie Yan was gone, the Angel Corps group no longer felt as much pressure, somewhat relaxing their guard.

“You guys, stay vigilant! Make sure not to stray too far away from one another!” Soaring Angel warned in a deep tone. Even though it appeared Nie Yan had left, he could just as well be hiding in the shadows right next to them. He couldn’t let his guard down yet. Nie Yan wouldn’t give up this easily. Probably when they least expected it, he would launch a ruthless counterattack on them. With Nie Yan’s strength, it was extremely difficult to guard against his ambushes.

Nie Yan was lingering on the outskirts of the square. Hidden in stealth, he was searching for an opening to launch an ambush. But Angel Corps was too cautious. They summoned their flying mounts and took to the air, taking away all possibilities of an ambush.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

It seemed like Soaring Angel had learned his lesson. If they continued moving around on the ground, Nie Yan would’ve found an opportunity to assassinate one or two of them. However, if they left on their flying mounts, there was nothing he could do.

Seeing Soaring Angel and his group disappearing behind the horizon, Nie Yan clenched his fist. “This time you’ve come to the Viridian Empire. Next time I’ll be paying you a visit in the Satreen Empire. We’ll see who’s more ruthless!”

「Guys, we’re withdrawing,」Nie Yan ordered. Staying in the Karukes Stronghold any longer would be dangerous. They would likely suffer even more ambushes. They had run amok here and slaughtered more than 10,000 enemies. Their achievements were quite impressive. Even though they had lost two players and Lil’ Gold in the process, this was still well within the acceptable range.

Nie Yan and the others prepared to storm out of the Karukes Stronghold through the main entrance.

The 10 of them quickly approached the main entrance. There were numerous arrow towers up ahead. Divine Protectors had set up extremely tight defenses here.

“Boss, I’ll cast a Forbidden Spell and blow them all away,” Lustboy said. After receiving Nie Yan’s approval, he found a suitable spot behind a building. He waved his staff and started chanting.

Lustboy chanted out one syllable after another. Electricity started enveloping his body, as he slowly floated up in the air.

After 20 sets of syllables, black clouds blotted out the sky as gale winds howled. The clouds rumbled and crackled with electricity. 10 enormous lightning pillars came crashing down, linking the heavens to the earth.

Lustboy manipulated the pillars toward the arrow towers near the stronghold entrance.

The players guarding the arrow towers descended into panic. They felt the electricity in the air. Gazing at the 10 pillars in the distance, they felt an enormous pressure weighing down on them. Everything that came into contact with these pillars was flattened and annihilated into nothing, like the 10 fingers of a thunder god clawing through the earth.

“Everyone, run! It’s a lightning-type Forbidden Magic!”

The players in the arrow towers scattered in all directions. As the 10 lightning pillars came sweeping over, they destroyed the dozen or so arrow towers in front of them. The lightning pillars didn’t stop there and continued moving forward, colliding into the walls. The walls rumbled and trembled as 10 uniformly sized rifts were carved into them.

The 10 lightning pillars continued moving forward before slowly disappearing, the gloomy skies eventually clearing back up.

“Boss, we can leave now.” Lustboy put down his staff. This was his first time casting a wide area offensive spell. He was quite pleased with the result.

“This Forbidden Magic is pretty amazing,” Nie Yan remarked. Though the area of effect was smaller compared to other Forbidden Spells, Lustboy’s was more concentrated with greater destructive power. No wonder it required 20 sets of syllables to cast.

Divine Flame tried in vain to use the arrow towers to stop Nie Yan’s group from leaving. However, the 10 of them easily left from the main entrance of the Karukes Stronghold.

When Divine Flame and the rest revived and returned to the Karukes Stronghold, Nie Yan’s group had long since departed. The stronghold was a mess. The walls were completely destroyed, and the arrow towers had collapsed into ruin. The destruction left behind by the Forbidden Magic caused their hearts to tremble in fear.

Divine Flame started cleaning up the mess with a heavy heart. He previously thought Divine Protectors was standing on top of the world. Now, they couldn’t even protect their own home.