Chapter 248: Sniper Kill Outside the City

Always look at your opponents with contempt, regardless of their sharp blades; their weapons will inevitably sever their heads. As victors, we have the right and the necessity to utterly destroy them." Shaoke's fingers slowly traced the tombstone inscription of the Sleazy Officer, finally pulling out the pale blue dagger and easily thrusting it into the base of the tombstone.

"Perhaps you'll still need it," Shaoke said mournfully. The memories of their past interactions flashed quickly through his mind, like a silent film from a previous life, especially the scene of the Sleazy Officer's final death. All of this made him feel even worse.

The mages had been here for nearly a day, not leaving until nightfall. There were no tombs of Ninth-rank beings in the cemetery, which surprised and pleased the mages, as it at least indicated that even higher-ranked beings had died in that battle. Of course, this was all speculation and not certain.

Just as the three mages were about to leave, a disabled gravekeeper arrived to clean the tombs. As they passed each other, Mage Roman suddenly stopped, staring intently at the disabled gravekeeper's back. She called out uncertainly, "Legion Commander, is that you?"

The gravekeeper, missing an arm, did not stop but continued deeper into the cemetery until the dim lantern light could no longer pierce the darkness for Shaoke and the others to see.

"It's him, it must be the Legion Commander." Mage Roman struggled against Shaoke's grip. "Let me go, I need to ask the Legion Commander why he's here; he shouldn't be a gravekeeper." The female mage shouted loudly in the silent cemetery, filled with helplessness and sorrow.

"If he wanted to talk to us, he wouldn't have left just now," Shaoke said, gripping Roman's arm tightly, trying to calm her down. "Let's leave here." He then signaled Mage Yisier to help him take Roman away.

"Maybe he just didn't recognize us at first," Roman choked out, looking at Shaoke, hoping he would let her go. "I think he'd be happy to explain why he's here."

"Perhaps it's because he violated some military orders back then, leading to this situation," Mage Yisier reasoned. "Or maybe he doesn't want to drag us down by having any connection with us." She then signaled Shaoke to continue leading Mage Roman down the mountain.

Along the way, the two took turns comforting her, and finally, the mage stopped sobbing, though her eyes were red and her mood seemed terrible. After all, the Blizzard 33rd Corps had greatly helped her back then, spending a fortune on her class change, so how could she not be grateful to that Legion Commander?

Using Shaoke's burning staff, the three mages didn't descend the mountain until midnight, by which time a blizzard had arrived. Large snowflakes, driven by the cold wind, struck their faces, causing pain. The mages pulled their cloaks tight. Since no carriages were waiting at the foot of the mountain, they had to walk back to the capital. Fortunately, with the aid of the Featherfall spell, their journey wasn't too strenuous.

The three mages leaned on each other as they trudged through the snow toward the capital. About halfway there, Shaoke suddenly felt something rapidly approaching. Without a second thought, his body instinctively acted on past memories, unleashing a massive surge of psychic energy. The violent mental fluctuations alerted the other two female mages.

Mage Roman quickly activated two Fifth-rank defensive magic arrays on her robe, while Mage Yisier released her own magic power, assisting Shaoke in scanning the surroundings as they had done before.

Infiltrators. Three hidden Infiltrators were lurking just over ten meters away. This discovery left the mages no time for other actions; they quickly activated the defensive spells on their robes. Without checking the surroundings, Shaoke instantly released two Lava Rays to attack the three Infiltrators.

Just as the mages activated their defenses, the Infiltrators sensed the immense psychic energy and immediately launched their attack. Unfortunately, they hadn't realized their target could cast Third-rank spells instantly. The crimson beams struck one Infiltrator who couldn't change direction in time, blasting a hole the size of a head through him before hitting the ground and vanishing.

The other two Infiltrators ignored the mage's attack, both lunging at the golden-robed Mage Roman. Their pitch-black blades gleamed with an unusual light, indicating low-grade anti-magic weapons.

Death Gaze, a Sixth-rank Death Gaze, was instantly cast by Shaoke. Two faint purple hexagram magic arrays appeared in his eyes, and a slight magical fluctuation quickly enveloped the two Infiltrators. They froze, then crashed heavily to the ground.

Mage Roman drew a pale golden short sword from her waist, swiftly stepped forward, and pierced their heads with the blade.

"Third-rank Infiltrators," Mage Roman quickly identified, then holding the pale golden short sword, she stood diagonally behind Shaoke. She rapidly pulled a scroll from her magical bag and tore it open, summoning a massive Fire Snake that lunged forward.

It turned out that while Shaoke and Roman were dealing with the three Infiltrators, Mage Yisier had detected objects rapidly approaching. Five Fifth-rank warriors and one Sixth-rank warrior, along with three Fifth-rank mages further away, had locked onto them. After hearing Roman say the Infiltrators were only Third-rank, Mage Yisier felt slightly relieved. Only high-rank Infiltrators could pose a serious threat to mages; those below Fifth-rank found it difficult to get close to mages—unless the mages detected them too late or reacted too slowly.

Seeing the six warriors charging fiercely, Shaoke worried about Roman, but worry aside, the battle had to continue. He silently released Death Slash, a black ripple, and after casting it, he didn't fine-tune it. Instead, locking onto one warrior as the primary target, he began preparing another spell.

Elemental Hand, the only common, upgradable control-type spell. At Sixth-rank, with hand seals and ancient magic enhancements, it reached its peak power. A hand nearly five or six meters wide quickly formed above the mages, then howled as it slammed down at the nearby warriors.

After dispelling the Fire Snake Roman had summoned, the warriors faced Shaoke's newly prepared attack. The Sixth-rank warrior slashed out a burst of battle aura, hoping to disperse the spell. Uncertain of the Elemental Hand's rank—since its maximum size was five or six meters—he cautiously dodged to the side, planning to reposition and launch a new attack. Just as he leaped away, Death Slash reached his original position.

Two nearby Fifth-rank warriors stared in shock as their bodies, wrapped in battle aura, split apart at the chest. The wide black ripple had easily cut them in half. Desolate screams echoed across the wilderness, startling the inexperienced Roman slightly, but she didn't stop her attacks. She tore through Fourth-rank and even Fifth-rank scrolls without hesitation, unleashing a barrage of spells at the remaining three Fifth-rank warriors. As for the Sixth-rank warrior, Shaoke handled him personally.

Mage Yisier, ignoring Shaoke and Roman's fight, quickly cast spells to intercept attacks from the three Fifth-rank mages in the distance. Though her spellcasting was fast, facing three simultaneous attacks, she couldn't always block them all. Some spells broke through and struck her, further hindering her casting. Fortunately, Roman occasionally used scrolls to assist, preventing her from being overwhelmed.

Shaoke took out a Sixth-rank defensive scroll and, without hesitation, applied it to himself. Then, gripping his staff, he sprinted toward the Sixth-rank warrior. Though the warrior didn't understand why the mage was approaching him so unusually, he summoned another Fifth-rank warrior to help deal with this strange mage.

Green flames quickly formed a spear in Shaoke's hand, and at his command, it flew accurately toward the Fifth-rank warrior. Meanwhile, Shaoke dodged the battle aura slashes from the Sixth-rank warrior. The distance closed step by step until the Sixth-rank warrior roared, channeling all his battle aura to protect himself, and charged madly at Shaoke.

The warrior cunningly hid a refined spear, planning to use it for a sudden attack once he reached the mage.

But this plan would never come to fruition. When the warrior was within a hundred meters of Shaoke, Shaoke suddenly unleashed Death Gaze.

Paralysis instantly seized the warrior. His inability to move filled him with panic; he had never heard of a spell that could freeze a person's body. In that moment, he forgot to struggle, letting his body crash heavily to the ground from the momentum of his charge. His battle aura failed at that instant. The Fifth-rank warrior following closely saw the Sixth-rank warrior's state and, confused, quickly chose to flee. He assumed the mage had used a powerful spell to kill the warrior outright. After a brief evasive move, he turned and ran wildly, convinced he couldn't withstand the mage who had just killed a Sixth-rank warrior.