Chapter 413 Mages in Battle

The ferocity of the attacks left Shaoke struggling to keep up. Fortunately, there were only a few enemy casters, and Shaoke’s side had a similar number, so the battle fell into a stalemate.

After the mage blocked an attack, the enemies suddenly stopped fighting and pulled out a directional teleport scroll to retreat. Everyone stopped attacking. “We need to go help the others now,” a warrior shouted to Shaoke and the rest. “There are also Mage Guild people fighting our forces not far ahead. If we go together, we might have a chance to completely hunt them down.” With that, he quickly moved forward. After all, no one could be sure if those Mage Guild members in battle would also leave using scrolls. Of course, this time Shaoke didn’t hesitate either, following closely behind the warrior and flying into the distance.

In barely half a magic hour, Shaoke and the others arrived at another battlefield. Here, more people were fighting—there were over twenty High-order Practitioners on both sides engaged in battle. Now, the situation for the Wanderers Alliance members didn’t look too good. The Mage Guild team had a Cleric with them. After buffing her allies with support spells, this Cleric made life hell for the already outmatched Wanderers. When Shaoke noticed this, his first target became this Cleric. Others made the same choice. Of course, the Mage Guild members also protected the Cleric closely. In a short time, Shaoke and the others couldn’t pose any threat to her.

Shaoke released a faint golden thread, which struck a Ninth Rank warrior very subtly. The warrior was fighting another Wanderer and didn’t detect the attack without any spell fluctuation. Although the mage hit his target, it only tore through some of the warrior’s Aura protection with no further effect. Still, this restricted the Ninth Rank warrior’s attack, easing the pressure on that Wanderer.

Shaoke didn't fixate on a single enemy; he kept switching targets. Two other mages were doing the same. As the number of Wanderers increased, their advantage gradually emerged. At this point, Shaoke put most of his attention on the heavily guarded Cleric. He had to take out this Cleric—a Ninth Rank healer was a game-changer.

A less-than-ideal opportunity presented itself. Just as one of the Cleric's guardians cast a spell to block a Wanderer's attack, Shaoke burned a huge amount of mental energy to rapidly shift his focus and lock onto the Cleric. A black beam instantly appeared not far from her, but unfortunately, this attack was once again successfully intercepted by the protector mage, who sacrificed his own spellbook to block it.

But the mage’s attack wasn’t over. A cluster of black flames appeared in the air after a few short incantations. Then, under the mage’s control, it split into dozens of thin Fire Snakes, attacking the enemy. Though the Command Technique hid the spell's magical signature, the Cleric and her guardian sensed it and intercepted. But no one noticed a slightly thicker black beam twist in the air, as if it had lost its target and fell to the ground, disappearing.

While controlling the flames to attack, the mage released his puppet. He didn’t want to let these Mage Guild members leave easily without suffering damage or losses.

After the puppet stone statue appeared, the battle advantage once again tilted toward Shaoke and the Wanderers. Facing a puppet that feared no form of attack, a warrior was accidentally killed by it in combination with several mages. After losing one companion, these Mage Guild members planned to leave via scroll. Just then, Shaoke launched a furious attack.

The Death Will already stored in the crown on his forehead was instantly released. Over a dozen black beams shot toward the Cleric’s direction. At the same time, other Wanderers also wildly attacked the Cleric and her guards.

Only one warrior was petrified after being hit by two consecutive black beams. The others madly cast spells to block Shaoke’s attack, but due to their inability to intercept other attacks in time, some unlucky ones were killed by the combined efforts of several Wanderers. Of course, by this time these people wanted to flee, but Shaoke had already prepared his next attack.

A violent explosion sounded from below. A black flame flew up, then, under the spellcaster’s control, split again into three to five black flames, heavily striking the enemies just attacked by other practitioners. Although there was still no gain, to resist Shaoke’s sudden attack, these people had to sacrifice some of their magic items to withstand it. Just then, another wave of attacks from the Wanderers arrived. This made the Mage Guild members even more troubled. Retreat had become their best choice.

Shaoke caught his breath, then with his companions' cover, Blinked twice to reach the Cleric. He then cast the Death Will spell. The black beam did not solidify into a stone statue as Shaoke had hoped. The golden book hovering in front of the Cleric blazed with light, annihilating his spell. Then the Cleric used Blink, hoping to reach a safer place, because in just a few breaths, she had been attacked so many times.

He Blinked again. When he appeared not far from the Cleric, the Mage Guild Cleric, flustered, used Blink again. But Shaoke, sensitive to spatial ripples, had no trouble locking onto her aura. Finally, ignoring the slight disturbance in the meditation space, Shaoke used Blink once more. This time, the Cleric was caught by the mage and could no longer escape with consecutive Blinks; she had lost the ability.

Instead of leading with Death Will, he cast the embedded Dissolution spell. Two golden lights—one struck the Cleric, significantly weakening the golden Defensive Spells around her. The other light struck the book before her, which dimmed after emitting some golden light and magic script. Meanwhile, Shaoke's stone puppet, ignoring the rain of attacks, flashed beside the Cleric and severed her head with a black thread. It all happened too suddenly. No one had expected the puppet to perform two consecutive Blinks. After losing the Cleric, the Mage Guild team no longer posed any threat.

The mage, using some precious medicines and the silver light in his meditation space, quickly calmed the spatial disturbance before continuing to attack the remaining enemies. The final result was very satisfying. In the end, they killed seven or eight invaders. Only one mage escaped by burning his spellbook, staff, and magic items to activate a teleport scroll.

“I think they’ll stay quiet for a while,” said a warrior, looking enviously at the black puppet guarding the mage. If he had such a fearless ally to assist in battle, he would have a high chance of killing some Ninth-order beings. Of course, that was just an ideal.

“The mage who got away will report to their team's Ruler. If they use arcane secrets to track us, small groups like ours will be wiped out,” the Elder Mage said, gesturing to Shaoke and the others as they gathered loot.

“So they're splitting us up to take us out one by one?” the warrior asked. “If that’s the case, I think we need to leave here as quickly as possible.” With that, the warrior glanced greedily at the broken remains of those Ninth-order beings. Such materials were very useful for mages’ experiments. But since Shaoke was the biggest contributor to killing these enemies, most of the spoils were to be taken by him alone.

Of course, these were the rules established, and no one broke them. Otherwise, no practitioner would be willing to attack enemies wildly and loot property on the battlefield.

“They’ve already started doing this now,” the Elder Mage nodded, his staff always exposed. If any information was released on it, he could check it promptly. Just moments ago, the staff reported the deaths of a dozen Ninth-order practitioners. They were wiped out by a group using mass teleport spells.