Chapter 59: Sudden Death by Siege
Herlos's giant servant rushed toward the charging Su Xiao, its body seemingly brimming with inexhaustible strength—the demonic energy bestowed by its master.
Su Xiao halted, and a stone wall crashed down before him, shaking the ground. The wall was at least several meters thick, over 50 meters tall, and covered in magical runes.
A nearly terrifying surge of magical energy came from behind the wall. The spellcasters were equally adept in combat; they had simply been stunned by Su Xiao's initial assault. Once they regained their composure, they quickly scattered.
'Energy Blockade.'
Su Xiao stomped the ground, and most of the magical energy fluctuations behind the wall ceased abruptly.
Holding his blade with one hand, Su Xiao slashed forward, then followed up with a straight kick.
With a thunderous boom, the stone wall shattered, debris flying in all directions. The moment the wall broke, gravity within a half-kilometer radius suddenly vanished.
Not far away, the dead-eyed spellcaster clasped his hands together, floating mid-air. For a spellcaster, the loss of gravity had little effect.
"Gravity Loss: Floa—"
Just as the dead-eyed spellcaster made a grasping gesture with one hand, he sensed someone behind him.
'I'm going to die. Right now, immediately.'
Every hair on the dead-eyed spellcaster's body stood on end as a repulsive force radiated from him.
With a sharp swish, a blade light flashed, leaving a trail of blood. The dead-eyed spellcaster was astonished to find his body growing light. In his dying moments, he saw a pair of blue eyes.
One slash, one kill. Su Xiao landed, and the sensation of weightlessness vanished. Just as he was about to charge at a nearby spellcaster, he felt a binding force around him.
Two massive, dark-blue hands seized Su Xiao. A towering magical colossus, over ten meters tall, materialized behind him. In the distance, Magic Mentor Herlos made a grasping gesture with both hands, remotely controlling the colossus to capture Su Xiao.
"Now!"
Boom, boom, boom...
Countless attacks rained down on Su Xiao—a relentless barrage from dozens of spellcasters.
With a crack, the colossus's hands shattered. Su Xiao charged straight into the incoming storm of dozens of magical abilities, too numerous to distinguish.
Just as Su Xiao was about to be engulfed by the onslaught, his figure flickered, activating the Dragon Shadow Flash ability.
When he reappeared, he was near over a dozen spellcasters.
'Sonic—'
Slash!
The long blade swept through, sending a Seventh Rank spellcaster's head flying. Nearby spellcasters shouted and leaped backward.
No sooner had he delivered the slash than dark matter corroded toward him. Cyan Steel Shadow energy gathered in his left hand, and he punched outward.
Thud~
The dark matter shattered like a mirror, and Su Xiao vanished instantly.
Several streaks of blade light flashed, and five spellcasters staggered back, blood spraying from various wounds.
'Blade Path: Ring Break.'
A pale blue ring-shaped blade light expanded, extinguishing the magical fluctuations around Su Xiao. He crouched low and leaped, flames surging toward him.
The long blade pierced through the flames, driving into a spellcaster's forehead from between the eyes, nearly pinning him to the ground. As Su Xiao landed, he held the blade horizontally at his side, using the spellcaster's corpse as a shield.
With a bang, the corpse beside him exploded. Su Xiao grabbed the flying head, converting the enemy's blood into blood energy, which he condensed into the head in his hand.
"Roar!!"
A beastly roar erupted from the head in Su Xiao's hand, sound waves mixed with blood energy spreading outward. The spellcasters caught in the blast clutched their heads in agony.
Seizing the momentary opening, Su Xiao stomped the ground and charged toward two spellcasters. Thunderous impacts echoed behind him—magical abilities that had missed their mark.
One slash to the throat, one slash cleaving the waist—two spellcasters fell. This was the fate of those who let Su Xiao close. They hadn't failed to cast spells; they simply hadn't recovered from the side effects of the Energy Blockade.
A whimper came from Su Xiao's side as a tremendous force struck him. A light-type ability with intense burning energy enveloped him.
Su Xiao was sent flying sideways, landing in a crouch. No sooner had he touched down than several energy spikes shot toward him, embedding themselves in a row on the ground as he dodged.
A dozen meters away, a female spellcaster smiled at Su Xiao. She made a finger-gun gesture, and a black mark appeared on his cheek. From the mark, black threads spread across his skin, attempting to bind his movements.
The black threads had only spread to the size of a palm before they receded. The female spellcaster looked puzzled, but in the next instant, black threads spread across her own skin, freezing her in place.
Her vision went pitch black. Suddenly, a pair of eyes opened in the darkness before her—glowing red, staring intently at her.
Crack, crack~
The female spellcaster seemed to hear something breaking. The scene before her shattered like a cracked mirror, triggering the Soul Gaze ability.
A translucent energy drifted from the female spellcaster's body. Su Xiao rushed past her corpse, and the translucent energy latched onto the Dragon-Slaying Flash.
The spellcasters' attacks on Su Xiao were essentially small-scale map-wide bombardments. In the past, these magical abilities had been unstoppable, but today they met their match. The Dragon-Slaying Flash, infused with Cyan Steel Shadow energy, could cleave through them.
Su Xiao sprinted forward. Suddenly, ice exploded beneath his feet. Before he could be frozen solid, he hurled the Dragon-Slaying Flash with all his might.
The blade pierced the air with a sonic boom, embedding itself in the abdomen of a spellcaster paralyzed by the Energy Blockade. Since the wound wasn't fatal, it was merely a minor injury to him.
Seeing this, the surrounding spellcasters' eyes turned red—not from grief for their fallen comrade, but from opportunity. Everyone present was battle-hardened; the Void was no peaceful place.
Their eyes reddened because Su Xiao had thrown away his blade and was now frozen in an ice sculpture. This was their chance.
The spellcasters knew they couldn't keep bombarding wildly. Their enemy's resistance to magic was absurdly high; he could shrug off several Seventh Rank spells like nothing.
Seven spellcasters pressed their hands to the ground, continuously thickening and strengthening the ice sculpture imprisoning Su Xiao. The lead caster was sweating—only he knew how difficult it was to trap Su Xiao.
Seventeen spellcasters gathered together, channeling their mana to rapidly construct an Arcane Array.
Just as the array was taking shape, the spellcaster impaled by the Dragon-Slashing Flash grimaced in pain. His name was Ship, neither strong nor weak among his peers. He pulled the blade from his abdomen and strode forward.
"Get out of the way!"
Ship's desperate cry rang out as he swung the blade at the spellcaster in front of him—the one focused on maintaining the ice prison.
Slash, slash...
Ship wielded the Dragon-Slashing Flash with bizarre movements, hacking wildly at his comrade. The other spellcasters were stunned for a moment before realizing what was happening.
A massive, emerald-green energy hammer crushed Ship into pulp. Amid the scattered flesh and blood, the Banishment fragment clung to the Dragon-Slashing Flash, flying toward the ice sculpture containing Su Xiao.
Without its master, the ice sculpture shattered with a boom, ice spreading outward.
Su Xiao caught the incoming Dragon-Slashing Flash with one hand. His left hand, clad in a metal gauntlet, tapped the air with his index finger.
Crackle—blue arcs of lightning spread. The partially constructed Arcane Array twisted violently before exploding. The nearby dozen or so spellcasters were instantly reduced to dust—such was the power of Arcane magic.
Su Xiao had deliberately allowed himself to be frozen, waiting for the enemy to build a lethal, high-power spell. Killing spellcasters one by one was too slow.
In the distance, Herlos watched all this expressionlessly. He was waiting—waiting for the enemy's energy to run out. Otherwise, he couldn't cast spells properly.
"Herlos, we need to retreat!"
An elderly, white-haired spellcaster rushed to Herlos's side. To him, this battle was unwinnable. He had already been knocked down twice. He felt that one more time, and he'd die without the enemy even killing him. Every time his spellcasting was interrupted, it felt like his body was being torn apart.
If interrupted early in the casting, it was manageable. But if interrupted after the spell's framework had formed, the backlash was excruciating. An unformed magical ability, lacking control, would detonate directly.
A close-range magical explosion didn't discriminate between friend and foe. Even if it wasn't as powerful as a fully formed spell, being caught in the blast while your body was numb was still agonizing.
The old man felt that even if the Law Destroyer did nothing but force them to cast spells, they'd soon die on their own. And that was before considering the blade in his hand—so sharp it defied logic, rendering their magical defenses useless. Their magically enhanced bodies couldn't withstand a single slash.
"We can't retreat."
Herlos, wreathed in black smoke, spoke with a grim expression. Just moments ago, he too had been caught in the backlash of an unformed spell, nearly blinding his left eye.
"Still not leaving?"
The old man glared at Herlos.
"Aside from a few space-type users, do you think we can outrun him?"
Herlos pointed at the scattered spellcasters in the distance. A pale blue afterimage darted among them, and every so often, a spellcaster would fall or a head would fly. The magical bombardment never ceased.
The old man fell silent. Estimating Su Xiao's speed and his own "short legs," it seemed escape was impossible.
"Tell me, how did the ancestors deal with Law Destroyers?"
Herlos asked flatly. The old man looked puzzled.
"Keep fighting him. His energy will run out eventually."
Herlos had finally understood the ancestors' strategy: stall. Stall until the Law Destroyer's energy was depleted, then swarm him.