Chapter 248: House Baratheon Sends its Regards, Moment of Revenge Approaches
"Not good! We've been discovered!"
Rui was still thinking about what to do when his body suddenly stiffened as if he had been caught within the gaze of a poisonous snake.
"Wings of Darkness!"
Rui immediately invoked a skill as a black light covered his body and two giant black wings suddenly condensed over him, Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham like a tarp, sheltering them within.
Rip!
An inexplicably profound and mysterious energy abruptly struck the giant black wings. Although the energy was reflected, a large hole quickly emerged atop the wings as large pieces of the wings began to corrode away.
"We've already been discovered!"
"Hurry and use skills!"
When the two arcane energies collided, Ayrin and the others finally reacted in shock and fear.
"Wings of Darkness? It's you, Rui, the Holy Dawn Evil Six's Spear of Justice."
A faint voice rang over from the withered tree.
"Huuuu…" Stingham let out a breath of cold air as the person impaled on the withered tree grabbed the branch penetrating his body and slowly extricated himself.
As he did so, countless pieces of bloody flesh remained atop the branch, signifying that the scene they had seen was no illusion.
His body, which was still covered in hollow metal tubes like a hedgehog, became enveloped by a layer of hazy red mist as the hole in his abdomen began gurgled and began quickly regenerating as if he had drunk a bottle of medicine.
"Teacher Rui, do you know this person?"
Ayrin immediately realized that this person wasn't normal as he still didn't pull out the hollow metal needles piercing his body.
"He is the Crazed Alchemist Hanson," Rui quietly responded, making sure to keep his voice down so that only Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham could hear.
"Crazed Alchemist Hanson?!" Rinloran's face slightly paled.
"Who is he?" Ayrin hastily whispered into the nearby Rinloran's ear as he had never heard of Hanson before.
"A mercenary arcane master who is willing to help you kill anyone as long as you pay enough," Rinloran quietly replied. "He is one of the Kingdom of Eiche's most notorious and infamous killers. He is an uncontrollable entity who has found several secrets of the Barbarian Berserker Legion from the Era of the War with Dragons. He also uses many potions which enhance his strength and vitality. Many are even better than the best medicines which the Office of Special Affairs' infirmary can offer."
Seeing how Rui didn't respond, Hanson, whose needle-covered body was still shrouded within the red mist, clapped his hands and said with some regret, "So it's just students from your Holy Dawn Academy. My mistake. I thought the people I had been waiting for had arrived."
His current appearance was incredibly perverse and crazed.
"Since it was a mistake…" Rui's eyes lit up as he started speaking. But right at that moment, his expression abruptly turned ugly.
"Holy Light Domain!"
Arcane particles spewed out from Rui's body even faster than before as a ten meter area of the pitch-black forest around him suddenly lit up as if thousands of dazzling little stars had appeared.
Pillars of brilliant and pure light appeared in succession as the domain rapidly expanded, twisting the surrounding space with its arcane energy fluctuations.
As the brilliant and pure light spread, countless images of pure flying angels emerged in the air.
At the same time, four enormous, hammer wielding and cloak wearing shades appeared. They were each ten meters tall, and there was one situated at each cardinal direction.
The four shades simultaneously swung their hammers downwards.
Tong!
The four hammers simultaneously scattered into numerous waves of black light and heavily struck the Divine Light Domain.
Rip!
Countless strands of black light piecered though the bright light, causing spatial tears.
By this time, the red mist enveloping Hanson had completely disappeared alongside his original disguise, revealing his sickly red face and gray hair. There was a red totem tattooed onto the left side of his face.
"Finger of Death!"
As Hanson pointed his right index finger at Rui, a stream of crimson flames shot out towards Rui.
"What?!" Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham simultaneously exclaimed in shock.
Although the stream of flames was very thin, waves containing a unique and strange domain power rippled from it, instantly dispersing and interfering with the circulation of arcane particles within Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham's bodies.
Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham's arcane skills all failed to be invoked.
"Accept my tribute, Divine Altar of Darkness!"
By the time the two taboo domain powers clashed with each other, it was too late for Rui to react and defend against the crimson flames as they struck his body on the left side of his abdomen. As the crimson flames burned Rui's skin, Rui's skin turned into gray ash which quickly scattered to form a contracting circle in midair around him. But at this moment, solemn invocation rang out from within Rui's abdomen.
"Gut Invocation!"
"The Black Witch's Last Tribute!"
Two voices simultaneously made the same invocation.
Hanson screamed as a black aura appeared over the crimson flames. But instead of tracing the stream of crimson flames back to Hanson, the black aura abruptly rushed towards the backs of Rui, Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham like a ghost.
Boom!
As if a minor earthquake had just occurred, a shockwave began propagating outwards from within the forest behind the four of them, carrying countless fragments and debris.
At the center of the shockwave, a profusely bleeding arcane master wearing scarlet leather armor and carrying an abnormally shaped dark red saber on their back appeared.
Rather than having a long and flat blade like a normal saber, the blade of this person's dark red saber was thick and much shorter, making it very square.
"Teacher Rui!"
Ayrin and Rinloran exclaimed.
Although the crimson flames had disappeared when Hanson pulled his hand back in fright, Rui had already suffered a two finger wide burn over his left abdomen.
At this moment, even Ayrin could tell that Rui had exhausted most of the arcane particles within his body.
They had all been used up by the "Black Witch's Last Tribute" just now.
"Skin Flayer Neilson…" Rui sneered coldly as his eyes slightly narrowed upon seeing the appearance of the bleeding arcane master wearing scarlet red leather armor.
"You actually managed to learn a skill from the Magus Era, the Black Witch's Last Sacrifice which doesn't even belong to arcane masters… indeed, each of the Holy Dawn Evil Six have abilities which surpass the norm… no wonder you all were once called the invincible arcane team," Neilson said as he heavily panted after coughing up enough blood to fill up a large bowl. His long and narrow face was already devoid of color.
"Have you two have secretly sided with the Evil Dragon Followers? You actually dare to ambush us!" Stingham loudly shouted at this moment.
"You idiot, is there any point in saying that now?!"
As Rinloran watched Rui and waited for Rui's next commands, he silently ridiculed Stingham in his mind.
"Evil Dragon Followers? You dare compare us with those trash who are willing to bow their heads to others in exchange for a little more power?" Hanson's face had long since recovered to its originally perverse and crazed state as his fright had disappeared upon realizing that Rui's Divine Altar of Darkness wasn't targeting him.
As he eyed Stingham, it felt like he was looking at his prey, "You three little ones just happen to be on our list."
Ayrin had a sudden realization as he shouted, "You two are working for House Baratheon?"
"Teacher Rui, I'm guessing that you reached such a conjecture upon realizing who I was? But now, you all know too much, so you all must now…" Hanson insidiously cackled.
"Use your full powers to kill one of them!"
Rui's roar interrupted Hanson's laughter as the last bit of arcane particles within his body all surged out.
"Time to fight!"
"Holy Gates of Life!"
Ayrin's gaze locked onto Neilson as his body released powerful arcane energy fluctuations.
"Rui's last attack will definitely be some kind of strange taboo skill!"
"How can these arcane energy fluctuations be so strong?!"
Hanson and Neilson both subconsciously backed up.
"This…?"
But right at this moment, Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham all abruptly froze in place as a raging whirlwind completely enveloped them, obstructing their vision.
When they could finally see clearly again, they suddenly discovered that they were nearly a hundred meters away from their original location.
"Hurry and run!"
"Just Hanson was already a hard enough opponent!"
Rui shouted at them at this time.
"Run!"
Ayrin, Rinloran, and Stingham abruptly woke up from their dazes and began fleeing as quickly as possible.
"We can't. They move too much faster than us. If we all just flee then we will all be caught by noon."
As the last traces of arcane energy around Rui's body completely disappeared, Rinloran took a deep breath while turning towards Ayrin and decisively said, "Ayrin, carry Teacher Rui and leave this place. I'll prevent them from chasing after you!"
"Stingham, take Teacher Rui and leave! Rinloran and I will prevent them from chasing after you!" Ayrin immediately said towards Stingham.
"It's already too late," Rui interrupted before Stingham could say anything. As he looked behind them, an unfathomable expression flashed through his eyes as he shouted, "You three split up and run."
Boom!
At this exact moment, a terrifying arcane energy fluctuation surged out from within the dark forest and hit them like an avalanche.
Countless rope like streaks of black light erupted from the trees and surged towards the group of four as if they had minds of their own.
"Impenetrable Fog Arena!"
"Burning Star Domain!"
"Regardless of everyone else, I will definitely protect you!" Ayrin inwardly roared as he stepped in front of Rui. Two unfamiliar voices sounded as invocations abruptly sounded out from one side of the forest, followed by surging waves of arcane energy fluctuations.
An obscuring fog abruptly blocked their vision as numerous condensed streaks of burning starlight pierced down from the sky.
"Move!"
"Follow us!"
Several silver strands of starlight pierced through the dense fog, faintly revealing two figures who were also fleeing.