In the morning.
It was a cloudy day. A sea of trees was leaning due to the strong wind. The noise they made drove the birds away. Several dark birds soared through the sky from time to time.
Between the trees, there was a black carriage slowly advancing along a gray path. Strangely enough, there was no coachman sitting in its driving seat.
Suddenly, the window of the carriage was opened by a pale hand, showing a brown-haired young man sitting inside. He was glancing at the bushes with his brows furrowed.
He looked at the left side of the path. There were many trees and bushes blocking his sight.
The trees’ sizes varied. He felt like he was inside a primeval forest.
"Halt!" The man suddenly stopped the horses.
The wheels stopped gradually as the horse slowed down while breathing heavily.
The young man opened the door and jumped off the carriage. He then quickly walked to the roadside. There was a black crossguard sword hanging over his waist, and on his back, there was a large metal longbow along with a full quiver. The man’s body was strong and his action was quick.
The man looked like an experienced hunter with a pair of clean-looking silver armor gloves on his hands.
He stomped on the ground several times and moved his feet around.
"You think I’m really going to fall for this? At least hide yourselves better." The man sneered. He glared at the bushes in front of him and pulled an arrow out of his quiver.
Inside the forest.
One black robe and two gray robes were trying to ambush Angele from the bushes, it was Maryland and his apprentices. They hid behind a large tree and slowed down their breathing, listening to the noises coming from the path.
There was a short wooden crossbow in Maryland’s hand, already loaded with a special arrow. The arrow was coated in a white glow. It looked like it was made from white jade.
"Master, I think he’s already here. We just heard him making noises, right? I think he’s coming for us," the male Wizard apprentice whispered.
"Don’t worry, stay here."
*CHI*
A ray of black light flew toward the female Wizard apprentice on the side.
*DANG*
A red barrier appeared around the female Wizard apprentice’s body. The black arrow was blocked, causing it to deviate its path and pierce the tree beside.
The three were surprised by the attack. They looked at the black iron arrow on the tree and realized that Angele had already detected their positions.
"Watch out!" Maryland suddenly shouted.
The female Wizard apprentice turned her head around after hearing Maryland’s warning.
*BAM*
It seemed that her barrier was on cooldown as another black iron arrow struck her forehead. Her skullcap was broken into pieces. Blood mixed with brain matter splashed everywhere.
The female Wizard apprentice’s eyes were wide open. She died before knowing what had happened, and her body fell to the ground.
"Ria!" the male Wizard apprentice shouted in fear.
"God damn!" He pressed his left wrist with his right hand and chanted something.
After two seconds, he vanished into the air. A faint distortion moved through the bushes while leaving footprints on the muddy ground.
Maryland raised his short crossbow, white light coming out of his eyes. His expression was solemn as he was trying to catch every movement on the other side of the bush.
Maryland heard footsteps of a person walking on the dry leaves on the ground. A strapping man slowly walked out of the shadows.
Angele put his hand on the handle of his crossguard sword and stepped on a large stone. He was glaring at Maryland.
"I knew it was you, Maryland." The young man who had a pair of sharp eyes was speaking in a calm tone.
Maryland licked his lips.
"Angele, I didn’t expect you to detect us first. Liliana found herself a good disciple. But why did you reveal yourself, you should’ve stayed in the bushes." He quickly aimed at Angele with his crossbow.
"Delan Siro, Frozen Death!"
The white arrow left the short crossbow and drew an arc in the air. It was flying at full speed, with only a white light dot indicating its direction.
Maryland threw the crossbow to the ground and took out a small bottle from his pouch. He then removed the stopper and poured some light-yellow powder onto his palm, sprinkling it into the air.
He was invoking incantations that Angele had never heard of before. A ball of white light slowly appeared in front of him. The light ball lit up the area, and a high-pitched scream was coming out of it.
As the scream became louder, Maryland pushed the light ball forward with his hands. The light ball traveled slowly in the air, approaching Angele.
Angele drew his crossguard sword. He turned around and started running. His body turned into a blurry gray shadow among the bushes. The white arrow dodged the trees and was pursuing him from behind. It only took the arrow several seconds to catch up, and it exploded in the air as soon as Angele slowed down.
*BOOM*
The explosion produced a white mist that surrounded Angele in the middle.
Countless layers of ice started spreading in the area, but Angele walked out of ice mist within seconds.
A thin layer of silver metal covered his body. The ice mist was blocked before it could reach his skin.
*Crack*
The silver metal on Angele’s skin dropped to the ground. It then melted into a liquid ball and floated in the air.
The ice barrier in the air was broken into pieces by Angele’s twisted power and dropped to the grass on the ground. Angele touched the surface of the silver metal. It turned into a large silver shield that covered his body.
The white light ball finally reached Angele and smashed against the silver shield with great impact.
*BAM*
The white light broke into seemingly infinite tiny light dots, flying to Angele from all angles.
Angele held his sword with both hands and slashed forward without hesitation.
The blade melted and turned into a group of tiny metal particles. They started intercepting the white light dots in the air.
Once more, all the white light dots exploded after the collision with the metal particles. The explosion created many broken ice pieces mixed with metal ashes.
Angele quickly stepped back and dropped the remaining handle of his sword.
He waited for the hail in front of him to stop. Maryland could not believe what he had just witnessed.
Angele raised his hand again and created another silver crossguard sword.
He suddenly turned around and slashed forward. An invisible man revealed himself after being cut into half on the empty ground.
It was the male Wizard apprentice who tried to attack Angele from behind. His eyes were wide open and his body was sliced into two. The man was holding a small black ball in his right hand, which had moving silver patterns on the surface of the ball.
The stench of blood spread in the air as the man’s organs emerged on the ground.
"You’re the last one." Angele turned around and blocked an incoming ice lance with his sword.
Angele waved his hand. The metal ashes on the ground slowly floated into the air.
He then pointed his finger at Maryland.
Countless tiny metal needles started flying toward Maryland.
Angele wasted no time and charged forward. He held his crossguard sword tight. When he was about four or five meters away from Maryland, he swung his sword and its shape shifted in the air. The sword became thinner but much longer than before.
*CLANG*
The tip of the sword stopped before it could hit Maryland. A white ice barrier appeared in front of him that successfully blocked Angele’s attack.
Maryland’s face turned pale from fright as leaned against the tree behind him. He did not try to stop Angele from attacking. He only kept doing weird hand gestures while invoking an incantation. A white glow appeared on the tip of his fingers.
The white ice barrier in front of him blocked all the metal projectiles. It sounded like rain dropping onto a window.
Maryland looked at Angele and increased the speed of his incantation. A diamond-shaped crystal slowly appeared in front of his body, it rotated while glowing and it seemed like the crystal contained some mysterious strong power.
Beside the white barrier in front of Maryland was a translucent ice barrier that only appeared when some of the metal needles attacked him from the behind. This barrier had only revealed itself after being hit.
"Die!" Maryland’s expression changed. He pushed the crystal toward Angele with both of his hands.
Maryland looked tired after completing the strongest spell he knew. Two Wizards from Northland Alliance had been slain by it during the war. The cost of the spell was half of his reserves. Most of his mentality and mana was consumed by it.
Maryland ran to the side after the crystal was completed. He grabbed several blue mana potions from his pouch and poured them into his mouth one after another. Those potions could help him recover mana and mentality, but it took time, and he would not be able to cast the next spell immediately. He turned his head around and looked at Angele.
The speed of the crystal was fast, that Angele had to withdraw.
*CLANG*
He struck the crystal with the sword, but it was so hard that his arms turned numb.
"Raymancrisa Ignis…" Angele chanted an incantation in a low voice. Four lines of red flame gathered in front of Angele’s chest and turned into a fist-sized fireball.
The fireball grew larger and its color became darker.
Angele pushed the fireball forward and it hit the incoming crystal.
*BOOM*
After the explosion, flames and pieces of ice blocks all flew toward Angele. He quickly conjured another silver metal shield and tried to block the approaching projectiles.