Thud!
The sound of a heavy crash, like a mountain descending from the sky, made even the earth tremble. Even the most vicious of magic beasts let out cries and yelps as they scattered in fear.
The soldiers underneath the ice block trembled in fear as they gave up resisting. They resigned themselves to fate as they prepared to meet their maker.
However, right before impact, the ice block suddenly split in two. Debris and ice shards spread everywhere as the two halves came crashing down to Earth. However, the soldiers were uninjured.
In the valley, Benjamin sensed this and frowned.
When Benjamin realized that the bishop wanted to detour, he immediately started casting thousands of ice summoning spells. The opportunity was about to escape his grasp, it was now or never. Thus, within the short span of time, Benjamin compacted all the ice together before releasing it all at go.
It was hard to control such a large amount of magic, which is why he chose to attack in such a brutal way.
He thought that at the very least, he could cripple the bishop. He had not imagined that the bishop would have time to recite something to shield himself – much less negate all the damage.
The bishop had somehow released holy energy that was powerful enough to protect them all. Benjamin saw it clearly — not a soul was injured!
Benjamin scowled at the situation. This was bad…
After the ice surface fell, the mages that lay in ambush behind Benjamin charged out one after another; they did not care if their opponents were dead or alive. All of them recited incantations, resulting in them releasing close to thousand blazing fireballs in total.
It was the meteor shower from hell as fireballs sailed through the night sky, straight in the bishop’s direction. Some trees burst into flames from the radiating heat alone.
"Phew…"
Seeing this, Benjamin felt relieved.
He took out a bottle of Spiritual Energy recovery potion and gulped it down. He had battled solo for so long that he had forgotten that he was no longer alone.
He was quite confident that their combined strength was equal to, if not greater, than his giant ice slab. He had specifically reminded them earlier to coordinate their attacks and just release fireballs – no fancy tricks, no pillars of flames, just tens of thousands of fireballs that could burn even the pope to a crisp!
The enemy was engulfed in flames before the dirt and dust from the ice surface impact had even cleared.
However, at that very moment, a bright holy light shone from within the cloud of dust. A powerful magic oscillation echoed outward and dispersed the dust and sand in an instant.
In front of the troops stood a few hundred priests with their palms held together, praying in unison. The bishop stood in the middle with his eyes closed and his hand holding a silver and gold chalice. He held the chalice devoutly as if he was holding a national treasure.
The mages watched as countless holy beams of light poured into the tiny little golden chalice. They quickly realized that the source of the unimaginable magic oscillation could be traced back to that very same chalice.
A wall of light shot up toward the heavens. The canopy of fireballs was about to lay waste to the bishop when the wall of light blocked it midair, completely nullifying the attack.
"What is that?"
Benjamin inhaled sharply.
That chalice should be the shield that had saved them from the ice slab. But… what was it? A magic tool? Did the Church reach the stage where they could invent such a horrifying magic tool?
He found it hard to believe.
Over five hundred mages had attacked at the same time and yet, they failed to cause any damage. There was no way something so imbalanced could exist, right?
Then, the bishop slowly opened his eyes.
"How did you know our route?" Through the holy wall and from a great distance, his gaze was as sharp as a spear - it was aimed straight at Benjamin, "Who is the rat? Tell me."
Benjamin let out a cold snort.
"Ask your mother."
As he shouted these words, he opened his arms and recited the ice breaking spell repeatedly as if rapping. Countless ice arrows appeared above their heads. Hundreds, no, thousands… The other mages watched for a while before they too started to summon a rain of ice arrows, wind blades or any other non-fire magic.
Before their opponents had any chance to counter-attack, they quickly launched a second wave of attacks that were even stronger than before.
The bishop saw this and did not bother to respond to Benjamin’s insult. Instead, he closed his eyes and started chanting. The priests around him were drenched in sweat as they hysterically summoned more holy light to fill the chalice
The rain of ice arrows that had formed a terrifying blizzard heading towards the bishop. Then, there was another major magic oscillation, as if the chalice was roaring to life.
However, the holy wall in front of the bishop shape-shifted and out of a sudden became a blurred phantom. The phantom’s figure was that of a giant. It stood in front of the Church’s army like a horrifying beast that was composed of holy light. The mages watched in horror as it opened its mouth and swallowed the entirety of the mages’ large-scale attack.
Countless ice arrows, wind blades… all disappearing into the phantom’s gory mouth.
Benjamin felt a chill run down his spine.
"What the hell is that thing?" Benjamin turned and look at Morris behind him.
"I have no idea." Morris shook his head and replied in shock, "In all my time in the Church, I have never seen that weird looking cup before."
"Is it a magic tool?" Benjamin continued asking.
Morris stared blankly at it for a while but nodded his head after.
Benjamin returned his gaze upon the chalice and seemed to have calmed down.
If it was a magical tool, it was not undefeatable. They had just been caught off guard, now it was time to focus on how to defeat it.
As Benjamin was deep in thought, the bishop opened his eyes once again and the phantom beast started charging at the mages.
The mages quickly summoned shields to protect themselves but still lacked the ability to combine them. Hence, five hundred individual shields were summoned – all of which looked messy and weak.
"Roar!"
The phantom bit downward and shattered over three hundred shields with a single blow.
Many of the mages went pale and tried to drink their magic potions while summoning new shields.
At the same time, the phantom snapped his jaws again and bit off another four hundred newly summoned shields.
The mages were able to withstand the attack for now. However, one glance at their faces would tell you that the high frequency of attacks was quickly depleting their spiritual energy. They would not last very long. They would be finished the second they are unable to summon any more shields.
The mages started to lose hope.
They turned to look at Benjamin, hoping that their leader could shed some light on this grim situation.
However, all they saw was Benjamin standing there in a state of stupefaction. He did not even summon a shield to guard against the phantom’s attack. It was as if he was shitting his pants.
The mages were distraught.
"How could this be…" Someone raised his head and looked at the mountainous phantom with a face of despair. They thought they would be able to defeat the bishop and save Fereldan from the hands of the Church. They didn't think that they would lose with such a huge numbers advantage.
Was the Church…. Was the Church really this powerful?
Only a small number of mages who had participated in the battle at dessert city looked at the quiet Benjamin and suddenly recalled something that left them deep in thought.