Benjamin glared at the bishop with a heavy heart.
The move to seize the Long River Town was going so smoothly and the King’s performance was so on point that they had almost brazenly walked into the city hall to seize the town. Who would have excepted the bishop to suddenly turn up?
He had previously even scanned the town to ensure the bishop was not there.
Could this be a trap? Had the Church already predicted that they would take down Long River Town and so awaited their arrival? But... If this was a trap, then the bishop wouldn’t be alone.
Benjamin’s couldn’t figure it out.
In any case, the enemy was already before him, so he could do nothing but put these thoughts aside. On the bright side, a lone bishop couldn’t be that hard to eliminate.
"I was hoping you would know your place and avoid tainting the King’s honour," The old bishop hissed as he stared at Benjamin vengeful eyes.
"Does it matter?" Benjamin shook his head, "I’m assuming that if you had the courage to appear here, you must be prepared to face death?"
He clapped his hands as he spoke.
A thick ice fog suddenly surged from beneath his garment and spread out to his surroundings.
"They... They’re going to fight?"
The people down below on the streets lifted their heads and drew deep breaths. They were unsure of what was about to happen.
The young man that flew away from the crowd must be a mage, but... the old man who was holding the mayor was apparently the state religion’s bishop…
The people were in a daze, not knowing who and what to believe anymore.
But deep down, they secretly hoped that the mage would triumph.
The soldiers that the general brought along clenched their fists in frustration. They wished they had brought along a bow or had guns strapped to their waist to help with the situation.
It was too bad that they brought nothing and so could do nothing but watch the battle from the sidelines.
"Mage Benjamin, you must not lose."
The king hid in the crowd and muttered nervously.
At the moment, the bishop in the sky let out a cold snort. He tossed the mayor he was holding up into the crowd, much to the crowd’s horror. Then, he stared at Benjamin as he started chanting.
The Holy Light quickly illuminated the night sky.
Although Benjamin started summoning earlier, the bishop was the first one to attack.
Seven phantom crosses that were comprised of holy light appeared in the sky and gathered in an odd formation. It was matched Benjamin’s pace and seemed to track his movements.
Benjamin raised his brow.
He has never seen this technique before. However, when the seven crosses locked onto him, he could feel that elemental activity around him slow down. The water vapour that supported his flight suddenly felt as though it needed more Spiritual Energy consumption to maintain itself.
What Divine Art was this?
Benjamin quickly dodged the attack the attack of the crosses and observed carefully. By now, the ice fog that was lingering in the air formed a large hand and tried to grab the bishop.
The bishop half expected the holy light crosses to miss Benjamin. Hence, he controlled their direction to target the hand constructed from the ice fog.
In the blink of an eye, the big hand and weird cross formation crashed into each other.
Clank!
A loud crunch echoed out from the sky.
Benjamin’s frowned as he saw this.
When the big ice fog hand formed came in contact with the holy light crosses, it was as though it was suddenly struck by a binding spell and halted. The crosses then star
ted to tremble before vaporising together with Benjamin’s ice fogy hand with a sharp zap.
"The power of the Holy Light can cleanse all evil from the earth," The bishop clasped his palms together and devoutly smirked.
Benjamin curled his lips in disgust.
He was even preaching mid-fight; just how devout was he?
Benjamin suddenly increased his speed and started circling the bishop mid-air. Countless ice blades formed beside him before suddenly shooting out towards the bishop. His thinking was simple – if the cross formation could only face and block one direction, then he would attack from all directions!
Benjamin was now like a rotating minigun. He continuously attacked the bishop with densely packed ice blade as he flew around. His attacks were so quick that the crowd beneath him started to see stars from getting dizzy.
The old bishop, however, only ripped the cross hung around his neck as he laughed in response to this.
It was a silvery metal cross and was delicately made; it looked completely different from the ordinary life-saving crosses the priests normally wore. The first round of ice blades was blocked with the ordinary life-saving crosses the bishop carried on him. After this, the bishop clenched the silver cross in his fist and started chanting some obscure chants.
The silver cross starting to light up and a powerful magic oscillation rippled outward.
Was this... High-level divine arts?
Benjamin had a bad feeling about this.
Suddenly, a rift ripped opened in the dark sky. A beam of light shone out from the rift onto Benjamin, suddenly covering his entire body mid-flight. At that moment, it was as though Benjamin had gotten a thousand kilograms heavier; his body went into spasm and he instantly froze.
Benjamin tried to struggle out of it but could not move an inch. Even the water vapour beside him could not be controlled. Then, his eyes widened in horror.
He knew this technique.
The beam of Holy Light was a mysterious divine art. It could use the power of the holy light to bind an enemy with a 100% hit rate. From the Church’s perspective, they were borrowing the will of God and forcibly imprisoning the sinners of the Earth.
But... this was some high-level divine arts! Its chant had to take at least a good few minutes. How did the bishop summon it so quickly?
Benjamin’s gaze fell onto the silver cross.
"Naive people, don’t you see? This is the power of the Holy Light." The bishop spoke to the crowd below, "No matter how evil the mage, they will still bow down to the will of God."
The people looked at the beam of light in the sky and held their breath.
So... he lost?
"Hey, do you actually think you’ve won? Who fights so carelessly?" However, a voice suddenly came from behind the bishop.
The people were momentarily stunned and returned their gaze to the light beam. They turned their heads only to discover that the person in the beam had now disappeared.
Benjamin now stood behind the bishop. His hand lightly resting on the bishop’s shoulder and the tip of his nose right next to the bishop’s ear.
In his palm, he held a dagger up against the bishop’s back.
— He had used the intangible form to escape the bind.
However, despite his predicament, the bishop did not react at all.
"But, of course..."
The bishop squeezed his right hand and crushed a life-saving cross he was hiding in his palm just as Benjamin was about to drive the dagger into the bishop’s back to end the battle. Instantly, a holy shield activated, and Benjamin ricocheted away from him.
At the same time, another seven crosses of the holy light appeared out of thin air and slowly arranged themselves into the earlier formation before tracking Benjamin who was now a short distance away.
The bishop turned and revealed a cold smile.
"Did you really think I would come unprepared after you ambushed us so many times?"