Chapter 211: The formation activates
Gabriel flicked the longsword in his hand and sent silver fighting aura splitting through the air, accompanied by a vicious, icy killing intent that pierced one down to the bones.
As Emily gasped in shock, Trunks and Gilbert had already charged to intercept Gabriel. Trunks had an inscrutable expression as he brandished his sword on the back of his manticore, forming a round, milky white fighting aura circle in front of him.
Gilbert held a dark long spear in his hand. He had no martial arts foundation, and so flung his spear forward with the inborn strength of a dark dragon tribe descendent.
There was a string of metallic clangs and explosions. Trunks grunted and evaded swiftly with the manticore. Gilbert’s spear was broken into two as his chest was marked by the fighting aura, revealing a large patch of dark skin.
Great swordmaster Gabriel refocused his attention, his impa.s.sive face like it was carved out of stone. He was in no hurry to attack, but turned his gaze to where Han Shuo and the little skeleton were.
The howl of the bone dagger dagger suddenly grew in intensity, and a gleaming bone dagger shot out from the direction Gabriel was looking in. The little skeleton behind the curtain had focused his purple eye on Gabriel and was waving the five finger bones of his left hand.
Trunks was heavily panting, and Gilbert had been shocked into a cold sweat as they both reacted to Gabriel’s strength. A simple swing had forced Trunks to dodge and evade like he’d faced an avalanche of attacks. The immensely strong Gilbert had simply thrown out a spear because he hadn’t understood any martial techniques, only to have it hacked into two by the silver aura. If he hadn’t s.h.i.+fted in time, his chest would’ve been cut open by the fighting aura as well.
Just as the two were fretting over how to handle Gabriel, support from the little skeleton arrived. Gabriel couldn’t help but treat this gleaming dagger carefully.
The ability to deploy a magical treasure was an incantation unique to magical cultivators. Gabriel had obviously been shocked by this incredible attack, which was why he’d given up the chance to further beat down on Trunks and Gilbert and had turned his attention to fully sensing how the little skeleton was manipulating the bone dagger.
The silver fighting aura was radiant and stunning, and it seemed like glorious cl.u.s.ters of fireworks beneath the starry sky, erecting an impregnable defense around Gabriel. The little bone dagger circled around him, emitting ear piercing howls as it tried to give Gabriel a lethal blow.
Small collision sounds continued to sound around Gabriel along with sparks, and the little bone dagger’s path became more and more unpredictable.
“What are you standing you there? Attack!” Andy suddenly roared from above.
The mercenaries had been staring, flabbergasted, at the little bone danger’s unbelievable attacks. They were finally awakened to their senses by this yell and either raised their bows to find their targets, or wield their swords, circling past Gabriel to charge at Trunks and the others.
Andy and the other thunder mage on top of the roof also got to work when they saw the swordsmen and knights start charging below. They too used magic to attack Emily and the others.
In the span of a moment, three fiercely burning fireb.a.l.l.s as big as records started descending down to where Emily and the others were, rolling violently with the heat of their flames. Several bolts of lightning also ripped through the sky and crashed down, sparks flying everywhere.
“Oh dear!” Emily exclaimed and released a dark magic spell she’d prepared in advance.
An enormous, oily green net appeared over people’s heads as she chanted. When the net formed, it delayed the three enormous fireb.a.l.l.s, but the thunder attack went through the holes in the net and still came cras.h.i.+ng down.
Emily and the others kept continuously ducking and weaving, evading the lightning strikes. The ground within the courtyard kept crackling and popping as two of the Shura pillars were also hit by lightning, piercing the darkness with light.
A clang sounded from Gabriel’s direction. He’d gotten a grasp on the bone dagger’s pattern of attack and used his sword to connect solidly with the bone dagger, sending it clattering to the ground.
“The friend within the house, your marvelous techniques are quite amazing, but your preferred style of hiding yourself and ambus.h.i.+ng others is a bit shameful! Since you have such a marvelous technique, you should walk out forthrightly from the house and meet with me in battle!”
Great swordmaster Gabriel naturally thought it was the reclusive Han Shuo manipulating the bone dagger. Although he too had seen the little skeleton and his somewhat bizarre hand motions, he wasn’t willing to believe that such a wondrous method of attack originated from a lowly dark creature.
However, the little skeleton’s next moves completely wrecked his understanding of the world!
The little skeleton’s purple eye flared with light as he jumped out of the window with a twist of his body, landing to face Gabriel’s provocation.
He curled the five fingers of his right hand and the bone dagger lying on the ground suddenly flew upwards, landing in his hand like lightning.
Gabriel couldn’t react for a moment as he stared incredulously at the little skeleton, his mind short circuiting for a bit. An even more stunning thing happened as this moment as the little skeleton bent over slightly, making the seven bone spurs on his back suddenly fly out and shoot towards Gabriel like seven bolts of lightning.
“Oh my gos.h.!.+” A cry of astonishment that only Gabriel could hear flew out of his mouth.
He was once again forced to become pa.s.sive, defending himself by concentrating his silver fighting aura onto his longsword and expending all his focus on parrying the seven bone spurs’ aerial attacks.
The little skeleton raised the bone dagger and crashed into the attacking mercenaries in a ma.s.s of flailing limbs. He revealed his cruel side as he bent and flexed his leg bones, landing into the group of mercenaries like a flash of lightning.
He shot out his empty left hand and connected with a soft splurting sound, ripping out five b.l.o.o.d.y gorges in the chest of a journeyman swordsman and creating a b.l.o.o.d.y fountain.
His right hand brandished the bone dagger and flourished it wildly, sending a nearby mercenary’s head flying off his neck at high velocity. b.l.o.o.d.y sprayed everywhere from the severed neck, dying the little skeleton’s clean skeleton in an eerie red.
Two crossbow bolts whistled and dinged into the little skeleton’s back and chest with metallic sounds. The two bolts clattered to the ground as two white traces appeared on his bones.
The two bolts hadn’t harmed the little skeleton, but he had indeed been affected as his originally swiftly moving body couldn’t help but waver a bit from the crossbow bolt attacks.
Some of the mercenaries nearby took advantage of this opportunity to send their spears and swords at the little skeleton. Multiple dings rang out from his skeleton as these strings of attacks seemed to daze the little skeleton, and his control over the seven bone spurs also suddenly ceased.
The bone spurs had been flying around Gabriel and attacking him whirled uncontrollably and crashed into a nearby Shura pillar.
It was as if a powerful inhibition had been triggered. Winds gusted through the courtyard and a thick sense of death suddenly spread to all four corners. The night sky was covered by this deathly aura, and not even the slightest hint of starlight made it through this shroud. Only a beam of evil red light rose to the sky from the center.
The stark white pillars had been deathly quiet until now, when horrifying wails and screams suddenly rang out. The cries of ghosts and howls of wolves drilled into one’s brain, making the scalps tingle with numbness. It was like a vicious ghost was crouched next to one’s ear, sticking a tongue out of its blood red maw to lick at one’s earlobe.
The ghostly drawings on the pillars abruptly came back to life as they all capered and caterwauled. The pillars seemed to turn into demons with hundreds, no, thousands tentacles that continuously waved around, attacking all life around them.
“Hurry and take cover!” Emily shouted when she saw that the formation had been triggered.
The others had actually already started moving before Emily’s shout. They hastened to stand in the safe spots that Han Shuo had told them about before.
Footsteps once again sounded outside, as the couple dozen Cairo mercenaries, originally surrounding the shop on the outskirts, couldn’t help but charge into the courtyard when they saw that Han Shuo’s group hadn’t taken care of the attackers after so long.
On a large tree three shops away, the dark grand magus Edwin and female alchemist Belinda of the Church of Calamity stood atop a large tree. They looked at the blood red light in the distance, and the center of the location where a hundred ghosts were wailing and screaming while strange winds were blowing.
“Can it be that the legendary evil G.o.d’s curse has truly taken effect?” Belinda’s eyes were filled with shock as she spoke to Edwin.
“I don’t know, the presence within is quite odd, even I don’t know what’s going on. Let’s not draw near for now and see what’s going on first!” Edwin shook his head with some confusion.