Chapter 161: Concentrated Fire…

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The attack happened suddenly, and no one was able to react and figure out what kind of attack it was.

Even though the veteran mercenaries were experienced and knowledgeable as they had witnessed all sorts of attacks from vicious people (or vicious beasts). They were still stunned when they were blasted by an exploding Fireball that didn’t emit any magical waves. Due to the short moment of shock, it had caused them to lose control of the situation that was in their grasp.

“Enemy attack!”

The mercenary leader with the half armor immediately yelled out. Subsequently, he calmly activated his protective aura while the other mercenaries who were only slightly delayed had turned swiftly towards the direction of the attack. Those attackers had already revealed themselves from the forest.

A mercenary sub-leader who had the occupation of Knight was the first to see the appearance of the attackers. He saw a few soldiers stepping out of the woods, and they were wearing light armors that were strange in form. The soldiers were armed with unusual and almost superfluous and unfitting large vambraces. They were also wearing marching backpacks during the battle, and it seemed like they simply didn’t have any common sense or combat ability. The sub-leader couldn’t help but find it ridiculous. That eye-catching vambrace was elegant but not feasible and would only affect one’s balance during close combat. As for the cumbersome backpacks, it was simply a sign that they lacked combat experience as such things should have been taken off before combat!

Of course, the thing that made him belittle these strange soldiers was because he couldn’t feel any trace of magical waves from them.

Ordinary people wearing strange equipment and wanted to go against Beyonders?

1After consideration of the previous two strange magical explosions, the Knight mercenary was worried there would be spellcasters hidden in the forest. However, he still waved his hand and called to the nearest subordinates, “Charge!”

The subordinates instinctively obeyed the command and brandished their blades while charging at the strange enemies at the borders of the forest. At the same moment, the rest of the mercenaries had also reacted as they let out intimidating shouts while charging at the attackers.

However, the thing that happened next was something that none of them could react to.

Those soldiers with strange equipment started to raise their left arm and aimed at the mercenaries like they were going to shoot crossbows. Immediately after, there was a series of dull buzzing sounds as high-heat rays of light pierced through the air. The consecutive Scorching Rays had penetrated each of the mercenaries that charged at them.

The Knight sub-leader was stunned by the scene as his mind exploded and flashed with fantasy-like thoughts: Scorching Ray? Mage? A Mage who wears armor and wields a longsword? A group of mages that wears armor and wields long swords?!

He used his lifetime’s fastest speed to activate his protective aura. A layer of dense magic radiance floated on the surface of his body. Just as he assumed he would be able to block the low-grade magic from those strange ‘armored mages’, there was a series of buzzes that suddenly echoed from the forest. Immediately after, over a dozen red lights assaulted his face.

Consecutive Scorching Rays blasted his body. The Knight mercenary’s aura was able to disperse the Scorching Rays at first, but he felt only fear in his heart. As he noticed that those ‘armored mages’ didn’t need any buffer time or chants to cast the spells, he also realized that the rays were pouring out from the forest unendingly!

An extremely painful and scorching sensation came from his abdomen; subsequently, his limbs were all struck at the same time. The sub-leader of the mercenaries who was a low-grade Knight had been blown into pieces. Before his thoughts had ended thoroughly, there was only one thought in his mind: Mages… When were they so common?

During the process when those underlings and their sub-leader were instantly killed by the concentrated fire of the Scorching Rays, the mercenary leader with the half-armor was fortunate enough to survive. He didn’t charge with the others, and when he noticed that the situation wasn’t good, he had time to look for a place to hide behind and avoid the attacks. He used a near-rolling and crawling method to rush behind the nearest boulder. But during this process, he saw a black-robed figure still hesitating and standing in place.

That person was one of the two Mages in the mercenary group. The Mage mercenary had actually brought up his magic shield and started to chant an attack spell. Shielded casting was a fundamental and standard move for every Combat Mage when going against other Mages. But the mercenary leader immediately realized that this foolish Combat Mage was done for.

He watched as dozens of scorching red rays were shot at the figure wearing mage robes. After the magic shield was destroyed with ease, the mage robes that had a certain level of magic resistance were shivering, with countless ripples. The black-robed mage used his magic shield and expensive magic-resistant robes to endure the first wave of shots, but the second wave of shots had turned him into scorched ashes after a vertical explosion.

This wasn’t even a battle; it was a one-sided massacre. The difference in strength between his group and the enemies was as drastic as when he led his subordinates to slaughter the refugees.

The mercenary leader had given up resisting such power. He scanned the surroundings and made sure that he wasn’t in the sights of the enemies and started to move alongside the haystacks and corpses while preparing to escape from this horrific place. However, as soon as he moved, he felt an icy cold aura that extended from his back to his entire body. A cold blade was placed at his neck.

“If I were you, I would put my hands behind my head.”

Amber used a dagger and placed it at the back of the mercenary leader’s neck while issuing an effective threat and having this resolution in her mind: if this capable-looking mercenary leader tried to resist, she would immediately escape.

3If the mercenary leader didn’t resist, she would use this contribution to redeem a grilled chicken and half a bucket of beer from Gawain.

The mercenary leader didn’t resist as there were over two dozen Combat Mages surrounding this place. Even if they looked strange, their magic was real. The mercenary leader believed that in the face of a Mage Corps like this, no matter how competent a person was, they would cower.

Without making a move throughout the entire process, Gawain who was observing and recording the battlefield walked over with Philip. Together with the ‘magic infantry’, they started to clean up the battlefield, while the mercenary leader stood up and walked out from behind the boulder under the threat of Amber’s dagger. The mercenary leader then submitted obediently.

Looking at all the charred corpses and thinking back to a few minutes ago when they were still a well-equipped group of elite mercenaries with Beyonders leading them, Gawain had an additional sense of pride and trust towards the new model of the heat-ray guns.

At the same time, he realized that this first generation of magic soldiers was still lacking in experience and battle tactics. Many of the soldiers were still unable to free themselves from traditional combat. They didn’t understand the significance of concealing themselves in the bunker while ambushing the enemies with concentrated fire. There were some who exposed themselves too quickly. Some were overly excited as it was the first time they were using magic to kill enemies, and they had forgotten about the concentrated-fire tactic that was given by their squad leaders, making it very chaotic. There were even two soldiers who made mistakes when operating the heat-ray gun. They had been ‘shooting’ at the enemies without removing the safety on their heat-ray guns and had only realized that they weren’t hitting anyone when their squadmates notified them…

Bringing 30 magic infantrymen to deal with these mercenaries was indeed overkill. With the firepower of the heat-ray guns and the new equipment that brought confusion to the enemies on the battlefield, Gawain determined that they actually only required 10 soldiers to eliminate these well-equipped but unorganized mercenaries. As long as their concentrated-fire and combat tactics were appropriate, conventional-minded or low-grade Beyonders would have a hard time trying to conduct an effective counterattack against them.

But it was still necessary to bring this number of soldiers. As long as everyone made only one effective shot (there were two who were only looking at others shooting), these soldiers would be able to understand the traits and usage methods of this new equipment in live combat. At the same time, Gawain was able to verify the training and education progress of each of these soldiers. Be it for the heat-ray gun or this new ‘type’ of soldier, today had been a very valuable live combat test.

Missionary Wright had also walked out of the forest with the soldiers. This was the first time he saw the Cecil Combat Corps in battle, and those unbelievably mysterious weapons had stunned this Cleric who was as powerful as a bear. But his attention was quickly shifted away from those unknown weapons.

Wright was moving across the battlefield that was filled with the corpses of the mercenaries and would constantly squat down and draw the symbol of the Church of Holy Light on the foreheads of these corpses. At the same time, he would be chanting:

“May the Holy Light purify your sinful soul.”

“May the Holy Light purify your sinful soul.”

“May the Holy Light purify your sinful and especially ugly soul.”

“May the Holy Light purify your sinful, ugly soul with garlic breath.”

The pious Holy Light believer was like a qualified accompanying Cleric who used his conviction to pacify the souls of these mercenaries who had lived lives of brutality and blood. It was to prevent the environment which was filled with deathly aura from producing a dangerous malicious spirit or a cursed plague. As he prayed, he lifted his hand from a crossbow-wielding mercenary’s forehead and walked to a mercenary wearing short gray robes. “May the Holy Light purify y— Mm? You…!”

As Wright let out a suspicious voice, the ‘corpse’ with the short gray robes suddenly moved. This Mage that feigned death had suddenly opened his eyes that were overflowing with chaotic streams of light. A dangerous arcane bullet was formed in front of his chest, ready to be used against Wright!

At such a close distance, it was already impossible to protect the body with theurgy. However, Missionary Wright still lifted his right hand and chanted a Holy Light skill with unwavering determination. “Commandment – Silence! (this was actually just a punch).”

A casserole-sized fist descended from the sky and knocked out the Mage mercenary who was feigning death, filling his face with blood.

To be more accurate, the Mage mercenary had been nearly beaten to death, almost removing the need for pretense.

Subsequently, the missionary stood up and yelled out to Gawain, “Your Excellency! There is a Mage who feigned death here. He gave me a shock!”

Amber saw the entire process, and she exclaimed from a nearby distance, “God damn… Did you actually beat him to death?”

Wright had a calm expression as he replied, “Don’t worry, he isn’t dead. The ‘Silence’ spell cannot kill anyone.”

“Tie up these two survivors.” Gawain was already a little immune to this unusual fellow and simply sighed before seriously distributing the tasks. “Philip, take half the men to patrol the woods and make sure there are no remaining enemies. Wright, come here. There is an injured person here.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep