Chapter 362: A Reverse Ambush

The crimson spear, little more than a blood-soaked blur, tore through the storm like lightning. As it neared its prey, Wang Yu detonated it from afar. The spear burst apart into raw force as a shockwave struck the trio.

Fighting spirit surged protectively around their wielders as a magical barrier flashed into existence. Their reflexes were sharp, their defenses swift.

Though the impact did not wound them, the crumbling mounds of snow beneath them gave way under the crushing gravity. The spear detonated, vaporizing the rest of the snow and causing the three men to fall.

Around Wang Yu was a special domain, completely filled with the power of the Chariot. Within its bounds, mana was strictly held in place. The domain moved around as Wang Yu did.

Within the domain, only spells he permitted could form. Only magical detection he allowed within could penetrate his domain.

This was how Wang Yu had managed to launch his opening strike unseen.

The blizzards that covered the steppe in perpetuity veiled all things in white. Coupled with this domain of stillness, Wang Yu was all but undetectable.

The Conqueror hummed at his side, spitting out orbs of crushing gravity one after another. Though it was starting to overheat under the strain, it had already served its purpose. Wang Yu holstered it now that he had successfully divided up the battlefield.

“Damn it,” cursed Remo, fighting spirit blazing around him as he futilely tried to anchor himself. “This spell would be useless against me if not for this damned snow! How did they know we were coming?!”

Snow was an unstable foundation, and Wang Yu had made it a key part of his plan. The trap was simple, precise, and merciless.

Wang Yu and the others had sensed them and their route in advance; a false trail had lured them straight into the jaws of his snare. Given the environment, an ambush could well be deadly.

“Be careful!” Paul’s voice cut through the storm. “There are strong magical fluctuations in the vicinity. They must have prepared an array ahead of time. This entire snowfield is part of their ambush. I’ll pull us clear.”

Even as the snow collapsed, Paul unleashed a countermeasure: a series of spells kept at the ready that nullified the gravitational pull in a sphere around him.

Floating enchantments flared to life. Having cast Hover on himself, he did not plunge down like Black Benn and Remo. From above the pit that had opened up in the snow, he began casting spells to haul his comrades back.

Snow and ice split apart as a figure erupted upward—Wang Yu, his form wreathed in the domain of stillness. Every ward and detection Paul had prepared was disabled; by the time the mage noticed him, the knight was already less than twenty meters away.

“Damn it!”

Black Benn and Remo, still plummeting, felt their hearts lurch. Wang Yu was upon Paul like a phantom. The mage was too far above them for them to do anything about it—at best, they could only hinder Wang Yu’s approach.

Still, grand knights did have long-range techniques of their own. Black Benn immediately activated his potential, Blazing Raze, which flared with condensed fighting spirit. A blade forged of pure fighting spirit hurtled toward Wang Yu.

Beside him, Remo pressed a palm to one eye. His potential ignited, causing the blade to speed forward as if the world itself had shifted. The blade, which was still some distance away from Wang Yu, arrived by his side in an instant. Its edge struck at Wang Yu’s chest.

“We already know what Black Benn’s potential is. As for Remo, Charles told me about him. His potential is Speedshift. He can speed up or slow down any object within line of sight, up to a certain distance away from him. It’s like Garcia’s potential, Burst, but more limited and used quite differently.”

The blade of fighting spirit was too dangerous to meet head-on. Wang Yu’s starsteel blade snapped to life, its broken pieces locking together to form a complete blade in his hand. Fighting spirit rushed along its length as he spun and deflected the strike.

The clash was shrill and savage. There were no sparks. Shards of fighting spirit rained outward, shattered by the impossible hardness of Wang Yu’s starsteel blade.

The collision even flung Wang Yu upward, closer still to Paul. Even so, Paul didn’t panic. He had faced knights at close quarters before. Black Benn and Remo had bought him enough time.

The resplendent magical ring on Paul’s right index finger hummed as spatial ripples appeared around him. He was planning to teleport away, far from Wang Yu.

This was the problem with mages. They could cast at extraordinary speed with some advance preparation, allowing them to slip away in the blink of an eye.

But Wang Yu was no ordinary knight himself. As his blade deflected Black Benn’s fighting spirit, it transformed into the Spellweaver’s Tome under the effect of the Hammer of Fusion.

His fingers clenched tight. The bound mana he had prepared flooded into the tome: the third-tier hypermagic spell Spatial Anchor. It erupted instantly.

For two objects bound by the Hammer of Fusion, the inactive object would be held in stasis until it was activated. As a result, as long as Wang Yu prepared the spell he needed in advance, he would be able to cast it the moment he switched from his starsteel blade into his Spellweaver’s Tome.

A silent anchor smashed into the surrounding space, locking it in place. Paul’s teleportation spell collapsed at once.

Paul scowled. His usual tricks against knights had all been nullified by Wang Yu, whose repertoire of skills defied common sense. The spells he was preparing were either unable to manifest or began to collapse right away.

Paul cursed inwardly. “A magitech device? But how can it be so fast? And this spatial anchor’s effect is far too strong. Damn it! I can’t hold anything back. If I don’t use every card I have now, I’m done for!”

His mind raced. His attempt at teleportation had been cut off by Wang Yu’s anchor. The knight now stood within arm’s reach. The pressure was suffocating. Such was the fate of a mage caught too close by a knight—death could descend in the span of a heartbeat.

His fingers rubbed against his knuckles. Embedded in the bones of each hand were high-grade wizardry spellstones and an enchanted ring. Once activated, the compressed mana within would trigger instantly.

If Wang Yu drew even a step closer, Paul would activate these trump cards immediately. Even if he couldn’t kill Wang Yu outright, he would surely be badly wounded or repelled.

But once again, Wang Yu moved in ways Paul could not predict. The knight touched a fingertip lightly to his brow. A lens of pure mana bloomed over his eye socket. Avia’s Perfect Fractal lens gleamed.

Wang Yu’s mastery over his domain of stillness was not yet fine enough; even Avia’s magic would be suppressed. But he had planned ahead. When the field collapsed, the dormant mana structure he had etched around his eye could be triggered from afar. Avia’s power flowed into him through the crystalline lens.

She was his trigger. All she needed to do was ignite the inert lattice he had prepared. Her spell would spring to life, cast indirectly through him.

The power of the Chariot extended, then withdrew. The mana that Wang Yu stole was woven into a structure of his own design. The Perfect Fractal lens flared as the fourth-tier Glacier took form.

Paul’s fifth-tier Phantasmal Echo activated at almost the same time. He split into eighteen indistinguishable clones. But even as the illusions rippled into existence, Wang Yu’s palm slammed down on a patch of empty space.

Ice mana flooded into the surroundings as a massive wall of ice sealed the pit, trapping Wang Yu, Black Benn, and Remo inside.

From the other side of the ice, Paul gaped in astonishment. What was this knight trying to do? Neither of them could attack each other now!

He quickly realized what was going on. From afar, a searing beam was aimed with surgical precision at his true body amidst his swarm of clones. Avia emerged from the blizzard, her right eye gleaming with the same Perfect Fractal lens he had just seen on Wang Yu.

Raising a crystalline shield of ice to block the ray, Paul finally understood the knight’s intent. He was splitting up the battlefield to isolate the mage from the knights. He was denying them their synergy and thus removing their greatest threat.

“Avia can handle the fight above,” Wang Yu murmured as he dropped lower into the pit. “A mage with access to hypermagic will easily crush one without. And the Lady of the Night’s divine spells are already in place. That leaves me to handle Black Benn.”

The pit had been their design from the beginning. It enabled a division of battlefields, forcing the enemy either to fight alone, or not at all.

The shriek of steel split the air, piercing Wang Yu’s ears as he fell. At the floor of the pit, the two grand knights wasted no time. They unleashed a storm of blows upon his falling form.

Their swords, wreathed in solidified fighting spirit, blazed into a storm of phantom edges. Each strike cleaved upward to meet him.

Spinning, Wang Yu summoned the Spellweaver’s Tome, which split once more into shards of his starsteel blade and intercepted the knights’ attacks with the power of the Chariot. At the same time, blood pumped from his bloodpool, congealing in mid-air into a colossal shield through Blood Tempest and Material Shaping.

The grand knights’ strikes were ferocious beyond compare. Despite all his preparation, he was unable to stop the majority of the attacks. Several blades carved straight through his bloodforged shield, flaying flesh straight to the bone—only to be blocked by the unnatural hardness of his reinforced frame.

Blood poured from his wounds, strengthening his shield and forming an armored carapace of bloodforged steel over his body.

Encased in bloodforged armor and bearing a thick, battered shield, Wang Yu slammed into the base of the pit with the force of an avalanche. The ground shuddered under the impact.

The two knights were already upon him, timing their assault to avoid his crash. Their blades blurred into killing shadows, seeking his heart and throat.

In that instant, a golden greatsword fell like a thunderbolt, interposing itself between Remo and Wang Yu. Its radiant barrier shattered the knight’s charge.

Meanwhile, Wang Yu’s meteoric blade clashed head-on with Black Benn’s longsword. The crossed blades struck each other in a storm of sparks.

“Edward Wolyn…”

Remo spoke the name like a curse. His eyes locked onto the young man emerging through the fractured wall of the pit. He was clad in bright armor, shield in one hand, sword in the other, his golden hair haloed by divine radiance. A holy barrier from the God of Light split the pit into two halves.

“…”

Edward said nothing. He smiled faintly. Just as Wang Yu had planned out, Edward would take on Remo while Wang Yu and Black Benn fought one on one.

On the far side of the holy barrier, Wang Yu steadied himself, his sword raised. Before him stood the enemy who had once chained him deep in the dungeons of Aleisterre. He would settle his score with him right here, right now.

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