Chapter 668: Sneak Attack
As the crowd slowly entered the laboratory, they felt the powerful magical wave and could not help but speed up in their tracks. It was as if the Immortal King was summoning them.
The elves, especially, were not very satisfied with the gains obtained on the previous floors, and thus could not wait to make up for it on this floor. The Legendary-mage Culofen, who specialized in fire magic, suddenly increased his pace and walked past the crowd to stand in front of the team.
“Wait…” Lin Li, who was walking behind, suddenly sensed that something was amiss, and was quick to give them a warning. However, before Lin Li could even finish speaking, light reflected off of a blade suddenly flashed in front of Culofen amidst the darkness.
At that moment, everything around them seemed to have lost its vibrance and luster. It was as if the dazzling light of the blade was the only thing left in the entire space. Time seemed to have frozen; the chilling light seemed domineering to the extent of cutting the limitations of space and time. It seemed to have already met Culofen’s eyes.
However, any retreat would seem futile in the face of the dazzling light, and any resistance would be eradicated without mercy.
Still, Culofen was a level-21 Legendary-mage. Despite facing an attack that made them feel desperate and hopeless, he would still do his best to evade the ray of light to the side. At the same time, he held onto the staff to delay the attack.
The light reflected off the blade and everyone heard a shriek, immediately after which they saw Cullofen quickly returning to the team with a severed arm that was spurting blood. Blood was constantly flowing from the wound, and soon a pool of blood was formed on the ground at the spot where Culofen got attacked. The arm that was severed and still holding onto the staff looked extremely daunting.
Elder Randy hurriedly used magic to stop the bleeding for Culofen, but he kept his eyes fixed on the spot where the blade had appeared. Everyone was taken aback by the sudden attack; they’d thought that they would face no obstacles here, since they had already passed the Seven-Realm Spiral. However, it seemed that they could not let their guard down.
Everyone had their guard up now. Not long after, two shadows walked out of the dark from the area where the blade had appeared. The figures seemed to have no fear of the Legendary powerhouses at all.
However, the enemies that appeared made everyone feel even more confused because they seemed just like two shadows. Even though they were no longer in darkness, the two enemies still seemed blurry and almost nonexistent. The two enemies were completely dark figures that seemed to have transparent bodies. The only thing that could be seen was the machete that was emitting a dazzling light.
“Vengeful Spirits!” Cheyenne had been harmed by Vengeful Spirits before, especially the Legendary Vengeful Spirit that had a solid body, which had left a deep impression on him. Hence, he immediately thought about the daunting Vengeful Spirits when he saw the two in front.
However, Elder Randy who had just helped Culofen heal his injury shook his head after hearing Cheyenne exclaim in shock. “No, they can’t be Vengeful Spirits, because the aura of Vengeful Spirits can’t be hidden at all.”
Unable to confirm the identity of the enemy, Elder Randy and Cheyenne looked at Lin Li, hoping that this young man who was continuously creating miracles could give them a possible answer. However, Lin Li didn’t say anything and simply shook his head. Although clearly disagreeing with Cheyenne’s guess too, he didn’t have a clear answer, either.
In fact, Cheyenne had also sensed that his guess was wrong right after he exclaimed “Vengeful Spirits!”. Putting the form of the enemy aside, the enemy’s ability alone seemed to be far beyond that of Vengeful Spirits.
Although Culofen specialized in fire magic, he was also an actual level-21 Legendary-mage who’d shown his rich combat experience during this battle. However, he ended up having his arm cut off as soon as the two shadow-like enemies appeared. Although it was a sneak attack, an experienced Legendary-mage would have heightened senses and be rather sensitive to changes in magical waves around them, even if he did not have his own Magical Domain. Even a Legendary Bandit like Lansdale might not be able to launch a surprise attack on Culofen easily.
Moreover, Cheyenne also noticed that the physical shapes of the two enemies were indeed different from that of the Vengeful Spirit that had a physical form. Given their performance just now, the enemies would already be in their actual physical forms if they were really Vengeful Spirits, and not the shadows that they were now.
Everyone was still speculating about the origin of the enemies that seemed just like two shadows, but the latter obviously did not want to waste any time on this group of intruders. As soon as they stepped out of the darkness, the two shadows flickered and suddenly disappeared. By the time they appeared again, one of the shadows had arrived in front of Elder Randy, and slashed at the latter’s throat with a blade.
The other shadow suddenly appeared between the members of the team and aimed its machete at Princess Elune. The beautiful Elven Princess Elune was almost going to get ruined by the machete.
Elder Randy, who had just resisted against the enemy, broke out in a cold sweat because he was overwhelmed with fear. He hurriedly gathered everyone to protect Princess Elune and the injured Culofen.
Both Lin Li and Cheyenne could tell that although there were only two enemies, they were too powerful for the team to deal with alone. Therefore, no one objected to Elder Randy’s request to rally. The entire team quickly formed a circular defensive formation.
However, the situation did not change much since they got into formation. The blades appeared like lightning around them from time to time, sometimes from the front and sometimes from the back. Every one of them was dealing with endless lethal assaults every single moment. It was like the circular defensive formation made up of many Legendary powerhouses was surrounded by countless blades.
If it weren’t for the fact that the two shadow-like enemies had come out of the dark just now, none of them would have believed that there were only two enemies attacking them at this moment. Even then the team could not help but wonder if there were more enemies apart from the two shadows.
They could not help but be in doubt, because they could not get a clear view of the shadows that were moving rapidly with their eyes alone. The only thing they could see were the flashes of light from the blades when they were getting attacked.
Even the wind elementals that moved quickly were like snails compared to these two shadows. Even the Winged Angel that Cheyenne had just acquired could not compare to the shadows at all. At the instant that it was summoned, there were already many other wounds on its body, and it did not seem effective at all.
At this moment, Lin Li also summoned Gordon that he had previously subdued. However, Gordon’s speed was way too slow when compared to the attacking speed of the other two shadows. The only noteworthy part about it was that it could help them take some of the attacks. It was like a shield made out of flesh. Gordon’s body, which was a fusion of various magical metals, could bring some effect.
Lin Li was careful to guard against the shrewd attacks from time to time, but there wasn’t a single time that he had stopped thinking about the origin of these two shadows. Despite the fact that there were plenty of Legendary figures in the team, the current situation was not optimistic; they were passively defending. Even the strongest defense would be broken down one day, and counterattacks were the only way to break out of a situation like theirs. If they wanted to retaliate, they would have to figure out the origin of the enemy. Otherwise, a blind counterattack would be no different from courting death.
However, Lin Li still could not remember encountering or hearing about anything that had the same aura and shape as the two shadows. He knew that they were not Vengeful Spirits, because he could only feel their magical waves, and not the Undead aura that should be present in Undead creatures. The were not life forms of dark element, either, despite their shadow-like appearance.
Lin Li could come up with some entities that similarly only possessed magical waves if it were purely based on feelings. It seemed that only the Alchemy Colossus driven by the Alchemy Array could fit the description. Alchemy Colossuses were neither Undead nor alive, hence lacking both life aura and Undead aura. The activation of an Alchemy Array required magical crystals as the source of mana. Hence, it was not surprising that there were pure magical waves.
Everyone knew that the Alchemy Colossuses were called Colossuses because they were extremely tall and similar to Titans in terms of build and size. Besides, their power was extremely terrifying and they could even match up to wyrms. More importantly, the Alchemy Colossus had to be controlled and manipulated by someone. Regardless of how small the Alchemy Colossus was made to be by the alchemist, they still had to have room for manipulation.
Now, the two shadows faced by the people were about the size of ordinary humans. Although they were not weak, they showed unparalleled speed, which was complementing their shrewd and sharp attacks. Regardless of appearance or attacking method, the two shadows were worlds apart from the Alchemy Colossuses.
Cheyenne had no choice but to put his Winged Angel away. The angel’s injury had yet to heal completely in the first place, yet it almost got dismembered by the two shadow machetes. Cheyenne didn’t want his underling to be destroyed just after he had painstakingly acquired it.
However, although Cheyenne did not have the help of the winged angel, he did not slip into a tricky situation, because he had resolutely replaced his magic robe and staff with the Faro’s Robe and Dark Moon Magic staff, respectively. Actually, when he first got that magical equipment, Cheyenne wanted to try it on, but he had no choice but to be patient in order not to seem so eager in front of them because of his pride.
The Faro’s Robe and Dark Moon Magic staff were undeniably worthy of being the standard equipment of the well-known Magic Legion of the High Elves. They had indeed greatly improved the combat power of their users. With those two pieces of equipment, Cheyenne would definitely win a battle against a Level-22 Legendary powerhouse even if he could not reach level-22.
After seeing that the defensive mageweaths on the Faro’s Robe had blocked the blades, Cheyenne retaliated by waving the Dark Moon Magic staff in his hand. He could not help but secretly rejoice in his heart. If it were not for this powerful magic equipment, he might have really been the first to be defeated.
Cheyenne definitely attracted the attention of others when he changed into the Faro’s Robe and held Dark Moon Magic staff, especially the elves. Elder Randy was particularly displeased. However, at this time, he did not have time to regret anymore. Faced with the attacks of the machetes, he could only passively defend himself, and that was definitely not a good sign.
In fact, they could not be considered to be defending at all, for they were just being attacked. None of them knew when the attacks would appear and when the shadows would pop up beside them. Only when faced with the attacks would they hurriedly evade and defend.
“Culofen, use the crystal ball to track them!” Elder Randy exclaimed, rather inspired by Cheyenne. He’d suddenly thought about the crystal ball he obtained on the first floor. Although there was no massive source of mana to fully exert the power of the mageweath on the crystal ball, it should have no problem detecting the attacks of the enemies.
After taking the space equipment handed to him by Elder Randy, Culofen stood in the middle and placed the huge crystal ball on the ground. Although half of his arm was gone, the Legendary mana he had was not affected. He pressed his left hand on the crystal ball and injected some mana into the crystal ball to activate it. Everything around him suddenly appeared in the crystal ball.
Only two out of the 13 mageweaths on the crystal ball were lit up as the invisible mana spread out to the surroundings.
Clearly, the mageweaths did perform their purpose, even though they did not know the origin of the two shadows. The two shadows seemed to have slowed down slightly, and they could at least see the trajectory of their movement that was captured in the crystal ball.
“Mage Felic, be careful, your left! Elder Randy, look out for the sky!” Princess Elune became a temporary commander, constantly conveying the information seen in the crystal ball to everyone present.
With the help of the crystal ball, everyone’s defense began to make the cut because they finally knew the directions which the attacks came from. At least, they were no longer as flustered as before. However, that did not mean that the situation had changed, because the attacks of the shadows were truly lethal and dangerous.