Chapter 161: A Disciplined Mage
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"Did you all hear what Hagan said? Ok, Hagan, you will be in charge this time." Anfey tossed the chemical bottle to Christian. "I hope things turn out just as Hagan said." The reason he changed his plan to fight with Shansa Empire’s cavalry was all because Hagan guaranteed him the effects of this chemical. Otherwise, he already would have been in the underground tunnels.
Christian took the chemical bottle. He was shocked for a second and said, "Anfey, what are you doing?"
"I will be watching from behind. That way I can give you a hand at any crucial moment." If fighting an opponent on his own, Anfey could always think about many different plans and pick the best one to beat the opponent as fast and fierce as he could. However, when he was asked to give commands to a group of people, he was not that great. Anfey had realized the areas that he needed to work on in the past few battles.
His weak area of leading a group in battle was because of his martial arts experience. Anfey needed to concentrate to the point that he would not forget about his surroundings. His combat power would reach its height this way. When he attacked the orcs in the forest, he had treated each of them as if they were powerful men. Overlooking and underestimating were fatal toxins to assassins. Anfey did not want to make any mistakes.
It was hard for him to do two things at one time, so he asked Christian to give commands. Besides Suzanna and he, everyone else was mages. Maybe Christian could help the legion perform better.
"Ok." Christian nodded. "But I need Suzanna’s help."
"You are in charge. We will do what you say. Hurry up. They are coming," Anfey said.
Christian chanted in a low pitch. A thick wall of dirt appeared in the town. "Riska, take the chemical to the left side of the town, and Blavi to the right side. Do not fight hard with them. It would be great if you can buy us some time."
"Got it." Riska and Blavi showed respect to Christian and took the order from him. They took the chemical and flew to the sky.
With a huge sound, the dirt wall collapsed. Kumaraghosha walked through the hole in the wall with heavy combat power. He rushed in the front with an unstoppable momentum.
"Dirt wall magic," Christian yelled.
Christian, Zubin, and Sante released dirt wall magic together. This was not the legendary magic combo. The techniques of magic combo were completely lost in the Sacred War. Christian and his friends just teamed up to release the dirt wall magic together to allow the gap between the walls to be really small. Looking from a distance, the huge square-shape dirt wall grew out from the ground. If adding all the walls together, it was more than 11 yards wide. Unless the magic elements disappeared, this thick wall could definitely withstand Kumaraghosha’s attacks.
"Their general is just ahead of us. If we can defeat this team of knights, they will lose this battle." Christian yelled, "Suzanna, you can start joining the fight after we fight with Kumaraghsha. Black Eleven, you take your people through the underground tunnels. Wait for my magic signals and rush out to give them a surprise attack."
"Shooting the cavalry means shooting the horses first; we capture the ringleader first in order to capture all the followers. However, Suzanna, we do not need kill Kumaraghosha. As long as we make him aware of the odds against him and have him back out, someone else will do the dirty work for us." Anfey smiled and refused to explain more. No matter whether Kumaraghosha was going to win or lose this battle, he was set up anyway. With thousands of people hearing Anfey’s magic broadcasting, Kumaraghosha would lose his control. If Mintel were an upright person and never thought of setting Kumaraghosha up, there might be some evil ideas flashing in his head after hearing some gossip about Kumaraghosha.
"Got it." Suzanna nodded. She understood what Anfey meant. He was afraid she would give herself the mindset of having to kill Kumaraghosha.
"Everyone, toss your chemical bottles," Christian yelled.
Over ten chemical bottles travelled in a parabola shape and landed on the street behind the dirt wall. A rusty blood smell slowly rose in the air as red liquid flew out from the bottles. Anfey jumped on a fence and continued to jump over a few roofs to get to the top of an ancient tree. He watched through the gaps between branches.
On the other side of the dirt wall, Kumaraghosha tried to shake the numb feeling from his wrists. He turned around to look. He showed a slight helplessness and sadness in his eyes. There were four mages in the cavalry. If they had been with him, they could release simple dispel magic to destroy the dirt walls. Unfortunately, they were not in the front with Kumaraghosha. They had stayed behind, watching what happened in front of them with a troubled look.
A less intelligent person had the chance to be a swordsman, but never would become a mage. Being a mage required high intelligence. In general, mages were smarter than swordsmen and soldiers. They also had more street smarts. After hearing what Anfey said, they did not want to help the cavalry to fight. Instead, they wanted nothing to do with Kumaraghosha and wanted to report him to their supervisors for some reward.
The gathered dirt elements finally disappeared. Kumaraghosha refreshed himself to get ready for the next round of attack. The horse under him suddenly squealed and reared. Not only Kumaraghosha’s horse did it, with a wind blowing by, almost all the horses panicked. No matter how much the cavalry yelled, those horses refused to step forward.
The chemical bottle contained scare chemicals extracted from manticores’ blood and feathers. Manticores were the natural enemies of cows, horses, boarbeasts and other large herbivores. This scare chemical had a fantastic effect. Beasts were beasts. No matter what training they had, their natural instincts would take over.
Christian chanted in a low pitch and swung his arm. A large marsh appeared around a street in Moramatch. The radius of the marsh was getting larger and larger. It not only closed in around Kumaraghosha’s two hundred-plus riders, but also around a dozen completed and unfinished houses. Magic could not alter nature. When elements disappeared, everything would go back to normal. The damage caused by magic varied, but it was not constrained by natural law. Those houses had been built for nothing.
Those two hundred riders struggled to stand up in the marsh. Lucky ones had half of their bodies in the air, the unfortunate ones only had their heads out of the marsh. Hundreds of the knights looked at those mages together. Dirt walls were only for defensive purposes. They were not meant to cause any damage, but the marsh was a totally different story. Except for a few powerful fighters, most of them could not move in the marsh. As a result, they were either submerged in the marsh, or became shooting targets.
Those few mages looked awful. Although marsh magic could not be dispelled by dispel magic, but recovery magic could be released. The chance of it working was not guaranteed; it would depend on the opponent’s controlling ability, magic skills and luck. Things were getting too complicated. They definitely could have saved those riders lives, but what would happen afterwards? The reason they stayed back was they did not want anything to do with Kumaraghosha. If they stood out to help him, how could they tell others they had nothing to do with him in the future.
A white lightning bolt flashed in the sky and struck right at where those mages stood.
One of the mages fell on the ground immediately. He laid sideways on the ground, moaning.
"Watch out!" The other three mages stopped and released magic domes to protect themselves. They looked a little strange. They were glad rather than angry.
"Did it get him? It’s over three hundred yards!" Feller was shocked that he actually hit that mage. His mouth was wide open. It seemed like a fist could fit into his mouth.
Skilled archers were the enemies of mages, especially the sunset archers among the elves. "Mage Killer" was their nickname, because the distance they could shoot was a lot further than mages. The chance to strike a senior mage was next-to-nothing when lightning magic was released from three hundred yards away. It would perform well if the lightning magic was released from one hundred yards away. The larger the distance, the less accurate and powerful the lightning magic would be. Feller’s record could be described as legendary.
"Continue to release lightning magic" Christian yelled. "Zubin, Sante, you guys help him."
One after another, lightning bolts flashed in the sky, hitting outside Moramatch. They hit everywhere. Some got riders and their horses, while others hit the magic domes those three mages built. Some even just hit the ground, where shattered stones flew in the air. The only compliment one could give this later magic was that it was frequent.
When lightning hit on the magic shields, the magic shields’ shapes did not change at all. Those three mages guarded themselves against all possible dangers. They used a lot of magic to make the domes bigger and thicker. They spared no time for the mash in front of them. Their reactions were reasonable. No one could blame them for what they did, since mages were the precious resources for different departments in the country. When mages were attacked by the other party, they could choose to protect themselves first and put helping and protecting others second. In other words, when they were in danger, they did not have to help the knights.