Chapter 186: Forbidden Spell
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The battle was getting more intense. Anfey, Riska, and Suzanna were watching it through the Eyes of the Sky, and were too absorbed in the fighting to say anything to each other. When his magic was almost depleted, Riska even opened a bottle of magic replenishing potion that Hagan made from unicorn blood. He had been saving it ever since Hagan gave it to him, but now he felt he had to use it. Riska realized the female necromancer was much more powerful than he expected, and witnessing the match between two archmages was almost a once in a lifetime chance. What was slightly disappointing was that neither mage had used forbidden spells against each other since the fight began. Both were much more focused on their soldiers. Both used many high level magic spells, but they avoided directly attacking each other.
In truth, Dardanibry wanted to use forbidden spells, but he could not right now. The gravity spell caught him off guard. This was strange and did not comply with the rules of magic. He knew his opponent must have a rare magic scroll. A forbidden spell was the last thing he wanted to use, because if the magic did not reach his desired effect after he released it, he would lose. The depletion of his magic combined the cooling off period after a spell was used would turn him into a useless man. His opponent, on the other hand, would have enough magic to perform another forbidden spell.
For the two sides on the field, the battle was ferocious. For onlookers, the fight got boring after a while. The only thing that kept Anfey, Riska, and Suzanna watching was the anticipation for the match between two archmages.
Time ticked on, and the Shansa soldiers were too absorbed in the fight to notice that a normal man was slowly changing the battle.
The man’s first action was to push back large black balls made up of hundreds of flesheaters, and soon he joined the fight himself. However, he was only a little stronger than a zombie, and did not attract any attention. Even a common junior swordsmaster could easily have defeated him. However, his recovery rate was much faster than a zombie’s. Whenever he was severed by a soldier or burned to a crisp by fire magic, he was able to recover and return to the fight. Due to the intensity of the battle, however, none of the soldiers and mages noticed him. Even Dardanibry, who was observing the fight through Eyes of the Sky and aiding the soldiers with magic from a distance, did not notice him.
The man may not have been powerful, but there were soldiers who were less powerful than he was. Several soldiers fell before him. Corpses of people who were killed by zombies were usually bloody and unrecognizable. After a while, the body would turn into a zombie as well. However, the bodies of the man’s victims were all dry. There was no blood, no eyes, and no Breath of Death. The bodies turned to dust under the feet of the soldiers and zombies.
The sun was covered by a dark grey cloud, and it was very hard to tell time. No one knew when night would fall. The tactic of Shansa Empire’s mages had turned from attacking in unison to taking turns attacking. Only a dozen mages would be using magic, while the others were meditating and replenishing their magic. Zombies, on the other hand, never became tired. Compared to the flesheaters, they were much more tenacious. No spell could effectively slow down the attacks of the zombies. Some zombies were still fighting, even though their bodies were charred by fire magic.
The most effective way to stop a zombie was to remove its head, but it was very hard for the mages to achieve that. Using soldiers for that task would be sending thousands of men to their deaths.
The zombies were best at long, drawn out battles. The humans had no backup, and, among the thirty thousand men, the six thousand archers found themselves in a difficult situation. They were meant to be assisting the mages, but now they did not know what to do. They could only use normal arrows, and an infantryman’s attack was much more powerful than a hundred arrows.
Unlike the humans, the zombies’ numbers were increasing steadily. At first, it was thirty thousand men against a thousand zombies. Now, the zombies could form a crescent formation, and were close to being able to surround the Shansa army. The Shansa army was slowly losing its advantage.
Finally, the man hidden among the zombies caught Dardanibry’s attention, because the man had just killed a junior swordsmaster. Even though the junior swordsmaster had been fighting for too long and was exhausted, the man was still exceptionally strong for a zombie. This sudden appearance of a powerful individual among the zombies alarmed Dardanibry.
The more he killed, the more powerful the man was. The shields and armor were nothing to him. The generals noticed him as well, and sent a man with a intermediate swordsmaster badge to stop him. The man caught the swordsmaster’s sword, coated in blinding combat power, and punched the swordsmaster in the face, sending the man stumbling into a group of soldiers. Seeing this, Dardanibry narrowed his eyes. He had figured out who, or what, that man was.
Powerful magic surges washed over the battlefield, and the drums rang. The Shansa soldiers began stumbling back, and the mages stopped using magic as well and began retreating. The entire battlefield was suddenly cleared. The zombies were too slow, and even though they were roaring and chasing after the soldiers, the soldiers were still able to place some distance between them and the zombies.
Suddenly, the wind subsided and the grass and trees stopping swaying. The air was suddenly very heavy. Through the Eyes of the Sky, Riska, Anfey, and Suzanna saw that Dardanibry’s mouth was moving. Even though they could not hear the spell Dardanibry was using, the three knew that what they were waiting for was about to happen.
A bright dot appeared in the sky. The zombies were not affected, but many soldiers crouched down and covered their eyes. Then the dot turned into thousands of light streaks and rained down and enveloped the zombies under a dome.
The zombies suddenly stopped moving. They were still walking, roaring, and clawing the air. Some were crawling on the ground, and some were lying on the ground, tripped by the weapons the soldiers left behind. It did not matter what the zombies were doing. All were still, as if frozen in time.
A drop of blood fell off a dead soldier’s finger. The droplet, splattering onto the grass, was frozen still. A soldier lay dying nearby, and his prayers were preserved under the light. A grasshopper jumped from a nearby patch of grass, and its wings were fixed in the air.
Inside the light dome, it was as if everything was nothing more than part of a painting.
The beats of the drums changed. The mages all floated in midair and began using fire magic against the dome. The fireballs and fire meteors all turned into bright yellow marks on the light dome as they hit it. The dome was clear, and it was easy to see that the magic elements did not enter the dome. However, they were not stopped by the dome, either. Except perhaps for Dardanibry, no one could say where the elements had gone to.
The Shansa mages kept releasing magic. Their movements were so fast their hands began to blur. Some mages had used up all their magic and returned to the ground. Those still in the air was still releasing magic.
More and more marks appeared on the dome. The entire dome was almost completely covered by the yellow marks, obscuring what was inside, and the light dome turned a bright yellow. There were only about twenty mages in the air. They were using meteor magic, which was high level magic with a brief cooling off period. However, they did not stop attacking during the cooling off period. They used fireballs to attack when they could not summon meteors, adding to the brightness of the light dome.
The old mage who was standing next to Dardanibry walked over to the soldiers, his expression grave. He pointed his staff straight towards the sky, whispering a spell. A magic shield began to lower over the remaining soldiers.
The dot of light over the light dome flickered, and the entire dome began collapsing. As the dome disappeared, the marks in the dome returned to the form they had when they were created. Fireballs and meteors rained down. The amount of fire magic stopped by the dome was so great, the bright blaze had turned the dark grey cloud yellow.
With a loud explosion, the ground shook violently, roaring. Magic surged across the field, and grass, shrubs, and trees were reduced to dust in the blink an eye. Rocks, some as large as a wheel, flew through the air. The rocks had appeared as light as leaves when the magic sent them tumbling.
Perhaps it was because the magic’s perimeter was too great, the shield shook upon impact. The outer edge was quivering visibly like a balloon in a storm. The old mage was sweating, but his arm was still straight and stiff.