Chapter 323: Surficial Tundra XII
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Half an hourglass later.
Buzz, buzz…
The signature mechanical sound of voidships could be heard. In the far-off night sky, the fuzzy outline of two voidships appeared.
The Occult Pulverizer of the voidship was like a bottomless giant mouth, creating an oppressive atmosphere.
It was a masterpiece of the Sorcerer World’s mechanical art, enough to make any creature below the level of the World Lord feel challenging to fight against.
Whoosh, whoosh…
There were noises of hissing, howling, and wings flapping…
In front of the chaotic crowd of soul slaves, hundreds of Bright Sorcerers appeared in an organized and structured army, forming a sharp contrast with the mayhem behind them.
In the night sky, every elemental sorcerer appeared very mysterious with a dim layer of elemental halo surrounding them.
Two huge voidships flew side by side with the Demon-Hunter army, serving as bodyguards, appearing solid and indestructible.
Leading the Bright Demon-Hunter formation was an old sorcerer with a white beard, holding a deadwood magic staff in his hand. He was wearing a loose blue robe and a pointed hat with a shining ruby on top. Carrying a huge scroll behind him, his gaze was deep and wise.
The sorcerer should be the captain of the Bright Demon-Hunter army who was mentioned in the mission scroll—Alov.
As the white-bearded Demon-Hunter captain waved his hand, the massive Demon-Hunter army stopped thirty-meters in front of Grimm.
A mysterious figure standing on top of a gigantic crab caught the attention of the Bright Sorcerers and soul slaves.
A goat skull staff, a grayish-white mask with spiral patterns, and a myna with colorful feathers…
“Are you Demon-Hunter Grimm?” asked Alov with a deep voice.
On top of Thousand-eyed Carcinus, Grimm nodded slowly and asked, “Alov?”
On Grimm’s shoulder, Myna flapped its wings and passed Grimm’s scroll to Alov. Meanwhile, Alov’s scroll was handed over to Grimm by hundreds of fingernail-sized black insects.
They caught each other’s mission scroll at the same time.
With a poof, the hundreds of black insects turned into black smoke. In a blink of an eye, they reappeared in front of Alov and crept into his sleeve.
Meanwhile, Myna’s figure blurred in the air and reappeared on Grimm’s shoulder from the dimensional gap.
“Ha-ha, Sir Grimm, since the mission has been confirmed, please lead the way.”
Although Alov didn’t say it, he was shocked by the presence of Thousand-eyed Carcinus. He was certain that it was a Level 3 creature for sure.
‘How in the world did this Level 1 Demon-Hunter…’
“Sure.”
Grimm calculated the coordinates of their destination in his heart, and pointed a direction for Thousand-eyed Carcinus.
“Yes, Lord Grimm.”
Thousand-eyed Carcinus moved its body clumsily, with a low roar, its eight feet moved in the air and flew towards the direction Grimm pointed to.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…
The Bright Demon-Hunter army and their soul slaves followed Thousand-eyed Carcinus closely. Large area of shadows were cast on the ground as they moved.
As these “terrifying alien creatures” that came from outside of the Burrow World flew passed the silent tundra, some weak creatures laid straight on the ground and trembled.
After all, most of the creatures living on the Surficial Tundra were just low-level creatures.
…
Four and a half months later.
A majestic mountain range covered in snow appeared. Grimm signaled Thousand-eyed Carcinus to stop and wait for a while.
A moment later, the army of Bright Sorcerers and soul slaves followed.
Grimm pointed to the majestic mountain range in front of him and explained to Alov, “After crossing this mountain range, there will be a large area of trees with dark red tree crowns at the bottom of the valley. While in an unknown place within that area, lies our mission target—the Ice Bats.”
Alov nodded in silence with a serious look, he seemed to already have a plan in mind. He then turned around quickly and gave his order to the rest of the Bright Sorcerers.
Screech…
Among the Bright Demon-Hunter army, two purple-head falcons on the shoulder of a Bright Demon-Hunter soared to the sky.
In the sky, under the gathering of natural force, a several meter wide huge eye appeared. A golden pupil in the middle of the eye kept rotating. It seemed to be some kind of Perception Sorcery.
As an ice elemental sorcerer controlled the elemental force skillfully, a half-meter Ice Bat gradually formed, which looked exactly like the specimen that Grimm had brought back.
As the Ice Bat blood contained in a small bottle were dropped into the elemental-sorcery creature, the Ice Bat flapped its wings and flew away.
Meanwhile, the ear of another Bright Sorcerer suddenly became huge…
Grimm watched these Bright Demon-Hunters in astonishment.
What he just witnessed was the power of collaboration that belonged only to a Bright Sorcerer army. No Dark Sorcerer—who often fought individually—could compare to the way they complement each other’s knowledge.
After only a few moments, the Bright Sorcerer with huge ears laughed and said, “Captain, I found it!”
“The coordinates?”
Alov’s words were short and concise.
As the Bright Sorcerer reported a series of coordinates, all of a sudden, numerous prodigious energy force that surprised Grimm began to form.
Looking around, Grimm saw that every eighteen sorcerers were forming a hexagram magic array. They were leveraging each other’s elemental energy to form a powerful spell.
This ability of accumulating sorcery force would never appear among the Dark Sorcerers.
There were three such magic arrays among the team of Bright Sorcerers of more than six hundred people. Monstrous yet stable energy was accumulating within the magic array, prepared to be launched at any moment.
Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!…
One after another elemental-activated creatures were summoned. Along with the thousands of different soul slaves, these creatures flew to the front of the Bright Sorcerer army and then beyond the mountain range from its relatively low points
Meanwhile, the Bright Sorcerer army was closely protecting the fifty-five Bright Sorcerers who were casting the three gigantic magic arrays, flying up steadily in parallel in the meantime.
Even under the chaotic situation, the two voidships were able to stably maintain their combat strength, not affected by the sky-high mountain range.
Such cooperative combat mode reminded Grimm of the regional academy battle during his days as a sorcerer-apprentice.
If it was the Demon-Hunters with the current level, and with the same number of Bright and Dark Sorcerers, as the number of sorcerers of each side reached more than ten thousand simultaneously, the Dark Sorcerers would not stand a chance!
“Caw, caw, caw! Young Master, Young Master, come on! Let’s go and have a look!”
Myna was excited and impatient.
Grimm nodded and signaled Thousand-eyed Carcinus to fly to the sky.
In the gusts of bone-chilling wind, Thousand-eyed Carcinus flew from the bottom of the mountain to the middle of the mountain, and then up to the peak.
Finally, Thousand-eyed Carcinus landed on the ridge. Grimm stood and looked down at the battle of the Bright Demon-Hunter army.
A quarter of an hour later.
In another relatively low mountain range far away, three horrifying energy beams exploded, and the sky was silent for a moment, followed by deafening wind caused by a shock wave.
“Ptooey, ptooey…”
Myna seemed to have accidentally eaten soil mixed with snow that was blown by the strong wind. It quickly hid in Grimm’s sorcerer barrier and kept spitting.
Thousand-eyed Carcinus took the initiative to lift one of its claws and protected Grimm from the strong wind. Its maroon fur fluttered as the blustery wind blew.
The sky gradually calmed down after the strong wind ceased, followed by three ten-meters-high white mushroom clouds appearing in the sky.
Squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak…
However, even after the Bright Sorcerers’ raid, an overwhelming wave of Ice Bats still appeared. Their number seemed to have not decreased by many and they were rushing towards the Bright Sorcerer army in rage.
Or perhaps, as the number of Ice Bats were too many, the decrease in their number was not too obvious.
Or maybe, Grimm estimated their number wrongly.
Buzz! Buzz!
All of a sudden, two dark red light beams flashed, large number of Ice Bats turned into a skyful of blood rain in a blink of an eye, exploding one after another within the scope of the dark read beam.
It was the voidships’ Occult Pulverizer.
After the primary canons of the voidships launched their attacks, a metal mechanical arm of the voidships and multiple secondary cannons continued to attack the overwhelming Ice Bats in full force.
Large number of strange and ferocious soul slaves showed their fangs and roared. Under the command of the Bright Sorcerer team, they attacked the Ice Bats together with the elemental-activated creatures.
As for the Bright Sorcerer themselves, with the exception of a few Anatomy Refinery Sorcerers who joined the battle, most of them began to cast elemental sorcery, constantly bombarding from the back with elemental sorcery.
Although the sea of Ice Bats seemed turbulent, with the orderly and effective cooperation of the Bright Sorcerers, they began to be surrounded and killed, not having the chance to escape at all.
The battle lasted for one and a half hourglass.
A Level-2 Ice Bat King was among the crowd. Although it belonged to the highest level of creatures that resided on the Surficial Tundra, under the group attack of the Bright Sorcerers, it was crushed into ashes right after its appearance.
A Bright Sorcerer in charge of recording the mission passed a crystal ball to Alov.
Half an hourglass later.
The Demon-Hunter army was on their way back to the Void Fortress. Standing on Thousand-eyed Carcinus, Grimm said to Alov, “The way all of you fought as a team was really impressive, that was something completely impossible for Dark Sorcerers to perform.”
As Grimm complimented them, he felt it was rather a shame to have missed such valuable resources.
Just now, the Bright Sorcerers took all the condensed gel-form souls in the strange trees.
“This is what we should accomplish. However in terms of individual strength, Dark Sorcerers are the real dominators.”
Alov seemed to be in a good mood, none of his comrades were sacrificed in the earlier battle.
After the Demon-Hunters’ attack, all that was left was a flattened mountain top, destroyed ridge and a ravine full of corpses.
All of the dark red tree crowns had been dried out.