Chapter 592: A Layer of Cold Sweat
The distance was far apart, and Grimm found buildings of the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy in shambles as the faint smell of blood lingered in the sky.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Five Sorcerers flew into the sky preparing for his arrival, there were even a few Twin-headed Snake Academy Guardians coming along, it was as if once Grimm’s Starfall Reconnaissance Craft made any suspicious movements, this Sorcerer Academy that was in a high-level alert and tense mode could, at any second, start a war!
This showed that the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy’s situation was not too encouraging.
The Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy could not protect a flourishing city like Moth Frog City, and even the academy itself was attacked by the other party even though they managed to defend the Sorcerer Tower. With the Sorcerer-Apprentice enrolment that happened every ten years, how many could they recruit?
And without fresh blood to supplement the Sorcerer-Apprentices, it would be difficult to fight for the dominance right of the city, and so the source of Sorcerer-Apprentices was almost entirely under the control of the enemy!
If the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy could not take the upper hand during the Sorcerer-Apprentice war, then perhaps during the official war between Sorcerers, it would be the same!
During Academy Wars, if they could not directly destroy the opposing party’s Sorcerer Tower Mana Pool, then they needed to rely on a large number of Sorcerer-Apprentices and the Knights from the territories belonging to them to invade the opposing party’s cities, through containing the number of the other party’s Sorcerer-Apprentices continuously and decreasing the other party’s source of fresh blood to obliterate their Mana Pool.
The Holy Tower law stipulated that a Sorcerer-Apprentice could only stay in the academy for one hundred years.
And normally speaking, after the Holy Tower Qualification Battles, most of the Sorcerer-Apprentices would leave the Sorcerer Academy, and just like that, the weaker Sorcerer Academy would usually lose the power to obtain fresh blood, and then the Sorcerer Academy would gradually be reduced to an isolated island, and slowly be destroyed by the other party little by little.
The role that official Sorcerers played in Academy Wars, were the roles of the Eternal Dominators and the Celestial Sorcerers during world wars.
The difference was one that would seal off a city and the other that would seal off the whole world.
Once a Sorcerer-Apprentice left the city bounds that was targeted by an official Sorcerer, they would be mercilessly killed by the official Sorcerer, it would be extremely difficult to defend against that kind of attacks, and they could only be trapped inside the city to defend and carry out combat passively, facing the other party possibly about to conduct an endless vigorous army attack.
The role that Sorcerer-Apprentices played during Academy Wars, was Demon-Hunter Sorcerers carrying out a campaign to the inner part of Foreign Worlds.
The five Sorcerers surrounded the Starfall Reconnaissance Craft, cautious and alert, one of them was a Level-2 Sorcerer, the Twin-headed Snake shot its tongue out and hissed, ready to launch a fatal attack at any time.
A creaking sound was followed by the Starfall Reconnaissance Craft hatch opening, one of the Sorcerers seemed to sense something, and exclaimed out of shock, “A Rank-1 Honor Badge!?”
Under the black aura surrounding his body, the Robe of Representation distorted and was in the invisible mode, Little Myna stood on his shoulder and was looking around, black flames ignited in the eye sockets of the goat skull, and the pair of elemental eyes under the Mask of Truth were deep, cold, mysterious.
Grimm looked at the shocked Level-1 Sorcerer, his body emitted Sorcerer Barrier vibrations, he was probably just a normal Demon-Hunter Sorcerer, one that seemed like he had been roughly nurtured within these few hundred years by the academy.
“Grimm?”
The leading Level-2 Sorcerer recognized Grimm, this person was one of the Great Master Hydra Wrath’s students, Grimm had associated briefly with them during a trial two hundred years ago.
“Brother Ezma.”
Grimm called out his name, and the tense mood relaxed a bit, Ezma and the other four Level-1 Sorcerers lowered their magic staff.
“You’ve advanced into a Level-2 Sorcerer? Hahaha, that’s great, Master Peranos is going to be really happy when he sees you.”
Ezma said, pleasantly surprised.
Grimm under the Mask of Truth smiled and nodded, he then said, “Being able to advance as a Level-2 Sorcerer successfully this time involved much luck.”
Under the escort of the Sorcerers, Grimm slowly flew toward the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy in low altitude, and the Sorcerer-Apprentices could only keep walking or flying in a very low altitude not exceeding the building eaves.
The Twin-headed Snake Academy Guardians dispersed, each Twin-headed Academy Guardian had some traces of Hydra Wrath Stigmata Sorcerer’s aura, they could “summon” some of the powers of this Stigmata Sorcerer during crucial times.
The destroyed buildings nearby were awfully visible, clearly they were destroyed by a powerful sorcery from an official Sorcerer.
Otherwise looking from the perspective that every building in the Sorcerer Academy had magic interdiction protection, Sorcerer-Apprentices that wanted to cause such destructive damage to the buildings here into shambles like this was not something a few hundred, or even a few thousand people could have done.
Grimm paid attention to these places more as Ezma said deeply, “This was nine years ago during the Sorcerer-Apprentice enrolment period once every ten years, caused by an attack launched by the Shadow Argus Sorcerer Academy.”
Ezma gritted his teeth, he seemed to be extremely displeased.
“Their strength was too great, it was difficult for the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy to counterbalance. Even though the academy relied on giant magic arrays, Academy Guardians, assistance from some nearby academies, and twenty eight Academy Deans to defend with full strength, while being careful not to impose on the ample Mana Pool protection inside the tower, we did manage to defend the academy Sorcerer Tower and it didn’t get destroyed, but that was all. During the battles for Sorcerer-Apprentice resources outside of the academy, we simply didn’t have the strength to face them with all our might.”
Twenty eight Academy Deans!
It seemed that other than lecturers, and the other two lecturers together with students of the three Netherheart’s First Inherited Vein, Great Master Hydra Wrath had also gone and found a few more strong Level-3 Great Sorcerers to safeguard the academy.
Unfortunately, Shadow Argus Stigmata Sorcerer, who had a contradiction that could not be resolved with Great Master Hydra Wrath, had summoned Level-3 Sorcerers temporarily for this Academy War, and compared to the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy, they probably had more in numbers. As for the other side, no matter if it were in terms of low-level Sorcerers or Sorcerer-Apprentices, the other party had the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy beaten.
As he was flying, Grimm suddenly stopped.
Under Ezma’s confusion, Grimm under the Mask of Truth asked deeply, “Roughly how many academy Level-2 Sorcerers are there?”
“Only around twenty or so. This can’t be help either, the lecturers can spend a great amount to gather some powerful Level-3 great Sorcerer temporarily, but the situation is different when it comes to Level-2 Sorcerers as the Hydra Wrath Sorcerer Academy was only established a few hundred years ago, not one of those of the academy that had advanced as official Sorcerers have yet to advance into Level-2, this is why we are in a situation where Level-2 Sorcerers are rarer than Level-3 great Sorcerers.”
Ezma explained, Grimm understood what he meant.
Grimm then asked hesitantly, “Among these twenty or so people, is there a Sorcerer that excels in dark elemental shadow concealment?”
Hmm?
Ezma furrowed his brows, after thinking carefully, a slither of solemnness flashed across his eyes, as if he realized something, he then said surely, “There is one Level-2 Sorcerer that’s good at concealment, but it’s not dark elemental shadow concealment.”
As he spoke, Ezma waved his hand, the four Level-1 Sorcerers beside him simultaneously became alert and dispersed, the Twin-headed Snake Academy Sorcerers far in the distance flew over, and started to gather the nearby Sorcerers that were on constant patrol.
“Caw caw caw caw, what have you found, Young Master?”
Little Myna asked in excitement.
Grimm nodded, he turned around and sneered at the shadows in the building ruins not far off, “Are you gonna hide forever?”
The shadows in the building ruins suddenly distorted and vibrated, the shadows were like a puddle of water, a Sorcerer then appeared, revealing his upper body.
His skinny shrivelled face was cover with wrinkles, his hair had almost fallen off completely, and his body was like a shadow presenting an illusory distorting elemental form.
“A Sorcerer with perception abilities? In that case, you’re lucky today…”
Boom!
This intruding Sorcerer was in the middle of his sentence, when suddenly a fire beam was shot and a ‘boom’ sounded, the ground cracked into a pit of a few metres, the shockwave easily leveled the building ruins at the side, and smoke worked its way up into the sky.
“Hmph hmph, just you alone?”
A shadow lasered into the distance in high speed, the speed was indescribable, as if it was a sorcery that was studied to escape with all their might, after that it was hiding in the shadows far off once again.
With such high escaping speed coordinating with this Sorcerer’s shadow concealment sorcery, Ezma simply could not capture him, even those Academy Guardians and patrolling Sorcerers that rushed over could not react to it.
“Damn it!”
Dust started to clear up, Ezma who had a disappointed expression sighed, the Light of Flame on his magic staff then extinguished.
“No, I let him get away again, this bastard’s too quick, his concealment abilities are very frightening too, next time the patrolling Sorcerers should be more careful! By the way, Grimm… hmm? Where’s Grimm?”
The place that Grimm was supposed to be, was empty, only Little Myna was left in the middle of the air pecking at its own wings, acting like he did not care at all.
“Of course he went to hunt for that arrogant and idiotic guy! How dare he be so conceited in the presence of Master Myna’s Super Advanced Grimm Beast? Hmph, this guy is nothing but a little sheep of prehistoric creatures, caw caw caw caw caw caw…”
As to Little Myna’s way of speaking, Ezma was still not used to it, he was stunned for a moment and blurted out, “The other guy’s strength is really powerful, and his escaping abilities are shocking, he also has a very clever concealment sorcery, can Grimm really do it…”
Boom!
As Ezma’s “it” left his mouth, in the low altitude out of the academy far into a distance, a black voltaic arc appeared!
As the intruding Sorcerer tried to hide in the shadows he clearly did not realize Grimm who was following behind and had also gone into hiding, before he could even scream, he was struck by the black voltaic arc.
“He disappeared!?”
A Level-1 Sorcerer using the eagle eye technique exclaimed, he saw with his own eyes after the black voltaic arc had distorted the light all around and struck the Level-2 Sorcerer, it was as if this intruding Level-2 Sorcerer had evaporated into thin air, he had disappeared completely, and not a trace of flesh or blood was left.
It was as if… he was erased out of nowhere by an unknown force.
The nothingness blurred out, revealing a spiral-patterned greyish white mask.
Grimm held out his hand that was holding a magic staff, he held it in his hand and after observing for a moment he threw it into the Dimensional Gap, in the next moment, this mask disappeared once again.
Compared to this intruding Level-2 Sorcerer that merely hid in the shadows, Grimm was like a demon that roamed between dimensions, concealing himself entirely, and was a few times more terrifying!
After a weak space vibration, followed by the appearance of Grimm, below Little Myna, who had adjusted the Robe of Representation to a translucent form, not only the few Level-1 Sorcerers around who were shocked by Grimm who had appeared out of nowhere, even Ezma felt cold sweat sliding down his back, as if a shadow that left no trails was shrouding over him.
“Hahahaha, excellent, this guy has attacked the patrolling Sorcerers multiple times, many Academy Guardians died in his hands. Master Deidarion dealt with this personally, even though that guy disappeared for a long time and didn’t dare to make any reckless moves, but we still couldn’t do anything against him, I didn’t think he would die in your hands today!”
Even though Ezma was smiling, he felt that the smile on his face was very forced.
This Grimm, was ten times more terrifying than that haunting shadow Sorcerer!
This guy, as expected from the Sorcerer that was valued by Grand Master Neatherheart, sure enough was a killing machine that crawled out from the mountains of corpses and seas of blood from Foreign Worlds, he was not a being that could be understood by an average Arcane Sorcerer, this was a Demon-Hunter Sorcerer that lived to kill, a Sorcerer that changed the entire Demon-Hunter Expedition!
Unfortunately, he had just advanced as a Level-2 Sorcerer, if he was a famous Level-3 Great Sorcerer that walked across the Sorcerers World, perhaps this Academy War would be in another situation altogether.
Perhaps with only him alone, it was enough to plunge the entire Shadow Argus Sorcerer Academy into a horrifying nightmare!