Destroyer of Ice and Fire

Chapter 259: The Most Embarrassing Arcane Master in History

After moving for a while, Ayrin abruptly stopped, arcane particles surging out from his body.

Whoosh!

A ring of white light flashed in front of him and then disappeared into the ground like a ripple in the water.

"What are you doing Ayrin? Where is the enemy?" Stingham quietly asked as he looked around.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! …

Several more rings of white light appeared around Ayrin and also descended into the ground.

"This is Grasping Bone. It's one of our Holy Dawn Academy's ambush trap skills." A glint flickered through Rinloran's eyes as he realized that Ayrin was setting up for an ambush.

"Let us withdraw for now. The enemy is about to arrive."

After consecutively setting up several Grasping Bone traps, Ayrin immediately issued a command and quickly withdrew back into the forest.

"They're coming!"

The three had just barely hidden themselves under the vines hanging from a giant nearby tree when they abruptly heard the faint sounds of many footsteps.

"So many Evil Dragon Archers!"

Rinloran's heart rapidly thumped against his chest as about a dozen strangely dressed archers emerged within his line of sight.

He knew very well just how fearsome the special arrows they wielded were - they could even pierce through the defense of a four gate arcane master.

A group of several scattered Evil Dragon Archers didn't pose a threat to a powerful arcane master. In fact, they would probably all be killed off if they met a particularly powerful one. But a group of around a dozen Evil Dragon Archers… even if one could kill several in an instant, just suffering a blow from a single arrow would cause heavy injuries in return.

"Ayrin is truly a natural born battlemaster… other's first thoughts when using the Far Sight skill would be to use it to observe from afar, but he actually decided to use it to determine the enemy's patrol route and immediately set up an ambush."

Thoughts rapidly coursed through Rinloran's mind as he watched the Evil Dragon Archer squad head directly towards Ayrin's traps!

"These guys are dressed so weirdly. Just what is that crystal over their eye used for? Amplifying their vision and aiming?"

"They are actually walking over just like this!"

Ayrin held his breath as he fixatedly stared at the Evil Dragon Archer squad.

"Now!"

Ayrin patiently waited until several of the Evil Dragon Archers had stepped onto his traps before he inwardly roared and invoked them.

"What's going on?"

The Evil Dragon Archers all simultaneously felt a faint arcane energy fluctuation rise from under their feet.

"Ahhh!"

Before any of them could even react, six white bone claws shot out from the ground beneath them.

Spurt spurt spurt…

Of the six traps, four of them had people above them. These four unfortunate Evil Dragon Archers had their feet completely crushed by the bone claws.

"Traps! Arcane skills! There is an enemy!"

As several miserable screams rang out, the expressions on the faces of the Evil Dragon Archers immediately changed as they abruptly scattered as if there was a fire.

But no matter how hard they observed their surroundings, they couldn't determine the location of their enemy.

"This kind of true battle. It is truly incomparable to the tournament battles!"

Ayrin immediately felt that the changes to the national tournament's rules were indeed reasonable.

Skills like Grasping Bone were temporary fixed trap skills. In the midst of the competition, it was basically useless because it was difficult to hide when first placed, making it near impossible for one to get their opponent to step on it. But in a situation like this, where the environment was so complex and it was possible for traps to be secretly placed, it was indeed extremely useful.

"Shoot!"

A stern and desperate cry abruptly rang out.

All of the still uninjured Evil Dragon Archers immediately began to randomly fire arrows at the shadows around them.

From the Evil Dragon Archer squad captain's point of view, the arcane master who invoked the trap absolutely had not had the time to withdraw, and thus had to still be nearby.

Various arrows shot out in all directions. Dazzling flames trailed behind some of them as they burned up and turned into clusters of flames which brightly illuminated large portions of the area around them.

But Ayrin had already long since fled the area as Far Sight allowed him to still observe his traps. He was under the cover of a giant tree far outside the range of the arrows alongside Rinloran and Stingham. Thus, the Evil Dragon Archers weren't able to discover a single trace of the enemy during their bouts of frantic shooting.

"The power of these arrows is not bad! These fireballs are almost comparable in strength to my Giant Fireball!"

As Stingham watched the flames trailing the arrows and the fireballs shooting through the sky, his eyes lit up as he said, "Perhaps this will be enough to get rid of the Black Witch's disgusting thing!"

"Wait for now!" Ayrin and Rinloran both cried out as they felt Stingham's urge to act rise.

At a time like it, it was naturally best for them to let the frightened and panicked Evil Dragon Archers waste as many arrows as possible or wait for them to retreat in a disorganized fashion before suddenly attacking. This was especially true for the three of them, who had rushed quite a bit to make it here on time and were thus not in top condition. They each had about one third the number of arcane particles their body could hold.

"What is there to wait for?! Let's charge!"

Black lines filled Ayrin and Rinloran's faces as Stingham ignored them and loudly charged out.

As the arcane energy within his body circulated, a yellow-red aura surged over his body as the strange metal zombie fit to his body once more. ¹

"What is that?!"

As Stingham charged out from hiding, the Evil Dragon Archers all shrunk back from fear.

Seeing the Evil Dragon Archers just standing there in a daze, Stingham shouted in dissatisfaction, "Why are you idiots just standing there?! Hurry up and shoot!"

In this dark forest, the metallic glean coming from the metal zombie over Stingham's body was mixed with shadows, causing it to seem as if a cursed zombie was hugging Stingham rather than a metal one. Furthermore, the Evil Dragon Archers had never faced someone who had called for them to shoot, causing them to become even more stunned.

"Are you guys archers or not?! Did the Evil Dragon Followers give you such things so you could just stand there and look pretty?!" Stingham shouted in an even angrier fashion as he approached within fifty meters of the Evil Dragon Archer squad.

"Hurry and shoot!"

At this moment, the Evil Dragon Archers finally regained their senses as they desperately unloaded towards Stingham.

"Boom!"

Streaks of flames collided with Stingham's body as a bright flames exploded and enveloped Stingham.

"This guy wouldn't have died so easily right?"

Ayrin and Rinloran, who hadn't been able to stop Stingham in time, exchanged glances as they inwardly had the same thought.

"Ahhh!"

A cry of misery rang out as Stingham walked out from the flames.

"The zombie armor is this strong?!"

Ayrin and Rinloran kept exchanging glances of disbelief as they observed Stingham's current state. Although Stingham had let out a cry of pain, outside of his hair being a little dishevelled, he was still fine. The metal zombie was still tightly hugging his body and didn't seem to be damaged at all as it released a hazy yellow glow which enveloped Stingham's entire body.

"Such a powerful barrage. It is equal to being simultaneously hit by seven or eight arcane skills of three gate masters. It must be gone," Stingham excitedly thought to himself as his mind recovered from some dizziness. He turned his head to look.

Hairs raised over his body as he shouted, "Ah! So horrifying! It's a ghost!" upon seeing the metal zombie's head still perched over his shoulder.

"Just what kind of monster is that fellow?! What is that skill?!"

"Hurry and run!"

Upon seeing that Stingham was still fine after taking being barraged by all of them, the Evil Dragon Archers felt their souls fly straight out of their bodies as they immediately lost any remaining will to fight and cowardly fled in all directions.

"What? You are running off just like this?! Hurry up and come back and shoot me! Otherwise I shall kill you all!" Stingham dispiritedly shouted as a look of disbelief emerged on his face.

"Just which arcane team is this arcane master from? He's so perverse… If we listen to him, then we will truly all die!"

Upon hearing Stingham's words, the Evil Dragon Archers became even more terrified and began to flee even more desperately. Even the ones who had been caught by Ayrin's traps desperately tried to hide further within the tall grass.

Ayrin and Rinloran were both completely speechless.

A very strong Evil Dragon Archer squad had been turned into a bunch of fleeing cowards by Stingham himself.

……

"With your behavior, just how will you lot manage to get the Evil Dragon's blood and its power in the future?"

Before the Evil Dragon Archer squad captain could even flee very far, a cold voice suddenly rang out from beside him.

The captain's body abruptly stiffened as he stopped where he was.

"Chen… boss Tiger Chen?

"What, did you truly believe that a squad like yours was actually responsible for guarding this entire area?" a tall, short haired arcane master sneered as he descended from atop a nearby tree.

"Everyone stop! Listen to boss Tiger Chen!" the Evil Dragon Archer squad captain immediately shouted in a quivering tone. Nonetheless, it seemed like he was pleasantly surprised.

"So this is the Black Glove, boss Tiger Chen?"

"Was always nearby?"

All of the fleeing Evil Dragon Archers immediately stopped in their tracks.

"Has a powerful Evil Dragon arcane master appeared?" The still hidden Ayrin and Rinloran immediately felt anxiousness emerge within them.

Up until now, every single Evil Dragon arcane master they encountered had been stronger than their opponents in the national competition, at least in terms of arcane particle level.

"Not running anymore? Has someone stronger come?"

Stingham's eyes immediately began to glow.

A square faced short haired arcane master wearing black globes embedded with numerous tiny black crystals appeared. A black light constantly flashed atop his body.

Whoosh!

At almost the same time, a pale white light flickered from atop a branch of a giant nearby tree as a short, white haired arcane master appeared. This male arcane master held a green crystal box in his hand as he expressionlessly sat atop the branch.

"Boss Otto!"

"It's boss Otto!"

The Evil Dragon Archers, who had grouped back together following Tiger Chen's appearance, abruptly let out cries of shock once more.

"Such strong auras. They are both at least four gate arcane masters… as for those gloves and the green box, those should be amplification artifacts?"

Ayrin and Rinloran felt like they had stepped into a pile of shit. But at this moment, Stingham excitedly shouted, "It's not just one, but two?"

"Great! Hurry up and come at me!"

"Please, I beg you, hurry up and hit me!"

Afterwards, he immediately charged towards the Tiger Chen and Otto.

"His actions… they are truly too embarrassing to look at," Ayrin and Rinloran speechlessly thought as they watched Stingham charge forth.

1. I made a slight translation error. The zombie is actually made of metal, it isn’t armored. The previous chapters have been fixed to correct for this. I apologize ↩