Chapter 870: Combat

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

"Serial lightning" activated in Abel's hands and shot the nearest training puppet beast. The puppet beast wasn't slow, but it was not fast enough to dodge the lightning spell. Still, as a gold light flashed across its spell rune, the "serial lightning" managed to do no damage to it. From then on, the "serial lightning" rushed to another training puppet beast. The same light appeared. It was the same for nine other training puppet beasts. Forget about dealing damage; the lightning didn't cause even the immobilizing effect.

Not believing that his spell attacks wouldn't work, Abel activated the "blizzard" and "firewall." It was the same. A gold light flashed across the rune, which neglected all the damage that the spells were intended to deal.

Abel connected his power of the Will to the elder sign card, "Are these training puppet beasts immune against all elements?"

The battle command spirits replied, "Yes, Sir. They can only harness the power of elemental rules. It is impossible to break through their defense with spells. You can only use physical attacks."

"Can you control the spirits here?" Abel asked again.

The battle command spirit replied once more, "If you don't enter the operation room, Sir Elder, I won't be able to pass through the multiple paths of defensive control spirits."

It was all due to Johnson's large body. Out of the twenty training puppet beasts, ten of them rushed towards Johnson while the other ten rushed towards the other three team members. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that they were running away from Abel, who had just cast his "serial lightning." Of course, it wasn't like Abel wanted to attract more training puppet beasts to come at him.

The one that rushed at the front was a giant tiger puppet. As it opened its large mouth, sharp steel teeth were revealed. It was going for Johnson's leg. Johnson struck back towards it with its lightning-long spear. It was basically using the weapon like a stick, which Abel still had a problem getting used to.

It wasn't like he was out of ideas, no. He still had a very nice spear technique to use, the eleventh lancer's technique of the worgen Woolf Family. The name was quite simple, typical of powerful techniques that were passed across the Orc Empire. The eleventh technique was passed to the worgen royalties. Without the buff effect of his combat qi, it was almost good enough to match the combat qi enhancement ability of a knight. A knight only had so much combat qi, so the 11th technique that relied purely on strength was his real way-to-go.

Abel decided in his mind, "I'll use it when I'm free."

While thinking, the lightning long spear in Johnsons' hands went through the giant tiger puppet's body. The force made its body shake uncontrollably from the ground and flew towards the other side. Abel could see it all very clearly. The lightning effect did not occur, even though it was a divine item that was supposed to pierce through armor. Yet, all it did was leave a thin mark on the tiger puppet's body. He frowned, noticing how the beast's defensibility capability had exceeded his expectations. Johnson was not the strongest summoned creature in his arsenal, but its physical strength was the best of the best, making its melee attacks ability stronger than any of the summoned creatures. Since even its devastating hits did not damage the giant tiger puppet, he anticipated that this would be a battle of endurance.

"Run, Johnson! Slow them down with your speed!" Abel commanded. Having heard its master's orders, the lightning long spear in Johnson's hands hit through the training puppet beast, forcing it to accelerate forward. The training puppet beast might be fast, but it was not much competition against Johnson with the "special quickening" hell buffing ability. Johnson would strike at the training puppet beasts without doing any preparation in advance. After sending them away with his lightning-long spear, it would move so that the training puppet beasts couldn't get close to him.

Abel was on the other side to observe Priest Big Horn and the other two fight with the other ten puppets. He could tell that they were stalling so that they could wait for him to help. In front of the ten six-meter tall training puppet beasts, none of his summon creatures would work against them. The only one doing the work was Priest Big Horn, who was summoning a "claystone guard," which used its ability to slow the training puppet beast down.

Abel wanted Johnson to run because he didn't want Johnson to test the training puppet beasts' strength. If anything, he wanted to do that by observing Priest Big Horn's fight. In situations such as this, he didn't think that any accident would take place anymore. Priest Big Horn deceived him, so there really wasn't a problem with him waiting to study the training puppet beasts for a while.

Whether Priest Big Horn would live or die was irrelevant as soon as they went into the ancient ruins. After throwing a "bone wall" to block the incoming training puppet beast, he threw a "disarray" curse rune in his hands and broke the head of the training puppet beast, which did not take long at all to break straight through that wall. The "disarray" caused the curse lights to rise on top of the heads of the training puppet heads, making them attack each other as they began to lose their sense of self. However, judging from how they were striking thin marks on each other, it was easy to tell that their defensive capability was superior to their offensive capability.

Still, in less than three seconds, the "disarray" effect disappeared. The training puppet beasts focused back on Priest Big Horn once more. This was when Ruin, the Barbarian behind Priest Big Horn, made a leaping motion into the middle of the training puppet beasts right. He let out a scream, which made them panic. With another leap, it jumped out of the range of the training puppet beast and started running in big steps. He was extremely fast, and according to Abel's estimation, his speed was almost doubled. From what it looked like, it seemed like Ruin had been preserving his real strength most of the time.

"Volcano!"

As Big Horn and Ruin had stalled the training puppet beasts for several seconds, Leon had plenty of time to cast his most powerful spells. From then, as soon as his voice ended, the ground beneath the training puppet beasts started trembling very volatilely. A small-sized volcano arose, and mana and lava burst out of it. One of the magmatic fireballs struck a training puppet beast, making it take about two steps back. Still, the force of nature that came with this attack was blocked by a streak of golden light. The effect made it so that it was impossible for the training puppet beasts to pursuit the other three. This was what Leon the half-elf wanted. He was not so arrogant as to think that one "volcano" spell was enough to hurt these training puppet beasts.

"I need some time to cast a second one!" Leon called out, meanwhile hurrying the dire wolf it was riding to hurry backward. He wanted to get away from the training puppet beasts as quickly as possible. Thanks to their cooperation, he managed to block the first wave of attack of the training puppet beasts, leaving ten of them unable to continue with the case.

Abel was watching from afar. He was very impressed with their cooperation. He possessed the heritage of the priest occupation and the heritage of the druid occupation, but he had never really thought about combining the spells of each occupation regularly. He used wizard spells most of the time. Of course, he wasn't the one to blame. If he had control over all the priest's spells and druid class, it would take too much time for him to get them to max level. There was also the problem with spontaneousness, as it would be hard to choose from the vast range of spells needed in combat. He only had two hands. It wasn't like he had other people with him to cast the spells together.

When Priest Big Horn and the others began their second round of attacks to prevent the training puppet beasts from getting close, Abel saw one of them protecting its eyes. He wasn't sure if it was doing it consciously or not, but he couldn't help but wonder what was happening.

Priest Big Horn couldn't help but scream, "What are you doing, Wizard Abel! Attack! We can't hold on for too long!"

During this time, Johnson tried to use its speed to send the training puppet beasts to fly out one by one. The training puppet beast would stand up bravely and continue, rushing straight towards Johnson as they went. Abel seemed to be enjoying the view or something, though. Of course, it was going to make Priest Big Horn very concerned. Priest Big Horn, Ruin, and Leon the half-elf were cooperating quite well, but since it didn't last long for the training puppet beasts to remain controlled, the interval in which they were casting the spell became much shorter. Since they weren't dealing much damage at the same time, they were mostly expending energy.

So whether it was the Ruin's qi or the force of nature Leon was harnessing, it'd be impossible to recover in time in the middle of combat. It was slightly better for Priest Big Horn. He could use his death qi to help the skeleton gemstones to recover on their own, but still, he had to take them out while he was not able to use them without casting any spells.

So, Leon, the half-elf, was casting the advanced spell of "volcano." The "volcano" might be one of the few spells capable of turning the energy expended into a set amount, but that expenditure of the force of nature was not going to increase as the spell's level increased. Still, it'd usually be very hard for him to continuously cast this spell with ongoing energy expenditure.

It was slightly better for Ruin the Barbarian. He didn't spend a lot of qi expenditure as the casting level was all just low-tier. The story might be different if it was Leon doing the same thing with his force of nature, but if he was short on stamina, then the teamwork would pretty much be destroyed in an instance. Without the right time to continue casting the spell, they would all be killed by the training puppet beasts very quickly.

Abel didn't reply to Priest Big Horn immediately, but he was ready to respond. A "lightning" spell rune was activated in his hand, which hit the giant tiger puppet right in the eye. There was simply no time whatsoever for the giant tiger puppet to respond, but a golden light came out and instantly blocked the hit.

Abel called out loudly as he saw that the spell didn't work, "Attack their eyes, Johnson!"

The lightning long spear in Johnson's hands changed course in the air. It went straight for the giant tiger's eyes as the opportunity came. The "lightning" didn't quite take effect, but what happened instead was that the light that emitted made the puppet slower to observe its surroundings. That, and given how fast Johnson's attack was, the spear shot right into its eyes.

Crack.

A piercing sound rang, and the giant tiger's eyes were instantly destroyed by the sweeping motion of the lightning long spear. The remaining nine saw what had happened to the giant tiger puppet, and they all protected their eyes.

Priest Big Horn said in delight, "We'll attack the eyes, then! That's going to be their weakness!"

After throwing another "disarray" spell, the training puppet beasts started fighting each other again. This time, Ruin didn't wait for the effect to end to use his scream. What he chose to do instead was to go with another leap. He jumped as tall as he could from the ground towards the front of another training puppet beast. Before he made a landing, his two axes slammed straight towards the training puppet beast's eyes.

Boom!

Ruin felt like his two axes were slashing against steel. His hands were cracked open. A large amount of blood gushed out of them. If he hadn't gone through so much training to master the art of the ax, the force that was rebounded would've made the two axes fly out from his hands.

After pausing in midair for a bit, he started falling towards the ground. The training puppet beast he attacked did not suffer any injury in its eyes. If anything, the hit just woke it up from the state of "disarray."

The training puppet beast's front claws swung towards Ruin the Barbarian. Ruin didn't have any way to retaliate because he was in midair. His two hands were still numb, so there was really no way to dodge. As though he was hit by the giant hammer, his body flew straight outward.

While in midair, Ruin spat out streams of blood and slammed heavily towards the ground. His face became very wrinkled. He didn't have enough strength to stand up straight. His beloved axes had already flown very far away.

"Ruin!" Leon screamed. He summoned one dire wolf that came to Ruin's side. The dire wolf bit onto his body and put it on its back. There was one less partner now. The three got more anxious-Priest Big Horn, especially. He was the slowest out of the three, so if there was any danger, he'd be the first one to be chased down.

Once more, Leon, the half-elf, summoned another dire wolf that appeared next to Priest Big Horn. Priest Big Horn quickly jumped onto its back.