Chapter 967: Moonlight Deer
The people of the Henry Family seemed very experienced in fighting that kind of magic beast. After it appeared, a few mages lured the Storm Wolf into a prepared pitfall.
Once the Storm Wolf was in position, someone immediately activated a barrier, and they trapped the Storm Wolf inside.
Then, Morgan Henry and Arnaud Henry acted.
Morgan used darkness spells, the dark arrows he was most proficient in. He cast over a hundred Dark Arrows at once, every single one possessing intense corrosive power. The power of each arrow might have been small, but when added together, they would keep corroding the Storm Wolf's defensive fur.
Coupled with Dark Spheres, which had intense explosive power, the thrashed Storm Wolf rapidly became riddled with scars.
Through the Specter, Lin Yun could clearly see that Morgan was a 9th Rank Archmage. He was casting extremely quickly, but they were all Low Tier Spells and he was only relying on the property of the darkness spells for the offense. He would be casting much more slowly if he used High Tier Spells, too slow for such a battle.
Lin Yun was reminded of some of the magic ornaments that Morgan was wearing. They should have all been for increasing their casting speed.
Arnaud actually surprised Lin Yun. That guy turned out to be a mage focused on water spells. Under normal circumstances, between the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, the water element would be taken over by the ice element, because few people would actually master water spells.
Although the water element had many treatment spells, it had very few offensive spells, and those were the weakest ones overall.
But Arnaud filled the entire sky with rain as he cast, and in less than three minutes, that heavy rain started transforming into Water Dragons attacking the Storm Wolf.
Within five minutes, thick floods kept washing over the Storm Wolf. At that time, the Storm Wolf was unable to bear with the attack.
After seven minutes, it was like a hundred-meter-wide river fell down from the sky and forcibly pressured that Storm Wolf to the ground. Eventually, it was crushed to death by all the water.
Lin Yun was startled. It was true that some people would develop some very powerful water spells in the future. At the Heaven Rank, in some large-scale wars, water spells would display power comparable to fire spells.
After over ten millennia, there would be an outstanding and famous mage army that only used water spells. When fighting them, it was like being in a Water Elemental Plane. The range they covered far surpassed the fire-attributed mage armies.
Especially when conquering the Endless Sea, water mages were in even greater demand than ice mages. All the forces wanting to fight for the benefits of the Endless Sea would give preferential treatment to the water mages. That was the era when the status of water mages crazily rose.
However, it was rare to see that kind of water mage in the current era, especially one that wasn't specialized in healing.
As long as Arnaud was given time, or was fighting in a place with a large water source and with active water elements, his fighting strength would double. Furthermore, it would keep increasing over time, just like how that surging river eventually dropped from the sky and continuously crushed the fake Heaven Rank Magic Beast. An ordinary 9th Rank Archmage didn't have such power.
Lin Yun carefully observed through his Specter. The accessories Arnaud carried were all increasing his mana reserves. He even had something similar to a mana whirlpool, increasing his mana by 50%.
That kind of battle style consumed far more mana than the ordinary mage would, so that kind of setup was very rational.
Morgan's fighting style was to rapidly cast, using speed and quantity to suppress the target, buying time for Arnaud.
The other mages of the Henry Family also worked like this. They kept pressuring with spells, hardly caring about consumption, all in order to buy time for Arnaud. Even if Morgan and the other mages couldn't kill that Heaven Rank Magic Beast, the longer it took, the more advantageous it would be for everyone. The final victory would inevitably be theirs.
After the fight ended, Arnaud immediately sprayed large jets of water, and spheres of liquid wrapped everyone within. Within ten seconds, the lightly injured mages had already recovered. One of the mages that had suffered some bigger injuries recovered within a minute as he walked out of the water sphere.
The mana of those people was also rapidly restored. That Storm Wolf's mana crystal was gathered in less than three minutes. The rest of the corpse was frozen and collected by the mages of the Henry Family.
Those movements appeared to be extremely practiced as everyone took care of their own duty. Once the fight was over and the injured were treated, they didn't waste a single second as they started looking for the next magic beast.
They encountered a lot of resources on their way, but the Henry Family didn't extensively exploit them. They only took a few valuable things, stopping for just a short time to gather.
The more Lin Yun observed through his Specter, the more certain he was. The number and the density of fake Heaven Rank Magic Beasts were simply enormous when compared to Noscent. They might even encounter two within a few dozen kilometers.
Moreover, the magic beast's characteristics were very clear. They had huge builds, and they hadn't opened a Demiplane. Although they were Level 40, they didn't have the fighting strength of Extraordinary Magic Beasts, and the races they belonged to were races that couldn't level higher than Level 20.
Apart from the destructive Energy Spheres that they instinctively knew how to use, as well as the strength of the Heaven Rank, their fighting technique was no different from that of inferior magic beasts. They hadn't completely awakened wisdom, so they were like brainless idiots when compared to Heaven Rank Magic Beasts.
After confirming that the Henry Family's people were focusing on gathering these strange mana crystals, Lin Yun also started his gathering process. He followed the direction of the mana crystal and killed all the fake Heaven Rank Magic Beasts he encountered on the way.
Then, the facts confirmed Lin Yun's judgement. These mana crystals were exactly the same as the mana crystal of the Crimson Firefox they had encountered at the start. A powerful spatial power was hidden within.
As they kept pressing forward, the frequency at which they encountered fake Heaven Rank Magic Beasts kept increasing. They only met one within two days before, but after killing six, they started encountering one every day.
Ultimately, after a week, Lin Yun and the others quietly hid on the edge of a cliff, looking at the jungle spreading at the bottom of the precipice. The jungle covered at least ten kilometers, and there were three giant deer towering over 60 meters in height scattered within this jungle.
The giant deer were all moonlight white, and the surface of their skin even seemed to faintly glow. Numerous light runes formed some patterns on their bodies, looking like a bright moon from a distance.
Their antlers spread over thirty meters, and could practically be considered trees. Each of the forks emitted a gentle sphere of light, but the mana they emitted was terrifying.
Now, these three giant deer had their heads lowered, eating grass... Which was actually the treetops of some tall trees. Three trees growing there were very ancient, and whether it was their trunks or branches, they were solid like iron. Yet, these things were no different from grass in the mouth of the deer. Even several dozen kilometers away, they could hear the sound of iron being forcibly shattered.
"These are Moonlight Deer. Under normal circumstances, Level 20 would be their limit. Their fighting power isn't that great, but they are extremely fast. During the Nesser Dynasty, they were popular with the Pureblood Elves and would end up being their mounts. The laws of the Dynasty even prohibit killing a Moonlight Deer in the wild.
"Naturally, this was under normal circumstances. No one can say anything about the ones before us. A normal Moonlight Deer's antlers wouldn't hold so many energy spheres. Merlin, how about we get rid of them?"
Enderfa floated in the air, attentively watching the Moonlight Deer leisurely eating.
Lin Yun frowned. Moonlight Deer weren't that strong, but they were extremely fast. And that was the normal ones. The three before them weren't normal.
Those Moonlight Deer could devour a forty-meter-tall tree's highest leaves. The tree with its nibbled treetop wouldn't fall. Instead, under the light emitted by the Moonlight Deer's antlers, it rapidly resumed its growth. Leaves rapidly germinated on those bare branches and twigs, and the growing process had been accelerated several dozen times.
Moreover, the mana consumed by those moon-like light spheres atop the antlers kept on becoming more and more powerful as mana kept increasing.
"Sir Merlin, this is a good opportunity. We managed to come across three, and they aren't very powerful magic beasts. We can completely get rid of them." Xiuban's eyes opened wide as he licked his lips.
Moonlight Deer almost went extinct in Noscent. It was because their meat was extremely delicious and had the effect of purifying one's body. When a mage ate some, their physique would be purified. When a swordsman ate some, their strength would increase, and their Aura would become even purer.
There were a lot of benefits. Even someone without knowledge like Xiuban had heard of the Moonlight Deer. There were three of them here, and if they hunted them, there would be enough for them to eat for a very long time.
Enderfa and Xiuban were encouraging Lin Yun to hunt the Moonlight Deer, but the usually silent Reina was against it.
"Moonlight Deer are rare magic beasts that don't need to hunt for food, but they are terribly weak. However, those three Moonlight Deer before us are all Level 40. They aren't something we can handle. Moonlight Deer unite when they encounter danger and would never run alone. The chances of killing those three Moonlight Deer is very small, but it is likely that we would pay a heavy price..."
On the side, none of the mages of the mage army said anything. Kurumu was calmly looking at Lin Yun, clearly not planning to express any opinion of his own and just waiting for Lin Yun's decision.