Book 8, The Ten Thousand Kilometer Journey – Chapter 25, When Experts Join Forces
This loud shout by the black-robed man not only frightened Linley and the Arch Magus necromancer, it also startled Lampson and the other three experts of the ninth rank on the second floor.
“What’s going on? Why is Xartes gone?” Lampson immediately pushed open his door, walking to the second floor corridor and barking angrily.
At this time, the other three combatants of the ninth rank came out of their rooms as well.
Within Zassler’s room.
Hearing the loud shouts, the look on Zassler’s face changed. He immediately instructed the nearby Linley, “You killed one combatant of the ninth rank, but there are five remaining. I will take care of three of them. You handle the other two. Don’t tell me you aren’t able to do so.”
Zassler was quite confident in his ability to deal with three combatants of the ninth rank.
“You only need to kill one.” Linley said calmly. At the same time, Linley quietly awaited the opponents to gather outside. When they did so, Bebe and Haeru would ambush them from behind, while he and the Arch Magus necromancer would attack from the front. This pincer attack would make it even harder for their opponents to flee.
Hearing Linley’s words, Zassler couldn’t help but sneer, “You really dare to make all sorts of wild boasts.”
“Bro!” At this moment, the black-robed man saw the corpse of Xartes. He immediately let out a howl of grief, while also noticing that there were now two men inside the room.
Like a gust of wind, the four other combatants of the ninth rank descended from the higher floors.
Lampson and the others stared at Zassler, then at Linley. The expressions on their face changed.
“Hello, everyone. Last time we fought, it wasn’t as fun as it should have been. Let’s play again.” The Arch Magus necromancer, Zassler, beamed happily at the five combatants of the ninth rank in front of him.
“The antimagic shackles are broken.” A silver-haired old expert of the ninth rank said in shock.
But Lampson was staring at Linley.
“Cardinal Lampson. Long time no see.” Linley held his adamantine heavy sword in his hands, his dark gold eyes shooting a cold, merciless glare towards these men.
Almost all of the high level combatants of the Radiant Church knew about the terrifying appearance Linley had when transformed.
“Linley!”
Lampson’s voice was very low, and his facial expression was dark.
“You are the Linley who killed six of my comrades?” Xartes’ younger brother, that black-robed man, stared at Linley in disbelief. “How is that possible?”
The Arch Magus necromancer, Zassler, also stared at Linley in surprise. From the reaction of the Radiant Church’s squad, this ‘Draconian’ who had rescued him apparently was quite formidable. “Oh, your name is Linley? And it seems you are even more famous than me?”
Linley just stared coldly at the enemies. “Enough talk. Let’s do this.”
“My men are ready. We can move at any time.” The Arch Magus necromancer, Zassler, laughed delightedly. Suddenly, two golden skeletal archers manifested behind him.
Linley was startled.
He had heard that Necromantic Magic possessed the Wraith Call ability, but this was the first time he had seen it in action. These two golden skeletal archers had auras that weren’t the slightest bit weaker than combatants of the ninth rank.
“Linley, you seem to be quite powerful. Let’s have a little competition and see who kills more.” Zassler laughed delightedly, while at this moment, three powerful, three-meter tall golden-furred zombies appeared at the door. These golden-furred zombies had jade-green eyes.
Two golden skeletal archers, and three golden-furred zombies. Each of them had the power of a combatant of the ninth rank.
Combined, they made up a force of five combatants of the ninth rank!
Lampson looked at Zassler, then looked at Linley. Grinding his teeth, he ordered in a low voice, “Retreat. We leave now!” Lampson truly did not wish to give this order.
In order to capture Zassler, they had sacrificed so much.
But once they learned the secrets of Necromantic Magic from Zassler, the Radiant Church would totally be capable of secretly raising an entire squad of necromancers.
“Bebe. Haeru. Now!” Linley mentally ordered.
“Kill.”
The Arch Magus necromancer, Zassler, issued a callous order, while at the same time he began to continue mumbling the words to yet another magical spell. Although these skeletal archers and golden-furred zombies had the power of ninth rank combatants, they were only equivalent to early-stage ninth rank combatants.
He, Zassler, had two summons which he was extremely proud of.
In order to subdue these two creatures he had encountered in the plane of undead, he had expended a tremendous amount of effort. Zassler’s lips were constantly moving as he mumbled the words to this spell. The difficulty of summoning these two undead was far greater than the first five.
“Flee, now! The Undead Dragon is about to arrive!” The two Special Executors, the two Ascetics, and the Cardinal all hurriedly fled from the courtyard.
But right at this moment...
“Swish!” “Swish!”
Two golden arrows split the air, piercing directly towards the two Ascetics. At the same moment, two black blurs suddenly appeared from outside the courtyard.
“Lampson. Not one of you will escape.” Linley’s callous voice rang out, while at the same time, Linley charged towards them like a bolt of lightning.
Linley’s movement speed really was incredibly fast. As a peak-stage ninth rank combatant who had inherited the speed inherent to the Armored Razorback Wyrm, was supported by the Supersonic spell, and also borrowed the ‘imposing force’ of the world...Linley’s speed far surpassed those two Special Executors, to say nothing of the Ascetics and the Cardinal.
“Roaaaar!”
The Blackcloud Panther, Haeru, charged recklessly at one of the Special Executors, clawing and biting at him. Terrified, the Special Executor immediately chopped viciously at the Blackcloud Panther with his sword.
“Ah!” The Special Executor’s skull was caved in by the panther’s paw, while his sword hadn’t managed to injure Haeru in the slightest.
“Hrmph.” The Blackcloud Panther was filled with contempt.
In the past, Linley had used the adamantine heavy sword while at the peak-stage of the ninth rank in Dragonform, yet still hadn’t been able to do anything. In the end, he had been forced to rely on both the Supergravity Field as well as the Airwings spells before he could force the panther to submit.
In terms of defense, the Blackcloud Panther was even more formidable than Linley, and only a whisker inferior to Bebe.
“Slash, slash!”
Catching the Special Executor totally off-guard, Bebe pierced straight through his defense, driving his claws into the man’s chest and ripping the man’s heart out.
In the blink of an eye, the two magical beasts had killed two combatants of the ninth rank.
“Grooooowl!” The Blackcloud Panther turned and attacked the nearby Ascetic. The Ascetic was truly stunned. Two magical beasts had just popped up out of nowhere and killed two Special Executors.
Bebe charged towards the other Ascetic as well.
The two Ascetics and Lampson were all truly in states of shock. They specialized in light-style magic, but all magic took time to set up. The spells they could instacast wouldn’t be of use against these two magical beasts.
“Lampson!”
Linley let out a loud roar. Wielding his adamantine heavy sword, like a demonic god, he chopped down with his black adamantine heavy sword, causing the very air to vibrate with the force of the blow.
Lampson discovered, to his terror, that the space above him had been totally locked in.
“Lin-”
In the moment of his death, Lampson thought back to that first time he had encountered Linley. That was the day that the sculpture, ‘Awakening From the Dream’ was being auctioned. At that time, Linley was an optimistic, joyful young genius. But a few years later, Linley had become so frightening. And today, Linley was going to take his life.
“Bam.”
Before Lampson’s unwilling eyes, Linley’s adamantine heavy sword slashed down directly on his body. At this moment, Linley managed to link together some of the scattered insights he had regarding the new level he was trying to attain.
It was like the pulse of the world itself.
Those deep tremors. Those irresistible vibrations. The terrifying force that the adamantine heavy sword was carrying suddenly transformed into a ‘pulse’ like rhythm which entered Lampson’s body.
Lampson’s entire body trembled once, and then he collapsed to the ground. Not a single wound could be seen on Lampson’s body...but blood was flowing from Lampson’s ear and nose.
If someone were to cut open Lampson’s skin, they would discover that Lampson’s internal organs had all disintegrated.
At this time, Bebe and Haeru finished off the two remaining Ascetics. This killing spree was simply too perfectly formulated. The undead creatures which Zassler had summoned, along with Linley’s fearsome appearance, had actually frightened Lampson’s group so much that they had directly fled, but just as they had reached the walls, they were caught totally off-guard by Bebe and Haeru, these two unspeakably terrifying magical beasts.
The end result was plain for everyone to see.
Bebe, Haeru, and Linley had killed five combatants of the ninth rank! If they counted the person whom Linley had killed at the beginning, they had killed six.
“Groooowl.”
Right at this moment, in the middle of the courtyard, the space began to rumble as a dimensional crack appeared. An enormous, black dragon’s head stretched out through the dimensional crack.
Wraith Call – Undead Dragon!
“But...but...” Zassler stared at Linley, as well as his black Shadowmouse and the Blackcloud Panther, Haeru. He was totally shocked, totally speechless.
Just now, he had been very arrogant, going so far as to say that he would deal with three of them, if Linley could handle two.
But before his undead creatures had killed a single person, Linley and his magical beasts had killed all of the combatants.
“Mr. Zassler, there’s no need to finish summoning this Undead Dragon, I think. Or did you want to test it out against Bebe, or perhaps Haeru?” Linley said calmly.
The leathery face of the Arch Magus necromancer, Zassler, twitched. And then, he banished the Undead Dragon back to the plane of undead.
“Linley, those two magical beasts of yours are indeed rather powerful. But my Undead Dragon isn’t weak either. What’s more, the Undead Dragon isn’t the only creature I possess. I also have an Ancient Wight.” Zassler sneered. “You must understand, so long as the undead realm remains, the army available to a necromancer is endless.”
Linley truly was frightened by Zassler’s words.
Actually, in his heart, Zassler knew that taming an undead creature in the undead realm was no easy feat. They had to be subdued one at a time, after all. In the past, when he had subdued this Undead Dragon, he had sacrificed many other undead creatures.
“Let’s hurry up and clean up this courtyard. Don’t let the Radiant Church know what happened here.” Linley said immediately.
Zassler immediately began to issue orders to his undead creatures.
Those two golden skeletal archers and the three golden-furred zombies very obediently began to dispose of the corpses. They were quite efficient. Very soon, all the corpses had vanished.
“Linley.” Zassler looked at Linley with interest. “From what Lampson said, it seems you are quite famous. Tell me about yourself?”
Linley glanced at Zassler. “Shut your mouth. Quiet.”
Seeing Linley’s absolutely emotionless golden eyes, Zassler began to laugh. “Linley, it seems as though you have quite a large grudge against the Radiant Church, am I right?”
“So what if I do?” Linley responded this time.
“What sort of grudge?” Zassler immediately asked.
“I won’t stop till one of us is destroyed.” Linley’s voice was quiet, but it was like the sinister wind which blew in the undead realm, capable of making one’s soul shudder.
Zassler’s eyes immediately lit up. He excitedly said, “Haha, good. Linley, it seems you have some ability. How about this. You assist me, and together, we will deal with the Radiant Church.”
“Me, assist you? You be the leader?” Linley looked at Zassler.
Zassler had to admit to himself that he felt just the slightest bit uncomfortable when Linley stared at him with those dark golden eyes.
“No need to differentiate between who is the lead, and who is not. The two of us will work together.” As a necromancer, Zassler’s close-combat abilities were very poor. In addition, his undead creatures took a certain amount of time to summon.
Linley’s dark gold eyes stared at Zassler for quite some time.
“Fine. I accept.” Linley finally spoke. Linley had to admit that joining forces with a necromancer could indeed make him stronger.
Zassler immediately exulted. “Haha, wonderful. With the two of us joining forces, what have we to fear? Heidens, there will come a day when I kill you, you old bastard. Linley, who in the Radiant Church do you wish to kill?” Zassler was certain that Linley had to have had a major grudge against someone in the Radiant Church, for him to hate it so.
“Who?”
Linley shook his head. “I intend to destroy the Radiant Church and tear out its roots.”
“The Radiant Church?” Zassler was truly stunned for a moment, then he laughed loudly. “Haha, wonderful, excellent! When the time comes, we will kill Heidens together and annihilate the Radiant Church!”
But Linley’s face was cold and emotionless.
“Let’s go.” Linley led Bebe and Haeru towards the exit.
“Where to?” Zassler immediately followed.
“Do you have any destination?” Linley asked.
“None.” Zassler shook his head.
Linley said calmly, “Then starting today, just follow me.” As he spoke, Linley led Bebe and Haeru into the darkness. Zassler started, then mumbled to himself, “It seems that by following this Linley, the future will be quite exciting.” And thus, this eight hundred year old Arch Magus necromancer followed Linley into the night.