Chapter 484: The Church’s Surrounding Circle
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Benjamin took his followers and quickly fled the scene, then they quickly hid in a nearby valley.
They had the chance to completely vanquish the priest squad when suddenly, the System had abruptly told him that it detected magical waves from afar. Because of this, Benjamin gave the order for his men to retreat.
He instinctively knew it was reinforcements from the Church. They could not be greedy.
They were greatly outnumbered by the Church, so they could not face the enemy directly. They had to use guerilla warfare to pick their enemies off, using hit and run tactics to avoid capture at all costs.
At this point, they have already hidden far away, where their enemies would not be able to detect them. Thus, Benjamin and his disciples all relaxed and found a quiet corner to rest in the valley.
"The magic just now was awesome!"
The disciples calmed down, but could not help discussing the earlier battle. It was their first time experiencing a large-scale caster battle.
They were even awed by the magic that the experienced mages used.
When they normally dealt with snoopers, their seniors would just hurl fireballs alongside the disciples, so they did not stand out much. But in this battle, they used blazing fires, powerful winds, dark shadows ...all sorts of magic to create a hellish scene, that made the novices’ jaws drop.
"It’s nothing much, just a bunch of intermediate level spells stack together." Joanna saw this and patted one of the disciple’s shoulders, "Wait till you see high-level magic, then you will know what amazing really is."
"High-level magic... are you capable of doing it?"
Joanna showed a delighted expression and chirped, "Well of course!"
"How cool... knowing high-level magic when you’re so young, you must be really gifted..."
With this, the disciples and the mages started to chat up a storm. Benjamin saw this and smiled, then started planning their next step with the System.
"How many villages around here have we yet to visit?" He asked in his heart.
"There’s too many to count." The System replied lazily, "Without any disturbances, it would still take about two months to finish visiting them all. Is there any more to say? You got to remember that over time, more and more external factors will start hampering your progress."
Benjamin nodded and showed a serious expression.
Yes... the Church would become better at tracking them down.
With this, he stood up and went to the mages and disciples before announcing loudly, "Everyone...we don’t have time to chit-chat here, we have to move!"
They were close to Gealorre and they had just ambushed the Church’s troops. The Church would surely send a huge number priest troops to sweep the area, making sure no stone is left unturned.
They had to leave.
The enemy could fly, and Benjamin had so many disciples with him who could only walk. Right now, they were significantly slower; If they wanted to do guerilla warfare properly, they had to be faster than their opponents.
And retreating was one of the ways they could stay ahead of their opponents
The people heard this and suppressed from their excitement. They did not say anything and just nodded in agreement.
Even though they were happy that they had won, they understood the current state of Carretas meant that it wasn’t time to celebrate just yet.
Luckily, they did not unpack anything, so they could leave quickly. They grabbed their gear and started travelling towards the other exit out of the valley. Benjamin could not carry them all into the sky, but he still used water vapour to speed them up a little.
In the valley, he used the water sensing technique every step of the way the way; he quickly noticed that the priests nearby were growing in numbers.
Groups of priests kept pouring into the area, some of them flying, some of them on the ground. Within half an hour, there were at least four hundred priests combing the area.
These priests were diligently looking for traces of Benjamin, causing him great anxiety as he looked on.
Luckily they were not on a flat plain, if not they would have nowhere to hide.
"Head east. Be careful not to get spotted."
Under these circumstances, Benjamin did not even dare to think about fighting back. The Church’s forces were so densely packed that even if they successfully took out one or two groups, the rest would quickly rush over.
"Teacher Benjamin, if we continue walking, there will not be many obstacles we can hide behind anymore."
After walking for about two hours, a local disciple who was walking at the front of the group turned around and notified Benjamin.
Benjamin heard this and flew in front of the group to map out the terrain. Following this, he raised his hand to signal the squad to stop.
Right now, they were on a small road next to a cliff. There were tall peaks all around them and they were somewhat hidden in the shadows.
But up ahead was where the mountain range ended, with nothing but vast plains after. The disciple was right, there would be nowhere to hide.
If any of the priests flew over, they would be spotted immediately!
How troublesome...
"Let’s wait for a while." After some thought, Benjamin spoke, "Wait till nightfall, then we’ll see if we can find another chance."
They found a small path between the cliffs and hid inside to patiently wait for the cover of darkness. Throughout their wait, the frequency of the priests’ patrols increased.
One squad...two squads...
Benjamin took a deep breath.
Did Carretas have so many priests hidden in it?
Eventually, the sky darkened, but the number of patrols that came by looking did not decrease at all. A few times, they flew right past Benjamin and his people. They would have been spotted If not for the thick greenery covering them.
The whole squad would breath out heavily each time a group of priests flew by.
They all knew what would happen if they were detected.
By the time the sky finally darkened fully, Benjamin started to feel even the presence of soldiers nearby. He was shocked at this.
Who knew what excuse the Church came up with to make the substitute King give the order to send troops?
In any case, Benjamin could sense soldiers nearby and he knew that this meant that the whole area would be under lockdown by soldiers soon enough.
When that happens, they would have no chance of sneaking out.
"Teacher Benjamin, what’s wrong? You look terrible." Joanna noticed Benjamin’s frown and could not help but ask.
Benjamin heard this and sighed, before telling the news to all of them.
"Are... are you serious?"
The ten mages still looked okay; they were experienced fighters and even if they were under lockdown, they could use their sheer strength to break out. But the remaining disciples did not even know how to fly, how could they even think of escaping?
Benjamin could really see the fear in their eyes.
"Teacher Benjamin...you will not abandon us, right?"