Chapter 58: Sword of the Holy Light
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Damn, I knew they would come after me."
Benjamin could not help himself but to curse as he anticipated the Cleaners’ retaliation.
However, this was the best outcome he could make out from the flawless teamwork with Michelle within more than ten seconds. The Cleaners’ battle strength had been significantly reduced as they had already lost four of their members.
Benjamin felt that the ambush with more than ten seconds was quite a lot for him to take in as well.
He was in disbelief the moment he recognized Michelle. However, he immediately knew what he had to do the moment he saw Michelle taking out her daggers.
It was probably because he had been trying to understand Michelle’s thoughts as they were always trying to outsmart each other. Hence he comprehended Michelle’s intention very well.
The one who knew you most would always be your enemy.
They communicated by only exchanging glances and the plan to attack the Cleaners came into their mind.
Benjamin knew very well that this was the only way to cut the losses. If he were to let the Cleaners’ leader to get in touch with the Bishop, then Michelle’s lies would be exposed. In the end, not only Benjamin, even Michelle would have to suffer the consequences.
Benjamin had a lot of questions that needed to be answered: Why did Michelle risk her life to save him? Why did all these Cleanerss know Michelle and even addressed her as "Christine"? Did none of them raise any suspicions about her holy knight attire? Time would not stop if he hesitated to think about these questions.
There was nothing much to consider as if he would live another day if he were to give his all and die if he did not.
They needed to wipe out all the Cleaners so that all this incident would be buried in this dirty sewer.
It was also due to this reason that Michelle reminded him via her gaze to destroy the God’s eye as he was killing the Cleaners’ leader.
He needed to completely disrupt the communication between the Cleaners and the Church --- It might be Benjamin’s demise if there were to be any slight information to reach the Church.
The steps taken afterwards were all derived through logic. The confused Cleaners were no different than any average joe and hence four of them were easily killed.
As Michelle managed to take down the fourth Cleaner, although their ambush was considered successful, it would definitely provoke the remaining Cleaners to retaliate quickly. Therefore Benjamin prepared to strike back.
The Cleaners who were alert of the situation would definitely not be easy victims.
Benjamin shielded himself with "Blister Defense" and started creating water bombs one at a time. He expected the remaining ten Cleaners to gang up on him and so it was necessary to be prepared.
It was a known fact that a Cleaners’ mission was to wipe out mages. Although Michelle "betrayed" them, she did not use any spells at all. Hence they were not aware that "Christine" was a mage and decided to target Benjamin first.
And so, the sweet victory from the ambush was history as both sides were prepared to clash head-on against each other.
"May God bless us."
Ten of the Cleaners held their swords at the same time and the dazzlingly bright holy light concentrated at the tips of their blades.
Their movements were synchronized and they started chanting spells. In the blink of an eye, the holy light that was on the edge of the swords shifted to above their heads. Furthermore, the holy light started to shape-shift and was moulded into a giant sword made out of pure holy light.
They then aimed their respective swords at Benjamin.
The swords of the holy light flew towards him in an attempt to strike him down.
At the same time, Benjamin had already created tens of water bombs.
Maintaining tens of water bombs had taken a toll on his body but he would not underestimate the Cleaners as it was a life and death situation. Hence he had no choice but to give his all. He used all his water bombs at once to fight against the magnificent swords of holy light.
He started having a headache after he fired all of his water bombs. However, he pressed on and cast the Icebreaking Spell to create a thick, shiny ice mirror in front of him.
He was afraid that the water bombs were not powerful enough to counter the swords of holy light and they would split him and his Blister Defense into half. Hence he summoned the Icebreaking Spell in hope to use the laws of reflection of light to counter the swords of holy light.
This strategy was not something he came up with in the midst of the crisis. He was already finding ways to counter divine art when he was learning Icebreaking Spell since he had to face the Church in the future. From his research, he found out that divine art is a light based magic. Hence if it is made out of light, physics law should apply and it could be reflected.
Benjamin had come up with this countermeasure plan a long time ago. However, he did not know how this would turn out as this was his first time countering a divine art.
He felt anxious.
The water bombs and the swords of holy light clashed with each other and caused tens of explosions, creating noises loud enough to burst one’s ear drum. It felt like the whole sewer was shaking as the sound reverberated.
All the water bombs exploded at the same time, filling the area with splashes of water like giant tidal waves and drowned the swords of the holy light.
"Did it work?" Benjamin was delighted at the outcome.
The Cleaners were known for their joint attack and the power of their joint attack had reduced significantly as they had lost three members and the guidance of a team leader.
However, Benjamin’s delight soon came to an end as the water collapsed to the ground. A ray of golden light broke through the water curtain. It was as if a waterfall had been cut in half by the ray of light.
It was the swords of the holy light!
Its shape was distorted as it clashed with the water bombs and its size had been reduced by half as well. However it still carried the momentum of purification and flew towards Benjamin.
Benjamin quickly raised his iced mirror to deflect the holy light.
The sword and the iced mirror collided and the holy light scattered everywhere. It was like the welding sparks, so bright that everyone could not open their eyes.
However, Benjamin had to open his eyes to witness this moment of truth.
An explosion was heard and the iced mirror shattered into millions of pieces and disappeared into thin air. The sword of the holy light could not maintain its shape any longer and dispersed into ten shards of holy light.
However, these shards of holy lights did not disappear and it stubbornly stormed towards Benjamin!
"Darn it, it’s so stubborn!"
Benjamin did not have the time to do anything else. He was concerned that the Blisters Defense could not cope with these shards but there was nothing he could have done. Using multiple spells continuously had taken a toll on his body. At most, he could only summon a giant water ball and place it in front of him as a shield. His magic supply had finally run dry.
Oh dear water ball. What could one water ball do?
The shards of holy light went into the water ball and their speed did not slow down at all.
Judging by the looks of it, a single giant water ball was not enough to block the remnants of the sword of holy light.
However...
Benjamin had a light bulb moment as he observed the situation!
Before the shards of holy light penetrated the water ball, he used the triangular symbol to create and control a giant water ball - just like how he would usually "play" with the water balls.
With his command, the water within the water ball started flowing in circles. In a blink of an eye, the waters inside the giant ball swirled and its speed gained as time passed.
Everything changed when the swirl was formed.
The shards of the holy light that were about to penetrate through the water ball were being absorbed by the spiral. They could not advance any further even though they almost penetrated through the water ball.
"What... magic is this?"
The Cleaners who attacked Benjamin could not believe their eyes and tried to control the shards of the holy light to allow them to penetrate through the water ball.
However, all their efforts were in vain as they soon lost control of these shards of holy light. The shards of light were like fishes swimming along the flow inside the water ball. It involuntarily swam with the flow and no longer had any threats.
Benjamin released a sigh of relief as he saw what happened.
He finally deflected this attack.
This attack was definitely the Cleaners’ strongest attack as this fight was not meant to test the strengths of their opponents but to kill them in one strike. Benjamin estimated that the Cleaners could not attack with such a scale of devastating effect any longer.
He was lucky that he came up with the idea of using the water ball to deflect the attack, or else things could have ended differently.
At that moment, he finally understood the unlimited potential of the water ball spell.
This water ball spell could be considered an effective form of magic and could guarantee his safety if used properly.
However, Benjamin did not have the time to appreciate the art of the water ball as the next wave of attack was about to hit him.
As soon as the Cleaners saw their swords of holy light had been completely deflected, they made their next move without any hesitation. They held their swords and raced towards Benjamin so that they could gang him up.
Benjamin was stunned by their determination.
"What the hell! They decided to go with close combat as soon as their long range attack became ineffective!"