Chapter 732: Encirclement
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Before the crystal ball was thrown, the elemental storm had declined quite greatly. However, as the shining crystal ball flew towards the inside of the storm, the form of the entire storm suddenly shrunk, followed by that, it erupted abruptly.
Boom!
A glaring white light shrouded over the sky, a shocking sound of explosion shocked everyone in the valley. As the elemental storm exploded in the sky, Grant could not suppress it any longer, he released all the accumulated elements, spiritual energy and other miscellaneous things peremptorily.
"This... This maniac!"
With the terrifying elemental attack covering over in a flash, Grant had no choice, he could only grab some oddly shaped cross, crumpled them, and coruscated a strong power of a guardian to protect himself.
Despite that, the attack of spiritual energy shook his head that he could feel a dull pain in his brain. When he looked up, all he could see were chaotic elements, the intertwined colors blue and white had blocked all his vision, even his connection with the light element had been cut off.
Under the circumstances, he was even just left with some simple and basic divine arts.
However...
"Time to die!"
Suddenly, Benjamin’s voice was heard from afar, which shocked Grant and he broke out in cold sweat.
He did not understand how Benjamin could still attack under that situation, but...he could no longer withstand another round of bombing.
Because of that, Grant immediately built more layers of defense, and at the same time, he tried his best to fly backwards as much as possible. As he could not see anything and could not feel anything, the situation was very disadvantageous to him. He needed to first break out from the aftermath of the explosion from the elemental storm!
Only that the vision resulting from the explosion of the elemental storm seemed to have smothered over the entire Norman Valley, Grant could not fly out of it no matter what he did.
With no other options, he could only take out another necklace and crumpled it. A holy white light arose from his hands again and shone towards the chaotic elements outside.
Under the shining of the white light, the blue and white light fog finally started to subside. The chaotic elements were cleared in no time, the devastated valley resurfaced before him. The mountain was full of charred potholes, some spots were even bombed flat, showing a bald riverbed, which looked like wrinkled and ugly skin of a corpse.
As for Benjamin, he was nowhere to be found.
... He ran away.
As Grant realized that, he took a deep breath and immediately started to sense the stolen key. Yet, he found that his sense for the key had vanished, which was most likely sealed by magic again.
Instantly, Grant clenched his fists. He took out the "God’s Eye", and started sending a message to all the priests nearby:
"The target has just escaped from the Norman Valley, everyone please be alert, construct the Holy Barrier, as soon as you find any trace of him, I’ll be there immediately!"
This time, he set a trap for Benjamin to fall in, other than disguising as a priest and moving together with the relief team, he had also set up an encirclement outside of the valley. With his inescapable nets, there would be no chance for anyone to escape.
This time...he was determined to not let Benjamin escape again!
As the holy light shone, Grant disappeared in the sky above the valley.
While the Church initiated a raid plan, Benjamin had just escaped from the Norman Valley, he was hiding in the bushes and he looked embarrassed.
"... You’re really looking for death." The System’s mocking sound could be heard from his mind.
Benjamin shook his head helplessly.
"What else could I have done, time is almost up, if I don’t gamble and take a risk, I won’t be able to leave at all." He answered in his heart, "At least for now, I’ve gotten rid of Grant, and have completely drawn the attention of the Church, which will buy us a lot of time to prepare for war. Now, I just have to sneak out of here."
"In your dreams... Can you really sneak out of here?"
"Never try, never know?"
With that, Benjamin hid in the bushes, performed the water elemental induction magic, and carefully moved outside as he observed the movements around him.
The Norman Valley was not a small place, but the surroundings were scarily quiet. Benjamin knew very well, the Church had probably swept the areas nearby in order to surround him, so that it would be easier for them to capture him. It would not be such an easy task for him to escape.
Only that, even now, as he recalled the operation previously, he still felt that it was scary that Grant purposely disguised himself as a relief team member in order to attack him.
Did the Church know that he was going to rob that relief team?
Benjamin did not know what went wrong, was there a spy among the informers of General Stuart? Or did the Church had already seen through his actions and knew that he would show up? No matter what, it was not a good sign that his actions were already predicted by the enemy.
Subsequently, he felt that it became even tougher for him to escape.
After carefully moving forwards for about half an hour and avoiding all the Holy Knights along the way whom were inspecting, bit-by-bit, Benjamin was finally close to leaving that area. However at that moment, the water element from afar gave him a negative feedback as the situation ahead was not looking optimistic.
"This time you’re doomed." The System said gloatingly, "Look at that barrier, then look at the Cannons of Holy Light and the bishop hiding among the crowd, this time you’re really doomed."
Benjamin hid behind a tree and rubbed his temple, he was too tired to talk to the System anymore.
On the road ahead, rows of well-trained soldiers were seen. As he looked carefully, those were all people from the church, the proportion of priests was even scarily high. They had formed a tight and invulnerable encirclement, which completely blocked off the path ahead.
The more shocking thing was that the defense barrier set up was very similar to the one in Havenwright. That layer of gleaming golden barrier, although it was not extremely powerful, but the area enveloped was so wide that it barricaded every position and corner. Norman Valley was so well-defended at that moment that not even one tiny bird could fly out.
Benjamin took a deep breath and continued sensing further with a fluid mind. Nonetheless, the results were terrible too, he realized that the barrier had stretched all the way beneath them, which formed a shape of a perfectly enclosed ball. No matter which point he could escape from, it would alert everyone from the Church.
With his "Descending of Water" completely used up and the condition of his spiritual energy lacking as well, it would be difficult for him to escape in such a short time. Grant was definitely nearby, if he were to delay behind even for just a while, Grant would be able to rush there in just a few minutes’ time.
How now?
Instantly, Benjamin felt a great pressure. He took a deep breath and thought about all the possible ways, but could not find any that would allow him to escape the encirclement as fast as possible.
Was there really no other way than hiding and waiting for the "Descending of Water" to finish recharging before he could find an opportunity to escape?
It seemed like...that was the only way.
Since he was left with no choice, Benjamin moved away from the encirclement and fumbled towards a forest nearby that had the most obstacles. However, in a flash...he realized that it was not such an easy task after all if he was going to wait for the recharge time to pass.