Ch. 40 - Fear
Tang Qi still remembered the moment before he was sent flying.
He clearly heard the explosive sound.
He just couldn't see its source, direction, or even its target.
[Alertness] made him instinctively move his legs, knowing which direction he should dodge toward.
But this tremendous force arrived almost simultaneously with the explosion.
His speed couldn't get him to the ground in an instant.
The column-shaped, invisible repulsive force directly slammed into his waist and abdomen.
"Bang!"
Tang Qi only felt as if he'd been struck by a heavyweight boxer's punch.
When he collapsed to the ground, his internal organs contracted from the impact, squeezing out stomach acid that surged back up his throat.
"Cough cough—ugh!"
Pain and dry heaving struck simultaneously. Tang Qi, paralyzed on the ground, had acidic water trickling from the corner of his mouth, his eyes also reddening, barely able to straighten up.
Without a doubt, if he hadn't obtained the [Alertness] feat, any of the previous arrow volleys or chaotic blades would have pushed Tang Qi toward entering his next life.
But it was only 'awareness,' not true 'avoidance' in the real sense.
So, limited by Tang Qi's own physique, it was impossible for a single feat to help him survive every crisis—
Things like arrows from a distance, or the trajectory of a swinging blade—these he could react to and see clearly, making dodging much easier.
But if the crisis arrived in the blink of an eye, or if the range was wide enough.
To the point where his reflexes and physical condition weren't sufficient to help him escape danger.
All he could feel was trembling and despair.
The explosive sound rang out again by his ear.
He squinted his eyes, vaguely making out that trajectory—
It seemed like an invisible, colorless tremendous force that could only be glimpsed when it burst through the white fog, faintly distorting the air as it came breaking through from above.
[Eldritch Blast], a cantrip unique to warlocks.
The reason it wasn't as popular as Fire Bolt was simply because not that many people liked signing contracts that sold their souls.
Warlocks were a group of spellcasters who obtained power by signing contracts with a 'patron.'
'Patron' itself was just a general term, not fixed.
It could be some supreme and lofty deity, an ancient and bloodthirsty longsword.
Or it could simply be a small devil struggling to make ends meet.
If wizards needed to study the 'formulas' that existed everywhere, and sorcerers needed to excavate the magic hidden in their bloodlines.
Then warlocks obtained their 'patron's' gifts by selling their souls, freedom, and even everything of value to the patron.
To the point that they could skip the learning process entirely.
Overnight, they could grasp power that some people could never touch in their entire lives.
But even knowing the spellcaster's identity, Tang Qi's body was still a beat slower than his nerves.
The pain was still fighting against his will.
Fear hit him again.
He knew he couldn't avoid it—
"Clang! Clang!"
The force field arrived in an instant.
But it was as if it had exploded on steel, bursting out with a crisp metallic ring.
"If you're not dead, get the fuck up! I can't navigate in this goddamn fog!"
Black Snake precisely caught the impact points of those two blasts.
The blade in his hand flipped, making that repulsive force slam hard onto his slender blade that was less than two fingers wide.
The impact was fierce, forcing even him to stagger back a few steps.
"Rua!"
Kuru possessed the ability to see in the dark.
It saw clearly the source of the impact and immediately waved its wand.
Ice crystals tore through the night, rushing straight toward the dome above—
A huge earth-yellow bat with a rat's head was soaring and lurking in the night sky, circling overhead.
On its back sat a goblin crone dressed in a pitch-black robe.
Seeing the ice crystal coming, she screamed in fright and hurriedly patted the bat's neck, signaling it to maneuver in the air.
Just as she narrowly dodged and before she could feel smug, she saw that the bat's left wing had been covered with a layer of ghostly white frost—
That was the position Kuru actually wanted to hit!
The bat's wings were already thin and translucent.
Now they were suddenly covered with spider-web-like frost, cold air pressing directly on its skin, seeping into its blood, dyeing that flesh wing with a layer of frost-white.
Even the speed of its flapping slowed down because of it.
What was worse was that because the two wings were now flapping at different amplitudes, the bat couldn't maintain its balance for a moment.
Its body tilted, and the elderly warlock had no strength. Her legs couldn't grip its back, and she just fell from forty feet in the air.
For smart beings, calculations were never the difficult part.
Kuru might not be human, but it was definitely smart enough.
"Help!"
The warlock's hoarse throat expressed panic.
Several nearby goblins and orcs had no choice but to give up their pursuit.
They quickly interlaced their arms into a 'net,' standing at her landing point, barely catching her.
This actually relieved the pressure on Black Snake.
Getting a gap, he saw the enemy clearly and without hesitation, suddenly moved his legs.
If the spellcaster was far up in the sky, he would find it difficult to cause effective damage to her.
But now that she had fallen to the ground, this short distance was only a breath's time for him—
Since Tang Qi couldn't avoid those invisible repulsive forces, he had lost the possibility of breaking through the encirclement.
He couldn't just abandon this bard who could see through illusions.
Then he could only take the risk, first taking down this spellcaster to fight for a chance to escape.
He didn't believe that a goblin warlock who could use third-circle spells would be as cheap as grass like those suicide squads that went ahead!
Black Snake's blade was always vicious and deadly.
The edge was dark and lusterless, yet swift as lightning.
It was about to pierce through the shoulder of the orc beside her and slash toward her throat.
So far, not a single third-circle spellcaster had survived from his hands at such close range.
Precisely because his blade was fast enough, it wouldn't leave them time to react at all.
Most of those who died under his blade only realized the pain in their necks at the moment of death.
But this time was different.
He was facing a spellcaster surrounded by guards.
This meant 'Snake's Kiss' couldn't reach its maximum speed.
It also meant that this curved blade's brilliant battle record would now have an indelible stain—
An orc reacted in time, swinging its hand axe, its natural tremendous strength ready to be unleashed.
It roared, and amid the "clang," sparks flew as it forcibly deflected the slender blade of 'Snake's Kiss.'
This brief gap was enough for the old goblin to come to her senses.
Just as Black Snake failed, she tightly gripped the necklace at her chest.
Dark eldritch light flickered from it, her pupils instantly spreading from the center, even the whites of her eyes and her entire eyeballs turned into a uniform pitch black.
Her withered palm suddenly opened, and a handful of black soil that came from nowhere suddenly scattered before her eyes with the wind.
The black soil flew up, as fine as ants—buzzing like mosquitoes.
When it was scattered, it was like locusts passing through, covering nearly thirty feet in front of her!
"Fear!"
The incantation she chanted was obscure and difficult to understand, heavy with onomatopoeias combined together, more insane than gibberish.
Black Snake was extremely close to her, with no way to avoid it.
When the black soil poured into his nostrils and the 'worms' climbed onto his pores.
Only one thought remained in his heart:
"I'm finished."
[Fear: Illusion school, third-circle spell.
Creates an illusion in a 30-foot cone area. All creatures covered by the spell will drop all held objects and directly face their inner fears.
Those who fall into panic will find the safest route to flee from the caster until there is no way to go.
Those who are fearless will inflict the magic's panic on the caster themselves.]
Why was the status of spellcasters always so lofty?
Why did the rule of city-states and empires always need the support and maintenance of spellcasters?
This was certainly not out of respect for scholars—
What could earn respect was always only power.
Perhaps the physical qualities of low-level spellcasters were far inferior to those of same-level adventurers like them who had been through countless battles.
But the varied and numerous spells had always been the source of headaches.
"You'd better be able to eliminate the spellcaster among your enemies at the very start of battle. Otherwise, at the end of battle, you'll be eliminated by the enemy's spellcaster."
Unfortunately, Black Snake had failed to successfully practice this well-known rule.
The price of taking risks was something he couldn't afford—
Black Snake lost all his strength, leaving only trembling behind.
As if he had never been brave.
All the people infected by the black soil, whether friend or foe, now went weak at the knees and knelt before the goblin, their eyes only showing pitch black and emptiness.
A fear born from the depths of their hearts appeared before them, Black Snake's eyes—
Making him feel as if he was in an abyss.
Letting the deep sea squeeze his chest.
He gradually couldn't breathe.
"No, don't!!!"
No one knew what he saw.
But this Black Snake who had victory in his grasp just moments ago actually threw down his curved blade at this moment, struggling amid tears and wails.
He wanted to flee at all costs—
But just as he cried out, about to straighten up.
The pitch black receded from the whites of his eyes.
As his vision became clearer and clearer.
He saw an unexpected figure thrust a rust-covered curved blade into the warlock's chest:
"Don't what? don’t tell me you actually got hooked by the illusion?"