Chapter 203: Beneath the Sun [2]
Too fast!
Before countless spectators even realized what had happened, the golden light had already reached Zich.
Zich reacted without the slightest hesitation.
His left hand swung sharply, instantly hurling Slimy’s round body toward the left like a blue cannonball. At the same time, he lowered himself and charged forward. Holding the Scythe horizontally before him, he fiercely slashed toward the two golden rays approaching from directly ahead.
CLANG—!
Icy-blue energy violently collided with golden flames.
Zich instantly felt both arms go numb, while the frost gathered along the surface of his scythe was completely evaporated in an instant. Yet instead of trying to withstand the attack head-on, he borrowed the force of the collision to abruptly change direction, sliding dozens of meters across the ground toward the right.
The remaining rays closely pursued him.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The ground exploded continuously.
Molten rock and golden flames scattered wildly in every direction, while the Slimy that Zich had thrown into the air suddenly expanded its body, twisting around two incoming rays with an almost unbelievable degree of flexibility. It then opened its mouth and spat a stream of deep-purple venom toward Lucien.
SIZZLE—!
The venom tore through the air. Before it could even approach within ten meters of Lucien, the golden radiance surrounding him suddenly brightened. Every drop of venom rapidly evaporated in midair like snow falling into blazing flames, leaving behind nothing but a cloud of purple mist carrying a pungent smell.
Lucien did not even move.
"Poison is ineffective against extreme heat."
"I know."
But Zich’s voice suddenly came from another direction.
Lucien’s eyes shifted ever so slightly. Only then did he realize that Zich had somehow already closed to within less than fifty meters of him. The Scythe trailed behind his right hand, while his left held a black sphere covered in countless fine cracks.
The next moment, without the slightest hesitation, Zich smashed the ball against the ground.
RUMBLE—! BOOM!
Black smoke exploded outward instantly.
Its range was so vast that it swallowed more than half the battlefield in the blink of an eye. Nor was it ordinary smoke. This was none other than a Spirit Bomb! Even the spectators watching from above could see nothing but an endlessly rolling sea of black clouds.
"Smoke?"
"What use is that against a Sun Warlock?"
"Is he trying to hide the summoning process?"
Almost the instant everyone began speculating, hurried and densely packed footsteps suddenly echoed from within the black fog from multiple directions.
Lucien stood calmly at the center of the black mist. Though his vision had been completely obscured, his expression was unchanged as he gently raised his hand.
"Second Form! Radiant Sun."
HUM—!
The golden solar wheel floating behind him suddenly expanded, and an even more dazzling light exploded outward from his body in every direction. The black fog was torn apart like storm clouds caught in a violent gale, and the several figures concealed within were simultaneously revealed before everyone’s eyes.
Five skeletons charged toward Lucien from different directions.
Each held a different weapon. Some dragged heavy chains. Some carried battered shields. And two of them even had Spirit Bombs strapped tightly across their ribcages.
The audience instantly erupted.
"When did he summon them?!"
"The instant the smoke exploded!"
"But those skeletons can never get close to Lucien!"
As though proving their judgment correct, the brilliant sunlight swept across the battlefield.
The foremost two skeletons failed to take even a single additional step before golden flames ignited across every inch of their bones. Within only a few seconds, their skeletons rapidly cracked, melted, and finally collapsed into piles of ash.
The remaining three skeletons were likewise unable to advance any farther.
However, just before they were completely engulfed by the golden radiance, Zich had already raised his left hand from afar.
"Detonate."
BOOM! BOOM!
The two Spirit Bombs exploded simultaneously.
Flames, shattered bones, and countless metal fragments swept outward, yet the golden barrier surrounding Lucien did not develop even the slightest crack. Every bit of explosive force was forcibly blocked several meters away from him.
Mithrash could not help shouting,
"Completely ineffective! The Skeleton Bombs Zich prepared can’t break through Lucien’s barrier at all!"
"No," Dragon Count suddenly spoke. "His target was never the barrier."
Mithrash froze.
The very next instant, the ground beneath Lucien’s feet, still covered by the explosions, suddenly trembled faintly.
Crack.
A pale skeletal hand suddenly burst upward from beneath the molten rock, its five fingers clamping around Lucien’s ankle like an iron vice. At almost the exact same moment, the Blood Leech, whose movements had long been concealed beneath the sound of the explosions, suddenly leaped out from another crack in the ground as it lunged straight toward the back of Lucien’s neck.
Underground!
Those charging skeletons had been nothing more than decoys to draw attention from the very beginning!
The real attack had already quietly approached beneath the battlefield while the black fog covered everything!
"He got him!"
Countless spectators leaped to their feet excitedly.
Despite his obvious predicament, Lucien did not even bother turning his head.
"Not a bad idea," he muttered. "Unfortunately..."
Within the depths of his pale golden eyes, a brilliance as dazzling as the blazing sun suddenly ignited.
"Beneath the sun, there are no true shadows."
BOOM—!
A pillar of golden fire dozens of meters in diameter suddenly erupted skyward with Lucien at its center.
The skeletal hand gripping his ankle instantly turned to ash, while the Blood Leech, still suspended in midair, failed to even brush the corner of his robe before the terrifying heat struck it head-on, blasting it backward like a piece of black leather smashed by a giant hammer.
Zich’s pupils contracted.
Through the summoning contract, he had already sensed the danger in advance, yet the speed of this attack still far exceeded his expectations.
Almost at the exact instant the Blood Leech was heavily wounded, the golden pillar of fire suddenly expanded outward, transforming into a devastating ring of blazing flames that swept wildly across the entire battlefield.
The ground continuously melted, and the remaining smoke vanished instantly.
Even the energy barrier more than a hundred meters away rippled violently beneath the scorching heat.
Zich did not attempt to withstand it head-on.
He violently shattered the ground beneath his feet and retreated backward at high speed. At the same time, he raised his left hand.
The massive figure of the Skeleton Knight commander, iron finally appeared before him.
The moment it materialized, the seven-foot-tall, muscular undead knight slammed its arms fiercely into the ground, forcibly ripping up huge slabs of rock with overwhelming strength to form a stone wall several meters thick.
RUMBLE!
The sea of flames crashed directly into the stone wall.
The wall, however, began to melt right before everyone’s eyes!
Iron’s feet sank deeply into the ground as every bone throughout its body bulged violently, attempting to withstand the impact through sheer brute force. Yet the golden flames continuously spread around the edges of the wall, quickly causing its bones to fall apart one after another.
"Fall back!" Zich shouted.
The Skeleton Knight immediately released the wall, spun around, grabbed Zich, and hurled him toward the rear of the battlefield as though throwing a boulder.
WHOOSH—!
Zich’s body spun repeatedly through the air, narrowly avoiding the advancing sea of flames. Iron, however, no longer had enough time to completely retreat. Half of its body was directly struck by the golden flames, causing it to let out a suppressed roar of pain.
After landing, Zich immediately looked up. As expected, when the flames finally touched the Skeleton Knight, it was incinerated into dust as if it had never been there.
The voices in the audience gradually quieted.
This was the power of a Sun Warlock.
No complicated tactics or need to wrestle with summons one by one. As long as he stood at the center of the battlefield and continuously expanded the coverage of his spells, every summon wishing to approach him first had to cross a sea of terrifying heat capable of melting steel.
"The gap is just too great..."
"Zich’s trap was already brilliant, but Lucien simply doesn’t give the summons any chance to get close."
"At this rate, all of his summons will eventually be burned to death."