236 – Three Necromancers vs. City Lord Gideon

Gideon laughed wildly with rage, "Fine! Since you all want to play this game, I can too! I will fight until my end and definitely bring one of you down with me! Even if I fail to do so, I wonder if your 'comrades' will still be so kind to you after you are injured?!"

All three necromancers stayed silent and didn't respond to that threat.

That was precisely why they didn't want to fight Gideon until the bitter end, as they all belonged to separate factions. If they got too heavily injured, there was no guarantee the other two wouldn’t turn and kill them for their treasures and to obtain their corpse. Just because they were all necromancers didn't mean they possessed close unity among themselves; in fact, it was quite the opposite.

A Master Rank’s corpse was of immense value to both Mage and Warrior necromancers alike.

"If that's what you want." Orin gripped his war scythe tightly and pointed it toward Gideon, "As a Necromancer Warrior, don't think I have no use for your corpse. With yours, I can even raise my Strength to a much higher level!" After saying this, he swung his scythe diagonally, and a dense, dark slash erupted, shooting straight toward Gideon.

Gideon too swung his own broadsword while pushed the weapon's rune to its absolute maximum. A bright flame slashed out and clashed directly against the dark energy.

BOOM!

As if two worlds had collided in mid-sky, a small section of the western sky above the city suddenly split into day and night, creating a unique and mesmerizing sight for any onlookers. Unfortunately, almost all the citizens and Mana Wielders had long since fled, so the western region was mostly empty with almost no one left to enjoy the scene—except a few brave and stupid individuals.

Among the stupid ones, there were two completely cloaked figures standing and clapping their hands like idiots while watching the spectacular sight.

"Brother Eric, won't you also be able to produce something like this? We just need to find a sister who has the Fire Element, then we can enjoy such unique sights all day long," Livy said, watching the clash between darkness and fire with deep admiration.

Eric felt like shooting his own head off.

‘Why do they want to sell me out to another girl so badly? Two is already good enough, right? Are they thinking that if there are more of them, they can finally force me into submission? Humph! Good luck!’

Eric, at this moment, comprehended that only his ‘third training-breakthrough’ brother could now save his manliness and guarantee he would remain at the top, not below! Ahem.

He coughed, "No need. You can just engrave more Fire and Darkness Runes, and we ourselves can create such visual effects anytime." Of course, they didn’t possess even one-tenth of the Mana required at this moment to create something like that on their own.

Livy pouted with dissatisfaction, "But runes take far too much mana!"

"Alright, alright." Eric swiftly changed the subject, "Tell me, what do you think of the Master Ranks' battle?"

Livy answered with a thoughtful look while keeping her eyes on the ongoing conflict, "Master Ranks possess a massive amount of mana. But I must admit, the Rank 4 warriors’ fight is quite… lame and slow, maybe because they are fighting while flying. However, their fanciful elemental attacks are quite powerful and have a massive range, which is a little difficult to dodge if we receive them from mid-range. On the other hand, the mages' spells are quite fascinating and threatening.”

Eric agreed. Indeed, from their perspective, the warriors' fights were quite dull, except for the elemental attacks, which were an eye-opener for them since they didn’t have enough mana to create such massive attacks.

He then watched as the woman with the giant skeleton shouted out a spell, "Death's Embrace." Spectral chains suddenly manifested around Gideon, immobilizing him. Thanks to that opening, he was instantly struck by an arrow-like spell hurled by the blue-haired girl. Following that, Gideon managed to break free of the chains using pure brute strength, though he now bore a new, bleeding puncture wound on his shoulder.

Without a doubt, Gideon was getting bullied left and right. Yet, he seemed completely fired up, clashing against the bald guy's scythe head-on with his broadsword and constantly getting thrown back, as his raw strength was far inferior to Orin's.

"I have a feeling all three necromancers are holding back. What for?" Livy asked, confused. She wore a thoughtful frown on her beautiful brows, before answering her own question with another question, "Are they saving Mana?"

Eric responded with a light smile, "All three are hoping the old man will heavily injure the other two. The more he injures the others, the better it is for them. And so, he is in a very pathetic situation, stuck like a tennis ball in a match."

"Fighting either of the ladies in close quarters would mean a sure-shot death for the old man due to their already prepared defenses. So, he was left with fighting the bald dude only. But tragically, the old man is simply no match for the bald guy in terms of physical strength either."

Eric shook his head and chuckled cuttingly, "The old man can't even pick up on the hint the bald man is indirectly dropping. No, perhaps he does realize it, but he is completely helpless. Poor guy…"

"Oh, what hint?" Livy asked innocently.

"You should have seen how the bald dude is throwing the old man left and right. He is indirectly telling him to go attack either of the ladies first, but the old man is just too determined to fight the guy he physically cannot win against."

Eric shook his head with a smile. He couldn’t accurately guess exactly why the necromancers were dragging out the fight, but it was clear the three were wasting time for some unknown purpose.

Old man Gideon did try launching long-range strikes toward the ladies. Unfortunately, long-range combat wasn't his specialty, so he couldn't achieve anything significant other than forcing the blue-haired girl to dodge, while the black-haired woman stayed perfectly still as her giant skeleton boyfriend easily protected her.

Overall, Gideon’s current situation was pathetic. He was being so headstrong while knowing there was no point in fighting this battle upfront; it was a rather stupid move from Eric’s point of view.

If Eric were in Gideon’s shoes and knew there was no saving the city but also couldn’t abandon it, he would just go around slaughtering every single necromancer Apprentice Rank spread across the city grid. He would kill with his absolute highest speed and make sure all three Master Ranks lost their minds, as there were bound to be many of their subordinates down there. Even if there were none, he would still slaughter all the Apprentice Ranks just to put a massive dent in the necromancer organization as retribution. A top person wouldn’t have very good days if there weren't enough common fodder to lick their feet clean.

Livy sighed with pity. "...Then, Brother Eric, when are we attacking? I feel like at this rate, Lord Gideon won’t survive for much longer."

"Let's enjoy... ahem, I mean let's watch a bit more and learn about Rank 4's true capabilities. Just be ready when I tell you to cook the hundred into one. Also, you don't need to worry; the old man along with the others still has the necessary energy to entertain... ahem, I mean enough energy left to fight," Eric answered nonchalantly.

Livy nodded, giggling at his slips.

Thus, both Eric and Livy quietly watched while occasionally commenting and discussing the Master Ranks’ stats and combat limits.

Eric did find a number of perfect opportunities to drop the nuclear bomb, but he wanted to learn more about Master Ranks to truly understand their strength, stats, and limitations. Thus, he allowed Gideon to get bullied a bit more, counting it as his necessary payment for the massive assistance they would soon be providing.

All three necromancers possessed their own unique ways of fighting, alongside specific advantages they excelled at.

For example, Orin had high physical stats and a highly corrupted, unique Dark element. Kaira possessed a wide variety of spells and showed greater casting expertise than Selene.

Although Selene seemed like the strongest entity, she was actually the most passive in the current exchange. Her main power relied on her five-meter-tall skeleton lover and a few spells that were just Tier 1 and 2, which also took her too long to cast. A large part of her handicap was likely due to her constantly spending her Mana to keep her giant Skeleton toy-boy stable in midair, as that skeleton didn't seem to possess any independent Mana of its own. Because of that upkeep, Selene couldn’t focus on casting high-level spells properly like Kaira could.

Over half an hour soon flew by, and both Eric and Livy began to grow bored.

There were no new actions other than a few mildly interesting spells, yet nothing truly amazing. Meanwhile, Gideon was barely able to fight properly anymore, so there was nothing left to learn from him; in fact, without his Fire Rune, Gideon would have been in a far more pathetic state long ago.

That was only what Eric was thinking; any other early-stage Rank 4 would still heavily respect Gideon. Even though he was at a total disadvantage by being outnumbered, he was still fighting with a stubborn spirit that would make any other early-stage Rank 4 exercise a good amount of caution, and all three necromancers weren't dismissing him as absolute nonsense either.

---

At this moment, Gideon, who was bleeding from all over his body, took a deep breath and delivered a massive, sweeping slash with his broadsword, paying a huge amount of Mana to heavily overuse the fire rune.

A long, thick, wide arc of roaring fire slashed out, targeting all three necromancers simultaneously.

"Woo." Both Orin and Kaira swiftly moved behind Selene to dodge, letting her massive skeleton block the incoming fire slash.

The Berserk Giant skeleton zombie slashed diagonally with its massive bone halberd at the incoming flames, easily dispersing the attack into nothingness.

Selene didn't say a single word about Orin and Kaira using her as a shield to defend themselves. She had now shown them sufficiently just how powerful her zombie truly was; even Orin would now understand her zombie was physically more powerful than his own Warrior body.

Orin and Kaira didn't thank or compliment Selene either. They were extremely jealous of her, especially Kaira as a fellow mage.

Kaira had worked exceptionally hard to become as strong as she was now, yet Selene had everything provided to her like a coddled princess due to her powerful past background.

Kaira and Orin had been constantly changing their locations throughout the battle, unlike Selene who remained stationary. Now that they had all gathered together in one spot, Kaira suggested in a bored tone, "Let's end this. Our juniors by now should have gained enough experience and harvested enough resources. I am also starting to get bored with this battle."