Elite Mages' Academy

Chapter 479: Attackers From The Skies

The moment Xiao Lin spoke, they seemed to realize they had been discovered, and the assault from the skies started. Xiao Lin could feel the sound of the winds charging toward him quickly. The winds were as sharp as swords, and he immediately converted his attributes to Strength as he raised his Holy Sword to block.

Bang!

Following the loud impact, Xiao Lin helt a large force colliding with his sword. However, the Holy Sword’s durability was proven there, and thanks to him putting up his defenses, he was not hit by the sudden attack. Yet, when Xiao Lin prepared to counter, the sound was retreating rapidly.

How fast!

The rest of them immediately started their counter attack as a few flame balls shot toward the sky. Class Nine’s Wang Wanzhu also chose to focus on flame magic, and was more familiar with it than Xiao Lin. Her focus had led to her already mastering the higher level Grand Fireball.

A large flaming ball was sent up to the sky. In that brief moment of light, their silhouettes were revealed in the sky.

The high basic attributes of the monitors really shined here; if the regular students had been met with such an ambush, they would have been wiped instantly.

The first attack was by Class Five’s An Luo; he was the only person who specialized in archery among the monitors, and Xiao Lin vaguely remembered that he had boasted that his talent was increased accuracy when it came to archery. That allowed him to show a high level of archery despite the lack of vision.

An Luo drew his bow, and with a few shots, a low and sharp cry could be heard, but it looked like the ambusher only sustained minor injuries.

However, An Luo’s attacks revealed their opponent’s location. Chen Dao managed to complete his spell; the kid, whose talent in magic was only second to Gu Xiaoyue’s, shot out an intense red light from his staff, causing the few of them who specialized in magic to do a double take.

“Flame Dragon!”

A large flaming dragon shot out of Chen Dao’s staff. That was a Bronze-ranked spell, and the difficulty of learning it as well as the requirements were both very high. It was also much higher ranked than anything anyone else had.

The Flame Dragon’s power was immense, and thanks to An Luo’s arrows that had slowed down the attackers, the dragon managed to swallow the targets whole. After a sharp cry, the sound of an object dropping to the ground could be heard.

“Everyone, keep defending. Cheng Ming and I will go look!” Xiao Lin immediately said; he had wanted to make a move, but it seemed like the other monitors had high combat ability as well. Their defenses were sufficient, so he brought along the highly defensive Cheng Ming. The most important thing was for them to find out the identity of their attacker.

With Miracle active and Intelligence pumped to the maximum, Xiao Lin had the highest perception out of everyone. Following the direction of the sound, Cheng Ming walked in front with his tower shield and Xiao Lin carefully walked behind with his sword in hand.

A few hundred meters away from the sound, Xiao Lin pointed his finger and shot out a few flame bullets, temporarily lighting up the night. Looking at the bodies on the ground, Xiao Lin and Cheng Ming gasped.

Xiao Lin slung a carcass on his shoulder and turned back. He threw the body in front of the other monitors. “Griffins! The ones in the skies are griffins. We need to be careful. Griffins might not be that famous on Planet Norma for their combat abilities, but not many creatures can challenge them in the air.”

“Griffins?”

“The ones we rode earlier?”

The expressions of the monitors all changed. They had done their homework as well, and naturally understood that griffins were hard to handle while they were flying, especially for those who did not have the ability to hit them. Other than defending passively, there was not much of a better way.

In the next few hours, they focused completely on keeping their defenses up. Even though An Luo’s archery and Chen Dao’s large-scale magical attacks, coupled with Xiao Lin’s perception, let them kill off the occasional griffin, it did not really damage much of the entire flock of griffins.

The griffins had immense speed and reactions, after Xiao Lin and the others made their preparations, they could defend themselves quite well. After all, the monitors were all talent holders, and their combat abilities were not bad. However, the cover of the night gave the griffins natural protection. The griffin’s attacks had all been countered by then, but after each attack, the griffins would slyly pull away at a high speed, not giving them many chances to counter-attack.

Following Chen Dao’s mental exhaustion as well as An Luo’s physical exhaustion, Xiao Lin’s Miracle state had run out as well, which made them even more passive. Xiao Lin actually had the ability to fight back if he activated Ruin, even if he did not have vision or the ability to fly; he could rely on the devastating power of Ruin to clear out the field with large-scale attacks.

However, after some hesitation, Xiao Lin chose not to do so. Even with the increase in attributes and him being more familiar with Miracle, Xiao Lin had yet to see much improvement in his Ruin state. He would be powerless for a long time after using it.

The griffins’ earlier attacks had all just been used to check on their abilities, and Xiao Lin was filled with suspicion on the attack as well, so he chose not to use his trump card.

The truth was like he had thought. From the cries in the sky, they could tell that there were at least a dozen griffins in the skies, but the griffins did not use any formations, nor were the attacks as intense as they anticipated. However, the defending monitors did not dare let their guards down, their minds tensed up, not allowing themselves to relax.

It continued for an hour, all the way until the first ray of sunlight shot out over the horizon. The night-time attackers made a final round around them before slowly flying away in the distance. Everyone could finally see with their own eyes, and it really was a flock of griffins. They could not mistake that after having ridden those beasts.

After half an hour, the skies were completely bright, and the night sky could no longer be used as cover. Seeing as the griffins showed no signs of returning, everyone let out a sigh of relief, collectively collapsing on the ground.

The fight they had gone through most of the night might not have been that intense, only resulting in some light injuries on three who specialized in magic, the rest of them were fine. It had taken a toll on them mentally, and they were completely exhausted.

45: Assimilation

“Liao Long, are you alright?” Luo Ya walked towards ‘Liao Long’ and asked in concern. “Where are you hurt? Do you have healing medicine?

“You can’t move? Don’t worry, we will save you and bring you back. We are comrades…”

She moved closer step by step. Towards the end, her voice got gentler, as if she was comforting the other person.

“Save me…”

‘Liao Long’ was still pleading for help. However, his voice was getting weaker. He was breathing in more air than he breathed out, as though he would die at any moment.

“Don’t worry. I’ll save you immediately!”

As Luo Ya spoke, they were already less than five meters away from each other. The moment she finished speaking, she suddenly shot forward. She rushed in front of the other party in an instant.

Wang Teng only saw a sharp sword light flashing in the dark. The speed of her attack was extremely fast. It felt as though the moment she took her sword out of its sheath, she had already stabbed ‘Liao Long.’

“Luo Ya!”

Her three teammates’ expressions changed. They didn’t expect Luo Ya to attack ‘Liao Long.’

They had also noticed something amiss, but they didn’t want to attack ‘Liao Long.’ After all, he had been their teammate for many years.

Luo Ya’s expression didn’t change, though. A cold glint flashed past her eyes as she stabbed her long sword viciously into ‘Liao Long’s’ body. She didn’t care about their relationship at all.

Wang Teng’s eyes widened. This lady left a strong impression on him.

She was sharp, decisive, and ruthless!

Wang Teng was able to notice the difference with the help of his Spiritual Sight. However, Luo Ya acted solely based on her observation and judgment.

It wasn’t easy for her to make such a decision!

At first, he wanted to remind the other party, but when he noticed that she had another motive, he decided to wait and see.

Although the result was unexpected, he wasn’t too shocked.

In the next instant, Luo Ya’s teammates’ expressions changed again. They shouted at her.

“Dodge!”

Almost at the same time, Luo Ya had already started moving. While the sword light slashed through the air, she tilted her body slightly. She pierced her battle sword behind her closer to her right side.

“This was what I was waiting for!”

There was a cold smile at the edge of her lips. She seemed to have been saving her energy for a long time. At this moment, her Force exploded, and the sword rays glowed brightly. It slashed towards the dark apparition with a loud sound.

Howl!

The dark apparition was finally hit. It let out a painful wail as blood spurted out of its chest. It flew backward.

“Let me kill you when you’re injured!”

Wang Teng moved his body and stabbed the dark apparition with his battle sword.

Slash!

The sword penetrated the heart of the dark apparition.

The three members of Luo Ya’s team followed closely behind him. The giant martial warrior held his battle mace and slammed it on the dark apparition’s head.

Splat!

It shattered into pieces like a watermelon.

Such violence!

Wang Teng hurriedly jumped back to evade the red and white matter splattering everywhere.

“You are a step too late.” The giant martial warrior, Kun Qi, laughed while speaking to his other two teammates.

“Kun Qi, how did you react so quickly today?” The dwarf martial warrior was frustrated, but he was curious too.

“I’ve been staring at this young man. The moment he moved, I moved too,” Kun Qi said smartly.

“You can do this?”

The dwarf and the other man exchanged glances with each other.

Wang Teng looked at Kun Qi in surprise when he heard this. This big guy wasn’t stupid!

Boom!

Just when everyone thought that the trouble was solved, blood spurted out of Luo Ya’s back. Her entire body flew out.

“Luo Ya!”

Kun Qi and the other people screamed in shock as their expressions changed.

They looked at ‘Liao Long.’ He was actually standing up in an extremely weird posture.

His actions were a little stiff. The top half of his body was slouching, his shoulders were bent, and his joints were cracking loudly. He staggered as he stood up.

No one, including Wang Teng, saw how Luo Ya was attacked.

Kun Qi and the other two people rushed over and stood in front of Luo Ya to protect her.

“Luo Ya, how are you?”

“Cough! Fortunately, I managed to block some of the damage. I won’t die yet.” Luo Ya crawled up from the ground with difficulty.

Her left arm was injured, most likely fractured. If she didn’t manage to defend herself just now, that attack would have cost her her life.

“Be careful of that thing. He seemed to have… been assimilated.” Luo Ya’s expression was serious. She thought for a moment before she managed to squeeze out this descriptive word.

They had heard of the dark apparition before, but this was their first time meeting one.

As for ‘Liao Long’s’ current condition, they had never heard nor seen it before.

Everyone looked at ‘Liao Long.’

At this moment, they finally saw his face. ‘Liao Long’s’ face was very similar to the dark apparition’s face. His eyes were scarlet, and strange black stripes covered his face. The dark green veins were popping out of his forehead, wriggling like snakes.

It looked disgusting and terrifying.

‘Liao Long’s’ neck was severely mangled. Half of it was already bitten off. Fresh blood flowed out of his wound and trickled down his chest, thigh, and legs. It dripped onto the ground from his trouser legs.

“Stabbing his heart is useless. We need to smash his head,” Luo Ya reminded everyone.

Wang Teng nodded. Luo Ya had already stabbed ‘Liao Long’s’ heart. However, the other party didn’t die and even managed to retaliate.

“What on earth is this!”

Kun Qi and the other people looked at ‘Liao Long’ with complicated expressions. They had sorrow on their faces as they gritted their teeth and cursed uncontrollably.

“KIll it. This thing is no longer your teammate,” Wang Teng said.

“You don’t need to tell us. Let our team deal with this,” Kun Qi glared at Wang Teng and shouted in anger.

“Sure,” Wang Teng said indifferently.

‘Liao Long’ staggered as he stood on the spot. Suddenly, it pounced forward without any warning. The clumsy movement just now had disappeared completely as it charged at Kun Qi and his teammates at an unprecedented speed. It started running on all fours like the dark apparition.

Luo Ya, Kun Qi, and their teammates released their full power. They wanted to send their teammate off personally and not let him remain as a monster.

However, the dark apparition was really difficult to deal with. They had already experienced it before. The ‘Liao Long’ in front of them was assimilating into a dark apparition. As time passed, it became more and more similar to a dark apparition. Darkness was its element. The martial warriors found it hard to tackle it.

Wang Teng didn’t move. His gaze landed on the dark apparition that was already killed.

Dark Force*5

Beginner stage dark talent*1

Spirit*8

Three bubbles were floating above the corpse.

These three bubbles were different from the bubbles in the past. They were giving off a black glow.

Killing dark apparitions would drop attribute bubbles too!

Dark Force? Dark talent? Wang Teng was dumbfounded. There were such attributes too?

If he picked them up, would he become a dark apparition?

Wang Teng had his concerns. He couldn’t help but hesitate. The system won’t harm me, right?

Eventually, he gritted his teeth and picked up the three bubbles.

As the beginner stage dark talent merged into his body, Wang Teng felt a sense of intimacy with the darkness around him. It was as if he was able to turn invisible when he stood in the dark. No one would be able to find him.

Is this the dark talent?

There’s dark Force too!

Wang Teng felt a weak Force in his Force nucleus. He could sense that the dark Force was different from the five elements and the other mutated Forces.

He couldn’t state what exactly it was, but it was a natural difference.

The dark Force was colder and eerier. The five elements Forces and mutated Forces, even the ice Force, had a warm and vibrant feel.

Finally, it was the spirit attribute. The dark apparition had dropped 8 points of spirit. It was a surprise for Wang Teng. After all, no martial warriors had dropped this much spirit before.

Is there something special about dark apparitions? He thought to himself.