Chapter 610: They Chose the Wrong Target

The presence of the Black Vultures here had a very clear meaning.

The convoy from Base #3 had become the target of a planned operation.

One of the five masked figures remained on the high ground to the right, holding a metal panel in his hand, and he seemed to be in control of the mana flows of the formation.

The second person took position on the high ground to the left.

He held a long weapon that allowed him to cover the movements of the guards from a long distance.

The other two moved toward the sides of the convoy, while the fifth person walked slowly forward along the main road.

He was not taller than his companions, but the way he moved and the reactions of the other four showed that he was the leader of the operation.

The masked man stopped about thirty meters from the central area and looked at the ten semi-transparent enclosures for a moment.

Then he turned his head toward his people.

"None of the ten targets can die." His voice was calm and almost emotionless.

"As for the others, it doesn’t matter if they resist."

The escort commander immediately drew his sword.

"All units, defensive formation! Protect the central area!"

However, before the guards could finish changing their positions, a sharp sound came from the high ground.

Whooosh!

Something thin passed through the air, and one of the guards standing a few meters away from the mages protecting the convoy turned his head.

But it was too late.

A metal projectile passed through a gap in his neck armor, his body froze for a moment, and then he fell to the ground with a muffled sound.

The guard beside him immediately raised his shield, and the second projectile struck its surface, creating a brief shower of sparks.

However, the masked figure on the high ground did not stop. He turned his weapon toward another target, while two ground attackers also moved in from the opposite side.

One of the guards rushed forward to meet them with his sword.

The first attacker deflected the strike with his short weapon and moved past the guard’s body. At the same time, the edge of his weapon struck the back of the guard’s knee.

The man lost his balance.

Before he could steady himself, another strike hit his shoulder and knocked him to the ground.

The attacker did not even stop to check whether the man was dead or not. His target was reaching the central area.

This behavior was familiar to Lian, and he could tell with just one look that they were professionals. The masked figures were carrying out a mission, and it was clear that they had been sent here with a specific goal.

Every move they made was meant to remove an obstacle or help them reach their target.

As far as he knew, the Black Vultures worked on contracts. That meant someone had hired them to attack their convoy.

But who would dare to attack a convoy protected by the governments? Each of the ten young people in this convoy had come from one of the world’s most respected academies.

The escort commander shouted from behind the circle of guards.

"Do you understand who you’re dealing with? These people are under official protection!"

The leader of the Black Vultures gave him a brief look.

"We know."

"Then you should retreat before it’s too late."

"If they were ordinary people, why would we spend so much time preparing this plan?" The masked man tilted his head slightly.

Then he moved his gaze across the ten selected candidates’ enclosures.

"That’s exactly why we’re here."

The commander gritted his teeth, as this answer removed all the important doubts.

The attackers were not trying to steal a treasure or something like that. They had not even shown any interest in the convoy’s expensive equipment.

They had come to kidnap the ten selected Awakened.

Some of them were children of powerful families, while others were supported by organizations with great influence.

If the Black Vultures managed to capture these people alive, they could demand huge amounts of money, resources, or political favors in exchange for their release.

They might even have been hired by someone to carry out this exact task.

And worse, the entire plan had been designed using information that should never have been in their hands.

The commander glanced at the active formation for a moment.

Damn it...

He had taken every necessary step to protect the selected candidates, but those same measures had placed the ten people in the best possible position to be kidnapped.

Inside one of the enclosures, Roderick clenched his fist, his gaze fixed on the semi-transparent wall. For a moment, he examined the flow of mana within it.

Then he took one step forward and punched the surface directly.

BANG!

The light of the enclosure shook violently, and faint cracks appeared across its surface for a fraction of a second.

But they quickly closed again.

He frowned slightly, as his punch had not been weak.

His physical strength had increased greatly after his recent progress, and his fist could withstand a powerful impact.

However, instead of simply resisting the attack, the structure of the enclosure spread part of the impact’s energy among the outer nodes.

Because of this, breaking it with raw strength was difficult.

Roderick looked outside. One of the masked figures was approaching.

Without rushing, he prepared his fist again.

Inside another enclosure, Rindo examined the movement of the mana flow instead of attacking.

He had noticed that the light on the walls changed slightly whenever the leader of the Black Vultures approached.

It was as if the formation had to move part of its energy whenever it opened an enclosure and took a target out.

He looked toward one of the outer connection points, then spoke to the escort commander in a firm voice.

"On the left! The main flow passes through the node near the rock. If that point is disabled, part of the formation will become unstable."

The reason their protective enclosures had suddenly turned into a prison against them was an extremely powerful formation that seemed to require five nodes to function.

Each of these nodes helped establish and operate the formation, and the mana needed to power it flowed from one node to another.

The commander immediately signaled to one of the mages, but before the mage had time to prepare an attack, the long-range attacker fired from the high ground.

The projectile struck the ground in front of him and released a wave of pressure, forcing him to retreat.

This time, Rindo looked at the shooter.

"So they won’t let us get close to the nodes."

At the same time, Lian was still standing inside his own enclosure. Unlike Roderick, he had not attacked the wall even once.

His gaze only moved between different points, five paths, five nodes, and an energy flow that moved between them in a clear pattern.

He was examining the structure of the formation step by step.

Interesting.

This trap had been activated using the mana of the defensive barrier itself. After examining the barrier’s protective pattern, the formation had turned the outer flow into a network of separate enclosures.

However, to keep the nodes working together, it still depended on reflective paths.

Sunlight passed through the small metal plates and kept the formation’s connection paths clearly marked at different points.

At first, this was an advantage, because it allowed the nodes to stay connected without needing direct physical links.

But for Lian? It was a major weakness.

He gave a faint smile.

"Looks like luck is on my side today."

Inside the Eclipse Core, a small amount of Eclipse Energy began to move.

He raised his right hand.

Ordinary sunlight passed through the semi-transparent wall of the enclosure.

That was enough.

He activated the talent [The Corrupt Sun] and guided a very thin stream of Eclipse Energy along one of the reflective paths.

The first strand passed through the inner surface of the enclosure, following the same path that the formation had left open for the exchange of reflected light.

The corrupted energy moved along the reflected light and headed toward the first node, which was hidden between two rocks some distance away.

When it reached the node, no explosion occurred. Only one of the mana lines on its surface changed color.

Its color shifted from pale blue to black, and then a small part of its energy structure began to break down.

At that moment, the masked figure responsible for controlling the formation raised his head. His gaze fixed on the metal panel in his hand.

One of the indicators had changed.

"What...?"

He immediately sent more mana into the node, but the result was the opposite of what he expected.

Instead of stabilizing the structure, the new energy passed through the damaged path and exposed a larger part of the lines to corruption.

The masked figure pulled his hand back.

"Damn it!"

Farther below, the leader of the Black Vultures heard him.

"What happened?"

"One of the formation’s nodes is breaking down!"

"Strengthen it."

"I can’t! The mana structure is being corrupted!"

The leader remained silent for a moment, then turned his gaze toward the ten enclosures and focused on a calm young man who was still holding his right hand up.

Lian released the second strand. This time, the Eclipse Energy passed through the reflective surface of one of the plates beside the road and headed toward another node.

At that moment, the person controlling the formation noticed its path.

He used his control device to turn one of the reflective plates and tried to block the path of the light.

The young Vorhelm noticed the change, the second strand lost its path for a moment, but before it could fully disperse, his gaze settled on another reflection.

If one path was blocked, he could simply choose another.

There were not just one or two paths and lines of light and reflection but there were countless ones.

A broken metal surface lay a few meters away from the node and he changed the direction of the energy, and the strand passed through a second reflection before reaching the side of the node.

Although he could have used other methods to break through, he chose this approach to examine the structure and complexity of the arrays.

Perhaps he could learn more about them in the process.

This time, the masked figure did not even have time to correct the path.

Crack!

A dry sound came from the structure of the formation, and one of the nodes completely stopped working, as a result, the wall of the enclosure near Rindo shook for a moment.

He felt the change and immediately looked back at Lian.

The young Vorhelm was still examining the energy paths, but Rindo now understood what was happening.

Lian had found a way to destroy the network of the array