Chapter 1245: Special Land [1].

The captain of the Royal Knights who had led the attack on the Gordons clan had fully expected the battle at Estonia City to tilt in their favor, however he had felt no nervousness at the start.

However, reality fell far short of his expectations, because despite their superior numbers and his conviction that they would easily crush the enemy, the Gordons clan elders had already slain 18 mages from their forces.

Among the fallen were two Dark Guild elders who had come to reinforce them along with Ivan Fridall, one of the new prominent sub-leaders of the dark guild, while the other 16 casualties were mages from his Royal Knights order.

In contrast, although several men of the Gordons clan sustained injuries, none of their wounds appeared fatal.

“We can’t continue this losing battle. Retreat!” Ivan shouted, already attempting to crush a space stone to escape.

Suddenly, George’s voice echoed out of nowhere:

“3rd, he mustn’t leave this place! I don’t care whether that’s a clone or a body double—he either gets captured or he dies here!”

Meanwhile, upon receiving George’s directive, the Third Elder acted instantly, thrusting his hand and slamming into empty air, as he unleashed a crackling distortion fracture across space itself.

The distortion rippled rapidly toward Ivan. Just as Ivan finished crushing the space stone, the emerging space portal collapsed on itself when the fracture came in contact with it.

The spatial disruption caused by the Third Elder completely snuffed out the space gate before it could fully open.

“He said you stay, which means you’re staying, don’t try running again,” the Third Elder declared, as he swept his Naginata outward to unleash a massive arc of Golden Qi towards Ivan forcing him to focus on him instead of trying to escape again.

Nearby, George faced the Royal Knight Captain, gripping his blade reverse-style, effortlessly deflecting and parrying every blow, George moved with a relaxed ease that made it seem as though he were barely trying.

“Ahhh!”

Agonized screams pierced the air as the remaining three Royal Knights were cut down, their lives brought to an abrupt end by Zack, Draco, and the Second Elder of the Gordons.

Although the Aegisborn, Lanzt, and Darkbliss clans had not directly caused any deaths, they were involved, considering they had actively aided the Gordons by holding their enemies at bay.

“Do you hear that? that is the sound of your impending defeat.” George taunted, deftly weaving around the Royal Knight Captain’s blade.

By now, even the captain was forced to abandon any foolish notion of superiority. Instead, he bittered himself with blame toward the Dark Guild elders who he believed had failed to back them up properly if not they should be the ones with the advantage instead.

Out of the corner of his eye, the captain caught sight of the two surviving Dark Guild elders desperately using space stones to flee. Fortunately for them, the Third Elder was entirely focused on thwarting Ivan’s escape, granting the pair the precise opening they needed to vanish.

Meanwhile, the remaining Gordons clansmen closed in around Ivan, whose situation was now utterly dire, with only the captain left fighting single-handedly against the patriarch, his resolve to fight to the death dissolved, replaced by an urgent impulse to flee.

He remained convinced that if a Tier 8 mage truly set his mind on escaping, no force in the same realm could stop him.

“Why do you have to spoil all the fun?” George’s voice echoed directly in his ears as the captain turned and surged through the air, he felt he had to reach the royal clan to report the true extent of the strength hidden in this small section of the kingdom.

[? High Tier Skill - Infinite Blade Combo. ?]

The moment George activated the skill, the transparent Qi coating his katana shifted to a deep, dark brown, and the Royal Knights’ captain who had already put distance between himself and the patriarch felt his danger sense blare in warning, which prompted him to spin around, lash out with his sword while turning.

A massive gust of wind turbulence dragged behind the arc of his swing, yet out of the corner of his eye, he realized George was not attacking head-on.

Instead, George had bent low, while still holding his blade in a reverse grip with the tip pointing straight toward his back.

Noticing George’s stance, the Royal Knight Captain swiftly placed his second hand on the hilt of his sword, as reorienting the blade to change direction to point directly downward instead.

He adjusted his position effortlessly, with his legs remaining planted as firmly in mid-air as if rooted to solid ground.

Meanwhile, George, who had accumulated immense momentum by infusing his Qi with mana—had yet to deliver his strike, as the knight’s blade plunged downward, George swung his own weapon upward to parry the attack, blasting a generating massive vacuum of wind outward from the impact. In the same fluid motion, he extended his left hand forward, manifesting a massive, earth-element maw lined with vicious fangs.

Mirroring his hand’s movement, the earth element construct lunged directly for the captain, attempting to snap him whole. In response, the captain lashed out with his free hand.

[? Mid Tier Spell - Air Slam.?]

A powerful blast of condensed air slammed into the earthen maw, shattering it and sending debris flying. Yet, under cover of the resulting destruction, a flash of blade-light cut past him.

By the time his senses registered what had happened, he realized his entire left arm had been severed from the shoulder.

The blow had been delivered with such impeccable precision that no pain reached him at first.

“The fuck!” he spat, spinning around. But as he turned, he saw George casually flicking his right wrist, and from the patriarch’s katana, two whirling drills of constructed earth surged forward.

With his left arm severed, the captain could only swing his sword. With his remaining hand, he fought to stifle the groans rising in his throat as agony finally flooded his senses when the strikes neared him.

Overwhelmed by the sudden onset of pain, his concentration shattered, as he managed to intercept only one of the incoming earth drills; while the second drove straight through his neck, as he could feel his life fleeting from that instant.

Meanwhile, another figure materialized in the exact spot the Gordons’ Patriarch had occupied six seconds prior. It was as though George had been concealed within the wind itself, while the image that had launched the attack crumbled away, its form dissolving into fine specks of sand.

“You couldn’t even force me to fight you seriously,” George remarked, watching the corpse plunge toward the ground below. “I truly wonder why every single one of these new Royal Knight recruits is so outrageously arrogant despite being so utterly weak.”

Glancing over at the invited Enforcer Elders, he noted the overwhelming dread written across their faces. Deciding to leave the task of defusing the tense situation to the Grand Elder, George turned his attention toward interrogation.

After all, the third elder had finally captured one of Ivan Fridall’s clone bodies.

Before he could even draw near, however, the clone body violently exploded, and the Third Elder, who was holding the clone, was engulfed in burns and blasted headlong into a nearby structure.

“That little bastard,” the Gordons’ Patriarch spat, his eyes twitching in fury. Even so, he immediately turned his gaze toward the building where the Third Elder had crashed.

“Are you alright?”

“Not particularly, but I’ll live,” the Third Elder replied, stepping out from the wreckage.

_ _

Far away, inside a Dark Guild outpost city, Ivan coughed up blood. He was sitting in a cultivation posture, flanked by two identical bodies that bore his exact likeness.

“That old bastard was hiding far more strength than I thought,” Ivan muttered under his breath. “Thank goodness I held back with going all out. Otherwise, I would have perished right alongside that foolish, duty-bound Royal Knight. My revenge will have to wait. Perhaps I should align myself with those Evil Cult fanatics...”

He quickly shook his head after that thought entered his mind, remembering what he had read about the Evil Cult’s methods. They weren’t rational villains; they were extremists who wouldn’t hesitate to throw away their lives just to see their targets burn—a path he had no interest in joining.

“I’m better off sticking with the Dark Guilds—at least they’re pragmatic and driven by profit,” he concluded.

Closing his eyes, Ivan re-entered cultivation to restore his depleted mental energy. The self-detonation of his clone had inflicted severe spiritual strain on him, leaving his current foundation precariously unstable.