Chapter 95: The Nether Explosion

Chapter 95: Chapter 95: The Nether Explosion

Witnessing her own explosive attack being neutralized so effortlessly, a trace of astonishment flashed through the depths of Helyn’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced by icy coldness.

To think that this person bearing a bottom-tier Spirit Covenant possessed such sharp practical combat abilities. It seemed the rumors about a loud-mouthed, empty-headed young master were nothing but garbage spun by fools...

Helyn’s gaze darkened, and the second [Heavenly Spirit Card] instantly appeared between her slender fingers. She lightly spun the card, and a vast, surging stream of magic power was pumped straight into its metallic surface.

The second core skill - [Spirit Guardian Protection], officially released its seal.

The card’s surface cracked inch by inch, shattering into specks of light before rapidly transforming into two Summoning Doors swirling deeply like cosmic black holes. In less than half a second, a Wood-element Elf possessing large-scale crowd control abilities, along with a Dark-element Elf manipulating the dark aura of death, loomed out from the vortex.

These two elemental elves, resonating with the same-tier Fire Phoenix hovering overhead, formed a comprehensive offensive and defensive formation. Breaking through this barrier was absolutely an incredibly difficult puzzle.

Jeremy narrowed his phoenix eyes, his knuckles tightening around the handle of the Scythe of Death. He decisively activated his first skill, and three Mirror Clones radiating sky-high murderous intent immediately separated from his main body. Simultaneously, the [Light Illumination Domain] erupted; a brilliant aura spread out, maximizing the speed and defensive strength for all teammates on the arena.

On the other side of the battle line, Helyn did not hesitate, waving her hand to order her spirit beast and elves to launch a total assault simultaneously.

The two elf phantoms stuck close to their master, protecting Helyn from the left and right. The Wood-element Elf swung its hand, instantly summoning a violently swirling tornado of leaves; each leaf was as razor-sharp and dangerous as tens of thousands of blades shredding the air. Meanwhile, the Dark-element Elf condensed shadows, forming a Ghost Spirit carrying a bone-chilling aura of death, tearing through the wind to lunge straight for Jeremy’s throat.

A bombardment of massive fireballs from the Fire Phoenix crashed down immediately after, pushing the pressure of this all-out strike to its peak.

Facing three explosive killer moves crashing down at once, Jeremy was absolutely not stupid enough to brace himself and block the attacks head-on. Jeremy controlled his three clones to charge forward as meat shields to block the advance, while his true body borrowed momentum from his heels to rapidly retreat backward. Simultaneously, Jeremy’s lips moved, chanting a complex sequence of Ice-element incantations.

At the exact moment the clones were crushed, Jeremy had just backed right up to the edge of the arena. The pre-activation rhythm of the magic incantation was completed.

Ice-element magic - [Heavenly Frost Meteor Descent], activated!

The temperature on the arena plummeted drastically to the freezing point. Meteorites formed from millennial ice, possessing massive sizes not inferior to the Phoenix’s fireballs, rumbled as they crashed down from the stratosphere.

The head-on collision between the two opposing elemental energies created an earth-shattering explosion. A shockwave swept across the marble, plowing the arena floor. The fireballs shattered into countless dying sparks; before they could touch the ground, they were thoroughly frozen by the cold aura. The leaf tornado that had just shredded the clones’ defensive line, preparing to sweep towards Jeremy, was instantly enveloped by a layer of frost, freezing solid into a bulky pillar of ice in mid-air.

Jeremy did not spare half a breath. The scythe in Jeremy’s hand swung up; the sharp blade cleaved the newly frozen Wood-element tornado pillar in half, shattering it into tens of thousands of crystal shards raining down.

But right at that moment of vulnerability, the Dark-element Ghost Spirit had silently erased its aura, hiding in a blind spot and closing in on Jeremy from behind.

Seeing that the Ghost Spirit’s claws, reeking of death, were about to plunge into the back of Jeremy’s neck, in that life-or-death second, a razor-sharp silver chain tore through the wind and darted over. Fang of Abyss accurately and tightly wrapped around Jeremy’s firm waist. A powerful, rough, yet perfectly calculated pull yanked Jeremy out of the fatal trajectory, throwing Jeremy toward the safe zone.

The chain retracted with lightning speed. Jeremy agilely borrowed the centrifugal force to spin his body in mid-air; the tip of his leather shoe lightly stepped on the retreating chain link to absorb the shock, landing steadily and neatly.

From the other side, Lucius swung his hand to recall Fang of Abyss. The metal chain, weaving like a silver dragon swimming in mid-air, abruptly folded its trajectory. Coordinating with the [Instant Teleportation] skill, Lucius’s figure blurred, appearing right next to the Ghost Spirit. The pointed tip of the chain pierced through the shadow entity at phantom-like speed, pinning the spirit firmly to the floor.

Seeing the formation broken, Helyn gritted her teeth, hastily ordering the Fire Phoenix to continue pouring down a rain of fire in an attempt to block their advance.

Jeremy was just about to hoist his blade and charge forward to assist Lucius, when a black shadow slithered through the rain of fire as fast as lightning. Sze—the assassin who had just engaged Lucius moments ago—had changed direction, locking his target straight onto Jeremy.

The battlefield’s situation changed in the blink of an eye. At this threshold of a death match, hesitating for half a beat was enough to exchange for a totally disastrous defeat.

Jeremy decisively darted his eyes, his heels stomping heavily onto the stone floor. Jeremy’s tall, lean figure agilely altered its trajectory, charging forward in a flash to intercept Sze’s pursuit aimed at Lucius.

"Clang!"

The clashing weapons erupted in a deafening sound; metallic sparks splattered wildly. Jeremy completely denied the opponent any chance to collect himself. Jeremy rotated his wrist, the scythe handle spinning rapidly, and borrowed the momentum to unleash an explosive horizontal slash. The blade, trailing a bone-chilling aura of death, chopped straight at Sze’s throat.

Not expecting the male student in front of him to possess such a ruthless and decisive close-combat style, Sze narrowed his eyes tightly, crossing his two [Shadow Twin Blades] to brace himself against the thousand-pound slash.

At the same time, the assassin smirked, instantly activating his core skill - [Nether Explosion Fog].

This skill not only generated large-scale explosive magic damage, but also instantly released a massive amount of highly toxic Dark-element poison. Even more terrifyingly, the epicenter of the explosion spawned an extremely strong black hole suction force, forcibly yanking all surrounding enemies inside, forcing victims to fall into a Nether hallucination, stripping away all sense of direction and survival consciousness.

The moment Jeremy realized the fluctuation of this evil magic power, Jeremy’s body was already fully trapped within the boundary of death, leaving no route for retreat.

The colossal suction force erupted; Jeremy’s scythe was sucked tightly to Sze’s twin blades like a magnet, completely unable to be pulled out or budged even half an inch. In a split second, the black fog surged and then violently exploded.

A shockwave slammed straight into his chest, causing Jeremy to instantly spit out a mouthful of fresh blood. The pitch-black fog spread, swallowing his vision. The nerve-tearing pain crashed into his brain, causing the scene before his eyes to begin fragmenting; countless twisted silhouettes overlapped one another.

From the other side of the arena, Phoenix witnessed his captain enveloped by the toxic fog and immediately gritted his teeth, unleashing the [Nightmare Vision Eye] skill.

Whenever a Holy Covenant skill was activated, a distinctive ring of runic aura would flare up around the mage’s body. Even though the Begonia faction could not grasp the full extent of Phoenix’s abilities, merely observing the reaction and the directional flow of magic power was enough for a cunning person to read the situation.

"Want to rescue him?" Captain Aina gave a cold snort, the corners of her lips curling in mockery: "Don’t daydream."

She raised the [Phantom Flute] to her lips, decisively blowing a razor-sharp melody, releasing the [Oblivion] skill, while ruthlessly stacking the [Puppet Butterfly] skill on top.

The bewitching flute sound shrieked; countless bright red petals and swarms of ghostly butterflies appeared from the void, blanketing the sky. The sonic waves condensed into invisible blades, roughly crushing the defensive vine system and the barrage of arrows Evelyn had just fired.

Even the magic power transmission channel that Phoenix was trying to establish to connect with Jeremy was thoroughly severed by this sonic barrier.

The moment those delicate petals touched the arena surface or weapons, they instantly detonated into magic bombs carrying terrifying destructive power. The swarm of [Puppet Butterflies] was even more wicked; they carried magic-devouring abilities and nerve-paralyzing effects. Anyone careless enough to get hit would fall straight into a passive state, left at the mercy of others to be torn apart.

Seeing the match situation being pushed into a completely one-sided state, Lucius clicked his tongue in extreme irritation. Lucius twisted his wrist, forcefully yanking out the Fang of Abyss chain that had just pinned and crushed the Ghost Spirit’s core.

Silver-gray magic power erupted, and [Instant Teleportation] activated. Lucius’s figure tore through space, appearing to block right in front of Jeremy. Without a hint of hesitation, Lucius unleashed his second skill - [Demon Slaughter].

This was a tyrannical skill exclusively used to maximize extreme damage. It not only overclocked his own physical strength but also released a mass of pitch-black fog aimed at completely stripping away the enemies’ vision in the blink of an eye. Its similarity with Sze’s [Nether Explosion Fog] was that it also came with a toxic fog crowd-control effect, only lacking the gravitational suction force.

The dense black fog surged, enveloping a corner of the arena. Initially, Jeremy had gritted his teeth enduring the pain, intending to activate his sub-skill [Shattered Mirror Shards] to violently suck back Sze’s venomous attack. But Lucius’s timely intervention and cover caused Jeremy to instantly abandon that thought. Using [Shattered Mirror Shards] meant having to bear a massive backlash on his own body; it was not worth the gamble when a teammate had already provided support.

Jeremy blinked, decisively altering his combat strategy in just a split second.

Under the cover of the black fog generated by [Demon Slaughter], the vision of Sze and the four Begonia Team members was completely sealed off. Unlike the enemy faction, Lucius’s toxic fog was configured to recognize allies, so Jeremy’s vision was not affected in the slightest. Jeremy cast his eyes toward Lucius, lightly jutting his chin to signal.

With just a single crossing of gazes in the darkness, Lucius instantly caught the frequency. The Fang of Abyss in his hands swung up; the metallic chain links rubbed together to form a razor-sharp sword carrying cold murderous intent, thrusting straight at Sze’s throat.

But Sze was, after all, a systematically trained assassin. Sensing the incoming murderous intent, his reflexes were extremely sharp; he immediately retracted his blades and stomped the ground, hastily retreating backward to escape the dangerous fog.

Jeremy stood still on the spot, raising a hand to use the back of his hand to wipe away the trail of fresh blood seeping from the corner of his lips, having absolutely no intention of charging in pursuit. After all, from the very beginning, he held no illusions of easily eliminating an assassin bearing Holy Covenant No. 20 with just a single sneak attack. The true purpose of this cover was merely to let him escape the suction force and crowd control of the [Nether Explosion Fog].

Lucius slowly lowered his weapon. Lucius’s profound phoenix eyes lowered, his vision locking tightly onto the dark red bloodstain contrasting sharply against Jeremy’s pale complexion.

Lucius didn’t open his mouth to ask how Jeremy’s internal injuries were, nor did he bother to discuss how the next move should be played. Instead, Lucius’s deep, warm, dangerous voice rang out steadily amidst the chaotic noise of the battlefield:

"In this match... if we lose, what will happen to the captain?"

"Why ask such nonsense all of a sudden?" Jeremy frowned, feeling that this question was truly poorly timed.

Actually, with Jeremy’s pragmatic nature, winning was naturally the ultimate goal. But if they unluckily lost, at most it would just mean gritting their teeth and enduring Griffin’s insane, torturous punishments; their lives would still be intact. However, standing in the middle of a life-or-death arena, as the commander, Jeremy absolutely could not utter words that would shake his own troops’ morale.

Jeremy’s thumb lightly rubbed over the remaining streak of blood, his sharp, cold gaze sweeping across the dim fog, his tone nonchalant yet unable to conceal a masculine arrogance: "I would feel extremely unreconciled. In short, just lay all our lives on the line and fight."