Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

「A few seconds later.」

The missiles closed in rapidly. Two top-tier Lightning Mages instantly activated their Jingzhe Skill. As their reaction speeds surged, they staggered their attacks to ensure a perfect defense, each unleashing an Overload Pulse into the airspace.

HISS!

The two missiles in the distance suddenly froze above the city walls, their guidance systems failing and engines cutting out. They crashed with a boom into a residential area that had been evacuated in advance.

”It wasn’t us...”

The two top-tier Lightning Mages exchanged a glance.

The missiles had been intercepted beforehand. In their line of sight, more than twenty figures flying high outside the city walls had also released the Overload Pulse Skill simultaneously. The air shimmered with fluctuations of charged ions.

”Excellent!”

This result was even more inspiring.

The independent experts had also taken action.

Why had the sixth batch of Rune synthesis formulas been urgently disclosed last night? Why was the electronic-disrupting effect of the Overload Pulse Rune so heavily emphasized? It was all for this very moment. The goal was for the Combat Defense Department and the independent experts to work in concert and repel the enemy’s assault.

”The grand tide of events is not decided by destiny, but by the hearts of the people,” one person sighed with emotion.

Today’s Dongfu City, though without its novice protection mechanism or a city-wide protective shield, had become a solid Barrier forged by the faith of its entire populace and a million pairs of hands.

”For Oran City to dare launch a large-scale invasion... they’re courting death.”

...

BANG!

The crack of sniper rifles echoed above the forest as snipers from both sides opened fire.

At a distance of two to three kilometers, the unending roar was like the shriek of the Grim Reaper.

One side was trying to snipe the Apache helicopters, but they struggled against the enemy’s Optical Camouflage. The helicopters were also on guard, causing attacks to miss as the snipers were repeatedly fooled by Illusion Techniques.

The other side was, naturally, sniping people, forcing their opponents into constant high-speed evasive maneuvers while also using suppressive fire to prevent them from advancing.

However, just as everyone’s attention was drawn to the Instant Shadow Squad, a figure from two or three kilometers away used just two blinks to cut in from the flank, completely undetected.

”You...”

The man had barely uttered a single syllable when his pupils contracted.

VMM!

The Holy Sword was unsheathed.

A blazing white, corona-like light rose from the blade’s edge. The air, ionized by the intense heat, let out a low hum as surrounding dust instantly vaporized.

Su Chen didn’t pause. He swung his arm in a horizontal slash, sending an incredibly condensed Divine Sword Radiance tearing through the sky. Its core, wreathed in plasmic Holy Flame, warped the air in its path.

The enemy refused to retreat, gripping a magically modified riot shield with both hands. The shield’s face was not only embedded with composite crystal plates but also imbued with a High Level Holy Shield spell.

BOOM!

Upon impact, the sword’s power didn’t slow in the slightest.

The Sword Qi passed through the riot shield and the figure behind it, which instantly exploded into a bloody mist of fragments.

What was even more terrifying was that the Divine Sword Radiance, its momentum unabated, precisely sliced into the midsection of an attack helicopter that was trying to pull up behind him.

With a deafening roar, the rotor blades snapped and went flying. The ammunition bay chain-detonated, sending a Fireball soaring into the sky as wreckage rained down in all directions.

”Flying a helicopter is so dangerous,” Su Chen said coolly.

RAT-A-TAT!

Gunfire erupted from all directions. Armor-Piercing Bullets and high-explosive rounds rained down, accompanied by several Magic Beams, including uncommon spells like death rays and Ice Cones.

However, as soon as the attacks came within three feet of him, they all slammed into an ever-flowing, spherical Water Mirror Screen.

The rapidly spinning, glistening water deflected their trajectories, reflecting them back along their original paths and creating a deadly web of firepower all around.

But before he could blink again, a massive Light Element Order Prism materialized. Its entire body seemed to be engraved with layers upon layers of runic edicts. It rotated silently, projecting a pale golden spatial calibration wave into the surrounding airspace.

VMM!

The spatial structure of the entire area was instantly frozen.

Not only did point-to-point blinks fail, but even reality-detaching abilities like phase-shifting became impossible to use.

Not only that, the air solidified and stagnated like a block of cement, causing the movement speed of any unauthorized target within it to plummet.

The reason this Technique was cracked and disclosed last night was, of course, because the information had been obtained through combat exchanges with enemies from Oran City.

The method to break it was simple.

Use non-point-to-point spatial jump Runes, such as displacement-type Techniques, to accelerate out of the spatial calibration wave’s range. But considering the Order Prism could also move, it was obviously better to just destroy it directly.

VMM!

Su Chen’s body was wreathed in lightning. Aided by a Telekinesis Field providing directional acceleration to his torso, he shot forward like a silver arc tearing through the air.

Combining the stimulus to his latent potential from the Jingzhe Skill with a pure, ultra-high-speed lightning-flash-step, he easily vaulted over two enemy soldiers who had only half-reacted to his presence.

The next instant, he was already beneath the Order Prism, shattering it with a single slash of his sword.

The spatial lock melted away like ice, and freedom returned to his limbs.

Without the slightest pause, Su Chen spun, activated Aurora Flash again, and instantly appeared at the flank of another hovering attack helicopter.

”It’s over!”

As everyone watched, a blazing white, holy blade of light streaked across the sky, cleaving the attack helicopter in two. The engine and ammunition bay detonated simultaneously, sending a Fireball rolling into the air.

Unstoppable!

”It’s him!”

’Of all the people to run into.’ The Mysterious Warlock’s heart skipped a beat. He hadn’t expected to run into this monster even after volunteering to support the army’s eastern offensive.

’This is bad...’

’He’s like a lingering ghost you can’t shake.’

He was rendered speechless, his flying form even beginning to slow. To make matters worse, amid the sniper fire from both sides, a bullet from the opposition still managed to hit the third attack helicopter.

The cockpit glass suddenly shattered. A special Armor-Piercing Bullet went straight through the pilot’s head, killing the gunner in the back seat who was trying to fire the machine gun as well.

With no one at the controls, the helicopter naturally began to plummet. An Enchanter inside the cabin, terrified, immediately teleported away just in time to escape the disaster.

In the end, the three attack helicopters had only managed to fire a total of eight Hellfire Missiles before being destroyed one after another.

Normally, an Apache heavy attack helicopter could carry 16 Hellfire Missiles at once. However, with their limited range, they had specialists Enchant each missile one by one, imbuing them with Divine Power for a speed boost. As a result, the plan had not been perfectly executed.

’Flying helicopters really is dangerous. It’s working out worse than we planned. I wonder if we can even destroy their rear Teleportation Gate,’ the Mysterious Warlock himself had a bad feeling.

Of course, one attack helicopter was heading for the East-1 gate and another for the East-3 gate. The goal of their mission was to destroy all three Teleportation Gates on the eastern front and cut off the enemy’s rapid reinforcement channels.

After successfully demolishing the border town, they would then be able to deploy their own Teleportation Gates on the enemy’s border.

Only then would it be convenient to deploy the army’s magically modified armored ground forces into Dongfu City.

However...

Ever since he saw that familiar, stern, and towering figure arrive, the Mysterious Warlock, Emil, had realized things were about to go south.

’It’s impossible to tell what his origins are.’

’No matter how you look at it, he’s one of the top figures in Dongfu City.’

’He must be backed by the will of the city itself, which means his reinforcements will be endless.’

’This is bad...’

’They know all our strategic intelligence. Could the Sect have leaked internal information?’

As Emil’s mind raced, his moment of distraction cost them five more men in the airspace ahead. Not only were they bisected by the Divine Sword Radiance that swept across the sky, but deadly, invisible Double Arrows also shot silently from the edge of the battlefield.

”Watch out! Those are psychic Arrows! You can’t block them with physical objects, you have to dodge them directly!”

After giving this feigned warning, the Mysterious Warlock saw a Tracking Arrow that was hard to shake flying toward him. Without hesitating, he teleported away.

His original intention was to retreat to the rear, but seeing hundreds of armed personnel arriving as reinforcements, he couldn’t just lose face like that. He had no choice but to bite the bullet and look for an opportunity to catch his opponent.

But this brief loss of line of sight was enough for Emil to realize that the figure holding the Holy Sword had vanished.

”Not good!”

It wasn’t that he was afraid the man would come after him.

It was that...

If he wasn’t mistaken, his opponent was most likely headed for their rear lines again, seeking to destroy the Teleportation Gate.