The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 722  Details Incoming

A message came in from Inquisitor Niall, filling Karl in on the details, as far as he had managed to decipher them.

{Monarch, there are Spellblades from three different nations attacking today. A bounty has been put on the heads of a number of ranking Elites, as well as the King. I must say, if we werenʼt friends, the amount that they put on your head is enough to tempt even me to take the reward and go into retirement.} Overlord Niall joked in a System Message.

{Oh, that good?}

But the Overlord replied to Karlʼs sarcasm in a serious manner.

{Whoever issued the bounty is making the continued survival of the northern nations contingent upon the completion of the list. But more personally, they have also offered the equivalent of a hundred million credits and four hundred acres of fertile river bottom farmland for your death.}

Karl sighed at the revelation. {I donʼt suppose you know who is attacking the facility right now, do you? I took out some black robed Spellblades who were trying to break in earlier. However, now the building has collapsed, and someone is attacking the barriers from above.}

At least if they were going to claim a bounty on him, they would have to have an intact body to show their boss. Karl was almost absolutely certain that was how it worked. Or, at the very least, his head. But could he regenerate from just a head? [Void Body] didnʼt specify how much of you could get blown up before you couldnʼt regenerate anymore.

{The ones above you now would be the Spellblades from Linia, with a group of Overlord Ranked foreigners backing them up. The team under Overlord Othello is there dealing with them. Coincidentally, her name is on the list. So are Ahmad and Tabitha.}

The invaders had a serious abundance of confidence if they were willing to put those names on the list.

For a few minutes, the damage being done to the barrier was minimal, and Karl wondered if Othello and her team were winning the battle above him.

Then a massive lance of power smashed clean through the barrier and into the floor of the lab in front of him.

Three Overlords in pale blue robes floated down from the hole in the ceiling, smirking as they stared at Karl.

”Ah, we have found you, little rat, hiding in his hole. To think that it would be our team who gets the bounty on the Beast Master.” The mage on the far left, an elderly man with liver spots on his bald head, chuckled in a sinister whisper.

Karl smiled and stacked five layers of [Obliterate] on his maul, which made the Overlord laugh even harder. But when Karl fired the five stacked spells layered in [Nullify], the Overlord Ranked skill shared by Cara, the mageʼs barriers shattered like glass and his body simply vanished.

Karl turned to the other two.

”You seem to have fundamentally misunderstood something.” Karl began.

[Weʼre not stuck in here with them, theyʼre stuck in here with us. I heard that one in a movie.] Remi cheered in his mind.

The Spellblades stared at the spot where their ally had been for another half second before recovering.

”You were never going to live long enough to see the reward.” Karl finished, while Remi booed him silently for not going with the cliché.

The two Overlords charged for him, Only to have the Bodyguards throw themselves in between, grabbing with their serpentine bodies and sacrificing themselves to buy the time for Karl to recharge his spells.

Karl sent out another stack of [Disintegrate] coated in [Nullify], and the younger of the two Overlords vanished in a puff of ash, along with the Bodyguard wrapping him.

The Overlord died at the exact moment that a flash of purple magic blinded Karlʼs eyes, and he winced as a blade ran through his stomach, bare steel stripped of its magical enchantments by the barriers it had broken.

”You were saying?” The last Overlord asked, his sword buried to the hilt in Karlʼs body as he prepared another spell.

Karl grabbed the sides of the mageʼs skull, shattering his barrier with [Nullify] before physically removing the manʼs head from his body.

Karl slumped to the ground, and Remi left her space to douse him in [Healing Splash] while activating both of her healing totems.

{Oh, thatʼs not good. It destroyed most of your insides. Are you sure that the Cara healing can fix that before you die?} She asked.

Karl didnʼt have the energy to even make a mental response, but his body was surrounded with black smoke as he regenerated.

Forgemaster Granite ran up the steps and dumped a potion in Karlʼs mouth.

”Stamina and mana potion. It helps with regeneration type spells.” He explained to the confused Naga Queen.

Remi made a mental note that she would have to add that step next time, but Karl was still in rough shape even after his body had healed.

Then power began to flow from the Haint Claw to him, restoring the metaphysical damage that healing his body could not repair.

Karl gave the Dwarf a weak fist bump and carefully sat up to inspect himself.

”Well, that sucked about as much as expected. But arenʼt they too weak for Overlords?” He whispered.

The old Dwarf laughed. ”Theyʼre researchers from a tower somewhere, not trained assassins. Theyʼve likely never cast a spell with intent to kill in their lives. See the talisman that was on this oneʼs neck? Itʼs a translation amulet. The sort that the Blue Dragon Clerics use to help with books they canʼt read.”

Above them, Karl saw a familiar face. Overlord Othelloʼs polished silver armour was shining in the sun as she looked down into the labs.

Karl called up to the Overlord. ”Weʼre alright down here. How is your team doing? I have limited healing here, and a Resurrection capable cleric in my suite at the Palace.” ”Weʼre not dead yet. But I donʼt think that we can get you out of there. I canʼt fly, and the University is rubble. The entire complex is gone.” She shouted back.

”I can get out with [Earth Barrier]. Do you want to retreat and rest?” The Paladin nodded, and gestured to someone near her on the surface.

Karl began building a stone stairwell to the surface, a narrow spike of stone with thin runners in a circle around it, made using the stone that had tumbled down as the barrier was breached.

Othello, along with four Monarchs, made their way down the stairs, then slumped down in the chairs of the ruined clean room.

”What a mess. There are hundreds of attackers in the city, half of them are invisible, and they brought Overlords with them. How much do you know?” Othello asked.

”Overlord Niall gave me the rundown. What do you need? Iʼve got a whole group of researchers here to protect. Though, it sounds like theyʼre not a primary target, and weʼve already destroyed all the research material here.”

Othello blinked in shock. ”You did what?”

”Standard practice. Nothing for the enemy to steal.” Karl replied with a shrug.

”Right, you didnʼt know that they werenʼt here for it. Or perhaps they are? They are after you, and we canʼt say for certain that theyʼre not under orders to take certain targets alive.

The Inquisition had a friendly chat with a spy, and thatʼs where the little information and the target names we have come from.”