Supreme Magus

Chapter 4495: Knight in Shining Armor (Part 1)

Cyrra was still talking in her amulet when Erslan Bhaz, Blood Warlock and current king of the Dawn Court, entered the fray accompanied by his own forces.

One of the advantages of the old Warp Gates was that no dimensional sealing magic could keep them closed. The High General and the Dawn King had set up direct connections between their respective bases exactly for a moment like that.

Bhaz charged the Chiropterans of the Dawn Court with crimson bolts of Blood Maelstrom, increasing their physical and magical prowess tenfold. A second bolt spread as a thin mist, supercharging the Chiropterans’ equipment upon their passage.

”What?” Orpal snarled in outrage, and Life Vision revealed to him that the undead now far exceeded the power of a bright violet core. ”Blood Maelstrom is nothing but a cheap imitation of the real deal. My deal!”

Silver lightning sparked from the red fragments of Dusk’s crystal in Tle’ket and instantly moved to Night’s prism in the Chosen’s chest. From there, they struck the nearest Upyrs, tipping the scales of the fight.

Yet there were many Blood Warlocks and only one Vurdalak. The prism in the Chosen’s chest could transmit the Life Maelstrom, but not produce it. Every spark of power Orpal consumed came from his own reserves.

”How can you be this strong?” He snarled

”Who knows?” Bhaz smirked as he cut through the Upyrs’ flesh with astounding ease.

He had shrouded himself with the Blood Magic spell, Murder Shroud.

The mana and life force formed an exoskeleton around him that supported his every move.

It granted the Blood Warlock the strength and mass of a much bigger creature, and was further boosted by the effects of the Blood Maelstrom cursing through his body.

”There!” Jorl’s keen eyes spotted the missing piece of the puzzle. ”Many of those undead wear a weird metal collar on their neck, just like Verhen’s allies in Jiera. The Tuners!”

”Harmonizers!” Orpal snorted. ”But you’re right. Somehow Leech and his leech friends have perfected Thrud’s design for undead. It doesn’t matter. I still get to test my newest weapon.”

The Vurdalak focused in Jiera, and the Chosen responded in Garlen. The fake Vurdalak swung his spear through the air, tracing several strings of black runes that blotted out the stars for those looking at them from below.

”Fool!” Bhaz roared as his Dread Knights drove the Upyrs away from the ground with their lightning-fast charges. ”You think we didn’t prepare for your Blade Spell? You’ll never cast it in time?”

”Are you sure about that?” Orpal had performed three swings before a pillar of silvery light erupted from his spear.

The Blade Tier Spell, Nascent Sprout, contained only a fraction of Shattered Moon, but it was much faster to cast and still carried enough power to vaporize the 5-man squad of Chiropteran charging at Orpal.

The Blade Spell merely coated the Wailing Wind released by the Thorn spear, allowing Orpal to save a lot of time by not giving Nascent Sprout shape or will.

”It’s too soon to be surprised!” The Vurdalak smirked. ”Upyrs, bring down the hammer!”

The backline of Corrupted Divine Beasts conjured the tier five War Mage spells, Raging Sun and Night Storm, to conjure the Source Magic spell, Shadow Meteor.

Earth magic carved giant rocks filled to the brim with darkness magic out of the ground. The fire element turned stone into magma, and the air element lifted them and gave them speed.

The barrage of Source Spells forced the combined forces of the Undead Courts to retreat and turned the outskirts of Bornar into a molten crater exuding noxious gas. Living beings would have become incapable of breathing, no matter their race.

The spell sealed the Awakened’s breathing techniques and poisoned them, yet it had no such effect on the undead.

”My King, the treacherous Night Court is retreating.” Anghor, the Draugr, said. ”If we leave, Bornar will be defenseless, and countless humans will die.”

”How many Upyrs are left?” Bhaz broke a small ampule containing a preserved piece of flesh that he drained of life force to regain a bit of his strength.

”Four. We managed to kill only one in the initial charge.” Anghor was a mountain of a man, his face covered in a thick beard.

Yet even the cruel light of undeath animating his eyes couldn’t hide his embarrassment for failing his mission.

”Too many. Wings and hooves.” Bhaz said, conjuring two wings of blood to take flight despite the lack of world energy.

”Wings and hooves!” Anghor roared, his voice reverberating across the city without the need for an amplification spell.

The sound faded after a few city blocks, but undead had the keen senses of predators, and in the silence of the night, they could hear Anghor’s orders from kilometers away.

Bhaz and all the undead who could fly bolted upward and aimed their most destructive spells at the Upyrs’ wings. The rest of the Dawn Court had to escape the range of the lingering effects of Blood Tide before they could join their king.

The Corrupted Divine Beasts were caught by surprise and their wings shredded. They could have still conjured a Spirit flying spell, but the ensuing barrage of fire and darkness disrupted their focus.

They fell to the ground like living meteors, relaxing their legs in preparation for the impact. It was then they heard the hooves.

Dread Knights appeared on the horizon. Their steeds moved at full gallop and became faster by the second. The Windwalker bloodline ability of the undead horses condensed the air in front of the Dread Knights’ spear tips in a spiral pattern.

It created a slipstream effect in front of the horses and accumulated destructive power as they moved. Windwalker allowed a Dread Knight to accelerate without end as long as they kept moving, reaching speeds that even Awakened couldn’t follow.

The steeds stepped on the guards’ booths outside of the city and used them to reach the top of the city walls with one step. From there, they jumped ahead and landed on the nearest roof, barely producing a noise on impact.

The Dread Knights arrived as graceful as butterflies and as fast as lightning. They moved from roof to roof until they charged at the still-falling Upyrs, piercing through them thanks to the kinetic energy they had accumulated.

Each one of them opened a hole the size of a double door, a small wound for a creature the size of a Divine Beast. Moreover, the plant folk’s regenerative abilities would close such wounds in a matter of seconds.

Dozens of Dread Knights, however, carried enough power to blow even a violet-cored Upyr to pieces and destroy the plant folk’s Roots in a single charge.

”Retreat!” Anghor yelled with a savage smirk, seeing that only one Corrupted Divine Beast had survived the onslaught. ”Retreat and regroup to rally point one! Leave the last vermin to the humans!”

”Don’t let them escape!” Orpal’s clone snarled. ”The humans are not our opponents. Bring me those Harmonizers!”

The Dead King hadn’t missed that no mystical collar was left behind. If its wearer died, the closest undead would pick it up and put it on, becoming the new leader of their unit.