Chapter 444: Summoning the Malefic Wyrm (1/2)

Chapter 444: Summoning the Malefic Wyrm

The intense heat caused the air beneath the force field to shimmer. Even the people in the audience could see the alloy floor begin to soften. The alloy it was constructed from had been made to resist blasts from top-ranked adepts. For those attacks that softened it, it had been imbued with metals for self-repair. The damage to the floor alone, then, was a clear indication of Qian Bian’s strength.

The torrent of destructive yellow energy continued for another five seconds before gradually dispersing.

The artillery gun that had delivered the payload shook, and reverted back to the human shape of Qian Bian. However, the victorious look in his face fled when he peered toward where the beam had fallen. There he discovered a doll, about the size of a man’s palm, suspended in air.

The little black plaything exploded with an audible crack before a caustic mist seeped from it. The fumes fused to form Jiang Yuan.

“Beguiling puppet!” The Terminator turned his head to look back at Lucifer, seated behind. “Very impressive! For the necromancer bloodline to employ this, they’ve come a long way.”

Lucifer’s remained impassive to the praise, but offered a polite smile. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Qian Bian, of course, was more surprised than anyone. When he saw the shot land, he’d thought for sure the fight was over. He even thought, he confessed, that the Terminator might even have had to intervene.

As one of his strongest moves, Qian Bian was very aware of how powerful the Mass Energy Discharge attack was. Even a peak ranked Adept couldn’t match it for pure destructive power. It had also been extreme draining, but he hadn’t expected Jiang Yuan to walk away from it unscathed thanks to some trick.

Jiang Yuan ominously brandished his scepter, and the metal floor split as four skeletal hands groped for Qian Bian from below. They were followed quickly by a string of the necromancer’s curses.

The beguiling puppet that had surprised the Paragon was a very useful skill to possess. For someone of Jiang Yuan’s ability, it was tantamount to gaining a second life. On top of that, he could keep casting his spells through the doll so there would be no interruptions.

Qian Bian reacted to the clawing hands, shifting his arms once more in to cannons that blasted the skeletal appendages to bits. He knew he was on the ropes. He’d pulled out his biggest guns from the start to take Jiang Yuan by surprise. The plan was to give him no chance to react and fight back. He was dismayed to find the dark mage’s powers were stranger than he’d thought.

But he would not roll over so easily, and would resist until he hit the floor. His reconstructed body shivered and launched in to the air where it converted in to fighter jet. His streamlined frame was dazzling, reflecting light off of his smooth metallic surface.

As if in response to the change, a guttural howl swept through the arena.

Those terrible curses that looked as though they had been headed for Qian Bian, fell to the ground some distance away. The white alloy had only just healed from the former blast when the necromancer’s dark powers began to change it. The whole surface went smooth, and the purplish-black eminence of his power painted the floor with a mirror sheen. A brilliant purple outline of a hexagram emerged from the black.

The image rotated, and then the whole floor flashed purple. The center gradually darkened again to an intractable onyx. It looked like the entrance to some horrible abyss.

That was where the cry had come from.

Jiang Yuan’s villainous face was split in a self-satisfied smirk. Looking up toward the soaring warplane that was Qian Bian, the necromancer extended a single gnarled finger.

Qian Bian didn’t know what was coming, but he knew he might not survive it. All or nothing, that was his only choice. The fighter jet swung around and pointed its nose cone right for Jiang Yuan. The guided missiles bristling from beneath its wings roared to life and launched. It didn’t matter what the mage had done – blowing him up would solve the problem.

As the missile’s orange flames set the ring in stark light, an enormous white object lifted from the abyss below.

Out on the platform, the Terminator shot to his feet much to the shock of those around him. In a blink he was gone.