Chapter 175: Hope Or Disaster? (1/2)

The sky grew darker and it started to rain. As he felt the droplets of play a calming melody on his shoulders, Arthur's heart was nowhere near calm. He was a rei-ranker trying to escape the might of an Astra-ranker, alone.

Like heavenly lightning, the spear descended on him as if trying to obliterate him out of existence. With a flick of his hand, Arthur appeared a kilometer away.

”You're overconfident, ant!” The roaring laughter of the Paladin came as loud as thunder. ”You think you can face me by yourself?” The Paladin flew over from the horizon with a giant grin on his scarred face.

The spear, after losing its target, changed its direction without stopping. Arthur, on the other hand, didn't try to use the limits of his teleport rune to run away. He doubted an Astra ranker would have difficulties in chasing after them for hundreds of miles.

Using his teleport rune, Arthur could barely dodge the spear before it ripped him to pieces. He might have been able to stop it earlier using his Art and controlling the very existence of the spear, but he couldn't pull that off again.

'I need to buy more time.' Arthur thought as he saw the figure of the Paladin descend like a meteor, creating a crater and shaking the earth.

The Paladin looked around from on top of the hill before looking down on Arthur, who was huffing and gathering his breath.

”Ah, how heroic. You've decided to be the bait. However, you're the one I'm after anyway. As for your friends, I'll have my followers find them and rip them to pieces, just like what is about to happen to you.”

”Try your best, egg-head.” Arthur prepared his runes to be used at any moment. He saw the frown and twitch of the Paladin's eyebrows.

”Childish tactics.”

”Whatever you say, potato-nose.”

”Die.” The Paladin lost his temper and his mana raged. There was less than a kilometer away between the two but the Paladin used every bit of strength he could master as he threw the spear.

Arthur knew he would die if the spear attacked him. There was no way he could dodge this one with how close it was to him. He could only sense the general direction of it without being able to truly see it.

However, he wasn't going to dodge. Arthur's runes were different from abilities, they were a lot more flexible to use. He stood with his head high as he witnessed the destruction of the grasslands. The rain was pushed upward in the path the spear flew in.

With his remaining functional arm, Arthur used his rune and poured as much mana as he can to it. He couldn't hope of getting a higher-level rune at this point because his runes were harder to modify the stronger they are. He simply poured mana so that the rune would work on the spear.

'Let's pray this works.' Arthur used most of his mana as his hand traced the trajectory of the incoming spear. 'Luckily, the Paladin isn't attacking me directly. Due to his overconfidence, I have a chance to succeed.'

All of these thoughts flashed in his mind in a concrete form, but a vague flash of neurological signals. The moment the spear touched his rune, Arthur felt the rune drain most of his mana hungrily.

The pressure of the mana and the spear shredded his arms and he gritted his teeth in pain. However, the spear didn't manage to pierce through his flesh.

The moment the rune and the spear came in contact, the giant white rod disappeared from the world. Arthur fell to his knees as his ears listened to the delightful sound of the Paladin's scream.

”YOU INSOLENT BASTARD!” The Paladin roared at him and Arthur looked up at his handiwork.

The spear that was flying toward him a moment ago was lodged in the Paladin's back, specifically between his ribs. Sadly, it seemed the spear couldn't penetrate his flesh enough to cause a fatal injury.

”I've been careless,” The Paladin's eyes were terrifyingly filled with killing intent. ”There's no need to capture you anymore, die.”

Arthur felt his neck being strangled and thought that the Paladin was taking action personally. However, he was shocked when he saw the giant monster that had appeared and it was only the monster's presence. A monstrous white tiger appeared beside the hill and was a little bit bigger than the hill itself.

'The reason that Astra-beings are called as such is for a simple reason.' Arthur looked with fear as the monstrous flaming tiger. 'They can summon an Astral-being.' Arthur realized something. 'I might have pushed this old man too far, now it's time to run.'