Chapter 153 (2/2)
But no matter how fast he was, he could never outrun the Vulcan’s Hand, which was made up almost entirely of fire elementals. The fire element has no weight therefore it had no inertia, and so could accelerate from the stationary state to the speed of a storm in no time at all. It was also able to change directions swiftly as Link willed it without a hitch. The Vulcan’s Hand might be colossal in size, but it was still surprisingly agile and quick.
Soon enough, the Warrior Norisa was caught within the grasp of the giant fiery hand!
The Vulcan’s hand was so colossal in size that the Warrior now looked just like a tiny mouse. He was now completely engulfed by the flames and one couldn’t see a trace of him from the outside.
At the same time, all Norisa could see now was a red sea of flame all around him. He found that he couldn’t move at all because the fiery hand was exerting an enormous pressure on him. What was even scarier was the rapid speed at which it was closing in one him.
“The bastard is going to roast me to death!” Norisa then concentrated all of his force and energy to activate the Blue Thorn Battle Aura in a single explosion and the aura around him suddenly burst into a brightness that was three times its normal intensity.
Bang!
It turned out that Norisa wasn’t too shabby at all. With that explosive burst of his Battle Aura, he managed to smash and disperse the fire elements in the Level-5 Vulcan’s Hand!
Yet it didn’t come without a cost to the Warrior. His clothes were now burnt to tatters, and the anti-magic chain mail armor was now glowing red and almost destroyed. His hair was now completely consumed by fire and his whole body was blackened by smoke.
By then, not only was he no longer able to charge on, it had taken all of his energy just to stay conscious and aware under such scorching temperatures. No matter how strong he was, he would need at least a few seconds to regain his composure and make an attack.
At this point, the Magician Parson finally completed the Ice Spear. Spiraling spears of ice then shot out from the tip of his wand and headed towards Link.
The Ice Spears were about seven-feet-long and as thick as an egg. It spiraled rapidly as it flew towards Link at a terrifying speed. If Link was hit by the spear, even the Level-4 Edelweiss shield would not completely protect him from its impact, and that would give the Dark Elves an opening to follow up with another attack.
Still, Link had his own way to deal with this.
Once again, he triggered the Glyph of Soul and was momentarily stunned, then the intricate structure of the Vulcan’s Hand appeared at the tip of his wand. There the fire elements scattered by Norisa recently was then gathered and took the form of a new giant fiery hand.
The Ice Spear was only halfway in its trajectory when the new Vulcan’s Hand was fully formed, and they both slammed into each other in an explosive clash of elements.
The Vulcan’s Hand was initially glowing dimly, but once it came in contact with the Ice Spear it burst out in a brilliant light. The Ice Spear then instantaneously became a mist of vapor.
What else would you expect when a mere Level-3 ice spell hit a Level-5 fire spell?
With the Ice Spear vaporized, the fingers of the Vulcan’s Hand curled up like a cow’s tongue and promptly swallowed the Warrior Norisa who disappeared into its palm.
Then, without any hesitation at all, Link immediately raised the temperature of the Vulcan’s Hand, especially in its palm area. The giant fiery hand than brightened so much that everyone in the hall was almost blinded.
This meant that the temperature of the Vulcan’s Hand had been raised to a blistering degree!
This time, there was no way that Norisa could ever escape the Vulcan’s Hand’s grasp. In fact, the spell had re-emerged so quickly – within 0.2 seconds – that he hadn’t even had time to recover from the previous attack yet.
Then, an inhuman scream could be heard coming from the inside of the Vulcan’s Hand. It was a ghastly scream, but it was brief and abruptly ended.
Needless to say, it was the sound of Norisa getting burned to death.
Right now, out of the three Dark Elves, one was dead, and one had been incapacitated. The Magician was the only one left standing now. All this had happened within three seconds – the time for the average person to breathe in and out!
Another second passed, and the Vulcan’s Hand in the great hall opened up its palm again, from which a charred body that looked like a big lump of coal came tumbling out. As the corpse hit the floor, it crumbled into countless smaller pieces – the powerful Level-5 Warrior was now nothing more than clumps of coal and ashes.
Wharton gulped at the horrifying scene before him. He now realized that his brother had been merciful to him when he attacked Link earlier in the day.
Meanwhile, Clyde’s eyes were as wide as saucers as he stared at his little brother who hadn’t moved an inch from his position at the dining table as if the dinner hadn’t even been interrupted at all. He couldn’t imagine how powerful his brother had become now.
Just minutes before, Clyde had been thoroughly defeated by that Assassin within a few seconds, and the Assassin didn’t even seem to have exerted much effort either. He was after all a henchman of the Norigan Familia who possessed the Blue Thorn Aura, yet Link managed to defeat him without touching him at all – not to mention the fact that he hadn’t even stood up from his chair!
What kind of power was this? How did Link get so mighty in such a short period? These questions kept running through Clyde’s mind and he really couldn’t come up with any explanations for them.
Not only was he shocked and awed by the human Magician’s power, he was also quaking in his boots. The Vulcan’s Hand had now completely broken Parson’s fighting spirit. It was a spell of at least Level-5, and yet the human Magician had cast it instantaneously! It was simply beyond Parson’s imagination, and he’d never faced such a menacing assault before!
How could he possibly defeat an opponent of this level?
“Retreat!” shouted Parson to the Assassin Hedel. He then waited for no one and bolted straight out of the great hall of the castle. He wasn’t afraid of death, but he must remain alive, so he could bring the news of what just happened back to the Black Forest.
Although Hedel was completely blinded and his body was bruised all over, he knew that Norisa had been killed by the sound he heard. He was aware that Parson was making a run for it, so he instinctively wanted to flee himself. He staggered and stumbled and tried to run out of the hall. But he only managed a few steps before he fell down and face-planted on the floor.
He tried to get back on his feet but before he could even try, another Whistle exploded right next to his thigh, breaking the bones immediately. An excruciating pain spread through his body. All Hedel could do now was hug his thigh and screech in pain. He was no longer the master of darkness that he used to be.
Meanwhile, Parson had reached outside the hall. He was now out of Link’s line of sight, although his confidence was now completely shattered and all he could think of was to escape as far away from the human Magician as he possibly could.
He went to the furthest corner and began casting a flying spell – the Level-3 Ashen Hawk. He would not stay here and suffer the same fate as Norisa or Hedel, instead he would escape the terrifying human Magician by flying into the sky!
Two seconds later, the spell was finally completed. A gray billowing cloud of smoke then formed into a giant bird. Parson quickly climbed up and the bird swiftly took off into the sky. Parson finally breathed a sigh of relief as he thought that he was out of the human Magician’s range now, but this relief hadn’t lasted for more than a second when he saw that the Magician had walked out of the great hall.
The Ashen Hawk had flown no more than thirty feet then.
“Where do you think you’re going?” shouted Link.
He pointed his wand at the sky, after which the Vulcan’s Hand immediately followed in its direction. In no time at all the giant fiery hand grabbed the Ashen Hawk into its palm and pulled the bird along with the Magician down to the ground.
Did you think that I’d just let you fly away from my grasp, Parson? Not a chance!