292 Chapter 292: Blood Slaughter Sec (1/2)

”Don't get in my way!” Xue Tu hollered furiously.

”Huh? I thought you wanted a fight scene?” I asked, genuinely confused by his sudden change of attitude.

”Shut up! I'm going to marry my beloved Lilith, no matter what! Get them, zombies!”

With a furious cry, Xue Tu lunged at Principal Porter again. I tried to intervene, but a horde of zombies clumsily but firmly shambled to put themselves between me and their master.

Bloody hell…thanks to the zombies being very weak, Xue Tu could summon them fairly easily – he only required a very short casting time, especially since these poor zombies were literally cannon fodder.

However, they were still enough to delay me for a few seconds. And a few seconds were all he needed to close the gap on Principal Porter.

”Damn it! White Tiger! Leo! Leo Minor!”

In contrast to the pitiful zombies, my Constellation spirits were far stronger, and they demolished the entire line in almost an instant. However, the sheer number of zombies appeared to weigh them down, even as they incinerated or fried them with spells and lightning. I also found my path barred by a group of zombies that had broken off from their comrades to harass me.

Taking a deep breath, I cut through them by summoning Gemini – that was the only spell I could summon in one second. I didn't have time to summon a flying Constellation spirit to soar above the horde of zombies. I could draw Hei Yue and Bai Ri to help me, but I decided to rely on the speed and mobility that the lighter Gemini twin swords afforded me for now.

Fortunately, I could afford to not worry because Anastasia was here. Even as I was bogged down by hordes of zombies, I could trust my partner to pick up the slack. Vaulting over the zombies, she landed on the head of one of them, and then propelled herself off the poor thing to intercept the bounding Xue Tu. Seeing her poisoned daggers flash toward his throat, his eyes widened and he arced his head back to avoid a fatal strike.

That was the problem with fighting a poison user. Be too careless, let your guard down, and sustaining even a single attack could potentially prove to be fatal.

”Great!”

I realized that Anastasia was our best bet for eliminating a high-priority target such as Xue Tu. The moment she took him out, all these annoying zombies would be gone along with him. So the best thing I could do for now was keep the zombies off her back.

The other Silver Wolves mercenaries appeared to have the same idea, for they were crouching down and laying a line of suppressing fire. Their shots were pretty accurate. Even with me and my Constellation spirits being in the line of fire, none of them hit any of us by accident, their precise shots taking out selected zombies with terrifying ease.

”Get lost!” Xue Tu shrieked as he bombarded Anastasia with a series of blood blades, weapons and projectiles. Almost as if she was waltzing, Anastasia whirled and spun around to avoid getting impaled. With the melodic grace of a dancer, she weaved through the wildly stabbing appendages while simultaneously deflecting them with her daggers. Appendages recoiled, writhed and died as poison spread across them, only to amputate themselves ruthlessly to prevent the corruption from spreading to other parts of the main body.

Swearing, Xue Tu hopped back while throwing another blood lance at the advancing Anastasia. She twisted her body to avoid the deadly projectile before hurling a poisoned knife in return, the lethal blade sinking itself deeply into a hastily conjured blood shield before it could cut the panicking blood mage's skin.

”That was close!” he muttered, paling considerably. He tossed his knife and broke the poisoned shield before the toxins could spread into his body. While retreating, he sent another volley of blood spears that would have impaled Anastasia, but she destroyed them with a swing of her daggers, sending crimson fragments falling through the air like bloody rain.

I cut down the last of the zombies, and with the mercenaries helping me out, I could direct both White Tiger and Leo toward more fruitful endeavors. The two huge Constellation spirits split up before attacking the half-distracted Xue Tu from each flank. Gritting his teeth, he threw out both hands in opposite directions and sent countless spikes erupting from the ground like lava. Both White Tiger and Leo twisted in midair to dodge the volley of cruel lances, and landed a relatively safe distance away.

Growling, White Tiger unleashed a storm of lightning upon the fence of blood that had now grown around Xue Tu. He was panting at trying to consecutively cast so many spells at a high speed. Fortunately, the spells he was casting were relatively basic, so he didn't need a long casting time unlike my more complex summoning spells. Similarly, his zombies were weak, but in exchange they gave up lots of casting time to gain the ability to be summoned quickly.

Even so, the simple spells were crudely effective. I watched as the devastating lightning splashed against the fence and shattered them. Despite their instant demise, they had served their purpose in shielding Xue Tu for that specific moment when it mattered.

”Tsk…”

I clicked my tongue, especially since I keenly exploited that logic the most. Basic, elementary spells, which I often made use of (or my Constellation spirits made use of) were very simple to master and cast, and didn't require a lot of time to cast, but they could be very powerful as long as you pump a lot of mana into them. Conversely, they were not as efficient as intermediate or advanced spells, which often used like half the amount of mana to produce the same effect or firepower, but in exchange for requiring perhaps twice the amount of casting time (for example). But brute force remained a surprisingly effective method or strategy.

It also meant that you wouldn't necessarily lose just because you only learned basic spells and your opponent mastered advanced spells. As I said, that whole level or ranking thing was bullshit. Advanced spells gave you a massive advantage, but you still had to cast them. Fortunately, this meant that basic spells would never be obsolete. If I were to give an analogy, it would be like Magic: The Gathering. Essentially, one-mana or two-mana or cheap spells, though simple, would never be obsolete and could be surprisingly effective in overwhelming your opponent through speed. The more expensive spells, such as those that cost seven or eight mana, could be devastating and deal the finishing blow to your reeling opponent, or change the tide of the game when employed correctly, but if you opponent could overwhelm you with cheap, fast spells before you placed down your fifth land (or ramp up to having seven or eight mana), then you would still lose the game, no matter how many rare and powerful cards you had in your deck. Similarly, control decks could often frustrate opponents with cheap denial spells, such as fog cards preventing combat damage, counter spells preventing stuff from going off, or perhaps a two mana spell granting you protection from a specific color for a single turn. Not enough to win the game, but enough to keep you alive until you accumulated enough mana to cast your big game changers or pull off a combo.

That was just a simplified version, though, and battles were a lot more complex than that. Nonetheless, I was sure that readers weren't here for a massive info dump.