Chapter 1304 - Chaotic Battle (1/2)
Rhode really wanted to take the fight seriously. But honestly, sometimes there were a lot of things that he couldn’t do even if he said so because he needed someone else to make it work. And now, the problem was that… It didn’t matter who was the one saying what.
Because the battlefield was in complete chaos now.
Apart from Lapis, everyone else had hidden from the artillery fire, be it Rhode, Stefania, Catherine, Dona, or Eleanor. Right now, the most important thing was to stay away from this overwhelming bombardment. Rhode had to admit that this downsized version of magical cannons produced by Lapis was really successful. Even after she shrunk their size, she managed to keep their original might.
Keep their original might.
Keep their original might.
It was so important that it had to be mentioned thrice.
“This is ridiculous!”
While dodging the artillery bombardment that had no discernible pattern, Rhode screamed inwardly. This wasn’t just a normal headache, but a really huge one instead. Even at his level, it wasn’t like he wouldn’t flinch when the magical cannons blasted his body. As for Stefania, she wasn’t having it any better. In fact, her lack of knowledge of Lapis’s battle style caused her to take a direct hit from the artillery fire. Fortunately, this plane merchant had a lot of strange gadgets in her possession. In the face of the artillery fire, she whipped out something called a ‘banshee’s veil’ and wore it over her head. At the next moment, a transparent shield flickered around her and she held her whip to continue finding trouble with Catherine.
And for the three card spirits, they faced the same trouble. The projectiles fired from the magical cannons were pure magic and as such, an attribute-less attack that none of them was immune to. This, in turn, forced them into the same predicament as Rhode and the others.
If an exact analogy were to be made, both sides were now literally dueling against one other in a whirling storm. And what was more depressing was that it was not raindrops nor hailstones falling from the sky, but sharp knives instead. One wouldn’t be in any better state even if one survived after being struck by it. But only God knew what would become of one after being hit a few more times.
Thereafter, the three-on-three battle turned into a complete scuffle in just the blink of an eye. There was just no way for both sides to duel properly. Moreover, Lapis had also released several floating cannons that tracked and chased the three card spirits to their deaths. Just like her own attacks, these floating cannons looked like they had escaped a mental hospital, where their blasts had no accuracy to speak of. However, with an overwhelming amount of artillery barrage, it still brought upon an inexplicable sense of menace.
It felt just like one being trapped in an endless whirlpool and having to worry about whether or not one would suddenly be devoured by the terrifying jaws of a shark. Of course, it wasn’t as if Dona and Eleanor hadn’t thought about eliminating the threat directly at the source. But the problem was that Rhode wasn’t someone to be trifled with either. He dodged the artillery barrage, while keeping a wary eye on the two in front of him. As soon as they attacked Lapis, he would have a chance to sneak an attack from the side. With his formidable strength, the two of them didn’t dare to neglect his presence, so it became a fight of sneak attack and counter-sneak attack in the middle of a storm. To use one sentence and describe this situation in a nutshell…
What is this all about?!
Rhode rolled over to dodge the bombardment again and lamented helplessly deep down. The battle had begun to move in a direction that he hadn’t expected in the slightest the moment Lapis opened fire. While it was true that he had already known through the system what she was capable of, reading and experiencing it firsthand were two completely different things. There was almost nothing he could do right now under the almost unrelenting bombardment of this area.
Lapis is totally high right now.
At first glance, Lapis looked like she held up the cannon barrels and fired them. But the truth was that she was simply waving her arms haphazardly, yelling, and launching her attacks instead. At a glance, one would think that she was just confused and nervous in the face of the ambush from her opponents. But Rhode clearly heard the joy and excitement hidden within her screams, just like how the high-pitched screeches of a girl on a roller coaster were definitely not a sign of negative energy.
But despite that, Rhode couldn’t tell her to stop. The current situation was considered the best out of all his unexpected circumstances. Lapis wasn’t great at frontal combat to begin with. As one could see from the ‘battle’, the retaliation that she came up with was to turn herself into a fire-powered tortoise shell, where no one could hurt her, but she could hurt everybody else. That was exactly what rookies would think. But the problem was that when a rookie had great creativity, unimaginable ideas would only become more frightening.
Because they had the potential to be realized.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The deafening explosions in Rhode’s ears made his body tremble slightly. The scattered smoke in burning waves of heat from all directions gave one the illusion of being trapped in the middle of a fire pit. But even so, Rhode didn’t let down his guard. He stooped over, looked at Lapis, who fired the cannons to her heart’s content, in the distance and swept his eyes to the side. At the next moment, he vanished into thin air, leaving behind only flashes of smoke from the explosions.
“Leader should be fine, right? Lapis is really going all-out.”
The crowd, including the holy sword card spirits, watching the battle from outside the plaza was stunned. They had never seen this attack from Lapis, where the plaza of hundreds of meters wide had turned into another place entirely. No, perhaps it wasn’t even a plaza anymore. It was now full of shattered stones and pits of various sizes. Flickering magical radiances constantly formed circles on the ground that expanded and exploded one after another. It was indeed a pleasing sight from afar. But when the blooming flowers of flame were strong enough to harvest life, it was a totally different story.
Not only did Marlene, Lize, and Anne widen their eyes, but Canary, Mini Bubble Gum, and Icy Snow also began to feel uneasy. Icy Snow even used her ‘space scouting’ ability to search for Rhode’s location. But with this kind of artillery bombardment, it was just as difficult as finding the baby’s father in the shelling of Operation Overlord[1].
“———!”
All of a sudden, a trembling shrill resembling that of a demon’s sounded even in the loud, deafening bombardment. Shortly after, in the eyes of the crowd, a pitch-black, ghost-like shadow emerged in the glow of the gunfire, lurching forward and charging at Lapis!
After being ‘bullied’ by Lapis for so long, the three holy sword card spirits finally decided to get serious!
“Whoa!”
Upon witnessing the shadow of death looming over her, Lapis cried out in fear. She held out her hands hurriedly and along with this movement, hundreds of magical guiding lights erupted instantly, charging straight at the shadow ahead. It only took a moment for the lights to completely melt the shadow to the point where not even a scrap was left. But before Lapis reacted again, the land rumbled all of a sudden. The ruptured land that was bombarded by the artillery barrage rippled and swirled like ocean waves. Dozens of stone spikes broke out of the ground and stabbed at Lapis. Almost at the same time, along with whistling gales, a bright column of light that broke through the layer of clouds like sunlight shot at Lapis under the Light Angel’s guidance!
Apparently, after being tormented by Lapis for so long, the holy sword spirits were finally focusing their attention on the ‘weak’ elf young lady. And now, they were about to give her a special treatment that even Rhode wasn’t entitled to.
They were going to join forces to deal with her first!
It was clear that the Grim Reaper was luring Lapis’s attention earlier, while Catherine and Dona were the main attackers instead. Whether this diversion fooled anyone else was still a matter of opinion, but Lapis had clearly fallen for it. It wasn’t surprising, considering her lack of combat experience. If she didn’t fall for it, Rhode would have suspected whether she was actually possessed by someone or some special force…