Azure Scepter

Page 50

"Based on their order of observation, we can preliminarily determine that the Inquisitors pose the greatest threat, followed by the Goblins, while the Barbarians and other temple guards are of similar strength."

“Well, friends, I think we should retreat,” the female barbarian said. “Look at this big iron thing, there’s no way we can handle it.”

This was like a clarion call; even the normally disciplined main force of the temple guards began to whisper amongst themselves, all agreeing with the barbarian's viewpoint. Trier noticed that they were all looking at the silent inquisitor atop the pile of corpses.

The judge's nose twitched slightly. The next moment, he turned his head sharply, his two pale blue eyes, emitting an eerie red glow, sweeping fiercely across the crowd. He said coldly, "Whoever retreats will die."

The sound cut through the crowd like a sharp blade, and the restless whispers stopped abruptly as if they had been choked.

Trier observed the temple guards with great interest, sensing a hidden unease in the crowd. The Inquisitor's forceful words were like a heavy hammer striking a spring, making everyone tense.

The stark contrast and changes sowed the seeds of suspicion.

After a moment, the female barbarian broke the silence, her voice hesitant: "But...but..."

The judge suddenly waved his hand.

"No buts! Move forward!"

The goblin obediently walked to the front of the group again and silently resumed his scout duties.

"Their attitude has actually reversed," Noy thought to himself. "Looks like this vampire has smelled something."

Under the inquisitor's insistence, the temple guards finally yielded. They continued deeper into the laboratory. Trier and Noy trailed behind the temple guards like shadows.

The temple guards moved through the temple as if it were empty. They quickly passed through corridors filled with colorful death clouds, embalming rooms surrounded by silvery mercury, a copper labyrinth filled with scarlet instruments and bloodstains, and a summoning area covered in violet paint, finally arriving at a dark and deep spiral staircase leading to an even deeper level.

Along the way, the temple guards encountered no enemies—the corpses piled haphazardly on the ground silently testified to the fierce battle that had taken place here.

The deeper they went, the more impatient the judge became, constantly urging the group to speed up. And the deeper they went, the fewer corpses and traces of battle remained. When the temple guards reached the dark spiral staircase, the ground was so clean and smooth as a mirror, spotless.

It must be said that the goblin was very competent as a scout. He dismantled at least thirty magical traps along the way, and the large team did not suffer any casualties due to the traps.

Perhaps because things were going smoothly, the tense and oppressive atmosphere within the team was greatly relieved.

"It seems this legendary mage isn't good at setting traps. His traps are so rigid and inflexible, just like those brainless zombies!" The goblin told a joke in a relaxed tone after easily dismantling yet another tripwire trap.

"They're doomed," Trier thought.

Chapter 92 Group Malicious Polymorphism

After telling the joke, the gnome Yorle regretted it.

A chill suddenly appeared like a thorny vine, then silently crept up the back of the gnome Yorle's neck, causing him to shiver slightly.

Although he had once again broken free from the necromancer's crudely laid trap, he now felt a strange sense of danger. The stench of decay wafted through the air like the rotting hands of a zombie, and the dark spiral staircase behind the tripwire trap seemed to lead to a bottomless abyss.

In the darkness, the earth spirit Yorle felt himself being watched by something cold and malicious, something unspeakable. He inexplicably thought of the empty, maggot-filled eye sockets of the dead.

The earth gnome Yorle subconsciously looked up and glanced behind him.

Nobody was interested in his jokes.

The usually cold but rational judge was now staring intently at the spiral staircase as if bewitched, his pale blue eyes burning with a fervor for something unknown; while the female barbarian yawned nonchalantly, staring listlessly at the lighting system above her head, as if she were playing the role of a prophetic mage exploring the workings of the stars.

As for the temple guards further back, they continued to ignore him as always.

"Perhaps I'm being paranoid?" Jörg thought to himself, gazing at the clean and tidy corridor.

He suppressed the growing unease and anxiety in his heart, his calloused, thick fingers gently hooking the edge of the tripwire, then pinching and pulling to retrieve the lethal device behind the trap trigger.

With a crisp "click," a white stone brick connected by the tripwire slowly fell off, revealing a magnificent black crystal in the eyes of the earth spirit Yorle.

—It's a magic stone!

The black crystal was sharply defined, its cold edges reflecting his shrinking pupils and trembling throat.

Most of the world's magic storage stones are made from goblins as raw materials.

At this moment, staring at the cold, hard crystal in his hand, the earth spirit Yorle felt as if the magnificent black crystal had transformed into a giant hand choking his throat. Amidst the intense ringing in his ears, he seemed to see again his mother's eyes, filled with scarlet tears of blood, when she was taken away by the necromancer of the breeding farm.

A wail, viscous blood droplets, the aroma of steamed goblins...

"Joler! Joler—bang!"

A sudden, tremendous force struck his cheek; after a brief numbness, a burning pain brought him back to consciousness. Jörg's unfocused gaze gradually sharpened, and he mechanically turned to look at the expressionless judge before him.

Taking a deep breath, the goblin said, "I'm sorry, sir."

“This is a magic storage stone.” The judge stared intently at the magic storage stone in his hand and said in a low voice, “It can store the spells of legendary mages! This one alone is enough to redeem hundreds of your own kind from those magic madmen in the Great Swamp.”

After a brief pause, the judge continued, "Cheer up, Jörg, we've struck it rich this time! We've struck it rich!"

The judge's eyes, so pale they were almost colorless, seemed to possess a strange charm, and the goblin felt a surge of courage rise within him.

He had thought this journey would be a death sentence, but now not only did he not encounter the necromancer's terrifying followers, but a reward that could completely turn his life around was right in front of him!

If only we could dismantle these crude and ridiculous traps...

“They all depended on me to save them,” he murmured to himself.

At this moment, the judge, who had seemed bewitched just moments before, appeared to have regained his senses. He patted the goblin on the shoulder and said, "You can do it. We only have one last obstacle left to overcome before we succeed."

Jörle nodded and then strode towards the dark spiral staircase.

As he expected, there was a double-trigger trap on the stair treads—it must be said, the necromancer's trap-setting skills were truly laughable. Even an apprentice who had only been practicing for a few months could break such a double-trigger trap.

As expected, Jörg safely deciphered the last trap leading to the underground.

He was about to go down the stairs when he suddenly heard a buzzing sound of sharp blades tearing through the air behind him!

The goblin turned around in disbelief, only to find that the Inquisitor wasn't trying to silence him—on the contrary, the Inquisitor was using a military pickaxe to smash the wall next to the stairs like he was mining.

"boom!"

The pickaxe pierced the wall with a sudden burst, sending bricks and dust scattering to the ground.

"What the hell..." The barbarian woman, Jia Erbei, had only spoken halfway when the entire wall vanished like a sandcastle blown by the sea breeze.

phantom?!

Jules, the earth spirit, gaped in astonishment as he stared in shock at the scene behind the illusionary wall.

—It was a black coffin.

Heavy iron chains and hooks pierced the coffin, suspending it upside down. Eight strange symbols were painted in scarlet ink on the black coffin lid.

The judge lunged at him.

“That must be an extremely lethal ritual, right?” Noy’s excited voice echoed in Trier’s mind.

Trier did not answer, because the symbols were not ritual magic circles, but Chinese characters.

The sign above reads: "Opening this is strictly prohibited; you will be solely responsible for any consequences."

“They can’t read Chinese, so I’m going to be so bored going there…” Trier thought to himself. “It’s probably filled with some dangerous undead, maybe even hanged corpses.”

The vampire judge paid no heed to the possible magical effects of the coffin. Without hesitation, he raised his pickaxe and smashed open the coffin lid. In one blow, the entire lid exploded into dust.

A withered female elf corpse, resembling a dead tree, fell out of it; the skin of the corpse was almost fused with the bones.

Before the body even hit the ground, the iron hooks and chains piercing its body pulled it down sharply. In the struggle between gravity and the tension of the chains, the body was forced into a bizarre upside-down position.

The judge excitedly grabbed the iron hook stuck in the corpse's abdomen and lowered the body down.

At this moment, his pale face turned even paler with excitement. His expression was solemn, as if the body in his hands was not a withered corpse, but something sacred. He carefully placed the body on the ground, then bowed his head as if worshipping a deity.

"Father," the judge murmured as if lost in a dream, his eyes now bloodshot, "I've finally found you, you bastard. Your blood...where is it..."

"Watch out! That thing is definitely an undead!" the female barbarian warned hastily, and she and several temple guards immediately surrounded them.

The judge slowly raised his head like a sluggish zombie. He twitched his nose, then shoved the barbarian woman aside and grabbed the open coffin.

"Are you insane?!" the goblin shouted.

The next moment, the judge withdrew his hand, a drop of blood, thick as amber, lingering on his fingertip.

"Ah... Source Blood... Power..." The Inquisitor swallowed a bead of blood, his lips turning crimson. "Freedom..."

"Thorn."

Amidst the cacophony of roaring waves and the clanging of metal, the sound of tearing rags seemed utterly insignificant, yet Trier knew that these men had triggered the very trap he had set.

The yellow light representing the change element vanished in an instant, and the next moment, a visible yellow wave spread out like a vortex from the inverted coffin.

Before the hysterical screams could even begin, the sounds of bones and flesh squeezing, twisting, and cracking overwhelmed everything, followed by the familiar stench of blood.

A mesmerizing yellow light flickered, and the barbarian woman, Jia Erbei, was horrified to see her comrades collapse to the ground one by one. Their bodies then convulsed as if electrocuted, and she watched in horror as terrifying wedge-shaped cracks appeared on their bodies. Their convulsing flesh and bones began to writhe like maggots shedding their skin, as if trying to tear their skin apart and crawl out from within.

Moments later, bursts of blood mist erupted from the plate armor.

In the blood mist, the tormented soldiers were gone, replaced by blood-stained plate armor and dogs.

It is a group-based malicious transformation technique.

"Huh?" Jia Erbei blinked blankly. She subconsciously looked at her hands and then realized that she had not turned into a dog.

He turned his head to look at the coffin and saw that the judge's tall body was firmly blocking it. But at that moment, the judge was kneeling on the ground in agony, as if being tortured, with clumps of blood gushing from his pores and dripping onto the ground.

—At the last moment before the spell was triggered, the Inquisitor bravely stepped in and absorbed most of the spell's effect.

Even though some managed to withstand most of the spell's power, the situation for the remaining people was far from optimistic. The once large group was now almost entirely wiped out, and among the survivors were some writhing on the ground in excruciating pain, their piercing screams and muffled cracking of bones echoing through the blood mist.

The powerful army was wiped out in an instant.

Her survival was purely by luck.

Jiaerbei stared blankly at the animals scattered everywhere, and in a moment of sudden realization, she understood: "This is the power of a legendary mage, and it wasn't even him personally setting it up, but rather a trap casually laid by a legendary mage who had been dead for a long time..."

"Count the number of people! Quickly!" The goblin's roar brought her back to her senses. "Report the numbers!"

"Ah!" The tall judge screamed in agony; he too could not withstand the terrifying effects of the spell.

The next instant, his flesh and bones began to melt and decompose like putty. Then, a flash of yellow light appeared, and the mud-like mixture of flesh and blood was arbitrarily assembled into a...

donkey.

"Ugh! Ugh!" the donkey roared in terror.

The Dalmatians chimed in, "Woof woof woof..."

"Aaaaaah!!" The temple guard, who was about to transform, screamed in agony.

“The judge was very brave,” Trier thought. “If he hadn’t intervened, no one could have survived. Now, only a few temple guards are still capable of fighting.”

He took a deep breath and gripped the longsword tightly in his hand.

"In this situation, those lurking observers should make their move, and the muscle demons hidden in the team should also transform."

—The earth spirit Joler was unaware of Trier and Noy's gaze; he noticed the other people in the laboratory, and now, those watchers were about to make their move.

The next moment, the bright light went out instantly.

"Snapped!"

Chapter 93 Muscle Demon

A drop of warm blood fell from somewhere and landed on Trier's face.

He casually brushed it away; the sticky blood droplets carried a pungent, rusty smell. He squinted slightly; the pungent smell of blood emanating from his nose stung his brain like a needle, instantly dispelling the fatigue of days of travel. Memories of the bloody battle in Beaver Town flooded his mind once more.

My heart raced, and a secret sense of anticipation was boiling in my brain along with my oxygen-rich blood.

Darkness spread, and the dying screams and cries of the temple guards rose and fell. Sparks flew from the clash of metal, and in the flickering light, hysterical, terrified faces alternated with the pale, indistinct faces of the dead.

"Stay calm." Trier struggled to suppress the urge to rush out and join the battle, forcing himself to remain stealthy and patiently observe the enemy's condition.

Compared to a few days ago, his close combat ability has made a qualitative leap, but at this moment, the combat power of these attackers in the dark is obviously far superior to the mindless zombies in Beaver Town. In a sense, he only has one chance to make a move. If he acts rashly, he will be easily killed by the commander hiding in the shadows.

"The principles of spellcasting combat and melee combat with cold weapons are the same. Both require using the right spell at the right time, in the right place, on the right target. A single, fatal thrust is worth more than hundreds of futile slashes." He gripped his longsword tightly, his gaze sweeping past the chaotic crowd and herd of animals, landing on the dark spiral staircase in the distance.

However, he did not see any possible undead commander; all he saw was darkness.

“The attacker is most likely the Shadowman, or one of his minions,” Trier thought. “Very cautious, he’s still waiting for the group to break down—it’s time to share vision with Noy.”

But before he could use his shared vision, a soft white light suddenly appeared from the crowd.

One after another, stones emitting a soft glow were thrown onto the ground, casting dark shadows onto the blood-splattered walls. Amidst the sounds of flesh tearing apart, the emaciated, convulsing shadows appeared particularly grotesque and eerie.

"Rainbow Stone! Maintain the line!"

As the black tide surged, the earth goblin roared, leaping onto the rainbow stone and then delivering a straight slash to the horde of corpses.

"Pfft!"

Flesh flew everywhere as a head, almost skin and bone, slammed against the wall, bone fragments shattering, and a rusty scimitar stuck firmly into the ground.