Mage Manual

Chapter 191: Chapter 169 It’s Time to End

The plan went extremely smoothly.

Sometimes, Ash had to admit, the five of them were a crime group tailor-made by fate. A bit of improvisation actually lured Gerard out, creating an opportunity to break into the Void Realm passage.

The plan was actually quite simple: first, Igula randomly chose an audience member to intimidate. Nine out of ten adventurers had skeletons in their closet; the last one was the skeleton itself. Igula didn’t even have to exert much effort to draw out the fear within their heart, making them believe Igula was a vengeful enemy out to get them, sending them fleeing in panic.

When the Hunter went after the fleeing adventurer, Harvey used Necromancy to implant chips, adding restrictions to everyone in the area, plunging the adventurers into panic. At the same time, Ronald discreetly knocked out a few adventurers with steel balls and grazed Ash and the others, causing everyone to naturally fall to the ground.

The recorder pen that Ash had hastily put together would sound on the Substitute, Igula would then trigger the Spirit Miracle to amplify everyone’s suspicion and panic, and the adventurers would quickly fall into a fear of the Hunter, eventually fleeing the camp under the lead of Ash’s Substitute.

Once Gerard was lured away and all the other adventurers had left the scene, those ‘crippled’ lying on the ground would seize this gap to leap up, rush to the passage, leave the Blood Moon, and begin anew!

Originally, Ash had not held much hope, but this flawed, impromptu plan had actually worked out very smoothly. When Gerard whisked by his body like a fleeing shadow, Ash’s heart almost leapt out of his mouth.

A more ideal scene than Igula had imagined emerged: on the high platform, only one Hunter remained, and the surrounding Moon Shadow Priests seemed to be stunned with fear. After Lanna knocked out the Hunter with a punch, what followed was a clear path.

In the process where errors should have occurred, everything went smoothly.

At the ending, where nothing was supposed to go wrong, something unexpected happened.

While rushing to the portal’s staircase, Ash suddenly felt a chill, as if someone was tightly grasping his heart, and he could even feel a character “Danger!” appearing above his head.

He knew what this meant—his “Wild Intuition” had been triggered.

Long before, during his adventures in the Void Realm, this skill obtained from the Mage’s Handbook had saved him from peril several times, so naturally, Ash chose to continue trusting it.

Miracle·Sword Barrier!

After ascending to Two-winged status, Ash could invoke the Earth Sword using Golden Technique Power, nearly tripling the defensive power of this Miracle.

Bang!

With a clamorous gun report, the warm yellow barrier shattered like glass, even the ground designated to disperse the destructive force cracked into a spider web!

Let alone a direct hit, Ash felt if he were even grazed by such an attack, he would lose a good ten-plus pounds of flesh and bone!

Ash slightly turned his head and saw in the distance, a Beastman sniper hidden in the shadows of the camp entrance.

Selin’s lackey.

He had not forgotten Gessas, but he never imagined that Gessas would extinguish his last hope at the perfect moment. This sudden stroke of misfortune made Ash feel as if his luck had run dry from the jailbreak.

More importantly, while maintaining the Sword Barrier, he had to keep his sword thrust into the ground, immobile!

After all, the strength of the Sword Technique Faction ultimately lay in offense, not defense. That swordsmanship could derive such a powerful Defense Miracle with the only drawback being restricted movement was already more than one could ask for.

Until now, Ash hadn’t been bothered by this limitation and naturally he had never thought about improving this Miracle.

But now, Ash had to make a cruel choice between two options: if he gave up the Sword Barrier, Gessas’s sniper shot would obliterate half his body; if he maintained the Sword Barrier, in a few seconds, Gerard would personally shatter it!

But Ash quickly abandoned the choice—because Gessas had created a third option for him.

Gessas swiftly raised his left hand, thrust out his waist, and positioned the heavy sniper in his left and the twin snipers at his waist. The four snipers appeared at once, but he didn’t lock onto Ash, instead he aimed at the other four escapees!

He was too greedy, no longer satisfied with just Ash as a target, he wanted to capture them all. Because in just a few seconds, Gerard would arrive to suppress everyone with absolute power, and all Gessas needed to pay was just a little bit of Magic Power.

What was he after, really? The bounty on the escapees? Or a favor from the mages of the Three-winged Holy Realm?

As a Beastman Mage who had clawed his way up from the bottom, Gessas had too many reasons to be greedy. Perhaps he hadn’t thought it through and was simply unwilling to let go of any opportunity, any prey—this mindset from his past might have led to losses, but more often than not, it brought him a wealth of gains, so he subconsciously executed this survival law.

However, his prey this time were the fiercest and most wicked criminals from Kaimon City.

Harvey, who was running at the front, suddenly threw a bone glowing with an inky green light into the air; the bone exploded in the next second, clearly intercepting the sniper bullet aimed at Harvey! However, Harvey also grunted, and his left hand dangled limply, as if it had lost its bones.

Igula let out an instant Spiritual Scream, the strong Sound Wave formed an all-encompassing barrier, forcibly deflecting the sniper bullet to the right, but it was still too close, and Igula’s shoulder was grazed by the edge of the bullet, tearing off a large chunk of flesh, causing Igula to stagger and fall to the ground in pain.

As Ronald specialized in long-range assassination, he had no means to defend against a sniper rifle bullet, but he didn’t need to—Lanna pulled him behind and with a right hand glowing gold, turned and slashed in succession!