Bear School Astartes

Chapter 945 - 927: Crystal Elder

At least half of the Losric Knight Order belonged to the Prince faction, and they joined forces with the Sages from the Great Library once the coup began.

This had already been decided earlier when Priestess Emma, Lorenzo, and the people from the Profound Church discussed it.

So, seeing an Elite Knight Captain-level Great Sword Knight appear among the Sages in the Great Library wasn’t surprising.

Anyway, he’s dead now.

Even the secretive and dangerous King’s Black Hand was brutally cut down by three Winged Knights in narrow terrain.

In terms of personal strength, the King’s Black Hand should be completely superior to the leaders of the Three Pillars of Royal Authority.

Only in this way can they use the intimidation of assassination to balance the power of the Three Pillars of Royal Authority with just three people.

Thus, a Great Sword Knight with a level only equivalent to a Elite Knight Captain certainly cannot survive the repeated attacks of several Winged Knights.

Outside this stairwell, the buzz of Magic continued to clamor and rattle, as the Winged Knights who hadn’t yet entered the stairwell were entangled outside with the Mages.

And below the stairs came the sound of dense footsteps.

Clearly, although the Mages had no angle to release attacks toward the narrow stairwell, they were already moving to encircle it.

In Lann’s arms, Saint Gecide seemed to feel more pain, curling up more tightly against his chest.

Half of her face had already crystallized, and the remaining half furrowed even more deeply as she emitted indistinct painful groans.

"Ugh..."

The Saintess’ condition weighed heavily on the minds of everyone in this team.

But only Lann was able to think rationally under the current circumstances.

There are two paths.

The amber cat eyes rotated to both sides beneath the scattered silver hair.

One path was the doorway the Losric Great Sword Knight of the Prince faction had just entered, leading outside to the outer wall and rooftop eaves of the Great Library building.

Although the Winged Knights’ single flight distance isn’t very long, as long as they find a good landing point, they might be able to dash straight out of the Great Library from the outer wall.

The other path leads down the stairs in the stairwell, and it can be imagined that there will be more Sages blocking the way on this path.

"No, don’t go outside!"

Seeing the obvious inclination in Lann’s eyes, the disheveled Klimte, having just scrambled up from the ground, immediately voiced his objection.

The disheveled Archbishop, knowing the urgency of the situation, spoke extremely fast.

"There are always Gargoyle Guardians stationed outside the Great Library! They are defenders from the City of Sin! They wield weapons that burn with Sin fire! And they can fly!"

Lann had heard of Gargoyles in the Magic Middle Ages.

They were constructs made by Mages to protect themselves, solid magical stone materials combined with magic patterns and a focused Golem Heart, they were like mobile, man-killing stone blocks.

Although Lann wasn’t clear about what the ’City of Sin’ and ’Sin fire’ were, just the word ’fly’ was enough to make him abandon his previous idea.

The advantage of the Winged Knights is the mobility brought by flying.

Once an air battle starts... not to mention whether they can win, the fact that air battles take far more time than ground battles is a cost that a team eager to break through cannot afford.

"Go down!"

Lann decisively adopted Klimte’s suggestion, familiar with the local situation.

The order was given, and the Winged Knights faithfully executed the command.

The sound of clattering armored suits could be heard as several sturdy and heavy figures almost filled the downward stairs.

The first Winged Knight to charge down the stairs was the first to flutter his wings and float, then rushed into the Sages and small slave crowd that were just about to block upward.

The bottom of the stairs led to an elevated terrace in midair, as usual filled with many bookshelves, along with tables, chairs, and candelabras.

The silent sages, with wax-covered heads, had already raised their candelabra Magic Staffs, preparing to unleash a tempest of blue Soul Magic.

The small slaves were also squeaking, holding searingly crimson weapons, wildly waving them.

But the three Winged Knights, already floating out from the narrow stairs, had each chosen their positions and flapped their wings to hover in midair.

Their weapons hung at their back, their hands spread open.

Their posture seemed less like they were fighting, and more like Angels receiving divine revelations, while being entranced.

Mages were not the only Casters in this world.

With the murmured words beneath the Winged Knight’s helmet, a brief story about an Angel was uttered.

White feathers composed of light scattered from somewhere, and beams of white light, with sharpness, began to shoot out randomly from the ground!

"Szzzzz!"

The sound of the beams emitting felt piercing even just hearing them.

Not only was there the cutting power of high-energy beams, but also immense physical impact.

Randomly shooting upward beams, if given less than superhuman reflexes, there wasn’t even time to react.

Pieces of Sages and small slaves first had their bodies sliced by the white light, then were blasted into the air, finally crashing to the ground like broken bags.

The Winged Knights, having just cast a wave of miracles, seemed to be exhausted and landed on the ground, drawing their melee weapons once more.

As for the Sages who hadn’t been affected by the "Angel Light Pillar," it was as if they felt no fear at all, continuing to unleash attacks coldly.

The humming of blue magic and the clashing of swords and blades were incessant.

Yet, Lann, leading the subsequent team, continued without pause, directly traversing the brutal and bloody battlefield where battles still raged on.

They charged straight towards the ground floor of the Great Library.

The terrace they were on earlier was considered the third floor of the Great Library. This library, handed down from the Mythical Era, had indeed been turned into a dizzying labyrinth by Losric.

The terrain was extremely complex.

The further down they went, the greater the resistance.

Not because there were many enemies blocking the way ahead; the Sages, after all, were Magi, and their combat style was different from that of Warriors.

The reason for the resistance was that Lann’s small team had moved to a lower position.

Previously, when they were discovered at the highest dome, the magic of these Magi, attacking from below to above, had low accuracy and was easier to evade.

But now, as the team descended, the Sages positioned on the middle or upper levels of the Great Library now had the advantage of attacking from a height.

They could now casually unleash a rain of short, yet broadly covering, blue light arrows down below.

Each individual shot was far weaker than a "Giant Soul Arrow," but the coverage was vast, with the hit rate multiplied several times over!

The broad bodies of the Winged Knights were prime targets.

The continuous Soul Arrow Rain, even with the anti-magic armor of the Winged Knight Order, added to Klimte’s pre-battle unearthed Magic Square Stone Rings.

Now, someone was already unable to hold on!

Previously, when the Soul Arrow Rain hit the Winged Knights, one could only hear the ’crash’ of magic shattering.

But now, the individuals inside the armor also began to uncontrollably emit stifled groans of pain.

Blood was gushing from the exaggerated smiling face breathing holes of the Winged Knights’ helmets! Bright red blood etched ghastly traces on the silver-white or gold armor.

Yet not a single person’s steps halted.

Descending another level, in front of the team was now a wooden bridge, spanning across the air on the second floor of the Great Library, connecting the two sides of the library.

The spacious wooden bridge, initially empty, suddenly had a ball of swirling cloth appear at its center!

The cloth formed into a ball, continuously rotating until it unfolded into a large, ragged robe.

This robe was worn by a familiar figure.

A wide-brimmed hat of enormous proportions, a crystal ball in his hand, the scrawny body covered by the robe...

Crystal Elder!

Unlike the polite (at least on the surface) twin brother on the Road of Sacrifices.

The Crystal Elder, employed at the Great Library, had shown unmistakable hostility from the start!

His gaunt fingers brushed over the crystal ball, and then the ball emitted a blue light, the glow forming into a weightless, irregular crystal cluster that detached from the crystal ball and floated.

Lann, whose steps never halted for a moment, now saw the floating crystal cluster that was unlike any ordinary magic.

His gaze deepened.

Under "Spiritual Vision," he saw the essence and transformation of this magic.

The crystal was characteristic and an appearance, but this magic hadn’t delved into the depths of Ausloes or the forbidden knowledge within the Great Library.

In other words: it was indeed powerful, but hadn’t reached the ’fatal curse’ characteristic.

The Demon Hunter concluded internally—it could be endured but still required strategy.

In the state of battlefield command, Mentos had provided the main group with rough status information of the members as a reference for tactical judgment.

While Lann sprinted forward with the increasingly curled-up Gecide, based on this information, he quickly formulated a tactical plan.

He freed a hand to point out four heavily injured Winged Knights, then gestured around.

No verbal exchange was needed; the meaning was clear.

Lann pointed to places where magical attacks were most concentrated.

The Sages stood slightly higher, recklessly showering Soul Arrow Rain below, much like blue raindrops crashing onto the wooden bridge.

Breaking through quickly was necessary, but ignoring these attacks was not an option.

The four Winged Knights, still bleeding from their respiratory vents, silently began to flap their wings, resuming short flights.

They flew up to the positions of the Sages, and then it was a massacre!

The positions Lann deliberately calculated and chose were those that affected the team the most, yet cleared with the least resistance.

Typically, only two Sages occupied a position, and a Winged Knight going over had only to swing an axe once to settle it.

The resulting gap in fire suppression was immense!

The nimble-footed four Winged Knights achieved results that drastically eased the pressure on the team running on the bridge.