novelraw Chapter 368: Wiped Out in One Stroke
Chapter 368: Wiped Out in One Stroke
Its height was impossible to determine, but its body width was at least two meters. Every inch of its wool had been shaved off, and the exposed skin was covered in strings of incomprehensible symbols.
Whatever state it was in — at this moment, Li Wei felt every hair on his body standing on end. That was the feeling of danger.
Extreme danger.
As if simply being within its line of sight would reduce him to dust.
And beyond that, surrounding this bizarre satyr mage was a ring of enchanted steel plates, sealing it in completely — only the space directly in front was left open. It looked like a shrine.
But even in that open front, he could faintly sense a powerful flow of mana — an energy shield.
This thing was armored to the teeth.
What was its background? Was it the Ability User commander stationed here, or a long-range artillery platform?
Despite his pounding heart and standing hair, Li Wei forced himself to observe carefully. He hadn't seen it act yet, but he was already certain: without killing this thing, there was no taking this fortress.
It would be the nightmare of every attacker.So — did the fortress on the south bank of the river near his own territory also have one of these?
While he was thinking, Li Wei suddenly heard a horn blaring outside, followed by a voice like a broken gong shouting:
"Fourth and Sixth Companies under Baron Fatpig, return to base! Maintain alert — watch for interference!"
It was repeated three times. Strange — return to base was fine, maintain alert made sense, but watch for what interference?
Just as he was wondering, the satyr mage emitted a string of incomprehensible syllables and did something on the bizarre altar. The next moment, that strange Inspiration field Li Wei had sensed began to dissipate.
So — that was the interference?
Too many people returning at once, their combined presence creating a surge that disrupted this defensive mechanism, potentially triggering uncontrollable effects?
Then this satyr mage was genuinely fragile.
Li Wei swept one more glance at the creature, then didn't linger. Taking advantage of the wind and rain picking up outside, and using the moment when two centaur cavalry companies returned to cover his exit, he slipped out without a sound.
"Creak-creak-creak!"
The massive fortress gate swung open. The original builder had clearly put serious thought into it — this gate was wide enough to block an entire road bridge. What were they thinking, playing some kind of battle royale?
As the gate opened, the two cavalry companies came thundering in through the storm, powerful and vigorous, laughing and talking about what they'd encountered today.
Li Wei narrowed his eyes, watching from the corner of his vision — and he spotted a fake among the centaurs.
Yes — a Neanderthal crosser. No mistake. This one was extremely low-key, not making a sound. If not for Li Wei's sharp eyes, he'd have been completely invisible.
Also, the returning Ability Users seemed completely unconcerned about how terrifying the satyr mage was — entirely unaware that they were sitting on top of a volcano.
Was it that they couldn't sense it? Or that they simply didn't understand, and therefore had no fear?
He watched the patrol squad file entirely into the fortress, then — as the rain intensified — made several rapid leaps and vaulted silently from the ground to the fortress rooftop, like a ghost. Ten meters away, four half-cat and half-dog Ability Users were on watch.
Honestly, if not for the increasingly heavy rain, and the overwhelming scent of a hundred returning Ability Users, Li Wei couldn't have guaranteed the half-dogs wouldn't smell him.
This kind of opportunity was incredibly rare.
"Damn, isn't it almost time for the shift change?"
A voice came through the curtain of rain.
"Shut it, Teddy. Always remember what Lord Frost Duke taught us — the worse the weather, the greater the danger. Keep your dog eyes wide open and watch every direction. Don't let any suspicious targets slip through."
"Alright, alright, my noble Baron Garfield. We've never slacked off, never forgotten the Duke's teachings. But in this miserable weather, is it wrong to want a cup of hot milk?"
"Damn it, shut up. Is fantasizing about that cow in heat all you lot do all day? Besides, it's not even your turn — the queue runs until tomorrow morning."
"Ha, Teddy, no hot milk, but I've got some hot yellow milk tea right here..."
"Damn it, I don't want milk tea, but I could use a grilled sausage — the kind with chili and cumin..."
"Heh-heh, ha-ha!"
In the storm, these four Ability Users were talking about staying alert while clearly enjoying a rare moment of relaxation.
Li Wei listened to their crude jokes while using his memory to map the wooden fortress's structure, locate the position directly above the satyr mage, draw his enchanted dagger, and begin silently, slowly cutting.
This was a rare opportunity. He had to kill that bizarre satyr mage. Without doing so, any hope of allying with Hathaway was dead before it started.
Quickly, Li Wei cut four holes in the position, going all the way down to the waterproofing layer.
He couldn't go further — any deeper and rainwater would leak through.
But it didn't matter. Everything below was wooden structure anyway.
Li Wei rapidly installed four three-star crossbow bolt traps in the holes, triggered by enchanted mechanisms, aimed directly at the energy shield in front of the satyr mage.
He had to punch through the energy shield first. Only then could he attempt a ranged kill.
All of this had to be done in the shortest possible time.
"Adai — dive from directly above me. Make sure you can intercept me."
Li Wei didn't dare hesitate. The rain was getting heavier — even without him damaging the waterproofing, the rooftop might start leaking at any moment.
The next instant, Adai dove from a thousand meters up in the cloud layer.
Li Wei calculated the timing precisely. The moment Adai was almost at a hundred meters above him, nearly at full dive speed, he moved like lightning — triggering all four crossbow bolt traps.
In an instant, four brilliant flashes of light, and four thick crossbow bolts with terrifying kinetic energy punched straight through the waterproofing layer and into the fortress space below, striking the energy shield directly in front of the satyr mage.
But even four powerful crossbow bolts only made the energy shield shudder violently a few times — it didn't break.
"Enemy attack! Maximum defense!"
Someone inside the fortress was screaming. But while they were screaming, Li Wei had already raised his Enchanted Strong Bow, activated his four-Destiny-Grid resonance plus the bow's own Destiny resonance, and fired three four-star enchanted armor-piercing arrows in rapid succession.
He didn't hold back. He didn't dare underestimate the energy shield or any other defenses that might exist.
So the best approach was to go all-out from the start.
The moment the three arrows left the bow, Li Wei didn't wait to see the result. He spun and leapt seven or eight meters — and just as a gust of wind swept past, two iron-hard talons seized his tactical backpack and yanked him away like a storm, shooting straight upward.
Dozens of meters in an instant.
Barely a second later, accompanied by a despairing, terrifying bleat, the satyr mage's obese body erupted like a volcano.
The terrifying magical force transformed into flame, into gale, into a sledgehammer, into blades — sweeping everything within three hundred meters in an instant.
Li Wei and Adai, barely two hundred meters away, couldn't escape it.
The shockwave was devastating. Even Adai struggled to maintain stability.
Fortunately, Adai reacted fast — a series of ice magic spells flash-froze Li Wei into a block of ice, using him as a shield, deflecting a dozen flying timbers and other debris in succession.
Even so, Adai was battered by the shockwave and tumbled several times, nearly falling — but finally stabilized. Just as they were about to plunge into the inferno below, Adai launched back upward, shooting hundreds of meters into the sky.
Looking down now, the ground was a scene of total devastation. The entire fortress looked like it had been smashed and pounded by a pair of merciless giant hands — reduced to rubble and burning fiercely.
What kind of yield was that?
What in the world had that satyr mage been, to mutate into something like that?
While he was still reeling, a stream of notifications appeared.
[Territory-Wide Announcement!]
[Pioneer No. 11, Li Wei, destroyed a fortress controlled by Frost Duke and indirectly slew a six-star-minus satyr super-caster, one Barbarian crosser, and 231 Ability Users.]
[He has been awarded two Weir Duke's Honor Medals and 500 Battle Points!]
—
"Crash!"
Several hundred meters away, Adai finally gave out and fell to the ground with Li Wei. A massive hole had been torn through his belly, a rebar spike driven through it — even the Noble Crest Armor had been pierced. His arms, legs, and face were covered in wounds, hundreds of them. His Life had dropped by a full 350 points. Fortunately, his total of 480 Life held.
Li Wei downed two doses of two-star Life Elixir in one go. Not stopping to pull out the rebar in his stomach, he immediately recalled the equally badly wounded Adai into his pet card. Yes — Adai couldn't have come through unscathed either.
Fortunately, within just a few seconds, the five-star pet card's effect restored Adai to full health — though the card's enchantment durability was nearly depleted.
Not a major problem.
"Adai — go!"
Li Wei called out, and Adai launched into the sky, diving into the inferno. A series of ice magic spells rained down, precisely retrieving Universal Gold Cards one by one — and one purple card.
In the distance, thunderous hoofbeats were already approaching. Other Ability User patrol squads were returning.
No more time to waste.
In moments, Adai was back, dumping a large pile of Gold Cards into Li Wei's arms. The next instant, before Li Wei could react, Adai had grabbed his tactical backpack and was hauling him away at ground level.
Run first, everything else later.
Li Wei didn't think twice — he immediately sold a hundred four-star Universal Gold Cards. No question, it was necessary. The territory-wide announcement hadn't even included a gold coin reward this time. Paying tribute to the higher-ups was the right call.
Besides, selling them netted 100,000 Standard Gold Coins plus ten square kilometers of registered territory. How could he say no?
Then he converted another hundred Black Iron Tokens. Also necessary.
The remaining thirty-one four-star Universal Gold Cards were all used for upgrades.
First priority: upgrade Adai.
But it failed — four-star Universal Gold Cards couldn't upgrade a five-star Adai.
No matter. The satyr mage had dropped a six-star Universal Gold Card — practically a special boss drop. Use it to upgrade.
[Warning: your hunting pet Adai is currently in flight and cannot be upgraded.]
Damn it.
Li Wei was frustrated, but he couldn't afford to delay. Universal Gold Cards had a time limit — after ten seconds, they'd automatically default to the first option: sell.
He quickly used one to upgrade the five-star pet card, restoring its enchantment durability, but couldn't push it to six-star.
Then he upgraded his Bear Hunter title all the way to maximum — yes, there was a cap. It became Strength +5, Stamina +50.
The Dog Butcher title was also maxed out — Agility +5, Stamina +50.
That consumed ten four-star Universal Gold Cards. The rest were all converted into Black Iron Tokens.
Then he used the five-star Universal Gold Card to upgrade his Flame Baron title by half a level.
Just half a level.
Finally, he chose to continue upgrading with the six-star Universal Gold Card — because time was almost up, and he'd had almost no time to think or choose.
Besides, there wasn't much to choose from.
He already had two double-rare profession cards. The other three ordinary cards couldn't be replaced — only upgraded to rare. Golden-quality Clearance Tokens were useless to him, and couldn't be used to upgrade Adai. The enemy had almost certainly gone into a panic by now — if he didn't run, what was he waiting for?
He certainly wasn't going to sell it for ten thousand gold coins.
But the moment Li Wei chose to upgrade, his head buzzed — like Zhao Xuanxuan had hit him with her hammer.
It didn't knock him out, but it drained a full twenty points of Spiritual Power. Fortunately, he wasn't who he used to be — total Spiritual Power was now 25, so he was just briefly dizzy before recovering.
And the Flame Baron's rare title completed its upgrade.
[Friendly reminder: you completed this rare title upgrade in an extremely rushed and undignified manner. You had no time to contemplate the secrets hidden within this title. But perhaps it doesn't matter — brute force solves most problems.]
[Congratulations — your rare title, Flame Baron, has gained three upgrade paths. Please select one.]
[Option 1: Receive a portion of the Flame Baron's magical inheritance. You may thereby gain a small mastery of flame magic. Note: the name "Flame Duke" was not chosen arbitrarily. An Ability User in this world accidentally obtained a fragment of an ancient magical era's incomplete inheritance and successfully triggered it, becoming the Flame Duke. Example: as if an ordinary person found the seal of a great general, and not understanding its significance, stamped it on their social media profile picture and declared themselves that general.]
[Option 2: Abandon the power of flame magic and focus entirely on comprehensive physical enhancement. Note: this is the current mode already in effect.]
[Option 3: Select three of your most important attributes and apply double-strength enhancement to them — put the best steel where it matters most.]