The flickering firelight danced before their eyes. Their ears were filled with shrill wails, furious curses, and desperate pleas for mercy, while the stench of blood and decay assaulted their nostrils, enough to make anyone retch.
Even the well-traveled Stoll froze for a moment.
"Kill them!"
Anser held the Arcanefire Longbow and pulled the string twice in rapid succession. Two arcane arrows wreathed in platinum radiance flashed through the air and, an instant later, buried themselves in the heads of two jailers.
[Target killed. 27 experience points gained.]
[Target killed. 55 experience points gained.]
Anser used Action Surge to draw the bow, moving so fast that afterimages appeared. With Divine Favor enhancing the arcane arrows, even trained professionals couldn't withstand them.
"Haa!"
Stoll stomped hard against the ground and shot forward. His greatsword swept horizontally, cutting two jailers into several pieces.
Blood and entrails spilled everywhere, yet somehow failed to make the hellish prison any filthier.
Makaria and the others had already plunged into the crowd as well. Even the weakest among them were professionals at the upper end of the elite tier, and with Longstrider and Fly cast on them, slaughtering these jailers was as easy as killing chickens.
The sight before them, disturbing enough to make most creatures recoil on instinct, only fired everyone up even more. None of them felt the slightest burden about killing these people.
The underground prison descended into complete chaos. The sounds of fighting, shouted cries, and the prisoners' hoarse laughter all blended together, echoing endlessly until the noise made their eardrums buzz.
One jailer had just reached for the alarm bell when a throwing axe came hurtling through the air and buried itself deep in the back of his skull.
The others could only shout for help. Unfortunately for them, a simple soundproofing magic array had been installed here to keep the screams from escaping, and the people outside remained oblivious for quite some time.
The enormous underground prison had completely become the hell in which they would be buried!
The man in charge of the prison rushed toward the corridor. Silver mist flashed before his eyes, and a bow-wielding figure appeared, blocking his path.
"Get out of my way!" he roared, raising an iron hook that looked more like an instrument of torture than a weapon and bringing it down with all his strength.
With a thought from Anser, an invisible Mind Sliver instantly stabbed into the man's mind.
"AAARGH—!"
The man's entire body convulsed. He staggered a step, bloody tears streaming from the corners of his eyes.
Anser drew his sword and thrust. White light flashed as the blade pierced straight through the man's hand, then drove into his eye socket and brain.
Anser pulled the sword free.
The man toppled backward and rolled down the steps.
[Target killed. 295 experience points gained.]
Anser jumped down the steps and swept his gaze across the prison. More than thirty jailers were already dead.
Giant Tail and several others were moving through the area with blood-soaked weapons in hand, searching for survivors and finishing them off.
"What about them?" Stoll asked, looking at Anser.
"Waterdeep's people will be here soon. Come over here. I'll take you back upstairs." Anser beckoned to them.
He had already examined the prison earlier. Cells like these could only be opened from the outside, and they even had observation holes. Even if the prisoners rioted, they still wouldn't be able to escape.
Anser repeated his earlier method. After sending Stoll and the others back to Holrewen, he entered the upper-level corpse incineration area through the Ethereal Plane, then teleported everyone back out.
The people upstairs had already noticed that something was wrong. The main doors stood wide open, so someone had probably gone out to report the situation.
But they had no idea what was actually happening and never imagined that Anser and the others would emerge so quickly—or so suddenly.
"Die!"
Stoll swung his sword and attacked.
He was good at arguing, and he wasn't any quieter when fighting either, roaring constantly—a complete contrast to the silent, ruthless Makaria.
He looked reckless on the surface, but in reality, he was extraordinarily focused. In a situation like this, it was extremely difficult for anyone to catch him off guard.
Anser killed one person with Mind Sliver, then rushed to the main entrance, where he immediately saw more than a dozen guards hurrying toward them.
The guards paled when they saw him as well. One look at Anser was enough to tell that he wasn't a prisoner who had escaped from the cells. The situation was far more serious than their men had reported.
"Enemy attack!" The guard captain reacted instantly.
Thrum—
The barely audible twang of a bowstring blended into his shout. A brilliant point of light shot from the longbow, traveling far faster than normal. It was almost impossible to follow with the naked eye, crossing more than a hundred meters in virtually an instant before plunging into the crowd.
BOOM—!
Scorching flames erupted, engulfing more than a dozen people in an instant. Clothes, armor, and flesh burst into flames. Even their steel weapons changed color from the heat. Waves of scorching air rolled outward, baking dry the lush treetops dozens of meters away.
The guards stationed in the distance had only just turned their heads when their vision went dark. Amid the verdant estate, a yellow-white sun more than twenty-four meters across had suddenly risen, its image lingering on their retinas long afterward.
Dark spots swam across the vision of many of them. Their eyes became unbearably dry, and even their sight was affected.
[Target killed. 985 experience points gained.]
[Target killed. 58 experience points gained.]
A rapid string of experience notifications flashed through Anser's mind, and he couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from rising.
That had been a Quickened, Maximized 8th-level Fireball, wiping out more than a dozen enemies in one shot.
The guard captain leading them was an 8th-level Fighter and had reacted quickly enough, but unfortunately, even he couldn't escape such a terrifying Fireball. He was carbonized on the spot.
This was the romance of Fireball!
At that moment, the shrill alarm bell rang throughout the entire estate. Countless guards poured out of the surrounding buildings and began converging on them.
Stoll leaped through the gate and flew to Anser's side. Pointing his greatsword forward, he roared: "Come on, you bunch of gutter trash—!"
Makaria and the others rapidly gathered around Anser, forming an improvised battle group.
Anser used Dragonkind Transformation, assuming his half-dragon form. His dragon wings spread as he hovered just above the ground.
At the same time, his bowstring thrummed, and one magical aura after another lit up around him.
Mage Armor, False Life, Fire Shield, Intellect Fortress...
Unfortunately, Fly and Intellect Fortress were already occupying their concentration slots, so they couldn't summon the four great elementals as well.
"Quick, kill them!"
The warped Sorcerer they had encountered earlier arrived, with the Arcane Trickster and several senior members beside him.
Anser swept his gaze across them. They were too far away for him to determine whether any of them were legendary powerhouses.
"How do we do this?" Stoll licked his lips.
"Charge that building and make them bunch up." Anser pointed toward another low, inconspicuous building.
That building concealed a secret underground. As long as they charged toward it, the enemy would inevitably go mad trying to surround and stop them.
The others glanced at the dozen or so charred corpses nearby and immediately understood.
"Let's do it!" Stoll put himself at the point of the charge and rushed forward without hesitation.
The others followed close behind.
Hovering above the ground as he drifted forward, Anser raised the Arcanefire Longbow. Magic surged around him, rippling outward in rings of iridescent light.
{Close your eyes!}
The telepathic warning had barely reached them when the bowstring softly twanged.
Innate Sorcery + Metamagic: Empowered Quickened Spell, Maximized + Sunburst!
A hundred meters away, a speck of golden light appeared above the crowd.
Then it erupted in an instant.
Endless light and heat blossomed outward. Brilliant sunlight flared with extraordinary intensity, forming an enormous sun more than seventy meters across.
Just like that, dazzling gold and blazing white, it appeared upon the ground. It felt even fiercer than the sun in the sky. The light completely overwhelmed their eyes, making it impossible to even open them.
Those deep inside the "sun" suffered even worse. Agonizing pain tore through their eyes while their skin scorched and curled, leaving them in unbearable torment.
Radiance could sometimes be even more terrifying than fire.
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