Chapter 232: Pressure
Rex was so furious that the veins on his forehead bulged. His greatsword creaked in his grip as he moved to step forward, only to be stopped by a single look from Ryan.
Ryan did not respond to Parker’s taunt. His gray eyes simply swept calmly across the six people opposite them.
Parker belonged to the Second Prince’s faction. Vincent belonged to the Third Prince’s faction. Marcus and Olaf belonged to Marquis Wilier’s faction, which meant they were effectively on the Second Prince’s side. Shiloya and Kallen belonged to the Flame Duke’s faction, which meant the Third Prince’s side.
The alignment of forces was very clear. The two princes had obviously paid a high price for this ruins expedition and had sent their people to contend against one another here. Judging from the current situation, several others were nowhere to be seen, and no one knew where they had fallen. But with the shared goals of eliminating outsiders and seizing the treasure, these factions were able to form a fragile alliance in an instant.
Sure enough, Vincent let out a sinister little laugh and moved to a position half a step behind Parker’s flank. That subtle shift in stance alone was enough to show his attitude.
Marcus and Olaf snorted and spread out left and right, faintly sealing off the flanks.
Shiloya and Kallen also tacitly widened the distance between themselves, while the Mana on their staffs began to rise steadily.
“Enough talk,” Parker said. He had clearly accepted this temporary alliance as well. His longsword slanted toward Ryan, icy-blue Mana flowing along the blade. “Velt. And the young lady from the Gale Duke’s house. And Her Highness the Royal Princess’s loyal hound... Your luck’s run out. What’s inside these ruins, and your lives as well—we’re taking them.”
“Attack!”
Before his words had even finished, Parker was already moving.
His figure was swift, but he did not charge in a straight line. His path was elusive and shifting. The longsword in his hand wove cold flowers of steel, and streak after streak of sword aura sharp as ice spikes shot ahead of him first, sealing off Ryan’s avenues of evasion, while the blade itself remained hidden behind the sword aura, killing intent concealed within.
It was a standard opening for a magic swordsman, combining suppression with a surprise strike.
At the same time, Vincent tapped his short wand several times. Twisted shadows slithered silently across the ground like venomous snakes bursting up from the depths, striking at Ryan’s lower body and the blind spots behind him from vicious, treacherous angles.
Marcus and Olaf roared as well. Like two humanoid beasts, they charged from left and right with savage Mana and ferocious momentum, heading straight for Rex, who stood at the front.
Their aim was obvious: deal with the enemy’s shield first, or at least pin him down and tear open the defensive line.
“Windfire Vortex!”
Shiloya and Kallen chanted at the same time. As their staffs moved, blazing tongues of flame and razor-sharp wind blades intertwined and coiled together, forming a red-and-cyan magical vortex that spun, expanded, and swept toward Vera and Ilyss, who were positioned farther to the rear.
A combined wind-and-fire attack. Its power was far greater than the sum of its parts.
The battle erupted in an instant, and from the very first exchange it was an all-encompassing suppressive assault.
Ryan’s eyes sharpened.
Parker’s icy sword aura was already before him, and Vincent’s shadow serpents were about to coil around his ankles.
His footwork shifted. His body moved like a weightless willow catkin, slipping through the gaps between several streaks of icy sword aura at the very brink of impact. At the same time, he pressed his left hand downward through empty air.
“Earthspikes!”
Several sharp stone spikes shot up from the ground at his feet, jamming into the paths from which the shadow serpents emerged and knocking them slightly off course.
But Parker’s true killing move—the ice-blue longsword hidden behind the sword aura—had already burst forth like a venomous dragon leaving its lair, stabbing straight at Ryan’s heart with biting cold.
The speed, the angle, the timing—every last part of it was exquisitely judged, displaying Parker’s rich practical combat experience.
There was no time to cast anything more complex.
Ryan swept his right hand behind his back and drew Frostbite Dragon’s Kiss with a ringing clang. The pale-blue blade met Parker’s thrust head-on in a burst of frigid light.
Clang!
The two swords collided, scattering frost and sparks.
Ryan’s wrist sank as he felt the immense force and the pure ice Mana flowing through Parker’s blade.
What made him frown even more was that, when he tried to pour his own Mana into Frostbite Dragon’s Kiss in order to contest the strike or create a variation, a distinct sense of resistance met him.
The internal frost-attribute structure of the sword was exceptionally stable and exclusive. Its acceptance of the pure Mana he supplied was poor. The flow of Mana through it was sluggish, making instant bursts difficult and rendering it unable to support the kind of multi-attribute compound variation he excelled at.
It was more like a specialized conduit than a universal medium.
Its power was certainly greater than that of a standard dagger, but in terms of handling, it was actually less suitable. That was why Ryan had continued using the dagger after entering the underground passage.
Parker felt the same strange lack of follow-through in Ryan’s sword and confusion flashed through his eyes before twisting into a savage grin.
“So that’s all the strength you’ve got? Looks like you really are finished!”
His swordplay abruptly accelerated. The icy-blue sword light became a sky full of freezing stars that engulfed Ryan, while Parker’s left hand formed a sword-finger and intermittently fired ice shards and ice arrows at Ryan’s vital points.
Ryan could only rely on superb swordsmanship and bodily control, wielding Frostbite Dragon’s Kiss to parry, block, deflect, and redirect, dissolving most of the attacks—but he was defending far more than he was attacking, and his position was highly passive.
Vincent’s shadow magic clung to him like a curse, striking from blind angles from time to time and forcing him to split his focus. For a while, danger surrounded him from every side.
Elsewhere, Rex roared repeatedly as he faced the berserk pincer assault of Marcus and Olaf. His greatsword spun so tightly it was nearly impenetrable, and the earth-yellow magic around him erupted to its limit as he held the two men off like an unyielding boulder.
But he had already been injured by the Illusion Shock. Now, facing two northern veterans of the same tier who coordinated flawlessly with each other, the pressure on him was instantly immense.
Marcus’s punches were heavy enough to numb Rex’s arms with every strike. Olaf’s claw attacks were vicious and cunning, targeting his legs and joints.
Rex quickly accumulated several wounds, blood soaking into his armor, but he did not retreat a single step. He shielded Lillian firmly behind him while she tried to support him with ice magic.
But Lillian’s ice spikes and ice walls shattered almost instantly under the savagery of their attacks and the force of their Mana. Their effect was minimal, and her eyes were already red with frustration.
Vera and Ilyss, facing the Windfire Vortex, were in even graver straits.
Vera’s wind magic was refined and subtle. She tried to use redirected airflow and vacuum zones to break apart the vortex’s structure, but Shiloya’s firepower was abnormally fierce and unrelenting, while Kallen’s control over wind was equally experienced. Instead of weakening, the vortex only grew more violent.
Vera could do nothing but keep creating small wind shields and rely on movement to evade it. Her Mana drained at terrifying speed, and her face paled rapidly.
Ilyss continuously fired lightning bolts at the vortex’s nodal points or tried to interrupt the enemy’s spellcasting, but Kallen always managed to intercept her with precise wind blades or disruptive currents, while Shiloya’s fireballs occasionally broke away to bombard her directly, making it impossible for her to focus.
Ilyss’s lightning magic was powerful, but the wound in her arm and some burden on her mind seemed to be holding her back. She could not bring out her full strength. Several attempts to break through were all forced back.
The battle had turned overwhelmingly unfavorable for Ryan’s side.
Each of them was fighting on their own, barely holding out under divided and suppressive pressure.
New wounds continued to appear. Mana and stamina were draining away at terrifying speed.
Parker’s taunts, Vincent’s sinister chuckles, the roars of Marcus and Olaf, and the howl of the Windfire Vortex together formed a deathly symphony so oppressive it seemed to crush hope itself.
Ryan’s breathing grew rough. His right arm was so numb from repeatedly blocking Parker’s heavy blows that it felt half dead, and the sluggish resistance from Frostbite Dragon’s Kiss made every attempt at counterattack feel painfully laborious.
His Mana was being consumed at high speed. Though the Seals of Enlightenment were still providing recovery, they no longer seemed able to keep up with the sheer intensity of this battle.
Once more he barely evaded Parker’s freezing slash, only for one of Vincent’s shadow tentacles to graze his calf and tear away a strip of flesh.
Could this really...
be the limit?
And the instant that thought arose, it was as though it triggered some kind of chain reaction.
Inside his body, the pair of Seals of Enlightenment that had been running in steady balance suddenly let out a soundless roar.
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