Almost instantly, the guard officer's once full cheeks shrank rapidly, as if every drop of fluid had been drained from his body.
His eyeballs bulged out of their sunken sockets, making him look as if he had died with his eyes open.
"Enemy attack! Everyone, defensive formation!" Al immediately shouted to the crowd, ordering everyone to retreat. He anxiously yelled, "Where did the light mage go? Cast some illumination spells!"
As he gave the order, several bulb-sized orbs of light rose into the air, illuminating a small patch of thick fog in front of him.
Only then did everyone see clearly that on the other side of the straw bundle that pierced the heart of the imperial guard, there stood a scarecrow with a sinister smile, and its gray-white "braid" was one of its arms.
And in the thick fog, more and more scarecrows like these are hopping closer and closer.
The crowd gasped in surprise once again.
"What are you standing there for? Use fire!" Yun Wei couldn't stand the crowd in front of him who were jumping around like this. This wasn't a turn-based game; no one would press pause!
He could hardly contain his desire to reveal his mastery of elemental transformation, so he immediately demonstrated a rainbow magic show for them.
Seeing that everyone was still in a daze, Yun Wei immediately began to give orders, "Everyone listen to me! Warriors in front to parry, mages in the back divided into two groups, fire mages go all out to deal damage, and the other mages support the warriors with shields. Everyone retreat slowly in an inverted triangle formation."
Amidst the bewilderment and fear, that calm and composed voice seemed to possess an invisible magic, soothing the hearts of those on the verge of collapse.
At this moment, the scarecrow twisted its waist, extended the straw stalk on the other side, and launched a new round of attacks.
Isaac immediately stepped forward, swung his sword horizontally, and blocked the other braid that the bloodthirsty grass puppet suddenly thrust out. As he pressed down with his blade, he also rolled up the straw arm of the grass puppet.
"Fire Technique - Scorching!" the exceptionally cool knight roared.
The sword hummed, and a fiery red battle aura, carrying a scorching heat wave, spread against the gray straw and brambles, burning the three-meter-tall scarecrow to nothing but scattered black ash in an instant.
A gasp of surprise erupted from the crowd, as if they were marveling that even the strange and terrifying monster was not invincible.
However, even within this harmonious main theme, there are still discordant noises—
"Only a madman would fight them. My priority is to escape." As the black smoke dissipated, Hagrid, an older student, suddenly muttered. He turned around without a care and ran towards Moonflower City, stumbling along the way.
Seeing that he had set an example, more people began to waver. Four of Hagrid's henchmen, undeterred, instinctively followed the selfish hunk and began to run away.
But how can a human leg outrun a grass puppet that can leap four or five meters?
Whether it was their racing hearts that caught the attention of the grass puppets, two or three of them leaped over the crowd and over the warriors blocking their way. With a flick of their grass stalks, they impaled the five fleeing men on the spot.
In an instant, they too turned into light, floating shells, collapsing to the ground with their eyes wide open in death.
"We can't escape! Otherwise, we'll all die." Yun Wei shouted coldly, releasing several water chains to bind the grass puppets that had leaped into the crowd. "There are still more than 70,000 unarmed villagers outside Moonflower City. Ladies and gentlemen, think of the glory of your ancestors!"
Yun Wei had already done everything he could, and he didn't know what else to say.
If everyone eventually loses all will to fight and scatters like birds and beasts, then he can only use the "Hidden Mist" to protect his four closest companions.
As for the lives and deaths of others, let them be.
Perhaps they were indeed driven to the brink, or perhaps the faint glory from their ancestors awakened their conscience, and the situation finally took a turn for the better.
"Fireball!" A girl with ochre hair, who was in the same grade as Yun Wei, finally rallied. Her hands trembled as she unleashed a level one basic fire spell at the grass puppet that Yun Wei had controlled.
Unexpectedly, the grass puppet burst into flames and quickly turned into black ash.
"I... I actually did it." The ochre-haired girl was somewhat incredulous. She immediately pressed on and set the remaining two grass puppets on fire.
"Well done, Fanny," Yun Wei praised, letting out a sigh of relief as he turned to look at the thick fog.
At this very moment, new monsters continue to emerge from the thick fog:
There were countless roaring zombies charging towards them, and giants as large as mountains, stitched together from countless pieces of corpses...
Yun Wei glanced at Isaac, who immediately understood his meaning and naturally hoisted him onto his right shoulder to sit down.
Yun Wei spoke rapidly, giving instructions: "Everyone, pay attention! Wind magic, speed up! Earth magic, slow down! Water magic, water shield, water chain! The rest of you, use level one magic to aim at the zombie's head, and retreat to the rear to rest when you have only one-third of your magic power left!"
Compared to the level 3 water-based "Mud Swamp" spell, the level 2 earth-based "Slow" spell is clearly more practical. And with the wind-based "Group Speed Boost" buff, the enemy is weakened while we are stronger; even a less skilled warrior has enough confidence to cut down the monsters in front of them.
The water-based spells 'Water Shield' and 'Water Chain' are both inexpensive, low-level spells, yet they combine defense and control, greatly increasing the team's overall margin for error.
Even if an exceptionally skilled Bloodthirsty Grass Puppet leaps into the crowd, the water chain will interrupt its attack animation during the pre-attack animation due to the combined effects of slowing and speeding up.
Perhaps, in this era, among all the mages present, only Yun Wei is so clear about the characteristics of each elemental spell and can combine them so effectively.
Under his command, a well-organized defense line quickly took shape.
Yun Wei got off the ground, patted Isaac on the shoulder, and walked to the front of the defensive line. He waved his hands, and six nimble water chains shot out from his slender fingertips, trapping the mountain of corpses that was charging aggressively to the front of the group.
What appears to be a simple action actually incorporates almost all the basic spellcasting techniques, including instant casting, simultaneous casting, and preparation for magical silence—with the exception of high-speed chanting, because Yun Wei could already cast such low-level spells instantly without chanting.
Even in Isaac's time, skilled mages like Yunwei were extremely rare.
But Isaac remembered what Yun Wei looked like when he first met him two months ago. At that time, Yun Wei knew almost nothing about basic magic theory, but he would forget to eat and sleep in order to learn elemental conversion, and he would carefully and indirectly ask him about extremely simple magic knowledge...
He stood there, gazing intently at his composed lord. A glint seemed to flicker in his resolute, smoky gray eyes. At this moment, Yun Wei made him feel as if he had been transported back to the battlefield eight hundred years ago.
In that instant, countless intense emotions surged within him, yet he knew that he found it increasingly difficult to let go of the other's hand—
Just as he confessed when he was confessing his feelings to her, every moment, his affection for Yun Wei grew a little more without him even realizing it.
Perhaps, it's not just a little bit.
Isaac shouldered his heavy sword and walked to the other side of the battlefield. A long-lost, exhilarating fighting spirit welled up in his heart.
At the very back of the group, the red-haired knight commander Al looked on with a complicated expression.
Looking at his former master, who seemed to be glowing, he suddenly recalled the distant past.
It turns out that it wasn't him protecting his master unilaterally; on the contrary, the other party had been protecting his completely unguarded back from behind, clumsily using his less-than-skilled necromancy to support him.
How could he possibly think that he has been the one giving more all along?
How could he think that Claude was devastated by leaving him?
Without Claude, he might have long since decayed on a desolate ancient battlefield, becoming a forgotten, lonely ghost.
They had clearly been fighting side by side, and they were clearly comrades who should have trusted each other the most.
But he...
At that moment, Al finally understood what he had lost. For a moment, he wanted to kneel down and weep uncontrollably.
But he couldn't.
He is a knight who swore to protect light and justice.
He could only suppress the growing regret and bitterness in his heart, and walked silently behind the other person, asking in a deep voice, "Claude, give our knights some missions as well."
Perhaps only by finding something to do can he find some relief from this painful despair.
Yun Wei didn't turn around; the azure aura of the water element made his face appear beautiful and serene. The dark-eyed mage thought for a moment, then calmly instructed, "Knights with decent skills can replace the warriors in front. Also, promptly execute any infected comrades."
The other party's words were clearly cold and ruthless, but Al, belatedly, realized that he had come to understand his former master again.
He was about to say something when he suddenly heard the other person's extremely stern admonition:
"By the way, please keep a close eye on your priests. If your eyesight isn't too bad, you should be able to see that the Lord of Radiance's divine power is completely adding fuel to the fire!"
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