Within their Duchy, which was one of the Eighteen Northern Duchies, these brothers were heroic figures, leading armies with impunity. In battles between Duchies, warriors of the eighth rank could be considered top-level figures. These five brothers possessed incredibly durable bodies and also very fierce attack power.
However…
In the end, they were still discovered by the Radiant Church’s forces. The Radiant Church immediately had dispatched two nearby experts of the ninth rank to lead people to capture them. They had resisted, but when they did, the Radiant Church’s men had wiped out all of their families.
The Barker siblings stared death at these men around them.
The five siblings previously had three wives and two children amongst them. The two unmarried ones also had women they loved, but now everything had been destroyed by the Radiant Church.
“They’ve arrived.”
Linley had been paying attention to that particular courtyard every day. He saw that the previously empty manor was finally filled with people, and judging from the sound of it, quite a few people.
Zassler’s eyes flashed with a green light for a moment. Laughing sinisterly, “We’ve waited for over ten days. Finally, it’s time. Linley, when should we act?” Zassler looked over to him. They had definitive superiority of power. No matter when they acted, it would be successful.
“Later at night.” Linley decided.
Zassler nodded as well.
The nearby Blackcloud Panther, Haeru, was pretending to hide in the grass of the courtyard. The time passed quietly, until nightfall came. The prefectural city of Deco grew quieter and quieter. By nightfall, it was almost totally silent.
Linley, who had been seated in the meditative position, suddenly opened his eyes.
“Let’s go.” Linley glanced at Zassler. “Be careful.”
“Don’t worry.” Zassler laughed self-confidently. “I’m going to summon the undead right now.” After just a few seconds, two golden-furred zombies appeared out of thin air. After a while longer, a humanoid figure wrapped in a black cloak appeared in the middle of the courtyard.
“What is this?” Linley glanced perplexedly at the black-robed humanoid.
“An Ancient Wight of the peak-stage ninth rank.” Zassler laughed delightedly.
Linley nodded. His side had many powerful experts, while the opponent only had two experts of the ninth rank. What’s more, they were attacking from ambush. This battle wouldn’t prove to be challenging at all.
“Let’s go.”
Linley jumped directly over the wall, with Bebe and the Blackcloud Panther following close behind. Zassler, his two golden-furred zombies, and the Ancient Wight also followed behind Linley.
Soon, they arrived at that residence.
“Let’s act separately. I’ll go deal with the guards overseeing those five siblings, and then together, we’ll slaughter our way through each room.” Linley said in a low voice.
“Let’s move.”
The five Barker siblings were in one room. Outside the room were two warriors of the eighth rank standing guard. The two were fairly relaxed, casually scanning their surroundings while chatting.
“Hrm?”
The moment before their deaths, they seemed to have sensed something, as they turned to look. But all they saw were two devilish flashes of purple light.
Blood fountained out of two severed necks.
“Swish!” Bebe, Haeru, the Ancient Wight, and the two golden-furred zombies all charged towards the other rooms, while Linley hurriedly ran into the room with the five siblings.
Upon entering the room, the Barker siblings stared at this ‘monster’ in astonishment. His entire body was covered in black draconic scales, and spikes were emitting from his forehead and back. What’s more, Linley had a pair of dark golden eyes which chilled the hearts of those who saw it.
“Who…who are you?” No matter how bold Barker was, right now, he was rather shocked.
But the only response to his question was a violet flash of sword light.
“Swish!”
Struck by Linley’s ‘Bloodviolet Godsword’, those dark golden ropes all split apart. After having mastered the ‘impose’ ability, Linley’s usage of the Bloodviolet soft sword had reached a new level as well.
‘Impose’ was not restricted by weapon.
A fist could also summon the ‘imposing power’ of the heavens. A sabre or a knife could as well. Bloodviolet was sharp to begin with. Now, with Linley’s battle-qi permeating it, chopping through the ropes was a very easy task.
Seeing the ropes split open, the five siblings immediately understood that this man had come to rescue them. But before they even had a chance to express their thanks, suddenly….
“F*ck off!” An angry shout.
“Aaah!” A pain-filled scream.
The look on Linley’s face changed, and he hurriedly returned to the main courtyard. He saw the black-robed Ancient Wight moaning in pain on the ground, while the stone floor of the courtyard was now covered with cracks. Clearly, these were caused by the Ancient Wight smashing into the floor. In addition, there were hints of green blood on the ground as well.
“What is going on?” Linley was shocked.
Zassler, too, was very surprised. “Not good. There’s an expert here.” The Ancient Wight was a peak-stage combatant of the ninth rank, and its body was extremely durable. The expert in the room was able to injure it heavily and sent it flying in just one move. This was too terrifying.
“Bebe, Haeru, come back.” Linley mentally ordered.
Bebe and Haeru transformed into two black blurs as they returned to the courtyard. By this time, the five Barker brothers had walked out as well, but Linley kept his gaze focused on that room.
“Hrmph.”
With a cold sneer, a short, skinny man walked out from the room. His short silver hair looked like steel wire. This man looked very cold, especially when one saw his icy gaze.
Stehle glanced coldly at the Ancient Wight. “A necromancer?”
Turning his head to look at Linley and Zassler, he sneered, “I was wondering who it was. So it’s the necromancer Zassler, and that so-called genius, the Dragonblood Warrior Linley.”
All the higher-ups of the Radiant Church were very familiar with Linley’s Dragonformed appearance.
“Excellent. All of you are targets for the Radiant Church. Today, I’ll take you all.” Stehle’s lips quirked upwards, a cold smile appearing on his lips.
“Swish, swish.” Linley’s draconic tail swished about, slapping the ground.
Suddenly, an earth-colored light covered the entire ground of the courtyard. Everyone in the courtyard felt their head momentarily grow dizzy. Zassler couldn’t help but fall to one knee, but then immediately afterwards, another layer of earthen light covered Zassler, the Ancient Wight, the two golden-furred zombies, Bebe, and Haeru. They no longer were suffering from the effects of this gravitational power.
Earth-style magic – Supergravity Field.
“So it is as our reports say; not only are you a Dragonblood Warrior, you are a genius magus as well.” Stehle laughed calmly. “Your gravitational field is around eight times that of normal. I didn’t expect that in just a few short years, you would advance from the seventh rank to the eighth rank. Sadly, a genius such as you is going to die today.”
Stehle walked one step at a time towards Linley.
“Charge.” Zassler let out a low shout.
The two golden-furred zombies immediately let out deep growls, then charged towards Stehle. At the same time, Zassler and Linley’s allies all fled, as if by common agreement.
A cold flash of sword light.
The two golden-furred zombies were immediately chopped in half, collapsing within the courtyard.
“You want to flee?”
Stehle, in the blink of an eye, appeared in the air in front of Linley’s squad. He stood there in mid-air, wielding the longsword which he had just stained with the blood of the golden-furred zombies.
“It really is a Saint-level combatant.” Zassler laughed bitterly
Actually, earlier, when they had seen the peak-stage ninth ranked Ancient Wight be heavily injured in one blow, Linley had already known that things were not good. He knew that this person was most likely a Saint-level. And now, they knew that to be a fact. Saint-level combatants were able to fly at an astonishing speed. There was no way they would be able to flee.
Linley and Zassler exchanged glances. They knew exactly what sort of situation they had found themselves in.
“I thought today’s activities would have been very stress-free. Who would’ve thought we’d run into a Saint-level combatant?” Linley was extremely unhappy about this. His dark golden eyes stared fixedly at Stehle. “No choice but to go all out.”