Gabriel flicked the longsword in his hand, sending a silver combat aura through the air, accompanied by a vicious, icy killing intent that pierced through to the bone.
As Emily gasped in shock, Trunks and Gilbert had already charged to intercept Gabriel. Trunks had an inscrutable expression on his face as he swung his sword on the back of his manticore, forming a round, milky white circle of combat aura in front of him.
Gilbert held a long, dark spear in his hand. He had no martial arts training, so he hurled it forward with the innate strength of a descendant of the dark dragon tribe.
There was a series of metallic clangs and explosions. The tribesmen grunted and dodged quickly with the manticore. Gilbert's spear broke in two as his chest was marked by the combat aura, revealing a large patch of dark skin.
The Great Swordsmaster Gabriel focused his attention, his impassive face as if carved from stone. In no hurry to attack, he turned his gaze to where Han Shuo and the small skeleton were.
The howling of the bone dagger suddenly increased in intensity, and a gleaming bone dagger shot out from the direction Gabriel was looking. The little skeleton behind the curtain had trained its purple eye on Gabriel and was waving the five finger bones of its left hand.
Trunks was panting heavily and Gilbert had broken into a cold sweat as they both reacted to Gabriel's strength. A simple swing had forced Trunks to dodge and evade as if he'd been facing an avalanche of attacks. The immensely strong Gilbert had simply thrown a spear because he didn't understand martial arts, only to have it sliced in two by the silver combat aura. If he hadn't moved in time, his chest would have been sliced open by the combat aura as well.
Just as the two of them were worrying about how to deal with Gabriel, the little skeleton came to their aid. Gabriel couldn't help but handle the shiny dagger with care.
The ability to use a magical treasure was an incantation unique to magical cultivators. Gabriel had obviously been shocked by this incredible attack, so he'd given up on beating up Trunks and Gilbert any further and focused his attention on fully sensing how the little skeleton was manipulating the bone dagger.
The silver combat aura was radiant and overwhelming, and it seemed to be like glorious fireworks under the starry sky, forming an impregnable defence around Gabriel. The little bone dagger circled around him, emitting ear-piercing howls as it tried to deal Gabriel a fatal blow.
Small crashes and sparks continued to ring out around Gabriel, and the little bone dagger's path became increasingly unpredictable.
"What are you standing there for? Attack!" Andy suddenly yelled from above.
The mercenaries had been staring in amazement at the incredible attacks of the little bone danger. . The scream finally brought them to their senses and they either raised their bows to find their targets or swung their swords, circling around Gabriel to charge Trunks and the others.
Andy and the other thundermage on the roof also went to work as they saw the swordsmen and knights charging down below. They too used magic to attack Emily and the others.
In an instant, three fiercely burning fireballs the size of record albums descended to where Emily and the others were, rolling violently with the heat of their flames. Several bolts of lightning also tore through the sky and crashed down, sparks flying everywhere.
"Oh dear!" Emily exclaimed, unleashing a dark spell she'd prepared in advance.
As she chanted, a huge oily green net appeared over the heads of the people. As the net formed, it delayed the three huge fireballs, but the thunder attack went through the holes in the net and still came crashing down.
Emily and the others kept ducking and weaving to avoid the lightning strikes. The ground in the courtyard continued to crackle and pop as two of the Shura pillars were also struck by lightning, piercing the darkness with light.
There was a clang from Gabriel's direction. He'd figured out the bone dagger's attack pattern and used his sword to make a solid connection with the bone dagger, sending it clattering to the ground.
"The friend in the house, your wonderful techniques are quite amazing, but your preferred style of hiding and ambushing others is a bit shameful! Since you have such a wonderful technique, you should come out of the house and meet me in battle!"
Great Swordmaster Gabriel naturally thought it was the reclusive Han Shuo manipulating the bone dagger. Although he had also seen the little skeleton and its somewhat bizarre hand movements, he was still reluctant to believe that such a wondrous method of attack could come from a lowly dark creature.
However, the little skeleton's next moves completely shattered his understanding of the world!
The little skeleton's purple eye flared with light as he leapt out of the window with a twist of his body and landed to face Gabriel's provocation.
He curled the five fingers of his right hand and the bone dagger lying on the ground suddenly flew up and landed in his hand like lightning.
Gabriel couldn't react for a moment as he stared at the little skeleton in disbelief, his mind short-circuiting for a moment. An even more amazing thing happened at that moment, as the little skeleton bent over slightly, causing the seven bone spurs on its back to suddenly fly out and shoot towards Gabriel like seven bolts of lightning.
"Oh my God!" A cry of astonishment that only Gabriel could hear came from his mouth.
He was forced to become passive once again, defending himself by concentrating his silver combat aura on his longsword and using all his concentration to parry the aerial attacks of the seven bone spurs.
The Little skeleton raised the bone dagger and crashed into the attacking mercenaries in a mass of flailing limbs. He showed his cruel side as he bent and flexed his leg bones, landing in a flash into the group of mercenaries.
He shot out his empty left hand and connected with a soft splashing sound, tearing five bloody gorges in the chest of a journeyman swordsman and creating a bloody fountain.
His right hand brandished the bone dagger and swung wildly, sending the head of a nearby mercenary flying from his neck at high speed. Blood spurted everywhere from the severed neck, staining the little skeleton's clean bones an eerie red.
Two crossbow bolts whistled and pierced the little skeleton's back and chest with metallic sounds. The two bolts clattered to the ground as two white marks appeared on his bones.
The two bolts hadn't harmed the little skeleton, but it had been affected, as its normally fast-moving body couldn't help but wobble a little from the crossbow bolts.
Some of the nearby mercenaries took the opportunity to send their spears and swords at the little skeleton. Several bangs rang out from his skeleton as this series of attacks seemed to stun the little skeleton, and his control over the seven bone spurs suddenly ceased as well.
The bone spurs that had been flying around and attacking Gabriel whirled uncontrollably and crashed into a nearby Shura pillar.
It was as if a powerful inhibition had been triggered. Winds gusted through the courtyard and a thick sense of death suddenly spread to all four corners. The night sky was shrouded in this aura of death, and not even the faintest glimmer of starlight could penetrate the shroud. Only a beam of evil red light rose from the centre into the sky.
The stark white pillars had been deathly silent, when suddenly terrible wails and screams rang out. The screams of the wraiths and the howls of the wolves pierced their brains and made their scalps tingle with numbness. It was as if a malevolent ghost had crouched beside your ear and stuck a tongue out of its blood-red maw to lick your earlobe.
The ghostly drawings on the pillars suddenly came to life as they all began to flail and caterwaul. The pillars seemed to transform into demons with hundreds, no, thousands of tentacles, constantly waving and attacking all life around them.
"Hurry and take cover!" Emily shouted as she saw the formation being triggered.
The others had actually started to move before Emily's call. They hurried to stand in the safe places Han Shuo had told them about earlier.
Outside, footsteps could be heard again as the few dozen Cairo mercenaries who had originally surrounded the shop on the outskirts of the city could not help but rush into the courtyard when they saw that Han Shuo's group had still not dealt with the attackers after so long.
Three shops away, the Dark Grand Magus Edwin and the alchemist Belinda of the Church of Calamity stood on a large tree. They looked at the blood-red light in the distance and at the centre of the place where a hundred wraiths were wailing and screaming as strange winds blew.
"Can it be that the legendary curse of the evil god has really taken effect?" Belinda's eyes were filled with shock as she spoke to Edwin.
"I don't know, the presence inside is quite strange, even I don't know what's going on. Let's not go any closer and see what's going on first!" Edwin shook his head in confusion.