"A wind-element magus-archer. Looking at the way that arrow of his merged the spells 'Rapidstream' and 'Precision', this wind-element magus-archer at least reached the fifth rank." Kaiya Tanaka's voice rang in Renji's mind. "At this fellow's level, if he closes on you within fifty meters, even if you dodge, you will still be gravely injured. Retreat!"
Renji's heart couldn't help but shudder, and seemed to freeze on the spot. "Surrender all valuables, and I will spare you all's life." A cold voice resounded, and then over ten men dressed in deep green jumped out from the forest. All of them were holding longbows, with a shortsword hooked by the waist. These ten persons stared coldly at Renji and the rest, while pressing closer and closer, but that speaker did not show up.
Renji and the rest of them sneaked a look at each other. They did not surrender their treasures, only looking at the archers rushing forward.
"Fire!" That cold voice came out calmly again. The decision of the wind element magus behind was extremely decisive. Since Renji and the rest did not immediately surrender, he immediately issued the order to kill.
"Twang! Twang! " With suddenness, the archers all loosed their arrows, and the arrows streaked towards Renji's group, who in turn hastened to twist out of the way. In motion simultaneous with jerking aside, Karusa was also raising the great warblade in his hands to block some of the arrows. Renji cast the wind-style spell 'Rapidstream', letting himself dodge aside through the attack effortlessly, while keeping his wits about him regarding the other two. Mobahard dodged non-stop; he was quite precise and careful in dodging. He even used a short sword in his hand to block the incoming arrows. But Karusa was not as agile. He held a giant warblade in his arms, and he clearly could not be a fast-moving person. He mainly used his giant warblade in his hands to block, as well as a thin layer of battle-qi to protect himself.
After all, the threat of those arrows was not too high; a warrior of the fifth rank could resist them. "Raaawr, die! " Karusa roared furiously, dashing towards the archers with his warblade in his hand. Seeing this, a killing gaze appeared in the eyes of the wind-style magus-archer hiding in the forest. He pulled the bowstring of his bow once more and chanted the incantation of the magic spells 'Rapidstream' and 'Precision'. His longbow and the arrow shone with golden and blue light; he roared in anger unceasingly, whereas he ran into the direction of the archers and, when looking to their direction, halfway to the goal, he suddenly felt a blue gleam flash before him. Before he could even react, the arrow was right there in front of him, and it scared him so much that cold sweat instantly drenched his clothes.
He hurriedly lifted his giant warblade to block it, but… "Argh! " Pierced straight into his skull. "Ah…" Karusa stood there stupidly, his eyes filled with disbelief. He could obviously block it with the warblade. How did it kill him? His eyes filled with disbelief and questions, all the light faded from his gaze, and he toppled down, like a collapsing mountain. The faraway Renji felt his heart tremble.
"The wind-style supportive spell, 'Precision.' It really is precise!
" Supporting as he was the wind-style magus, Renji knew only too well that this support spell, 'Precision,' when used to support an archer, could cause the arrows of an archer to undergo the most minute course corrections en route to its target. For example, just now, Karusa did indeed get his warblade up in time to block, but just by adjusting its direction slightly, the arrow went straight through Karusa's skull. Wind-type magic combined with a longbow became truly terrifying. Renji felt shocked to the core but, in the next moment, he immediately began to chant the words of a magical spell, "You best surrender obediently." That cold voice rang out once more from the forest, and the ten or so archers also laughed arrogantly. A wind-style magus-archer required both powerful magical abilities as well as enough physical strength to properly use the mightily stiff long-elven-bow of theirs. A wind-style magus-archer was an extremely terrifying long-ranged attacker. A murderous gaze went straight through his eyes while looking at them as though they had just turned into corpses. "Crack! Crack!
Crack! Crack!" Suddenly, the earth trembled, and one earthen spear after another shot out from beneath the ten archers. One sharp, gleaming stone spear after another pierced into the legs and chests of the archers, filling the air with their screams while they were crying out for blood and covering the earth with fresh blood. Fifth rank Earth-style spell—Rockspike Array! "Ahhh! " Miserable cries split the air. Dozens of earthen spears had erupted simultaneously from beneath them, each spear over a meter high.
In a dazzling turn of events, the dense array of spears, which had caught them with their pants down, like a devastating ambush—that troop was pierced. Right then, all of the ten archers lapsed into a state of pain and despair. "Leader, save us, save us! " A man who had been impaled in the stomach cried out miserably. "Ah, ah! " Another archer who had been pierced through in his thighs also cried out with pain. Of the troop of archers, four died on the spot, while nearly ten of them were severely injured. Their combat ability had essentially been destroyed. "An earth-style magus! "This lurking archer in the forest was completely shocked,
He and his fellow men had been lurking within this Magical Monsters Mountain's periphery for quite some time, setting up an ambush and waylaying travelers, collecting a good number of treasures. Besides, whenever he launched an ambush, beforehand, he would kill the enemy's magus! After all, the enemy's magus would also be good at long-range attacks. So they were the ones who had the highest threat to him. he never thought that after he killed a magus, another one would appear in front. "Let's go." Seizing the moment of his opponent being surprised. Renji immediately used the 'Rapidstream' spell to make his speed go for the maximum limit, hastening to flee and vanish into the distance in acceleration. The truth was clear to Renji: there was no way that he could do anything to the magus-archer concealed in the trees. The distance was simply too far, and, even magic had distance restrictions.
But if the magus-archer was reduced to a close combat distance, Renji thought that it might not be a matter of not being able to block the arrows of the wind element. Renji ran with all his strength—nearly thirty kilometres. "Boss, why'd you run away? That archer-magus might not have posed much risk to you, but if I had struck him, it would have been child's play to obtain his life essence. Why didn't you let me kill him?" The little Umbramouse Echo grumbled angrily to Renji through mental contact.
That energy that had built up the little Umbramouse Echo was something Renji knew quite well.
The little Umbramouse had a speed quicker than a sixth ranked warrior at the awkward age of eight. But seven years down the line, Renji now fifteen, though Echo had not grown physically in size, his speed was near equal to a warrior of the ninth rank! At that speed, based on this little Umbramouse, the said magus-archer wouldn't even have a chance at aiming his bow on him. "This is my training expedition. I should try to settle everything based on my ability," Renji explained. Jumping onto Renji's shoulders, the small Umbramouse scratched at Renji, as angry squeaking sounds came from his razorlike teeth. Mentally he was yelling at Renji, "Boss, you are going too far! I also need to train, I also need to fight!" Looking at the little Umbramouse, Renji couldn't help but burst out in laughter. "Okay. So how about we reach the Mountain of Magical Monsters and if we bump into a strong one, I will let you fight it? Okay?"
"Now, that's more like it." The small Umbramouse sat up and folded his small paws across his chest. His small nose scrunched as he grinned widely. Just at this moment, the dark and grim sky was shattered with a 'crash' as bolts of lightning lit up the world, followed by the echoing thunder. "Looks like it's going to storm hard soon." Renji frowned.
Renji immediately stepped up his speed, quickening directly towards the Mountain of Magical Monsters and In the wink of an eye came over the top of the Mountain of Magical Monsters already. The time which Reno was just being ten or so kilometers to the mountains, the first drops of rain were falling by then the next, the rainfall had reached a torrential level that flooded the lands over. "Rumble…" The sound of the thunder sounded out again and again, While the rain continued to cover the lands with water. It was as if the thunderstorms had taken over the world. However, the rain was not too strong on Renji, and he perfectly kept dashing forward.
The reason was that ten centimeters before hitting Renji, there was a roughly one meter in diameter 'wind shield'.
The defensive power of the 'wind shield' spell was quite high. From the distance, one simply couldn't perceive that a wind shield was there As the wind itself had no shape the wind shield, too, looked as if it was no more than a see-through, light blue flash, it was just then the moment she at last understood the reason why Renji had needed a second undefined Renji had only to draw a minuscule amount of magic force to enable it to block the rain non-stop, which looked doubtful in any different condition. After some little time, he saw a long, sinuous range of mountains; it seemed to run north to south—they just saw no end. This mountain range, which almost divided the continent of Aerthos into two halves, was rated the world's number one mountain range: the Mountain of Magical Monsters. Just tens of kilometers away, seeing those titanic mountains, Renji couldn't help but hold his breath. "Perhaps such a gigantic, mountain range…" This mountain range was truly way too huge!
Depending on the naked eye, so far as one could see, the mountains were limitless, and so far north and as far south as one could see, there were mountains also! To see the boundless mountain in this mountain range was just like to see the boundless water in the sea! "This is the Mountain of Magical Monsters, the number one mountain range of the entire continent. How many magical beasts do you think reside here? How many Saint-level magical beasts, in the first place?" Kaiya Tanaka then appeared right beside Renji. His far-off, aloof eyes said, "I haven't come here to the Mountain of Magical Monsters in a long time."
A look of excitement gleamed from the young man's eyes. "To battle!" With heroic air, Renji charged past the all-encompassing rainstorm and made his way towards the mountain range, vociferously cheered on by the little Umbramouse, Echo, squeaking atop Renji's shoulders. Under the cover of the all-encompassing rainstorm, Renji quickly entered the endless mountains.