Chapter 343: The Variable (Part 7)

  As soon as Bishop Inham appeared, what was originally a massacre of the Cardinals by the orcs immediately turned into a massacre of the orcs.

  Even the other Cardinals had never expected that this person, who had only just assumed the position of Cardinal not long ago due to the Pope's promotion, could actually have such a high level of magical attainment. And what was even higher wasn't his magical attainment, but his methods and techniques for killing.

  Three walls of fire crisscrossed and spread through the mass of orcs. The angles and positions were all just right, and while engulfing more than ten orcs, who screamed as they burned, it also happened to divide the remaining orcs into several parts. Inham unexpectedly did not hide behind the elemental giants with the other bishops to cast spells, but instead went to meet the werewolves charging towards him.

  A meteor hammer, half his body size, grazed past his nose. Inham didn't even blink. He just reached out and gripped the wrist of a werewolf as it passed by his side. His slender, well-shaped fingers, like those of an artist, sank into the wrist, which was thicker than an ordinary person's calf, as if kneading dough, and then he used the momentum to jump up. This werewolf, whose hand was merely gripped, let out a strange scream as if it had been stabbed fifty or sixty times and shattered into fifty or sixty pieces, and immediately fell to the ground. From its wide-open mouth, its tongue hung out, long and limp, and among the blood gurgling out were bits and pieces of internal organs.

  The jumping Inham, still in mid-air, was met by an Ogre. He spread his two hands slightly outward, and two force field shields caused the Ogre's two giant claws, which were about to close, to pause. He had already taken the opportunity to pounce onto the Ogre's shoulder, pressing his hand on the Ogre's small ear, one of the few exposed parts of an Ogre whose entire body, including its head, was covered in heavy armor. With a "puchi" sound, an ice pillar as thick as a finger, stained with blood, pierced out from the Ogre's other ear. This fortress-like giant monster thus fell straight down.

  Without even touching the ground, he used Feather Fall to hover in the air, dodging another werewolf's attack, tapped the werewolf's head with his foot and jumped up again. And this werewolf's two eyes flew directly out, and its ears and nostrils all sprayed out a mist of blood with a "pu" sound. It was as if someone had lit an extra-large firecracker inside its head.

  Inham's movements were not at all like a mage's; he was more agile and light than a typical rogue. And no rogue, in this extremely perilous battle, could have his kind of outstanding grace. Every move looked relaxed and rhythmic. Like a dance, a touch and he was gone, the orc fell, and he often didn't even get a single drop of blood on him. The other Cardinals, most of whom had never experienced such a tragic battle, were watching him, completely dumbfounded.

  In the midst of his leaping and bounding, more than ten of the most ferocious orcs had already fallen at his hands. The rest were no match for the combined efforts of the elemental giants and Templars, screeching as they fled in all directions.

  "God above, Bishop Inham, we truly have you to thank. I never thought your combat skills would be this good."

  "Thank the Lord for his protection, for giving us the strength to eliminate these beasts," Inham nodded to the other bishops, his expression calm. As if the slaughter just now was merely a matter of dusting himself off. He walked up to Talise, looked at Aimee in her arms, and asked lightly, "Knight Talise, what's the deal with this little girl?"

  "None of your business." Talise hugged Aimee and took a step back. She knew this Cardinal's true identity. And just now, when he acted against his usual character, no longer hiding his strength and mercilessly slaughtering the surrounding orcs, Talise could feel that his attention was in fact always on her, and on the Aimee she was holding. Quickly dispersing the orcs was just him clearing away some annoying things.

  Although his words were still refined and measured, Bishop Inham's demeanor seemed somewhat different from usual. Perhaps it was because he had killed so many orcs so effortlessly just now, but Talise, now being stared at by him, actually felt her spine grow cold.

  A bishop nearby said, "This little girl was teleported here with a teleportation scroll earlier. She seems to have been frightened. Do you know her, Bishop Inham?"

  "Of course I know her. So that's how it is." The Cardinal smiled faintly, his gaze relaxing a little. "I thought she came with Knight Talise." With a casual wave of his hand, before Talise had time to react, a faint magical light struck Aimee's forehead. It was, unmistakably, a rare type of mental magic.

  "Ah? Sister?" Aimee's eyes lit up as she woke up. She saw Talise holding her, then saw Bishop Inham. "It's you?"

  "How is it, little girl? Have you brought the item?" Inham asked lightly.

  "I brought it, but..." Aimee struggled free from Talise's arms and reached into her bosom. But what she took out was a strangely shaped dagger. "Someone asked me to bring you a message, to remind you not to play any tricks."

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  "I naturally won't. She should know I don't dare. You can rest assured." Inham didn't take the dagger, just nodded, a trace of rare impatience appearing on his face.

  "Okay." Only then did Aimee take out a jade-green leaf from her bosom. Even on this battlefield filled with screams and roars, and the air full of violence and death, this green could still make anyone who saw it feel a burst of vibrant life.

  Looking at the leaf, Inham's eyes were glowing, but just as he reached out to grab the leaf, Talise pulled Aimee back, hugging her tightly to her chest.

  "What are you doing? Where did you get this leaf? You can't give it to this person."

  "Let go." Aimee struggled. But Talise refused to let go, picking her up and quickly retreating backward.

  The light in Bishop Inham's eyes suddenly turned into killing intent. With a wave of his hand, a faint, almost ethereal black line extended from his finger. This, being so close yet lost again, had made him lose his last bit of patience. But just as his finger waved, a look of horror appeared on his face. He turned to look in another direction, and the magic, already on the bowstring, surprisingly couldn't even be released.

  Talise, holding Aimee, also sensed it at the same time, turning to look in that direction with the same look of horror on her face.

  Killing intent. It could only be killing intent that could make them both forget such important matters at the same time, reacting from the very depths of their instincts. And it was the kind that completely enveloped and devoured them. Making them feel as insignificant as ants, who would be smashed to pieces at a single touch. A monstrous, sky-covering killing intent. And only one person could emit such killing intent.

  When Inham was talking with Aimee, it didn't attract any of the Cardinals' attention. The surrounding situation didn't give them the leisure to care about these seemingly trivial matters. They were here to support the battle. And after dealing with the orcs before them, the most conspicuous and important things they saw were Lancelot and Gru.

  In fact, it was just two people, and one was still while the other moved. The still one stood straight in place, covered in blood. The moving one just pointed his sword from afar, walking towards him step by step. Yet these two, moving so slowly, step by step, were not swallowed up by the earth-shattering sounds of slaughter, the flying flesh and blood and magic everywhere, or the backdrop of leaping, charging, and killing orcs and swordsmen. On the contrary, they were even more conspicuous.

  No matter how intense the battle, no matter how desperate the fight, not a single orc or swordsman dared to approach them, not even the maddened Scale Oxen. A large area automatically cleared around the two of them. As long as one focused their attention on these two, the surrounding noise and chaos seemed insignificant, as if it were just a swarm of ants fighting a heated battle.

  "Is that the leader of Oufu facing Lord Lancelot? Why isn't everyone helping?" a Cardinal asked, which was also the common question of all the Cardinals.

  The subtle and grand momentum between the two could be felt even by a bear, let alone the Cardinals. But they still couldn't figure it out. Why didn't the people around them swarm him? A group fight was clearly more efficient than a duel.

  "We can't go, it's very dangerous." As warriors, the two Templars naturally understood much better than the bishops. It was completely like two active volcanoes that could erupt at any moment.

  "How dangerous can it be? With these few Cardinals casting spells together here, even a legendary dragon might not be able to resist. It would at least be much better than Lord Lancelot fighting him alone." The two Templars couldn't explain in their urgency. At that moment, several Cardinals began to chant prayers at the same time. Together, they released the white magic's Paralysis Spell at Gru.

  "God's might like a prison... still." The white magic cultivation of these Cardinals, even if it couldn't match the Pope's, was not far behind. The combined power was something no creature could possibly resist. Although Gru was nearly a hundred meters away from them, he stood motionless, almost no different from a target. Following the simultaneous distant pointing of the several Cardinals, dense points of white magic light appeared around Gru's body.

  Gru indeed stiffened. Although he still didn't move, that subtle momentum heavily stagnated for a moment. Strangely, Lancelot's vast sword energy and sword momentum didn't take the opportunity to sweep forward uncontrollably. Instead, his footsteps also staggered at the same time.

  This stiffness and stagnation only lasted for a fraction of a blink of an eye before Gru suddenly turned his head to look at the Cardinals. This Paralysis Spell, which combined several top-tier white magic users, had only managed to stiffen him for a fraction of a blink. And the look he gave them as he turned his head made two Cardinals fall squarely on their behinds. They felt as if they had branded the buttocks of a Behemoth, the strongest, most ferocious, most bloodthirsty, and in a semi-maddened state, with a red-hot iron bar.

  "Courting death." Gru's voice wasn't loud, but everyone heard it clearly. He didn't charge straight at them. Instead, he lifted a foot on the spot and then turned and kicked fiercely.

  With a loud bang. Gru kicked the ground. A large amount of sand and gravel flew up from the ground at his feet, densely shooting towards the Cardinals, blotting out the sky and covering the earth. This kick contained the momentum and power he had been accumulating, originally intended for his duel with Lancelot. It was not only his full strength, but also the killing intent and anger that had reached its limit from being disturbed, interrupted, and ambushed.

  The speed and force of this sand and gravel were faster than any magic, and the momentum and sound of breaking the wind it carried were far beyond what any magic could match. It arrived in a flash, as if Gru had kicked them right in the face.

  "Get down!" The two Templars' roars were too late. Moreover, the bishops, under the terrifying killing intent that had suddenly arrived and pierced their souls, were already scared silly and didn't react even after hearing it.

  Only one Templar was able to drop to the ground at the same time he shouted. As warriors, their reaction to this naked, terrifying killing intent was much faster than the bishops'. But one of them, who wanted to pull the nearby Cardinal down, was a bit slower in dropping.

  A sound like a rotten, torn towel being violently ripped apart, only amplified countless times. The more than ten Cardinals who had been standing here just now all flew apart, scattered. The sand and gravel, containing Battle Qi, densely packed with incomparably fierce momentum, directly tore these more than ten bodies, which had no time for any protection, into a large area of mangled flesh and blood, like grinding pudding.

  Even the Templar who hit the ground in time couldn't truly escape. A few pebbles skimming the ground smashed his head to pieces, and he was the only one who could leave a relatively intact corpse. The rest of the bodies became a large area of fragments and bloodstains covering the ground behind, while even more were sent flying with the sand and gravel.

  Boom. This storm of mixed sand and gravel struck a house behind, and the entire house immediately collapsed.

  Only one person stood up after this sandstorm. It was Bishop Inham. Only he, upon sensing this killing intent and seeing the large expanse of sand and gravel coming from the sky, could react in time. The range of this sand was too wide to dodge. At this moment, he could no longer maintain his graceful demeanor and could only roll on the ground. But his difference from that Templar was that while rolling to the ground, he used magic. A short but extremely thick earthen wall instantly sprang from the ground, blocking in front of him. After the earth and stones flew about, although he looked a bit dusty, he was unharmed.

  After he stood up, his expression changed again, because he saw Talise's figure, protected by a Divine Aegis shield, running towards the Grand Hall of Light.

  Gru panted heavily. This kick had truly consumed his energy and his accumulated momentum.

  And Lancelot, at this moment, had already transformed into a white, rainbow-like sword light, slashing towards him. Even though his rhythm and feeling were completely disrupted, at least he had not expended anything. Originally, he still needed to rely on advancing step by step with his sword to contend with Gru's momentum, but in just this instant, he had regained the upper hand.

  At the cost of the lives of more than ten Cardinals.