Chapter 187: Counter-Attacking and Being Counter-Attacked
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The Priests dazedly hid in the barrier for awhile. Then they suddenly made up their minds and began a frenzied search of the entire forest for Benjamin.
Unfortunately, every one of their movements was observed by Benjamin using the water particle detection spell. And because of that, they didnât have any success in finding Benjamin at all, and instead alarmed many of the magical beasts in the forest. Some innocent squirrels and raccoons suffered because of that; they were reduced to ashes by the fury the Priests took out on the environment.
About half an hour later, the expressions on the Priestsâ faces were close to despair. Everyone was red-faced, one of them even looked like he was ready to cry.
They scanned the surrounding forests with angrily, like their emotions were piled up to a certain extreme. They suddenly turned around in unison, no longer looking around, and instead headed towards one direction without even a turn of their heads.
Seeing this, Benjamin couldnât help being a little surprised.
But quickly, he reacted. Unquestionably, this game of cats and mouse had exceeded the patience of the three Priests. Their mental state had collapsed and they had lost even their desire to kill, deciding to give up on searching and not play Benjaminâs game any more.
Benjamin hid in the bushes and secretly shook his head.
He had already followed them for so long, fought such a long battle of attrition, finally broken down their mental states. How could he let these 3 people go just like that?
So, while continuously storing up ice chunks in the Space of Consciousness, Benjamin stealthily followed up with them.
Maybe they were pissed off to the point they couldnât deal with anymore but the three Priests actually walked out at a pretty fast speed. Benjamin equally needed to quicken his pace just to keep up. When the distance between them reached approximately 15 meters, Benjamin felt that the time was about right. He prepared to attack.
He first brought out the gun model and made his preparations. Then, he immediately assembled the ice chunks that he had continuously been storing in the Space of Consciousness just now into a large sword of ice, brought it into reality and prepared to use it to break through the opponentsâ barrier with one strike.
However, it was also at this moment the three Priests who were speedily walking, suddenly stopped in their steps, and turned around. They tore apart their disguise and the rage in their expression disappeared, turning into confident indifference. Their gazes were peculiarly steady, coldly thrown at the tree where Benjamin was hiding.
Those eyes, it was as if they had discovered Benjaminâs position much earlier. Observing this scene through his water particle detection spell, Benjaminâs heart sank with a thump instantly.
With no time to react, he could only rely on his instinct for danger. He crouched down and rolled rather sloppily to the right as fast as he could!
At the same time, he felt a breeze of cold air to his left which stuck to his face and gave him a cut. Benjamin broke into a cold sweat.
At the same time the Priests turned around, a sword formed by Holy Light appeared extremely suddenly on the top of Benjaminâs head. The blade showed no signs of stopping, like a bolt of white lightning, and cut downwards the moment it appeared.
If Benjamin didnât detect that something wasnât right in time and roll towards the side, he would probably end up like the pig earlier by now, sliced into two halves by the shining sword edge!
Could it be thatâŚthe three Priests had already discovered him?
Thinking back on all that he had experienced just now, Benjamin immediately realised that he fell into their trap. It didnât matter how the opponents found out; judging from their earlier expressions, they had known for very long. The previous rage and helplessness were all an act by this fucking group of Priests! They acted out the scene of their mental state collapsing just so Benjamin would reveal himself and they could lash out a counter attack!
Looking at the ground on his left side which was slashed so hard that a deep ditch had formed, Benjamin couldnât help but be scared. If he didnât see the opponentâs expressions using his water particle detection spell, Benjamin would be more dead than dead.
He thought he was already sneaky enough, but whoâd have thought, this group of people were sneakier than him!
That was too closeâŚ.these people, how did they discover him?
Benjamin snapped back to reality, his heart still pounding when he thought of the incident. The Priests seemed to be equally as surprised by the fact that Benjamin was still alive. However, they snatched the opportunity first. After their initial surprise, they immediately began to chant the spell again. Once again, a blade of light formed from Holy Light appeared and floated above the top of Benjaminâs head.
Luckily, Benjamin was prepared this time, summoning the large sword of ice which he initially planned to use for breaking the opponentâs shield, and used it to protect the top of his head.
As if between clash of real swords, a sharp noise ends rang out. The blade of light clashed with the large sword of ice. With a burst of Holy Light, the blade of light disappeared, signifying Benjaminâs success at blocking the attack.
Benjamin breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, no matter how sly they were, the three of them werenât very strong in terms of physical skills; their attacks could still be parried by Benjamin. If this werenât the case then he would really have been screwed in this situation.
Still fine, still fine, although he was toyed with for a while, the current situation wasnât so bad that he couldnât fight back.
Regaining his balance, he rushed out from behind the tree to face these three Priests. His cover was blown earlier on, so staying hidden was now meaningless. He might as well take them head on.
On the bright side, for their performance to be more genuine, the Priests actually sacrificed quite a few crosses of protection. When Benjamin begins fighting them, he wouldnât be too disadvantaged.
However, after rushing out from behind the tree and looking at the behavior of the three Priests, he couldnât help but sharply inhale.
He saw the three Priests standing within the barrier, hands together, all chanting the same spell. In that moment, their spiritual energy seemed to have melded into one, forming a huge net above their heads. Countless Holy Light flowed and leaped around them, as if they had a life of their own.
Then, bolt after bolt of light blades formed in front of them, so densely packed it was like a swarm of wasps who had their nest attacked. So far, there were already 30 or more formed, and the number was still increasingâŚ.
Seeing this scenario, Benjaminâs heart sank even more.
Although he didnât know what divine charm this was, whether an intermediate divine charm or high level divine charm, or a combination charm from the Churchâs experiments, but looking at it aimed at him, Benjamin was clear on one thing: He couldnât let his opponents release this skill.
Are you kidding? Looking at their demeanor, this lot wanted to mince him into ground meat! At that moment, Benjamin came to a decision. He took a deep breath, controlled the floating large sword of ice above his head, directed it at the Priests, and ruthlessly stabbed at them!
The large sword struck their barrier. Momentously, a crack appeared on the barrier which had previously looked indestructible.
However, just a crack wasnât enough to interrupt his opponentsâ spell casting. But Benjamin didnât hesitate, and instead hurriedly and relentlessly stabbed at the crack with the large sword. A loud bang was heard again and the crack expanded. However, the barrier was still unshattered. As for the tip of the large sword of ice, it was stuck on the barrier, unable to be pulled out instantly.
Seeing that, Benjamin suddenly sneered.
He didnât think of a way to withdraw the sword or any ideas along the lines of continuing his attack on the barrier with the sword. It was the opposite; he made up his mind and in that moment, controlling all the ice condensed into the huge sword, made it explode from within!
Crushed ice flew, akin to shrapnel after detonating a bomb, and scattered everywhere at high speeds. Even Benjamin himself needed to summon a barrier of water balls so that he wouldnât get hurt by the shards.
As for the center of the explosion, a dense white mist hid the silhouettes of the three Priests. At the same time, because of the particle oscillations caused by the explosion, the water particles in that area were messed up and Benjaminâs detection spell couldnât work. There was no way he could observe what happened in the icy fog.
But, what he could see were that the countless blades of light hovering nearby were disturbed by the fierce particle vibrations and had slowly began to self-disintegrate.
Seeing that, Benjaminâs was relieved.
The bottom line was that the large sword of ice was also a product he had used close to a hundred Ice Breaking spells to form. No matter what, an explosion caused by it, even if it couldnât severely injure the Priests, could throw them into chaos, unable to cast spells.
Not to mention, he had also used the crack in the barrier to stick the sword deeper in. Unquestionably, the explosion at the tip of the sword left some significant damage on the three Priests.
Soon, as the fading of the leftover vibrations from the explosion slowed, the disordered water particles gradually returned to normal. Finally, Benjamin could use water particle detection spell to confirm the conditions of the three Priests now.
He closed both his eyes and began feeling. But just as the image reflected on the water particles entered his mindâŚ
A gun fight had started. Benjaminâs right hand which was behind his back, unhesitatingly lifted the gun he was gripping and shot. A bullet penetrated through the icy fog, and within 2 seconds, a dull thud was heard from inside the fog.
Momentously, Benjamin felt as though the great weight was lifted off his shoulders.
"Iâve counted how many Crosses of Protection the three of you carry all together, itâs around 70 in total, isnât it?" He opened his eyes and suddenly spoke, a smirk surfaced at the corner of his lips. "You guys arenât bad. After such a long battle, Iâve finally used up only one personâs Cross."
He purposely paused before continuing. "But, not being able to help him block this shot, you guys must be blaming yourselves."