He wore dirt-yellow leather armor on his body and had short green hair, his long and slender ears pointing outward from his temples. He carried a quiver full of strange magical arrows upon his back and held in his left hand a magic longbow inscribed full of rose branches and carved with plenty of delicate patterns.
A curved elven scimitar hung by his waist.
He made no poses or battlecries. He merely raised his left hand and pulled on that incomparably tough bowstring with his right hand. As sizzling magical energy gathered along his bow, a magical arrow forged purely of nature power gathered upon his fingertips.
Haa!
Ursol let out a low battlecry as the magical arrow instantly turned into a flash of green lightning, crossing a thousand meters in an instant, and appearing before Rimura.
A thousand meters of distance was no obstruction for individuals of their power. As long as they wanted to, any attack that they unleashed would appear where they wanted it to be within their line of sight or where their Spirit had locked onto.
The elven longbow in Ursol's hand was no common artifact either. It was a famous Fourth Grade treasure even in Faen Plane– Thoda'rial, the Stars' Fury.
It was a pseudo-artifact!
It simultaneously possessed three magical effects: critical damage, artifact power, and pierce. Moreover, Thoda'rial, the Stars' Fury had been personally blessed by God of Archery Marco. Consequently, the bow automatically generated magical arrows when drawn, with no need for any arrows to go with the bow.
Even Rimura didn't dare face such a magical arrow glowing with countless magical sparks, despite having an energy shield from the adept's tower on her person.
She quickly flashed and appeared a hundred meters away.
Rimura wasn't to be outdone either. She waved her hand after dodging Ursol's attack, and a sinister, semi-translucent ghost's claw lashed outward, whistling and howling toward the enemy.
The ghost's claw was only the size of a sink basin when it flew out, but with the continuous injection of magic energy from the tower below, the claw continued to grow in size as it flew toward the enemy. It was half an acre large by the time it reached Ursol and Zyvere.
The cold winds surged around them, filling the air with a ghostly presence.
The negative energy aura instantly corrupted the space into a landscape of pure gray.
Ursol didn't dodge against an attack with such a large area. Instead, he calmly started preparing his next attack. Meanwhile, Zyvere, who was standing beside him, let out a battlecry and waved the short and delicate nature's staff in her hand. A Purification Halo with an immense area immediately enveloped the both of them.
Magic soaked in negative energy was perfectly countered by such powers of purification.
The previously overwhelming ghost's claw crumbled and shattered the moment it came into contact with the purification halo, turning into tufts of gray mist before slowly dispersing into the air.
At this point, the Stars' Fury in Ursol's hands had been drawn into a full moon.
Even more horrifying was the fact that three magical arrows containing explosive nature power had been simultaneously formed on the bowstring this time.
Boom!
As the snap of the bowstring rang out in the air, the three magical arrows shot forward. One of the magical arrows erupted with a powerful nature aura and transformed into a fearsome nature magic as it flew outward– Nature's Fury!
It was nature magic that reached Fourth Grade. It could bring out the nature power inside in the instant it detonated, dealing terrifying spell damage to the enemy.
As this happened, the other two magical arrows had silently vanished into thin air. No one could sense where they had gone.
Evanescent Arrow!
It was also a secret archery technique that God of Archery Marco had granted to the elves.
The previously relaxed-looking Rimura couldn't help but tense up when seeing the all-out explosion of Fourth Grade Ursol.
In truth, she wasn't afraid of that Fourth Grade Nature's Fury, but rather those two magical arrows that had turned invisible.
It didn't matter how powerful of a spell it was; it had to hit the enemy to unleash its might.
Nature's Fury might be powerful, but it could not break through the defensive magic of this Fourth Grade Pale Witch.
Rimura raised her head and let out a shrill, ear-piercing screech. The terrifying soundwave rippled in every direction like a wave. This Wail of the Banshee repeatedly weakened the Nature's Fury. It was at its limits by the time it hit the Deadsoul Barrier surrounding Rimura. It vanished before even making a splash.
The rippling soundwave's range was vast, so much so that it even forced one of the Evanescent Arrows hiding three hundred meters away to appear.
The sound of piercing winds immediately erupted from the Evanescent Arrow upon being revealed, as it shot toward Rimura's forehead.
The magical defensive strength of the Deadsoul Barrier was decent, but it was insufficient against physical attacks.
Rimura's silhouette flashed as she once again used Flicker to dodge this attack.
Just as she flickered and appeared in her new position, the air three meters away from her trembled. An Evanescent Arrow appeared out of thin air, accelerating and piercing toward her forehead.
Chapter 671 Troublesome Enemy
One revealed, and one hidden.
The Evanescent Arrows were truly annoying to deal with!
There was no more dodging this time. Rimura paused for a moment, and the arrow instantly pierced her forehead.
A crisp splat rang out in the air and the witch's skull shattered. Red blood and white brain matter splattered in every direction like raindrops.
A pungent rain of blood suddenly fell from the skies as a headless corpse twitched and dropped from above.
The Fourth Grade witch had been killed?
The elves who were watching the battle from a distance were about to break out into cheers, but the two elven god messengers standing in the air didn't seem to be showing any joy. They looked at each other with solemn faces and closed the distance between them. Then they started to look at the empty air around them.
If these evil witches from the World of Adepts were truly this easy to kill, then they wouldn't have become the terrifying tumors of Faen that they were today. That was why the two god messengers didn't let down their guard, despite the scene they had just witnessed. In fact, they became a lot more alert.
Ursol nocked his arrow and drew his bow, keeping guard at Zyvere's side. Meanwhile, this god messenger of Saoirse started waving her nature's staff about, softly chanting a magical spell. Judging from the intonations and syllables of the chant, it seemed she intended to cast True Sight to verify what was happening.
Just then, Ursol abruptly shouted, "Watch out!"
His bowstring immediately snapped. Two magical arrows cut across the skies in a strange and mysterious path, landing on an empty spot a hundred meters away. Boom! The bolts exploded and instantly transformed into two nature spells– Nature Imprisonment and Wrapping Vines.
Several magical vines that manifested out of thin air quickly wrapped around an odd humanoid silhouette like agile snakes in the wild. A small prison formed out of rose branches and green vines also rapidly grew on the outside.
However, Ursol's sharp eyes instantly saw through the dense branches and vines and identified that the victim of the spells wasn't the body of the Fourth Grade Pale Witch. Instead, it was a terrifying corpse with blood and pus all over its body.
The bloody corpse had no skin to speak of. Its entire body was naked, and the surface of it was covered in fresh blood and abscess of all sizes. The corpse didn't seem to care for the tough vines and thorned branches biting into its flesh, and it continued to struggle and thrash about violently.
The fearsome blood from its body splashed onto the vines and branches and sizzled as it corroded the plant material. Acrid white smoke rose into the air. This corp
se was immensely powerful and utterly fearless in the face of death. Moreover, its blood was no different from a strong acid and had powerful corrosive capabilities.
Seeing that the two binding spells could no longer restrain the enemy, Ursol once again drew his bow. This time he was no longer using magic arrows, but an actual physical enchanted explosive arrow.
Powerful physical attacks could more easily kill wicked magical creations like this bloody corpse!
Just as the explosive arrow was about to leave the bow, the air behind the two god messengers rippled. A nearly invisible humanoid shape emerged out of nowhere.
It was a powerful spirit with the abilities of a Fourth Grade. Her phantasmal face vaguely resembled that of Rimura's. This horrifying spirit opened her mouth the instant she emerged in the air before the god messengers could react. A sharp and ear-piercing wail burst forth into the surroundings.
Wail of the Banshee!
It was a true Wail of the Banshee in every sense of its name. Its effect was several times that of the Wail that Rimura had released earlier.
The terrifying wailing soundwave beat against the air like waves in the sea. There was no need even to mention the frail flesh of the elves. Even the typically untouchable space started to crumble before the wail, inch by inch, piece by piece.
The violent and ferocious soundwave quickly spread into the surroundings, catching up to the escaping Windrunners at the speed of a thunderblast. The Windrunners then became like dolls and toys being wildly and roughly handled by a massive and invisible hand. They were instantly squashed and folded into the thickness of paper before exploding into a crimson rain of smashed innards and blood.
It didn't matter whether they were First or Second Grade; none survived in front of such a terrifying Banshee's Wail. They were like helpless mortals at this moment, freely and indifferently toyed with in the palms of powerful gods without even the slightest trace of the ability to resist.
Only those elves with Third Grade powers managed to rely on the eruption of their own energy fields to hold off the soundwave attack for a brief moment as they desperately escaped into the distance. Even so, they had paid a terrible price to live!
The Wail of the Banshee wasn't just a sound attack. It also carried with it a fearsome soul attack. It was able to shatter the enemy's soul and kill them simultaneously. That was why all individuals murdered by the Wail of the Banshee could not be resurrected by revival magic or divine miracle.
The situation was dire even in the distance. Necessarily, the god messengers who were in closest proximity to the spirit had to directly endure nearly eighty percent of the Wail's offensive power. The damage they had to receive was far beyond that of the ordinary elf.
Fortunately, both of them had experience fighting with the Pale Witches. At that moment, the two god messengers promptly activated the life-saving divine magic that their respective patron deities had bestowed upon them– Divine Shield.
An egg-shaped golden shield appeared around them, helping them to block all of the soundwave attacks safely.
The two god messengers turned around furiously while still under the protection of the Divine Shield. They instantly took out their most potent abilities to deal with this spirit that had appeared out of nowhere.
This accompanying spirit belonging to Rimura wailed as she hovered to dodge the attacks of the god messengers. Meanwhile, she continued to activate all sorts of soul abilities that broke apart against the Divine Shields.
Divine power was truly a mysterious power purer and more advanced than magic power and energy!
The shields constructed from divine power could defend against all known magics and spells, including many spell branches that were so niche that hardly anyone dabbled in them.
Upon seeing that her attacks were completely ineffective against the Divine Shields, the accompanying spirit had no choice but to give up. She started to flee from the god messengers' attack range with all her strength.
And how could the enraged god messengers let her escape so easily?
Zyvere's face was flushed red from frustration. She raised the nature's staff in her hand, and a brilliant beam of Nature's Light shone out of the top of her staff, firmly locking onto the spirit's body.
Accompanying spirits might be ethereal beings immune to all physical damage, but the cost of that immunity was having to endure double the damage from all magical attacks.
That was why this beam of Nature's Light acted like a strong acid when it landed upon the spirit's body. It was almost as if the spirit had been soaked in an entire barrel of corrosive acid, her phantasmal body steaming and letting out pungent white smoke.
The accompanying spirit lifted her head and let out a painful cry of agony. She started to quickly and rapidly flicker and flash through the sky. Sadly, regardless of how she ran, that fearsome beam of Nature's Light remained tightly focused on her body, grinding away at her existence with the powers of purification.
Perhaps because she sensed the agony of her accompanying spirit, the Fourth Grade Pale Witch Rimura finally came out of her hiding.
This time, she rapidly transformed into a horrifying shadow tentacled monster upon her reappearance. Her entire body was enveloped by black smoke as dark as ink. She waved a dozen dark tentacles, as thick as stone pillars and several dozens of meters long, smashing them toward the god messengers from every direction.
Ursol, who was responsible for protecting the both of them, let his bowstring snap again and again. Several magical arrows that fired from his bow blew up the shadow tentacles in midair. However, these dark tentacles were not so easily destroyed. The scattered dark matter moved under the control of Rimura's chants, once again forming into new dark tentacles that extended toward the two god messengers.
Through their endless regeneration, the dark tentacles were finally able to break through Ursol's rain of arrows, slashing at Zyvere's Divine Shield. Zyvere was unable to stabilize her body and flew almost three hundred meters away, like a rubber ball that had just been struck with extreme force.
Though her Divine Shield had helped her mitigate all of the damage, the unstoppable shock from the impact still interrupted her Nature's Light.
Nearly half of the accompanying spirit's body had been burned away. She howled sorrowfully and used dense negative energy to extinguish the nature energy remaining upon her body. She then stared resentfully at Zyvere, with eyes that burned with ghostly green flames, and hatefully concealed herself once again.
The two god messengers swept the skies with True Sight but failed to find any signs of the spirit. They had no choice but to set their sights on Rimura herself, resuming their battle above the skies of Echo Isles.
Two Fourth Grade elves were fighting against a single Fourth Grade Pale Witch. It looked as if they held the advantage due to their numbers, but the god messengers were still incapable of obtaining any absolute advantage during the fight. After all, every Pale Witch had an accompanying spirit that they cultivated from their youth. The spirit's power was proportional to their own, and their minds were linked as one, allowing for seamless acts of cooperation.
That was why a Fourth Grade Pale Witch was equivalent to the combination of two Fourth Grade witches. The only caveat was that one had a physical body while the other was merely a spirit!
Witch Rimura herself was skilled at a variety of powerful dark magic, while her accompanying spirit was a master of soul abilities. The two of them complemented each other, and the sum of their combined force was far stronger than the teamwork of the two god messengers!
However, the god messengers were backed by gods and could obtain the support of some powerful divine magic. Meanwhile, the Pale Witch had her back against the adept's tower and could easily slip into the tower's defensive barrier whenever the winds turned south.
Both sides had their advantages and trump cards. It was hard to utterly defeat the enemy before they could muster an absolute numerical advantage.
There might be five Fo
urth Grade god messengers in Greenwater City, but if they were to all swarm out at once, Rimura would turtle within the tower, refusing to show herself. With a Fourth Grade witch hosting the tower, the elves would not be able to break into it, even if they committed all of their forces.
Moreover, even if they were willing to raze the tower at great cost, they had no way of stopping the Fourth Grade witch from escaping. With the witches' abilities, they could easily build a new base even if the Echo Isles were to fall out of their control. When that happened, the elves would be the ones faced with more problems.
That was why, after a few attempts, the elves gave up on the idea of utterly exterminating the enemy. They chose instead to use a massive garrison and number of defending troops to wait out the Calamity of Witches.
At any rate, these foreign witches couldn't stay in Faen forever. Once they all started to leave, the wicked Pale Witches would have to settle down again!
Chapter 672 The Might of Fourth Grade
The battle between Fourth Grade powerhouses was a shocking experience for the ordinary elves!
The two dozen elven vessels quickly weighed their anchors and ran far from the Echo Isles.
In fact, they could still sense the intensity of the energy explosions through the chaotic winds blowing across the hull of the ships, even when they had sailed four to five nautical miles away.
There was no longer a single cloud in the blue skies.
Thick, dark clouds gathered from every direction, forming into a dense and roiling cloud of mist over Echo Isles and firmly trapping the isles within. The elves all ran up to the deck and glanced in the direction of the Echo Isles, waiting with hope for their god messengers to return victorious.
The waves gradually became more tumultuous and treacherous, and their ships started bob even more furiously.
Some elves who had never experienced such conditions immediately exhibited signs of severe seasickness and started vomiting. Meanwhile, the elven leaders gathered at the bow of the ship, anxiously awaiting the conclusion of the battle.
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