301 A Little Entertainment and Warm-up

When the other members of the assassination team saw the Northern Warrior cease his attacks, they all paused mid-attack, as well. They had planned to relentlessly pelt Baiyi with quick attacks while Sorcerer Terrier would stand aside and disrupt Baiyi's magical attacks. The idea was to prevent their opponent from having any breathing room in the fight, wearing him down till he was completely exhausted, making him as useless as a broken toy.

They came up with this plan when Baiyi was flying towards them. Sorcerer Terrier's psychic field may have had a limited range, but the archer had the keenest eyes; he was the one who first spotted Baiyi zipping through the skyline. When the assassination team spotted Baiyi, they became overjoyed because their prey had carried himself right to their doorstep.

However, the plan was abandoned halfway as the Northern Warrior, the leader and core of the team, stopped attacking the target, and instead, began to talk to him, forcing the rest of the team to follow suit and cease their attacks. Hence, they just stood there and listened.

"Tae judge us as mere entertainment is a little tae overconfident, isn't it, sir?" The Northern Warrior said, steely.

"Hey, pot calling kettle black here. You're the same, thinking you can face me in this place," Baiyi replied, feeling amused. He whipped out his Saint Quartz Staff from his own storage pouch and held it vertically in front him. Frankly, the Manhunter's previous assaults had put some pressure on Baiyi, giving him no chance to pull out his own weapon whilst dodging their attacks.

"Hmm..." came the cold sneer from the Northern Warrior.

Suddenly, he was gone. In the next instant, he reappeared right before Baiyi. His teammates, who all seemed to develop subpar dynamic visual acuity everytime he attacked, did not even see the Northern Warrior move, at all. As soon as he appeared, he was shrouded in orange flames made from combat chi, and his palms were closing in on Baiyi from both sides; it was as though he planned to squash the soul armature, turning him into a piece of scrap metal sheet.

Baiyi, however, had reflexes much higher than an average sorcerer. The moment the warrior activated his combat chi, Baiyi took a small step back while lifting his Saint Quartz Staff in a horizontal position, and the warrior's palms struck both ends of the horizontal staff and not the soul armature.

This made the Northern Warrior furrow his eyebrows a little. He had believed that Baiyi would either be squashed flat in a second because Baiyi was not able to follow his speed; that the staff would break in half like a twig under his immense strength, or that the staff would fly out from Baiyi's grip due to the severe impact. However, none of that happened. Instead, the opponent had reacted just as quickly, and his staff was sturdier than expected; it did not break in half, neither was it smacked away from the opponent's hands.

Saint Quartz, which was a very powerful material, could not be destroyed by flesh alone. Furthermore, Baiyi's strength was not any weaker than the warrior's, or else, he would not have been able to retain his hold on the staff after the double palm strike. 

"Yer braun is surprisingly on par wit mines. Urr ye really a sorcerer?" The Northern Warrior asked out of curiosity.

"You talk too much!" Baiyi snapped. A formation appeared in the middle of the staff, aimed right at the warrior's chest. It was as if Baiyi was going for his life!

In the next second, however, the formation vanished; it was as if Baiyi himself had canceled the spell. This was the same way Grant's spells had vanished during his duel with Baiyi.

Baiyi was sure that no one in the world could possibly use a cheap trick like Psionic Inundation to stop him from casting spells. In other words, the enemy had other ways of doing so…

"Yer magic cannae save ye!" The Northern Warrior bellowed, and the orange flames of combat chi surged out of his body, sweeping through the air and surrounding Baiyi!

Since his staff was still locked between his enemy's palms, Baiyi could not use his short-distance teleportation technique to evade the incoming attack. Since he was holding onto a physical object, the short-distance teleportation spell would not work. He could only watch himself being drowned by the sea of flames…

When the flames dissipated, Baiyi was nowhere to be found. The Saint Quartz Staff was still wedged between the Northern Warrior's palm. It had turned crimson and was scalding hot. One could only guess how hot the flames had been.

Baiyi had abandoned his staff at the very last moment, distancing himself from the Northern Warrior.

The opponent was not keen on giving him any breathing room, however. The Northern Warrior tossed the staff aside and streaked toward Baiyi like a phantom. The rest of the team were not staying idle, either. The archer, who had been hiding in the shrubs, leaped out of his hiding spot.

Hir right arm moved so fast, it left a blur as he pulled and released his bowstring in quick successions, firing tons of arrows at Baiyi and the places that he could dodge and escape to. The incoming arrows were so much, it seemed as though Baiyi was emitting a black glow.

This was Astra — a common technique used by archers of all ranks, including the run-of-the-mill archers. However, employing Astra at a speed so fast that it blurs — making the bow no less fiery than automatic rifles on Earth — was something a normal archer would not be able to pull off!

The ensuing events from the small face-off between Baiyi and the warrior were according to their plan. With his immense speed, the Northern Warrior was to get close to Baiyi and strip his weapon off him, preventing him from using the War Druids' impenetrable Moloch Tanuora, the move that caused VP Grant to surrender. When that happened, Baiyi would have one less way of defending himself, and he would only rely on dodging or blocking attacks.

Furthermore, the pitch-black arrows were no normal arrows; they were engineered from the combined genius of the military and the mage killer archer. Therefore, the arrows''anti-mage tips' could easily pierce through any sorcerer's defense — both shield and armor. The arrows could even pierce through elemental shields, like Mudwall and Icewall, let alone a soul armature!

Hence, as the black arrows sealed off all of Baiyi's escape and dodging exits, the Northern Warrior was hot on his heels, executing his next attack. Furthermore, two spellcasters were standing by the side, ready to disrupt Baiyi's magic. A thought flashed through the archer's mind: 'It's over'.

Little did he know that Baiyi was no ordinary being; his real identity was something no sane person in this world could fathom. Thus, how could he possibly be defeated this easily?

Just as the arrows were about to hit Baiyi, he vanished. His entire being seemed to have completely evaporated.

Furthermore, the Northern Warrior, who was still in mid-attack, suddenly felt a sense of cold dread running through the nape of his neck. It was his instinct — which had been forged through countless battles that had him hovering between life and death numerous times — warning him; hence, he responded by lowering his head without hesitation.

Suddenly, the Northern Warrior's ear registered the resounding boom of an explosion, which seemed to have gone off just behind him. Just as he was about to move to address the situation behind him, he felt the same spine-tingling dread spread all through his body.

The Northern Warrior obeyed his instinct once more. He stomped his feet into the earth, causing a storm of sand and dust to rise. Then, as he felt the recoiling force charge into his legs, he allowed the force to bounce him off the ground and boost his forward acceleration.

Just as he was propelled forward, the Northern Warrior then sidestepped something unseen, and Baiyi's sword slashed through the air of the area where he had been standing a millisecond ago.

This was when the Northern Warrior finally saw his opponent's new weapon. It was a bizarre-looking longsword, with a blade that seemed to be made entirely of light; half of the blade was red, and the other half was blue.

'Fie me, whit in tarnation is that thing?' The warrior shuddered internally. At that moment, the same nagging instinct that had saved him a while ago kept telling him that he was in a very dire situation. It was as though the instinct was shrieking; "ye should ne'er, ever catch that blade wi' yer bare hands!"

Yes; Baiyi may have lost his Saint Quartz Staff, but it was really not a big deal, at all, especially when one remembered that he also possessed a sharper and more dangerous weapon with him; a blade called the 'War God's Sword'. It was only a shame that Baiyi had not learned how to use the sword with as much dexterity as his Kitty Cat Maid, or else, with a power that could slice through the fabric of space in his hand, he could send all of these mooks to their makers in no time.

Even more regretful for Baiyi was the fact that the Northern Warrior had not tried to catch the blade with his bare hands! Normally, Holy-level fighters like him would opt for a more… a direct approach to fighting. They were normally so pleased with the effects and strength of their combat chi that they would boldly tank attacks with their own hands. This was why Baiyi was stunned. 'Why didn't this guy here do the same as any common Holy-level would? How the hell did Godsfall even possess the merit to attract someone like him?"

Everyone on the battlefield seemed to have a lot of questions in their minds. However, no one made any moves; this gave Baiyi enough breathing room to start a conversation.

"Fine, I'll admit it. You guys are so much more fun than an afternoon entertainment. I could even go as far as to say that you guys really do qualify as a warm-up!" Baiyi declared cockily.

He had no plans to use Void Energy… yet. After all, these mooks had not posed any actual threat.

"Sir Hope, prithee tell… Wha are ye? Sorcerers who hud died by mah hands hud been numerous. Mah judgement, wish is honed by those very experiences, tell me that ye ought nae be able tae evade oor onslaughts," said the Northern Warrior as he rose back to his full height. His eyes never once left the dangerous blade on Baiyi's hand. 

"Who says I am a sorcerer? I just like roleplaying as one. However, when a situation calls for it, I can play some other characters, too. Let's see… How about an assassin?" Baiyi said in a tone of levity. He vanished again from his spot, then suddenly, he appeared right behind the muscular archer and swung the War God's Sword, leaving a red line in the blade's wake as he aimed for the archer's neck.

"Coup de grace?!" cried Nergal in terror from his spot in the shadows. He had no idea how someone known as a sorcerer could use an ultimate assassination technique that a real assassin like him had not been able to pull off. 

However, his scream did nothing to save his teammate. Instead, it was the someone else, a person who everyone secretly looked down and called 'profane' and 'wicked', who had come to the rescue — the fourth cloaked figure.

Just as the War God's Sword was about to slice off the Archer's neck, a chilly white wall of bones suddenly appeared in front of Baiyi. This wall of calcium, of course, had no hope of completely stopping the blade, but the extra moment used to cut through the sudden, bony hindrance was more than enough for the Archer to make a move. Quickly, he spun and swung his bow to meet the lethal sword strike.

The wall of bone was cut cleanly, leaving only shards behind, and the bow was cut in half. The Archer's nose and forehead were barely brushed by the War God's Sword, leaving only a very shallow cut on his skin, but blood gushed out from the openings.

The archer grunted in pain. On the bright side, he was still alive. After rolling away from the sword slash, the archer raised his bow to retaliate, but he discovered that his bow was no unusable.

It had been barely minutes since they began to battle one opponent, and the one of the assassination team had already lost their primary weapon. Could it be that the elite team handpicked by the Godsfall Cult was incapable of even making Baiyi expose more of his trump cards?

"Mercy, Sir Hope; we need tae talk," the Northern Warrior said hurriedly. They had not expected the enemy to utilize that ultimate assassination technique which is more dangerous when using it in combination with an indestructible sword. As the leader of the team, the northern warrior had to find other ways to do things; this was because he sure as hell did not have any intention to fight Baiyi head-on anymore.

"Umm… You're just trying to buy some time for your lich friend so that he can summon his revenant army, right?" Baiyi replied with a smirk.

The previous attack that the assassination team had used was only their first strategy; they had a backup plan in case they failed at first. Should the first tactic fail, the lich would summon innumerable revenants to overwhelm Baiyi with numbers, buying time for the others to look for an opening.

"That kid ain't half-bad. At least he can forcefully summon revenants without needing corpses nearby," Baiyi continued coldly. Since the battle prowess of liches was almost completely dependent on their summoned dead, they invented some unique summoning techniques. As the knowledge of necromancy improved over time, advanced liches could open up a special pocket dimension called 'dead space'; they used it to store their army of revenants and ghouls so that their master could summon them whenever they were needed.

For example, the Lich Walker in the Void — who was the strongest Demigod Lich ever recorded in history — had a dead space so large, his army of the dead, which was believed to be innumerable, could all fit into it. Whenever the Lich Walker needed them, all he had to do was wave, and it would be as though hell had sent forth everything and everyone it had.

That was quite different from this lich, who was a fanboy of the Lich Walker! This lich actually had to take so much time to summon his own army, and he was so bad at it that Baiyi could sense his summoning magic!

Although Baiyi knew that the opponent was trying to bring his army, he was in no hurry to stop the lich. He was not sure if the army or the lich was bait. The cloaked figures could only be considered cute to Baiyi, but the Holy-level Warrior had reasons to be feared.

Although the Fifth Voidwalker was in a slightly more advantageous position, the 'hmph-ing Voidwalker', the Warrior Walker, kept telling Baiyi that the northern warrior had, in fact, been pulling his punches; he had not been fighting with all he had.

As for the lich… Well, Baiyi was sure he had one way to snuff out the lich's hopes.

"Fie. Despite seeing thro' oor plans, ye have na intention tae see us as par," the Northern Warrior said coldly, emulating Baiyi's tone. "As it may, yer hubris shall be th' answer tae th' cause o' yer death."

As soon as he had said that, his scarlet flame-like combat slowly change colors to the color of mint, and the flame's temperature soared. The rocks and debris beneath the northern warrior' feet began to melt under the monstrous temperature.

"Alkaid Inferno of the Azure Cloud Sect. He is showing his real hand now," the Warrior Walker said calmly in the Void.

"Are they good?" Baiyi asked.

"Meh. I beat all of them up," the Warrior replied in a more childlike tone, hoping to ramp up a little of her moe factor.

"Alright then. Warm up is over; time to get serious," Baiyi said coolly. He took down the cape from his shoulders and packed it back into his storage pouch carefully.Spidey-sense tickles!