Chapter 403 Five Shadow Assassins

Chapter 403 Five Shadow Assassins　　*Boom* *Boom* *Crack* A series of explosions along with flashes of fire keep appearing on Jade's battlefield. Despite the rainy weather, Jade's surrounding area is still dry and begins to turn like a hot sauna with thick steam on the surrounding.

Currently, Jade was fighting the shiny people and the Nergal's Dukes/Duchess. However, he has been hit by Duke Thunderstride's skill and couldn't comprehend which one is real or not.

Not only has the Duke Thunderstride gone from his vision, but the other duke also seems to be an illusion to him. Moreover, Jade also often gets hit by these illusions in front of him.

'Hmm… Some of their hits are real and the others are not. My mind and mental state also seem fine. What a strange skill.' analyzed Jade inwardly.

Illusion is one of the complex and most complicated skills/spells to practice and use. Most of the reason is because of the complexity of people's minds. Under normal circumstances, it is already a complex task to trick people's minds into seeing an illusion.

Combined with the existence of mana, which boosts the work of the mind, it is practically almost impossible to trick people's minds into illusion, especially for seventh-grade combatants. For people like Jade, King Leon, and other leaders, their mind is practically impossible to be tricked.

Moreover, they have a keen sense of surroundings and discerning eyes that even see the way of the world. They are practically embodiments that are immune to things like mental attacks and illusion attacks.

Although Jade still does not have much experience as a seventh-grade combatant, he is immune to ordinary illusion attacks. Hence, Jade is intrigued by Duke Thunderstride's skill to be able to trick his mind.

Jade notices his mind and mental state is normal, but he still gets illusioned, which also confuses him. While Jade is fighting against Duke Thunderstride's illusion, the Nergal's duke and duchess are standing not far from Jade's battlefield in ragged breaths.

"It seems he is completely immersed in my skill." said Duke Thunderstride.

"Huft… Huft… Good. Allan, Guile, led the army for the siege attack." said Duchess Rainscar.

"You sure??" asked Duke Oceanpunch.

"Don't worry, we could handle him here." replied the Duchess while manipulating the steam nearby.

"Alright. Then, we leave him to you." said Duke Coldgust.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BLAAR* Before the duke moved, they could feel a large mana explosion in various locations not far from them.

"What happened?!!" asked Duke Oceanpunch.

"Sir, we got ambushed!! Five of our generals were found dead!!" said the knight nearby.

"WHAT!!" yelled Duke Coldgust.

"Guile, check on them while I lead the others to attack." said Duke Oceanpunch.

All the Nergal's generals are fifth-grade combatants. Yet five of them die without being able to create commotion or fight. Unless it is an assassin from the famous organization Bloody Star, no one could do it. However, Bloody star is renowned for its enormous charging price.

Killing five fifth-grade generals in this battle using the service of Bloody Star is too wasteful and extravagant. Therefore, the Duke/Duchess paid more attention to handling these assassins than leaving it to other fifth-grade generals.

As the Duke Oceanpunch and Duke Coldgust disperse, five people wearing cloaks butcher the Nergal's soldiers like they are vegetables all over the place. No one could see their figure beside the hazy black mist surrounding their body and the fluttering cloak on their body.

Despite being surrounded by the nearby knights, the cloaked figure is still calm, looking around while wielding their weapon. On the contrary, the nearby knights didn't dare to approach them carelessly after looking at the dozens of corpses nearby the assassins.

All these corpses are the Nergal's soldiers that try to fight and stop the assassins. Suddenly, a magic circle appears around them [4th Circle - Vulcan Shots]. *Boom* *Boom* *Boom* The Vulcan Shot attacked the surrounding area and exploded.

'Chantless four-circle spell!!' thought the nearby knights.

Using this opportunity, the assassin begins to move away at high speed while killing any soldiers on its path. Be it fourth-grade combatants or low-grade combatants, they couldn't stop the assassins. 

Some fifth-grade generals decide to stop them, but they move too fast and keep moving. Soon, the five assassins gather together in the middle of the army. Then, they release a large amount of mana equivalent to fifth circle spells.

"Everyone disperses! Mage shoots them!!" shouted Duke Coldgust from afar.

A large number of low circle spells immediately release and bombard the five assassins. At this moment, a large magic circle appears in front of them [Formation Magic - Terror of Battlefield]. *Wooo* A blood mist figure appears from the magic circle and defends the incoming spells.

Despite the continuous bombardment, the misty demon-like figure didn't disperse and grew bigger while absorbing something like blood mist from the surrounding corpses.

"What is that?!!" shouted Duke Coldgust as he finally reached the location.

"GRROOO!!" growled the blood mist figure.

Instantly, all the surrounding soldiers feel like their head is getting hit by a hammer. Some of the weak-willed soldiers even become crazy or have instant heart attacks. Duke Coldgust shrugged his pained head and readied his sword towards the blood demon mist.

Before his attack reaches the blood demon mist, He feels a dangerous presence from above. *Blam* a shadowy black figure intercepts him from above, followed by the other assassins. Surrounded by these agile mysterious assassins, Duke Coldgust could only defend himself.

He didn't dare get careless since these five assassins could silently kill five of their generals. In a few seconds, they keep clashing without stopping. The nearby fifth-grade general decided to help Duke Coldgust.

At this moment, the blood demon mist begins to move and harvest the nearby paralyzed-minded soldiers. It's a giant sharp claw butchering their defenseless body while every soldier enters its bloody mist cry in agony. The blood demon mist's body is tangible yet also not at the same time.

Some of the spells and attacks managed to hit it while the others only passed through its body. Moreover, it occasionally screamed around and launched mental attacks on the surroundings.

"Go help the soldiers!! Leave these assassins to me!" commanded Duke Coldgust towards the other generals.

Few of them immediately move to stop the blood demon mist. But, some of them were intercepted by the shadowy figure assassin. In the end, four fifth-grade generals from the Nergal kingdom are stopped in this area.

At the same time, Duke Oceanpunch wields his jousting-like spear towards the Windshire Fort. A massive army consisting of elite fourth-grade knights led by six fifth-grade generals followed him. 

Since they are at least fourth-grade level, they could easily cover a considerable distance in a short time. *BOM* *BOM* *BOM* Various explosions from magic cannons, runes, traps, spells, and artillery weapons are raining on them. 

However, the Nergal army also did not stay silent either. The Nergal magician unit in the back and air also release their protective spells deflecting the enemy's attack. 

Just as they almost reach the Windshire's wall, some large spinning fire launched at them [Great Fire Axe 1st style - Flame wheel]. *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

Some of the Nergal's soldiers managed to dodge the attack, but they didn't expect the Flame Wheel to cause a large explosion after hitting the ground. At this moment, the whole battlefield feels a large amount of mana flared up on top of the Fortress wall.

Duchess Sunarm opens both her hands while looking at the dark sky and begins to chant in an ethereal voice. A moment later, a large magic circle appears in the sky while the Duchess keeps chanting.

"Hmph.. super large scale spell. Very classic." said Duke Oceanpunch with contempt.

In the war and battlefield, the sixth-grade magician could become like a time bomb. They can obliterate and damage the whole army using their super large-scale spell. The spell range is so huge that it could encompass the entire Windshire Fort.

However, this kind of spell is often categorized as a sixth circle spell and needs a lot of time to cast. Moreover, the caster couldn't get interrupted or the spell would fail. It also could force the magician to enter a mana deficiency state if the spell's range is too large.

Duchess Sunarm cast the spell to cover until a few kilometers away. With this kind of scale, it will cripple the Nergal army and force the Duchess to enter a mana deficiency state.

Usually, when a sixth-grade magician casts a super large-scale spell, the enemy has two options. First, they could order their army to retreat until they leave the spell range.

However, this will only lead to more casualties in their army as they often become defenseless against the enemy's attack while trying to retreat. The other way is to stop the magician before they finish the spell. Super large scale usually takes 15 to 30 minutes to be cast.

If the magician is familiar with the spell, they could finish the spell faster. Both of these options have their advantages and disadvantages. Seeing the large magic circle in the sky, the Duke Oceanpunch didn't need to think much and immediately charged toward the Duchess.

As a combat veteran, he has already experienced this situation many times. Duke Oceanpunch knows this kind of tactic is only effective during the middle stage of the battle.