As grandmaster Jenny leaped forward charging at them, grandmaster Aryline also followed her and Grim Doctor too, three of the remaining ancient Nightrotters also charged forward their lord to exchange blows with the slayers. As they were about to collide in a massive exchange of blows, Leeben Hestra from behind casted a spell, " Great Root Bind, " and from the earth, beneath the ground, poured out a bunch of self moving roots and curled around the ancient Nightrotters at the last second, totally halting their movement, they could have easily broken past them but that one second of freeze had allowed the grandmasters to gain the upper hand.
Grandmaster Jenny had already two strength boost spells stacked, Thunder Wind and Might of Lion, Both of them were intermediate boost spells and very efficient unlike the high tier spells, they didn't consume much magic, since they had no idea how long the battle will drag out, they were cautious of preserving their magic and moreover grandmasters have pride, they have magic integration level beyond the void stage and necessarily, anyone who has passed the void stage of magic integration will not need any boost spells to even fight a classified division varae, however, Nightcrawler Lord was different, they haven't fought one before.
The first one to deliver an attack was grandmaster Jenny, she swung her heavy flat sword with her right hand, unlike others, the sword grandmaster Jenny had was like that of a butcher's meat cleaver, I wondered how she was able to wield that abnormal sword in battles. I saw the veins in her right arm bulging out and muscles contracting in extreme pressure when she swung her flat sword at the ancient Nightrotter's face. The swing was so powerful that when it collided with the hardened and magic cladded arms of the ancient Nightrotter, the blast of the impact let out such force that the ancient Nightrotter was rotted out from the Great Root Bind and flew like a jet backwards bleeding.
Right after that action, grandmaster Arilyne collided with the second ancient Nightrotter who charged at her, instead of cutting it's head off, she blasted the entrails of the ancient Nightrotter by striking with her left palm and how did she do that? I heard her saying something like, " Activate Kinetic Discharge, " How terrifying, when her palm touched the abdomen of the ancient Nightrotter, it released a wave motion of vibration in the air and suddenly, entrails and blood exploded from behind. Death seized the ancient Nightrotters, the rare classified varae that even Lady Tashrani warned of was just so easily defeated like that? With a single attack? It seems I have underestimated grandmaster Arilyne way too much.
The Third person to collide was Grim Doctor, these three actions happened all consecutively and simultaneously one another, Grandmaster Hensord thrusted his sword directly at its chest and uttered, " Corrosion Art; Decay "
As his sword was deep into the flesh of the Nightrotter, a black pool of magic dispersed inside the flesh, in the blood of the ancient Nighrotter, even no matter how strong ancient Nightrotters are against poison resistance, if it is directly infused in it's blood, it shouldn't able to survive.
Grandmaster left the ancient Nightortter alone to it's pain, the Corrosion Art, Decay slowly destroys every cell of the body at a rapid pace. However, such spells are not effective if they don't come directly in contact with the blood, it's more of a scientific method than a magic spell. The ancient Nightrotter screamed in pain as the corrosion spread from its chest and in the next few seconds, most of his chest portion decayed into dust and it dropped death on the ground.
" Hohoho- It's not as effective as I thought, it barely managed to destroy only its chest portion, " commented Grim Doctor.
Three ancient Nighrotters defeated in just a few moments like that, the very foe the Master Slayers struggled to defeat one. I was very glad and excited that we had such high level grandmasters in this hunt, Knight Rhendy and the other Masters retreated to my position, below the tree I was overseeing the battle. Leon seemed to have recovered, Feibei said she ran out of Magic as she casted a lot of trap spells during the battle for the day, Knight Rhendy also confessed he has used up all of his magic in the battle with the ancient Nightrotter. The Royal Inquisitor stood aloof from my position with her arms folded over her chest and keenly watching the battle, I wondered why she even came if she wasn't going to help? I guessed it wouldn't be that necessary after all cause the Grandmasters seemed to have got this.
Now there was only Nightcrawler Lord left on the battlefield and five grandmasters. It just stood there and let out a wicked low hiss and it was taking a stance, he spread his right leg far backwards as if it was about to launch itself in them. It was taking a breath in! The Hiss!
And when the Nightcrawler Lord completed it's hissing sound, he launched himself at the grandmasters, It was so fast that I couldn't even see it properly, it was aiming for Grandmaster Arilyne but she also saw the threat and reacted quickly, she casted a spell quickly, " Activate Grand Shield, " and from her manifested multiple layers of magic that formed a half oval shaped shield around her. The Nightcrawler collided at the shield with a mighty powerful punch that for a nano second, it seemed like the shield was able to hold it but the blow was more powerful and the Nightcrawler Lord shattered the shield in pieces, " Tsk " Grandmaster Arilyne muttered.
As the shield was shattered, he lunged again without delay to deliver another powerful claw slash but someone from behind casted a trap spell, " Activate Ancient Root Bind " said Lady Tashrani.
The roots erupted out from the earth at great speed and curled around the Nightcrawler Lord's body and halted his movement. Grandmaster Arilyne quickly in succession to the support unsheathed her sword and performed a quick Dimensional Cleaver attack. The wave of black magic aura from the Dimensional Cleaver exploded at the Nightcrawler Lord and it filled the battlefield with smoke and dust. As the smoke dissipated, we saw that the Nightcrawler Lord has already broken free from the ancient root bind and we noticed a layer of dragon like scales all around his body, it took the Dimensional Cleaver head on and survived and he didn't use any magical barrier like the Alpha Red Hound.
" I told you not to use magic, " said Lady Tashrani.
" I just wanted to see how it would take it, " replied grandmaster Arilyne.
It stood there in it's prideful demeanour, his dragon like scales disappeared slowly under his skin, What a powerful ability, I thought.
" Lets go, Grandmaster Jenny, " said grandmaster Arilyne.
Grandmaster Jenny nodded and both of them charged at the Nightcrawler Lord blazing their sword open. They attacked the Lord at once from both directions but the Nightcrawler Lord, despite how big it was, it was extremely agile, it had no trouble dodging the attacks of the grandmasters. Leeben Hestra from behind casted a spell on the Nightcrawler Lord, " Salamander's Paralysis, "
For a second, it worked, it paralysed him and the Nightcrawler Lord was falling onto the ground but then a burst of magic aura exploded from its body, dark and chaotic. He regained his consciousness just like that, by disrupting the flow of the salamander's magic inside his body using his own aura to discharge. It shrieked in rage and jumped so high that I had to tilt my head upwards to the sky to see him. And from the air, he shot down a rain of its scales directly at us, it was like as if a swarm of arrows rained down from the sky,
The grandmasters converged at a spot and Lady Tashrani casted, "Heaven Grand Shield, " a high tier spell and they hid under the shield, the scales were infused with magic and as it hit, it discharged into smaller explosions, and in just a second, the battlefield was barraged with hundreds of multiple explosions. Fortunately, his attack didn't reach us and we were safe.
After the explosions were over, the grandmasters were still under the shield intact from any harm.
" The bastard resisted Salamander's spell, I haven't encountered any varae that can do that. " said Leeben Hestra irritated by the fact that Nightcrawler Lord was abnormally strong.
" He is a troublesome foe, indeed " said Lady Tashrani.
And after raining down the scales, it landed smoothly on the ground and this time, an aura of magical energy was cladding around his body, the Night was at its peak and it was going to be a long Night. The Battle hasn't even seemed to have progressed a bit, both sides were equally strong and none has managed to deal a significant blow to one another.
But what happened next scared the shit out of everyone, the Nightcrawler Lord leaped at them once again however, it ran brushed past the grandmasters and it was charging at us.
" Nooooooo!!!!, the kid, " screamed grandmaster Jenny. It happened so fast that I barely had any time to react and neither did the grandmaster to Intervene.
I knew, the Nightcrawler Lord was aiming at me for some strange reason, Was it because I'm the weakest one here? it was playing dirty. It was not even charging at the Masters. In that split second when the Nightcrawler was almost at us, The Royal Inquisitor jumped in between but the Nightcrawler Lord avoided her by dodging her attack swiftly and blasting her aside with a powerful backhand slash. It didn't do any damage to the Royal Inquisitor but it forced her to drift away from my position. In these fractions of seconds, I saw everyone as if the time had slowed down, I wondered what happened, I saw Knight Rhendy in the motion of drawing out his sword, Grandmaster Arilyne and Jenny screaming, their mouths wide open and coming after us, I saw their expression descended into despair. I saw Leon in the motion of standing up, Feibei trying to cast a spell but her face was sweating, Cyril standing in a defensive stance with his sword in both of his hands. The time had freezed and my consciousness was processing at the speed of Lightning or so I thought and a voice whispered in my head, my name echoed.
" Sloghk?, " I said.