Activation

Leylin clenched his fist tightly — the hand grasping the sword hilt was clearly somewhat stiff.

His face appeared pale and petrified as if he had gotten frostbite.

One must know that Leylin had a vitality of 12.85 points. If it was any regular human, they would have long since frozen to death.

"Should I kill you before or after I am done with Jayden and the girl?" -Torash asked Leylin with a victorious grin.

"You dumb son of a bitch. When you activated the scroll, you used just enough Mana Energy to bind a regular Knight. Yet, I am not just any knight. As a matter of fact, I am the strongest Grand Knight in South Coast." -Leylin declared arrogantly, as he effortlessly broke free of the ice as if he had merely been covered in a layer of frost.

"Of course, I would be more than willing to prove this fact to you. But alas, I am bored now." -Leylin said with a yawn, as a bright red light emitted from him and any ice still on his clothes was melted away by his Spiritual Force.

"My lord, please save us! Don't let him kill us, I beg of you!" -Bicky cried out with tears in her eyes at her short and fat savior.

"Why should I do that? As far as I'm concerned, I may as well die for a couple of idiots I know next to nothing about. Not to mention, that guy lying half-dead over there is a thief." -Leylin casually voiced his counter-argument as if he had not been troubled by that attack.

"Then I'll give you all of my badges! I have three level 2 badges I collected previously!" -Bicky yelled.

At this, Leylin chuckled. "Please. I know you don't have any badges, so don't insult my intelligence with that offer." Bicky looked aghast at his cruel words, but her spirits were lifted by his following statement. "That said, however... I did promise I would turn this monkey into a corpse, didn't I?"

As expected, after listening to the female acolyte and the blond fatty, Torash's gaze turned more vicious. He immediately waved his hand. A flash of thick and long lightning streaked across the sky, directly landing on Jayden.

The vines on Jayden's body fell and he fainted. Moreover, his whole body turned black in color, like a pile of scorched rubble. Bicky fell to her knees in despair.

At this, Leylin released a hearty laugh that momentarily chilled the blood of everyone present. "You actually tried to finish off that piece of shit, but your spell lacked enough power to breach his weak defenses! It seems I am having fun again thanks to you."

Torash waved his hands as they crackled with lightning and his face contorted in anger at this mockery of his abilities.

According to Aralis' detection, even if Jayden's outer appearance seemed to be terrifying, there was still a life force pulsating in him. Therefore, Leylin did not bother with him. Instead, Leylin was more focused on this acolyte in front of him.

'The Lightning element is indeed one of the strongest arcane powers. Versatile and destructive. Fast and precise. Although Jayden's magic artifact belongs to an attack type with minimal defense, he was still defeated so quickly. Or, it could be that the other party had been toying with him the same way a cat would with a mouse. He is so pathetic it would be an insult to this world if I did not end his life today. Yet, there is one matter to take care of before I do that.'

Not saying a word, Leylin disappeared from his position and appeared right above Torash. He struck with a roundhouse kick driving the head of the acolyte onto the ground. Blood and teeth flew away from his mouth.

Leylin stepped back and amused himself with the sight of a struggling Torash getting back to his feet.

"Your mana reserves are running low from all of that senseless fun you had earlier. I'd wager you cannot muster enough power to wield even the tiniest of sparks right now. Even still, I was not met with a full surrender on your part. Should I assume that you are an airhead, just as this nipple-less girl?" -Leylin calmly said as he rubbed his chin.

Bicky flinched, barely registering the insult as she was too shocked by everything that was going on.

Torash, on the other side, charged directly at him and brandished a short black staff in his hand. The staff was surely a low-grade magic artifact, as it glowed with mystical runes as if were enchanted to be thousands of times more resistant than any mortal weapon.

Leylin snorted and used his dagger which had morphed into a golden cross blade to slash at him.

The two weapons clashed, and Leylin simply began playing around and making small cuts everywhere on the acolyte's body.

Torash soon discovered his opponent's speed far outmatched his own, and Leylin's strength was obviously higher as well. His cross blade was also of superior quality to his own short metal staff.

Hence, Torash ate a piece of green meat that gave off a rotten odor. It was a curated witch hag brain, that although extremely disgusting to the senses, could give the user an incredible boost in every physical stat for 10 minutes at the cost of the ability to regenerate Mana Energy or Spiritual Force. In his case, it was a reasonable trade-off considering his low mana reserves.

After the two weapons clanged once more, Leylin used the mighty force in both his arms and pressed the sword down onto his opponent's staff.

"Hehe… Your strength isn't too bad for a chimp." -Leylin taunted.

Although the blade was just centimeters away from his face, there was no fear on Torash face. Looking at Leylin, his gaze held some ridicule and the savage thrill of violence one would see in the eyes of a true predator.

Leylin felt something was amiss, and hurriedly let go of the cross blade as he jumped away.

[Look out, Doctor! The enemy has activated a Mana Restoring Gem which had been hidden away inside his satchel!] -Aralis had of course warned Leylin of this item beforehand, yet it did not stop Torash from consuming it in the middle of combat.

In that very moment when Leylin released his offensive, several bolts of lightning extended from Torash's arms and shot at the cross blade, even up to Leylin's hands.

At the moment when the lightning current was about to hit him, Leylin had already forgone his sword and dodged the attack.

"Too late!" -Torash looked at Leylin's figure and chanted an incantation.

The electric current from the staff directly bore through the mud and extended like the root of a tree. In the blink of an eye, it caught up to Leylin.

Once the lightning landed on the ground, it reappeared from the ground right in front of Leylin.

As if a poisonous snake, the blue lightning charged at Leylin.

"Aaah!" -Bicky who was on the other side involuntarily screamed and she clasped her mouth.

Suddenly, a glimmering layer of silver membrane appeared on Leylin's body.

This layer of membrane immediately draped over Leylin's whole body covering every inch, even his orifices were not left out.

On the silvery membrane, there were several pale reflections of flickering red jewels, giving off a mystical luster.

The blue lightning took on the shape of a python with a crazed leer and opened its jaws. Lightning-made teeth directly bit on the membrane.

A similar sound to metal smashing porcelain was heard, and the ear-piercing noise traveled across the whole battlefield. Bicky involuntarily covered her ears, to let her nerves calm down.

The lightning on Leylin's body exploded, and from time to time a few poisonous snake-like lightning currents converged and let off an explosive noise.

Looking on, Leylin seemed to be a silver statue, who was receiving the blessings of lightning bolts.

The lightning attack lasted for close to thirty seconds before it dissipated.

There was a cold expression on Leylin's face as he looked at the holographic indication given by his A.I. assistant in the corner of his line of sight.

[You have been subjected to numerous high-level Lightning-based attacks. Their degree of power was not inferior to 9. The Fallen Star Pendant was automatically triggered, and the amount of energy consumed is of is 23.99%. It successfully blocked the attacks and you sustained no injuries.] -Aralis reported dutifully.

'I was too careless. The bastard lured me into a melee fight knowing full well I was superior as a Grand Knight and took advantage of my arrogant display to garner enough time to activate a magic artifact of his own. A Mana Restoring Gem. The kind of artifacts only those who come from noble Magi Houses can get their hands on. Basically mana elixirs, but they act quicker and restore up to 10 points of Mana Energy...'

The opponent's lightning could actually pass through normal physical materials. Moreover, it could use the layer of frost which was still on the ground as a conductor to initiate the attacks. Thus, Leylin had no time to evade the spell even if he had used all of his Grand Knight speed.

Leylin looked at his hands. Knowing that his opponent excelled in the Lightning element, Leylin had already put on leather gloves before the battle.

However, the hands that gripped the cross blade earlier were still rather numb.

There was also a precursive condition for the Fallen Star Pendant to be activated. Leylin had customized it to activate only when his life was in peril. Otherwise, any raindrop from the sky would activate the Fallen Star Pendant and finish the consumption of energy in the magic artifact.

Previously, because Leylin had let go of his sword early on, the damage from the electric current to his body was extremely little. It was not enough to achieve the criteria to activate the Fallen Star Pendant.

Of course, due to the conductivity, the lightning was too fast, and Leylin still received damage from it on his hands.

At last, Leylin backed away and under his opponent's chase, he suffered a 9-degree lightning attack. If he did not defend himself further, his life would be in peril. Hence, the criterion for the activation of the Fallen Star Pendant was achieved, where a layer of silver holy light immediately appeared from his body.

The Fallen Star Pendant's defense could negate attacks up to 15 degrees. This is to say, if Torash's attack could not exceed this degree, Leylin's body was like a turtle shell until the energy of the Fallen Star Pendant was depleted.

"How is this possible?" -Gazing at Leylin who seemed injured, Torash's mouth was opened wide, enough to fit several duck eggs in it.

"This is an attack my professor has personalized for me. It complements my affinity and my degree of attack is at least 9! How could you be perfectly fine as if nothing happened?!" -Torash lost his composure and his enraged face was bulging with restrained worry.

"I understand now! You definitely must have a defensive magic artifact on your body!" -Torash pondered and quickly understood the truth. He licked his lips and fervent greed appeared on his face. "Although it is only a low-grade defense magic artifact, there will definitely be many official Magi who will be interested in it…"

For this Bloodbath, both sides signed an agreement not to use any strength that was above an acolyte. Any scroll or magic artifact which exceeded this criterion would be teleported out in a flash and had no chance of getting into the secret plane. Although Leylin's magic artifact was precious, it still belonged to the low-grade series.

In Leylin's eyes, these low-grade magic artifacts had might below that of the official Magi.

An average Rank 1 spell's degree of attack was 20 and above. If Leylin used the Fallen Star Pendant to block against them, he would definitely be slain immediately, not leaving a trace behind.

However, amongst the acolytes, the Fallen Star Pendant was a divine item.

Furthermore, even an official Magus would not mind having an extra layer of defense, no matter how small it was. Moreover, the defense from Fallen Star Pendant was activated from the pendant and did not affect the owner in one bit.

The value of a low-grade defense magic artifact was at least 50 times that of Jayden's attack-type magic artifact. This is to say, right now, besides the A.I. Chip which contained Aralis, the most valuable possession Leylin had was his ancient Elven magic artifact.

"I'll just kill you... Then that magic artifact is mine!" -Torash's eyes turned bloodshot.

'Even if it is a great magic artifact, there is a limitation to it. Once it's depleted of energy, before the next recharge, it would be a piece of useless junk. However, it begs the question: could I last until then?' -Torash mused. 'Even if I'm unable to defeat him here today, I can assemble other Whitewoods and Gotham's students to chase after him.'

'Wait a minute... Maybe there is a better idea?'

After seeing the Fallen Star Pendant, Torash did not harbor any hopes of defeating Leylin here today. However, the flames of desire slowly invaded his logic.

Suddenly, Torash saw Bicky who was behind Leylin and his eyes flashed as he made a proposition.

"You! You are very concerned with the green-haired girl behind you, right?" -Torash questioned. "Don't deny it; jumping out to save her is the best proof!"

Leylin's brows furrowed.

"Give me your magic artifact, and I'll let her go. Not only that, I'll even let Jayden go too. You may claim to be indifferent to their predicament, but actions speak louder than words!" -Torash licked his lips.

After hearing that unexpected speech, Leylin shook his head. Then, he laughed to himself.

"True enough, I can't keep you here today as you have the magic artifact. However, I can definitely retain the green-haired girl and even kill her." -Torash changed his words to a threat.

"Oh, please do." -Leylin stretched his hands in a gentlemanly way and gestured toward Bicky.

"You… Why would you...?" -This reply made Torash extremely shocked.

"Naturally, I will never give my trump card away to a random no-name. Or anyone, for that matter. As for your threat? I have no involvement with that bitch. She can die while being r*ped by your micropenis for all I care. The same goes for that trash Jayden."

Leylin looked at Torash with ridicule in his eyes. He may have underestimated his resourcefulness in the fight, but the black-haired acolyte was already a walking corpse in his eyes.

"You did say something which is quite accurate, nonetheless. The part about actions speaking louder than words." -Leylin's shield deactivated. Forthwith, a black and crimson aura began surrounding him.

His eyes turned bright red and reptile-like while his Shapeshifting Spell faded. He also let out a tiny portion of his Seductive Aura so that Bicky's mind was overwhelmed by the colliding emotions and she would faint.

Now in his glorious true form, a muscled and tall warrior with raven black hair and demonic eyes, Leylin slowly recovered his dagger.

Torash was frozen just as Leylin himself had been earlier, though not in because of ice magic, but due to a primal fear kicking in.

"How amusing. It appears I am not the only one who miscalculated the situation."

Leylin brought out a small vial from his pouch and opened the cork with his thumb. A transparent gas was let out of it, and it silently began to cover the battlefield.

"I decided to fight you simply because I wanted to spill your blood. So please, allow me to demonstrate my wish to make you scream in horror... Loudly..."