41 Overwhelming Necromancy (Part 1)
"As if I'm going to tell you!" Marcus raised his right arm and pointed the white magic circle on his palm to the priest. " Hey Aylinor, I return the favor to you! Energy Blast!"
*Bang!*
In an instant, a blinding white light shot out from the magic circle with a powerful explosive noise. The recoil from the spell caused Marcus to be propelled backward. He managed to control his body, flipped in the air, and landed on the roof of a house.
Simultaneously, the [Energy Blast] traveled the distance separating Marcus from Aylinor in the blink of an eye, scattering the yellow mist in its path. But when the white light was about to hit its target; the priest whispered a few words and a silver energy barrier covered his body. The moment the spell hit the silver barrier, it dispersed as if it had never existed.
*Weng Weng*
Immediately after the spell dissipated, the energy barrier began to tremble and a second later, a white light was expelled from the barrier to where Marcus was.
Marcus reacted quickly and jumped off the roof to the side, evading the attack.
*Boom!*
The white light impacted where Marcus had been standing only moments before, creating a loud explosion and destroying the roof of the house.
'Did he reflect my attack?!... So, let's see how about this! ' While still descending in the air, Marcus raised his arm pointing it to Aylinor, and quickly started casting another spell. In that instant, an even larger white magic circle than the previous one appeared in the palm of his hand. 'Missile rain.'
Immediately after Marcus finishes reciting the spell, the magic circle in his palm began to glow brighter and dozens of Baseball-sized energy spheres shot out towards Aylinor.
Unlike [Energy Blast] which relied on a single concentrated energy attack, [Missile rain] distributed the energy to create multiple magical projectiles so that they could overwhelm the opponent with a series of rapid and continuous attacks over a wider area. In addition, each energy missile had far greater power than a regular [Energy missile]. For these reasons [Missile rain] was listed as a 3rd level spell.
Although the power of a spell could vary according to the mastery rank of the thaumaturge, the truth was that it was very difficult for a lower-level spell to surpass a higher-level spell.
Magic spells were categorized into twelve different levels according to their complexity, their destructive power or area of effect, and the amount of magical energy they required. And the difference between each spell level was abysmal.
Typically level 0 offensive spells required a minuscule amount of energy to activate and in terms of power were only comparable to the same power a normal person could wield with a weapon such as a bow and an arrow or sword.
1st level spells required an average of 10-90 MP to activate and their power was comparable to that of a grenade, shotgun, or other firearms of similar caliber. 2nd level spells consumed an average of 100-700 MP and their power was sufficient to destroy large boulders or thick concrete walls.
3rd level spells consumed an average of 800 - 1,300 MP and even the weakest of them were capable of reducing a normal-sized house to nothing more than rubble. As for the 4th level spells, Marcus didn't know anything about their energy consumption or power.
But even though the MP consumption of [Missile Rain] was huge, Marcus had still decided to use it for various reasons.
Aylinor was currently using a lot of energy to keep the horde of monsters attacking the city under his control, so he couldn't afford to use spells that consumed a large amount of MP. Therefore, even if his protection spell reflected magical attacks, he surely had a limit to the number of attacks he could block or the level of spells he could reflect.
The rain of energy missiles fell on Aylinor impacting the energy barrier covering his body.
*Boom Boom Boom
At that instant, the dozens of energy spheres that didn't hit the priest hit the ground, destroying the earth, creating huge craters around him, and raising a dense cloud of dirt and dust.
When the bombardment ended, Marcus finally landed on the ground; the whole process had only lasted a couple of seconds. However, he did not let his guard down. Since the system had not yet given a notification about his death then it meant that the priest was still alive.
*Xiu Xiu Xiu Xiu*
A second later, dozens of energy spheres shot out from the dust curtain everywhere.
Marcus reacted immediately and moved his body to avoid the energy spheres. But although his agility momentarily exceeded 100 points, he was still unable to evade the entire barrage of attacks.
*Bam!*
Marcus was hit by an energy projectile that sent him flying several yards away until he crashed into the wall of a house, which collapsed a few moments later. Burying him in a pile of rubble.
*Boom Boom Boom*
The other projectiles that did not hit Marcus followed their trajectory destroying everything in their path. As a result, many houses and trees in the town had been destroyed or reduced to piles of splintered wood.
With some difficulty, Marcus climbed out of the pile of rubble in which he was buried and stood up once more. Fortunately, he was wearing the enchanted armor Jörmungandr, so the damage from the spell was significantly reduced and he only lost 200 HP.
A second later, the cloud of dust enveloping Aylinor cleared. The priest was not only intact, but the silver energy barrier around him had become brighter than before.
At that moment, Marcus noticed the object Aylinor was wearing around his neck, which emitted a faint silver glow.
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Name: Moonlight reflector pendant.
Artifact: Magical Object
Tier: High
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Durability: 2,600/2,600
Defense Power: 525(+89)
Description:
A pendant created from a Rhei crystal from [******] and ***** ********* *********.
Abilities:
Magic Atk. Resistance lv:5
Energy conservation and absorption: 20%
Magic damage reflection: 70%
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'What the sh- that's cheating!' When Marcus saw the stats of the Moonlight Reflector Pendant, he couldn't help but curse inwardly.
The moonlight reflector pendant could absorb all magical attacks directed at the wearer; once the spell was absorbed, the pendant reflected the opponent's magical attack with 70% of its original strength. In addition, with its defense power and resistance to magical Atk, the necklace was capable of resisting and reflecting magical spells up to the 4th level.
In fact, the moonlight reflector pendant could also absorb some of the power of its opponent's magical attacks to strengthen the defense of the silver barrier by up to 20%.
Even though Marcus' armor and Aylinor's pendant were listed as High tier Items; the difference in power between an enchanted item and a magic item was overwhelming. In terms of overall statistics alone the Moonlight Reflector Pendant was 50% stronger than Jörmungandr. Furthermore, while Jörmungandr's spells could only be used once every couple of days, the effects of the Moonlight Reflector Pendant could be used as long as the user-supplied it with MP.
'Wait a minute. If that thing absorbs energy... So.'
While Marcus was pondering how to counter the effects of the Moonlight Reflector Pendant, the anger and embarrassment Aylinor felt had reached such a point that the priest was almost spitting blood and foam from his mouth.
Although he was clearly superior to his opponent, he had not only been unable to defeat or injure him but Aylinor had also been forced to use one of his trump cards.
The Moonlight Reflector Pendant was an artifact that Aylinor had obtained after assassinating a senior member of the Church of the Starry Night. Supposedly, he would only use this artifact as a last resort to defend himself or escape from other wizards who were stronger than him.
However, since he was currently very weak and none of his spells seemed to have any effect on Marcus, he had had to use the magic item against none other than a wizard of the 2nd realm. If others found out about this, Aylinor would not be able to bear such humiliation.
"I've had enough of this." The priest's voice trembled with rage. "For a mere heretic to force me to use this... it is truly humiliating. If I don't kill you today... then I won't be able to sleep peacefully!"Aylinor reached between his robes, pulled out a handful of live grasshoppers, and stuffed them into his mouth.
*Crunch munch*
Immediately after Aylinor had chewed and swallowed the grasshoppers, small lumps began to appear all over the skin of his body. Then, the lumps on Aylinor's face and neck began to move and crawl down to his arms.
At that moment, Aylinor raised his arms, which were so swollen that they looked as if they would burst. Beneath the skin of the arms, the lumps were moving and writhing as if they wanted to escape from the priest's body to the outside world.
"Locust storm!"
After Aylinor finished his spell, the pores in the skin of his arms opened, and the faint buzzing of insect wings was heard as hundreds of thousands of locusts flew out from inside his body. Then the cloud composed of thousands of insects swooped down on Marcus and began to swirl around him.
Unlike normal insects, the locusts created by Aylinor's spell had certain special characteristics. Their skin was as hard as iron, they were resistant to fire and elemental spells. In addition, these locusts had powerful jaws that allowed them to chew and crush materials harder than steel.
Once someone was trapped in the swarm of insects, the locusts would devour the victim's skin, flesh, and organs until only their clothes and bones remained. Moreover, the locusts acted so fast that normal wizards would die before they even had time to conjure a spell.
But even after Marcus was surrounded by the whirlwind of flesh-eating insects Aylinor did not let his guard down. After all, his opponent had already survived his lethal spells several times.
Gradually the seconds ticked by. No sound could be heard in the village other than the buzzing of locusts.
one second... two seconds... three seconds...
"Kukuku... ahahaha... "After ten seconds Aylinor finally relaxed and began to laugh."What did you think of that?! That's what you get for confronting me! If you want to blame someone, blame your stupidity! Now suffer the pain of being eaten alive; your flesh and skin will be ripped off bite by bite and only your bones will be left! Ahahahahaha..."
*Boom!
At that instant, an explosion occurred from within the swarm of insects; great black flames exploded, rising high into the sky and burning the swarm of insects.
But, before Aylinor even had time to react, a black lightning bolt shot out from the firestorm and struck the silver barrier covering his body. But despite this, the priest was not fazed by this.
"Hmph. You're a fool! My silver barrier can reflect any... Huh?"
*Crack Crack Crack Crack*
At that moment, huge black cracks began to appear around the silver barrier and the moonlight reflecting pendant began to crack.
*Boom!
"Aaaargh!" A few moments later the silver light barrier turned completely black and exploded, sending Aylinor flying over 6 meters (6.56 yards) away until he finally crashed to the ground.
When Aylinor reacted, he noticed that the reflective moonlight pendant hanging from his neck was broken, although it wasn't totally destroyed it was clear that he would no longer be able to use the silver barrier.
"Haha, your locusts sure scared me. But other than a couple of tickles I don't think they caused me much damage."Finally, the black flames dissipated, and Marcus' figure emerged from the necrotic fire. His left hand was emanating black sparks and in his right hand were remnants of the black flames.
"Keugh. Impossible! This corrupted power... This is necrotic energy! You are a necromancer!"Aylinor said as he vomited some blue-greenish blood.
"Great deduction Sherlock. But are you seriously a rank 5? By my count you don't even qualify as a rank 4." Marcus replied as he shook the black flame from his hand.
