026: Showdown

"And shall all evil be burned into ashes by thoust divine power!"

The two knights was unaware that the priest going to cast this devastating spell which would annihilated all living beings except the caster. They were panicked and lost their balance, resulting themselves to be clawed by the wolves.

"NO!" The spearman was dead instantly, his body was decapitated into a half.

On the other hand, the swordman was still alive, with his severed left hand as the price. "WAIT! I don't want to die here! Please cancel the spell, High Priest!"

"I am sorry, but it has to be done. May your soul find its way back to His Kingdom and be guided by the Holy Light through the darkness." Said the Priest with a wide evil smile on his face. "Heavenly Purge!"

Blinding golden light soonly shone brilliantly, illuminated the whole valley as bright as broad daylight for a few moment.

As the light dimmed down, everything in a  hundred meter radius was schorched into coals. The two knights was burned into crisp along with their armor which melted into clumps of molten metal.

However, the wolves magic defense yet strong enough to absorbed the damages majorly. Unfortunately, the spell was indeed too powerful for them, they ended up with excrucriating wounds. Their fur was burnt almost entirely, exposing their flesh under the exfoliated skin into the open air.

The wolves whined in pain, but they were not given up yet. The two tried to stand on their feet by muttering every last drop of their strength they had.

"Stand down, you lowly pests! Graviton!" The bald middle aged priest swung his staff once again, creating a very strong yet brief gravitation field below the wolves' feet; they couldn't withstand the pulling force any longer and almost flattened to the ground.

The priest grinned, followed by sickening giggles. "Heh. Hahaha! Marvelous! As expected from the two high tier artifacts that were bestowed to me by His Holiness himself!" He approached the Heavenly Artifact that had been protected by the wolves. 

He reached his hands to take a hold of the artifact, as if it was his own dearl child. "At last… Crystal of the Thousand Years Cicada is mine! Hehe… sacrificing the whole company of those muscle brain knights was worth the while!"

Seeing his precious heirloom about to be touched by vile hands, Ming's rage erupted, freed himself from the truss by reaping the rope with his sheer strength.  He rushed to the scorched battlefield to usurp what belonged to him.

Yin was in panic, seeing her lover recklessly jumped out from the cover. She tried to stop him, but Arthur's quick wits prevent her from doing so.

"Brother Ming, wait-"

Arthur couldn't help but to let out a long sigh, "So much for baby sitting two brats. Calm down, would you?"

"But he's going to die against that priest!"

"He won't. You have to trust me, I have a plan."

"By just sitting idle while my young master beaten into pulps? Unhand me, right now!"

Seeing this, Hui Ying was already in her edge to slap the little girl, she was a lovely girl at one time, but such an insolent brat in another.

She closed Yin's mouth with her palm from behind and whispered something on her right ear, "Have you forgot my warning about your courtesy towards my master? Shall I remind you and give you a proper lesson for that?"

"I-I am really sorry, Sister Hui Ying. I went overboard." The little girl's horrified face made Arthur curious about their conversations, however, there's no time for idly chat about trivial things.

As the fight was afoot on the battlefield, a plan brewed in Arthur's head. "Anyway... Hui Ying, do you have any healing magic at your disposal?"

"Yes, and may I ask why?"

"I will have you to heal the timberwolves to win their favor. Do it stealthly as possible. Leave the rest to me when you're done."

"As you command, Master."

"And for you, little girl." Arthur spoke to Yin in a very serious tone. "Please do me a favor by sitting still and enjoy the show. It would be so much for hassle and hurdle if you get yourself killed since you are the only person that able to reason with that thick headed brat. Do you understand?"

"I understand, Master Arthur." Yin nodded obediently.

Hearing this, Arthur smiled on one side, he could tell that the young girl wouldn't be able to hold her instinct to save the young master if anything befell to him. He would use her as a diversion in the most critical moment.

 "Good! Let us go before that brat get killed."

***

Meanwhile, Ming appeared from the thicket of the trees while brandished his sword as he ran wildly like a wild boar towards the priest.

"Get away from it!" He shouted aloud like a mad man.

The sudden surge of Qi made the priest alerted, the priest took the artifact and jumped backwards in a flash to evade Ming's imminent attack.

As a 2 Star Realm Cultivator, Ming's Sword Qi attack shouldn't be taken lightly, one wrong move, even the 5 Star Realm Cultivator would suffer a mortal wound.

However, it was nothing for the priest who was a 5 Star Realm Cultivator, buffed by various blessings. Not to mention, the priest cultivates the Holy Light energy which is able to counter almost any cultivation technique.

"Oh? is this the pompous young master from the Fei Clan? So weak. For heaven's sake! Why such a weak band of peasants having the privilege to protect such a powerful artifact like this one for hundreds of years?" Said the priest in such haughty manner along with the mockery gimmick.

"Shut your mouth!" Infuriated, Ming's thoughts was clouded by the curse of the artifact.

"Or what? Killing me, a priest? Sure, go ahead! If you are ready to face the wrath from the church that is, hahaha!"

"Aarrrghhhh!!!!"

"It's futile… You impudence bastard child! Avra!"

The priest shot a light blast from his staff to attack Ming, strong enough to blew the latter away with just a single incantation.

Luckily, Ming's constitution strong enough to withstand the blast. However, he almost lost his conciousness and staggered as he supporting his body by using his sword.

"Quite the resilient one, aren't you? Very well… I'll make sure you'd die painlessly. May the Holy Light guide you through the darkness!" The light at the tip of the staff grew larger by each second.

Knowing that he was about to die, Ming accepted his fate and stood firmly. He might be spoiled by his family, however, he was still a warrior after all.

For once in his lifetime, he wanted to make his family proud. He might be not a prodigy like he used to think about himself. Nevertheless, died in a battle was an honorable one.

Or that was what ought to happened to the young master of the Fei Clan.

Unbeknownst to anybody Arthur threaded his way so carefully and silently at that to deliver the killing blow to the priest.

…..