Chapter 425: Showdown! Evil Six! Maelstrom!
"You do not need to let us off." Wurinlan watched Stingham and the others, "I and Leyu can be your team's hostages. If the Maelstrom Team is eliminated by you, we will surrender. If you couldn't eliminate the Maelstrom Team, you can do whatever you want to us before all of you failed and died. We will die like the other warriors of House Roland."
Ayrin and Chris looked at each other, thinking that the suggestion was not bad.
"But what about the dispute between House Roland and House Eclipse Moon?" Rinloran looked at Wurinlan, "The grudge between your houses cannot be resolved so easily. If we eliminated the Maelstrom Team, can you promise that the entire House Roland will surrender to us? How will you handle the relationship between your house and House Eclipse Moon?"
"House Eclipse Moon has been in danger of going extinct long ago. Their greatest enemy is not us, but House Baratheon. If you have the strength to oppose Baratheon's strongest team, I will try to persuade the majority of our House to fight the Baratheon along with House Eclipse Moon. The grudge between us and Eclipse Moon can be left after fully expelling House Baratheon or exterminating them." Wurinlan spoke with determination.
"This is only what you said. What if House Eclipse Moon doesn't accept?" Rinloran questioned with doubt.
"Destroying the three strongest powers of House Roland is the best persuasion. We are originally instructors of most Roland arcane masers, so we should be able to convince most of them...... If a few of them refuse, I will personally assassinate them." Wurinlan looked at Rinloran, "If it's the other way around and the majority refused, I can fight alongside you as your retainer!"
"Chris, what do all of you think?" Ayrin became excited, "I think it's great."
Chris thought for a moment, "I think it's fine. Even in the worst case, we will gain a strong teammate. Belo, what about you?"
"Only an idiot would reject such a proposal, right?" Belo pushed up his spectacles and snorted.
"How can you say that, Belo?" Stingham wanted to cry, "I wanted to say that this proposal is not good. It's scary to have someone as strong as her following us."
"Idiot." Rinloran stared at Stingham and coldly commented.
"Leyu, listen to me." Wurinlan heard the conversation amongst Ayrin's team and looked at Leyu who got the majority of his muscles severed, then spoke.
Leyu painfully shook his head, "Have you gone crazy, Wuriinlan? You actually want to surrender to the people who just killed Lieufuzen and Fujen...... As a Roland arcane master, aren't we supposed to fight to our deaths even if we are against stronger opponents?"
"I'm not surrendering to the current them, I'm surrendering to the future them. You are the same as me...... You should know their potential through the battle just now...... As long as the Maelstrom Team cannot kill them, how much strength would such a team gain after one or two years? By then, how many people in our House would die? Apart from Chris, they are arcane masters who still only had two or three gates opened...... But they have defeated us nonetheless. What if they have opened four gates and above? What level of fighting strength would they possess?" Wurinlan also painfully spoke.
"Wait......" At that moment, Ayrin suddenly shouted.
"What's wrong?" Stingham was startled. Chris and the rest also became nervous.
"My...... My fourth gate seems to be opened. Has my physical strength and mental strength synchronization reached the level already?"" Ayrin looked unsure, but filled with surprise.
"Isn't that too fake to be real?" Stingham speechlessly looked at Ayrin, "She just mentioned about four gates, then you say that you opened the fourth gate."
Ayrin did not reply. He immediately entered a highly focused state. His fingers moved rapidly, following the movement of Logic Fingers.
Everyone could soon feel Ayrin's aura rapidly expanding.
"He really opened the fourth gate......"
Chris and Rinloran found it natural, since they clearly knew that it was only a matter of synchronization for Ayrin to open his fourth gate. However, it was too much of an impact to Wurinlan and Leyu.
Everyone knew that Ayrin, the main powerhouse in Holy Dawn Academy team, was only a first year.
"Such an improvement speed......" Thinking back to the previous battle, Ayrin learned and applied the techniques learned even during the fight. Leyu began to despair.
A few seconds later, Leyu heaved a heavy sigh, "Wurinlan, I will listen to you."
"Is this battle over? We actually won against such a powerful team?" Moss, who was immobilized on the ground, finally relaxed.
He saw Rinloran wobbly walking towards him.
Then he saw the wounds on Rinloran's body, as well as that horrendous wound on his cheek.
"Rinloran......" Moss saw the battered Ayrin in the corner of his eyes, the meshed-up Belo...... He was lost for words for a moment.
We actually fought to this extent...... This battle has only been won because everyone staked their lives.
"Rinloran, treat yourself first. The wound on your cheek may leave a scar." Chris noticed the menacing wound on Rinloran's cheek and suggested.
"It's fine......" Rinloran took a look at everyone. Although everyone was heavily injured, they properly survived. His heart was filled with a mysterious warmth and gratitude. He heaved a sigh of relief and lightly shook his head, "Even if it left a scar, it's the honor of an arcane master...... And nobody will say that I look like a girl anymore, right?"
"I wonder where Teacher Liszt and the other teachers went...... By now, they probably already encountered the Maelstrom Team?" Ayrin was satisfied after officially opening his fourth gate. He laid face-up on the ground without any manners to recover stamina and watch the sky. He then murmured, "I hope they mean it when they said that they can handle the Maelstrom Team. They better not lie to us...... and go for a suicide attack......"
"What!? The Holy Dawn Evil Six is already going after the Maelstrom Team?"
Wurinland and Leyu were shocked after coincidentally overhearing Ayrin's muttering.
House Eclipse Moon's fog-shrouded camp.
Jano and Christine nervously stood before the old shaman.
"Chief shaman, even Baratheon's arcane teams have retreated. Ayrin's team must have been discovered, why are we still not doing anything!?" Jano anxiously asked the old shaman.
The wrinkle-filled old shaman shook his head, his eyes gleamed with wisdom.
He pointed at a tall figure within the camp.
That tall figure was the semi-zombie monster Ayrin had created with necromancy skill by fusing the twin-head oceanic monster and Goat Horn Team's Ingit.
"What do you mean?"
Jano and Christine could not understand why the old shaman pointed at the semi-zombie monster.
"That's one of the strongest necromancy skills during the Magus Era. This arcane skill can fuse a dying monster and a dead arcane master, becoming a new semi-zombie monster. Apart from absolute obedience to the caster, there is another trait for the semi-zombie monster created with this skill: Once its master died, the arcane structure will completely collapse and the semi-zombie monster will die immediately." The old shaman watched Jano and Christine, then grinned, "This semi-zombie monster is still standing here, meaning that Ayrin is still alive. By now, if no arcane team had surrounded and killed Ayrin and the others, they would have succeeded in escaping Roland's encirclement...... It would be useless even if those Baratheon teams go back. You should know that Roland has an arcane team even stronger than these Baratheon elite teams."
"Do you mean the Blood Shadow Team?" Jano and Christine completely changed their expressions.
"If they haven't been killed by now...... That means even the Blood Shadow Team wasn't a match." The old shaman nodded, and a mysterious glow flashed across his eyes.
......
Four arcane masters dashed through a plain.
Before them was a primeval forest. It was the edge of House Eclipse Moon's Hunting Forest.
The presence of those four arcane masters synchronized into a mysterious rhythm. That rhythm became a wind current surrounding them and propelling them forward. It allowed them to gain faster movement speed using less stamina.
The four arcane masters looked around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old. Their average height was 1.75 meters, with a balanced build.
Three of them greatly resemble Rinsyi's face, with magenta-colored hair and yellowish storm pupils. Meanwhile, the last one had red and blue heterochromatic eyes.
Those four were members of the strongest team of House Baratheon feared by countless others, the Maelstrom Team!
"Hmm?"
All of a sudden, their gaze flickered and they stopped moving.
A strong gust of wind suddenly swept up on the calm plain around them.
Countless withered grass was snapped by the wind. Amongst the dust and withered grass, five silhouettes with unequal heights slowly appeared.
The four Maelstrom Team members narrowed their eyes and showed cold killing intent.