Chapter 1236
A group of cannon fodder was quickly swept away. In the rear, the vague silhouette of a mage emerged. Eyes bloodshot with frenzy, Hubert brandished Slaughter and charged forward.
"Hey, the last one! Come on, let Lord Hubert smash your skull."
Hubert swung Slaughter, the warhammer roaring with terrifying force, and struck at the mage. Suddenly, a fusion shield appeared before him, covered in densely packed earth runes. In an instant, all the power of the surrounding earth seemed to converge there.
Slaughter hammered against the surface of the fusion shield, sending waves of white shockwaves rippling outward. In less than a second, a thick earth spike erupted beneath Hubert’s feet, launching him backward through the air. Blood began to spray even before he hit the ground.
Only after landing did the blood-crazed Hubert finally come to his senses—the figure before him was a Sky Rank powerhouse, and not just any Sky Rank!
Even a first-level Sky Rank wouldn’t be able to block his full-force strike so effortlessly.
Realizing he was outmatched, Hubert landed and immediately tried to retreat. Massive boulders, each dozens of meters wide, crashed down where he’d just stood, their impact shaking the earth itself.
Hubert and Reina both retreated to the rear—this level of battle was beyond them now. The aura radiating from their opponent was clearly far above Sky Rank Level One.
The newcomer wore an unremarkable mage’s robe and held a golden staff. At its tip, a fist-sized earth gem was embedded.
The mage’s face was utterly ordinary, as ancient and featureless as the earth itself—nothing about him stood out at all.
As this mage approached, Leon could feel that each step was perfectly attuned to the pulse of the earth itself. With every stride, the pressure intensified, as if the ground beneath his feet was aiding him.
Leon kept his face cold as he stared at the mage.
"Who are you people, really?" Leon demanded.
The mage didn’t answer. Instead, he raised his staff, earth runes swirling around its shaft. In an instant, the ground seemed to awaken like a slumbering giant.
A gigantic hand, over ten meters across, suddenly rose up in front of Leon. The massive hand, formed from solid rock, swung down toward him with brutal force.
Leon frowned. Flames flickered across his skin as he instantly appeared more than ten meters away. The stone giant’s hand crashed into the earth, sending tremors through the ground and opening deep, jagged fissures.
It wasn’t over yet. Leon felt a subtle surge of magic beneath his feet. Suddenly, metallic rock spikes burst from the ground, densely packed and relentless, chasing after him wherever he moved.
Soon, the area Leon dodged through was filled with rock spikes, each seven or eight meters long, encircling him at the center.
In an instant, all the spikes converged toward the center. Metallic rock spires pierced the earth, creating fleeting vacuums in the air as dust and shockwaves rolled outward.
Leon's eyes grew cold. He gave a dismissive snort, and a surge of mana erupted from his body, gathering elemental power to form a ring of ice and flame. The frosty, fiery halo exploded outward in a shockwave.
Those hard rock spikes were shredded to pieces. In a flash, the hundred-meter radius around Leon was cleared of all traces of the spikes.
As the dust settled, the earth mage raised his staff and began chanting. Eight swirling vortices appeared on the ground, like sudden whirlpools of sand, devouring everything nearby. From each vortex, towering rock golems—over twenty meters tall—climbed into view.
Within seconds, more than a dozen rock golems of level thirty-eight or thirty-nine had emerged. The eight vortices clinging to the earth’s surface kept spawning even more golems without pause.
Hubert and Reina moved to fight the growing horde of rock golems, while the Death Tome in Leon’s hands automatically flipped to the Elemental Chapter.
Andefa appeared at Leon’s right, controlling the Arcane Wheel, while the Spellbook of Ages burned with flames at his left. Theo’s twin flaming eyes hovered above the Spellbook, locked onto the earth mage.
"Who are you people? Why are you attacking us?" Leon demanded.
Leon eyed the earth mage coldly. Those sword saints, mages, and archers from earlier were all cannon fodder. Against anyone below Sky Rank, their strength would have been more than enough—mage legions, sword legions, even archer legions.
If you couldn’t see through the illusion here, even a first-level Sky Rank mage might be worn down and killed.
But once the illusion was pierced, to Leon, those legions were nothing but fodder.