Close Combat Mage

Chapter 388 - Passing Another Checkpoint Part 1

However, the Diamond Dragon had successfully delayed the enemy onslaught. By this point, the Ice Arrows had begun to descend. They furiously whizzed through the air from the heavens, slowly but continuously chipping away at the enemy’s Life Protections. At this rate, none of them would be able to escape; all of them would die here!

The ten troop commanders could no longer hold themselves back after witnessing this moment. Although they clearly knew they were not the Diamond Dragon’s opponent, it wasn’t like continuing to hide in the back would give them a higher chance of survival!

The next moment…ten exceptionally robust figures brandishing their weapons leapt out from the crowds, charging at full speed towards the Diamond Dragon.

The Diamond Dragon couldn’t help but feel a burst of anger at this offensive sight; to think that there were actually humans that dared to try destroying its face! With an indignant stomp of its right foot, the Diamond Dragon once again blasted a Diamond Charge, this time straight at the approaching commanders.

Seeing the incoming attack, the enemy leaders jumped into the air and raised their large swords above their heads before swinging down with great force to counter the Diamond Charge attack. Brilliant flashes of light filled the air for a moment as ten cracks split the powerful Diamond Charge. At the same time, the commanders used the rebound force of their attack to fly upwards in attempt to pass through the Diamond Dragon and directly interrupt Suo Jia’s magic activation!

The Diamond Dragon only grew more furious when it recognized their attempt to flip over it. At this point, it could no longer stop their advance. Although the Diamond Dragon could also jump up and intercept the enemy, the Diamond Dragon was nine meters tall; shifting its cumbersome body from stillness to motion would take too long. The exchange of blows had happened too quickly for it to react in time!

When Suo Jia saw the Diamond Dragon’s upset expression, he shouted, “Diamond Dragon, don’t pay any mind to those guys. As long as you can hold everyone else back, that’s good enough. I’ll deal with these guys!”

The dragon immediately turned its back on the troop leaders and instead began to release its anger onto the three hundred others before it. Two enormous Ice Spheres swiftly began to form in the air above its raised talons.

“My god!” The people closest to the dragon couldn’t help but exclaim in horror as they turned around, scrambling to flee. At such close range, and with everyone so crowded together, these Ice Spheres were impossible to dodge. They’d only be able to evade the Diamond Dragon’s attack if they got further away!

While everyone else was frantically running away, Roger, Xiang Yun, and Nicole simultaneously stopped fighting and gathered together to watch Suo Jia in excitement. While they had always known Suo Jia had been studying close combat techniques, they didn’t know much about his true ability at close range.

Now that these ten commanders had managed to approach and surround Suo Jia, his companions could finally get a close look of Suo Jia’s close combat skills! A leader of any group had to be either a mage or a warrior. It looked like the ten troop leaders present happened to all be warriors; moreover, all four elements — earth, water, fire, and wind — were all included. If Suo Jia couldn’t defeat them now, his entire group wouldn’t have any more future to speak of.

By this point, the commanders had already landed on the city wall. Waving their weapons in the air, they began to run towards Suo Jia. In response, Suo Jia eyed them coldly. With Ocean’s Soul still in his right hand, he continued to maintain the Hailstone Technique while he reached out with his left hand, causing a faint flickering shadow of a shield to appear for a brief second before disappearing once more!

“Heavens!” Nicole, who knew Suo Jia the best among them, cried out in surprise, “That’s the Young Master’s Space Shield from his third generation interspatial ring!”

“Space Shield?” Xiang Yun asked in confusion.

“Yes…” Nicole nodded excitedly and quickly replied, “That’s right. This is the only interspatial ring in the world forged by a Superior grade interspatial gem; it contains a Space Shield that provides absolute protection for three seconds! Hehe…no matter how many people there are or what kinds of attacks they use, there’s no way anyone could break through that defense for three whole seconds!”

“Three seconds of absolute protection?” Xiang Yun stuttered in shock, “How…how is that possible?! How can such a thing exist in this world? If it’s invincible for three whole seconds, what’s the point of fighting? That’s enough time for him to activate three Ice Roars!”

“No!” Nicole replied as she shook her head. “Three seconds of absolute protection is just the interspatial ring’s original ability. Young Master can also use his own spirit power to extend the time he is protected for! According to historical records, the longest someone has ever been able to maintain that for is 20 seconds!”

At this moment, the troop leaders had just finished closing in on Suo Jia and were swinging their weapons down at him. The others watched the strange sight from below; while the enemy commanders were frantically swinging their giant weapons at Suo Jia, the weapons would suddenly disappear from sight one meter away from him, only to reappear once outside that protective range again!

Nicole laughed, “You see that? Under the Space Shield’s protection, Suo Jia basically becomes isolated from the rest of the world. Any attack, no matter how powerful, will be dragged into another realm, keeping it away from harming Suo Jia in this realm. Thus, Suo Jia is invincible while under its protection!”

Xiang Yun broke out into a cold sweat. He furiously shook his head and murmured to himself, “That’s overpowered, way too overpowered! What in the world…is this even a fight?”

“Wha! Hah! Argh!” Meanwhile, the sky filled with Ice Arrows finally let loose. Any of the weaker enemies immediately fell dead to the ground, and there was no indication of the storm of Ice Arrows letting up!

1, 2, 3 seconds…

As time passed, the commanders’ faces turned ashen. After watching their subordinates die one after another and seeing their own attacks failing, they finally began to give up! After all, they had no idea how long Suo Jia could maintain his defense for.

The ten of them exchanged mutual glances of understand with each other, and they suddenly all retreated and sheathed their weapons. One of the middle-aged men shouted, “Stop fighting, we concede!”

“Oh?” Suo Jia coldly glared at them and replied, “You concede? Perfect, in that case, just close your eyes and wait for your deaths!” action

The enemy couldn’t help but sharply inhale in shock. Only now did they truly realize that if Xiang Yun was so wild, there was no doubt this guy with the group leader emblem would be even crazier!

After watching a few more of their men die, the same middle-aged commander from before desperately shouted out once more, “Stop! Hurry up and stop! No matter how you want to punish us, even if that means destroying us all, stop first and let’s talk it out. Unless…don’t tell me that even with your strength, you’re afraid of us running away?”

Suo Jia didn’t bat an eyelid. “I’m sorry, but the one you messed with was my brother so I don’t have the right to forgive you. Unless…” Suo Jia stopped mid-sentence, but the implication was already very clear.

The troop leader immediately turned around to look over at Xiang Yun and pleaded, “I beg of you, please just let us go this once. What we did before was wrong; if we ever see you again in the future we will definitely go the opposite way!”

Xiang Yun laughed dryly at this and gestured at Suo Jia to stop. Seeing this, Suo Jia calmly lowered Ocean’s Soul, immediately resulting in the clouds masses slowly dispersing.

Xiang Yun slowly strode through the crowd and jumped onto the city wall. He looked at Suo Jia in admiration before turning around to tell the troop leader, “The reason I let you all go was simply because you and our boss are the same; you’re both willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of your teammates!”

Xiang Yun then laughed, “As for who was right and who was wrong, that isn’t something anyone can truly determine. Neither of us were “wrong”, we were just both trying our best to achieve our goals. But I’ll warn you, you guys were lucky that the one you provoked this time was me. If it had been my boss, there’s no way any of you would even be able to dream of leaving here alive!”

Xiang Yun glanced around at the ten leaders and coldly laughed out in a low voice, “We’ll wholeheartedly welcome you all if you want to take revenge on us later. But next time, we won’t let you go!” Xiang Yun turned to regroup with Suo Jia, Nicole, and Roger, and all of them began to walk back into the city.

Before they’d gotten very far, Xiang Yun abruptly stopped in his tracks and loudly declared, “That’s right, if all goes as planned, we’re going to be challenging that crazy killer. If you guys want to take revenge on us, it’s better to do it earlier, since you won’t get the chance to later!”

The ten troop leaders’ faces turned ashen. Nicole and Roger were even more shocked. They exchanged glances with each other and then looked at Suo Jia, giving him a subtle thumbs-up. While a bit slow on the uptake, they finally realized that Suo Jia’s seemingly ridiculous reasoning before was actually true!