Magical Backlash

"Y-Ye Luo?" the captain shouted in terror.

Thomas, who was directing the spell, sent out a thread of spiritual power to investigate. The moment he saw the young man in black armor, his long hair falling to his waist, his whole body shuddered. Even the spell runes, which had been stable until then, began to shake violently!

"Guildmaster, beware of magical backlash!" the vice guildmaster of the Keren Magic Guild cried out in alarm. War magic was incredibly powerful, and required dozens or even hundreds of times more mana than ordinary magic. If the spell wavered, the backlash could inflict fatal injuries on nearly every mage supplying Thomas with mana!

Great waves of elemental power surged backward along the spell runes and into Thomas. The mana of nearly two hundred people almost blew apart his spiritual sea in the blink of an eye!

His robes fluttered as if caught in a gale, though there wasn't a breath of wind. It was as though he stood in the middle of a violent storm. At the same time, his face and body swelled up all over!

"Ha!" Thomas's eyes bulged as he let out a furious roar. His staff blazed with light. With all his concentration, he finally forced the elemental power surging into his body back into the runes, and the runes in the sky gradually stabilized!

"That's more like it... You have to focus on one thing at a time..." Before Thomas could breathe a sigh of relief, a voice full of mockery suddenly sounded behind him. His eyes bulged. His neck felt a faint, icy chill that seeped through his skin and into his blood vessels, flooding his entire body in an instant!

Ye Luo stood behind him with a grin. The claws on his right hand extended from behind, resting against Thomas's neck. Leaning close to Thomas's ear, Ye Luo spoke softly and slowly. "A mage has to focus while casting a spell. Of course, you have to focus while studying magic, too. If you don't concentrate while casting, you'll trigger magical backlash. But a lack of focus in your conduct is far more terrifying than magical backlash. You're regretting that you didn't stay in your magic tower to study magic, aren't you?"

"Ye Luo, die!" Ye Luo had been there for less than five seconds when Yarman spotted him and rushed here from the central command tent. His diamond-ranked battle aura surged, and his chilling killing intent locked firmly onto Ye Luo.

Ye Luo just chuckled and tightened his grip slightly!

"Stop!!!" Yarman's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

Shing! The gleaming claws lightly swept across Thomas's neck!

But the sensation that traveled up the blade wasn't like cutting through a throat. It was more like sliding across a smooth mirror: slick and slippery, as if most of the force had been deflected!

Whum! Silver light flashed around Thomas, and he vanished from the spot!

Boom! Boom! With Thomas no longer directing the spell, the runes in the sky, which had already taken shape to ninety-five percent, burst apart. The elemental power returned to where it had come from, rushing violently into the bodies of the more than two hundred mages present!

They collapsed to the ground in agony. Some clutched their heads and rolled around; blood seeped from the eyes, ears, noses, and mouths of others. One mage's head swelled into a huge lump that darted around beneath his scalp like a worm. The two most unfortunate mages spat out mouthfuls of blood and fell dead on the spot!

"Ye Luo!!!" Yarman ground his teeth in fury. The Keren Magic Guild was the cradle of the Keren Kingdom's mages. Yet because of his momentary carelessness, Ye Luo had crept up on them unnoticed and interrupted their war magic, triggering the backlash!

"What's wrong? You look furious." Ye Luo stared at him with a cold laugh. "If you start a war, you have to accept both victory and defeat. Did you only dream of the glory that would come with victory and forget how cruelly war can turn?"

Boom! Boom! Before Ye Luo had finished speaking, two enormous white spikes burst out of the ground at the Nicia Magic Guild to the east! In an instant, they pierced straight through Taren's body!

To the west, the Goriu Magic Guild had also finished preparing its spell. Just as its guildmaster, Gilbert, was about to lock onto the target, his hand suddenly jerked. The enormous spell runes slammed into the heavily armored soldiers at the front instead. The ground beneath the neatly arranged ranks split open in one massive fissure after another. In the blink of an eye, the shattered earth turned red, and then streams of boiling magma surged up from below!

Hard iron armor, arranged in neat ranks and supported by spearmen behind them, could withstand the Zerglings' relentless charges. But facing magma at temperatures of a thousand degrees or more, it turned red-hot in an instant!

As the magma spread, the leather-armored spearmen in the second rank burst into flames. They screamed and ran in agony, then collapsed to the ground a few seconds later, reduced to charred corpses. The heavily armored soldiers in the first rank fled frantically from the erupting magma. Everyone knew how terrifying red-hot iron was. More than a hundred soldiers accidentally touched the magma, and their armor quickly glowed red. The armor that had once given them a sense of absolute security had become a deadly sheet of scorching iron. It hissed as it seared into their flesh. They had no time to take off their Battle Armor before the iron plates burned away chunks of their living flesh...

The Kereierbode Magic Guild suffered an even more miserable fate. A figure carrying a shield in one hand and a sword in the other knocked out the First Legion captain with a single shield bash. Then, before the surrounding soldiers could close in, he reached the mages and cut them down one by one with swift, decisive strikes...

The magical backlash, coupled with that man's slaughter, made the Kereierbode Magic Guild the first to be wiped out!

"No, no, no!!!" Yarman roared as he charged at Ye Luo, his rapier darting toward him. A chilling silver glow gleamed along the blade. Ye Luo abruptly raised his right hand, and his claws clashed violently with the rapier!

Clang! Their weapons rang out with a sharp metallic crash. The first exchange between them ended in a draw!

Yarman's eyes were bloodshot. "How did you sneak into my camp? How did you get in!!!"

The corner of Ye Luo's mouth lifted slightly. He glanced to Yarman's left. "Your answer's over there!!"

Yarman hadn't wanted to turn around, but the screams to his left forced him to look. The guildmaster of the Rosace Magic Guild, Yaheng, stared in disbelief at the haughty imperial citizen, Ulysses, behind him. A giant ice arrow, as thick as a thigh, was embedded in his chest, rapidly draining the life from him...

"Ulysses! He's one of your people!!!" Yarman whipped his head back, but in the brief moment he'd looked away, Ye Luo had vanished from before his eyes.

"If I tell you to turn around, you just do it. You really are obedient!" Ye Luo's voice suddenly came from behind him, followed by the agonizing pain of his spine being severed. "But this is war. Even the slightest distraction can ruin you completely!" Ye Luo's gentle voice sounded like a mentor patiently offering instruction.

Unfortunately, Yarman would never have the chance to correct his mistake...