When A Mage Revolts

If he wants to attack, he has to do so before the opponent reacts.

Benjamin understood this principle very well.

In this situation, he could also turn and run. He could let these Priests not find a soul, but what meaning would that have? On one hand, the three priests were about to realise the existence of a spy. Their wariness would increase tremendously, to the point that it would greatly affect the Church’s secret plans in Icor.

But on the other, Benjamin still very much wanted to clarify what exactly the Church’s plans were.

Furthermore, from the way the Priests attacked and killed the pig, their skills were probably not that high.

Thinking along those lines, Benjamin, who was hidden in the bushes attacked, rushing to do so before the crouching Priest realized what was wrong. He used non-verbal spell casting which wouldn’t produce magic oscillations and consecutively used a few ice breaking spells. This summoned a load of ice arrows and like a blizzard, covered the still defenseless Priests.

"Oh shit, an ambush!"

The Priests’ reactions would normally be considered pretty fast, but, in such a short time, they couldn’t finish chanting even one line of incantation. Thus, they could only allow the strike of ice arrows to rain down from the skies above to ground below.

But as men of the Church, the Cross of Protection which all of them carried still protected them. Within the subsequent snowstorm, three barriers shining with Holy Light opened up - three pieces of safe land in the blizzard, protecting the three bewildered Priests.

Benjamin wasn’t the least bit surprised.

If one was a Priest from the Church, he would definitely be carrying ten or twenty magical instruments. This trait of the Church was something he deeply loathed, but there was no way around it. As long as he fought a member of the Church, he would have to face this problem.

He could either use a close-range weapon which does not produce any magical oscillations and avoid the release of the Cross of Protection; or alternatively, he could use various methods to forcefully waste all the Crosses of Protection on his opponent.

Looking at the situation in front of him, he clearly couldn’t use the first method. Thus, Benjamin could only fight a battle of attrition with these people.

The moment the wave of ice arrows was fired, there was no way the three Priests could block it with just one layer of Holy Light barrier. Within Benjamin’s line of sight, he could already see that ten or more crosses on the Priests were already destroyed. Layer after layer of barrier was what kept them from getting beaten into sieves in the Shower of Ice Arrows.

However...

"Who is ambushing us, why can’t I feel one bit of magic vibrations?"

"Come closer guys! I’ll be in charge of blocking the next attack, you guys think about how to find that fellow’s position!"

Seeing their confusion as they looked around frantically, Benjamin couldn’t help but laugh in his heart. He was just hidden there in the bushes, like a sniper who hits accurately and unexpectedly, and these people couldn’t discover his exact current position.

The advantages of non-verbal spell casting were demonstrated at its most glorious now.

So, taking advantage of the fact the opponent was in disarray, he assembled another wave of ice arrows in the Space of Consciousness, brought them into reality, and continued the attack, bombarding the constantly vibrating Crosses of Protection on the Priests with wave after wave.

However, this group of people weren’t such idiots that they allowed Benjamin to attack them however he liked.

They also began to chant a divine charm, gathering the surrounding Holy Light. They wanted to use the divine charm to block the attack of the Shower of Ice Arrows, so that the Crosses of Protection on their wouldn’t be depleted wastefully.

Upon seeing this, Benjamin really wanted to use an Anti-Magic Water Ball to interrupt their chanting, but this move would cause quite a burden on his spiritual energy – especially to cut off not just one but three people’s affinity to Holy Light. He predicted that if he confined all three in it, his spiritual energy would have depleted by more than half within a minute.

Not to mention, he still had to use the water ball to create a whirlpool to remove the crosses on all three of them, one by one.

Thus, hiding in his shade and continuously attacking was the best choice Benjamin could make right now instead.

"Ah, your attack is too deplorable..." Even the System couldn’t help throwing in a word.

Benjamin shrugged. He couldn’t help it either; this was a one versus three fight, and a fight against three fully armed people. Except for being deplorable, what else could he do?

All he saw was that within the countless specks of ice, the Priests were still clearly trying very hard to find Benjamin’s traces. But unfortunately, they were hindered by the Shower of Ice Arrows; moving was difficult for them and no magic oscillations could even be traced. So, if they wanted to find Benjamin, they would have to expend quite some effort.

But, the one Priest who kept chanting finally finished his incantation at this point. A huge ray of shining, blinding Holy Light barrier protected all three of them. Ice arrows, which filled the sky, pelted from above, striking as the Holy Light flashed. But not even a thin crack was created.

The barrier was pretty strong...

Seeing this, Benjamin couldn’t help frowning.

After some thought, he came to the conclusion that forcing his attacks was also meaningless, and so, he might as well release the magic and stop this unceasing Shower of Ice Arrows. Immediately, the icy specks which danced everywhere disappeared altogether, and the continuous sound of bombardment stopped too. The whole forest returned to a strange silence in a moment.

He had thought of an even more "deplorable" idea.

The three Priests watched the forest which had suddenly became silent, and looked at one another, clearly confused. But, they didn’t continue using other divine charms. Instead, the three of them hid within the barrier and while staying back to back, slowly started moving.

---- Three pairs of wary eyes glanced all over their surroundings, as if looking for Benjamin’s position.

However, the Benjamin at that time had already stealthily moved far away.

Through water particle detection spell, he maintained a distance of around ten or more meters from the Priests, quietly watching these three people as they searched nearby. But there were various obstacles within the forest constantly, so the three Priests still couldn’t find Benjamin’s position.

The puzzlement on their faces grew heavier and heavier.

Just like this, after searching for more than 10 or more minutes, the three Priests rested their footsteps and discussed for a while. As if they had assumed that Benjamin escaped, they shook their heads, and gave up on tracking. As for the huge Holy Light barrier shielding them by the side, it was also dissolved by a wave of their hand.

Benjamin had been waiting for this chance.

The moment the huge Holy Light barrier disappeared, the ice arrows he spent 10 or more minutes storing in the Space of Consciousness was once again released. The whole scenario was just as it was at the beginning. Densely-packed ice arrows struck these Priests, who thought Benjamin had escaped, until they were bewildered.

"What’s going on, he hasn’t left?"

"This bastard..."

"This can’t go on, if this continues, the crosses on us will be used up."

There was nothing the Priests could do. The sudden appearance of the Shower of Ice Arrows depleted yet another bunch of their Crosses of Protection. Apart from releasing their spiritual energy to continue their search for Benjamin who was releasing frozen arrows, there really wasn’t any other way.

But...Benjamin hid so well; how could he let them find him?

Powerless, one of the Priests could only chant and summon a reinforced giant Holy Light barrier once again to prevent their Crosses of Protection from being all being destroyed.

However, the moment the barrier appeared, the Shower of Ice Arrows, which were just everywhere, disappeared too without a shadow of trace - as if this was all agreed on beforehand.

Immediately, only the three dazed Priests were left in the forest. They stood inside the huge Holy Light barrier, and looked at each other, their faces wearing expressions of rage and powerlessness. They didn’t have a clue on what to do next.

"This idea is truly deplorable," the System couldn’t help but sighed out, "Look at you, one day God will send down a bolt of lightning, striking you dead in an instant."

Benjamin thought for a while, then suddenly displayed an expression of joy from receiving a compliment, and nodded his head in agreement.