The black sun hangs high

Chapter 181 Backhand
Even before Hugh saw the fire magic unleashed by Herbert, he had already prepared an escape route for himself.

The release of the Cold Pool magic and the firing of the Hound's Fang were both actions taken by Hugh to cover his retreat.

Having had in-depth conversations with the Royal Household Steward and Chief Mage of the Walter family, Hugh knew very well that a spellcaster's strength had little to do with their titles and official ratings, especially after crossing the boundary between the Lake and Valley levels, where the specific assessment of a spellcaster's strength became blurred.

Moreover, this is especially true now that the functions and authority of the Legislative Affairs Commission have been severely damaged and impacted.

According to Butler Finn, a spellcaster's true strength can only be revealed in the bloodiest battles, battles that can directly determine life and death.

Given this premise, Hugh was extremely wary of opponents like Herbert and Kerzlov from the very beginning. After witnessing them successfully break free from the magical shock and quickly unleash a valley-level destructive spell, Hugh immediately decided to retreat.

Under the cover of dim light and misty fog, Hugh fired a bullet at Herbert with Hound's Fang, then decisively summoned the Running Rat. Just as he had done in the rat swarm's dream, he mounted his magical summon and, with its power and speed, forced open the banquet hall door and ran towards the outside.

Under the constraints of the will of General Bernhardt and his family, the vast majority of the magical rats were successfully evacuated. The Mirror Messenger Stand and the Hound from the Dark Abyss Palace took on the task of covering the rear. Just as Hugh had expected, they were one after another "sent" back to their own mental world by Krzlov's magic.

However, at this moment, Hugh didn't have much time to care about them, because as he left the banquet hall, more complex, richer, and more detailed information was being transmitted continuously from the Black Sun Scepter in his hand.

Hugh knew that a large number of Black Sun Society members were approaching the banquet hall, and among them were quite a few spellcasters.

With the astonishing speed of the sprinting rats, the corridor connecting the banquet hall was almost covered in the blink of an eye. Several ordinary members of the society who happened to be at the exit of the corridor, holding crystal guns and preparing to approach the banquet hall, were knocked away by the sprinting rats. One of them reacted quickly and flew to the side.

But the moment this "lucky one" landed, the three long tails behind the sprinting rat suddenly swung, and the member's body was instantly pierced and lifted up by the sharp and tough tails. With the rat's tails swinging forcefully, he was thrown out with a scream and slammed hard against the knight statue next to the corridor.

"left!"

Using his magical perception and the information provided by the Black Sun Scepter, Hugh quickly made a judgment and gave instructions to the running rat.

At the same time, Hugh leaned forward and grabbed the hard horns on Sniggy's head, while the Mage's Hand appeared beside him and quickly searched through the spellbook.

As the pages were torn off, several layers of protective ritual enveloped Hugh and the running rat. Almost instantly, crystal bullets fired from afar arrived, and the outermost magical barrier immediately cracked in the explosion of the crystal bullets. But before the second round of firing could begin, Sniggy had already darted to the left side of the courtyard as Hugh had instructed.

According to Hugh's previous memories, there are fewer golems and guards here than on the other side.

The Touch of Calron reappeared beside Hugh, its sharp and deadly limbs becoming blades and lances that accompanied the "knight's" charge. Hugh didn't need to expend much effort to wield these weapons; they danced around him with astonishing speed and efficiency, as frantically as black spools of thread moving at high speed through the air.

Human bodies, golems, even murals on walls and roadside sculptures were all subjected to indiscriminate piercing and slashing at this moment.

Soon, Hugh was close to the gates of Black Forest Castle.

Having received the news, the Black Sun Society guards had already closed the metal gates of the fortress. About twenty hideous metal golems wielding giant silver swords were standing guard in front of the gates. The ritual site set up by the Black Sun Society near the fortress had also begun to operate. Hugh could even feel the continuous suppression of his magic power by this massive ritual.

However, he did not slow down the running rat.

Snich showed no fear whatsoever. It let out another piercing screech, and the grounds of the nearby fortress trembled immediately. The ordinary rats that it had forcibly awakened and brought to the Black Forest Fortress broke through the soil and grass at the call of the superior. Under the influence of the Earth Mother Goddess's power, these rats became more ferocious and hungry than ever before. They recklessly pounced on any possible target in their field of vision and tore their flesh apart with their sharp claws and teeth.

At the same time, Sniggy itself was also undergoing an astonishing transformation. Its once fluffy and soft fur was now becoming tougher, and the horns on its head were growing larger under the stimulation of power. The scarlet color in its pupils spread out from the corners of its eyes, undulating like long snakes under its fur, sending violent power throughout its body.

Seeing that this guy didn't slow down at all when facing the array of metal golems, Hugh quickly manipulated his mage hand to tear a page from the spellbook. With a large influx of magic, a stream-level "Large Armor Protection" instantly took effect, adding an extra touch of metallic color to the raging rat's massive body.

"Boom!"

This was the astonishing sound of Sniggy colliding with the foremost metal golem.

Even Hugh, who was riding on Sniggy's back and constantly setting up protective magic, felt a chill run down his spine.

Judging from the force of the impact, even if he were riding in a steam vehicle, it would most likely be completely destroyed. However, the running rat did not suffer any obvious damage. Instead, the golem blocking the way was knocked away by the unreasonable impact and crashed straight into its own kind, creating a gap in the originally very neat formation of the metal golems.

"You are so brave!"

Hugh shouted angrily, then freed his right hand, gripped the Hound's Fang again, and pulled the trigger repeatedly at the gap in the array in front and the gate of Black Forest Fortress behind.

The remaining three wolf-tooth bullets were fired in succession.

Although the court hounds were severely injured and could no longer appear as summoned creatures to tear apart enemies for Hugh, the power and effectiveness of the hounds' teeth remained. Thus, the first bullet successfully tore apart the two metal golems blocking the way and the inner gate, the second bullet created a gap in the incredibly sturdy outer metal gate covered with magic runes, and the third bullet fiercely bit into the ritual site that enveloped the Black Forest Castle.

A road leading to the outside world was thus opened.

The Hound's Fang, having exhausted all its strength, dissipated in Hugh's palm along with the bullet. "Go!"

At a command, the sprinting rat accelerated once more. With the help of the magical ritual and the cover of the Touch of Karron, it successfully broke through the defenses formed by these heavy metal golems. After paying the price of several terrible wounds, the man and the rat successfully left the closed Black Forest Castle and arrived on the hill outside.

However, Hugh did not relax because of this.

The metal disc was still spinning, which meant that an extremely dangerous enemy was chasing after them. According to the information fed back by the Black Sun Scepter, the pursuers were most likely the elite spellcasters of the Society who had recovered from the attack on the banquet hall.

Faced with these elite mages who possess abundant resources and have broken free from constraints and limitations, Shug did not have the confidence to confront them head-on.

"Let's go! Let's go! Towards the forest!"

Hugh raised his hand and gently patted Sniggy's back twice. He had originally intended to cast a healing spell on the giant rat, but in just over ten seconds, it had already repaired the bleeding wounds on its body thanks to the powerful life force bestowed upon it by the Earth Mother Goddess. It looked like it would even grow new fur in a little while.

A deafening roar came from afar. The molten earth dragons brought by the Black Sun Society were approaching. These behemoths had obviously received orders from the tamers and were preparing to intercept him.

However, they were simply too clumsy, and their strength and size advantages could not be utilized against the fast-moving rats that were known for their speed and agility.

The scorching magical breath swept across the ground, but these spreading flames did not harm the running rat in the slightest. It nimbly carried Hugh through the gaps in these deadly, scorching flames, and even passed directly under the body of the Molten Earth Dragon, emitting a series of highly provocative squeaks.

Fortunately, Sniggy strictly obeyed Hugh's orders. It didn't stop, and after successfully using its speed to outmaneuver the three clumsy molten earth dragons, it headed straight for the distant Black Forest.

This is the best route that Hugh can currently choose.

The terrain in the forest area was complex enough that he could better maneuver around it using his summoned creatures and magical abilities. Moreover, escaping in this direction would also allow the members of the Black Sun Society to get away from the Fifth Regiment's position and minimize their impact on the upcoming battle.

This is the best solution that Hugh can make under the current circumstances.

Whether we can secure greater gains in the next phase of operations depends on the specific circumstances.

Only then did Hugh finally get a chance to examine the metal disc. He immediately saw the court hound, weakened by the "death" it had just experienced. It had suffered a magical attack from Krzlov and was then burned by Herbert's magical flames, so its size had shrunk considerably and its eyes on both sides of its head had become dull and lifeless.

In another room, the Mirror Messenger, which had also been wiped out by Kzlov with a valley-level magic, was slumped behind a desk. Although it did not appear to have suffered much damage, it seemed to have suffered some kind of mental damage and was somewhat listless.

Overall, such a cost is perfectly acceptable.

"Unfortunately, there is no way to continue using Hound's Fang for the time being... The only way to deal powerful damage is to rely on this spellbook."

Hughes reached out and took the heavy book from Verin from the mage's hand. He suddenly remembered that Verin seemed to have said something when she handed the book to him, so he opened the book and turned to the last page.

A somewhat unusual page from a magical book caught his eye.

Under the cover of night, the patterns on this page shimmered with an eerie silver light, and the magical runes within were not the kind that Hugh had studied before. Instead, the style of the brushstrokes resembled the writing of the mad poet Aziv in "The Poem of the Night."

These seemingly chaotic yet highly regular strange magical patterns formed a pattern on the pages that greatly shocked Hugh.

That's a ring.

A familiar "five-ringed structure".

It was basically the same structure as the metal disc inscribed with magic for him, except that the grooves were replaced by special magic patterns by Virin. They were also connected by fine lines, which were dazzling to look at.

This page is clearly still a work in progress, because there are just too many tiny magic runes that need to be inscribed and filled in the outermost ring. Virin obviously doesn't have enough time to fill them all in. But the special magic that has been inscribed is already working, because Hugh can now clearly feel the close connection between these magic runes. As long as he injects magic power, he can make them take effect immediately!
Below this page are the hints and text left by Virin when she imprinted these magic runes.

"The magic rune pattern is modified based on the poem of the night... The inscription is based on the description in Chapter 3 of Volume 1 of the poem of the night..."

"The spell's name should be 'Disorderly Sweep,' a type of teleportation magic that Merlinler and others have forbidden from researching and using... It may be able to perform disordered teleportation using fragments of the caster's memories as anchor points... It is extremely unstable."

"According to the description in the Poem of the Night, Aziv once used this magic to successfully escape from the pursuit of a monster called the 'Hound'."

Upon reading these words, Hugh couldn't help but marvel at his teacher's academic spirit and abilities.

She surprised herself once again.

(End of this chapter)