Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 398 Crystal Web
On the other side, Zhang Yuan finally completed his summoning spell.

"The light guides my pursuit!"

With that cynical, slick tone, an old man with a white beard rode onto the stage on a white horse.

As soon as the Guardian of Light appeared, he pointed his staff at the place shrouded in darkness, the tip of the staff attracting firefly-like streams of light like a vortex.

The light converged, the shimmering waves sparkled, and a ball of light the size of a washbasin condensed and took shape under the guidance of the old man on horseback, then suddenly flashed.

"Ah, I came~"

With a vulgar howl, white light burst forth and coalesced into a radiant herd of horses galloping forward, crashing against the dark curtains like a torrent, determined to wash away all darkness.

Meanwhile, the mage's next spell was also drawing to a close.

With missiles raining down and light waves sweeping across the ground, in Master Zhang's view, the enemy would be severely crippled if not killed. What he was worried about was that the group of dark-skinned people would scatter like birds and beasts when they saw the situation was not good, which would really cause endless trouble in the future.

Annihilating and capturing the enemy and leaving them all here is the top priority. As for the Spider Queen Priest in the enemy's camp, she is a great concern to him. Therefore, after much deliberation, he still did not dare to summon the Void Mask here.

"Ahead lies a raging storm, heed my command...!"

As soon as Kunkka appeared, dressed in his fleet commander's uniform and wielding the Tideblade, he stumbled before he could even finish uttering his domineering line.

Is this even allowed? Did he drink too much rum? No way!

The puzzled mage felt a tremor beneath his feet. Although it was harmless to him and only caused a slight vibration, the ground around him bulged noticeably.

"Boss, something's wrong with the ground, let's get out of here!"

Dwarves are extremely sensitive to changes in the ground. The two brothers directed their people to scatter while loudly reminding the mage.

"Go on, don't worry about me."

Zhang Yuan glanced at the ground beneath his feet, then looked ahead at the area that had been shrouded in darkness. Now, the gloom had dissipated, and the Zhuoer position in the distance was illuminated by the flickering flames.

A large net, partially obscured by the twilight, covered a vast area. It was somewhat tattered, with broken threads swaying in the breeze, and a faint light occasionally flashed from the broken ends.

Although the scene of corpses strewn across the ground and cries of agony that he had anticipated did not appear after he was recruited, it was not much better. A bunch of female drow and their vassal grey dwarf slaves lay scattered about, cursing or screaming. Only two figures stood firm.

The two survivors were in a very bad mood at the moment, especially Eirima, whose almond-shaped eyes were filled with vicious rage, and whose originally beautiful and charming face was twisted like a demon.

No wonder she was angry. That smoky crystal-like spider web wasn't some magical artifact that could be casually cast. Its main material was a silk web woven by a rare type of demonic spider from the Abyss Demon Web. Obtaining it herself was out of the question; the little stock she had was a reward she received after her family made a sacrifice to please Rose.

As it turned out, in the face of life and death, they had no choice but to pull out their trump card, and the spider web crystal they had gone to great lengths to obtain was lost. However, after paying such a high price, it still ended in chaos.

The Crystal Spider Web did indeed live up to expectations by keeping those strange ballistae out, but these things could actually explode... The cluster explosion caused by the dense strike of ten missiles was earth-shattering for these Faerûn subterranean natives. The bursting flames and deafening roars threw the drows into a panic, and some of the grey dwarves even sat down on the ground.

Although the spider web acted as a barrier, blocking most of the impact, the flying shrapnel exploded on the surface of the crystal netting along with the scorching shockwave. The force was so great that even the spider web, which was considered a life-saving trump card, could not completely block it.

The crystal mesh, harder than crystal and more resilient than spider silk, was repeatedly impacted, scorched, and cut in that short moment. Even extraordinary materials cannot withstand such torment, and it's not made of pure gold.

The net, having reached its limit of endurance, began to break and peel away until it was torn apart, and a surge of heat, carrying a jet of metal, rushed in.

Even with the residual force of the barrage, it was still quite lethal. If it weren't for the gray dwarves' resilient physique and the drows' innate resistance and agility, the situation wouldn't be like this, where almost everyone is injured but few have died.

But that wasn't all; a second wave of attacks followed, and the already damaged crystal net was no longer able to intercept them a second time.

The light, like a celestial horse riding the waves, swept over the bodies of the people of darkness.

The pure primordial light ignited by the Keeper of Light was already quite powerful, while the drow were completely outmaneuvered by their own curse of fear of light. Their original magic resistance was negligible in the face of such an absolute counter.

If a flash of light is just a fleeting gust of wind, then a shockwave of light is like a raging torrent, plunging any unfortunate creatures in its path into a vast, desolate wasteland.

Thankfully, it was only a one-star spell, so it didn't actually turn these drow into ashes. They were just emitting blue smoke, their skin burned and cracked, looking like crispy chickens that had just come out of the oven and were burnt.

They arrived full of confidence, but suffered heavy losses in the first encounter. Before they could even retaliate, the second round was a direct confrontation. Not only did they force out their trump cards, but almost their entire squad was wiped out.

How could the petty-minded Eirima swallow this insult? Her gaze was fixed ahead like that of a black widow about to pounce on her prey, on the location of the mage.

Given the Drow's style, she naturally wouldn't just stand by and watch, hoping to stare the other side to death. The moment she unleashed the gem to withstand the enemy's crossbow fire, Eirima tore open the scroll.

It wasn't some earth-shattering, high-level divine technique, which was not something a marginal figure in her family could touch. As the third in line of female heirs, she was in a rather awkward position. She was neither the eldest daughter with relatively more power, nor the second daughter with a higher chance of rising to power, nor the youngest and most favored one. And this scroll was something she had saved up herself.

Fourth Ring Divine Art - Soil Explosion.

This rather down-to-earth name is surprisingly powerful, especially since it has an area-of-effect effect. Before clergy mastered the fifth-circle Flame Strike, few divine spells had higher direct damage.

What's even better is that this spell works directly on the ground, making it highly concealed and preventing interception by the enemy's minions.

We had already seen the dwarves surrounding the mage with layers upon layers of protection, which was fine, but we didn't expect them to bring an iron golem with them. With our current abilities, we probably wouldn't be able to do anything to them.

Whether it's arrows or spells, they all have to get past this iron wall first.

However, this iron lump is not without its weaknesses. While the magical damage from divine spells is not very harmful to it, it is better than nothing. But the mage's own body is not that sturdy, is it?

Moreover, when the ground shakes and you can't even stand firmly, what's the point of talking about formations and guards? The larger and heavier the construct, the more likely it is to stumble.

Moreover, she didn't expect to solve the problem with a single divine spell. The foolish Garuk only learned the true skill of the drow when he was on his deathbed!
(End of this chapter)