Chapter 553 - 16: World
And the man had emerged from the very passage they had just used.
Murphy seemed oblivious to the arrowhead pointed at him, remaining perfectly still where he stood, his black clothes spotless.
"Who are you?" Captain Keynes asked in a low, heavy voice. "Why are you following us?"
Murphy’s gaze slowly swept over their wary, questioning faces. He didn’t answer immediately, instead taking a small step forward.
The step caused Lelas’s bowstring to draw taut with a faint sound, and several guards raised their weapons slightly.
"Stop!" Captain Keynes shouted, his right thumb pushing his sword a fraction out of its scabbard. "I’m warning you. One more step and we will consider you an enemy!"
It was as if Murphy hadn’t heard. Without the slightest pause, he took another half-step forward.
"Attack!" Keynes commanded without hesitation.
The instant the words left his mouth, Lelas’s arrow became a gray blur, tearing through the air as it flew straight for Murphy’s brow!
At the same time, two guards rushed forward, one from the left and one from the right, their swords slashing toward Murphy’s shoulders and abdomen, cutting off any escape.
However—
FFFT! FFFT!
Two arrows passed through Murphy’s head and chest without any resistance, as if they had struck nothing but a pocket of air. They didn’t even stir his loose black hair.
Immediately after, the two swords also whistled through Murphy’s body, hitting nothing. Their blades sliced only through emptiness, causing the two guards to stumble forward from their own momentum.
Murphy’s figure remained where it was, not even blinking.
"Incorporeal!" Keynes’s pupils contracted as he reacted instantly. "Elvin, suppress him with Magic! Everyone else, ready your enchanted weapons!"
"Understood!" Elvin waved his Short Staff and began a rapid chant. In an instant, several blazing white fireballs materialized in front of him and blasted toward Murphy, carrying a wave of scorching heat!
At the same time, Lelas had already drawn an arrow inscribed with silver runes from his quiver, nocking and firing it in one swift motion!
With a CLANG, Keynes also drew his Longsword. A faint golden light shimmered across its blade as he and several other guards, who had also activated their weapons’ enchantments, charged forward again in an encircling formation!
Faced with the blazing fireballs, Murphy finally moved.
With a light flick of his left sleeve, a translucent barrier instantly materialized before him.
The fireballs slammed into the barrier, erupting in a blinding white light and a wave of heat, but they shattered and dissipated like waves crashing against a reef.
And amidst the brilliant light and smoke from the exploding fireballs, Lelas’s enchanted arrow shot through silently, aimed straight for Murphy’s throat!
Murphy’s right hand shot out like lightning. His fingers spread, and at the last possible moment before the tip could reach his throat, he caught the arrow by its shaft!
The silver light clinging to the arrow flickered violently, trying to burn his palm, but it was silently neutralized by a layer of crimson light on his palm. With a slight squeeze of his fingers, a sharp CRACK echoed as he snapped the steel arrow in two.
At that moment, the enchanted weapons of Keynes and the guards reached him.
An Enchanted Longsword, wielded by one of the guards, cut toward his waist with a dull whoosh, its blade glinting with a green light.
Murphy sidestepped, letting the blade pass. Half of the sword seemed to slice through empty space, while the force of the other half was deflected by some unseen power.
In the instant the Enchanted Longsword swept past him, Murphy flicked the guard’s wrist with his left fingertips. A numbing ache shot up the guard’s arm, forcing him to drop his weapon.
On the other side, Keynes’s Enchanted Longsword had become an arc of golden light, stabbing straight for Murphy’s heart.
This time, Murphy did not evade.
He held the fingers of his right hand together like a blade, a concentrated crimson light gathering at their tips. He precisely tapped the very tip of Keynes’s sword.
TING!
A sharp, clear sound rang out.
Keynes felt a concentrated force travel up the blade. It not only neutralized his attack but also sent a searing pain through his wrist, making the web of his thumb burn. His Longsword was knocked aside against his will, leaving him wide open!
’I’m horrified!’ he thought. He hastily retreated two steps and barely managed to regain his balance.
Seeing this, Lelas dropped his bow and drew his blades. His two Elf Short Blades, gleaming with a verdant green light, struck like vipers from their den. One aimed for the throat, the other for the small of the back. They moved so fast they left afterimages in the air, the enchanted runes on the blades flaring at full power.
Murphy’s footwork shifted, his body weaving within a tiny space like a leaf caught in the wind.
The verdant blades crisscrossed. Yet each time a blade was about to connect, half of its edge would pass through him as if he were a phantom. The other, solid half of the attack he would either evade by a hair’s breadth or nimbly parry with his fingertips or the edge of his palm.
Seeing his fireballs were ineffective, Elvin immediately switched Magic. He uttered a rapid Spell, and a chain of blue lightning as thick as a bowl, crackling with electricity, shot from the tip of his Magic Staff, twisting and winding as it flew toward Murphy!
Murphy’s footwork changed. He abruptly accelerated, leaving a blurry afterimage as he shifted several feet to the side at an astonishing speed, just an instant before the lightning chain could hit him!
The chain lightning grazed the hem of his clothes and struck the rocky ground behind him, blasting apart a patch of scorched rubble and sending arcs of electricity dancing.
Murphy used that instantaneous movement to close in on another guard who was attempting a sneak attack from behind.
The guard was just raising his Enchanted Longsword, not yet having a chance to thrust, when Murphy pressed a palm to his chest.
BAM!
The guard flew backward as if struck by an invisible sledgehammer, slamming into the rock wall before sliding to the ground, unable to move.
In just a few dozen seconds of combat, the outcome on the platform was already clear.