Advent of the Archmage
chapter-476

All mission weapons had some sort of weakness. Something as strong as the Spear of Victory was no exception to this rule.

However, Link had not the slightest idea where that weakness could be.

This was the first time Link had encountered such a weapon, and so he did not want to risk taking a full hit from the spear, especially when its wielder was one who showed no qualms about taking his life. In an instant, Katyusha had caught up to him, and his first instinct then was to run away from her immediately.

Everyone who had been watching the whole battle unfold on the airship was all surprised to see Link fleeing from the Agatha Naga.

"What's going on? Why has Master Link chosen to run? He hasn't even started fighting."

"The lightning spear in the lady's hand looks incredibly powerful!"

"Should we go out and help?" asked one of the Red Dragon Warriors.

"No, don't. The lord has sent out his signal," shouted Merlin, the captain of the airship.

Everyone looked at the magical image in the middle of the airship's cabin and saw that Link was holding out his wand while flying at top speed through the air. From his wand, a stream of light began flowing out and forming a row words in front of him.

"Powerful Naga weapon, withdraw now!"

All of them looked at each, curious as to what kind of weapon had caused even Link to flee. As it was a direct order from their lord, the airship began making its retreat.

Just then, when the airship had only turned halfway around, tragedy struck once more.

Celine shouted, "Not good, she's spotted us!"

In the magical image, the black-haired Naga who had sprouted a pair of dark red wings from her back seemed to be gazing in their direction. A few seconds later, she gave up pursuing Link and began speeding towards the airship.

Alarmed, Merlin asked, "How fast is she flying?"

One of his co-pilots conjured a magic seal from a fingertip and hastily tapped a few times on it. A few seconds later, he reported back to the captain, "800 feet per second, sir! She'll reach us in one minute!"

The airship's speed was no more than 180 feet per second, and its length from tip to tail was over 20 feet. The entire vessel was like a whale sluggishly floating in the air and waiting to be pounced upon by a more agile predator that was rapidly gaining on them.

Under such circumstances, escape was futile!

Merlin immediately gave an order to the rest of his crew. "Stand your ground, men. Ready the magic cannons and prepare for combat!"

The idea was that they might stand a better chance of winning this fight by taking their enemy head-on with everything they had instead of running away with their tails tucked between their legs and leaving themselves wide open to the enemy's attacks.

The airship's crew members moved in sync with each other as they dexterously adjusted the magical power output from the airship's vents. With short intervaled whistles, the Battle Airship came to a stop in the air.

Metallic thumps resonated from every corner of the airship. Every magic cannon was brought out and aimed at the enemy. From the end of the cannon barrels radiated a brilliant light as they began charging up with magical power.

All Warriors on board the airship had also started making preparations for the battle ahead.

Captain Merlin continued giving his orders without any sign of panic.

"Put on your parachutes, everyone!" he ordered, as a precaution for when the worst-case scenario should come to pass.

One of the Warriors helped King Leon put on a parachute, while a Yabba man stood on the other side, teaching him how to use it.

"Your Highness, do you see this string? If anything happens, and you find yourself free-falling in the air, just pull on this string, which will deploy your parachute immediately, and you'll be able to float yourself to safety. Maybe. At most, you'll probably come out of this with two broken legs. Well then, God bless."

King Leon never had any experience in aerial warfare. His face had gone completely pale, and he seemed to be on the verge of vomiting.

The three Red Dragon Warriors had all leaped out of the cabin. Taking on their dragon forms, they circled around the airship in the air as an additional layer of defense.

Celine and the rest of the marksmen all assembled on the second floor of the cabin, where firing ports had been fixed on both sides of the airship. The firing ports were reserved for Yabba snipers. However, in this case, Celine and the others were the only ones on the airship capable of striking from a distance, and so readied their guns at each port to fire at the incoming Naga.

Ten seconds later, all battle preparations had been made throughout the airship.

In the distance, Link did not expect such a turn of events.

He had not anticipated that Katyusha would be able to notice the airship 50 miles away in the air. With the airship now being targeted by her, he had no choice but to bring the fight straight to her!

Link cautiously kept himself at least 2000 feet away from his adversary. He had a vague feeling that if he were to go any closer, there would be trouble.

Whether his hunch was right or not mattered little; he dared not take any chances at this point.

He was now flying at 1000 feet per second, which was even faster than Katyusha. This gave him the chance to seize the initiative.

Despite knowing this, Katyusha ignored Link and continued making a beeline for the airship.

When Katyusha was within 10,000 feet of the airship, Link had already reached the airship's vicinity. He stopped before the vessel, and shouted, "The Naga is holding a Legendary spear. As soon as she throws it towards you, abandon the airship immediately!"

Everyone on board was stunned at the mention of the Legendary weapon.

When Link had finished speaking, Katyusha was already within 3000 feet away.

He estimated that his foe's maximum striking range was approximately 2000 feet. Even with Dimensional Jump and Instant Flash at his disposal, he had no intention of closing the gap between them.

In the game, once the Thorn of Fate had been activated by the Spear of Victory, it would lock on to its target. Even if a Magician were to use spatial spells like Instant Flash to escape to the other side of the continent, the Thorn of Fate would still find its mark.

This spear simply possessed unfathomable divine power!

Before he departed, Link suddenly caught a glimpse of Celine and felt uneasy about leaving her on board. Celine's aim was true, but not enough to kill a Legendary opponent. If she caught the Naga's attention and was then targeted by the spear, she would instantly be vaporized.

With the force of his will, a white light engulfed Celine's entire body. In an instant, she reappeared outside the airship right beside Link.

"What the...?" Celine was bewildered by her sudden teleportation in the air.

"You're with me now," said Link.

He took out a leather rope and willed it to bind Celine to his back using the Magician's Hand. "Grab on tight!" he said, before leaving the airship behind.

Before flying away, he spoke to Felina and the other Red Dragon Warriors, "The Naga is a Legendary creature, and extremely powerful. Keep your distance for now, and only attack when I give the order!"

"Understood!" replied the three Dragon Warriors, their faces stern.

Katyusha had now reached 2000 feet away from the airship, which also happened to be the striking range of the airship.

In the airship, Merlin shouted, "Aim, and fire!"

Hum, hum, hum... Magical power swirled rapidly within the airship. Moments later, every magic cannon began opening fire, shooting out purple balls of light at Katyusha. Trails of light could be seen in the wake of their flight through the air.

Each Battle Airship was equipped with ten magic cannons on each side, each capable of firing ten rounds. Every purple ball of light dished out by each cannon packed an explosive power of around Level-7. Once it exploded, it would leave behind a fireball with a diameter of more than ten feet. The resulting balls of fire had effectively blocked off Katyusha's trajectory towards the airship.

At the same time, from the firing ports, the marksmen on board had begun raining down a bullet storm on the Naga.

Magic Pistols were powered purely by the fire element. Their barrels were exquisitely sculpted through the use of transformative spells. The sound they made with each shot was soft, but the impact of each bullet was incredibly powerful. With at least Level-6 penetrating power, even the most seasoned combatant would find it hard to defend themselves against shots taken with it.

There were 20 marksmen on board. When they opened fire in unison, a flurry of bullets instantly whistled through the air towards Katyusha.

In the face of such a concentrated attack, Katyusha had nowhere to run. She screamed, "Die!"

She then hurled the Spear of Victory at the airship. As soon as it left her hand, she immediately shielded herself with her wings.

Her dark red wings were continuously battered by the bullets and magical explosions. In the dazzling light, her wings which had been fortified by divine spells were horribly torn to pieces.

But in that moment, the Spear of Victory that she had sent flying through the air finally struck the airship.

The spear hurtled through the air at a breakneck speed. Throughout its flight, the weapon was cloaked by a dark red cyclone of energy, which flashed out streaks of lightning. It left a trail of dark red light in its wake.

In half a second, the spear hurtled through 1500 feet in the air and struck the airship. Under the force of the impact, the entire vessel was immediately torn in half.

The two halves of iron that once made up the airship now came crashing down from the sky.

All the Warriors on board leaped out from the gaping hole at the airship's midsection. Once in the air, they pulled open their leather parachutes. Before long, the air was filled with Warriors floating down unceremoniously to the ground.

When he saw that Katyusha had flung out the Spear of Victory, he immediately roared, "Now, attack!"

This was their chance.

Link and the three Red Dragon Warriors rushed towards the Naga together.

Link flew the fastest. In an instant, he was within a few thousand feet away from Katyusha. This was also the limit of his casting range.

With a thrust of his sword, he conjured a series of Despair Balls in the air. A purple Void Destructor sphere began forming on the sword's tip when it was within a few feet away from Katyusha.

When the spell was about to explode, Katyusha suddenly spread what was left of her wings outward. At the same time, she pulled at the Void, and the Spear of Victory she had thrown out moments ago appeared instantly in her hand.

Link was taken aback. This was bad; he had never encountered such a technique in the game before.

"Die, Link!" Katyusha screamed. With a twist of her body, she threw the Spear of Victory straight at Link.

At that moment, Link felt his heart drop. It was as if everything had slowed down around him, including the spear, which seemed to edge with excruciating slowness towards him.

He immediately detonated the Void Destructor and activated Dimensional Jump at the same time.

In the bright light, both Celine and he vanished on the spot. An instant later, they reappeared 1000 feet away. Just then, Celine shouted, "It's coming for us!"

Link cast Dimensional Jump once more.

In the span of a second, he managed to cast Dimensional Jump three times, but it was no use. The Spear of Victory showed no signs of stopping. Not only did he fail to put some distance between them and the Spear, but it also seemed to be getting closer and closer towards them.

Link stopped fleeing. At this point, he had no time to cast any spell, nor was he certain that any of them would even be effective against the spear. Right now, his sword was the only thing capable of intercepting the spear. His Dragon Power began to boil in him as it flowed into the Dragon King's Fury sword. He then thrust the sword out with all his strength.

What happened next horrified Link.

However he tried to parry it, from whichever direction he maneuvered his Dragon King's Fury sword, the Spear of Victory always managed to evade his attacks, as if it was being controlled by an unseen force.

It was as if the spear itself was able to anticipate his moves before he even thought about making them.

Just when the spear was about to pierce through his body, Celine, who was still attached to Link's back, suddenly pulled out her double pistols, "Link" and "Celine."

Her eyes began emanating a purple swirl of energy, which then spread out over her entire body, and finally flowed into both pistols in her hands.

Bang! Bang! Celine fired both pistols at the same time.

At that moment, with his tautened senses, Link was able to track the trajectories of both bullets in the air. He also saw that they were radiating off a dreamlike purple glow.

The two bullets danced and twirled through the air haphazardly, while the Spear of Victory kept changing its course, desperately attempting to anticipate where the bullets might come, but it was all in vain.

With a metallic chink, the Spear of Victory was finally struck by both bullets.

Struck by a Level-9 attack, the Spear of Victory swerved off course and then vanished in thin air.

A few thousand feet away, Katyusha, who had a Void Destructor ball of light explode in her face, once again held the Spear of Victory in her hand. Her wings now reduced to withered stalks on her back, she began to fall straight to the ground, staring in confusion at Link, or rather Celine who was still tied to his back.

At the same time, Link felt Celine's body go limp behind him. She had passed out.