Close Combat Mage
chapter-309

Chapter 309 – Energy Shield Pt. 2

Although there were very few paths on the Greater Trade Routes, they were only fewer in number, not non-existent. In reality, there were still paths used between each state of residence. However, if one wanted to go someplace else midway, there would be no path to follow.

With Baltic slowly pulling the war chariot, the party of four finally started their journey. Driving was Roger’s and Xiang Yu’s responsibility. Nicole was a girl after all, so they couldn’t make her do any bitter labor. However…despite this, both Roger and Xiang Yun looked at Nicole with looks of envy. Suo Jia could completely figure out what their inner moodiness was from.

“Roar!” An angry roar suddenly came from ahead. A dozen grey figures suddenly leapt out of the trees at the roadside, blocking off the armed chariot’s path.

Xiang Yun looked out the glass to inspect the obstructing magical beasts and turned around to announce to everyone in the tent, “Hey! 10 Cyan Wolves are blocking the way, I’ll go down and deal with them!”

Xiang Yun pushed the door open and unsheathed a blade on his back. For a moment, one could hear a jumble of random sounds. In just a few seconds, Xiang Yun had completed everything. With the war blade dripping in blood held in his hand, he returned onto the chariot and they continued to advance.

This kind of minor incident didn’t really disturb the three inside the tent. Suo Jia was still clasping the map, closely studying it. Roger was lazily leaning against the tent wall and dozing off, and Nicole was currently using a silk handkerchief to wipe her dagger clean.

But soon afterwards, the chariot stopped again. At the same time, Xiang Yun reported to everyone that there were magical beasts blocking the road again, and he’d have to go and deal with them as well.

In the beginning, nobody really paid it any mind. Walking outside meant that encountering magical beasts blocking the road was extremely normal. However, as time gradually passed, everyone began to feel something was off. In just a moment, they’d already encountered a dozen waves of magical beasts. How were they supposed to advance?!

An exhausted Xiang Yun re-entered the tent and said to Roger with a bitter smile, “Ok, it’s your turn to drive for a bit. I have to rest for a while. Otherwise, I might end up getting killed the next time we counter a magical beast wave!”

“Ah!” Roger cried out in astonishment, “Brother, barely any time has passed and you already want to change shifts? Although the magical beasts have come a bit more frequently, it shouldn’t use up that much energy with your level of strength!”

Xiang Yun sat down hard on the soft, furry rug and tiredly said, “Stop speaking nonsense and quickly go drive. Won’t you personally be able to tell whether the magical beasts are strong or not?”

Roger glanced at Xiang Yun in annoyance and reluctantly stood up to walk outside the tent and start driving the chariot. As he continued to advance, it seemed like Xiang Yun really had been posturing, and just wanted to slack off. It was just a dozen or so magical beast waves, no reason to get so exhausted!

However, after a while, Roger bitterly returned to the tent and said to Suo Jia with a scowl, “Boss, exactly what kind of place is this? Why are the magical beasts so formidable? ***….if we continue on like this, I’m definitely going to lose my life!”

“Oh?” Suo Jia put down the map in his hands and shot a puzzled look at Roger. “What, are the magical beasts blocking the road very powerful? That doesn’t seem very likely!”

“Haha…” Roger said in an agonized voice, “Their level of strength can be put aside, but those guys actually have extremely formidable energy shields. It’s impossible to harm them unless you use high energy-consuming attacks to break their energy shields.”

“What!” Suo Jia asked incredulously, “What did you say? Those magical beasts actually have energy shields? You must be joking! Only magical beasts above the middle rank have energy shields. Don’t tell me that all the ones blocking the path are middle-ranked magical beasts! That’s impossible.”

“No! They’re right, the reality is so!” Nicole interjected.

The three men couldn’t help but turn to look over at Nicole in astonishment. Nicole calmly said, “The Greater Trade Routes is a very strange place that produces magical fruits. There’s an extremely normal fruit amongst them called Toughening Fruit. Eating it makes the body turn incomparably tough and durable. Once one eats enough of them, their energy will permeate out through the body and condense into energy shields!”

“Heavens!” Suo Jia exclaimed in surprise. “That means that all the animals here seem to have this kind of shield?”

“Mhm…” Nicole nodded and indifferently answered, “This isn’t some kind of secret or anything. All the magical beasts on the Greater Trade Routes have defensive powers at least tenfold stronger than magical beasts from the outside world. As for other traits, those depend on their habitat, as well as the types of magic fruits that grow there.”

After Nicole finished speaking, Xiang Yun suddenly nodded and turned around to say to Suo Jia, “Boss, now do you understand why we’re so tired? A single strike should clearly be enough to fell a magical beast, but it takes over a dozen of them. Even humans are strong as iron would be unable to endure it!”

Suo Jia couldn’t help but knit his brows together and ponder over this issue. Continuing on like this definitely wouldn’t do. If they kept stopping after stepping 3 steps forward, when would they ever reach their target?!

The entire carriage suddenly began to rock. Stunned, Roger hurriedly turned around and looked towards the door. All the eye could see was a pack of animals that strongly resembled lions. However, they were magical beasts that were much more imposing. They’d already firmly surrounded the war chariot. Wind blade after wind blade whistled over and crashed into the chariot. The powerful force made the chariot feel like it was a small boat amidst stormy waves; it was as if they could turn over at any moment.

Seeing this, Xiang Yun and Roger didn’t dare waste any time. They simultaneously leapt out of the carriage door to fight the magical beasts. At the same time, Suo Jia and Nicole gathered in front of the door, watching carefully in concern.

Worthy of being someone that used his legs, Roger’s actions were clearly much faster than Xiang Yun’s. He was the first one to come into contact with a lion. He first sent out a chain of kicks, bursting the four wind blades that had come flying at him. Afterwards… Roger’s body suddenly flipped over, his feet kicking outwards towards one of the lion beasts with lightning-fast speed.

“Bang, bang, bang…” Dull sounds rang out as Roger’s feet continued to heavily stamp onto the lion beast’s body over and over again. The enormous impulse was enough to force the lion beasts to retreat in order to avoid the stress on their bodies. However, they were miraculously holding on!

Suo Jia looked carefully and saw that Roger’s steps never actually came into contact with the lion beast’s body; when Roger’s feet had reached about 10 centimeters through the lion beast’s skin, the lion beast’s body would always flash with a dazzling blue glow. This attack coming towards Roger made it impossible for him to effectively strike his target.

Roger didn’t shrink back either. He continued to kick outwards one after another. As he attacked, the glow around the lion beast’s body grew thinner, and its distance from the body was decreasing as well. It had originally been 10 centimeters, and by now, had completely disappeared. In this time, Roger had actually needed to continuously kick out a dozen times or so!

Finally, after the lion beast’s energy shield was completely used up, Roger’s foot suddenly flew up and he stomped hard on the body. Accompanying the clear, crisp sound of bones breaking filled the air, one could also hear the lion beast’s miserable cries. Its body flew up at least 30 meters, before crashing into a giant tree. The violent force had caused it to completely lose the protection of its energy shield. The lion beast had all the bones in its body broken, and died horribly.

While Roger had successfully killed off one lion, Xiang Yun’s battle was nearing its end as well. He wildly swung the war blade in his hand around. Each time it slashed downwards, a lion beast’s body would explode with a flash of blue light. Seven or eight attacks were needed to break that lion’s energy shield, before the blade could finally slice the lion beast into halves.

Although judging from outer appearances, Roger seemed to only have kicked multiple times and Xiang Yun seemed to only have attacked around 10 times with his blades, each kick and slash was executed at full force. The energy and stamina consumption was way too great.

In addition, although they’d successfully killed off two of the lion beasts, there were still more than 20 of them waiting in a circle outside the chariot. At the moment…these lion beasts were frantically swarming around Xiang Yun and Roger.