Chapter 826 - 698: Disarming the Bomb

As the six Players broke free and joined the battlefield, the situation instantly flipped.

Domineering Ninja Hassan summoned dozens of Shadow Clones, constantly blasting out Spiral Balls of all shapes and sizes, with every clone endlessly trash-talking;

Mike Maxwell and Claudia flew high in the sky, and from their commanding height respectively unleashed Thunder and Blood Magic;

Gouchen, stacked with several layers of Protection Spells from Merlin, turned into a Fearless Warrior, tanking the blistering heat head-on, dragging the Flame Demon God together with the Sun-absorbing Chicken.

The latter wasn’t without resistance, but Black Trojan Horse unleashed a flood of data, directly disassembling the surrounding Forest trees into piles of square lumber that flew in all directions, preventing them from providing fuel for the enemy.

Even more deadly was Su Jie; his [Mysterious Marsh Green Blood Skill] could not only heal external wounds, but combined with Cooperation Items could also restore teammates’ Spiritual Power and sanity.

Even though the Flame Demon God swelled to the height of a seven-story building, turning into a living fire tornado, every move hugely imposing, the aftershock of the heat waves baking the surrounding land into glass,

its space for movement was still constantly compressed, gradually being forced away from the space rift.

Whoosh!

A wrinkled hand tore open a Sheepskin Scroll, and Merlin Instant Teleported to the side of the rift, waving his Elder Wand inlaid with a Ruby, lifting three bombs into the air from a distance.

He wasn’t a bomb-disposal expert, and the Alchemy Magic technology used in the bombs was far too ancient, so ancient that he couldn’t interpret it.

If he didn’t start from alchemical technique and instead analyzed from the flow of Magic Power...

Merlin waved his Magic Wand, and dense semi-transparent ethereal filaments instantly surfaced on the bomb’s shell, like a circuit board, tug one thread and the whole structure moved.

Removing any one crystal rashly would trigger an explosion.

This didn’t stump Merlin; he swung his Magic Wand, gathered the three bombs together, then cast a High Level Arcane Barrier shaped like a black sphere around them—

The bombs needed remote control to detonate; as long as he used a Universal Barrier to block all external electromagnetic waves, Sound Waves, Spiritual Energy signals, etc., he could prevent an explosion.

Then they could slowly dismantle the bombs; the number of crystals on them would be enough for everyone to ascend to the next layer of Four Realms Mountain.

"Roar!"

The stiff Flame Demon God saw the metal bombs vanish and let out a piercing roar; its arms clamped together into the shape of a greatsword and swept horizontally toward Merlin.

This slash came with a dual effect of breaking Spells and Space Anchors; Merlin activated a Magic Tool, trying to Teleport away with the bombs, but the next second he Instant Teleported back to his original spot, watching helplessly as the Flaming Greatsword skimmed along the ground toward him.

The Sun-absorbing Chicken didn’t care about Merlin’s life or death; it decisively abandoned the human Player, directly leaping into the space rift at the bottom of the pit and vanishing.

"When the hall’s in bloom, three thousand guests are drunk; one sword’s frost chills fourteen provinces."

Gouchen slapped his palm on the pommel; the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha Sword split into four, four into eight, and in the blink of an eye filled half the sky, circling the Flame Demon God like hummingbirds and pecking at it tens of thousands of times,

each thrust stealing a tiny amount of Attribute, slowing its speed.

But this only treated the symptoms, not the root; the Flaming Greatsword merely slowed slightly, whereas Gouchen himself, having stolen too much Strength attribute, far exceeding his own Constitution Attribute,

ended up with an Attribute imbalance, his whole body’s muscles swelling as if he’d been hit by Nine Dragons Pulling Coffin.

"Spirit Summoning Technique·Triple Life Gate!"

Hassan pressed both hands to the ground; dense text like earthworms appeared on the surface, and along the Flaming Greatsword’s path of advance, he summoned three Rashomon gates wrapped in iron chains, each with a hideous face and a different color.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Rashomon that could easily withstand a 5,000-pound GBU-72 bunker buster only blocked for less than a second before being chopped through and shattered one by one by the Flaming Greatsword.

Even a Weapon at the level of the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha Sword couldn’t restrain the Flame Demon God, let alone other control methods with even lower Mystery.

Even Claudia’s [Divine Blood and Flesh Pain], with the Flame Demon God already berserk and its entire body covered in Breaking Magic Flames, could no longer take effect a second time.

A thought flashed through Su Jie’s mind: my [Mysterious Marsh Green Blood Skill] should, probably, maybe, not be able to save charcoal...

At the critical moment, there was not much panic on Merlin’s face; he gripped the Elder Wand with both hands, rammed it with all his strength into the ground beneath his feet, and unleashed chained Arcane Shields.

Each Arcane Shield was a hemispherical dome, diameters increasing one by one, arranged in a straight line.

Accompanied by a tooth-aching creaking sound, the spherical shields were broken one after another, but with each one shattered, the Flaming Greatsword deflected slightly.

Whoosh—

The greatsword swept past more than ten meters above Merlin’s head, scorching a few more strands off his already not-so-lush hair.

The chance was once in a lifetime; the six Players seized the opening of the enemy’s whiffed slash, unleashed all their methods, and did their utmost to weaken the Flame Demon God.

Black Trojan Horse went even further, using data manipulation to draw an entire large lake’s worth of water from afar and pour it down from above, causing the Demon God’s temperature to plummet and its movements to visibly slow.

"Nice opening,"

one of the clones shouted, "Hassan, use [Corpse Ghost Sealing] now!"

"You think I’m stupid?"

Hassan glanced at the clone and complained, "[Corpse Ghost Sealing] takes your own soul as the price to summon the Shinigami, devouring the target’s soul and sealing it away forever.

If I use that move, how am I supposed to live?

You lot would have to die too."

Clone No. 2 shook his head. "Being afraid of death and not daring to use Ninjutsu is very reasonable. But that’s the mindset of trash."

Clone No. 3 also said in a deep voice, "From now on, don’t go around saying you’re my main body. Embarrassing."

...

Su Jie and the others watching from the side all felt their eyelids twitch wildly. Dude, are you sure you’re not with the Wild Laughter Troupe?

Even among all clone-type abilities, there can’t be many who actually end up arguing with their own Shadow Clones, right?

Hassan was unreliable; they’d have to rely on themselves.

Merlin shook his head. Protection Spells can be used for offense too...

He opened the Backpack and casually tossed out over a hundred small packets sewn from sheepskin and deerskin; each little packet was filled with High Level casting materials.

Sphinx fur, blood diamonds, holy shrouds, adamantine, Giant Dragon tailbones, meteorites from alien star systems...

Unlike those blue-bar Mages who could cast Spells as they pleased as long as they had enough Spiritual Power Value,

under the broad Dragon and Dungeon system, Spellcasters generally used six components for Spellcasting: voice, gestures, materials, Magic Artifacts, holy symbols, and experience.

Arcane Spellcasters didn’t need holy symbols, and if they’d taken the [Material-Free Casting] feat, they could even ignore casting materials.

But if they had casting materials, all the better; not only did it do twice the work for half the effort, it also moderately enhanced Spell power and raised Mystery.

All the packets spontaneously ignited, the casting materials inside burning to ash, making Claudia’s heart ache—

As a Defense System Grandmaster of the Bell Tower, Merlin received a basic salary, performance pay, allowances and subsidies, research awards, and startup research funding every month.

He was about ten ranks richer than Claudia.

Merlin could throw money around, using blood diamonds and adamantine as casting materials. Claudia dared to do that too at the beginning of the month, but by the end...

Some bat guano, slug droppings, and toad eyeballs would have to do.

’The Bell Tower is filthy rich, damn it, why am I broke? If I had money, would I be in this pathetic state?’

Claudia couldn’t help but grumble inwardly, and after burning through so many casting materials, Merlin chanted Spells and gestured, summoning multicolored curtains both above the Flame Demon God’s head and beneath its feet, intent on sealing it and capturing it alive.