Chapter 258: The Reanimated Mantis

  Up ahead was the giant elven War Ancient Tree, but not a single elf was in sight. The range Knight Tamika had threatened the elves to empty was large enough; for now, this place was much like an uninhabited forest.

  The War Ancient Tree had returned to its original state, the water from the Sunwell still nourishing the ancient tree's growth. The remains of the three War Mantis had been gathered by the elves and piled beneath it, their broken, giant limbs like three massive heaps of trash.

  The blade light, like a bolt of black lightning, chopped straight down, grazing past Ethan and carving a deep trench into the ground. Ethan rolled to the side, tumbling twice before finally stopping as he crashed against the corpse of a mantis.

  "Wait, I surrender!" Ethan shouted, jumping onto the mantis's body in an extremely pathetic state.

  But Knight Tamika no longer wanted to wait. Another slash came down. And this slash was fiercer and faster than the one that had forced him to stop before, its momentum even more unstoppable.

  He had thought he could catch up in two or three breaths, but it had taken four or five. He had thought a slash could sever an arm, but it had been dodged. He now discovered that his judgment had been slightly off. Or rather, with every move, his opponent seemed to have become more agile. The effects of those two white magic spells seemed to be unexpectedly good, and they were continuously working within the man's body.

  When Ethan called out to wait, Knight Tamika was certain he could not wait. He now knew that his opponent's escape had a purpose, though he wasn't sure what it was, but he knew it was best not to let that purpose succeed.

  With a "crack," Knight Tamika found that his slash had missed again. Ethan had reached out, grabbed one of the mantis's legs, and used it to block. The green leg snapped and flew off, and he had dodged.

  Knight Tamika took a slight step back and composed himself. He knew he had been too careless, treating this opponent as completely useless, without any strength to fight back. Unconsciously, there had been flaws in his strikes, and even his momentum was incomplete, which was why he had been able to dodge again and again. So he took half a step back, focused his mind, and struck again.

  This slash, released after he had focused his mind, had completely regained its momentum—steady as the sea, heavy as a mountain—and the scent of death that was one with it. This aura instantly enveloped and locked down the space within a ten-meter radius. A slash like this was absolutely impossible to dodge.

  A dull thud. The slash was blocked. Not just blocked, but the force of the rebound from the blade made Knight Tamika's hand feel numb and tingly. He even staggered back two steps. His wooden face was now filled with disbelief.

  He wasn't shocked that the slash was blocked, but because the one blocking it wasn't Ethan; it was the giant mantis.

  In the brief moment when Knight Tamika had stepped back to focus his mind, Ethan had also focused his. But he wasn't preparing to strike or dodge; he was completing the magic he had already gathered in his hands, then pressed it onto the War Mantis's corpse beneath him. And when Knight Tamika's slash came down, the War Mantis's two giant scythes had just swung up, blocking in front of Ethan.

  No matter how strong, great, or fierce Knight Tamika's power was, it was impossible to sever a weapon this massive, as wide as a door panel and certainly harder than any door. The sword momentum, technique, killing intent, and will to kill contained in his slash were already the pinnacle of a warrior. The mantis's movement was simple, but this was no longer a gap in martial arts or cultivation. It was like how no matter how much a person trained, they could never be stronger than an elephant. And so, he was repelled.

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  Knight Tamika now understood why this opponent had fled, why he had fled toward this place. But he still couldn't figure it out. How could a person who had already used two Archbishop-level high-tier white magic spells possibly have such abundant magical power to drive such a massive corpse?

  Knight Tamika himself didn't use Necromancy, but that didn't mean he didn't understand it. It wasn't that corpses other than humans couldn't be turned into zombies; it was just much more difficult. Only human bodies resonated most easily with Necromancy. The larger the other creature being turned into a zombie, the more magical power it consumed and the more difficult it was to control. To turn such a massive War Mantis into a zombie would require an amount of magical power that this opponent, who cultivated both magic and martial arts, should not be able to bear.

  But that wasn't all that shocked him. He soon discovered that this mantis might not be a zombie in the ordinary sense.

  The movements of any corpse, whether human or otherwise, turned into a zombie were slow. But just now, the speed at which the mantis had raised its two scythes had been fast enough to block him. And now, this zombie mantis nimbly turned and climbed to its feet.

  This War Mantis only had its upper body left. Its internal organs spilled out from the break, dragging on the ground. Its body was covered in the scorch marks and wounds left by magical bombardment, looking as tattered as a pile of trash. But now, its movements seemed even more agile than when it was alive. The broken body stood upright, its two giant scythes bringing with them an equally great gust of wind as they chopped toward Knight Tamika.

  Knight Tamika retreated. He could only retreat. Although the two giant scythes were very simple strikes, he could only retreat; he could not block them. He glanced at Ethan, who was standing on this mantis, a sky-high killing intent flashing in his eyes before disappearing. Then he turned and ran. He fled.

  From the chase to the escape, the difference was no more than the blink of an eye. But Knight Tamika did not hesitate in the face of this huge gap. He fled with the same determination with which he had given chase. This required not only judgment but also decisiveness.

  He had been at the peak of victory, but in an instant, he found he had to accept defeat. This was not a state of mind that an ordinary person could bear. Generally, no matter how small the possibility, people can't help but struggle, to try to see if they can turn things around. But Knight Tamika did not struggle like an ordinary person. It could even be said that his chance to turn things around wasn't that small, but he was still able to use the most rational judgment to decide his actions.

  He could see that his own strength was now at a disadvantage, so he retreated. He fled.

  If it were just this one monster, it wasn't that he had no way to deal with it, but the crucial thing was that there was also Ethan. He now realized that he had truly underestimated this opponent. He had thought victory was in his grasp, but just by revealing that tiny crack, that small opening, his opponent had been able to turn the tables and seize an absolute advantage.

  The capital he had used to turn the tables was still incomprehensible to him. He completely didn't understand how a person with such good martial arts could also have such abundant magical power, nor did he understand how such massive wounds could have recovered to this degree with just two high-level healing spells. He couldn't see through it, so he was unwilling to take the risk to try and see if he could turn things around.

  Watching Knight Tamika's gray figure quickly disappear into the forest, Ethan finally felt a sense of admiration for this opponent. Although his combat strength, scheming, and methods were all top-tier, this decisiveness to let go when he must was the true mark of power. This could only mean that this person's will and emotions had been honed to be as hard and integrated as a great rock. A mind like this had almost no flaws to be found.

  The direction Knight Tamika was running was precisely the direction of the teleportation array. Luya and the Leaves of the World Tree were there, and Talise and Yabin's fates were still unknown. Ethan knew he had to give chase. But even the most powerful white magic Healing Spell couldn't fully restore a person's combat ability, so Ethan could only rely on this mantis to fight. The problem was, this mantis only had its upper body left; rapid movement was impossible.

  With a thought, he commanded the mantis to move to the remains of another mantis's corpse. He took a deep breath, raised both hands high, and converted all the magical power in his body into the Corpse Animation Technique. A blue light began to bloom between his hands. Only here, next to the Sunwell, with its fluctuations constantly replenishing his magical power and amplifying it, could he use Corpse Animation to control a monster like the War Mantis, which was no less formidable than a Behemoth. Even though the Sunwell's water was nearly dry and the magic-dampening effect was almost gone, at such a close distance, the fluctuations were enough to raise his magical power to a level nearly on par with Sandro's.

  Under the illumination of the blue light, the piled-up mantis corpses began to writhe, then connected, pieced themselves together, and fused like a large group of slimes. A huge, twisted green monster with three heads and over a dozen legs took shape.

  The blue light of the Corpse Animation Technique faded from his hands. Looking down at the thing at his feet, which resembled three mantis clay sculptures casually kneaded together by a child, Ethan couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. Although his magical power was abundant, his control over magic was still far from Sandro's. He couldn't even properly combine the three mantises' inherent wings. It seemed it wouldn't be able to fly.

  Now was not the time to dwell on its appearance. Although it couldn't fly, the dozen or so chaotically assembled legs could still move. Under Ethan's mental command, the ten or so legs below moved rapidly, dragging the combined mantis's massive body as it gave chase in the direction Knight Tamika had fled.