Summoning the Holy Sword

Everyone finally recovered after resting for a while and began their journey into the forest.

The forest was dead silent; not even the sound of crickets could be heard.

As the group made their way into the dense foliage, their shadows quickly blended into the darkness. Most of the light couldn’t permeate through the leaves, shrouding the whole area in darkness.

Since this area was in between the Country of Light and the Country of Darkness, it was considered the darkest place among the people from the Country of Light.

“There’s someone over there!”

One of the Clerics was startled and quickly pointed towards a direction. Not too far from them, a pale face silently watched them.

“Ignore them, let’s continue moving.”

Rhode didn’t bother to turn his head and continued to press forward. However, a lingering fear caused the Cleric to hesitate.

“But those evil spirits… they…”

That was the most troublesome and challenging part of Silent Plateau. The undead would appear at random, unpredictable points in time and if the undead did not disappear, their attacks must be blocked. What would happen if the light suddenly chose to shine in the middle of the group?

They would just run…

In this place, the Mage spell Black Curtain was useless. The darkness here wasn’t an ordinary kind of darkness; it was even different from the Country of Darkness. The dark in this place had combined with the light and completely turned into another element; it simply couldn’t be described just how strange it was.

Then what should they do? To a lot of players, it wasn’t a complicated thing.

The best way to avoid being passive was to take the initiative.

“Lize, Holy Light.”

Rhode gestured towards Lize.

A magical ball of Holy Light immediately appeared on her palm and illuminated the surroundings.

The warrior who previously tried to attack Rhode once again appeared, but before he could swing its sword down, Rhode used the pommel of his sword to smash the warrior’s skeletal body, causing it to crash to the ground and break into pieces. Then, pieces turned into dust and disappeared with the wind.

“All of you should be aware of the dangers of this place by now.”

Rhode turned around and addressed the people behind him. Lize and the other mercenaries turned serious. They weren’t fools; they understood Rhode’s intent of showing them the dangers of the Silent Plateau. They thought that even if was a heavily-armed mercenary group, they would probably think twice before coming here.

“Well, I have good news. All of you don’t have to worry about the random appearance of that odd light because I can assure that from this moment on, the enemy will appear from everywhere!”

Rhode didn’t turn his head as his sword made a quick motion. A silver arc flashed in the darkness and sliced an undead into two.

“Which is why I need all of you to focus. Old Walker, you must pay close attention to the rear. Marlene, Lize, I need both of you to occupy the left and right side respectively. Anne, it’s your job to protect them. Remember, do not stop moving! This place houses countless of undead, and as long as we can pass this prairie, we will win. Do all of you understand?”

“Yes, leader~!”

Anne was relaxed as usual. She smiled and waved her hand playfully as she answered Rhode’s command. Her behavior made the others think that this young miss did not understand the gravity of the situation.

Especially those Clerics — initially, they thought that they could rely on the Shield Warrior for protection, but after looking at her behavior, it wasn’t surprising why they were beginning to feel like Anne wasn’t reliable.

If it weren’t for Sereck, perhaps they would’ve already ran away.

“Follow me.”

Rhode took a step forward.

The very next second, something terrifying happened.

The light which penetrated the darkness. Hundreds of undead who were clashing with one another appeared once more. After being exposed to the light, as though as they had been rehearsing for this moment, all of them screamed in unison and rushed towards Rhode’s group at the same time!

This is it.

Sereck’s expression drastically changed when he watched this scene unfold. Previously, when he had a trial in this place, the incident that left the greatest impression on him was this — the countless of undead that emerged endlessly from the darkness.

When looking at a vast army, though it may seem slightly hopeless, at least they could use their eyes to estimate how many people were there. However, in this ghastly place, one can never see the end of the waves of undead, and can only fight until they were exhausted. It was also because of this that many people weren’t able to endure.

There’s nothing scarier than the feeling of hopelessness.

Then how would Rhode deal with it?

Sereck couldn’t wait to see it. He focused on defending the rear while periodically glancing at the battle to the front. He wanted to see what Rhode would do to ‘lessen the pressure.’

When Sereck’s eyes fell upon Rhode, he was surprised as Rhode wasn’t feeling nervous at all!

“Lize, cast Divine Brilliance to the front.”

Rhode calmly pointed towards a direction.

“Yes, Mr. Rhode!”

While wielding the Holy Light on her left hand, Lize stretched out her right arm, and soon a divine beam of light dropped from the heavens and enveloped the undead inside.

“The same goes with all of you. Cast Divine Brilliance at the same place.”

The four Clerics was slightly taken aback when Rhode suddenly addressed them. Still, they followed his command meticulously and lifted their arms to cast Divine Brilliance.

A few beams of divine light enveloped the undead, causing their movement speed and reaction time to drop further. By the time when all the Clerics finally cast Divine Brilliance, the undead’s movement was akin to an old grandma, seemingly unable to move as though trapped in a swamp.

“Marlene, Chain Lightning.”

A crackle emerged from her fingertips, and in a blink of an eye, it shot toward the undead horde.

At first it was a single, faint arc of lightning, but when it hit its first victim, the lightning forked and struck a few undead that were close by. The lightning continued to spread from one undead to another, and soon, the whole battlefield dazzled in a brilliant light. After a series of explosions, hundreds of undead fell to the ground and stopped moving.

“What…?”

Marlene was shocked when she saw how potent her spell was. She looked at her finger absentmindedly as she tilted her head in disbelief. Chain Lightning was one of the lowest-level spells — each lightning arc didn’t pack much power, and after forking to the next target, the damage of the spell would diminish slightly. Marlene initially thought that Rhode would’ve asked her to use a more powerful spell, but look at the situation now… she honestly doubted whether she was fighting a horde of undead or a horde of scarecrows.

Is such a way even possible?

Sereck, who was at the rear, also felt surprised. He knew that high-leveled Clerics and Soul Knights could use their spells to destroy the undead, but how could low-leveled Clerics do the same?

Hmm… That isn’t right…

A high-leveled Cleric’s Hammer of Judgement or the Soul Knight’s Light of Sanction would destroy the undead within seconds, but all these low-leveled Clerics could do was slow its movement. However, it was sufficient.

Sereck could not help but glance at Rhode.

How did this young man figure out this method?

It wasn’t only Sereck who was caught off guard. In fact, the four Clerics also felt pleasantly surprised! They reacted in the same way as Lize had when she first realized that her power could significantly influence the undead. Some of them even stared at their hands in doubt.

Unfortunately, Rhode didn’t give them the time for them to slap themselves to check whether it was real or not.

“Now you know what you can do. Let’s continue moving.”

Facing the countless of undead that once again appeared under the light, Rhode raised his sword and pointed forward.

(ED: Healing Spell -> Divine Brilliance)