Versatile Mage

—-

After learning that the team would receive resources to help them break through to the Advanced Level, nobody stopped in the city after arriving in Tokyo. They immediately departed the town for the maritime battlefield.

The fortresses at maritime battlefields were a special kind of wartime culture. The East Maritime Fortress in Tokyo had been popular for a long time. The battle between humans and sea monsters on the Pacific Ocean drawn with fresh blood and limbs had been going on for hundreds of years!

Between the ocean and Tokyo, a huge fortress was constructed by the shore. This was the East Maritime Fortress!

Looking down from the sky, the East Maritime Fortress was built in the shape of a crescent. The steel walls were no longer considered walls, but a magnificent dam protecting the modern city of Tokyo. Not only was it protecting Tokyo from the rolling waves, it was also stopping the armies of sea monsters from invading. It was called the Shield of Tokyo by the locals.

The Shield of Tokyo had two different layers. The height of the dam in the first layer was slightly lower, thus its defense was not as efficient.

The dam behind was extremely high. Even a sea creature over a hundred meters tall would have trouble crossing that line of defense.

The two dams were shaped like inward-curving arcs. The ends gradually combined, giving the fortress its crescent shape.

“This East Maritime Fortress looks rather new,” said Jiang Yu.

“Mmm, apart from the materials used for construction, it doesn’t look very different from the other cities. The streets were like squares, too,” said Jiang Shaoxu.

“This is one of the four biggest maritime fortresses in the world, but it doesn’t look like there’s anything special about it. It’s just very close to the ocean,” observed Mu Tingying.

“Let’s report in first.” Nanyu walked ahead of them. She seemed to be familiar with the place.

The East Maritime Fortress was basically gray-white. There were streets, marketplaces, residential structures, tall buildings, and shops. The place did not have corpses of sea monsters scattered everywhere, as they had imagined. Instead, most of the buildings and streets looked relatively new. It was more or less a town built as a part of sea reclamation, with exactly the same style for most of the buildings. They almost thought they had come to the wrong place when they saw the huge crowds on the streets.

However, they discovered most of the people on the streets were Magicians. It was rare to see an ordinary person, as even the vendors of the stalls along the streets were Magicians. They were selling materials like the skins, claws, and organs of sea monsters, suitable for being forged into defensive equipment.

Mo Fan did not stay with the team. He already left with Mochizuki Chihaya as soon as they arrived in Tokyo. After all, he still had a terrifying orb in his hands. It was necessary to get rid of it as soon as possible.

Zhao Manyan and Mu Ningxue were only substitutes for the team. They would not receive any resources regardless of their performance, but they still chose to follow the team to get the training. After all, they could still improve that way. Training was even more important when Magicians felt like their cultivation had reached a bottleneck. Different experiences, continuous battles, the desire to grow stronger, and the determination to surpass their own limits were all provided through training!

“Nanyu, have you been here before?” asked Ai Jiangtu when he discovered that Nanyu was familiar with the area.

“Mm, I came here with a general a few years ago. It was my first time seeing such a huge-scale battle between humans and demon creatures. We’re in luck, the tide hasn’t risen,” said Nanyu.

The others were gathering their focus to listen to Nanyu about her past experience here when a loud noise suddenly came from ahead.

The ground began to shake vigorously at to the voice. Even their heads felt dizzy all of a sudden.

Everyone subconsciously covered their ears. Ai Jiangtu and Nanyu were the closest to the front. They both glanced ahead and saw a pillar torn from one of the buildings flying at them!

“Holy shit!” Zhao Manyan was taken by surprise. He almost forgot to cast his spell.

The others did not expect the sudden accident either. The pillar was at least a meter wide and over ten meters long. It knocked all the lamp poles on both sides of the road down as it flew at the team.

“Dodge it!” a man with orange hair at the side of the road screamed at them.

The man was quite the hero. He realized Mu Ningxue was standing the closest to him, so he quickly cast Wind Track and pounced at her, trying to push her away.

The pillar was flying at the team at a remarkable speed. It was already in front of them. If they were only a bunch of Basic Magicians, the force of the pillar could easily smash them into minced meat!

“Telekinesis!” Ai Jiangtu glowed silver. His gaze sharpened as he faced the pillar. His aura underwent a remarkable change, as if there was nothing he could not control!

The wind produced by the pillar swept at the others, yet the enormous pillar shuddered when it was less than two meters away from the team and came to a sudden stop in the air, not able to move forward any further!

Ai Jiangtu’s eyes were emitting a silver glow as he fixed his gaze on the pillar. As he slowly shifted his gaze down, the pillar was slowly placed on the ground in a strange manner.

“That’s… Space… the Space Element!” The man with orange hair was stunned. His eyes were filled with excitement.

“Let go!” Mu Ningxue’s icy voice snapped.

The man immediately collected his thoughts and apologized to her.

He was in a panic to save Mu Ningxue, thus he had one hand on her shoulder and the other on her back. He was going to drag Mu Ningxue to the side of the road.

Mu Ningxue was not fussed about it, knowing that the man was only trying to save her.

“That scared the shit out of me, I thought the pillar was going to smash you all to death,” said the man with orange hair.

“You do know who to save though,” mocked Jiang Shaoxu.

Mu Ningxue definitely had the highest rate of second glances when she was on the street. Her silver hair dangled behind her like a waterfall. It was particularly attractive to a two-dimensional kingdom like Japan. It was likely that the man had been stalking her, and immediately came to the rescue when the accident happened.

The man did take hold of the opportunity when happiness came all of a sudden. To his surprise, Ai Jiangtu had managed to stop the flying object with a single gaze. Most importantly, Mu Ningxue was also casting a spell, but she was suddenly shoved aside by a stranger.

“She was the closest to me, just that,” the man tried to explain awkwardly. He quickly changed the topic and said, “I’m Hirose, nice to meet you…”

“No one wants to be your friend,” said Zhao Manyan unpleasantly. Where the heck did this guy come from? He was almost scared to death by the man’s scream even though it was only a pillar flying at them; speaking of making a big fuss over a small matter!

“Why would a pillar fly toward us… holy crap, guys, look!” Jiang Yu was in the middle of asking the question when an astonishing scene took place on the street ahead!

Sea monsters!

Their skin was darker than the usual azure blue. They were standing on the street around a hundred meters away. One of the sea monsters had sharp gills like fans under its head that were higher than the roof nearby. They had descended upon the residential area like demons, staring down at the minuscule humans like livestock waiting to be butchered!

“Holy shit, right in the middle of the day…”

“I’m really impressed by the public order of Japan’s town. One, two, there are two of them, both over ten meters tall!”

“What kind of a shitty fortress is this? The sea monsters are able to break into the place just like that!” cursed Zhao Manyan.

While the team was dazzled by the scene before them, an announcement in English suddenly echoed in the air!

“All personnel, sea monsters have appeared in the nineteenth street. Those who are non-combatants should leave or hide in the shelters at once!

“All personnel, sea monsters have appeared in the nineteenth street. It has been confirmed that the sea monsters are two Commander-level Blue Valley Ferocious Beasts. Combatants are advised to eliminate them as soon as possible!”

The announcement repeated for a long time. Everyone was able to hear it clearly.

The crowd on the street was still in good order at the start of the incident. However, when the announcement mentioned the Blue Valley Ferocious Beasts, they began to flee in panic.

“The monsters are Commander-level! Run, run for your lives!”

“This way, the shelter is this way!” The man with orange hair seemed to be an enthusiast. He quickly pointed the direction to safety for those fleeing for their lives.

“Two Commander-level sea monsters have already shown up before the tide has risen. People might die if the Advanced Magicians do not make it in time!” A Wind Magician stayed back, knowing he could outrun the creatures with his speed. He was curious enough to take a closer look at the two Commander-level sea monsters.

“What are you doing here, hurry up to the shelter… hey, hey, what are you all waiting for? Didn’t you hear the announcement? Those creatures are Commander-level!” a middle-aged man yelled at Ai Jiangtu and his crew.

As a matter of fact, the national team who had just arrived in the East Maritime Fortress was still lost in their thoughts.

If it weren’t for the fact that the two ferocious beasts were only less than a hundred meters away, they would never believe that sea monsters were reckless enough to show up in human territory like this!

“The East Maritime Fortress is basically a battlefield. It’s common for the sea monsters to invade the town just like that,” Nanyu said to the others.

“Let’s stop them. Otherwise, these Commander-level monsters will surely result in lots of casualties,” suggested Ai Jiangtu fearlessly.

“I’ll pass. Those two are Commander-level, after all…” said Jiang Yu.

“We’ll see how it goes first,” said Ai Jiangtu after second thought. There was indeed no reason to put the team at risk, not to mention that most members on the team were still in the Intermediate Level. Even those who had achieved the Advanced Level were unable to cast Advanced Spells fluidly. The Commander-level creatures would kill them in an instant!

The Blue Valley Ferocious Beasts had muscular upper limbs, and their bodies were covered in glowing, icy scales. On top of that, the scales had sharp spikes between them, especially on their four arms, which were as thick as hammers. Their arms were covered by spikes. If the creatures hit them with their arms, they would most likely be impaled on them!

Their lower bodies were like giant shrimp, covered in blue armor that glimmering like jewels. The legs of a shrimp were thin and long, like whiskers, but the legs of the Blue Valley Ferocious Beasts were sharp and long. They looked more like the legs of a gigantic mantis instead…

A shrimp was usually considered a gentle creature, yet these Blue Valley Ferocious Beasts were giving off a ferocious aura. Even without their spiked arms, it felt like their legs could easily stab through anything. They looked extremely dangerous and menacing!

Obviously, creatures like these were considered were exceedingly dangerous in the East Maritime Fortress. After the announcement and alarm went off, the people who initially thought they were only some small sea monsters immediately fled to the shelters in panic.

Luckily, the people in the town were quite used to emergencies like this. Most of the people were Magicians, so the Blue Valley Ferocious Beasts had yet to kill anyone. They were venting their frustrations on the buildings!

“Not all buildings in the East Maritime Fortress are occupied. Some are built just to distract the sea monsters,” Nanyu informed them.

“That’s good to hear. Otherwise, it’s difficult to tell how many would die if the buildings were full of residents.”

The two Blue Valley Ferocious Beasts were extremely hot-tempered. They simply grabbed onto a building and dragged it off of its foundation, before lifting it above their heads.

Unfortunately, the sea monsters happened to be tossing the building in the direction of the team. Ai Jiangtu realized the approaching danger and immediately unleashed his will to slow down the building flying at them.

“The building is too big, I can’t stop it completely!” Ai Jiangtu told the others behind him.

“Don’t worry, we can handle ourselves!”

“Such violent sea monsters!”

Lifting a building and tossing it at them; it clearly showed the terrifying strength of the creatures!

Luckily, the members of the national team had simultaneously cast defensive spells. A huge Sacred Shield: Rampart and Rock Barrier immediately appeared in front of the team and protected them.

The gray-white building smashed into pieces after colliding with the Sacred Shield: Rampart. It totally collapsed as it hit the Rock Barrier, sweeping the dust into the air across the street.

“They discovered our presence, back off!” Jiang Shaoxu was a Psychic Magician. She immediately sensed the anger of the two ferocious beasts.

The team immediately withdrew. They were almost at the end of the street when one of the Blue Valley Ferocious Beasts caught up to them.

The creature had smashed its way through the debris. It stood on the wreckage of the building as its third eye poked out and glared at the members of the national team through the dust scattered in the air.

“Run, run, run!”

“Go right!”

“Why not left?”

“What’s with the nonsense!”

It was difficult to come to a consensus when there were too many people. Li Kaifeng, Guan Yu, Jiang Shaoxu, and Zu Jiming were initially heading left before they realized Zhou Xu, Zhao Manyan, Nan Rongni, Mu Ningxue, Ai Jiangtu, and the rest had gone right instead. They quickly turned around to regroup with the team.

The speed of Commander-level creatures was rather shocking. Since the Blue Valley Ferocious Beasts were smaller in size than other Commander-level creatures, it usually implied that they either had impressive speed or were able to cast powerful spells.

The Blue Valley Ferocious Beast lunged out from the debris. The long legs on both sides of its body were moving rapidly as it caught up to Jiang Shaoxu and Zu Jiming in mere seconds!