By now, the guests in the remaining pavilions and servants had become aware of Lord Turnbull's attempt to arrest some pavilion guests and the battle it had led to. Along with the sounds of explosions, they had hurriedly come out expecting a battle where three lone disciples desperately fought against Lord Turnbull and his army. They had expected a pitiful and one-sided battle that would end within a few moments. And the few who realized that their 'divine musician' was one of these three disciples couldn't help but run over in worry and fear.
But on the contrary, they had been awe-struck at the sight of the majestic sea-fortress defending against the attacks of a crooked rainbow. Their jaws had hit the floor when they realized that the sea-fortress was a formation set up by the three disciples. To their further surprise, this formation continued to hold on against their Market Hall Manager renowned for his power in commanding armies. The fans of the 'divine musician' couldn't help but rejoice at this surprising turn of events!
They had also come to know that Lord Turnbull was exercising his power to apprehend these fellow disciples, who were expected to compete for the sake of the Lyon Family, on the unfair claims of having attacked Will O'Dale. This was undoubtedly a suspicious event. However, they wouldn't dare complain or protest. Nevertheless, they continued to watch on this battle with great pity for the unlucky disciples, while the fans of 'the divine musician' held out hope for the survival of their idol.
But deep down all the spectators thought that the current stalemate between the two parties would be short-lived. Lord Turnbull had yet to go all out or even use the resources available to him as a Manager. As such, in their minds, the defeat of these three disciples was a definite result. Unless, of course, Lord Leslie was to return earlier than expected...
Disregarding the new spectators, the rainbow globes continued to descend upon the fortress walls and explode in clouds of colorful qi. And yet, the grey fortress stood undamaged at the very center of the explosions. However, with each explosion wreaking havoc on the walls, the silver-grey walls of the sea fortress began to glow brighter.
Boom! Boom!
The colorful explosions continued to rain damage upon the fortress. With each explosion, the sea fortress glowed brighter and brighter. Within a few moments, the fortress was extremely bright; enough to momentarily blind anyone who stared too long.
Zhen Shi who was standing within the very center of the fortress formation was barely able to discern that the fortress was gathering energy and had now reached a tipping point...
And then, just one more colored globe exploded upon the fortress causing the bright glow to reach a threshold. Seeing this, Myne grinned as he pushed forward with two hands. Instantly the glowing energy of the fortress was dragged out and gathered into a single white sphere radiating a dangerous qi. Myne's grin grew wider as he flicked his out-stretched hands. Instantly, a shadow of a grey cannon appeared and the white sphere was loaded in like a cannon-ball.
Kaboom!
A loud explosion rang out as the cannon fired. The white cannon-ball dashed forwards leaving behind a single white streak. Instantly, the cannonball ripped the crooked rainbow apart as it shot towards Lord Turnbull and his army.
Seeing this sudden and unexpected attack Lord Turnbull frowned as he shouted out, "Shield!" Instantly every soldier brought out their weapons and lifted them in a defensive position. Their perfect synchronized movements instantly caused small shields of multi-colored qi to appear above them. In an instant, these small shields combined together forming a single giant shield composed of multiple patched shields of different colors.
In fact, it looked rather strange with all the different colors patched together. However, it was completely sufficient to defend against the incoming attack.
Bang!
The white cannon-ball struck against the multi-colored shield with a loud explosion. For a few moments, nothing happened as they pushed against each other trying to gain the upper hand. Suddenly a few cracks appeared on the multi-colored shield, but at the same time, the intensity of the cannonball lessened.
This struggle continued for a while longer. Suddenly, with the sound of glass splintering, the shield cracked apart. However, the cannonball dissipated at the same time.
With the initial conflict over, silence reigned over the battlefield for a few moments, while the shadows of the rainbow and the white streak dissipated. Lord Turnbull was about to speak out in confidence but the impatient Zhen Shi beat him to it. He shouted out, "Turnbull, when will you stop hiding behind your army and fight like a real man?"
Lord Turnbull's veins throbbed in anger as he scowled at the Sea-Fortress. He could not see through the walls of the sea-fortress and thus could not figure out who it was that had spoken, and so stayed silent for a few moments...
On the other hand, the crowd viewing the battle couldn't help but nod their heads in agreement. Despite Lord Turnbull's ability and power, they couldn't help but agree with this logic. After all, it made perfect sense for the formation master of the sea-fortress to say this to Lord Turnbull who was leading an entire army! But, of course, they would've vomited blood if they knew that the shout had come from Zhen Shi who was hiding within the formation himself.
Myne stared at Zhen Shi in disbelief and sent mentally, "How can you be so shameless? You're doing the same thing!" Zhen Shi had realized the flaw in his logic moments immediately after having shouted. Nevertheless, he shrugged as he said, "If it's such a big problem to you, just think I said it in your place!"
Vivienne who still had her hands on Myne's back, couldn't help but laugh lightly, while Myne stared on in disbelief at this shameless brother of his.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
But this moment was short-lived as Lord Turnbull who had been unable to handle his anger when he had seen the agreeing faces of the spectators and roared out, "Edict: BULL-CHARGE!"
He had been directly applying the energy of the army in all of his previous attacks. Since that had been insufficient to destroy the fortress formation, he now channeled the energy through himself and into the apparition of the metallic-bull behind him. Instantly a torrent of qi was pulled out of the soldiers of the army, causing their skin to visibly pale. These qi torrents combined with the shadow of the bull that had been behind Lord Turnbull this entire time, causing that shadow to grow stronger and more life-like.
Within a few moments, a terrifying metallic black bull with pearl-white horns and eyes filled with rage was floating above Lord Turnbull and his army. It pawed the air with its hooves in a manner that would have kicked up dust had it been on the ground. It lowered its head allowing it's white horn to glint dangerously under the morning sunlight and snorted out clouds of smoke from its nostrils menacingly.
Without a moment's notice, it dashed forwards causing a wave of qi and wind to blast out.
Meanwhile, Myne hurriedly communicated, "It appears that I overestimated this Lord Turnbull. He can only call upon the true Würd to a limited extent. Just now he used some sort of external blessing or pact to summon the bull and send forth this attack... Nevertheless, I don't think my formation can survive more than a few blows from the bull. So unless you have an idea, I'll have to go all out to end this..." with a hint of hesitation.
Vivienne furrowed her brow in worry, but couldn't come up with any ideas of her own. On the other hand, Zhen Shi frowned in thought and sent out, "This bull... It acted very realistically, despite being formed from qi. Why?"
Myne hurriedly answered, "That is due to the influence of the mind. All the practices of magic are closely tied with the thoughts of the caster and his beliefs. Especially the way of the Würd. A Würd only holds power as long as the meaning is known. Just then the manifestation of the bull was influenced by the thoughts and beliefs of Turnbull and the entire army that supplied him with energy, causing it to act as it did..."
Zhen Shi's eyes glowed brightly as he hurriedly interrupted Myne and asked, "Last question. Do Würd Wielders have complete control over their qi manifestations?"
Myne frowned for a moment eyeing the bull that was rapidly charging forwards. He resolutely shook his head, "Usually, yes. However, unlike the previous attacks, this has been strengthened with some form of divine support. Thus Turnbull should have lost control the moment he launched the attack. In fact, I think he should've used a more direct attack than using an animate figure to do the attacking..."
Zhen Shi grinned confidently as he interrupted Myne once more and spoke out, "Now... give me a device that grants control of your formations!"
He knew that this was a rather sudden request which might be difficult to be satisfied under normal circumstances. However, he had noticed how Myne had used those bronze globes to bring out formation talismans previously as if they had been stored away for later use, rather than creating them on the spot... He could only conclude that it was a special device to bring out more formation talismans than one could under normal circumstances. Thus he had held out hope that Myne might have a similar device for controlling formations.
Myne was confused by this request for a moment but nodded his head deciding to believe in Zhen Shi. With only a few moments before the Bull reached them, he manifested a golden disc. This was a tool that was commonly used by formation masters to allow control of formations in their absence. He threw it at Zhen Shi while mentally saying, "Just send your thoughts into the control disc."
Zhen Shi nodded absently and hurriedly followed suit commanding the formations as he deemed fit.
Myne and Vivienne stared rather blankly expecting some change to take place in the sea-fortress. But nothing happened... Instead, a sudden and powerful roar came out from below the sea-fortress.
Instead of controlling the Sea-Fortress with the amulet, Zhen Shi had used the Amulet to free Will O'Dale who was now just in front of their pavilion. Instantly, the formation restraining him retreated and formed a single amulet talisman attached just behind his neck.
Under the influence of that Divine Curse, Will O'Dale was still seething in rage and a deep desire for battle. The moment he had been freed he had roared out in rage and murderous-intent while searching for battle
On one side all he could see was a golden pavilion and a calm sea-fortress within a floating sea of qi. On the other, he could see an army and a charging angry bull. So as on who to attack and start a battle, he made the obvious choice. Immediately he let out a roar causing that strange red energy to manifest around him and dashed towards the raging bull while brandishing his unarmed fists.
Previously, the restrained Will O'Dale had been ignored by everyone, but now, his sudden roar had made him the central focus.
All the spectators including Laura and Hao Lei gawked at this sudden attacker who was dressed from head to toe in blood-red clothes and was even bathed in terrifying scarlet energy.
Lord Turnbull's face frowned in disbelief, while even the thoughtless army behind him paused in surprise for a moment.
Myne and Vivienne were confused as to why Zhen Shi had released Will O'Dale sending him to an obvious and purposeless death.
On the other hand, the manifestation of the Black Bull had been innocently and happily charging to destroy the fortress just like it had been commanded. But suddenly it's vision had fallen on to a person who was roaring at it in a challenge. To make matters worse, this attacker was completely covered in RED!
The bull could have chosen between attacking a silent fortress that was minding its own business or... this arrogant human covered in red and was obviously attempting to threaten and irritate it. And so, just like Will O'Dale before, the Bull who was enraged at the sight of the color red made the obvious choice...
With a snort of a cloud of smoke, the Bull changed course and charged towards the red target, innocently and happily.
Zhen Shi grinned confidently as he watched on with eyes filled with pride at his own intellect...But everyone else was confused.
Myne and Vivienne stared with widened eyes at this strange event.
Lord Turnbull almost coughed blood at his own attack charging towards 'his victim'. This turn of events was a slap in his own face!
The silent spectators were even more confused, "Why on earth is the Lord attacking his own subordinate? Didn't he come to save that kid? Has he lost control of his own bull?"
However, the most confused was Will O'Dale. The sight of the raging bull charging towards him had jarred his sub-conscious slightly awake from the effects of the divine curse. He had immediately realized that colliding with this monstrous beast would spell certain death for him. But with only his sub-conscious he was unable to make his body run away or dodge. Helpless to change the situation he could only curse in his thoughts.
An innocent and happy bull facing a red target that continues to curse mentally... head towards a collision.