Chapter 0042

“Damn cowards.” Emery cursed in her heart, “And damn crazy morons.”

Emery knew what was going on. She wasn’t born yesterday.

Those who knew they can’t pass the test for the Brilliant Yin Sect are saving their energy, waiting for an opportunity to run away. Those were the cowards Emery was cursing. Then there were the crazies, who were worse than the cowards, depending on the situation.

The insane red mage is alright. Her spells hit the Iron Clawed Wolves in their vital spots, either maiming them or killing them outright.

Her sudden burst of insanity isn’t much of a problem either. Emery has a situational awareness sense, thanks to a certain red hair bastard who likes to go to unsavory places in the name of business. She knows there is a plot enacted during the ambush. Tempest is aiming for those assassins. Her yelling “Betrayers will die” is an obvious indication of the situation at hand.

As long as one is careful, Tempest’s spell is easy to avoid.

It is the mad dog trying to subtly not so subtly kill her that’s giving her a problem.

Who is the hairy sasquatch trying to fool?

Attacking her with a low tier technique, Earthen Strike, few seconds after the Alpha Iron Clawed Wolf have already moved from the spot is not being subtle. If she was trying to hide her intentions, she needs to do a better job at it. Even an idiot can tell she’s taking advantage of the situation to settle a grudge she has with Emery, although for the life of the caramel skinned woman, she doesn’t know what she has done to provoke the mad dog.

After this is over, Emery swear she’s going to avoid insane people, or at least, keep a wide berth.

The mad dog isn’t the only one taking advantage of the situation to settle personal vendettas. Terra, a girl dressed in black leather attacking the wolves with a sword in one hand strikes the other mercenaries with the dagger she’d keep hidden in the other, another girl in green mimicking or trying to mimic Tempest’s attack when she targets the other mercenaries, or that blue eyed wraith dancing between everything and attacking everything are whole-heartedly taking advantage of the chaos to pursue their own agendas. 

All these sly foxes are doing their best to eliminate the competition while doing their best to appear like a heroine defending the weak from the big bad wolf.

After a few more attacks, the mad dog skip the subtleties and went straight to outright attacking.

Dodge.

Dodge.

Parry.

“You damn crazy woman. What do you think you are doing?” Since the other side shed all pretense of cordiality, Emery will do the same.

“Kill!” A guttural reply came from the hairy sasquatch.

“You have gone insane.” Emery yelled as she parried Ellen’s attack. After this endeavor is over, Emery going to run faaaaaar away from anyone mentally unstable.

Emery’s statement was far from the truth.

The once clear brown eyes clouded over with a red tinge. Movements once graceful became jerky, as if the mad dog was possessed by a ghost. With the stiff movement came blows that were three times stronger than before.

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Emery had to evade instead of blocking. Her bones can’t handle the jostle that comes with parring the attacks.

“Kill!” The longer they fought, the stronger Ellen’s attack became.

Bang!

“Damn it. My sword! I had to go on three extra excursions to pay for that sword.” Emery screamed while she brought out her real weapons, a pair of sharp daggers she wears on her thighs.

Emery didn’t protest when Aria Se Jivock called her a poser. Truth was hard to refute and Emery doesn’t possess the gift of the gab. Unlike a smooth talking merchant, Emery can’t invert black to white. Aria Se Jivock spoke the truth. Emery was trying to pass herself off as a swordsman when in actuality she is more proficient in daggers.

Shing.

Shing.

Twin Slice, a low level dagger technique Emery learned from a manual she took from a stupid thief she met in the back alley of a seedy town. The stupid red haired bastard offered her a better dagger technique. For a price.

A leopard can’t change its spots. A merchant can’t give away anything without expecting anything in return. It’s in their blood. All they think about is profit, profit, profit.

Emery needed to hone her close combat skills since the bastard insisted on conducting business in the most unsavory places. As his guard, Emery decided to add this low-level skill to her arsenal. It’s easier to fight in a back alley with a dagger than a sword.

Shing.

Shing.

Twin Shadow Slice. Fundamental low-level skills are the easiest to improve. Emery discovered that by adding either mental power, qi or soul force to her dagger technique, she can upgrade the technique from a low-level skill to a middle level skill.

Ellen instinctively ignores the first technique, sensing it wasn’t a threat to her, but parry the second technique.

“Tsk. Mad dog got animal instinct huh?” Emery jeered as she continued to fight the berserk woman.

Due to everyone taking advantage of the chaotic situation to pursue their own agenda, the pressure on the Alpha Iron Clawed Wolf lessen enough for it to focus on a more vulnerable target, and who else is better than a black hair annoyance frozen in fear?

It lunged at its prey. It already can taste the blood flowing into its mouth when it bites into the soft succulent flesh.

Two pesky mosquitoes got in its way. It can change its target to the two fighting it but the scent of fear wafting off the other one draws it. With a paw swipe, those 2 pest was knocked back.

Suddenly the Alpha Iron Claw Wolf sense a torrential power coming from a blond human to its left. It tried to move out of the danger zone but it was too late.

“Frozen Moon.”

An icy cold power rushed out from Jean. It was colder than the coldest winter Emery experienced, seeping deeper than her bones, into her very soul.

The spell froze everyone within a 100km radius. The spell work similar to the domain abilities higher level cultivators can use.

An icy cold power, unlike Emery have ever felt before, rushed out from Jean. Instead of freezing only the Alpha Iron Clawed Wolf, it froze everyone in the area.

Area of effect spells has multiple advantages, chief among them is the ability to affect everything in the specified area. Stories of millions of cultivators being wiped out in a day can be attributed to stupid mages trying to cast a massive area of effect spell. They ultimately lose control of the spell resulting in their death and all the living creature within the area weaker than the caster.

A major drawback to area of effect spells is the cost. It takes a lot of mana to cast an area of effect spell. Most mages will never cast an area of effect spell unless they are absolutely sure they have complete control over the spell and have ample reserve to hold the spell or else the backlash can kill them.

From Jean’s expression, she can hold the spell for a minute, max.

A minute isn’t a long time but it is long enough for a low moving sasquatch to come over and beheaded Emery. Emery was lucky enough to be further away from Jean and the mad dog when Jean cast the spell. It gave her enough time to move farther back, increasing the distance between her and the mad dog.

Sadly, Jean reserve is working against her because even with a powerful spell freezing everyone, the mad dog can still move. She’s ten times slower without the spell, but it is still dangerous for Emery since she can’t move at all. Emery can only blame herself for the condition she is in right now.

Berserk, Berserker Rage, Insanity Inducement, Crazed Heart and Madness are all the names given to the state of mind a cultivators enter went they are driven to the point where they trade all rationality for strength, endurance and power. The cultivators gains about ten times their strength, however they can’t control their actions. They obey their instinct or are driven to complete the task they assigned to themselves before they enter the state.

The benefits to the state of mind are the permanent increase in strength, endurance and power. They do not regress back to their cultivation level before they enter a state of mind. Unfortunately, where there are great benefits, there are great risks. It is almost impossible for a cultivator to regain their rationality once they enter a state of mind.

After being told stories after stories about the Mysterious Wasteland by the bastard, Emery should have recognized the situation before now. She hates the man droning on and on about stupid gossip, she learns to let the noise go in one ear and out the other.

Emery had to hand it to the mad dog. The berserker ability is amazing. Her foundation must be very solid for her it to increase her strength to this degree.

Even being held down by the spell, the mad dog can still move. Even the Alpha Iron Clawed Wolf, a level 3 magical beast specializing in strength of the body is held down by Jean’s spell.

Still, the sword the mad dog is swing is inching closer and closer to her neck.

“Jean, shrink the spell!” Emery yelled out. Going by Emery’s position relative to Ellen and Jean, if the area of the spell was to shrink down, it will remove the restriction on Emery before Ellen.

Nothing.

“Release us, so we can kill the enemy!”

Nothing.

Emery began to panic. Even though she was yelling at the top of her lungs, no one was able to hear her.

The blade of the mad dog inched ever so closer to her neck and she’s frozen like… whatever!

The thought flitted out of Emery’s head, replaced by “I don’t want to die,” repeating itself over and over.

Emery’s panic eyes stared at the Ellen’s myopic ones.

Suddenly, something snapped.

Emery felt it.

Ellen felt it.

As if someone injected Ellen with adrenaline on top of her Berserker Rage strength, Ellen jumped, did a somersault in the air while executing a complicated move and behead the Alpha Iron Clawed Wolf.

Once the danger had passed, everyone move as if they are in a movie after the viewer pushed the fast forward button.

The Iron Clawed Wolves fled.

The mercenaries finished off the stragglers and regroup.

Emery…

Emery fell on her perky bottom wondering what in the world just happened.