Chapter 0166

“Greed and foolishness go hand in hand.” Graden thought to himself before perking up at the thought of his little beauties dining on mage flesh as dessert. Ah, he had been very careful with his power that he hadn’t let them come out and a feast for a while. The magical beasts they ate previously only whet their appetite for more. “I’ll show them we aren’t weaklings who they can bully at any time.”

Graden turned to look at his group and realized why Hannah Trellis chose this time to pick a fight.

Their group has a bloody and wounded Bei Ting Mao, Li Ming and Fenix who were exhausted and can barely fight, useless Starm, twitching on the floor Tempest and Graden, a weak fire wood mage.

Hannah Trellis had Mark Aventil, Flunky One and Flunky Two here. They were all in good health, had plenty of mana and could still fight.

The unpredictable variable were the five mages in the cave with them. They look to be a rag tagged individualist bunch who would turn on each other at the first sign of temptation. They’d also be easy to take out after Tempest’s group was taken care of as they were all wounded in various places from the previous fight.

Unobservant little fool.

The blood on Bei Ting Mao wasn’t his own. He was in good condition to fight. As for the two starlets, they were in better condition than Bei Ting Mao. Li Ming might be a little slow on the uptake but Fenix understood the situation with just a glance and started faking being wounded the second they entered the cave. Starm looks useless but he’s the deadliest among them. Graden didn’t have a chance to fight. His little beauties were very fast to collect fertilizer. They didn’t give him a chance to lift a finger.

The only one who was incapable of fighting was Tempest and she had long since recovered, judging from the malicious grin she wasn’t trying very hard to hide.

“All the complaining before was just to rally people to your cause. You were aiming for our treasure in the first place.” Graden sneered. “You’re nothing but a bunch of greedy fools.”

“So you admit you used us to get the treasures from the chaotic rift.” Hannah Trellis immediately pounced on Graden’s evasion as an admission of guilt. She looked down up Graden with a smug expression. All she needed was an opening to pull the other mages to her cause and Graden has given her one.

“Damn shameless bastards, using us as your pawns!”

“How dare you scheme against your own guild! Wait until I get back. You’d have to answer to our Mercenary Captain.”

“Will your greed know no bounds? Your shamelessness disgusts me. I was fighting until I nearly exhausted my mana out there. If I knew I was wasting my mana protecting a group of backstabbing bastards, I wouldn't have tried so hard.”

The variable mages were quick to jump in to admonish Tempest’s group. They were angered at the idea of a bunch of new recruits who don’t know how high the sky was dared to scheme against them. They were united in their purpose to teach the bastards a lesson and if they took a few resources for their trouble, well, they can only say their luck was bad.

“Pathetic ignorant fools. Chaotic rifts occur by chance. If we knew ahead of time one was going to open at our location, we would have snatched all the treasures for ourselves instead of trying to organize a bunch of useless mages as cannon fodders. Once the news got out that we have a treasure from a chaotic rift, we will be the subject of a manhunt. The more people who know the worse our situation is going to be.” Graden explained while subtlely warning the other mages not to get ideas. They won’t be able to hold onto the treasure from the chaotic rift if word gets out.

“Yet you aren’t denying it.” Hannah Trellis pushed the issue, completely ignoring Graden’s warning. The other mages didn’t bother to hide their evil intent either. Everyone slowly positioned themselves to gain the best advantage.

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“The one you saw snatching the treasure is spasming in pain on the ground. Do you really think she’s capable of snatching treasures in her condition.” Graden pointed to Tempest who was really spasming on the ground.

Astrapi, who was in control of Tempest’s body, allowed the spasm to wrack Tempest’s body throughout the entire argument because it was one of the easiest methods for Astrapi to convert the chaotic power into mana.

All the mages gave Tempest a quick glance before focusing their attention on Graden, whom they perceived to be the greatest threat. `

“She being incapacitated only proves my point. She looks to be a victim of chaotic power overload.”

The other mages silently agreed with Hannah Trellis.

“You aren’t going to believe us no matter what we -” Graden got cut off mid-sentence and one of the variable mages sent a Fireball his way.

The Fireball act as a signal for the three sides to attack each other.

Hannah Trellis affected a stunned expression as if she couldn’t believe someone would attack Graden without waiting for his explanation. In actuality, Hannah Trellis wasn’t stunned at all by the sudden attack. She merely acted stunned to give time for other mages to rush in and attack Tempest’s group. She wanted the two sides to weaken each other first then she’ll finish everyone off.

The variable mages aren't stupid either. They figured out what Hannah Trellis was going to do, so they took the chance to attack Graden when Hannah Trellis was closest to him so Graden would attack her first thereby weakening her faction.

Li Ming was the first to react. She shot a Water Ball to intercept the Fireball headed towards Graden. The two spells clashed and created a mist cloud.

Bei Ting Mao took advantage of the situation to launch his attack, “Spiritual Earth Sword Art: Daunting Chiasm.” Bei Ting Mao was able to cut off one of the variable mages head before another mage engaged him a sword fight.

Mages tend to favor long-range fights where they can lob spells after spells on their enemies. Attacking from range is ideal, however, more and more mages find themselves forced to engage in close combat. Mages who live long enough becomes proficient in both long-range attacks and close combat.

This variable mage had lived for over three hundred years. He had to learn a few skills to supplement his small mana reserves. Sword skills were one of them. “Sword Skill: Scarlet Fire, Blazing Might.”

“Spiritual Earth Sword Art: Might of the Mountain.” The weight of Bei Ting Mao’s attack shattered the variable mage’s sword skill.

Still, the mage didn’t live for three hundred years for anything. “Smoulder Waves, Sword Skill: Crimson Slash.” Smoldering Waves was a combination spell of earth and fire. The variable mage fused the combination magic with his Sword Skill: Crimson Slash to amplify the already potent attack.

“Gravitational Vortex.” Bei Ting Mao used Gravitational Vortex to change the angle of the combination spell sword skill attack. Instinct and his spirits told him it was a high-level ability his opponent was using. Bei Ting Mao knew he couldn’t easily dodge the attack so he used his own spell to tilt the angle of attack. “Spiritual Earth Sword Art: Defense of the Earth.”

“No wonder you dare covet the treasure from the chaotic rift. You aren’t without skill.” The mage was impressed. If he didn’t know for a fact these guys were new recruits he’d thought he was fighting one of the old ones or even an Elder of the guild.

A combination spell fused with a sword art allows the mage to kill another mage two levels higher than him. Sadly, the man had been able to exert the power of a yellow mage. He’d never been able to cross over to the Inner Stage of a mage’s cultivation.

Bei Ting Mao barely survived the attack as it was. He was lucky the previous buff he cast was still in effect. Iron Skin was able to drastically reduce his opponent’s attack power. He’d come out of the clash with a minor burn on his shoulders.

Bei Ting Mao grinned happily and got into his fighting stance.

When his dan tian was destroyed, the only option he had was to cultivate as a mage. He was lucky since cultivating the heart didn’t require much on his part, yet a part of him chafed at the idea of throwing away all of his previous effort as a body cultivator.

Tempest mentioning the spirits could heal him gave him hope. He knew he had to continue cultivating the heart as his immortal path but he can still fight using the sword. He was a swordsman at heart and throwing away the sword was like throwing away his right arm. When he learned he could cultivate both, he picked up a sword once more.

When his group was getting to know each other, he deliberately attacks using the sword. Yes, he must cultivate the heart. It doesn’t mean he has to fight like a mage. He just had to figure out how.

When he was attacked by the sword art fused with spells, it showed him a path he could take. He wanted to fight more, see more, learn more. Bei Ting Mao fought with his life on the line. It was the only way to force this mage to show a few more of his trump cards.