46: wake

"Captain, if you had magic like this, you should have brought it out earlier!" Drill Mouse complained, though his heart was filled with a sense of security.

"Captain, this won't have any side effects, will it?" Evil Axe asked with some concern.

Those Black Flames looked no different from the mercenary's; they didn't feel like some righteous or noble technique.

As the saying goes, powerful skills often come with risks.

There was no telling what price the Captain had to pay to cast this magic, or if there would be any adverse reactions later.

Ronan was very satisfied with the lethality of the Black Flame Arrow and said with a smile,

"If I had to mention a side effect, it might be... I don't look much like a good person?"

Not far away, the shocked Vice Commander's face immediately darkened upon hearing this.

Who are you saying isn't a good person?

If this were in the past, he would have used his spear to slap the mouth of whoever said that until it was swollen.

As for now... he was still in the middle of a battle and had no time to care about who said it.

"White Night, you can actually forcibly absorb 'Black Hellfire' for elemental conversion..."

After confirming that Ronan's Black Flame Arrow shared the same power as Kane, the Mercenary Vice Commander of the Shadow Mercenary Group,

Red Star reached a conclusion that even he found hard to believe.

The mechanism of "Elemental Flying Arrow" for absorbing and converting elements usually involved substances that did not touch upon the transcendent realm, such as the simplest water, fire, and earth.

Once the absorbed element involved the transcendent,

then the absorption would require a massive amount of Spiritual Power as a foundation, and sometimes other restrictive thresholds would be added.

He remembered a senior at the Academy who was proficient in "Elemental Flying Arrow."

Because of a sudden whim one day, he wanted to absorb a type of spiritual flame for elemental conversion.

As a result, the moment he absorbed it, his entire person was burned to charcoal by the spiritual flame.

And the intensity of that spiritual flame was not even half that of 'Black Hellfire'.

"Are you... a member of the Cerberus family?" Red Star asked hesitantly.

"Who?"

Ronan didn't quite understand if the other party was talking to him or the Mercenary Vice Commander.

He remembered the Mercenary Vice Commander had that surname.

The Vice Commander originally wanted to blurt out the words 'Is he even worthy?',

but once he thought about how the other party could also use the same power as himself, he suddenly became somewhat hesitant.

"White Night, do you have the Cerberus bloodline?"

Red Star asked again with a serious face, as if this question was very important to him.

"No... I think?"

Go ask the original owner.

Ronan really didn't know the original owner's background.

But if it was only because he 'could absorb Black Flames and convert them into Black Flame Arrows', then it most likely wasn't the case.

Because this was the result of him using a massive amount of Spiritual Power to violently suppress and forcibly absorb it.

But although he answered this way without much thought, the listener took it to heart.

Red Star seemed to have heard the answer he wanted and no longer dwelled on the absurd conclusion he had drawn.

The Vice Commander in mid-air fell into deep thought, the light in his eyes flickering constantly.

Red Star's expression was no longer serious, and he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

Only then did he notice a familiar figure standing behind him.

"Annual Ring, you're awake?"

Red Star was delighted and was about to share the good news that the crisis had been resolved,

when Annual Ring suddenly reached out both hands, grabbed Red Star's neck, and lifted him up.

"An... nual Ring..." Red Star struggled to speak.

"What are you doing?!"

Everyone reacted immediately.

Drill Mouse instantly activated "Hidden Stab" and appeared behind Annual Ring, swinging his hand to strike the back of his neck.

The blow landed, but it had no effect at all.

Annual Ring acted as if nothing happened, his face numb, and continued to choke Red Star.

Ronan seemed to see a translucent phantom on him.

The phantom was like a guardian spirit, controlling Annual Ring's every move.

"What are you good for?" Evil Axe cursed and quickly came behind Annual Ring.

He flipped his axe, used the back of it to face Annual Ring's neck, and jumped up to deliver a fierce blow.

Thud.

Annual Ring staggered a few steps, and Red Star took the opportunity to struggle free from his grasp.

"As expected of the boss," Drill Mouse couldn't help but praise.

"Of, of course," Evil Axe replied somewhat guiltily.

He had actually wanted to knock the other party unconscious, but who knew the guy wouldn't show any signs of passing out at all.

Instead, he turned around and attacked him.

Evil Axe felt his dwarven dignity was being challenged, and he flipped the axe blade back around.

"You haven't died before, have you?"

Evil Axe had already decided that as long as the other party dared to launch an attack, whichever limb he reached out, he would chop off.

"Don't."

Red Star seemed to see through Evil Axe's intention and immediately spread his arms toward Evil Axe, using his own body to block the path to Annual Ring.

After he took this stance, Annual Ring suddenly stopped moving.

Red Star turned his head and saw Annual Ring standing behind him.

A translucent humanoid phantom emerged from his body,

enveloping his entire body as if putting a suit of translucent armor on him.

"An..." Red Star hadn't finished speaking.

The phantom began to eat Annual Ring's body bite by bite.

From skin to flesh to bone, Annual Ring seemed to be decomposed out of thin air, and in the blink of an eye, he was completely devoured.

In an instant, the phantom became more solid.

At that moment.

An arrow made of Black Flames arrived at high speed, pointing directly at the phantom.

This was a Black Flame Arrow fired by Ronan at the phantom.

However, the scene he had imagined of heavily wounding the phantom with one arrow did not occur.

The arrow passed directly through the phantom, leaving only a trace of flickering Black Flame on its body.

The lethality of the Black Flame Arrow against the phantom was limited.

But compared to physical attacks, it at least had some effect.

Ronan saw Evil Axe charge forward fiercely, delivering one axe blow after another at the phantom.

Every heavy swing passed directly through the phantom, hitting nothing.

All physical attacks were completely ineffective against the phantom, and elemental attacks also had almost no effect.

Ronan even found time to use a Scorching Ray, but the effect was also negligible.

Since physical and elemental attacks were useless... what about mental attacks?

One should know that the non-attribute arrows of "Elemental Flying Arrow" were entirely composed of Spiritual Power.

What would happen if he attacked with just a non-attribute arrow?

Although Ronan was somewhat reluctant to give up the Black Flame Arrow,

after seeing that there were still Black Flames remaining across the square that could still be converted into Black Flame Arrows,

he did not hesitate to perform a non-attribute conversion.

Before long, a transparent arrow composed of Spiritual Power appeared in his hand.

"Fire."

Ronan roared, urging the flying arrow in his hand toward the phantom.

This was his last resort; if it still had no effect, he would have to prepare to run.

Whoosh.

The non-attribute arrow hit the phantom's chest dead center.

In an instant, the phantom twisted, seemingly experiencing extreme pain.

It works!

Ronan's face lit up with joy, and five transparent arrows immediately appeared in his hand.

However, the phantom's pain seemed to have triggered some kind of switch.

The Altar beneath everyone's feet suddenly seemed to activate, and various unknown runes began to emerge on the surface of the Altar.

Ronan sensed trouble and immediately fired the five non-attribute arrows at the phantom.

He wasn't going to give the enemy time to prepare.

All five arrows hit the phantom, causing it to twist even more, but they did not kill it.

Just as Ronan was preparing to create more arrows,

the Altar beneath his feet suddenly lit up with traces of green light.

Immediately after, the wound on the phantom's chest stabilized.

"This is..."

The green light enveloped everyone on the Altar, and Ronan felt the fatigue in his body vanish instantly.

No matter how slow he was, he knew this was an area-of-effect healing magic.

With Ronan's current attack power,

if he tried to wear down this area-of-effect healing magic—which had no telling how long it would last—using non-attribute arrows,

the first one to fall would definitely be himself.

Just as he was hesitating whether he should flee immediately, a familiar voice came from the other side of the Altar.

"Where is this... Eh, White Night?" Ash Leaf said in surprise.