Law of Space and Time

Chapter 42-1: Negotiations During Battle (1)

Erwin and Larwood finally knew why there weren't any magicians among the Skycourt Kingdom's ranks now. As it turned out, all of their magicians were hiding in that airship.

Beneath the gigantic shadow of the airship, the entire city of Haggardy had already been set ablaze. Looking at the city from afar, it resembled an enormous flaming pyre with dense smoke rising up to the heavens, and the anguished voices of the citizens in the city were ringing out incessantly.

Thankfully, there was a slight silver lining for the city's citizens, which was that the airship didn't linger in the sky above the city for very long. Instead, it flew directly toward the sky to the north of the city.

It was clear to Erwin that Luphen's intention was to avenge his mercenary legion's cavaliers, who had been dealt a heavy blow by the magicians of the Four Winds mercenary legion earlier.

With that in mind, Erwin gave Larwood a hand signal, telling Larwood to focus on the battle at hand and leave the airship to him. After that, he unleashed a barrage of instant-release spells up toward the underside of the airship. However, the airship was too far away, so all of the spells disintegrated into magic turbulence before they could even reach their target.

Luphen was looking on from not far away, and he was rather amused to see this. In his eyes, this magician from the enemy mercenary legion was biting off far more than he could chew. However, in the next instant, he was abruptly rooted to the spot.

All of a sudden, Erwin rose up into the sky through the use of a space split technique, and in the blink of an eye, he was already standing above the airship. He carefully studied the airship to find that the entire vehicle was encased in metal armor. After that, he unleashed another barrage of spells toward the airship's armor plating, and sure enough, the effect was downright negligible.

The magicians of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion could hear something clanging on top of the airship, and they emerged to investigate what was happening outside. As a result, they were greeted by the sight of a magician who was hovering in mid-air while unleashing a string of spells, looking as if he were attempting to destroy the metal exterior of the airship. In that instant, all of the magicians were so stunned by what they were seeing that they forgot to attack Erwin. Instead, they merely stared up at him with slack-jawed expressions, wondering if he were an idiot or a transcendent immortal.

What was astonishing to them was that they had no idea how this madman had reached an altitude even higher than that of the airship. After all, no one had seen anyone flying up from the battlefield down below.

After a series of experimental attacks, Erwin shook his head with a disappointed expression. He discovered that the metal exterior of the airship was forged from some type of special material, and as soon as his spells came into contact with the material, they immediately exploded into magic turbulence.

In the next instant, something even more astonishing took place. With another space split technique, Erwin appeared directly at the center of the airship's deck, and he looked around with an intrigued expression at the Skycourt Kingdom magicians in the surrounding area.

Perhaps the brains of these Skycourt Kingdom magicians had been slowed down by the chilling sea wind, but they were rooted to the spot once again. They were perplexed and stunned by the sudden appearances of Erwin on the airship's deck, and only after that came emotions of alarm and wariness.

Luphen was looking on from down below, and he was also beginning to grow rather concerned. Never had he thought that there would be such a powerful magician in this small mercenary legion of just several hundred men. The two inexplicable bursts of teleportation that Erwin had displayed were extremely unsettling for Luphen to behold. He desperately wanted to know what was happening on the airship, but he had to oversee the battlefield, so he couldn't go anywhere.

At this moment, the magicians on the deck of the airship finally returned to their senses, and they raised their staves to unleash a barrage of all types of spells toward Erwin at once.

Erwin immediately conjured up his light shield, and all of the oncoming spells from all directions quickly exploded upon the surface of the light shield, putting on a spectacular light show on the deck of the airship. The magic energy of different attributes from these spells were then absorbed into the light shield bit by bit like sandcastles fading into the receding tide, instantly disappearing without a trace.

Most of the Skycourt Kingdom magicians on the airship were only intermediate magicians, with only several advanced magicians among them, but even those few advanced magicians were rather lackluster when it came to their magic power. Thus, even though there were several dozen magicians attacking Erwin's light shield at once, the combined energy was still within a threshold that Erwin could control. At the very least, this energy was far from the level unleashed by the first two attacks of Talan's three killing strikes.

Given how much Erwin was looking down on these intermediate magicians, it seemed that he had forgotten that he had only been an intermediate magician himself until not too long ago.

"Magic Explosion!" Erwin yelled, and all of the energy outside the light shield, which had already been converted by him into countless bursts of purple magic turbulence, instantly exploded in all directions, proliferating outward with Erwin at the very center.

The rosewood railing on the deck of the airship was instantly severely ravaged by the eruption of violent purple magic turbulence, and most of the dozens of Skycourt Kingdom magicians were instantly struck down. Agonized howls rang out incessantly across the deck, which was riddled with unconscious magicians. Several of the magicians standing near the edge of the airship were sent toppling over the railing, screaming in horror as they plummeted down from the sky.

Only the few advanced magicians on the deck were still just barely able to remain on their feet. Thankfully, their instincts had kicked in just in the nick of time, causing them to grab tightly onto the railing beside them for dear life. Otherwise, they would've most likely also been sent toppling over the side of the airship. Even so, the magician robes that they were wearing were in tatters from the bursts of purple magic turbulence, and they were all in a very sorry state.

At the very least, they were still able to remain conscious, but all of them were staring at Erwin with wide eyes as if they were staring at a monster. Before anyone had any idea of what was happening, Erwin had inexplicably appeared in the air above the airship. After that, he had appeared on the deck of the airship in the blink of an eye, then used some type of strange spell to ward off everyone's attacks before wiping out most of the Skycourt Kingdom magicians on the airship with a single attack. In their eyes, Erwin didn't even seem human. Instead, he was like some type of unfathomable monster who had descended from the heavens to bring divine punishment upon them.

On the ground below, Luphen was staring at the magicians plummeting down from the sky with an astonished expression. There were several dozen magicians on that airship, and he couldn't comprehend how all of them had been defeated by a single enemy magician.

If he had been on the airship's deck to witness what had happened, he would've most likely been even more astonished.

Erwin naturally paid no heed to what the Skycourt Kingdom magicians were thinking. With another space split technique, he appeared in a flash behind a certain advanced magician, then unleashed a string of instant-release spells to send them plunging down from the airship. Before any of the other magicians had a chance to recover from their shock, he unleashed his space split technique a few more times to kick them off the airship's deck as well.

After that, a gust of fierce wind was swept up on the deck of the airship, and all of the unconscious Skycourt Kingdom magicians were flung off the airship as well.

Luphen had only just saved an advanced magician who was plummeting down from the sky, and he was completely rooted to the spot upon seeing this. He could save one magician at a time, but what was he supposed to do now that the entire airship of magicians had been thrown off at once?

"Larwood, stop wasting time with those Skycourt Kingdom cavaliers. We still have to take care of those scumbags from the Wolf Moon mercenary legion," Erwin yelled as he stood on the deck of the airship, and there was more than a hint of gloating smugness in his voice.

"Alright, we get it, you show off," Larwood grumbled in response, then turned to the mercenaries of the Four Winds mercenary legion as he yelled, "Let's speed things up a little here! These Skycourt Kingdom pigs don't have any more tricks up their sleeve, so let's wipe them out as quickly as possible!"

The cavaliers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion had thought that the battle was already won upon seeing the arrival of the airship, but with all of the magicians in the airship falling down from the sky, morale instantly plummeted to an all-time low, and they were barely putting up any resistance.

As expected of Master Erwin to take on an entire airship of magicians on his own and win! Lanyon thought to himself as he looked up at the airship with admiration in his eyes.

He then turned to the magicians and archers on the mountain as he yelled, "Our deputy commander has seized control of their airship, so we don't have to worry about any attacks from above! Let's take down these Skycourt Kingdom mercenaries once and for all!"

Thus, another round of spells and arrows came raining down from above, striking down even more Heavenly Star cavaliers.

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On the other side of the battlefield, Talan and what little remained of his mercenaries were fighting valiantly against the footsoldiers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion, and he didn't have any spare capacity to pay attention to the battle in the sky.

With Talan re-entering the fray, the remaining mercenaries of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion were instilled with renewed vigor, and they began to fight for their lives against the footsoldiers of the Heavenly Star mercenary legion.

Luphen had been out of the battle for quite a while at this point, and he was becoming quite agitated. There was clearly no point in trying to save the cavaliers on the northwestern side of the battlefield. Most of the cavaliers had already fallen, and the rest were inevitably going to be decimated by the mercenary legion from the Effer Kingdom soon.

Meanwhile, his foot soldiers were locked in battle in the east against Talan and the remaining mercenaries of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion.

As a result, he was in a difficult predicament where retreat was impossible, yet victory was also slipping further and further away.

Judging from what that magician just said on the airship, it seems that these two Effer Kingdom mercenary legions have some bad blood between them as well, Luphen thought to himself with tightly furrowed brows. He then looked down at one of the Wolf Moon mercenary legion's flags on the ground, and he became even more convinced that this was the case.

Thus, he quickly charged to the northwestern side of the battlefield, then swept his silver whip directly toward Larwood's face.

Larwood's reflexes were extremely sharp, and he deflected the attack with his sword with a quick flick of his wrist.

"How about we thtrike a deal with one another?" Luphen suggested while continuing to attack Larwood.

Larwood could tell that Luphen's attacks were quite half-hearted, so he knew that Luphen had something to say. Thus, he pretended to retreat, leading Luphen slowly toward the outskirts of the battlefield where they could talk in relative peace. "What kind of deal could we possibly negotiate?"

"I heard what that man jutht thaid on the airship. It thoundth like you guyth altho want to wipe out that other merthenary legion, am I right?" Luphen asked as he unleashed another half-hearted attack while casting a subtle glance toward Talan's direction.

Larwood was rather amused by Luphen's lisp and accent, and a cold smile appeared on his face as he said, "So what if that's the case? What does that have to do with you? You should learn to mind your own business."

"Don't be so cold, buddy, we can work thomething out," Luphen said with a fawning smile. "How about thith? Our Heavenly Thtar merthenary legion can help you out and take care of thethe people for you. You can contherve your troopth and jutht watch ath we do all the dirty work for you. How about that?"

"I don't think you're being very sincere in your offer. You just want us to detach ourselves from this battle so you can sneak away, right?" Larwood wasn't about to fall for Luphen's tricks. "At the moment, you're unable to retreat because you're being targeted by both our mercenary legion and the Wolf Moon mercenary legion. Why should I allow you to get away when I can just pick all of you off after you're worn down in your battle against the Wolf Moon mercenary legion?"