"Oops, what a mistake. I need to practice more to control my strength..."
She tried her best to keep the power to a minimum when casting the spell, in order not to make too much noise, but she ended up producing an effect comparable to that of a blackened curry stick.
The power of offensive spells is really hard to control... I need more practice.
Fortunately, there was an open space in that direction, with no people and no property from the caravan, otherwise it would have been troublesome.
Everyone in the caravan was stunned and speechless.
“Black, black spiritual flame? Could this be… Yan Long Xiao?!”
Frion, who was carrying a strong man to evacuate, felt his head buzzing. The scene before him reminded him of the ancient real dragon described in the heroic epic he read when he was a child.
Lina, a mage, was so shocked that her mouth opened wide enough to fit an apple. Although her level was not particularly high, she could see that what Qi Ji used just now was not the Dragon's Roar or the Ancient Dragon's Breath, but, but...
Fireball!
It’s the most common fireball technique that even entry-level apprentices can perform!
It was even a level lower than the "Pursuit of Light" that he had hastily performed just now!
Judging from the appearance alone, anyone would think that this must be some kind of advanced magic.
But as a mage, Lina can say with certainty that this is the fireball spell based on the spiritual wave waveform just now!
Just like hearing the sound of an engine, you can tell it's a bulldozer, you can't be wrong.
But, how can the fireball be purple and black? How can it be so powerful? And isn’t the “fireball” a “ball”?! Why was it a pillar of fire that was shot out just now!?
Lina felt that her understanding of magic had been completely overturned! - No, it was blasted to pieces!
"By the grace of God, this is...not magic at all..." She muttered to herself as she stared blankly at the hideous ravine.
After releasing this black flame column that shocked the whole place, Qi Ji turned around and looked at Lina who was dumbfounded:
"Where did this thing come from?"
From their previous conversation, the name of this green ghost is "Swamp Monster", probably an alien species - shouldn't the alien species be in the Great Forest of the East Territory? Why did it run into their camp?
You have to know that this place is still a certain distance away from the forest. If they are attacked by the alien species in the forest, then Stio itself will definitely be easily invaded.
But she had never heard of Lunxi or other city residents complaining about this problem.
Anyway, ask first.
"Uh, this is a C-class alien species 'Swamp Monster'. We were all resting here, and it suddenly ran out of the forest." Lina came over, "I don't know what happened. Ordinary alien species should deliberately avoid the direction of Stio..."
"How to say?"
"Little Sharon, don't you know?" Lina was a little surprised and pointed at the church bell tower standing in the distance. "The church has a special spell that will release a long-term spiritual influence that makes aliens disgusted. It is effective for most aliens."
Qi Ji understood. This was easy to understand. For a town next to a primeval forest, it would be a disaster if it did not have basic means of protection.
"Speaking of which..." Lina leaned forward to look at the terrifying ravine behind Qi Ji, her face horrified, "What did Xiao Xuelun bring with him... spiritual equipment?"
Lina was completely surprised that Sharon could easily kill the swamp monster.
The swamp monster is a C-level alien species. In terms of pure spiritual strength, it is actually not much different from a mid-stage mindfulness warrior or a mid-stage righteous mage.
But it is a pure spirit! This is the most troublesome thing.
Because in order to eliminate human transcendents and other alien species with physical bodies, it is not necessary to completely annihilate their spirituality.
In fact, as long as the physical body is severely damaged, the spirituality contained within will usually dissipate due to the loss of its material basis.
It is difficult to destroy the spirit; but it is relatively easier to destroy the body.
However, the brutality of a pure spirit lies in the fact that it can completely break away from the flesh and blood and exist independently. This means that if you want to kill such an enemy, you can only find a way to completely destroy its spiritual structure.
However, spiritual structures cannot be interfered with by ordinary physical means.
In other words, the only influence that can harm it is spiritual influence.
The extraordinary people accompanying the caravan were half mages and half warriors.
The strongest among the mages were her and Io, two mid-level mages. The others were all beginners, and there were even a few apprentice-level mages who had little combat power.
When it is impossible to kill the opponent by damaging the body and thus indirectly destroying the spirit, this lineup is really a bit of a stretch against the swamp monster.
What's more, they were attacked by surprise - everyone was having fun and resting peacefully in the camp, who could have thought that an alien species would suddenly appear?
No one was prepared for the battle, but a prepared mage and an unprepared mage are completely different concepts.
As for the warriors in the team... they are all at the level of Righteous Mind or Skill Tempering, and there is not even one at the peak of Righteous Mind.
None of these warriors were able to express their spirituality or the influence of their spirituality. Facing the rampant swamp monster, they could only protect themselves. They would not be killed at the first blow like ordinary people, but they could not hurt it at all.
But psychics are different!
The will of a warrior who has reached the spiritual realm is completely connected with his own spirituality. He can freely control his own spirituality and can also directly kill spiritual structures.
Spirits like the swamp monster's level are nothing but trash to them, and are even weaker than mortal creatures of the same strength.
Lina had seen fights between psychic warriors. Although she was only standing on a high place and watching from afar, she was able to get a glimpse of their fighting style.
Beautiful, gorgeous, mysterious, magical...
But! It definitely wasn't shooting out a black flame column that was comparable to dragon's breath!
This is not martial arts at all!
More like the field she was familiar with - magic.
But the question remains, if this black flame column is a spell, then it must be a fireball spell.
But Fireball couldn't possibly perform like this.
All these contradictions accumulated, leaving Lina completely confused, and she could only come to this conclusion:
"Little Sharon must have spiritual equipment made by a high-level wizard! That's right, high-level spiritual equipment plus a spiritual warrior, there is some strange reaction between the two that I can't understand, so she can cast this powerful black flame, and only show the spiritual fluctuations of the fireball technique!"
That's it!
After successfully convincing herself, a confident smile appeared on her face, as if she was admiring her own wit.
"Spiritual equipment?"
Hearing Lina's question, Qi Ji remembered the dagger that Lunxi brought yesterday. She said she took it from the family warehouse.
“…Bang! Bang! Bang!…”
Just when I was about to ask Lina if she had misunderstood something, I heard a burst of neat and rapid footsteps not far away, accompanied by the sound of hard metal objects colliding and rubbing against each other.
Chapter 55: Church Knights
"Ah, here come the knights of the church."
someone in the crowd shouted.
Amid the sound of orderly and powerful footsteps, a small group of people in uniform trotted over with weapons in hand, marching in standard steps.
There were five of them in total. The leader was a tall middle-aged man wearing full body armor, with one hand on the two-handed sword at his waist. In the morning light, his whole body was radiating a golden glow, and his image was solemn and sacred.
The four people following behind formed an orderly triangle formation, symmetrically distributed on both sides behind the man in full armor.
These four people were obviously followers of the fully armored man. They were wearing close-fitting cloth clothes with a very luxurious religious style and holding long spears engraved with dark golden patterns in their hands.
Church officials?
This is the first time I've seen this.
Qi Ji looked at them running over with interest.
Along with the "Holy Church of Grace" personnel came Lunxi and Thomas. Qi Ji ran too fast before, and Lunxi certainly couldn't keep up with him, so he arrived now.
As for Thomas, this ill-fated underground adventurer, he was running in the front in a hurry. It was probably him who rushed back to Stio to ask for help.
"My Lords, right here!" Thomas said breathlessly to the five church members while running wildly, "It's a pure spiritual alien species! Is there anyone in the entire Stio who can... eh!?"
He stared in astonishment at the nearly 100-meter-long ditch on the ground, unable to speak.
"Xiao Qi... Miss Xue Lun," Lun Xi came up. Perhaps she was cautious about Qi Ji's strength, so her steps were not very hurried. "Is everything going well?"
On her way there, she saw a pillar of black flame tearing through the earth with the force of piercing through the clouds and splitting rocks, and she immediately realized that it was Qi Ji's work.
Now that everyone is standing fine, I understand that the "trouble" has been solved by Qi Ji, and the scars on the ground are the testimony of her success.
However, out of concern for Qi Ji, Lunxi still greeted him sincerely.
"It's all done," Qi Ji said to Lun Xi in a low voice, sweeping the five visitors from the church, "--Are these people very powerful?"
Lunxi came up and explained, "The man in armor is a knight of the church, a clergyman of the realm of the Merciful, second only to Pastor Rosago himself."
Pray for mercy?
Qi Ji quickly recalled the booklet given by the Fearless Guild, which introduced the hierarchy of clergy.
This "Prayer for Mercy" is the second level of the clergy, which is lower than the third level "Elucidator of the Way", and is equivalent to the righteous mindfulness of a warrior and the righteous magician of a magician.
"There are no powerful mages in Stio, so we asked Thomas to go to the church for help." Lina added, "The clergy also have unique methods to deal with pure spirits."
"Holy attacks have extra damage to ghosts and monsters. I understand, I understand." Qi Ji said with a smile.
"Ah? What holy attack? What ghost?" Lina was confused by her game jargon.
Lunxi seemed to be accustomed to Qi Ji's way of speaking, always using some strange and unfamiliar words, so she just covered her mouth and smiled, and her little hand wanted to rub Qi Ji's head restlessly, but she dodged it.
"Her again!?"
Thomas was about to cry when he saw Qi Ji standing in the crowd. He wondered why this girl was still haunting him and why he could see her every day?
However, seeing that she didn't look at him much, and she let him go last night for some unknown reason, he guessed that this mysterious black-haired girl might really not care much about his life.
But to be on the safe side, Thomas quietly hid behind the five church members and used the church as a shield.
No matter how powerful she is, she wouldn't kill someone in front of the official power of the Holy Church, right? She is a native of her country. Even if these five masters are not her opponents, they will at least consider the Grace Holy Church behind them.
"My lords, thank you very much for your prompt support," Friant, sweating profusely after saving the people, walked towards the church knight and his followers with a worried look on his face, "but the crisis has been eliminated... Uh, I'm very sorry that you made a wasted trip. I wonder how we can compensate you...?"
"Are you foreigners?" The knight did not speak. Instead, the one who spoke was the gun-wielding follower closest to him.
He also did not answer Friant's question, but changed the subject.
"Um, yes. We are merchants from the Glorious Plantagenet Empire, heading to the 'Lookout City' on the south coast of your country to trade. We are currently resting in Stio." For some reason, Frion looked a little unnatural in front of the church personnel.
As he spoke, he pointed to the caravan that had survived the disaster behind him:
"In order not to disturb the people's livelihood in your city, we set up camp on the outskirts of the city after obtaining permission from the local nobles. Unexpectedly..."
Having said this, Friant deliberately prolonged the last syllable of his words and finally closed his mouth. His meaning was clear: he was implicitly holding these church members accountable.
As the supreme rulers of Stio in both nominal and actual sense, it is your natural responsibility to ensure the safety of Stio and its surrounding areas.
Moreover, it is extremely easy to prevent external threats such as invasions by wild species. All we need to do is maintain the church's long-term procedures. It can be said that there is no difficulty at all.
However, this kind of accident has happened now, and more importantly, people have died on our side.
Since human lives are involved, the matter cannot be brushed aside. Unless a convincing reason can be given, there will be no end to it.
"We have confirmed that six team members have passed away." Hearing the conversation, Lina also walked forward angrily. She was not as emotionally intelligent as Friang, so she spoke more directly. "Everyone is very sad. I hope you can give an explanation."
The three members of Frion's team have been getting along with this caravan for several months and have established a certain emotional foundation.
The friend who was chatting and bragging in front of her just a few minutes ago suddenly died in a foreign land. Even as an adventurer who was used to seeing life and death, Lina could not bear it.
"Please tell me why the church's dispersal ceremony didn't work?"
"My good brother Kuhn, my best friend is dead, you must give me an explanation!"
"Sir Knight, why are you just watching? Why don't you say anything?"
Among the six people who lost their lives, which one was not a parent or child of a family? Which one was not a brother or friend of others?
If you are attacked while crossing the wilderness and suffer casualties, there is nothing to say. It is just bad luck and your own lack of precaution. No matter how great the loss is, you will have to bear it yourself.
Now they are on someone else's territory and under their protection. When they should have been able to let down their guard and have a good rest, they have suddenly suffered a disaster. They really cannot swallow this.
It can be said that the church is directly responsible for this tragedy.
Faced with the indignation of the crowd, the late-arriving church knight looked calm, without any sign of emotional fluctuation.
He still didn't speak, and glanced at the caravan members who had gathered around him, without his gaze lingering on them for even a moment.
When he saw the deep ditch on the ground, his neck paused for a moment, but quickly crossed it, searching for the next target.
"Who did this?"
