Chapter 232: The First Wave of Attacks

The tension in the air was so thick it was practically sparking; Luo Qi was so nervous he felt like vomiting, thinking that this should count as his first time on a battlefield. Driving cats to fight certainly didn't count, and even dealing with Zhao Jiaozhu and the clownfish couldn't be counted; those times could only be considered running away. Once again, he felt grateful for the Secret Language the girl had written on his arm and the message and warning she had brought with her life, but at this moment, even he himself could not remember who that girl was.

He had carved the girl's name onto a stone at the bottom of the Pool of Oblivion, along with other secrets—secrets he was terrified might be inadvertently pried into by the enemy's Mind Mages during the heat of battle.

Du Zhengyi waited calmly for the moment of final engagement, appearing steady and capable. Luo Qi distractedly wondered how many wars he had experienced in his life, how many had occurred without civilians like them ever knowing, and ended in the shadows where no one would ever find out.

That was right, this was how Luo Qi spent these thirty seconds of waiting—nervous, uneasy, and yet distracted. Once connected to at least several thousand souls, once the brain expanded to thousands of times its original size and thinking became incomparably swift, time became unimaginably long. However, being prone to letting his mind wander had always been a trait of Luo Qi's; he daydreamed for a moment that if he had some way to carry these thousands of souls with him, to have thousands of brains from start to finish, then his time would surely become ethereal.

The army of bats finally flew into position, entering the attack range within Luo Qi's mental field of vision.

"Let me handle the first wave of attacks," Luo Qi said; he was unexpectedly good at group attacks now. Besides, he didn't want to let Du Zhengyi act; he had a feeling... forget it, even a fool could see now that Du Zhengyi's body was inextricably linked to whether or not he used Magic. Luo Qi did not want to truly connect these two things; the truth was too cruel for him. He knew in his heart that Du Zhengyi not being able to use Magic was like a pianist breaking their fingers or a dancer breaking their legs.

Fuck it.

Luo Qi cursed foully in his heart. What exactly were the rules of this world? What kind of decent value system did this universe even have? He poured this bucket of rage toward the sky all at once, slightly experiencing the pleasure of a shrew standing on a rooftop cursing at the street. He could now curse at the heavens and the earth, and the Curses he threw out were guaranteed to hit their mark without fail.

Dozens of giant bats silently ceased their brain functions in mid-air. Thousands of souls chanted in unison with Luo Qi, the power of the Curse shrouding the sky above, and the first wave of bats breathed their last before they even hit the ground.

Du Zhengyi pulled Luo Qi to hide under the eaves. The long-haired monsters were as tall as a person, and even if they were lightweight, they weighed at least seventy or eighty pounds; the sound of them hitting the ground was dull and strange. If Du Zhengyi hadn't pulled him away in time, he might have been hit right on the top of his head by a bat.

He stared in astonishment at the rain of bats falling from the sky, dumbfounded; he hadn't even considered the scene of bats falling down. Fortunately, the bats weren't flying high, otherwise, the roof would have been smashed through. Just as he was stunned, laughter suddenly came from beside him.

Luo Qi turned his head back and, sure enough, saw Du Zhengyi snickering. "If you were smashed to death by the bats you cursed to death, you would definitely make it into the chronicles of Legendary Mages."

Luo Qi had nothing to say, suddenly feeling that being able to make his friend laugh was also pretty awesome.

As if seeing through his complacency, Du Zhengyi stopped laughing. "The enemy's Mind Mage won't let you off; the first wave of attacks was just a probe."

Luo Qi nodded; he wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he suspected the thick fog was beginning to spread.