Chapter 176: Spirit Rank Talisman
Adrian’s legs moved before his mind fully caught up.
The cave floor shuddered beneath his boots as he sprinted deeper in, heat licking at his back like the breath of some enraged beast. Behind him, the panicked screams of Wyatt’s group mingled with the roar of flame and the thunderous crack of detonating runes.
He didn’t look back.
He didn’t need to.
His budding spirit sense painted a vivid picture in his mind. Scarlet lines blazed across stone. Arrows of condensed fire Qi shredded flesh and rock alike as they rained through the cave.
He didn’t even have time to feel satisfied at Wyatt and his team’s misfortune. As one life after another winked out in his perception, he felt only a deep, bone-deep urgency.
’This formation is a trap!’ he thought.
As he ran for his life, he didn’t move in a straight line, but instead ran in a zig-zag pattern to avoid stray arrows. As soon as he moved, an arrow whizzed past his head, causing him to stumble and almost lose his footing.
Normally, to avoid a barrage like this, the most optimal move would be to find shelter from the storm. However, doing so in this situation would be to sign one’s death warrant.
Not only was the cave nearly empty, but the few large rocks that could even serve as shields against the arrows were very weak. A single arrow was all it took to shatter them into clumps of stone.
A few of Wyatt’s teammates had tried this and had only had themselves riddled with holes for all their efforts. That was only one of the reasons why Adrian was running away while dodging.
The main reason was that they were getting closer. Initially, the runes began flashing from the beginning of the cave after the entrance disappeared. The runes activated, flaring to life from the walls, the ceiling, and even the floor.
As soon as they fired, another set of runes flared to life, these ones closer than the last. In that fashion, the number of arrows compounded, before they quickly became too much to count.
The closer the runes flashed to them, the more arrows rained on them, and the harder it made it for them to escape from the barrage.
Adrian didn’t know how many runes would activate, but he was definitely not going to idly stand by to find out.
He wasn’t the only one to realize this as well. Wyatt, for all his lack of propriety, had enough sense to know when he was in a dangerous situation.
As soon as he saw what made Adrian run away, he also bolted. He instinctively lunged to the right, narrowly avoiding an arrow that slammed into where he and Adrian had just been standing a few moments ago.
The few among his teammates that weren’t frozen from fear were also making desperate efforts to avoid the rain of arrows that was fast becoming a downpour. However, most of them were unlucky.
The arrows were too much and came too fast for the mto be able to avoid them safely. In just a few moments, more than half of them had been struck fatally, drastically reducing their numbers.
When Wyatt saw this, his face darkened. He knew he had to do something, or in less than an incense stick’s worth of time, they would all be dead. It wasn’t that he cared about them. He didn’t.
However, they were useful to him, and he would rather not lose them before he had even reached the Crimson Mountain. With great reluctance, he pulled out a talisman from his storage ring and activated it.
The talisman crumbled into dust before transforming into a wave of golden light. The wave transformed into a golden dome that surrounded Wyatt and the few who were closest to him.
The others that were too far away could only lament their misfortune. That was if they hadn’t even been blown to bits already. The cool-headed ones among them still hadn’t given up, though.
A few of them leaped above the dome before using it as a barrier behind which they hid. They weren’t completely safe, but they were able to avoid most of the arrows.
The barrier held firm against the barrage of arrows, its surface only shimmering briefly with each strike. Wyatt stood with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. They were safe now, but he wasn’t happy.
That was because he had just been forced to use a pricey treasure. The talisman was meant to be one of the trump cards that he would use in his battle against Julian on the Crimson Mountain for a spectacular treasure.
At least, that was the plan. Now he had been forced to use it early on. Worst of all, he hadn’t gained anything out of it. Not even a single Qi stone. It was no wonder he was in such a bad mood.
The rest of his team, who were lucky enough to be protected by the barrier, didn’t have the luxury of thinking about things like that. They didn’t know how strong this dome conjured u by the talisman was, so they were still jittery.
Every collision against the barrier made them flinch, worried that it would be the horse that broke the camel’s back. Every second that passed was an increase in the number of arrows that crashed against the golden dome.
Even Wyatt, who was initially confident in the barrier, couldn’t help but furrow his brows when the arrows began raining on it incessantly. Each impact was like a small explosion attacking the barrier.
The impacts were endless, without a break between them, sounding like the patter of rain against the roof of a house. By now, his confidence was wavering, and he was already entertaining thoughts of the golden barrier shattering.
The talisman was a spirit rank talisman, capable of withstand strikes from a peak Nascent Soul realm powerhouse. But now, that same barrier was now under threat of breaking.
The others might not know, but Wyatt definitely knew just how strong the barrier was. So he was definitely surprised when cracks began appearing on it. They were faint at first, but definitely noticeable.
As soon as they saw it, the group became uneasy. Most were clutching their weapons like a shield, swords pressed against their bodies as if it could shield them from the scorching heat.
Most were jittering imperceptibly, their muscles were taut, ready to bolt at any sight of the barrier giving way. Even Wyatt had already dropped his hand, his finger carressing his storage ring, ready to unleash something else incase the barrier didn’t hold.
Luckily for them, it didn’t seem necessary. The barrage of arrows ended soon after, and the golden barrier ended up being enough, just barely though, as the cracks had spread and widened, and covered the whole dome.
The runes that pulsed with fire had now dimmed some distance away from them. The formation surrounding them was still active, but it seemed to have decided to give them a breather. For now at least.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief, with a few of them even collapsing to the ground. The ones that didn’t make it into the barrier, were the most relieved. They had been watching the runes flare closer to their location and were not sure they would be able to avoid it.
There was another person grateful for the brief respite. That was Adrian. Because of how huge the barrier was, it basically shielded the more than half the cave while drawing most of the fire from the arrows.
That was what allowed him to be able to escape. If the barrier wasn’t there, he would have had no choice but to escape into the Bloodstar. Doing that would have risked revealing his most important secret, and putting him in even more danger than the arrow barrage could have provided.
Luckily, there was no need for that. He glanced at Wyatt and his team and noted the drastic reduction in numbers. More than half of them were dead, some even riddles with holes when they were struck by more than one arrow.
They were battered, scorched, and diminished in number, but they were still alive.
Barely.
The golden barrier crumbled after a few more seconds, probably not from weakness, but from a silent signal from Wyatt. They were not really safe yet, but they wanted to forget about it for now and just take a breather.
Adrian frowned at their lack of sense of preservation. He was almost tempted to yell at them that the danger was not over yet, but held his tongue. At least not all of them were completely clueless.
Wyatt, though relaxed, had not completely let down his guard. He was still surveying his surroundings when he locked on to Adrian in the distance. Like a flip switch, he barreled towards him, his face locked into a scowl.
He was definitely not happy, though Adrian couldn’t fathom why. The rest of his team, though battered followed a step behind him. The crimson-leathered woman followed behind him, one arm hanging uselessly at her side, half her hair burned away.
