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The violent explosion tore apart a dozen knights in the front, but the next moment, more crossbow arrows flew out from the smoke and flames, and together with the holy light impact cast by the three bishops, they broke through the witch's defenses and blew her into a ball of blood mist.
Seeing the sacrifice of the official wizard, the fleeing wizards were all terrified that they couldn't even slightly block the opponent's offensive.
The continuous rain of arrows continued. Perhaps out of fear of the wizards' powerful and strange witchcraft, the knights did not rush forward for close combat, but continued to use arrows and crossbows to consume their magic power from a distance.
From time to time, some people fell behind due to exhaustion, or were shot by arrows and fell to the ground.
"Lord Lucas, what should we do now?" Several fleeing wizards asked anxiously. They all knew that if they continued like this, everyone would die here.
"Those damn traitors!" The wizard named Lucas also shouted.
Originally, they formed a mutual aid society in order to cope with the increasingly severe pursuit by the Holy See, and planned how to safely escape to the Kingdom of Hadrata, which was said to be ruled by wizards.
However, they didn't expect that a traitor inside had betrayed the place of their gathering. The church had already sent people to ambush there, and they rushed out while they were discussing. After a series of fierce battles, more than 300 wizards and a large number of apprentices suffered heavy casualties, and only more than a hundred people escaped.
Lucas was furious, but there was nothing he could do but offer words of comfort.
"Everyone, hold on for a while. We will be safe as long as we escape to the City of Kerosene. That is the territory of wizards."
"Once we get there, we won't have to worry about being hunted by the Vatican, nor will we have to hide our identities. We can perform magic openly..." Lucas kept talking about the wonderful life in the future.
Although he is not sure whether the news is true or not, he must stabilize the situation now. If everyone loses hope, then they will be really finished.
Chapter 442: Ivana sneaks into the enemy camp, and the shock brought by the airship and fighter plane
The wizard's kingdom, is there really such a place?
Although all the wizards present had heard the news, they were skeptical because the rumor was so exaggerated. Some even thought it was a scam by the church to lure them into falling into its trap.
In silence, Lucas led the group and ran all the way, taking advantage of the trees and bushes to block the way.
However, what made the wizards despair was that after they ran out of the dense forest, there was an endless wilderness outside, which meant that they would have no place to hide!
Only then did Lucas realize that the knights had deliberately driven them in this direction.
At the moment when his concentration was distracted, dozens of arrows flashing with divine light shot out from the dense forest behind him.
"Get out of the way!"
Amidst the urgent shouts, Lucas also sensed the danger approaching, and almost instantly a [Mage Shield] was cast on his body.
However, the solid magic shield was of little use in front of these arrows blessed with magic-breaking spells, and was quickly broken.
One of the arrows pierced through the shield and embedded deeply into his shoulder.
Lucas's face was distorted, but it was more of a look of fear, because the remaining several magic-destroying arrows were shooting towards his chest.
"Kill!" At this moment, the girl's low shout suddenly sounded, and a slender sword blade swept past Lucas, sparks flew, and three magic-destroying arrows were actually knocked down.
Lucas took a few steps back in shock, only to find that the person who attacked was a young brown-haired girl with delicate features, a little dust on her face, and a hint of coldness between her brows.
"Thank you for your help." Lucas said gratefully. He thought for a moment and soon recognized the girl in front of him.
Ivana, a wizard from the White Dove School, is proficient in plasticity. It is said that before becoming a wizard, she was a child of a noble family and had excellent swordsmanship.
However, just yesterday, the White Dove School’s headquarters was attacked by a large number of witch hunters, and the entire school was nearly destroyed. Only two people escaped and joined the Mutual Aid Society.
Lucas couldn't help but sigh. There were too many wizarding schools that had suffered heavy losses or even been completely destroyed in recent times. The White Dove School where Ivana was located was not the first, nor the last.
"Let's save the thanks for later. Now is not the time to talk about that." Ivana responded calmly and swung her sword again to cut off the arrow on Lucas' shoulder.
Considering the problem of blood loss, Ivana did not pull it out, and this was not the place to treat the wound.
"I know there is a village not far from this wilderness. Perhaps we can get rid of these enemies there." Ivana glanced at the knight rushing out of the dense forest and continued speaking at a very fast speed.
The wizards present were immediately overjoyed, but the joy in their hearts only lasted for a short moment, because everyone saw that it was impossible for them to outrun the cavalry in the wilderness unless they left some people behind to cover their rear!
Lucas gritted his teeth. He understood that now either everyone had to die, or some people had to be abandoned.
"Look, what is that?" Suddenly a wizard exclaimed, pointing at the sky, and all the wizards looked in the direction of his finger.
As far as the eye can see, black dots appear in the distant sky and are rapidly approaching this side.
"Ship, it looks like a ship flying in the sky..." Ivana, who had the best eyesight, murmured.
Just as Ivina said, when these flying objects got closer, they looked like huge and majestic ships flying in the sky.
The whole body of the ship is blue-green, and there is a huge oval airbag on the top of the ship, which is tightly bound by dozens of sturdy chains, revealing an industrial beauty.
Is this the airship?
Ivana was astonished. Although she had seen information about this thing in the literature, she could not hide the shock in her heart when she actually saw the real thing with her own eyes.
Such a huge thing can actually fly in the sky!
The wizards were not the only ones who saw these sky overlords. The knights of the church also noticed the sudden appearance of the airships, but their pursuit speed increased instead of slowing down. They wanted to catch Lucas and others in one fell swoop before the wizards' support arrived!
"Hold on, our reinforcements have arrived!" Lucas shouted loudly to boost morale, but the official wizards and apprentices around him were still in a heavy mood.
Because in front of them was a cavalry brigade of 4,000 people led by dozens of bishops!
The sound of horse hooves hitting the ground was getting closer and closer, raising clouds of dust that rushed towards the crowd like a wave.
The crossbow arrows were re-strung one by one, and the sharp arrows shone with a hint of cold light under the midday sun.
Ivana held the thin blade in her hand with a serious expression. In order to make the infiltration plan perfect, she did not know each other and had no connection with the bishops who came to hunt down the wizards. She just made relevant escape plans.
For example, there is a secret passage in the village she mentioned just now, which can be used to escape pursuit and gain the trust of fellow wizards.
However, this means that you will also be hunted down by friendly forces without limits!
Ivana was not 100% sure that she could defend against such a dense array of arrows and crossbows.
Just when the witch hunting knights finished loading their crossbows and were ready to fire, a huge roar sounded above everyone's head, followed by a distortion of the light, and two fighter planes with a wingspan of more than ten meters appeared in front of everyone.
It looked like a magnified several times, steel-made Dorgaard falcon, which flew over Lucas and others at an incredible speed. The airflow created by its huge wings blew away the dust around it, and then it rushed towards the brigade of 4,000 knights.
The oncoming steel fighter plane quickly attracted the attention of the witch hunting knights, and they aimed their bows and crossbows at the sky. However, the fighter plane was too fast, at a speed of 360 kilometers per hour, making it difficult to aim effectively.
The next moment, the violent roar of machine guns rang in everyone's ears, almost bursting their eardrums.
Tongues of flame burst out from the muzzle of the machine gun, and a fierce barrage of bullets hit the witch hunting knights, piercing through their armor in an instant and turning their flesh and blood bodies into sieves.
Red blood splattered across the battlefield, screams of pain were heard one after another, and the land passed by fighter planes left behind only a horrifying bloody trail!
In just a dozen seconds, hundreds of witch-hunting knights fell in a pool of blood. The remains of corpses and broken arms were scattered all over the battlefield, and the strong smell of blood filled the air...
Chapter 443 Ivana: This is not magic, it is simply a punishment from heaven!
Under the non-stop strafing of the two fighter planes, nearly one-fifth of the prey knights fell on the battlefield in just a dozen seconds.
"Devil, this is the devil's creation!"
Witnessing several of his colleagues being cut into pieces by the dense barrage of bullets, a prey knight was so frightened that he trembled and even peed his pants.
But this was just the beginning, because round objects began to fall from the sky.
Under the gaze of Ivana and a group of wizards, the white phosphorus shrapnel exploded directly in mid-air, igniting the air and turning it into brilliant fireworks that enveloped the battlefield!
The remaining 3,000-odd knights were instantly engulfed in the sea of white phosphorus fire.
The high-temperature, highly corrosive, and highly toxic white phosphorus fire is just like what is rumored to exist in the abyss. It can devour all the hellfires. Once it is contaminated, it will burn through the armor like a maggot on the tarsal bone and burn the flesh and blood...
The entire battlefield soon turned into purgatory. The burning knights fell from their horses one after another, emitting painful and shrill howls. The ground was burned into scorched earth by the scorching temperature, and a strong and pungent smell continued to emerge.
"Retreat, retreat!" The leading archbishop shouted frantically. The witch hunting knights, who had already lost their courage, hurriedly controlled their horses and retreated desperately, trying to escape back to the dense forest.
But the fighter planes would not let them go so easily. They chased after them and fired all their machine gun ammunition. They even felt that it was not enough, so they made a low-altitude dive and used laser weapons to cut the fleeing witch hunters in half...
Lucas and others watched helplessly as the witch hunting knights rushed towards them like wolves and tigers, determined to destroy them all. After several rounds of attacks, they were quickly defeated and fell on the wasteland only seventy meters away from them.
"What a terrible weapon..." A plainly dressed wizard in the crowd whispered with trembling body.
Ivina, standing by, also understood why the Vatican's expeditionary force was defeated by these wizards.
Just as the two fighter planes continued to chase the remnants, dozens of airships slowly descended from the sky and were neatly arranged in the wilderness.
When these alchemical creations fell from the sky, everyone realized that they had underestimated the size of the airship. It was as tall as a four or five-story house and even bigger than a house!
Del walked down from the airship with more than a hundred musketeers. When he saw the dusty Lucas, he immediately opened his arms and greeted him warmly.
"Well, are we here in time, old friend?"
"Of course, just in time, very just in time!" Lucas was so excited that he couldn't express it in words. If these airships had arrived half a minute later, they would have been crushed to pieces by these witch-hunting knights.
"What a pity! It would have been better if you could have come a day or two earlier." Lucas said with regret, and recounted the large-scale massacre that had occurred in the western part of the empire in recent days.
Hearing this, Del was extremely angry. If it weren't for the fact that he was short of manpower and had limited ammunition, he would have wanted to rush to the Holy City and blow up the statue of that false god.
"We will destroy the Church and the Empire sooner or later. This day will not be long in coming!" Del said viciously.
If someone had told them about the destruction of the Church and the Empire five minutes ago, Lucas would have thought it was just the fantasy of an ignorant person, but now a feeling of anticipation rose in his heart.
At Del's invitation, hundreds of wizards and their apprentices boarded the airship in batches.
As the secondary airbags were filled again, airships that were larger than houses carried the wizards into the sky.
"What kind of magic is this that allows such a large thing to fly freely into the sky!" Lucas asked in amazement, and then looked at the first-generation fighter that had already returned.
"And these huge birds made of steel are much faster than the fastest Garde falcons."
"No, the Garde Falcon can't even compare to half of its wings!" Lucas said with emotion.
"The alchemical creation under our feet is called an aerospace airship, and that new fighter jet is the work of Master Lin!" Del said quite complacently.
"Is that the magic star?" Lucas paused.
He had had several contacts with Del who went to the Empire to gather information before, and he had some understanding of the situation of the Wizard Council, so he came up with the decision to form a Wizard Mutual Aid Association to escape to the kingdom together. Naturally, he had heard of this famous magic star.
"Not bad." Del nodded.
"With these powerful alchemical creations, it's no wonder that the Vatican's expeditionary army was defeated by you. Even Saint Lucia died on the battlefield." Lucas couldn't help but admire.
The rest of the wizards also looked at Del. They had also heard the news of the expeditionary army's defeat.
"You misunderstood." Del shook his head. "Although airships, fighter planes and other new weapons are powerful, they cannot completely defeat the expeditionary army led by two legendary divine magicians."
"In the first battle, we suffered a lot of casualties. It was only with the help of Master Lin En's extremely powerful magic that we were able to annihilate the Holy Maiden of the Church and tens of thousands of expeditionary forces!"
Everyone present looked at each other in bewilderment, wondering why the talk was getting more and more exaggerated... They couldn't imagine what kind of power could be able to slaughter an elite army of tens of thousands of people in one breath.