The Paladin in the Abyss
Chapter 874 - 851: Mage and Warrior

Chapter 874 -851: Mage and Warrior

In any battle, the side with a mage will undoubtedly have a huge advantage, and the current situation proves this point beyond a doubt. Although people always associate mages with various highly destructive spells, the real strength of mages lies in their ability to alter reality in supernatural ways.

After casting the web spell, Kalalin, like a street vendor peddling his wares, pulled out one scroll after another. Here, he summoned a slippery pool of oil, there, he made the ground as soft as cheese, and then he threw out a large bunch of colorful bubbles, making the targets hit by the bubbles run around blindly as if suddenly stricken blind, creating further chaos among the attacking enemies.

To be fair, ordinary mages could not, like scholars, throw out so many different spells in the course of a single battle—a typical mage spends an hour or two every morning (or after a sufficient rest) memorizing the spells they plan to cast for the day. Even the top spellcasters, who have thousands of spells mastered and collected in their libraries, can remember no more than thirty spells at a time.

But Kalalin is different. As a scroll caster, he can prepare a large number of magic scrolls in advance and choose which one to pull out depending on the specific need, just like a student using cheat sheets in an exam. However, this approach has obvious drawbacks: creating scrolls is both time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the cost is extremely high.

For instance, creating a Second Circle spell scroll (like an invisibility scroll, which a mage would definitely make if they are short on money) requires at least 250 gold coins in materials and a full three days of work. Of course, as a scholar of the Dark Cult, Kalalin has become proficient enough to complete this task in just an hour or two, but the material cost is unavoidable, and it is well-known that everything in the Abyss is exorbitantly priced, except for the money itself.

Luckily for Kalalin, this is not a problem at all—Lancelot directly categorized the scholar’s expenses for making scrolls as team expenses, so Kalalin didn’t need to spend his own money, even though he had little other use for money himself.

Moreover, Kalalin was not the only spellcaster in the team. Alamir was an obvious mention, and Tanya, as a cursed swordmaster, was also a spellcaster (even though her combat style often made people forget this point). Unlike scholars and priests, cursed swordmasters, as a branch of sorcerers, have extremely limited spell slots, just as priests have ‘guidance of divine power’ and warriors have ‘actions like a tide’, making them precious and rarely used. However, cantrips, which do not consume spell slots, have no such limitations.

The half-elf swung her arms and twisted her waist like a snake, making her movements look like a graceful dance, if one ignored the inhuman language she was shrieking her spell in. Suddenly, she pushed forward with both hands, firing three beams of black-purple magical energy, spiraling toward different enemies. The enemies, already affected by various terrain spells from Kalalin, were unable to dodge and were all hit squarely by Tanya’s spells. Each hit emitted a thunderous boom, flinging the targets backward as if struck by a siege hammer.

“Oh wow, never seen that before.” Alamir praised his distant relative’s performance, “A new specialty?”

The half-elf, busy casting another spell, had no time to respond, and the elf priest paid it no mind since it probably involved some kind of professional secret, which he had no pressing need to know. Besides, they had a much bigger problem right now.

Three death knights on skeletal horses charged out of the woods, making everyone feel a strong sense of threat—just by appearance alone, they were intimidating. Wearing metal great helms with only a slit for sight and donning bronze heavy armor inscribed with complex runes, they brandished gigantic, imposing battle axes, making it clear they were a major problem.

The spellcasters quickly focused their fire on the death knights, but the results were far from ideal. The armor obviously had the effect of suppressing spell effects. Moreover, the web spell Kalalin had previously laid down had no effect—the spell worked best on creatures of ordinary size, but once the target’s size and strength exceeded a certain limit, the slowing effect would sharply diminish. For warriors like Lancelot and Bruto, the spell was completely ineffective.

Seeing the enemies about to reach them, Bruto already had his warhammer ready for combat. At the critical moment, an unexpected figure stepped forward: Old dwarf Barrend took a deep breath and threw a throwing axe. While the spinning axe in the air did not move very fast, it hit precisely at a seam in one of the death knights’ helms. The entire axe blade went in, leaving only half of the axe handle sticking out, like a puppet’s nose.

The death knight didn’t even make a sound, silently falling to the ground, reducing the number of enemies the young dwarf had to deal with by one.

“Bullseye!” the old dwarf shouted excitedly, “Did you see that, youngster? Learn from it!”

“Hah, just lucky!” Bruto retorted, though he sounded fairly pleased, “Watch closely, Dad. Now let me show you what real power is! Aaaargh!!!!!!”

With a roar that seemed to shake the very ground, Bruto’s body swelled rapidly, turning into a giant dwarf over ten feet tall, towering above the death knights on their horses.

Bruto immediately swung his now equally enlarged warhammer, directly striking the nearest death knight.

A hideous sound of metal clashing rang out, accompanied by sparks from the weapons’ impact. Bruto’s strike was indeed powerful, but the charging death knight was not that easily overcome. The dwarf was forced back several steps, and the skeletal horse reared up, throwing off its rider, who clearly had not lost the will to fight.

Bruto tried to pursue, but another enemy had emerged from behind the target, thrusting a sword at the dwarf’s throat, causing him to quickly retract his head to avoid his beard being cut—of course, he would not let the enemy go easily, responding by sweeping his warhammer at the skeletal horse’s hooves, shattering all four horse legs, and causing the rider to fall, preventing him from making further charges against other teammates.

Though Bruto’s actions did not immediately put him in a dominant position, they rendered his enemies mountless, forcing them to fight on foot. Despite facing two opponents, Bruto, with his towering height, did not feel disadvantaged at all and took an aggressive stance, raising his warhammer high and charging at one of the enemies again.