Chapter 152: It Only Takes Me Once to Kill You

Necromancers were naturally rare, and a necromancer of the Archmage tier was even harder to come by. Therefore, as soon as this necromancer appeared, it immediately triggered numerous exclamations of surprise from that side.

Han Shuo had used the Art of Demonic Movement Across Nine Heavens to escape from that area, but suddenly noticing this change, he hesitated for a moment. Darting across the surrounding rooftops, he retreated along his path.

After the appearance of this necromancer, he used Necromantic Summoning to summon numerous dark creatures from another dimension. The emergence of these dark creatures caused a massive disruption to the soldiers pursuing Latch, especially the bulky Abomination warriors and a squad of flying Gargoyles.

The Abomination warriors, with their massive size and terrifying strength, could crush a soldier into a pulp with a single blow from their giant iron clubs. The highly mobile Gargoyles swooped down with whistling iron claws, posing an equally immense threat.

"Damn it, I'll go kill him!" Clark roared angrily. Waving his reins, his battle-steed suddenly surged forward. A long lance appeared in his hand, and he charged in the direction of the necromancer.

Driven by the frantic gallop of the warhorse and the momentum of the gleaming lance, the skeleton warriors and zombie warriors along his path were completely unable to create any obstruction for him. A knight could elevate his own combat prowess significantly by leveraging the charging momentum of a warhorse. Thus, under Clark's combined charge with his steed, those scattered dark creatures were utterly incapable of blocking him.

At this moment, due to the emergence of the Archmage-tier necromancer, the surrounding soldiers were too busy dealing with the summoned creatures to provide Clark with effective assistance. Calfert, the advanced knight, remained in place to direct the soldiers' actions. Once these well-trained soldiers calmed down and formed units to counter the dark creatures, rows of skeleton warriors and zombie warriors fell first.

Although this Archmage-tier necromancer possessed immense spiritual power, the sheer quantity of dark creatures he could summon could no longer compare to the soldiers present here. In particular, some of the ghouls and skeleton warriors played a very limited role in the battle, often being destroyed by a single sword thrust from the Griffin Legion soldiers.

However, the bulky Abomination warriors and the shrieking Gargoyles in the darkness remained ferocious, having already slain several soldiers within a short span of time. Unfortunately, there were only five Abominations, and merely sixty or seventy Gargoyles. Following Calfert's command, arrows rained down from the soldiers, riddling the Abominations with countless bolts, while roughly a dozen Griffin Legion soldiers swarmed around each Abomination.

A low incantation was once again uttered from the lips of the necromancer. Two of the fallen Abominations suddenly burst apart, and the manifestation of two Corpse Explosion spells instantly caused a dozen surrounding Griffin Legion soldiers to die in shrieking agony.

Just as the necromancer intended to continue chanting his next spell, Clark, mounted on his battle-steed, had already surged furiously right before him. The silver lance in his hand suddenly burst into a brilliant milky-white sword radiance. Leveraging the momentum of his warhorse, Clark flew into the air, horse and lance as one, stabbing like lightning toward the necromancer hovering in mid-air via Levitation.

A massive white skeletal structure suddenly materialized in the void, miraculously and strangely assembling into a bone shield. The bone shield was three meters high and two meters wide, completely blocking the necromancer behind it. The dazzling, otherworldly glowing white bones were pieced together without a single gap, and sharp bone fragments formed barbs along the front of the shield, giving it a very bizarre appearance.

With a loud snap, Clark's fierce, momentum-driven charge slammed violently into the bone shield. Even for a bone shield of such a high grade, under Clark's violent wave of impact, it shattered amidst a flurry of cracking sounds. At the spot where the long lance struck the pristine, massive white skeletal bones, bone powder flew in all directions.

With a muffled grunt, the necromancer drifted backward like a phantom. Seemingly realizing that Clark was not to be trifled with, he intended to put some distance between them. As the charge ended, Clark's body landed smoothly on a rooftop. Stowing his lance and drawing a longsword, he rapidly traversed the rooftops, pursuing the necromancer with a fixed stare.

Another Dark Fog was released. The retreating necromancer flickered within the dark mist and vanished in the blink of an eye. Immediately afterward, three bone spears came hurtling through the air simultaneously, targeting Clark directly. At the same time, the necromancer's position was finally deduced by Clark.

Concurrently, the sharp-eyed Han Shuo noticed that a protruding rock-like object on the rooftop where Clark was advancing had twitched slightly. This caused Han Shuo's heart to leap. He abruptly halted his body and flattened himself in concealment on another rooftop.

The Demonic Stinger had already silently approached Clark in accordance with his will.

With a cold snort, Clark did not check his momentum, but suddenly changed direction midway. With a sudden flick of his longsword, he deflected and shattered the bone spear he could not avoid. At this moment, Clark's body finally drew close to the protruding rock-like object. The previously stationary object suddenly shot out a stream of chilling, ghostly radiance, and Latch's form, obscured by a grayish-brown robe, simultaneously appeared.

Clark, who had just shattered the necromancer's bone spear, had not anticipated this sudden ambush. His battle aura was only half condensed when he hurriedly raised his sword to block. Following that, a metallic clang rang out through the night sky, and Clark's body was uncontrollably thrown downward off the rooftop.

Midway through Clark's fall, a sharp shriek suddenly rang out. A slender purple flame materialized out of nowhere and slammed into Clark's lower back with a muffled thud. The purple flame penetrated Clark's lower back and instantly vanished inside his body.

Howls of agonizing misery erupted frantically from Clark's mouth. By the time his body hit the ground, his entire body was suddenly engulfed in raging purple flames. Han Shuo's figure flew bizarrely in front of Clark. Staring coldly at Clark, who was being consumed by the purple flames, he summoned the Demonic Stinger back with a thought. It burst out from Clark's chest and dropped into Han Shuo's palm without carrying a single drop of blood.

"Y-You... It's actually you?" With his internal organs completely invaded by freezing profound cold energy and his body severely devastated by the Demonic Stinger, Clark looked at Han Shuo—who had revealed his face by pulling off his mask—and spat out these words with difficulty, his teeth chattering violently in sheer disbelief.

"That's right, it's me. You failed both attempts to kill me, but I only need once to kill you," Han Shuo said coldly, violently waving his right hand as he circulated the Mysterious Ice Demonic Flame Arts. A red flame fell into Clark's body. Clark, already invaded by the profound cold energy and on the verge of death, was incinerated once more by the demonic flame, transforming into a puddle of blood in the blink of an eye—at a speed that was utterly unbelievable.

Three bone spears materialized out of nowhere, targeting Han Shuo directly. The whistling sound startled Han Shuo on the spot. Leaping into the air, he slashed with the Demonic Stinger in his hand and severed one of the bone spears, shouting toward Latch in the distance, "Damn it, why is he attacking me too?"

"I don't know him," Latch replied, dodging like lightning as well, because the necromancer had attacked Latch right along with him.

So they weren't on the same side! Han Shuo was startled and hurriedly dodged outward. Seeing Han Shuo escape, the necromancer actually latched onto him, pursuing him relentlessly from behind. The sudden appearance of this necromancer was rather bizarre, and since he wasn't part of Lawrence's faction, Han Shuo was filled with deep suspicion, unsure which faction he truly belonged to.

Now that Clark was dead, Han Shuo saw Latch conceal his form with stealthy movements and sneak back toward Calfert's direction, apparently intending to finish off Calfert as well. Han Shuo had zero clue about the background of this fellow practitioner. Finding himself targeted by this peer, Han Shuo felt rather exasperated and decided not to entangle with him any further, fleeing outward at top speed.

By the time Han Shuo was a few hundred meters away from Calfert's residence, his sharp eyes spotted Lawrence's carriage. Overjoyed, he quickly made his way toward Lawrence's carriage. The fellow practitioner pursuing closely behind him summoned a few Gargoyles to trail Han Shuo's rear, until Han Shuo appeared right beside Lawrence's carriage, whereupon the necromancer and the Gargoyles abruptly retreated.

"Brian, what happened? Why didn't you guys send out any signals, yet that side turned into a complete mess?" Seeing Han Shuo appear, Lawrence immediately poked his head out from the carriage and anxiously questioned him.

"Don't ask. Tonight's events are rather bizarre. For some unknown reason, Latch and I had our cover blown and were almost captured by Clark. Then, an Archmage-tier necromancer suddenly appeared. After this necromancer showed up, he launched an attack on Clark and his men, and in the end, he even attacked the two of us as well. I really have no idea what's going on!" Han Shuo complained loudly.

"Then how is Uncle Latch? Is Clark dead?" Lawrence inquired further.

"Mr. Latch is sneaking toward Calfert, seemingly intending to finish Calfert off. Oh, and Clark is done for, you don't need to worry anymore," Han Shuo replied.

An uncontainable surge of wild joy washed over Lawrence's features, and he burst into hearty laughter, exclaiming, "Died well, died brilliantly! Valen City is about to plunge into great chaos!"