Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage-Chapter 552: The Irregular II

CH552 The Irregular II

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Ariana’s death was a huge shock to the sorcerers.

’How can a berserk human use mystic arts (magic)?’

They couldn’t believe it.

Berserk humans were essentially similar to human warriors. They used mana under the influence of the berserk property to enhance their physical prowess in a specific, biased direction.

They could easily become faster, stronger, or heal quicker— all at the cost of losing the ability to wield mana to form magic or mystic arts.

Yet this Irregular was not only able to improve across all three physical attributes, it was also capable of using some form of mystic arts (magic).

The Heaven Secrets Sect’s trio of disciple-brothers and the other Chosen Child froze in shock as everything they knew about berserk humans seemed to collapse before this were-croc berserk human.

They were at a complete loss on how to face it... or even how to react.

The were-croc used the opportunity to tense its massive body and break through the spell bindings with sheer physical strength.

It turned towards its next designated target— Ken of the Elemental Sacred Land—and charged.

The sorcerer felt a sharp backlash as two of his mystic arts restraining the berserk human cracked apart under the creature’s force, and couldn’t react in time.

Suddenly, dagger-like claws extended from its fingers, primed to swipe down on him. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Banishment!"

A hoarse voice suddenly sounded.

The berserk human froze mid-motion, its body flickering in and out of space as if reality itself rejected its presence.

The sorcerer party members turned towards the source of the voice— Ray of the Craftsmanship Sacred Lands.

Ray held a brush in his hand, which he pushed into a glyph formation formed in the air before him.

The glyph formation resembled a spell formation. However, Ray was not a spellcaster. Instead, he was a Talisman Master.

So the formation before him was actually a talisman being written in the air, activated at the final moment before the berserk human cleaved Ken’s head off with its daggerlike claws.

"Cough!" Ray suddenly dropped to his knees and coughed out a significant amount of blood.

"Ray!" Lina of the Alchemy School called out.

She rushed to his side and quickly handed him a couple of potions.

Ray gulped them down immediately without hesitation.

In that moment, Jin rushed forward and punched towards the berserk human’s face. Simultaneously, Shin arrived as well and struck out with his sword in a precise arc.

However, unfortunately for the two sorcerers, their attacks simply passed through the berserk human’s form.

"What?!" they both exclaimed aloud in disbelief.

"Don’t bother," Ray said, forcing himself back to his feet despite the obvious strain. "I just used my life force as a price to banish and trap it in another spatial dimension."

"You what?!" The others — except for Lina — were stunned by his words.

They didn’t expect Ray was willing to pay such a significant price.

"Open your eyes!" Ray roared. "This thing is playing with us. It is a Peak Fourth Circle Berserk Human on the cusp of the Fifth. Our only option is to kill it here, even if we have to pay a grievous price. Otherwise, each one of us will end up like Ariana."

"It is trapped there. We can just leave," Sana of the Anima Sacred Land said, uncertainty colouring her voice.

"We cannot! If we leave now, this thing will most likely mutate into the Fifth Circle. Have you forgotten how dangerous a Saint Berserk Human is? Not to mention this is an irregular— a very dangerous irregular!" Hiro retorted sharply.

’Saint Berserk Human?!’ Terror flashed across the sorcerers’ eyes.

Berserk humans underwent a significant mutation to reach Class Five. And once that mutation was completed, a Class Five Saint Berserk Human became a walking bio-disaster, capable of causing near-instant mutation and converting any living creature into a transformed berserk entity.

At that stage, only other Saints could remain within a fifty-metre vicinity of the berserk human without instantly becoming corrupted. Even they could only endure for a limited time before they too became at risk.

As a result, whether sorcerer, clergy, nobility, royalty, adventurers, or mercenaries... regardless of affiliation, all human professionals immediately cast aside everything to eliminate any berserk human that reached the peak of Class Four.

Essentially, all unique and irregular berserk humans were marked as kill-on-sight targets whenever possible.

As Holy Sons and Holy Daughters of the sorcerer Sacred Lands, the group had no choice but to give their all to slay this irregular here and now.

"You may not like it, but the Heaven Secret Holy Son is right," Ray spoke, his tone firm despite his weakened state. "The Banishment writ will only hold for thirty more seconds at most."

"That’s not enough time to find the correct exit and reach it," Samir said grimly.

"Exactly." Ray nodded. "The irregular will pick us off before we can reach the exit."

He gave Lina a meaningful nod.

She took out three vials of potions.

"Overload Potions," she said. "They’ll overclock our apertures, allowing us to raise our mystic energy by one stage. Three of us can use a vial each, so that’s just enough for all of us."

The sorcerers grew solemn at the sight of the Overload Potions.

As Lina explained, they were concoctions that could temporarily increase mystic energy capacity and output by one stage for a short period.

Most of them were Peak-Stage Third Circle Sorcerers. By taking the potions, they could raise their ranks to Early-Stage Fourth Circle for a brief moment.

However, every form of external power carried a price.

At the very least, the potions would delay the user’s cultivation by up to half a month. In the worst-case scenario, it could even damage one’s cultivation foundation.

For these Chosen Children, who constantly had to fend off competition for their positions, even a simple delay to their cultivation progression was akin to death.

Yet between dying now and possibly dying later, the choice was painfully clear.

Twenty-five seconds...

The group reached a quick agreement, all of them accepting the necessity of taking the potion.

They spent the next few seconds assigning clear roles, responsibilities they were all expected to fulfil— even at the cost of their lives.

Ten seconds...

The party hurried through a final series of preparations while also putting distance between themselves and the berserk human.

Three...

Two...

One...

Roar!

The Banishment talisman finally ran its course, and the Were-croc Berserk Human burst out of the confinement with an enraged roar.

Its full aura and pressure blasted outward, flooding the surroundings.

It was clear it was no longer in the mood to play around with these nefarious unblessed.

It looked around, searching for its targets.

While banished into another dimension, it had lost sight of the main space, leaving it unaware of their positions.

It spotted a couple of the sorcerers —Ken and Sana— the latter riding her panther beast companion while her gorilla companion brought up the rear— making a beeline into the distance in different directions.

Not far from them, it saw Ray and Lina both on the floor, blood pooled around them. Their life signals were also extremely low.

It saw Jin, whose body had shrivelled back into its initial withered form, and Shin —whose flexible sword had suddenly become a wooden longsword— rushing towards it.

Finally, it saw the Heaven Secret Sect disciple-brothers —Hiro, Samir, and Leo— standing in a triangular formation, rapidly forming synchronised hand seals.

Its mind processed the information rapidly.

It immediately disregarded the first four. Of the remaining five, it had already faced Jin and Shin, so it did not consider them a significant threat.

The only unpredictable variables left were the three Heaven Secret Sect disciple-brothers and whatever spells they were about to cast.

It knew from experience that spellcasters could cause it considerable trouble. So it settled on its target.

Ignoring Shin and Jin, it dashed towards the Heaven Secret Sect disciples.

Seeing this, Hiro’s eyes flashed.

’Come, beast! I, Hiro, shall slay you and become the hero of this world.’

[Secret Mystic Arts— Earth Concordance]!

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