Arc 4 [Magicians World]

Chapter 101
Look Out!

Chu Shen and Lucas waited inside the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion for a little while. But eventually they disappeared again. When they did, they had reappeared in the forest outside the edge of a large open field.

“Alright, let’s go ahead and get our bearings so that…” Lucas said as he started looking around. But he was interrupted halfway.

“Duck!” Chu Shen yelled. Instantly Lucas ducked, a result of his trust in Chu Shen’s judgement. A stream of fire shot past Lucas, the fire being so hot that it left burn marks on his fake skin even when it had missed him by over a foot. The fire was in a fan pattern, spreading outwards and slicing through trees like butter.

At the same time as the stream of fire, large explosions started going off in the distance. Chu Shen glanced towards where the noises were coming from and immediately became flabbergasted.

There, on opposite sides of the field, was two large armies facing each other. In front and middle rows were men dressed in armor and wielding swords and spears.

Currently they were charging at high speeds towards each other before meeting halfway. Huge gaps could be seen in the formation. Chu Shen could see the corpse of some of them behind the charging army. But they made no sense.

Some of them had been frozen or lit on fire. Others were completely reduced to ash. What could have caused such devastation? Chu Shen could only think of a clash between an army of cultivators.

Both sides started fighting, showing frightening battle prowess. Qi surged as blades made of the elements sliced opponents in half, armor blocked weapons and warriors used formations to fight together against the enemy.

In the back, standing on large earthen walls, were rows of men dressed in robes holding staffs embedded with crystals. Compared to the robed men, the armored men seemed to outnumber them 5-1 in both armies.

Chu Shen rubbed his eyes for a second. Just what was going on? This seemed way too weird to be anything he could think of. The robed men on both sides seemed to be chanting something before all of them lifted their hands.

Immediately, a flurry of fire, ice, thunder, and various other elements surged toward the other side. One of this barrage of the elements came close to Chu Shen. Like last time this was a huge fan like wave of fire.

Chu Shen and Lucas dodged like they had done last time before looking at the battle field. The armed men on both sides seemed to be taking heavy casualties from this frighteningly powerful long range bombardment. It was too chaotic though to be sure which side was winning.

There was a robed man on one side that had been chanting for a long time. Suddenly, the man thrust his arms towards the battles and said something that Chu Shen could faintly hear.

A huge whirlwind of fire sprang up on the enemy’s army. At the same time, a man in golden armor which was on the opposite side as the robed man shot forward. The whirlwind melted men around it, lighting them on fire.

The man in golden armor spread his arms wide as he closed in on the whirlwind like he wanted to hug it. A huge burst of energy which completely shocked Chu Shen came out of the man. The energy was in the shape of a bear and gave the whirlwind a bear hug. The bear snuffed out the fire, though the man in golden armor seemed to be exhausted.

The fight continued with other great shows of power going back and forth. Meanwhile, Chu Shen and Lucas backed up away from the fight and were having a hushed conversation.

“So what do you think of this situation Chu Shen? You have some experience as a cultivator so what does it look like to you?” Lucas had a hopeful expression on his face as he stared at Chu Shen.

Chu Shen shrugged helplessly. “To be honest, I am not sure. These people, they are using fire, ice, and thunder to attack. All of these are elements. You should know only beasts can use the elements and cultivators have to be at the Natural Realm or have an innate constitution.”

Chu Shen glanced towards the battlefield. “But there are so many people out there, at least a thousand on each side. There cannot be so many with an innate constitution. At the same time, they are not as powerful as a person in the Natural Realm.”

“If I had to guess, I would say the robed men were at the Martial Warrior stage and the armored men were at the Martial Scholar stage. Some like that golden armored man or the robed man that made that whirlwind of fire might be at the Martial Army Stage.”

Lucas sighed. “So what you are telling me is that this situation makes no sense? They aren’t powerful enough, and there is too many to be unique? Great. So what do we do now then?”

“Well it’s not our fight. So how about we just try to find the nearest town. There we should be able to find some answers.” Chu Shen said. Lucas nodded and both started walking away from the huge battle.

They could still hear the loud explosions behind them as they left the area. After a couple miles, they found a large road. Surprisingly the road was congested with many wagons.

Chu Shen thought with the fight going on, they would have tried to escape. Walking up to one of the wagons Chu Shen asked them a few questions. What he found out was a bit complicated.

Those two forces that were fighting a little ways away was actually two middle class sects that had been at an uneasy truce. The reason for this truce was that there was a third sect that was bigger than they both were that was in charge of the city Buldag, a fairly large trade city. However, this third sect had been experiencing a decline in talent.

As a result, there had been a call for a stronger force to take over the city lord’s position. The Alteria Empire, one of the superpowers of this world, had decided to agree to this proposal. As a result, these two sects had declared war on each other to settle this once and for all.

When Chu Shen asked why they weren’t fleeing from the fight, the wagon’s driver laughed. He explained it quite simply. He was a small time merchant that specialized in military related items.

So when a small war like this broke out, wouldn’t they need supplies, bandages, replacement weapons and so on? The wagon driver was just making some extra coin. His safety wasn’t in danger since they wouldn’t stoop so low as to steal from a poor merchant like him.

Chu Shen finally realized why there were so many wagons. These people were only trying to take advantage of the war to sell some stuff. Lucas came up to him after he was done talking with the wagon driver. “So, now that you know what’s going on, do you know what we should do?”

Chu Shen nodded. “Yeah, we need to go to the city and learn some things. Like how can those people use the elements, what kind of power systems is here. All of those things are needed so that we don’t become caught off guard.”

Lucas agreed. “Alright then. We need to get to Buldag.”

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