Under these circumstances, the captain of the guard unit had only one choice—flee.
Whoosh whoosh!!!
The afterimages moved at terrifying speed, each one carrying the same energy fluctuation.
With the surrounding Dark Wizards all held back by his projectile spell, the captain's figure flickered several times before he burst straight out of the encirclement.
In the last instant before he escaped, all he saw were several of his comrades being torn apart by a barrage of colorful Dark Arts, their bodies ripped to shreds.
"Besta, Guofate… I'll avenge you!"
He clenched his teeth, and a spell matrix on his body flashed repeatedly, as though some stored magic was about to activate.
Boom!
Just then, several black hands suddenly reached out from the shadows and seized his ankles!
"Think you can run?"
A cloud of green mist was rapidly approaching, and within it a massive figure could faintly be made out.
The giant simply extended his right hand, reaching straight for the captain's head!
"Damn it! Here goes!!!" The captain's face flushed red as a necklace around his neck shattered. A powerful magical fluctuation erupted, taking the shape of a knight's dragon lance that thrust toward the giant!
Ssss! The dragon lance cut through the air with an audible hiss, and even sparks flickered along its surface.
Crack!!!
The dragon lance collided with the giant's palm.
Under the captain's shocked and disbelieving gaze, this life-saving spell—which had cost him an enormous price to obtain—shattered inch by inch before the giant's hand.
The giant's palm didn't stop. It seized the captain's skull directly!
"Aagh!" the captain screamed as a semi-transparent crystal armor surfaced over his head.
Boom!
The giant hand smashed through the armor, and then the captain's skull was crushed in its grip, producing a piercing sound of bone shattering.
Thud! The captain's headless corpse collapsed to the ground, red blood flowing ceaselessly. Within dozens of seconds, it had thoroughly dyed the earth crimson.
"Has everyone been rescued?" the giant shrouded in mist spoke up.
"Reporting, sir! Everyone has been rescued—three full Wizards and thirteen apprentices! Not one missing!" a Dark Wizard reported respectfully to the giant.
Meanwhile, beside the corpses of the other two Great Beaks, those wizards who had been captured by Leilin were also freed from their cages.
"Listen up. I don't care what you were before, but according to the rules and customs of the Black Witch Domain, you are now our captives. You have two choices—either pay a sufficient ransom for your families to buy you back, or serve us for free for thirty years. After thirty years, we'll release you…"
A Dark Wizard read out the terms loudly to the prisoners.
Jocelyn and her uncle, previously captured by Leilin, looked ashen-faced. For Dark Wizards like them, being rescued by these people was actually worse than being handed over to the White Wizards!
After all, regardless of everything, White Wizards were always more trustworthy and cared more about reputation.
But once you fell into the hands of Dark Wizards who weren't from your own organization, there was no predicting what fate awaited you.
However, in their current state—with the seals on their bodies still intact, reduced to ordinary people with mana and spiritual power they couldn't access—they naturally couldn't put up any resistance.
Across from the green-mist-wrapped giant, faint dark energy coalesced into a cloaked shadow.
"So? The numbers all check out. My payment?"
"Don't worry! You'll get every last coin!" The giant in the green mist tossed a small black leather pouch to the figure.
The shadow caught it, inspected it carefully, and only then tucked it away with satisfaction.
"Not that it's my place to say, but—why bother capturing them first, then selling the information so we could stage a rescue? What's your angle?"
The giant asked.
The cloaked figure removed their hood, revealing a face wearing a blood-colored mask. It was, of course, Leilin disguised as Bloodhand.
And the organization behind this interception turned out to be the Thousand-Leaf Hand—the Dark Wizard organization Leilin had joined back in the Sleepless City.
"Naturally, for two sets of payment—from the White Wizards, and from you lot!"
"Besides, once I hand these prisoners over to the White Wizards, whether they live or die has nothing more to do with me. And if they dare dock my military merit, I'll report them straight to the Elder Council!"
Leilin smiled and pointed at the captives, who were reluctantly signing contracts with defiant expressions.
"Besides, this is profitable for you too, isn't it? I certainly don't believe for a second you'd release these wizards for free…"
"Haha…" The giant nodded in open agreement, without a trace of embarrassment.