"Mm!"
Facing this black Wizard who looked like a large rat, Raelin merely nodded indifferently.
"You've come at just the right time. There are certain aspects here that call for your particular talents! Stay by my side!"
"Yes, sir!" A gleam of joy flickered in the great rat's eyes as it swiftly took up a position slightly behind Raelin.
It understood all too well that in large-scale warfare like this, even official Wizards faced grim odds of survival!
And to better protect oneself, apart from striving to improve one's own strength, attaching oneself to a powerful protector was another viable path!
"Who's that?"
The Four Seasons Garden Wizards across the way naturally did not recognize the current Raelin, and one of them spoke up with confusion.
"That's the Blood Hand of the Hand of a Thousand Leaves! He's been on a terrifying spree — in barely a single year, he's committed nine major crimes in succession. He's a thorn on the wanted list!"
An older white Wizard stared at Raelin, his eyes filled with unmistakable wariness.
Raelin smiled faintly and strode forward. The black Wizards on either side parted respectfully to make way.
"I'll say this once! Back away!" He looked at the white Wizards across from him and spoke with imposing force.
"Are you out of your mind?"
Watching Raelin single-handedly threaten the entire group of white Wizards, even several of the Hand of a Thousand Leaves' own members thought he'd gone mad.
But the Rat Wizard and the others who knew him better went pale and shuffled back several steps.
"You bunch of deranged black Wizards, Master Leono will return soon, and when he does, you'll all—urk—"
A white Wizard stepped forward, his words ringing with righteous conviction.
But in the very next instant, a semi-transparent black great serpent, as though tearing through the fabric of space itself, materialized directly before him. It gaped its maw bristling with razor-sharp fangs and lunged straight for his neck.
*Crunch!* The sickening sound rang out. The white Wizard's innate magical defense shattered beneath the serpent's jaws in less than a second, dissolving into fragments.
The black serpent then clamped down on the Wizard's neck, pulverizing the bone in a spray of blood and gore!
"I asked... are you all deaf?"
The white Wizard's corpse thudded to the ground. The blood-red robe draped over Raelin seemed to pulse with concentric rings of crimson light as he gazed coldly at the remaining white Wizards and spoke in a quiet voice.
"How... how far has he actually grown? This level of power is far beyond what the old half-elemental transformation was..."
Behind him, the great black Rat Wizard watched Raelin dispatch an official Wizard in a single strike and couldn't help but reveal a look of sheer horror. In his view, back in the old Hand of a Thousand Leaves, only a scant few peak Tier 1 Wizards like the Giant could have accomplished such a feat — but now, one more name had to be added to that list: the Blood Hand!
In fact, he vaguely wondered whether the Blood Hand had already surpassed the Giant and several other elders. The moment this thought crossed his mind, a look of delight immediately appeared on his long, gaunt face, and he stared at Raelin's retreating figure with even more fervent eyes.
"Duoguo! He actually killed Duoguo!"
A female Wizard from the Four Seasons Garden stared at Duoguo's corpse on the ground, her face a mask of disbelief that quickly gave way to madness.
"I'll kill you!"
Her expression twisted with frenzy, and then her body was engulfed in a massive sphere of milky-white light!
Crack!
Shrouded in that radiance, the clothes on her upper body burst apart, revealing a youthful figure.
At the same time, patch after patch of pristine white feathers sprouted from her back, converging together to form a pair of enormous white wings.
"Holy Light Form! She's going all out!"
The surrounding White Wizards cried out in alarm, then reacted in different ways.
Several White Wizards quietly retreated, scrambling toward the edges, while even more pressed inward, gradually surrounding Raelin.
"Judgment of the Holy Light!"
As if an angel had descended to the mortal realm, the female Wizard's face blazed with sacred radiance, her eyes transformed to pure gold. She pointed a finger straight at Raelin.
Light! Pure, immaculate holy light coalesced into the shape of a Knight's lance, accompanied by the sound of sacred hymns, hurtling toward Raelin with tremendous force!
"Kill! Let's kill him together!"
The surrounding White Wizards unleashed their most powerful spells in turn. A torrent of multicolored magical light surged toward Raelin like crashing waves!
Facing this onslaught, the great black Rat Wizard at Raelin's side immediately retreated several steps. The other Dark Wizards scattered even further away.
Raelin was not their superior — he had no authority to command them.
Moreover, as Dark Wizards steeped in sin, even if a leader ordered them to charge forward now, they would likely pay lip service while doing the opposite.
"At the critical moment, still a bunch of unreliable wretches! Thank goodness I never pinned my hopes on them…"
Raelin raised both hands before him and loudly chanted a series of arcane syllables.
Whoosh! A vivid, brilliant crimson instantly spread across both his hands, so rich and deep it looked like fresh blood, threatening to drip from his fingertips.
"It appeared! The Blood Hand's signature spell — the Scarlet Hand!!!"
Several Dark Wizards hiding at a distance immediately shouted with barely contained excitement.