Chapter 155: Petrification On Landing
The night is deep and dark, all sounds silent.
On the towering walls of Jacqueline Castle, a faint friction sound emerges, and inexplicably, half a footprint appears in the dust on the stone ledge.
However, outside the wall, it is empty, with no shadow figure visible.
Extremely subtle sounds travel up layer by layer along the main keep, footprints continuously appearing on various window ledges, as if searching for something.
After an unknown time, the footprints stop on a certain window ledge, the curtains half-covering half-revealing, and under the moonlight and lamplight, the messy room inside is visible, clothes and miscellaneous items thrown everywhere.
On the bed not far away, two shadow figures embrace in sleep, covered by a thin silk quilt, vaguely showing some body outlines.
The two should not be wearing clothes, at least… not wearing armor.
A slight friction sound arises, then abruptly stops. Seeing the two in the room unaware, faint footprints then begin moving along the clean window ledge.
The window opens silently, a gentle night breeze blows in, the curtains lift, creating a rustling sound.
Immediately after, clear footprints appear on the soft carpet, completely silent, avoiding miscellaneous items, step by step approaching the bedside.
There, an orb glowing with four-colored rainbow light floats at the head of the bed, particularly eye-catching.
Moonlight sprinkles like light gauze, the room no different from before.
Ding—
In a daze, Anse perceives the dice beginning to spin rapidly, his heart jolting—this is the precursor to a check.
He immediately activates the True Sight Ring hanging around his neck, suddenly opens his eyes, and a fair tender face comes into view, hair sticking to the neck, breathing even, still fast asleep.
His gaze shifts, a blurry shadow figure is bent over at the bedside, posing in an attack posture.
He clearly also sees Anse open his eyes, abruptly swings his arm, cold light flashes, instantly landing on Anse’s nape.
Too fast, Anse doesn’t even have time to speak, instinctively activates Shield, and just before the blade touches the soft scales, triggers Shield of Faith.
But the blade turns, stabbing toward the defenseless Illyas.
But this also gives Anse reaction time, he lifts his arm to protect Illyas.
Clang—
Shield shatters with the sound, a section of light blade lands on dragon scale, slides away, then erupts in a trail of sparks and elemental radiance.
【You are attacked by the Shadow Thief Master, the psi blade is deflected by the tough soft scales enchanted with Giant’s Radiance…】
His own armor class is already 22, after adding Shield and Shield of Faith, approaching thirty, not so easy to break.
Anse doesn’t take the chance to escape, because he knows well the reaction speed of a high-level rogue, the time to roll off the bed holding Illyas might mean taking two more blades, he can withstand it, Illyas cannot.
Surging mana surges out from within him, his eyes glare, spiritual light flashes.
「Metamagic: Quick Cast, Heightened Spell, Subtle」+「Banishment」!
Invisible fluctuations instantly envelop the visible assassin, after an extremely brief stagnation, the black-clothed assassin disappears.
【You cast Banishment on the Shadow Thief Master, Shadow Thief Master saving throw failed, has been banished to another plane】
“Banishment?” Illyas has already woken, seeing the disappeared shadow figure, face full of surprise.
Anse holds her and rolls to the bedside, grabs a handful on her chest, picks up the shield by the bed: “Hurry and go, I’ll deal with him.”
Illyas has no time for him, reaches out and summons, the flying carpet flies along the floor, she pulls the quilt to wrap her body, sits on the flying carpet, grabs the wand and flies out the window.
“Lure him outside.” Her voice urgent.
With that, a flame arrow hits the copper bell on the attic, the prolonged bell sound echoes through Jacqueline Castle.
Moments later, the castle alarm bells blare.
In the room, Anse pulls a cloak over himself, then spells’ light and shadow successively fall, Fly, Shield of Fire, Divine Favor…
Then he takes out the Dragon Gold Slash Sword from the dragonhide pouch, shield in left hand, sword in right, crouches several meters away, quietly waiting.
Banishment is special, the target is banished to another plane, incapacitated during that time. When the spell ends, except for aberrations, fiends and other special creatures, other targets reappear in their pre-banishment position.
Therefore, Anse just needs to wait patiently.
‘Damn thing, actually playing assassination.’ His gaze dark, decides to let the opponent taste his petrifying light.
However, he is also prepared to retreat, the Shadow Thief Master can evade Jacqueline Castle’s magic detection and alarms, must have some means, if petrification fails, he can only pull away distance.
Close combat with a high-level rogue is not wise.
He does not actively end Banishment, after dozens of seconds, the spell effect ends, light and shadow flash at the bedside position, a shadow figure drops from thin air.
The medusa relief on 「Aegis of Euryale」 quietly opens its eyes, amber-like pupils shoot out bright petrifying light.
“Hey, look here—”
The shadow thief, just regaining mobility, decisively turns his head and closes his eyes, refusing to listen or look, but his feet not yet landed, petrifying light has already fallen on him, penetrating the body.
Petrifying Magic, no need for gaze!
Shadow thief body stiffens, immediately feeling tricked, if he really turned to look, perhaps he could rely on rich combat experience to discern the petrifying light, prepare in advance, even if just mentally.
【You cast Petrifying Magic on the Shadow Thief Master, Shadow Thief Master saving throw failed】
Thud, the shadow thief flops to the ground, limbs stiff, even standing up is difficult.
But he does not sit idly, a section of translucent shiny blade rapidly flies out, through the window, into the night sky.
Next moment, his body vanishes from thin air, appearing in mid-air outside the window.
‘Soul Blade!’
This is the rogue subclass soul blade’s 「Mind Teleport」, can be activated with a thought, even restraints cannot affect their action.
Silver mist flashes, Anse teleports outside the room.
「Mind Teleport」 is very mana-intensive, distance not far, mainly for ambushes, impossible to escape relying on this.
But teleport plus Invisibility, if not watched closely, really might let him escape.
Shadow thief falls straight toward the ground, seems wanting to escape from the ground.
“Whoosh—”
Miniature meteor descends from the sky, chasing the shadow thief’s figure and smashing.
Shadow thief body stiff, unable to dodge, he would rather curl up and tank it, not willing to waste 「Mind Teleport」.
Boom, body smashed flying, accelerating fall to the ground.
Anse hovers in mid-air, mana surging, casting again.
“
「Metamagic」+「Heightened Spell」+「Hold Person」!
Spell casts and hits instantly, shadow thief Wisdom saving throw fails, loses control of body, paralyzed in mid-air.
‘This move again!’
He is greatly shocked, one saving throw failure is luck, repeated failures is baffling, just an elite sorcerer, does it have to be this ridiculous.
This time he is completely immobile.
Worst of all, the petrifying magic in his body erupts again, caught off guard, saving throw fails again!
In the corner of his eye, gray-black stone patterns rapidly spread along the skin, he feels his body sink, senses disappear one by one, soon darkness falls, seeing nothing.
Illyas sees this, immediately stops, she also doesn’t want to damage her own castle.
Bang, a muffled crash, the fully petrified shadow thief smashes heavily onto the stone slabs, the hard brittle body can’t withstand the impact, half an arm detaches from the body, flying far away.
Knights and guards of Jacqueline Castle surround over, looking at each other, not knowing how to handle it.
“This is petrification?” Wind howling, Illyas wrapped in silk quilt flies to Anse’s side.
“Yes, petrification for 24 hours.” Anse waves his hand, “You go put on clothes.”
With that, he quickly descends, holds the shield and approaches the shadow thief.
