School Transmigration: I, Chosen as the Saint by Dragons at the Start-Chapter 143 --A Way Out in Desperation

Eldrich called out to stop Barlo.

Barlo, suspecting no good news, asked impatiently, "What do you want now?"

"I need you and your friends to help break this magic array," Eldrich stated bluntly.

Bilqis interjected, "This is a level 6 magic array. Breaking it will be extremely difficult with just the handful of us here. Don’t entertain such fanciful thoughts."

"I’m aware," Eldrich replied gravely.

"Yet you still talk big," Barlo rolled his eyes, suggesting, "Let’s change the condition."

Eldrich had given the dragons valuable information; it was only right to offer something in return.

"This was supposed to be a trial. We sent students into the Necropolis for an exercise. But for reasons unknown, someone set up a level 6 magic array, trapping the students’ souls within the Necropolis," Eldrich explained slowly, "Among them is Prince Owen."

"?" Question marks seemed to pop above the heads of the three dragon grandmasters.

After the shock subsided, Barlo stepped forward, and everyone half expected him to grab Eldrich: "What did you say? The prince is in there?"

Eldrich, with a pained expression, confirmed, "Indeed."

Barlo, gritting his teeth and pointing at Eldrich, was so furious he could hardly speak, "Get on with it, have you called your people?"

After saying this, he added sternly, "If anything happens to the prince, I will demand a million lives from the human race as recompense."

His words were laden with murderous intent, as if the very air around them was steeped in the threat of death.

The grandmasters knew Barlo meant every word.

As one of Novalia’s strongest talents and a grandmaster likely to breakthrough to sage-tier, Barlo possessed the power to fulfill his threat.

The grandmasters’ faces turned sour, a mix of fear and concern churning inside them.

...

With a crisp and loud snap, the River Crossing Demon’s offspring broke Feldin’s neck.

Feldin’s face was frozen in despair at the moment of his death.

Death, already lurking over their heads, descended quicker than expected, and he simply couldn’t withstand it.

His lethal move had failed, exploited by the River Crossing Demon finding an opening.

His companions couldn’t rescue him in time, and so he perished before everyone’s eyes.

Under normal circumstances, Owen might have been able to save him.

But now, drained of so much strength and without the aid of his abilities, he found himself unable to exert his full power with a swing of his sword.

Instead, the River Crossing Demon’s speed increased, becoming so fast that it was hard for the human eye to follow.

Owen’s sword, Jiplin’s spear, and Jonathan’s arrows all struck the River Crossing Demon’s offspring, slicing open its tough abdominal armor and causing incessant bleeding.

But Feldin was beyond saving.

Owen closed his eyes, his heart sinking deep into despair.

It seemed time to use [Prophecy], but activating this trump card meant he would only have one chance.

If a single strike didn’t defeat the enemy, he would be counter-killed by the River Crossing Demon.

While hesitating, Owen swung his hand, slicing through a Skeletal Golem soldier.

The Skeletal Golem army knew neither fatigue nor pain, and without the threat of death, they could emerge from any corner of the rock walls.

To even think of resting meant facing the risk of being skewered by a Skeletal Golem soldier’s spear.

They couldn’t even afford to lean against a wall for a brief respite.

With Feldin’s death, the slowing spell immediately ceased to be effective.

The previously staggering Skeletal Golem army suddenly surged forward with renewed vigor, howling as they bypassed their entangled comrades and charged towards the group.

To make matters worse, Owen witnessed one of his team members being engulfed by the wave of Skeletal Golems.

His cries were desolate and pained, but no one could afford to help him; everyone was struggling for their own survival.

Owen desperately wanted to grant him a swift end, as each of his screams dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the team members, an utterly spirit-crushing sound.

The River Crossing Demon’s offspring found a new target in Jiplin, who appeared to be an easy pick.

Moreover, it recognized that the carnivorous vines were summoned by Jiplin.

Eliminating him meant the mercenary force would launch a full assault.

Killing him would signify the end of the day’s work, allowing it to relish in the exquisite taste of victory.

Jiplin’s face was ashen, his teeth gritted in determination.

Owen, assisting by his side, understood that Jiplin’s death would mean the end for all of them.

If he fell, the Skeletal Golem army would overwhelm them, leaving no one alive.

Even with Owen’s help, Jiplin was on his last legs, his body riddled with seven or eight gaping wounds, from which blood flowed freely.

The illusion felt so real, so vivid that each wound seemed to taunt his very nerves with pain.

A thought crept into Jiplin’s mind: Give up, seek release sooner.

To resist any further was to inevitably face death.

Owen, noticing the despair in his eyes, shouted in alarm, "Jiplin, if you want to die, don’t drag us down with you. Your teammate died unjustly; don’t you think you owe it to him to be responsible?"

Jiplin’s spirit rallied, but it was a tad too late.

The River Crossing Demon’s offspring caught Jiplin’s vulnerability, its claw aiming for his neck to consign him to the same fate as Feldin.

Willow, from behind, struck a backstab at the River Crossing Demon, hitting its back.

Relying on its overwhelming home field advantage, the demon didn’t dodge or evade, focused solely on strangling Jiplin.

Brawny, understanding Jiplin’s importance, charged with his shield, hitting the demon’s ribs and sending it flying directly into the rock wall.

Gasping for breath, Jiplin managed to say, "You guys..."

He didn’t know what else to say, fully aware that Jonathan’s team had risked their lives to save him, solely because of his carnivorous vine.

Yet, he was indeed saved.

Better a bad life than a good death; he had narrowly escaped with his life.

Owen used the time to regain his strength, his mind filled with dragons’ combat techniques.

He recalled the days he spent honing his combat skills in Dragon Echo Valley.

Barlo had praised him then, which now felt like empty flattery.

It was just the indulgence of an elder from his clan.

Stripped of all enhancements, he realized how frail he was; the combat techniques he relied on to traverse the world were meaningless in front of the River Crossing Demon’s offspring.

It wasn’t that his combat techniques were strong, but rather, the people he encountered didn’t value combat techniques.

The only person with extraordinary combat technique he had met was Quincy on Heartstealer Island.

However, due to Quincy’s use of arcana, time had erased him from the river of time, mercilessly obliterating all memories related to him.

Thus, this segment of memory also didn’t exist in Owen’s mind, and his level of combat technique regressed to before his encounter with Quincy.

Owen’s face was stern as he commanded, "Everyone, be cautious of your footing; it prefers to attack from beneath."

No sooner had his words fallen than it burst from the ground, aiming for Jiplin’s back with a spear over a meter long in its grasp.

Its sense of smell was incredibly keen, even able to detect who had lost their will to fight.

A new wave of Skeletal Golems had arrived.

Without Feldin’s slowing spell, these Skeletal Golems surged forward like a tide, ready to join their master.

Owen, with a premonition, swiftly cut the spear in half, then kicked Jiplin aside, chastising him for his lack of will, "Do you truly wish to die that badly?"

As he spoke, his blade’s motion didn’t falter; not only was the spear severed, but so too was half of the River Crossing Demon offspring’s palm, eliciting a pained howl from the creature.

His sword, coated in holy light, proved devastating against such malevolent beings.

Jiplin’s will to survive spurred him to dodge the creature’s assaults twice in succession.

The group continued their desperate collaboration; after all, their lives were at stake.

They all had their prime years ahead of them, and dying in a battle thousands of years past seemed utterly absurd.

Yet, their spirits could no longer be rallied.

Human resilience, after all, has its limits.

They had struggled so long without a glimpse of dawn in this endless night of battle.

How much longer could this last?

A thought struck Owen, and he shouted, "Use ice-based magic, freeze it." Willow hesitated, "It’s useless." She believed it to be a waste of arcanergy.

There were no potions here to replenish arcanergy; their supplies were limited to the guards’ packs, which contained only some stamina-restoring and detoxifying pills.

"Use it," Owen repeated firmly.

A team member clenched his teeth and squeezed out the last bit of arcanergy from his body, conjuring an ice arrow from thin air.

The arrow shot forth with incredible speed, embedding itself in the left arm of the River Crossing Demon’s offspring.

Ice instantly spread from the wound across its entire body.

Sheltered by its "mother," it could recover swiftly.

The group was well aware that chopping it into pieces would be futile; it would eventually heal—even though it wouldn’t split into several entities like a leech.

Other offspring would die if decapitated, but this one was entirely different.

Being the most cherished by the River Crossing Demon Mother, it was no surprise it possessed extraordinary traits.

This was also why Owen hesitated to use [Prophecy].

Owen fired a crossbow bolt—an item from the guards’ gear—straight through the wound in its abdomen, blossoming claws at the back to fasten it firmly.

He then leaped onto a higher rock and used a protruding spike to suspend it in mid-air.

With the creature unable to touch the rock wall with any part of its body, including the soles of its feet, the thawing process slowed significantly.