European modulation mode

"And there's official gambling inside the arena. I don't have much money, just over a hundred silver coins left. I'll bet all on you tomorrow night."

"Don't worry, I'll bring you the crown of victory."

Aenarion roughly understood the rules of the Holy Grail War. He spent a day strengthening all his zombies, giving them +2 health and +4 strength. Then he looked at his watch and saw that the time was almost up. He strode into the Colosseum with his ogre Lead Spitter.

The arena is divided into five levels. The bottom and the most central is the gladiatorial area. The four levels of stands are the audience area. The first level, which is closest to the battlefield, has seats that only the emperor and great nobles are qualified to enter and are also the most luxuriously decorated. Only citizens of the Eastern Roman Empire can enter the second and third levels. Other foreigners, slaves, and outsiders who have not obtained a Roman green card are only qualified to sit on the fourth level, which is the farthest from the gladiatorial area and also the highest.

However, this was the rule in the past. In order to generate revenue, the extremely cash-strapped Constantine XI allowed anyone who could afford the money, even an outsider, to sit on the first-tier stands where only nobles and emperors were eligible to enter. The farthest fourth-tier seats were priced at 1 silver coin, the third tier at 2 silver coins, the second tier at 3 silver coins, and the first tier starting price at 10 silver coins. The distinguished seats in the first row of the first tier, and even the emperor's seats, were all sold separately.

However, today's competition is just a primary one between seven third-level wizards. There is almost no one on the first floor. Those dignitaries are not very interested in this kind of low-level competition. There are quite a lot of spectators on the second, third and fourth floors. Adding together, there are at least six or seven thousand people. The ticket revenue from this event should be over ten thousand. Even if the interests are exploited at every level, the emperor can at least get half of it. It's a lot of money. With the financial support of the Colosseum, it's no wonder that Constantinople does not show any signs of decline.

Under the guidance of the staff, Aenarion brought his ogre into the track and waited for the start of the race behind a huge iron gate. Outside the iron gate was the gladiatorial platform covered with fine sand, the curved gladiatorial walls, and several iron doors that locked up other contestants. Purple arcane fires were burning, illuminating the dark night like day.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Good evening! Welcome to the Colosseum of Constantinople!"

A high elf dressed in sexy and seductive clothes walked slowly into the arena covered with fine sand and stood in the center of the arena. Seven mirages woven with arcane magic, like seven huge display screens, were suspended above the gates of the seven contestants, showing tonight's contestants and their undead servants to all the spectators.

Aenarion took a quick look. The undead of the other five people looked just like that, but the undead of one of them was actually a brown bear that had been transformed into an undead zombie! It was covered in three pieces of mithril chain mail shirts that were tailored to its body. Its bloody mouth and four bear claws were reinforced and thickened by a layer of steel blades. It was armed all over to the teeth, with only two empty eye sockets burning with undead fire. This full armor made the brown bear look like a silver-white beast made of steel.

At this moment, the armored brown bear let out a deafening roar, and the terrifying sound echoed back and forth inside the arena!

"Listen! What kind of giant beast wants to destroy this place? The eerie roar of the undead has been heard from the seven gates. The contestants can't wait! Let me introduce you to the best contestants of this competition!

First, Mr. Savvy from the White Tower of Hoth,

He is a level 3 Necromancer, and his servant is the terrifying zombie brown bear: Volibear! He appears as a [Berserker] and brings eternal destruction to the enemy! This zombie brown bear is three meters long and weighs six hundred kilograms! Its strength reaches a terrifying 34 points! And like the ancient Vagrian guards, it wears a triple chain mail shirt!

In every match, Volibear had an overwhelming advantage in strength, smashing and crushing the undead servants of the other six contestants, bringing his master thirteen glorious victories! "

"VoliBear! Volibear! Volibear!"

Deafening cheers rang out from the audience area. Obviously, they had seen Volibear tear apart too many enemies and win too many victories, so they called his name with great excitement.

"The second is the hero who saved Princess Indragnir, Aenarion! Although it was his first time to participate in a battle, he was indeed an ogre lead-sprayer from the Ottoman Empire! That terrifying beast is now under the control of the elves, fighting for the empire! It is 330 centimeters tall and weighs 330 kilograms. The lead-spraying cannon in its hand has terrified the believers of God in every war!"

Under the elves' commentary, the audience was obviously interested in Aenarion, but no one cheered, they were just looking forward to his performance.

"Okay, let's reveal the special prize for this contest."

The charming elf took out the prize of this competition and placed it directly into the huge holy grail in the center of the arena. It was an ancient helmet made of pure gold. It looked like a Gallic style from the Roman Empire era, with a golden mask to protect the face, leaving only the eyes exposed. There were also five pure gold spikes of flame on the top of the helmet, radiating out around the helmet like the light of the sun.

[Helm of Helios] (Blue): Defense +3, gain 20 points of fire resistance.

Aenarion used an identification spell, well, it was still a magical equipment, with pretty good properties. The defense of a single helmet was comparable to that of a full-body leather armor, and it had very high resistance to fire.

"This is a relic of a false god worshipped a thousand years ago when Rome was still ignorant of polytheism. Over time, the legend of this helmet has disappeared in the long river of history, but its properties are still powerful! Now, it is the prize of this competition! The Holy Grail War begins now!"

The charming and beautiful elf excitedly raised its hands and embraced the sky of the arena. With the sound of metal friction, the seven iron fences slowly opened. Seven spellcasters, with their seven murderous zombies, stepped into the arena at the same time amid the warm welcome of the audience. The elf, along with the seven mirage display screens, burst and dissipated like bubbles.

"Are you the recently famous Aenarion, the hero who saved the little princess?"

The High Elf closest to Aenarion looked at him angrily. Although this elf wore a white robe, the sheepskin waistcoat, the earrings made of beast fangs mixed with jewels, and the braids that hung from the top of his head to his shoulders showed extremely strong Turkic features: he was not a High Elf, but a Turkified Dark Elf.

Under his command, a huge, mighty Centaur skeleton, holding a five-meter-long spear, charged directly at Aenarion's zombies!

Aenarion stood in front of the ogre zombie calmly. He first cast a vitality spell on himself. The twelve pairs of silver ribs were like twenty-four gentle arms, embracing him. Then he used the latest necromancy spell he had learned, [Death Grip]. This spell could instantly summon a giant skeleton hand and pull a target 30 meters away in front of him.

In an instant, the psychic spine on his back expanded and grew a new shoulder blade. The surging necromancy continued to evolve into skeletal arms, hands, and knuckles based on the spinal ribs, and formed a skeletal left arm constructed with necromancy on the side of the cervical ribs.

Aenarion's mind moved, and this huge bony hand instantly extended forward, spanning a distance of more than ten meters, and grabbed the dark elf. The five pale knuckles were like a bone cage, tightly gripping his soft flesh and pulling him back in front of him, blocking Aenarion and the spearman skeleton!

All this happened so fast that the Turkic elf hadn't reacted yet and had become Aenarion's shield. He had no time to order his undead to stop and could only watch as the five-meter-long spear pierced his abdomen! The blood was splattered all over the silver-white psychic bone.

"Ouch! There's blood! But this damage was caused by his own undead! No foul! Although this is Mr. Aenarion's first time participating in the Holy Grail War, he has already learned how to exploit loopholes!"

Several staff members clapped and called out. Seeing that the Holy Grail War was only fought against the undead, it was rare to see blood. The audience's adrenaline was also ignited, and they all cheered for Aenarion!

"Aenarion! Aenarion! Aenarion!!!"

"do not underestimate me!"

The Turkic elf roared and ordered his undead to pull out a spear from his abdomen and stab it directly into the ogre zombie's neck, trying to break his undead neck.

Aenarion was not at all flustered. The pressure brought to him by this man was less than that of Mahmoud, or even that of the Janissaries.

He continued to block

In front of his own undead, he used psychic bones to take a thrust from the skeleton centaur, and then used a second-level necromancy spell [Ghost Hand]. This spell can create a hideous undead hand to replace your palm to deliver melee contact attacks.

In an instant, the second shoulder blade and the undead right arm made of bones quickly solidified and took shape on the right side of the psychic ribs.

Before, Aenarion was only protected in the middle by a giant spine and ribs. Now, this thing has grown two huge bone arms. The three spells combined together make it look like half of a gloomy and terrifying skeleton giant!

Aenarion chanted the necromancy spell again, using a [Plague Strike]. The skeleton giant that wrapped him stretched out his right hand, and an arcane plague sword appeared out of thin air in his palm. It easily crossed the five-meter distance between the spearman's weapon and slashed its chest with one sword!

Wherever the energy sword cut, a large amount of acid pus erupted, and even the white bones were continuously corroded and infected by it. White smoke rose up with a sizzling sound, and the twelve pairs of ribs on the Centaur's chest were broken into pieces by the damage of the slash and the erosion of the acid!

[One Ring Undead·Plague Strike]: Consume 1 point of magic power, melee contact attack, cause 1~3 points of acid damage to the target, let the wound fester and worsen, continue to be damaged, and cause a total of 12~1 points of acid damage in the next 12 seconds. (For every additional 1 point of magic power consumed, the direct damage increases by 1~3 points, and the continuous damage increases by 1~12 points)

Aenarion's extremely gorgeous magic performance immediately ignited the passion of the audience. A large number of idle citizens of Constantinople even stood up from their chairs excitedly and shouted his name. The noisy and excited voices gathered together and echoed back and forth over the arena.

Chapter 67: Ghost Banshee

Seeing that the skeleton spearman was not completely dead, Aenarion used another [Plague Strike]. His skeletal hand clenched the pale green acid-etched sword and whistled across the centaur's waist, cutting it in half! The human and horse parts were completely separated. The two wounds on the ribs and spine were covered with hideous acid pus and plague sores, which continued to damage and erode the pale bones.

The dark elf's face was filled with despair as he surrendered. Aenarion also stopped politely, making him the second person to withdraw from the game amid the passionate commentary of the referee and commentator.

Wait, the second one?

Aenarion turned his attention to the other four participants, wanting to see who else had been eliminated. He was surprised to find that the most difficult opponent to defeat, the most likely to win the championship, the Savi wizard, who controlled the armored giant bear, skillfully performed a French military salute and announced his surrender, causing the entire arena to burst into exclamations! Some of the people who bet on him to win even stood up angrily, pointed their thumbs down, and uttered waves of harsh insults.

"It's a conspiracy! It must be a conspiracy! I gave him all my wages for today! And he's the first one to admit defeat?"

"Shit! I worked so hard for the White Tower and earned all the money! I lost it all! Do you think you deserve our respect, Savi?!"

"Fuck you! Give me your money back!!!"

The White Tower Mage's face turned livid amid the shouting and cursing, and he said nothing, while the commentator held a magic loudspeaker and roared excitedly in the referee's seat.

"Oh my god! What an upset! Mr. Savi, who has won thirteen games in a row, is the first to surrender unconditionally! The [Berserker] is the first to be eliminated! At the same time, Aenarion did not use his undead servants at all, and directly tore the [Cavalry] apart with his bare hands! What a terrifying fighting power! A spellcaster can actually tear the undead servants apart with his bare hands! Now, there are still five people fighting for the final victory crown!"

Aenarion looked at Savi in ​​disbelief, not understanding what this man's sudden surrender meant. The other four also stared at him and his armored giant bear, surprise written all over their faces.

Suddenly, Master Savi knelt on his knees, looked up to the sky and howled. Seven wisps of illusory and transparent black smoke rose from his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears! In mid-air, it condensed into an illusory and transparent ghost banshee!

Ghosts are extremely special undead creatures, they have no physical body, only a wisp of residual soul, so they can easily parasitize and occupy other people's bodies and control other people's activities. Just now, this banshee actually occupied Savi's body and forced him to surrender.

"Damn it! This guy used an ordinary dark elf zombie during the competition! But, that corpse was just the host and disguise of this ghost banshee! We were all fooled! This thing is a bit difficult to deal with! If we don't unite and kill this ghost banshee first, the championship may very well be his!

Everyone! You don’t want to be possessed by the Banshee and then surrender and admit defeat! "

A Venetian roared loudly, calling on others to unite and fight against the ghost banshee. Aenarion did not take any action. He and the ogre pulled out the muskets and lead-spraying cannons that were loaded and ready to fire at any time, and decided to wait and see how the situation developed.

The other three spellcasters and their three zombies quickly formed an alliance. Three spells were chanted and three sharp and terrifying weapons were used.

, all aimed at the ghost banshee flying in the sky.

Faced with such a dire situation, the banshee's controller did not panic at all. She immediately gave a simple command. She let out a creepy scream and swooped down from the sky like a meteor. Her target was the giant iron bear wearing triple chain mail!

Amid the howling of the wind, the ghost banshee decomposed into wisps of terrifying black smoke, which followed the brown bear's mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, and directly drilled into its brain, completing the parasitism and control of an undead soul. The two balls of undead blue flames in the giant bear's empty eye sockets quickly turned into a deep and terrifying black color.

"Referee! He is controlling the undead creatures of other contestants! This is a foul!"

A high elf screamed in fear. He originally thought that since Savi had surrendered, the terrifying armored bear would finally be defeated. Next, he just needed to defeat the banshee. But who knew that the damn ghost banshee actually took over the giant bear's terrifyingly powerful body? ? ?

"Sawi has surrendered. This bear is no longer a contestant's undead creature. The Banshee's actions are legal and compliant."

The staff at the referee's table discussed for two seconds and immediately came to a conclusion. After all, the Holy Grail War was just a spectacle organized by successive Eastern Roman emperors to generate revenue and make money. Everything was based on pleasing the audience, and the details of the rules came second to the entertainment value. After all, many spectators bought tickets just to watch the exciting battle, just to see this undead brown bear in triple armor.

The match continued, and the giant bear, under the control of the banshee, once again let out a terrifying roar that made people's blood freeze! He took earth-shaking steps and charged towards the three undead without fear. His terrifying weight of 600 kilograms caused the yellow sand of the arena to tremble slightly every time his four claws ran and landed!

The three contestants quickly formed an alliance, one was a blond human zombie wearing full plate armor holding a two-handed giant sword; a wood elf skeleton wielding red and gold double guns; and a mummified Ghis man holding a dagger and wrapped in bandages. Under the control of the three spellcasters, they launched a counterattack against the giant bear at the same time.

The three spellcasters also chanted spells, and the sand in front of the giant bear was suddenly covered with slippery grease. Two extremely hot flame rays also gushed out from the tips of their staffs, instantly crossing half of the battlefield and heading straight for the armored giant bear!

The banshee's controller was hidden under a pitch-black cloak, with his body and face completely invisible. He raised a two-handed sword covered with frost in both hands, and the sharp tip of the sword shot out a beam of cold and suffocating ice light, which collided precisely with a flaming laser in the air.

The red and blue laser beams collided fiercely in the air. The ice continued to freeze the high-temperature flames, and the arcane fire continued to melt the frost and snow. The fragmented flames and ice chips splashed in all directions in the collision of spells, like a magnificent red and blue firework!

At the same time, the giant bear suddenly stopped its charge and took a beam of flame. Although the arcane fire could penetrate the gaps in the triple mail and create a burning charred hole in the giant bear's body, it could not stop the actions of the undead beast. It carefully went around the edge of the grease spell and fought with the three undead rushing over!

"clang!!!"

The wood elf skeleton holding two guns took the lead in attacking. The two spears accurately pointed at the giant bear's head. The sharp spear tips were stuck between the iron rings of the triple chain mail and could not move forward at all. The armored giant bear raised its body. Its three-meter-tall body was like a silver-white iron pagoda, lying in front of the skeleton. Endless shadows and terror shrouded it. A pair of steel bear paws slammed heavily on both sides of the wood elf skeleton's body!

Under the extraordinary power of the giant bear, the skeleton's bones were instantly covered with dense and hideous cracks. The next moment, the entire skeleton was beaten to pieces by the bear's paws. Hundreds of bone fragments were splashed all over the battlefield like raindrops. A pair of iron-clawed bear paws slapped together where the skeleton was originally, making a crisp and pleasant clapping sound.

"It's now!"

The sword-wielding blond zombie and the mummy Ghis took advantage of the fact that the spearmen attracted the giant bear's attention and launched attacks from the left and right at the same time. The giant swords and daggers chopped on the iron rings of the chain mail with clanging sounds and sparks flying, but they still could not break through the defense of the triple chain mail. The armored giant bear turned around rather slowly and slapped the blond zombie to the ground with one palm!

The armored bear was so powerful that it smashed a huge pit in the sand with one palm strike, and the shock wave shook the yellow sand up to several meters high in the sky! The plate armor of the sword-wielding zombie was also smashed into a huge dent by the bear's claws, which was inlaid with the zombie's flesh and blood, and the whole body was buried alive in the pit smashed by the giant bear!

The giant bear roared and slapped the mummy's head. Instantly, the shriveled, dehydrated head wrapped in bandages spun at high speed on the cervical vertebrae like a spinning top! After spinning eight or nine times, the shriveled flesh was twisted off alive, and the whole head flew out, falling heavily on the yellow sand several meters away!

Chapter 68: Loopholes in the Rules

"Look! The armored giant bear parasitized by the banshee: Volibear is still strong! He defeated the undead servants of three contestants one by one with his claws! Is there no one who can defeat such a huge beast! The last one left is Aenarion!

Can the contestants stop this beast? "

In the referee's booth, several elves were commenting excitedly, and the audience, under her exquisite emotional mobilization, also cheered wildly, looking forward to the final showdown.

Aenarion felt a little tricky. It was not difficult to defeat the giant bear. At best, the giant bear was just a leopard woman wearing heavy armor. After transforming into a violent beast, her weight increased six times. He had seen many powerful enemies before.

But the problem was, even if he defeated the bear, it would be useless! His undead servant was a ghost banshee hiding in the bear's brain. Even if he could chop the zombie giant bear into pieces, he would not be able to win the game. He seemed to have no magic to prevent the banshee from escaping from the bear's body and parasitizing him or the ogre.

It seems that if you want to defeat it, you have to attack its master.

Aenarion pulled out the Ashen Wand with his right hand, and a ball of colorful Chaos Flame condensed at the tip of the wand, shrieking and tearing through the sky, before exploding in the giant bear's brain! The terrifying high temperature made the triple mail covering his face hot and red, even leaving two drops of burning molten iron, and the flesh on his face was turned into charcoal under the licking of the flames.

"Roar!!!"

The giant bear let out a deafening roar and charged directly at the ogre. It seemed that even if it attacked his brain, it would not cause any damage to the banshee.

Aenarion recalled the characteristics of ghost creatures. This kind of soul fragment has no flesh and cannot be touched. It is directly immune to all physical damage. Even enchanted weapons or direct damage spells have a 50% chance of not being able to attack the ghost entity and will penetrate through the ethereal cloud and smoke body.

Aenarion sighed, having no choice but to run ten meters away, putting some distance between himself and his ogre servant. Contestants could not harm the caster, only the undead servants. The giant bear had no choice but to charge at the ogre ten meters away.

At this moment, Aenarion used Death Grip again. The huge bony hand suddenly stretched out and grabbed the brown bear's even larger body, trying to pull it in front of him.

It was quite easy for Death Grip to catch a high elf weighing seventy or eighty kilograms, and he instantly grabbed it to his side like a chicken.

However, the target of this spell was now a brown bear weighing more than 600 kilograms, covered with three layers of heavy chain mail. This put a great deal of difficulty on this one-ring necromancy magic. The brown bear tried desperately to break free from the bone shackles and charged forward frantically. Its four claws dug out four huge sand pits on the spot. The giant bone hand struggled to drag it in its direction. Finally, the bear and its claw were stuck in a stalemate. Aenarion had no way of dragging the beast over, and the brown bear could not escape the shackles of the bone hand.

"Right now! Shoot him in the head!"

Aenarion gave the order, forget it, it would be fine if we can hold on!

After receiving the order, the ogre zombie strode forward, and with two fat arms that were thicker than the waist of an adult man, he swung the 150-kilogram lead cannon in his hands and smashed it into the side of the brown bear's face! The huge sound of the blow resounded throughout the arena, and the cheek bone was shattered and the lower jaw was dislocated, hanging limply on the face.

The ogre zombie took this opportunity to directly point the muzzle of the gun into the brown bear's bloody mouth and inserted the quietly burning fuse into the barrel!

"boom!!!"

Along with a deafening roar and dazzling flames, 300 grams of ancient shotgun shells made of a mixture of iron sheets and iron sand were suddenly pushed out of the barrel by the shock wave of the explosion, forming an iron-gray fan-shaped damage inside the giant bear's mouth!

Driven by the explosion of black gunpowder, particles of iron sand and pieces of iron flew faster than the speed of sound, piercing through the giant bear's soft flesh with a devastating force, splashing out with preservative green mucus, and instantly creating countless tiny transparent holes on its head.

Some of these tiny iron chips shot out from the cheeks, some from the top of the head, and some flew up from the lower jaw. Each piece of iron chip, while piercing through the flesh, also pulled its skin and flesh to spread outward. Under the joint action of countless forces, the hideous and terrifying bear skull was directly torn apart and exploded into countless pieces of flesh and blood. Pieces of broken flesh filled with the smell of gunpowder were like raindrops, densely scattered in the yellow sand.

And where the bear's head originally stood, a vague ghostly shadow appeared.

Shotgun, one shot to the head!

"Oh! A wonderful blow! Although we didn't see the ogres and brown bears fighting to the death with brute force, we saw the terrifying artillery technology of the Ottomans! The ogre lead-spraying cannons have shown their power again! Six years ago in the Battle of Varna, a thousand ogre lead-sprayers lined up in a horizontal line, and with a few volleys of artillery fire, they beat the Polish and Hungarian cavalry to pieces! Corpses were everywhere! And now, we can actually witness the power of the Ottoman artillery with our own eyes in Constantinople!"

The commentator roared with excitement, and the citizens of Constantinople were also enjoying the bloody scenes of executions, not caring at all about the Battle of Varna, which was a Christian holy war launched by the Christian nations to save Constantinople and themselves. Tens of thousands of Christians went to the battlefield with lofty goals, and ultimately died tragically under the cannon fire and iron hooves of the ogres, with no remains left.

The man hiding in the cloak was surprised by the power of the lead cannon, but it didn't matter.

Even if it kills the giant bear, what does it matter? As long as my own ghost possesses his ogre, the game will be mine.

Thinking of this, he immediately ordered the banshee to drill into the ogre zombie's head and take control of him.

However, he was surprised by the fact that the brown bear zombie was shot in the head by a cannon, and was delayed for a few seconds. However, Aenarion was well prepared for this. The magic-constructed bone claws caught the banshee's illusory spirit first and pulled it directly in front of him, away from his zombie servants. The ogre zombie also took out the second paper-wrapped shotgun shell at the command of his master and stuffed it into the hot and smoking barrel.

The cloaked man thought for a moment and felt that instead of ordering the banshee to control the ogre, it would be better to control Aenarion directly and force him to surrender. After receiving the order, the banshee directed the spearhead of the attack at Aenarion, and once again turned into black smoke, which penetrated into Aenarion's brain through his seven orifices.

When Aenarion discovered that the other party was performing possession, he transformed into a peregrine falcon at an extremely fast speed and fled away from here. The spine and ribs that had grown arms were still floating behind his spine, soaring with him. The banshee floated in the air and chased him closely, but her speed was still slower than that of the peregrine falcon.

"Oh! It seems that the hero of the empire, the savior of the princess, Aenarion, has hidden some cards. The ability he is showing now is a bit like the animal transformation of the druid?"

The commentator said excitedly.