Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Angor crashed onto the ground and felt his windpipe blocked for a moment.
While trying not to faint, he slammed his chest again and again. Finally, he managed to force a lump of congealed blood out of his throat.
He still felt pain in his chest, but at least he could breathe again.
Meanwhile, the noise of someone brawling came from the distance. Angor looked up and saw Toby already on top of Shadow.
Shadow seemed badly hurt by his own reflected attack. A giant wound on his head gave out so much blood that the ground underneath him was almost completely red.
Shadow was then ambushed by Toby. The bird’s gravity attack, which was as powerful as peak-level cantrips, slammed into his chest and broke several of his ribs.
To Shadow, it was the first time he was in such a bad shape ever since he came to the mortal world.
“Damn bird!” Shadow managed to cast Heal while he endured great pain. When his bleeding was stopped, he cursed again and triggered his bloodline power.
The power of a mutated Earthen Salamander—a Magma Salamander.
Angor watched as the wounded body of Shadow slowly stood up and began to change.
Shadow’s eyes gradually turned black, while his pupils shone with a dark green hue. The man’s skin went red and began to release hot vapor, while several blade-sharp bone pikes came growing under his skin!
“Bloodline ability!” Angor quickly realized what just happened. This would explain how Shadow healed so fast.
Bloodline combined with a level-2 Quickened cantrip…
A Quickened cantrip meant something that did not require cast time. Angor only managed to survive from it because of the killed teacups.
And if Shadow didn’t have a special power like Toby’s “gravity sequence”, then the man had to have used a spell slot.
A “spell slot” was a special location built within one’s spirit model, which could hold the model of a spell permanently. This permanent spell model would allow the wizard to cast the spell instantly.
Spell slots were usually something available to wizards. An apprentice had to reach his or her final bottleneck to open up a spell slot at the cost of huge time and effort, as well as a spirit model solid enough to support a spell slot.
It meant that someone who owned a spell slot was either a wizard who already had a solid spirit model or a non-wizard who managed to establish a fine model by using a decent channeling method.
It was very likely that Shadow had been studying such a channeling method.
A special channeling method suggested that Shadow came from a formal wizard organization. There was absolutely no way a random amateur could obtain such confidential knowledge.
And this meant a possible way back to Brute Cavern!
Previously, Angor planned to talk with the participants and exchange for something he needed. Now that Shadow decided to flip the table and do it the hard way, he would accept the challenge.
Toby was still engaged with Shadow. Thanks to his talent, Toby knew some attacks as powerful as level-3 cantrips, but he still couldn’t compete with a real level-3 apprentice.
Using his great speed, Toby managed to hold off Shadow’s attacks. He would have already lost if Shadow were in his top condition.
And as Shadow’s bloodline power healed his wounds, it was only a matter of time before Toby would be defeated.
“Toby, keep him busy but don’t fight him head-on! Just buy me some time!”
Angor prepared to deploy another illusion, but a sudden pain in his chest forced him to kneel down again.
His mortal body was failing because of the previous wound.
His movement successfully caught Shadow’s attention. The man’s monster bloodline was slowly chipping away his sanity, but when he noticed Angor, he quickly regained some consciousness and unleashed his white strings toward Angor.
“YOU! I let you live last time, and you would still bother me?!” Shadow no longer cared about Toby’s attacks. He fully aimed his strings at Angor’s head.
“I’m here for the damn meeting! Why did you suddenly go nuts anyway?!” Angor found it funny that Shadow actually thought it was “showing mercy” when they met on the street last time.
Angor summoned an ice wall as cover while he ordered the nightmare monsters to assault Shadow.
It seemed Shadow was determined to take him down no matter the cost. The man completely ignored all other attacks by using his superior healing effect; all just so he could end Angor and everything.
Angor desperately went over his options.
His revolver and trigger crossbow wouldn’t work well against a level-3 apprentice.
With a quick decision, he placed the rainbow dragonfly, which was in his Nightmare Domain, in front of Shadow.
Shadow simply tried to eliminate the sudden monster, but he didn’t know that the wanderer dragonfly was almost as strong as a level-3 apprentice.
As Angor expected, the dragonfly successfully kept Shadow in check for the moment.
Using the chance, he forced himself to stand up and cast nightmare illusions to disrupt Shadow’s moves.
He first tried to trick Shadow’s mind, only to find that the great power gap between them had prevented all mental effects from working.
He needed something else.
He then tried to block Shadow’s senses by using the “home court advantage” of his Nightmare Domain. Again, due to Shadow’s strength, the trick couldn’t retain its usual effect. Angor could only trap Shadow for a brief moment, but he couldn’t break through Shadow’s defenses.
Angor never thought he would succeed so easily. He calmed down and began to deploy a new illusion in his domain.
It drained a great portion of his strength.
About ten seconds later, when Shadow was about to lunge at him again, the nightmare aura in Angor’s domain began to shift, and a new nightmare illusion engulfed Shadow.
…
When Shadow recovered his five senses, he found himself standing inside a white mist.
He slowly tuned down his bloodline power and only kept up the basic defensive and healing powers. A bloodline user’s worst choice was to break the “threshold” of his power and completely lose his mind. Shadow almost reached that point while fending off all the attacks.
He wasn’t expecting his enemy to present him with another illusion instead of attacking him.
“The mist is obviously an illusion. So that young apprentice is an Illusionist?”
Still, he couldn’t recall any illusion skills that would block his five senses.
As he pondered over the situation, a shadow lashed out from the mist and lunged at him with great power. Shadow quickly triggered his bloodline again and retaliated.
Nothing happened. The shadow suddenly disappeared.
Soon, another shadow materialized from the mist. Shadow managed to take a good look this time. It was a giant fox about three meters tall.
“A Blood Vixen?!” he yelled out in shock. The creature was a high-level being used by powerful summoners.
He didn’t unleash his attack. Something convinced him that he only needed to use a white string.
As the string approached, the fox shadow dissipated into nothing.
“Of course it’s fake…”
When another shadow came, Shadow only tried to wave it away, only to be knocked flying by a great force.
“That stupid bird again!” Shadow braced himself and could no longer see anything. He realized that his enemy was trying to wear him down by combining real and fake attacks.
“Heh. Nice try. With my strings, I’ll break your illusion nodes in no time.”
Shadow released his white strings around him again, both to protect himself and to scan for illusion nodes.
His “puppet string” was his signature ability. It both allowed him to control other people and to sense his surroundings.
But his confidence was soon replaced by doubt.
“I can’t find any nodes?”