NOVPUB“Boom!!!!”
A huge explosion echoed through the forest.
It immediately caught the attention of Morden and Herman, who were still packing food. They both stood up quickly.
They exchanged a glance before turning away from the other wizard apprentices and rushed into the woods.
Kassil, who had been tied up by Saul earlier, was still lying motionless on the ground. Upon hearing the explosion, she was startled at first, then looked at the sky and began to laugh, "Hehehe… He exploded too!"
Mark appeared somewhat uneasy, pacing back and forth.
Monroe kept a dark expression and lowered his head, silent.
Kongsha shifted her gaze, leaning against a white house. She lightly ran her index finger over her red lips, leaving a vivid red streak on her fingertip.
The few of them remained in place, none of them making any move to help Saul.
...
Of course, Saul didn't need rescuing.
"Is it just cold?" he sneered.
He crossed his arms, and from under his armpits, two fiery red orbs of flame materialized in his palms, which he then shot out with force.
A violent explosion occurred behind him, and Saul was pushed forward by the shockwave.
He immediately rolled forward, using the momentum to negate some of the force from behind him.
The Soul Armor Technique wasn't able to block these pale humanoid figures entirely, but it managed to shield him from most of the force of the fire orbs.
At that moment, Saul only felt alternating cold and heat on his back, which made him somewhat uncomfortable. However, the heat from the flames had eliminated the chill in the rest of his body.
He wiped his chin with the back of his hand and looked back at the ground where the explosion had created a crater. The pale humanoid figures there had vanished.
"When you attacked me, I was able to strike back. Heh, this isn't anything new. If you’ve got more tricks, then show them!"
Just as Saul finished speaking, he realized the trees around him had disappeared.
Where the trees had once been, pale figures now stood.
These people were barefoot, standing on the grass.
The wind howled, carrying with it the bitter cold of late autumn.
They lifted their feet and began to slowly advance toward Saul. Their pace was not fast, but there were too many of them!
Saul swallowed nervously, "Uh... no need to use all of them at once."
Despite speaking these cowardly words, Saul did not hesitate in his actions.
Knowing that now was not the time to be stingy with magic or to hold back his mental energy, he spread his arms wide, and in the instant, two black tentacles shot out from his palms.
Touch of Torment!
The first 2nd Rank spell that Saul mastered!
The black tentacles were accompanied by semi-transparent gray tentacles.
One was meant to attack the physical body, and the other, the spirit.
Saul didn’t believe that he wouldn’t be able to strike anyone this time!
The black tentacles swiped through the air like a phantom, and the transparent tentacles followed closely behind.
The pale figures did not evade, but whether it was the black or transparent tentacles, neither of them touched the figures.
In an instant, the white figures vanished, only to reappear after the tentacles passed by. Not only that, but as they flickered in and out, they continued to walk forward.
Saul wasn’t too disappointed; at least when the tentacles passed, the figures that were about to be hit vanished.
He might be able to buy himself a second or two to escape.
Saul immediately used his mental power to control the two tentacles as they swung in the air, deliberately opening gaps for him to escape through.
Unfortunately, Little Algae wasn’t around. Otherwise, its abilities would be perfect for clearing the way.
However, just as he was about to break through the encirclement, the white figures suddenly began to appear at an accelerated rate.
Saul crashed into what felt like an "ice mountain," cold and hard.
The freezing sensation instantly spread from his shoulders throughout his body. As it reached his arms, his movements slowed, and as it reached his head, his thoughts momentarily paused.
The most terrifying thing was that Saul felt his already-shaking mental energy become even more unstable.
Saul’s movements began to slow, but he still did his best to raise his hand to grab the figure blocking his way, his fingertips turning transparent.
However, the moment his hand touched the white shadow, it disappeared again.
“They… they can determine what actions are attacks and evade by disappearing,” Saul realized, just as the sound of a page turning in his diary broke through the mental haze, allowing him to regain his clarity.
But the cold still didn’t fade.
The obstruction from the impact disappeared, and with a stumble, he rolled forward, using the opportunity to break through the encirclement.
“Master!”
“Master!”
As soon as he burst through, Saul heard the voices of An and Agu.
He looked up and saw that they weren’t far from him, but they were also surrounded by flickering white figures.
They were completely unbothered by the shaking of their mental energy, using their spells to attack the enemies around them. However, those enemies immediately vanished as soon as they were attacked.
Only when An and Agu's attacks and the pale figures' attacks occurred simultaneously were they able to disperse their foes. The places that were dispersed no longer had new figures appearing.
But many of the pale figures didn’t attack. Instead, they closed in on An and Agu, using the chill emanating from them to restrict their movements.
Agu and An also tried abandoning their magic and using their fists to fight. However, when they did that, the figures approached their fists, no longer avoiding them.
Fist to flesh, also fist to ice!
The cold turned into white frost, clinging to their limbs and silently creeping toward their bodies’ center.
At this point, they had no choice but to use magic again to dispel the cold and temporarily disperse the surrounding pale figures.
The mental manipulation of their vessels was already hampered by a layer of insulation, making it not very responsive. Plus, with the vessels frozen, their movements became even more sluggish.
The two had fallen into a difficult situation.
Even so, they were still doing their best to approach Saul, attempting to come to his aid.
Saul’s expression darkened, quickly scanning the white figures around him. He directed the Touch of Torment back around, scattering a few more of the figures.
He observed An and Agu's situation being surrounded and closely examined the effects of his own attacks.
“These figures aren’t just simple physical bodies or spirits. They’re somewhat like the Veiled Crystal Essence; they can appear and disappear. And only when they actively attack do they manifest physically. If they’re hit by my attacks, they instantly vanish. But if I wait until they attack to counter, that’s too passive!”
Suddenly, he released both the black and transparent tentacles, reached to his waist, and his fingers immediately produced a magic scroll.
“The enemy is too numerous. If this keeps up, my mental energy will collapse too. I haven’t found a direct way to fight… I should just run for now!”
His left hand swept with the black and transparent tentacles, causing the nearby enemies to briefly disappear. Saul raised his right hand, pinching the scroll with his index and middle fingers.
He then bent his fingers and, with the scroll, touched his thumb.
Snap!
He snapped his fingers.
The scroll spontaneously ignited without any flame, burning into dust in two or three seconds.
But the dust wasn’t black or gray; it was golden and shimmering, almost blinding under the sunlight, instantly obscuring Saul’s figure.
The wind blew, and the golden dust quickly spread around Saul and was carried off by the wind to farther places.
Then, something magical happened. Every pale figure that touched the golden dust instantly vanished.
When they reappeared, they quickly encountered more golden dust, only to disappear once again.
The pale figures continued to reappear and vanish, reappear and vanish...
“Sure enough, physical attacks can be dodged depending on their mood. But any attack imbued with magic forces them to vanish. Heh, looks like your ‘magnet network’ signal is pretty weak,” Saul casually coined a term, brushing off the white frost that had gathered on his body, and without hesitation, ignited another identical scroll.
This scroll was immediately thrown out by Saul, landing near An and Agu.
As the golden dust spread, the pale figures quickly disappeared. The dust, now filling the air, prevented the figures from getting any closer or reappearing.
Agu’s eyes lit up, and he shook his body, shattering the ice crystals. “So it’s like this, using a 2nd Rank magic scroll to spread glowing dust in the air. When the dust touches those strange figures, it’s like an attack on them, causing them to automatically vanish into an unknown space. Although we still can’t actively attack the enemy, we’ve avoided being surrounded.”
Since they couldn’t actively attack, they had to wait until the figures attacked them before they could counterattack. Despite Agu and An having some strength, they were still being suppressed.
They didn’t worry about their bodies, since any mental energy shock could be calmed by returning to their diaries.
But Saul couldn’t afford to be in danger!
They couldn’t gamble on whether, if the diary’s owner died, they would be passed on as relics to the next master.
(End of this chapter)
