Ridiculous. Laughable. Absurd. Utterly preposterous!
How could he possibly be injured by a Level-2 mage like this?!
BOOM!
The massive explosion sent its body tumbling hundreds of times through the air. As it rolled across the battlefield, the frozen lakes, ice spears, earthen spikes, and groundfire scattered across the terrain continued relentlessly pursuing it.
The balance between offense and defenseâ
When exactly had it reversed?
Why had the situation changed?
He was growing stronger far too quickly.
The feeling Kanzaki Rei gave it was that he was constantly growing stronger during the battle itself. Every moment. Every second.
He was hundredsâthousandsâof times stronger than the moment before.
When it first grabbed him, he had been nothing more than an ordinary Level-2 mage.
He had barely even managed to dodge its attack.
But after just a few seconds of fightingâ
He was already capable of counterattacking.
And now...
He could injure it.
He could even...
Chase it down and attack?
Rei raised his staff high.
A sea of fire raged across the battlefield. Countless shards of ice fell from the sky toward it. The ground below formed a frozen lake.
Naya could clearly feel it.
Reiâs casting speed was increasing continuously.
Had he been casting this quickly before?
Before one spell even finished forming, the next one was already following close behind.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Columns of force erupted from the ground everywhere, combining with underground fire to produce blazing magma.
Molten waves surged forward from three directions simultaneously, crashing together with towering walls!
From above, scorching meteors rained down!
Dozens of spells were attacking it at the same time.
It was like a heavenly net, leaving no path of escape!
Wait...
Why was it even trying to dodge?
Since when had it started dodging?
At the beginning, it had completely ignored this mageâs attacks.
Naya touched its head.
Sticky.
The half-headed monster suddenly remembered.
Perhaps it was because that last explosion had blown away half of its skull.
That must be why...
Why it had begun trying to dodge the boyâs spells.
BANG!
Behind it, dozens of earthen spikes erupted from the ground!
Like the horns of a barricade, they blocked its retreat.
At the same time, frost energy gathered beneath its feet. The instant its speed slowed even slightly, the ground would immediately transform into another frozen lake.
The spells werenât merely dealing damage.
They were restricting its movement.
Step by stepâ
Driving it toward death.
What a joke.
I came here to kill Izparut.
If I died at the hands of this childâ
Wouldnât that be the ultimate humiliation?!
The moment that thought flashed through its mindâ
SWOOSH!
BOOOOMâ
Centered on its bodyâ
The ground suddenly split open in dozens of directions like flower petals blooming!
Rending Earth Slash!
But this timeâ
The attack was broader. Larger.
The slashes cut straight through the city walls.
They split open the forest itself.
Rei used Death Substitute to switch positions again.
The attack still failed to touch him.
But Rei glanced toward Rain Town.
The city walls had shattered into pieces.
It looked like many people had died...
Even though he had tried to block the attack with a barrier.
It hadnât helped.
The monsterâs attack power was simply too overwhelming.
With his current defensive methodsâ
He couldnât block a single one of its attacks.
Unless he sacrificed massive numbers of dead souls.
But using large sacrifices just to defend against attacks that were practically its basic strikesâ
Would put him at an enormous disadvantage.
Rei had many souls right now, but they were not infinite.
And he had no idea where the monsterâs defensive limit truly lay.
He only knew one thingâ
If he couldnât kill it before his souls ran out, then the ones who would die would be himself and the entirety of Rain Town.
The best option...
Was still to replace defense with offense.
Kill it.
SZZZTâ
The moment the monster pausedâ
A frozen lake formed beneath its feet again.
Trap-like spells layered over each other.
As long as it stopped movingâ
Rei could catch it.
And this time...
"Spirit Detonation."
"Sacrifice Souls â 50,000."
Rei didnât hold back because he wanted to.
It was becauseâ
The power would become uncontrollable.
If he sacrificed any more souls, the explosion would wipe out Rain Town along with it.
Everyone near the city walls would die.
BZZZZâ
Above the monsterâs headâ
A soul light appeared, radiant and transparent like a miniature sun.
Spirit Detonation.
BOOOOOOM!
The explosion burst like soul smoke!
Dense streams of soul energy surged violently in all directions!
The earth collapsed into a hemispherical void.
A massive crater with a radius of one kilometer.
The destructive force of this attack surpassed even the evil ritual of sacrificing fifty thousand infants.
The explosion of annihilation surged all the way to the city wallâs edgeâ
And finally stopped there.
Nayaâs shattered body tumbled across the ground.
It was still alive.
Its entire head was gone.
Both arms had been severed.
Its legs were broken and mangled.
Its body was riddled with open holes.
Yetâ
It was still alive.
It twisted and rolled across the ground in a grotesque motion, desperately trying to dodge the attacks that followed.
After the Spirit Detonation explodedâ
Reiâs offensive never stopped for even a moment.
He immediately chased the blasted body with a barrage of ice spears, suppressing it with poison vines.
Howeverâ
The destructive power of Spirit Detonation was simply too overwhelming.
The instant it detonated, it also destroyed all the other spells Rei had previously cast.
As a result, he couldnât maintain continuous pressure.
"Human..."
"Human."
"Damnable human."
"If not for this cursed gravity..."
"If not for those worthless trash leaving so many wounds on me..."
"DAMN IT!"
The monster roared in fury.
But this timeâ
It no longer fought Rei head-on.
Instead, it ran.
Its headless body twisted as it sprinted wildly into the distance!
Like a beaten dog fleeing for its lifeâ
Its broken legs dragging and contorting as it desperately escaped!
BOOM!
Three massive walls rose up in front of it!
It was trying to escape!
Rei saw it immediately.
How could he possibly let it get away?!
Rei could only fight within this area.
If the distance grew too great, there would be no corpses left for his Death Substitute.
Before casting Spirit Detonation, Rei had already stored several corpses in his spatial ring as backup.
But throwing corpses onto the ground beside him...
Was basically the same as standing still and letting the enemy slaughter him.
The purpose of Death Substitute was to avoid attacks, not to endure them.
And with his current speedâ
He couldnât catch up to it!
He couldnât let the enemy escape!
Heavy walls blocked its path!
Barriers sealed the route!
Ice spears pursued it relentlessly!
Wind blasts slammed into it, forcing it back toward Rei!
The hunted had become the hunter.
And the original hunter had become prey, fleeing in panic!
"Iâll remember you, human!"
"No matter where you hide in this world, Iâll remember you!"
"One day I will kill you, tear your body into pieces, and sacrifice you to avenge todayâs humiliation!"
"Noânot one day! Once my injuries recover, I will kill you immediately!"
"Spirit Detonation."
"Sacrifice â 10,000 Souls."
BOOM!
Rei predicted its movement trajectory.
But the moment the devastating Spirit Detonation began formingâ
The monster noticed it.
It instantly rolled sideways and dodged a huge distance away!
"Repulsion Wind Blast."
"Sacrifice â 5,000 Souls."
BOOM!
The wind blast hurled the monster back toward Rei for a short distance!
But in the very next momentâ
WHOOSH!
It suddenly flipped in midairâ
And shot upward into the sky!
At last, it had realized something.
Most of Reiâs control-type spells relied on the ground.
Tch.
If he couldnât grab itâ
With that speed, it would be impossible to land a hit.
Reiâs capture spells all had extremely short casting wind-ups.
Most people wouldnât even react in time.
But the creature in front of him clearly possessed far sharper perception.
Even in its heavily wounded stateâ
Its speed remained terrifying.
And it was moving farther and farther away from Izparutâs Gravity Formation.
Its movements were becoming more agile by the second.
Izparutâs gravity array could instantly crush and flatten a fourth-tier King-class monster.
One could only imagine how terrifying the gravity pressure was.
But once the monster moved far enough awayâ
Its speed began to skyrocket.
Rei accelerated himself with wind blasts, stepping on ice spears as footholds while chasing!
One chased.
One fled.
They had already penetrated deep into the forest.
Butâ
He couldnât keep chasing.
If he went any fartherâ
He would no longer be able to use Death Substitute.
That would be fatal.
And besides, the monster was already pulling away. Its speed was increasing.
The distance between them kept widening.
Was this the end?
Was he going to let the enemy escape?
Let such a dangerous enemy escape?
No.
There was still a chance.
They were already far enough away.
Rei thought of something.
He raised his hand.
Three streams of soul light condensed before him.
"Spirit Detonation."
"Sacrifice Souls â 250,000."
All the souls he possessed.
It should be enough to blow this entire area apart.
No matter where the monster fledâ
It wouldnât be able to escape.
But if he did that...
He would have no souls left at all.
Use fewer souls?
No...
That thingâs vitality was terrifying.
If it survived this attack, he would never catch it again.
And with fewer souls, the explosion wouldnât even hit it.
Rei had already made his decision.
The Spirit Detonation had already begun forming.
SWOOSH!
Suddenlyâ
A tyrannical gale swept across his body!
BOOOOM!
The dense forest on both sides was instantly blasted apart, revealing a perfectly straight road!
"Thatâs far enough!"
A cylindrical passage stretched straight into the distanceâ
All the way to the edge of vision.
At the very end of that line of sightâ
Stood a red-haired man, a massive greatsword resting across his shoulder.
"Yo."
"Not bad at all, kid."
"Leave the rest... to me."