Two silver-black missiles arced gracefully toward the gray-white decayed owl, shattering the glass window.
The gray-white owl didn't move. A layer of thick black gas enveloped its body, letting the Magic Missiles strike it head-on.
It seemed to have only just realized that the one communicating with Kailin inside wasn't a friend, but an enemy. Its sharp beak opened in a silent screech, and countless black tentacles shot up from the carpet inside the room.
These tentacles ranged from deep black to dark and shadowy, some ethereal, some solid. The moment any of them so much as grazed Lucian's moonlight-infused body, he immediately felt paralysis, weakness, exhaustion, and pain.
Such a variety of effects was something Lucian had never encountered in lower-tier magic—even second-circle spells like Ghoul's Touch could only paralyze and deal minor damage.
"Could this be a unique necromantic spell?"
Around the composed Lucian, scorching flames erupted in bursts, setting every tentacle ablaze before they could wrap around his body.
The Weaver's Bracelet's built-in second-circle spell: "Solar Shield."
Amid the erupting walls of flame, Lucian saw the black tentacles still surging forth without end—the closer to the doorway, the more of them appeared. His faintly glowing body blurred into an afterimage as he lunged toward the gray-white owl.
Leveraging his agility and balance, Lucian barely dodged the sparse but abrupt tentacles, swinging his Vigilance longsword at the owl. The owl, still in its casting cooldown, spread its wings and took flight. Lucian crashed through the entire window frame and plummeted toward the castle ground, his body drifting down like a feather.
First-circle spell: "Feather Fall."
This was the most essential spell for emergency falls from great heights, which was exactly why Lucian had chosen to construct its spell model within his soul first.
Although the castle's second floor was equivalent to three stories of a regular house, with Feather Fall active, Lucian wouldn't suffer any injury whatsoever.
Just before reaching the ground, Lucian suddenly heard manic laughter coming from the nearby cemetery: "Ha ha, I'm about to succeed! Just one last step! Kailin, Kailin, where are you?!"
The laughter drew closer, and a monster that Lucian couldn't accurately describe came into view.
Its face still bore a vaguely human appearance, but its body was composed of countless pieces of rotting flesh from different body parts, studded with terrifying eyeballs, half-closed lips, and pale white arms.
A faint black aura of rot and death swirled around it, and any blade of grass it touched withered and died instantly.
The monster Hunt spotted Lucian and let out a shrill shriek. Countless black tentacles erupted from the ground once more, reaching frantically toward Lucian.
Snap—the moment he laid eyes on the monster, Lucian immediately activated the second-tier Divine Art "Resist Undead" on his Crown of the Sun. A layer of milky white radiance appeared on his body, capable of greatly diminishing the power of necromantic magic.
The moment the black tentacles touched this milky white radiance, they withered and collapsed as if encountering their natural nemesis. Lucian landed safely, blurred into an afterimage as he maneuvered, and swung his Vigilance longsword at Hunt.
The monster Hunt pointed a finger at Lucian's sword, and the sweeping Vigilance longsword eerily reversed course, slashing back toward Lucian and carving a deep wound across his shoulder.
First-circle necromantic spell: "Backlash."
Lucian wasn't affected by the eerie change. After regaining control of his longsword, he activated a spell model in his soul, and a greasy sheen appeared across the monster Hunt's body and the nearby ground.
First-circle spell: "Grease."
Hunt took a step forward and nearly slipped, so he stopped altogether and began launching ranged spells at Lucian one after another.
Negative Energy Ray, Flesh Withering, Chill Touch, Enervation Ray—the spells flew at Lucian as if without any casting cooldown. But Lucian had thoroughly studied the techniques Aaron and Baron Habelro used against mages. He kept moving, never giving Hunt a chance to lock on, dodging the ranged spells with ease. Even the occasional graze against his body was neutralized by the second-tier Divine Art "Resist Undead."
Though the monster Hunt's eyes were filled with mindless frenzy, with little rationality remaining, the fact that every ranged spell it cast without cooldown caused rotting flesh, eyeballs, lips, and arms to slough off its body still made it realize something was wrong. It flew into a towering rage.
It let out a thunderous roar, and within a radius of several dozen meters, countless illusory black waves exploded outward in a massive indiscriminate attack.
Third-circle necromantic spell: "Negative Energy Burst"!
While each individual wave wasn't particularly powerful, this type of attack was an excellent method for dealing with knights. Lucian had no way to dodge this time and could only activate the Weaver's Bracelet's last remaining "Solar Shield" to defend.
Sun-like flames wreathed Lucian's body, only to be quickly devoured by the black negative energy. Fortunately, his "Solar Shield" still carried the "Resist Undead" Divine Art, which barely held the defense together, preventing the negative energy from corroding him to the point where he couldn't run.
After casting the mid-tier spell, the monster Hunt's entire body froze in place, as if the spell had exceeded its capabilities and plunged it into a terrifyingly long casting cooldown.