After catching sight of Leilin, Marbu's eyes — sharp as blades — locked onto him with an unyielding stare.
"Finally... you've finally appeared... Leilin!!!"
Marbu spoke in a low voice, but the chill and resolve in his words made the female wizard standing beside him break into a cold sweat.
After the previous great battle, having witnessed Leilin's strength and terrifying rate of growth, fear and regret gnawed at Marbu's heart like ants.
He regretted it! Regretted why he hadn't sent more people back at Maglee Canyon to finish Leilin off once and for all!
Now, Leilin had already grown into a nightmare for the Lilisite Family.
From a newcomer at the start to someone who could now almost match Marbu himself in equal standing — this kind of terrifying growth rate was something only a handful of the most outstanding geniuses in the entire history of the South Coast's wizards had ever achieved.
Right now, Marbu could still keep him in check, but give it a bit more time and even he would have no confidence left.
And when that time came — Leilin would surely destroy the entire Lilisite Family!
Marbu refused to become the family's sinner. So during this period, he had searched frantically for any trace of Leilin as though he had gone mad.
He had even risked provoking a Second-rank Wizard into taking action, hunting White Wizards here with reckless abandon.
Finally — finally — he had forced Leilin out into the open.
Marbu's eyes were glued to Leilin, as though he feared that if he so much as blinked, Leilin would slip away and vanish from before his eyes once more.
"I've been looking for you for a long time... far too long..." Marbu murmured softly.
"I've been waiting a long time as well. This matter truly needs to be settled once and for all!" Leilin said lightly, his hands clasped behind his back.
This composed demeanor clearly puzzled Marbu. Moreover, Leilin's aura today was even more elusive and obscure than before — to the point where Marbu could barely gauge his true depth.
But in order to force Leilin to appear, he had already backed himself into a corner!
"Die!!!"
With a thunderous shout, Marbu suddenly launched his attack.
Crack! Crack!
In an instant, his entire body transformed into a state of pure metal. Threads of light coalesced on his chest, forming the shape of a magical array radiating an earthy yellow glow.
"Metallization! Gravity Magical Array!"
Knowing full well that Leilin would not be easy to deal with, Marbu unleashed his trump cards the very moment he struck!
Hummm!
A ring of earthy yellow light spread across the entire battlefield in a flash!
Tearing forces originating from the core of the earth itself descended upon the area in an instant.
"Twenty times gravity!!!" Marbu's eyes turned pure silver as he roared.
Boom!!! The earthy yellow light blazed outward, and a tearing force more than ten times greater than before erupted from underground.
Crack! Crack!
The entire ground instantly sank by a layer. Small creatures like moles and ants were blasted apart on the spot, exploding into clouds of blood mist!
"Madmen! They're all madmen!"
The female wizard happened to be standing right at the edge of the array and was slammed flat to the ground in an instant. Her skin cracked continuously and blood gushed from her wounds, turning her into a figure drenched in crimson.
"You've got to be kidding me?! How am I supposed to die in the aftershock of a wizard's battle?!"
The female wizard gritted her teeth and reached out to snap off a pendant hanging from her neck.
This ordinarily trivial motion became extraordinarily difficult with twenty times the gravitational force bearing down on her.
In truth, had she not been a formal wizard herself — one who had undergone physical modification specifically to enhance her constitution — she would have burst into blood mist just like those animals.
Whoosh!
After snapping off the pendant, a ring of green light swept across the female wizard's entire body.
Her wounds healed in an instant. Had it not been for the blood still staining her, there would have been no way to tell she had been injured at all.
The green aura enveloped her whole body, and the female wizard immediately felt the weight lighten slightly. She scrambled on all fours, crawling out of the range of the earthy yellow gravity array.
Pop!
Once she was clear of the array and felt the immense relief of the burden lifting, the female wizard let out a heavy breath before finally getting to her feet.
"That was terrifying! Absolutely terrifying! This kind of battle between wizards at the pinnacle of the First-rank — it really isn't something that those of us who've barely entered half-elementalization can get involved in..."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of metal colliding rang out continuously, producing piercing sonic waves.
The female wizard immediately retreated seven or eight steps as though she had been bitten by a snake. Then she caught sight of two figures violently crashing into each other inside the magical array.
The surrounding landscape — whether rocks or massive trees — anything they grazed past was reduced to powder in an instant.
"This is too dangerous! Far too dangerous!"
The female wizard's expression changed. She retreated a considerable distance in a flash, and only when the two wizards had nearly vanished from sight did she finally stop.