BOOM!!!
The world seemed to freeze for that single instant.
Several seconds later, the surroundings finally returned to normal.
What had just happened was like a film suddenly jamming mid-playback.
Immediately afterward, a tremendous storm of energy exploded outward in every direction.
At the center of the energy storm, black flames and silver-white light were still locked in a fierce tangle, each devouring the other.
Squeeech…
At the outermost edge of the battlefield, where Marbu had set up his metal cage, the silver-white metallic enclosure let out sounds of straining under unbearable pressure.
Several minutes passed before the terrifying energy storm finally dissipated.
There wasn't a single scratch on Marbu's body — not even a hair out of place. His eyes fixed on Leilin's position as he thrust one hand forward in a grasping motion. "Boy! Get over here!"
The battered remnants of the metal cage seemed to hear some invisible command, rapidly collapsing inward toward the center.
Leilin's body stiffened — silver-white chains had already wrapped around him, and he was hurtling involuntarily toward Marbu.
"Die!!!"
Marbu charged forward violently. The spikes and blades covering his body shot out like a torrential downpour, each one carrying tremendous energy — a single spike would be enough to critically wound an ordinary First-rank
"Fallen Star's Descent!"
Leilin murmured the incantation under his breath. The dark red glow on his body merged with the black halo emanating from his scales, radiating a ring of strange, eerie light.
CRACK! CRACK! His muscles swelled, and he snapped the silver-white chains apart with nothing but brute force.
CLANG! CLANG!
The silver-white needles and blades struck against the layer of halo, producing crisp, ringing sounds. Tiny sparks scattered in all directions before the projectiles were flung away.
"Is that all you've got? What a disappointment!"
For an instant, a look of disappointment flickered through Rayne's eyes. Then his pupils turned amber.
"If that's the full extent of your abilities, then I'm sorry — you're going to die here today!"
In the next instant, an eerie light surged from Rayne's eyes, shooting straight toward Malbu's gaze.
Innate Wizardry — Eyes of Petrification!
Malbu's charging body seized up, and a layer of greyish-white stone skin began to spread outward from the corners of his eyes.
Bzzzz!
A ring of milky-white light flickered frantically on an amulet around Malbu's neck.
Under the glow of that milky radiance, the stone skin on his face began flaking away piece by piece.
"An amulet specifically designed to resist petrification spells? And it appears to be a powerful one at that — it must have been quite the feat for him to acquire something like this!"
Rayne's expression didn't change in the slightest. In a few swift movements, he was standing right in front of Malbu.
The first time Malbu's clone had hunted him down, Rayne had revealed his petrification ability in order to turn the tables at the last moment. That was how Malbu had learned he possessed petrification wizardry.
As his mortal enemy, how could Malbu not have made preparations in that regard?
But even in ancient times, petrification was a rather niche and obscure branch of wizardry. By now, across the entire South Coast, it had all but vanished. Amulets capable of negating it were not only exceedingly rare, but most could only be found among ancient ruins.
Rayne was mildly surprised that Malbu had managed to obtain one so quickly.
But even if Malbu had an amulet, how could a common petrification spell possibly compare to the innate ability of an ancient creature — the Komoin Giant Serpent?
Malbu's body, though freed from the petrification, was still frozen in a moment of sluggishness.
Whoosh! A flash of black light, and Rayne had already appeared before Malbu, his amber eyes locking directly onto Malbu's gaze.
"Die!"
The dark crimson glow of the Falling Star's Descent coalesced in Rayne's hand into a massive battle-axe. Not yet satisfied, Rayne pointed a finger at the blade's edge!
Boom!
A massive sphere of black flames instantly enveloped the axe.
"Hah!" Rayne let out a low shout, and in the next moment, a torrent of shadows surged from beneath his feet, all converging upon his body.
Within the shadows, Rayne's already tall frame swelled even further, transforming in an instant into a dark-skinned giant standing over three meters tall.
"ROARRR!!!"
The giant roared, the muscles along his arms bulging one by one, dark crimson veins writhing across them like earthworms.
Like the legendary gods who had cleaved apart mountains, the giant gripped the great axe and brought it crashing down upon Malbu's neck!
Sssshh! Before the blade even arrived, the blast of searing heat and violent wind erupting from it carried an extreme sharpness, slicing through the ring of liquid metal protecting Malbu's neck.
Crack!
The black-flame-wreathed axe bit deep into Malbu's neck, nearly severing his entire head. Black flames spread across his body in an instant.
Malbu's expression went blank, and he slowly toppled over.
"Hm?" Rayne's mind went momentarily blank. This seemed far too easy — but even a formal Wizard couldn't possibly survive having his entire head chopped off!
"Warning! Danger detected! Target still exhibits Life Energy fluctuations!" The Chip's voice rang out at that very moment.
Immediately after, a blinding streak of snow-white light appeared before Rayne's eyes.
"Not good!" All Rayne could do was desperately twist to avoid his vital organs.
Pfft! A silver-white longsword, its surface wreathed in a milky-white glow, plunged directly into Rayne's lower abdomen.
"Get off me!"
Rayne's hands turned crimson in an instant, scarlet flames blazing to life, and he seized forward with a violent grab!
"Crimson Hand!"
At the same time, without so much as a glance toward Malbu, he retreated backward at full speed.
Once he had put some distance between them, Rayne clutched the wound in his abdomen and stared at Malbu with a measure of shock.
Malbu's entire body had transformed into a white metallic form. His head hung at an angle from his neck, connected by only a sliver of skin, and black flames still burned across his body — yet he seemed completely oblivious to it all, standing there motionless while fresh blood from Rayne's wounds dripped steadily from the long sword in his hand.
From the severance point at Malbu's neck, Rayne could see that the entire cross-section was pure metal. There was not the slightest trace of human flesh or blood.
"I didn't expect that he wouldn't just have liquid metal armor on the outside — even his entire internal body has been completely converted to metal…"
Rayne's expression darkened.
"Haha…" Malbu's dangling head burst into wild laughter. "Surprised? Ninety years ago, I fused my body completely with a metallic elemental creature. The way I am now, there isn't a single weak point left anywhere on me. Injuries that would be fatal to an ordinary Wizard are nothing but an itch to me…"
"How truly pitiful!"
Rayne looked at Malbu, whose expression had taken on a manic edge, yet the look in his eyes was one of pure pity.
Fusing with an elemental creature did carry this advantage, but the side effect was the total loss of human sensation.
When your flesh, blood, and skin have all turned to solid metal, how could you possibly feel anything at all?
Wizards climbed ever higher toward the pinnacle not only to pursue truth and seize control of their own destinies — wasn't it also so they could stand above all others and savor every pleasure to the fullest?
Now this Malbu had sacrificed all of that for power alone. So what meaning could his pursuit possibly hold?
"The pitiful one is you!"
Clearly, the pity in Rayne's gaze had struck a deep nerve in Malbu, and the manic expression on his face intensified even further.
Suddenly, an earthy yellow glow flickered across Malbu's body, and the surface of his silver liquid metal bulged outward, reshaping itself into a miniature magical formation.
"Gravity Formation!!!" After being severely wounded by Rayne time and again, Malbu had finally unleashed his long-concealed trump card!
Hummm!
In an instant, with Malbu at its center, massive waves of earthy yellow light spread outward across the ground.
"This is — gravity?!" Rayne suddenly felt his body grow heavy, as though an entire mountain had been pressed down upon him. The realization hit him immediately.
The gravity around him had intensified in a single heartbeat. Difficulty in moving was one thing — what made Rayne's expression turn even graver was that each of his internal organs was being pulled by the gravitational force, waves of searing pain radiating outward from within.
"No, this is bad — strong external defense is completely different from internal resilience! If this goes on, and he can increase the gravity a hundredfold, my body will probably just collapse..."
Rayne's expression turned extremely grim.
Compared to a human body of flesh and blood, Malbu was now entirely made of metal — even his internal organs and brain were no exception. Naturally, he wouldn't be affected at all.
"Haha... Come on! Tenfold gravity!"
Malbu let out a sudden shout, and the earthy yellow light flared explosively.
Rayne's feet sank, and the wounds on his abdomen that had just begun to stanch blood were suddenly torn open again as though caught by some invisible pull, blood gushing out ceaselessly.
"Haha... Bring it on!"
Malbu instantly appeared before Rayne and swung the long sword in his hand. Rayne could barely raise his right arm to block in front of him.
Crack!
The scales on his arm shattered, and Rayne was sent hurtling backward like a cannonball.
"Not enough! Still not enough! Twentyfold!!!!" Malbu plunged both hands directly into the ground.
In an instant, Rayne felt the gravity intensify drastically. If before it had felt like a single mountain pressing down on him, now it was more than three!
Boom!
His hurtling body slammed into the ground, smashing a deep crater into the earth.
"Die!" Malbu closed in on Rayne, his right hand transforming into a massive silver hammer.
"Mm! An ancient gravity rune circle — you actually managed to reproduce it!"
Rayne lay on his back, a trace of admiration on his face. "Truly impressive!"
This expression sent a sudden wave of unease through Malbu's heart.
"You're about to die, and you're still putting on an act!" He brought the hammer crashing downward with savage force!
"Gravity rune circle — activate!"
Beneath the shadow of the massive hammer,
Hum!
An inverted L-shaped symbol suddenly appeared over Leylin's body.
In an instant, as if seized by some tremendous force, Leylin was wrenched out from beneath the hammer by an invisible power, hurtling away into the distance.
"Think you can run? Thirty times..."
Watching Leylin's retreating figure, the earthy yellow light surging around Malbu's body intensified violently.