"Shadow Fireball!"
Leilin raised his right hand, and hundreds of small black fireballs continuously condensed and merged before him. In the end, they fused into a single sphere the size of a human head, the blackness at its center deepening impossibly, as if it might devour a person's very soul.
Under the searing heat, even the earthy-yellow gravity glow rippling across the ground began to flicker and waver.
Looking at the giant across from him, a cold glint flashed across Leilin's face.
The Shadow Fireball tore through the air, seeming to cross space in an instant as it arrived before the metal giant.
The searing heat field of the black fire immediately caused the metal giant's surface to shudder. Liquid metal melted away continuously, dripping down onto the ground.
Faced with this terrifying attack, Marbul's expression hardened. His left hand seized his own right arm!
*Crack!* A bone-splitting sound that set teeth on edge rang out. Marbul's right arm had been torn clean off by his own hand.
"Go!" The crazed look on Marbul's face intensified as he hurled the severed arm toward the Shadow Fireball.
The half-metal arm thrown into the air began to melt and deform mid-flight, eventually taking the shape of an oval metal sphere that collided head-on with the black fireball opposite it!
*BOOM!!* A massive sphere of light expanded outward in all directions. At the very core, a point of black and silver-white light endlessly entangled… and devoured…
Even though Marbul had retreated as far as he could, the shockwave still caught him. *Crack!* The gravity magical array on his chest shattered instantly!
*Snap!* The earthy-yellow glow of the gravity magical array on the ground collapsed outright. The surrounding gravity returned to normal in an instant.
*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!* One explosion after another rang out across the ground, popping like beans in a pan.
After just a dozen seconds, the stretch of land had been completely leveled, its surface scraped away by a thick layer.
At the center, an enormous pit gaped, black and unfathomable.
After the dust settled, Leilin strolled over to the edge of the crater and looked around at the wisps of black flame still burning here and there. A glint seemed to pass through his eyes. "Dead?"
*Swish!* A silver-white figure shot through the curtain of dust and arrived before Leilin.
"Marbul?!" A look of shocked fury appeared on Leilin's face as he flew backward at full speed!
"Aaah! Aaah! AAAGH…" Marbul was in a wretched state. Not only had he lost his right arm, but deep, bone-revealing gashes riddled his chest and thighs.
The wound at his waist was the worst—it had nearly sliced him clean in half.
For an ordinary person, or even a full
But Marbul was clearly different. Liquid metal flowed continuously from his body, coating him and forcibly fusing his wounds shut.
The moment he caught sight of Leilin, silver light shot from his eyes—so intense it was almost solid.
*Bang! Bang!* Two massive metal charges detonated behind him, the impulse slamming into his back.
Using this propulsion, he closed the distance to Leilin in just a few strides.
"Die together!" Marbul lunged forward.
Midair, his entire body came apart, spreading into a silver-white curtain.
The metal curtain seemed alive, wrapping tightly around Leilin until only his head remained exposed.
"Hmm? An interesting attack. Is this your last resort?" Leilin regarded the silvery liquid metal encasing him like a cocoon, and curiously, there was not a trace of panic on his face.
*Gurgle. Gurgle.* A large mass of liquid metal gathered at Leilin's shoulder, forming the shape of an old man's head.
"For the family! For Posain! The ultimate destruction of metal…" The old man's expression was maniacal, tinged with a glow that resembled that of a martyr.
"I say… are you planning to die along with that puppet?"
Just as Marbul was about to detonate himself, another voice—languid and unhurried—drifted across from the other side of the battlefield.
Marbul turned his head in disbelief. What he saw was another Leilin standing on the field, watching him with a mocking, cold gaze.
"Did you forget? I'm a Wizard who specializes in Shadow System energy particles. For us, creating a shadow double is far too simple…"
As Leilin spoke, the "Leilin" held captive by Marbul began to undergo a strange transformation.
His entire body turned black, collapsing into a mass of ink-dark shadow.
"Oh! No!" A pair of silver-white hands burst from the curtain, and Marbul screamed as he tried to separate himself from the decoy.
"It's already too late," Leilin's calm voice drifted over, carrying just a hint of pity.
*Swish swish swish!* From within the mass of shadow wrapped by Marbul, countless black tendrils suddenly erupted, engulfing him completely.
Marbul roared. Dense clusters of spinning blades bristled from his body.
*Crack! Crack!* The blades collided with the tendrils, spraying showers of sparks.
But these shadow tendrils were many times tougher than before. The silver-white blades were steadily jammed, and some snapped clean in two.
"Goodbye, Marbul!"
Leilin looked at Marbul, now entirely bound by shadow tendrils, and his expression was oddly unreadable.
Then he reached forward and clenched his fist.
*BOOM!!* …
"Is the fight over?"
The female wizard had retreated far from the battlefield, fearing the aftershocks. She only crept back once the fighting seemed to have stopped, shrinking with every step.
It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to flee—but if Marbul had won, she could never have outrun him with her speed. So she might as well come back; if Leilin and Marbul had wounded each other badly, she could lend a hand! After all, that would be helping herself too!
"Maybe… those two Wizards killed each other? In that case, everything they had would belong to me! Ahaha…"
The thought of inheriting the legacies of two such powerful fighters and dominating everyone in her path sent the female wizard into a fit of unhinged laughter.
"Sorry to disappoint you."
Leilin's calm voice cut in, freezing her laughter mid-cackle like a duck with its throat clamped shut.
"It's you! That Leilin brat who got me chased…"
She caught herself and quickly corrected: "Oh! No—I mean, Wizard Leilin!"
Looking at this female wizard with far too high an opinion of herself, Leilin shook his head. He had no intention of engaging her in conversation.
"The Hunting Zone is still quite dangerous. If you want to gather resources, you'd better go to one of the other zones…"
With that, Leilin turned to leave.
"Hey! Wait! What about that Wizard Marbul? Did you drive him off?" The female wizard finally snapped back to reality.
She cast wary glances in every direction, as though afraid Marbul might burst out at any moment.
"Marbul? He's right here."
Leilin held up a large chunk of silvery metal.
"Huh?" The female wizard looked at the object in Leilin's hand with surprise.
It was a massive silver metal ore. At first glance, she had assumed it was some resource Leilin had found and dismissed it without a second thought.
But looking more closely, the ore bore strange indentations and protrusions that looked like… a human face?!
After mentally rearranging the eyes and nose, the female wizard stumbled three steps back. "That's Marbul!!! You killed him?!"
Her exaggerated reaction actually surprised Leilin.
"He was a Black Wizard. As a Hunting Wizard, killing him is perfectly normal, isn't it?"
"How—how is your brain even wired?! I—dammit!"
In her agitation, the female wizard was practically incoherent.
"That was a peak First-rank Wizard! Peak First-rank! In any location, that's an absolute authority figure with tremendous power! Their combat strength is extraordinary—they can kill newly promoted Wizards without breaking a sweat! And you… you…"
She still couldn't quite believe it as she stared at the metal chunk in Leilin's hand. Then she looked at Leilin himself, her eyes now filled with awe.
Leilin simply smiled, unfazed.
On the South Coast, Second-rank Wizards never left their headquarters. That meant peak First-rank Wizards were the strongest combat force operating in the field!
And now, the very pinnacle of that strength had just died at his hands! If word of this got out, it would absolutely cause an uproar.
The old Leilin might have tried hard to cover it up.
But now, after undergoing his second Bloodline Leap and seeing his power soar, a certain aura had begun to coalesce around him.
It was absolute confidence—the unwavering conviction of invincibility! So what if the news spread? With his current strength, he was more than capable of protecting himself. Anyone who came after him would pay a heavy price!
"ROOOAR!"
At that moment, a massive Venomous Flying Dragon swooped down and landed on the ground.
It let out a tremendous roar and nuzzled its huge head against Leilin in a show of flattery.
"That's… the legendary Venomous Flying Dragon? What a beast—I love it…"
The female wizard's eyes lit up, practically sparkling. "Hey handsome! How about a ride?"
Leilin gave her a glance.
Honestly, this female wizard was quite attractive—her figure, in particular, was absolutely stunning. On top of that, her clothes were still torn from the flight, revealing generous stretches of skin.
On a normal day, with nothing better to do, Leilin wouldn't have been against having some fun with her.
But this was a secret realm! He was facing enormous pressure from both the Black and White Wizards. The last thing on his mind was romance.
"Pass."
Leilin tossed out a single word and vaulted onto the Venomous Flying Dragon.
"ROOOAR…" The dragon let out a threatening roar at the female wizard, then spread its wings and took to the sky.
"Tch! Stingy man! Like I can't survive without you!"
The female wizard waited until the Venomous Flying Dragon had completely vanished over the horizon before throwing a crude gesture in the direction Leilin had departed.