Chapter 261 - Unexpected Goal (5)

"Luke! Endured it!" Shalia said. "While I have no idea what type of magic this is, it isn't causing that much damage. It must be some sort of debuff that causes small amounts of damage."

It probably affected the mind as well since Luke felt that he was about to fall in a volcano and on a frozen lake at the same time. Nevertheless, if he couldn't move, he could always use his bow, and so he did it. After equipping the weapon, he didn't hesitate in firing, but even though the arrows flew at insane speeds, they still were blocked by something invisible around the night elf. She also had some defensive skills... she was pretty well-rounded. In all senses... Luke had defeated women before, but for the first time he felt like regretting since she had some unusual powers and also was at the level of those two helping him all the time.

"An energy field… it must be Mana Shield," Shalia said.

That name was very familiar and logically Speaking, there was only one way to counter a defensive spell like that, but was it even possible while the enemy was meditating? There was only one way to know… Luke attacked the Mana Shield with a barrage of arrows. Luke didn't even have to Aim since the enemy was only one hundred meters away from him. With each impact, the ground around the woman trembled and cracked, but she didn't move a single inch. Not to mention, the Mana Shield didn't look weaker than before. So when his mana dropped to half, Luke stopped continuing with that would only make him waste mana.

Although the bow wasn't enough, Luke still had Weapon Augmentation. He created some water spears, and then Shalia froze them. After activating his skill, Luke fired them, and for the first time, he saw the night elf moving her head and looking at him. The projectiles landed on the shield and made it tremble… the night elf also trembled as well. As expected, things change quite a bit when Luke uses that skill. 

Luke created and fired those at a pace that his mana could keep up in order to see how much damage he could cause and how the night elf would react. In the end, even the weird feeling that he felt inside his arms and legs disappeared, and then the night elf got up as well. It seemed that those spheres were some kind of spell that consumed her mana over time while it was inside the enemy. Regardless, if Luke kept attacking like that, she couldn't afford to leave Mana Shield and that spell active.

Just to be safe, Luke created some water arrows, and Shalia froze them while he equipped his ax. He was quite curious to see how she would attack after using those weird spheres… Weirdly enough, that woman summoned more spheres, but those stuck close to her, and they had colors this time. Blue, red, and green… Luke didn't like that. It was obvious that they were for defense, and very likely, they were to magic defense. 

Luke fired an ice arrow toward them, but then he frowned when a lightning bolt left the green sphere and hit his arrow and the copies that appeared soon afterward. A single lightning bolt wasn't enough, but instantly, two others appeared and finished the job. Luke was bound to be shocked if he got hit by it with that power level. Since the enemy wasn't moving, it was clear that she was waiting for that.

Luke fired another ice arrow toward the red crystal, but those annoying spheres came to help their master again. Although they were annoying, it seemed like a pretty good method to hunt monsters almost automatically. Luke wanted to learn them…

After dashing toward the enemy, Luke used Stinger once he was in range. The Mana Shield blocked his ax, and some sparks flew around them. Near almost instantly, a flamethrower, a lightning bolt, and several ice spears were fired by those weird spheres, and while Luke jumped and moved his ax to block them, he still felt the impact, the heat, and the cold to some extent of those attacks. They paralyzed his arms for a moment… but before they could continue, Shalia created some ice walls between them and blocked the next wave of attacks. When Luke landed fifty meters away from the night elf, the third wave didn't come…

"Is that their range?" Luke furrowed his eyebrows.

Luke tried to use Appraisal on those, but the skill didn't work. It didn't look like they had health or a certain durability, but they weren't that easy to destroy either… Luke confirmed that when he used Water Tornado and then Lightning. The enemy didn't have time to react, nor did the spheres, but Luke didn't see any differences in them after the attack.

"She isn't making the starving wolves come… so she is confident in this strategy of hers," Luke thought. "There is also the possibility that the others arrived and are keeping them busy."

Direct attacks will only put Luke in danger, so he had to try something else indirectly… there was no telling what that night elf was hiding, considering that she was acting like that. In any case, Luke used all of his remaining ice arrows at once and bombarded the enemy. Some hit the Mana Shield. Her defensive spheres annihilated some. Still, Luke achieved his goal of raising a smoke curtain since the numerous spells fired by spheres messed with the environment.

Luke used the effect of his ax and then threw it toward her shield with all of his might, and for the first time, he saw her moving to the side in order to dodge it. She was running out of mana… it was the only explanation. While she was making sure that the ax would hit the wall behind her and stop instead of going for the red crystal.. Luke bought a green crossbow.