Chapter 304 - Phantom

Stepping out of the teleportation window into the deserted lands of my island never felt so good.

Dropping down to the dusty ground, I pushed the feeling of pain from the wounds bestowed on me by the not-so-gentle touch of the spatial rifts aside, using all my leftover energy to cover the small distance separating me from the tower.

Yes, I managed to escape before the other party came out of their own teleportation windows, but I could use it only thanks to the Bonger, while they most probably didn't have such an advantage.

If they were jumping all by themselves, they had to be infinitely better versed in this kind of techniques, making even the greatest distance just a small hindrance instead of perfect defence.

As my healing kicked in, I could slowly lift myself from the crawl and start marching, only to turn it into a run as soon as my body allowed me to do so.

Despite all that, I was still too late.

After the spatial jump was done, the window would slowly dissipate into the air, as if squeezed out of the reality by the natural mending force of the universe, unable to tolerate such an opening in its integrity.

At least, that's what would happen normally.

Puff!

When I heard this strange sound, I equipped all the courage I had left and turned around.

If even the protector was afraid of those guys, then if my strength was far too insufficient to deal with that guy, there was no way my new opponent would allow me to cover the last fifty steps separating me from the doors of my stronghold!

As if to spite me right back into the face, there was no physical enemy standing at my soil, just phantom of a masked person that looked around before entering a contest of stares with me.

Even if his face was covered by a piece of what appeared to be a perfectly black cloth, I could still discern two, slightly reddish points where his eyes should be.

Following the movements of what I took for the pupils, I noticed that instead of paying me any attention, this illusion was more focused on observing all the area around!

Wait, if it didn't follow with its corporeal body right away, it could either mean that this person didn't want to risk entering the trap… Or was unable to do so!

With the realisation of the consequences of the second possibility and how it linked with the phantom peculiar actions, my heart almost stopped.

If they couldn't follow through my own teleportation window if they could locate this place on the map of the world, what would stop them from teleporting right here by themselves?

Adrenaline rushing to my veins could allow me to react faster, but didn't help in figuring out any feasible way to get rid of the intruder!

But it at least allowed me to clear my mind.

Knowing that I might lack means to deal with the phantom by itself and using entropy would only uncover my means, I decided to aim at closing the teleportation window.

Just by comparing its current state with how it normally looked and acted when I used it - as far as I can decide what is normal after using it in total only three times - I could see that the world's mana was violently pushing against the boundaries of the space rift, with only evergrowing strength! But despite that, the opening was still able to hold on, as if supported by some kind of energy from the other side.

Looking at the speed of the world's mana converging around the opening, it would take a long while before there would be enough mana in place to forcefully shut it down. Just like a balloon filled with water, unless there was enough force, destroying it by applying force equally over its entire surface would be quite hard, as its stability was guaranteed not by the boundaries of the item but the liquid stored inside!

That's why everyone whoever has popped a balloon, used a needle to puncture it, instead of squeezing it out!

I couldn't say for certain whether this logic could apply to this situation, but there was nothing stopping me from trying!

Considering my own understanding of the situation, I called forward a huge lump of magic energy, with a thin needle of condensed entropy right in its middle.

Before the Phantom could react in any way, I sent the mana forward, allowing the speed to turn its shape from just an indistinguishable lump, into a long and sharp thread!

Crack!

I could only thank myself for being already quite a bit away from the tampered teleportation.

As soon as my mana hit the point, the equilibrium that was maintained between the world energy and whatever this Phantom was using to keep it stable, was broken. With my energy rushing inside and widening the hole, the world's energy didn't linger and followed into the opening, mending the spatial rift.

Unwilling to just let go of this man, I made sure to push the entropy inside my blob of the energy inside the hole, before it was forcefully shut by the natural forces of the world.

Just before the window completely collapsed, I could see the contours of the phantom face shifting, as if his face hidden under the cloth started melting down!

With a loud CLAP, the rift finally closed, leading to a crash of all the forces that were pressing against it.

Even if the energy disappeared almost instantly, the shockwave it produced was still enough to send me flying and pin me down to the wall of my tower!

As powerful as this clash was, it was nowhere close to my weak shockwave, making me rather immune to the damage it could do.

Falling down to the ground after the force that held me against the wall finally gave up, I fallen to my knees and coughed up a mouthful of blood. With all the injuries I sustained from the careless teleportation, fighting and exerting myself to send this mana, even this kind of weak shockwave and clash against the hard wall of the tower were enough to put me on the verge of collapsing!

But with all said and done, I had a moment of respite.

I could only thank the fate for the fact that the direction that this phantom was looking, there was no islands or anything else that could betray my location. Even if they wouldn't get confused by how barren this island was now as compared to how it used to look, just the lack of any marking spots on it should give me some time to relocate or at least, upgrade my defences!

Just like that, the journey to visit the neighbouring islands went up a nothing in my priority ledger!