Chapter 232

I continued to defend against endless rain of spells, blood continuing to stem down my nose as the challenge of containing the mana I stole started to get overwhelming. I had both the mana and the skill necessary to cure myself, but I couldn’t spare the attention.

Not when the squad was still approaching steadily, close enough for the distance to be measured in feet, the warriors standing in a formation to protect the mages. Ordinarily, the presence of the warriors would mean little in a mage battle — courtesy of area-effect or other indirect spells.

But things were different with their weapons more than capable of destroying spells, and their incredible HP reserves made it impossible to take down with stray spells and ordinary tricks.

And then, they arrived at the border, one of them, armed with a long spear — its heft once again studded with enough eternal gems to trigger a world war, supporting the weapon with enough mana to rival my regeneration — probed forward.

The floating orbs ignored him, still busy trying to block the spells of the mages that were raining without a pause. The tip of the spear hit the ward, but that was the extent of his probing, pulling immediately, trying to protect themselves against a possible trap.

Yet, even that casual probing was enough to damage the ward that required hundreds of mana to fix. I did so, making it look like it cost me a dangerous portion of my reserves, while I just used some of the mana I stole from their spells, actually reducing the pressure I was feeling.

But, the mysterious enemy still didn’t act, nor he acted in a way that would kill me. The spells that the mages were throwing around were extremely strong, but at this point, it was clear that they were not working.

I could come up with a hundred better formations to actually kill me, but the current pattern was perfect for increasing the pressure I was feeling.

Especially that, rather than attacking directly, the warriors surrounded me in a circle, with the mages behind them, creating incredible pressure...

The mysterious enemy still stayed hidden, letting me feel the pressure of his deadly tactics, yet to reveal his true objective, content in keeping me in deadly danger.

Whatever he wanted to see, he was yet to see it, which meant it was not about my magical capabilities. That aspect didn’t surprise me much, as even the ward they used to trap me showed that they had resources and capabilities that could easily eclipse me.

I decided to lean on it more to anger him, in a way that would pull his attention away from Silver Spires. Luckily, I had an excellent scapegoat for this, one that had already gone through a lot of trouble to avoid the attention of the Eternals.

Zokras, the unlucky lich.

“Enough. I can’t believe I have to abandon this identity because of a bunch of rabid dogs,” I shouted as I reached to my own mana, and used my own mana to replicate the undead energy, letting it dance over my skin, even as I cast an illusion.

[-1306 Mana]

[-481 HP]

The pain was bad, but not impossible to resist. The important part was to make the trick look convincing, and I was aware that my mysterious enemy was simple. I let the necrotic energy infuse my body.

Yet, the enemy stayed silent.

So be it, I thought even as I reached one of the four nodes, and transformed into necrotic energy, followed by a smirk.

I finally felt a movement in the Northeast direction. Necrotic energy was truly the bane of living creatures, and HP was not a good barrier. That much necrotic energy was enough to cause a threat.

And the reaction was intense, coming in the form of a huge spell, one of familiar energy.

It was a spear of light, with an intensity that Titania couldn’t hope to match even in her wildest dreams. Even Mariel would fail to match that despite the recent help I had given her to assimilate her Divine Spark.

The spell was enough to give me a good guess of what had triggered the sudden ambush. They were clearly observing her more closely than I had been expecting, enough that her sublimation of Divine Spark was enough to trigger a great trap.

Yet, I was clearly just a suspect, and they weren’t sure whether I was responsible for it. If they knew for certain, they wouldn’t have worked so hard to bait me.

The instant spell was enough to show me that the enemy was strong. Far stronger than me, and not just in pure power — as it would hardly be something new, every single enemy I was fighting against had enough raw power to eclipse me — but also in control and application.

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6982 / 7334 Mana: 9000 / 9000 ]

SKILLS

Grandmaster Tantric [118/140]

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Master Craft [100/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Titania - Level 35/38]

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]

[Marianne - Level 21/29]