Chapter 463 Unseen Assault



Stopping for a moment as she clutched her staff, she closed her eyes for a moment, whispering incantations to herself before calling upon the desired magecraft: "Sphere of Life Protection."

Around her body, a spherical barrier made out of translucent, cyan light was created, guarding her as she now felt confident to continue traversing the rocky bridge.

In order to maintain the platforms that were suspended on nothing but her own mana, she had to concentrate despite the boiling geysers appearing closer-and-closer.

Reaching the last platform, she took a slow step over before–

"Ghh!"

A burst of steaming water launched up, brushing directly against the barrier that protected her, causing her to stumble somewhat as she leaned over the platform, nearly falling from the side of it. Even with the shield she had around herself, plunging into the depths of the boiling lake wouldn't be something she dared to do.

She managed to catch herself by creating molds of stone around her boots, planted against the platform and forcing her to stay anchored to it as she straightened herself out.

"...Phew..." She breathed out, releasing the stone molds.

Finally, she reached the end of the troublesome lake, hopping off of the platform and landing on the other side, free from the charred region of land.

As she glanced back, the stone platforms fell from their mystical suspension, falling into the boiling stretch of water with a "plop". She brushed her skirt before fixing her hat, looking at the environment before her.

A plethora of hills clad in luscious, emerald grass stretched out before her, blooming with delicate flowers and healthy trees that seemed to lead to a forest area.

'It's like an entirely different place. This is really the same land?' She thought.

It was easy enough to imprint her own mana mark onto the map, marking her southeast on the map–making her quite a ways from the two men. Still, this was a victory for the archmage as she smiled to herself, now having a clear destination to follow.

As she returned to her feet, she kept the map conjured, not having to focus as much now that everything was in place on the aquatic chart.

'Alright, let's–'

Before she could even take one step forth towards reuniting with her friends, the silver-haired woman sensed something amiss in that split-second, turning just as something was piercing through the wind.

It came swiftly, heading straight towards her as she instinctively used her staff to raise a wall of mud-and-stone behind her.

"Rise!" She invoked, unknowing of what had been launched towards her.

Piercing straight through the natural defense, a copper arrowhead was mere inches from her forehead, bringing her wordless as she felt her life was only still intact by mere milliseconds of reaction time.

'What was that?...An arrow? Who else is on this island?' She questioned.

Unable to find any confirmation yet as she stood alone and alert in the field, another arrow nearly reached her, forcing her to conjure another wall, using simply mud this time to engulf it. After blocking the arrow, she quickly looked around, scanning the tree line in the near distance, but seeing nothing.

"Who's there?!" She called out, "I'll give you one chance to stand down!"

She didn't show any weakness in her words, standing with her staff held and prepared to unleash magecraft as mana swirled around its tip.

In truth, she knew that in a battle of attrition, a mage held the disadvantage unless properly prepared.

There was no response from her yell, only another arrows that was primed for her stomach. Reacting with milliseconds to spare, she pointed her staff forward, using a long block of water to catch the arrow within before letting it drop.

'If they keep shooting arrows, I'm just going to end up wasting mana needlessly. Is that their plan? Do I have time to use a scouting spell?' She questioned.