Chapter 182 Skills From The Rift Mage

'Smart creature, it doesn't matter where I run, I'd still meet icicles, huh?'

Evan thought to himself as he tilted his head to the side to dodge the icicle that nearly impaled him, swinging the unforged in a circular arc and cutting through the next set of icicles that targeted multiple points on his body.

The rift mage showed the reason it was called that, teleporting once more behind Evan and creating a large chunk of spiked ice, releasing it immediately as it extended toward its target-Evan.

"Whoa."

Evan jumped out of the way to avoid it, catching sight of the rift mage who turned in the direction of his companions for a moment to see if they were taking any action besides ending the lives of the other wolves.

"KUE!"

It screamed out as three red summoning magic circles appeared, with giant eight-foot-tall wolves walking through each of them.

Immediately after, it teleported out of the way to avoid the spear of lightning Kayla shot in its direction, landing on the ground not too far from Evan and waving its staff again.

Spikes made of ice emerged on the surface around Evan, namely, the ground, walls and ceiling. The spikes shot out of the surfaces around and in his direction.

Meanwhile, Evan just activated his mystic eyes and copied the spell, just like he had done the other two the rift mage had used.

'I think that's enough. Kuro.'

As soon as he thought that, his shadow spread out and he let his body fall back into the enlarged shadow that disappeared immediately afterwards, causing the ice spikes to hit the cold hard ground and shatter to pieces while leaving dents on the floor.

"?!"

Seeing Evan disappear into his shadow, the rift mage hurriedly looked around, trying to locate where he was going to pop out from.

It activated another skill and a light blue spherical barrier surrounded its entire body as it floated up into the air while releasing an icy aura into the surroundings.

If a normal person were to be within ten metres of the rift mage now, they would instantly get frostbite as the amount of cold energy it was releasing was not something a normal human body was built to take.

Sadly, it was up against Evan, who was not in any way or form, considered 'normal'.

In the short moment that the rift mage was distracted due to sensing the death of one of its summoned wolves, the shadow under it expanded rapidly and Evan sprang out towards the monster.

He swung his entire right arm which was engulfed in flames, towards the spherical shield of ice energy around the rift mage.

**BAAAMM!!!

Despite ramming into the shield with more force than that of a speeding subway train, the shield only cracked a bit, with most of the damage coming from the fact the rift mage was slammed into the wall by the knockback.

"Kayla!"

Evan didn't Evan give the monster time, calling out to his contract spirit while dashing towards the rift mage as she activated her Electroflame skill on the monster.

"Guh!"

Evan grunted a bit as his body screamed at him for switching elements too quickly, with the flames engulfing his arm being instantly replaced by lightning.

'Fracture!'

**BAMM!!

He called out internally as he punched towards the rose of flames that bloomed on the stunned rift mage's shield, his fist slamming into the shield and cracking it a second before the lightning part of Kayla's skill hit.

The air distorted as the lightning flashed, the intensity of the light being too bright that Evan had to momentarily close his eyes.

**CCRACK!!!

The rift mage's shield creaked under the force of his punch, shattering the moment after along with the distortion in the air and allowing Evan's fist to reach the monster's torso.

"GAHH!!"

Even though the force behind his punch had been reduced due to the shield, it was still enough to crumble a certain 93-metre-tall blue-green torch-wielding statue from his home world.

Naturally, the rift mage whose durability was significantly lower than other monsters of its level could barely withstand the force and was left with an inch of its life.

"Kuro."

[I know.]

The shadow spirit hopped out of Evan's shadow and ran up the wall to the half-dead rift mage and manipulated his shadow to hold it in place, before grabbing its staff from its hand and tossing it away.

Evan then pulled off the monster's mask, revealing its face that only had eyes and a mouth, making him wonder how the creature breathed.

He held open the monster's eyelids and activated his mystic eyes, deciding to take not one but two skills from this unfortunate mage.

|Ice Magic (High) Acquired|

|Normal Skills require one skill slot. |

|Four Skill slots remaining. |

|Elemental Shield Acquired|

|Rare Skills require one skill slot. |

|Three Skill slots remaining. |

The moment he confirmed he had indeed gotten the skills he wanted, he snapped the monster's neck, ending its life instantly.

[Level Up.]

Kuro jumped back into Evan's shadow as he turned around and let the monster's corpse fall to the ground, meeting eyes with Pride who asked him a question he never saw coming.

"Between the grey fur and the black fur, which one is better for making a nice winter coat?"

The high demon was alternately poking her sword into the heads of two of the three giant wolf corpses on the ground while trying to decide which corpse to keep and which to take with her.

"You are really a 'my pace' kind of person, huh?"

Eliza couldn't help but comment as she saw Pride's serious expression, thinking of how the people of Aidos from a thousand years ago would feel if they saw the demon that terrorized them right now.

Evan on the other hand went along with her and suggested she take the black one since it matched her hair while he would take the grey one since it matched his eyes.

"And you're going along with her?"

"Hmm? Yeah. What's wrong? Did you want the grey one too?"

Eliza's brow twitched in annoyance when she heard the question Evan asked her while petting the head of Kayla who had at one point in time, transformed into a cat and snuggled herself in his arms.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, she asked the question she wanted to originally ask the young hero.

"You took longer than usual this time, was there a problem?"

"Nahh...I just took two skills instead of one."

"You can do that?"