The Invasion Ends

"Cough... pfft!"

Unable to hold it back, he spat out a mouthful of blood, staining the ground before him red.

A piercing agony shot through the left side of his chest.

Jiang Bai could clearly feel that at least three ribs on his left side were broken. With every breath, the jagged ends stabbed into his internal organs.

But he did not fall.

Bracing one hand against the ground, Jiang Bai shakily got to his feet again. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his icy gaze locking onto the masked leader once more.

He knew it wasn't that he could withstand the blow.

It was that his opponent hadn't put any real force into it.

The attack had looked fierce, but the magic power it contained had been pitifully small.

The bastard was like a cat that had caught a mouse. He was in no hurry to bite it to death; he wanted to break its limbs bit by bit before killing it.

Seeing Jiang Bai take the attack for her and be sent flying backward, spitting blood, Erza's scarlet eyes instantly filled with tears.

"Jiang Bai!"

She cried out and struggled desperately in the masked leader's grasp.

"Don't worry about me! Go! Hurry, go!"

She even tried to twist her body and drive her vulnerable neck into the cold dagger, hoping to trade her life for Jiang Bai's chance to live.

But her meager strength was no more than a kitten's scratching to the masked leader.

"My, my, how touching."

The leader laughed mockingly and easily restrained the struggling Erza, savoring the pleasure of tormenting them.

"Is this the pure affection between children? I'm almost moved to tears, haha... hahahaha..."

At the very moment he threw back his head in wild laughter, his guard at its lowest,

Jiang Bai's gaze shifted.

An opening!

Now!

An invisible force of Telekinesis, condensed to its utmost limit and as precise as a surgeon's scalpel, instantly crossed the distance and struck the masked leader's dagger-wielding wrist!

"Crack!"

A crisp snap of bone rang out.

"Argh—!"

The wild laughter stopped abruptly, replaced by a muffled groan of unbearable pain.

The intense pain left the masked leader's mind blank for an instant, an involuntary physiological shock.

Now!

Jiang Bai swiftly unleashed his magic power. With a thought, he moved the still-stunned Erza through the air, straight out of the leader's grasp and to his side.

"Jiang Bai!"

As soon as Erza reached him, she wrapped her arms tightly around him, tears filling her eyes. Her small body trembled as the fear caught up with her.

Jiang Bai, however, did not lower his guard in the slightest.

The agony of his broken ribs and the hellish scene before him had completely roused the fighting spirit deep in his soul.

He knew that what had happened today would not end until one side was dead.

Since that was the case, there was nothing to hesitate about!

Killing intent flashed in his eyes. He prepared to strike a killing blow with his Telekinesis while his opponent's wrist was broken and his composure shattered!

But the masked leader was far harder to deal with than he had imagined.

A second before Jiang Bai's killing intent arose, the masked leader's figure vanished like a ghost, leaving an afterimage where he had stood.

Immediately afterward, Jiang Bai's nerves tensed, and a deadly sense of danger swept over him from behind!

He had no time to think. Clutching Erza, he threw himself to the side with all his strength.

The next second, countless fine blades of wind sliced through the air where they had just stood, letting out an ear-piercing hiss and leaving a tangle of slashes behind.

Wind Strangulation!

The madman who had been laughing wildly moments ago was now like a top-tier elite assassin, concealed in the shadows without making a single unnecessary sound, delivering nothing but deadly attacks.

Jiang Bai's heart sank.

To find his opponent, he could only spread his mental power without reservation, trying to cover the entire area.

But he couldn't find him at all!

The man was as though he had become one with the wind, everywhere yet impossible to trace.

Worse, the wide-ranging scan was rapidly draining his already limited magic power at a terrifying rate.

I still... don't have enough experience.

Jiang Bai had no choice but to keep reducing the range of his Mental Perception until it covered only the area immediately around him and Erza, using it for passive defense.

The masked leader in the shadows saw through this as well. No longer in a hurry to attack, he remained hidden like a patient hunter, waiting for his prey to exhaust all his strength.

Jiang Bai gave up hope completely.

He wasn't being given a single chance.

Were so-called geniuses really so powerless before experienced hunters until they had truly grown?

Sure enough.

Before long, Jiang Bai felt familiar waves of dizziness wash over his mind. His magic power was completely exhausted, and he could no longer maintain the thin layer of Mental Perception around himself.

The next second, a surge of magic power more terrifying than any previous attack erupted from the shadows.

The leader's magic struck at a speed Jiang Bai could not possibly react to.

Before the terrified, despairing eyes of Simon and the other captured children, two dazzling bursts of fire instantly engulfed Jiang Bai and Erza.

"Boom—!!"

The deafening explosion swept across the ruins of the village.

The smoke cleared.

Only a scorched crater remained. There was nothing else.

It was as though Jiang Bai and Erza had been blown apart in that terrifying explosion, not even a trace of ash left behind.

The last light in the village went out completely.

Only then did the masked leader slowly emerge from the shadows. Clutching his broken wrist, he looked at the scorched crater and muttered hoarsely to himself.

"Kid, when I said I couldn't beat you, did you really believe me?"

"Even though I only know a few branches of Wind Magic, don't forget there's something else in this world called magic items."

He took a red crystal from his robes. Cracks had already appeared on it.

"Instant-cast magic, Explosive Flame. An alchemist's masterpiece, a consumable that can only be used three times."

"I used both remaining charges on you. You should be satisfied."

With that, he stayed no longer. He coldly ordered the other black-robed figures, "Take these brats and move out! To the Tower of Heaven!"

The members of the Black Magic Cult dragged the crying, struggling children away from the village that had been reduced to scorched earth.

After everyone had left, the lid of the large water jar in the courtyard of Erza's house was slowly pushed open from within.

Kagura's small figure climbed out.

She looked at the miserable scene before her, stained red with fire and blood, and at the villagers' bodies piled together and burning, set alight by the cult members before they left. Her small fists clenched tightly.

There were no cries, no tears.

She simply engraved the hellish scene, the figures of those black-robed people, and the Tower of Heaven, the chief culprit that had taken everything from her, deep in her heart.

She had to go out and gain strength.

She would avenge her parents, the villagers, and Erza and Jiang Bai!

Simon: "Little sister, what about me, your big brother?"