A chilly wind drifted across the wilderness beneath the night sky. In the silent darkness, blue radiance nearly burst tangibly from Punk's eyes beneath the shadow of his robe's hood. Faintly glowing magical runes flowed across his azure robe, while beneath his feet lay the dimming red gemstone head of a staff. Moonlight traced the profile of his pale face, cold and austere.
Kane also stopped some distance away. Golden battle aura swirled around every joint of his armor, and his sharp lance was poised like a drawn sword.
Only Pute seemed frozen with fear behind and to Punk's left, his face deathly pale as he trembled.
Just moments ago, the System's keen senses had detected an abnormal disturbance in the air, and Punk had immediately stopped. Even so, even with the Lesser Deflection Field activated, he had still needed to sacrifice his precious Journeyman Level staff to block the blow and avoid being cut by the rogue's full-force strike. The rogue's blade had clearly been coated with potent magical poison. On the dangerous Faerun plane, magical poisons were not like those in Earth's martial arts novels, taking ten days or half a month before acting. The mainstream magical toxins all sought instant death—die upon contact. If his skin had truly been cut, the consequences would have been unimaginable!
"A rogue... no! Perhaps several rogues."
Punk's expression was more solemn than ever. This night-shrouded environment was practically a rogue's home ground, especially one who wielded shadow energy. Nothing suited a rogue's combat better than such a dark, deep place... Yet Punk, having just survived an assassination attempt, had a particularly puzzling question...
"How did you know our escape route?!"
That was exactly what puzzled Punk. Judging from the rogue's attack, she had been lying in ambush here for quite some time. But how had she known that he would retreat this way?
"There are twenty-eight possible retreat routes. We have seven groups of assassins. The chance of catching you is as high as one in four."
An ethereal, eerie voice came from every direction throughout the entire area. Without magic, even with the System's analysis, Punk could not determine the enemy's location. But under the cold watch of a rogue, casting a spell he was so unpracticed with that it required nearly two seconds of chanting was clearly unwise.
"So the enemy set up their ambush by playing the odds. It's just that... I was unlucky enough to run into them!"
Punk was quietly irritated. Why did this sort of trouble always find him? He never should have joined this so-called night raid.
The enemy, hidden somewhere unknown, continued prattling on with useless nonsense.
"You mages really do have all sorts of strange methods. My attack should not have missed."
"You seem very confident in yourself."
A trace of mockery entered Punk's tone. This pointless exchange was perhaps about to end. The reason both sides had kept talking was simply to distract the other and hope for a flaw, but by now, both Punk and the unknown rogue should have understood that neither would be disturbed by such petty tricks. What awaited them next would be a fight to the death, without negotiation or compromise!
"Prepare yourselves, mage and warrior. I will not miss again..."
As that final threat drifted away on the wind, the atmosphere beneath the night sky abruptly grew tense. Punk and Kane stood motionless, their nerves taut as they prepared at any moment for a poisoned dagger thrust from the darkness.
Second by second, time passed. Before they knew it, Punk and Kane had been locked in confrontation in the frigid night for nearly ten minutes, yet the rogue showed no sign of attacking.
Punk's face was frighteningly grim, and Kane had long since lost his carefree, wicked grin. As time passed, their situation became increasingly unfavorable. Their enemy was clearly experienced and patient, revealing not the slightest opening even after so long. Punk did not know whether the enemy had some way to notify the "main force" back at the camp, but... once enemy reinforcements arrived, Punk and Kane would be as good as dead. Moreover, judging from the rogue's previous attack, she was at least a level-eight senior Journeyman. Already possessing abundant shadow energy, she could further reduce her energy consumption to some extent in the cover of night. Dragging this out was truly disadvantageous for both him and Kane.
After carefully watching his surroundings and thinking it over, Punk decided to take the initiative. Staying passive like this was not a solution!
Punk cast a Journeyman Level summoning spell within one second: Smoke Cloud. Huge masses of colorful smoke were summoned into reality. In less than three seconds, the dense, multicolored smoke covered an area the size of half a basketball court, completely engulfing Punk and Kane. From outside, not the slightest trace of them could be seen.
Since he could not find the enemy, he might as well hide in the darkness himself.
But that alone was far from enough. The smoke was dense enough to conceal anything within it, but Punk's magical fluctuations could still be detected by Shadow Sense, a shadow skill often used among rogues. Though a Journeyman rogue's Shadow Sense was still rather vague, even vague perception was enough to locate Punk as the source of magic.
To confuse the rogue's shadow skill, Punk swiftly cast another Journeyman Level summoning spell—Mana Aberration. As dim, indistinct incantations rasped through the colorful smoke, several palm-sized spheres emerged from the mysterious paths traced by his casting gestures. These little spheres were entirely pale blue, with six tiny legs beneath them. They floated in the air around Punk, spinning with cheerful emotions. The round little balls of energy looked adorably cute.
But Punk had not summoned these spheres to act cute. Brilliant white bolts of lightning flickered across them from time to time, and the violent energy fluctuations faintly leaking out warned everyone that these Mana Aberrations were nothing like as harmless as they appeared!
Punk commanded the Mana Aberrations to scatter throughout the smoke, while he himself swiftly moved away from his original position. Carrying magical energy, the Mana Aberrations gained the ability to imitate Punk's magical fluctuations under the System's slight adjustments. Though the imitation was crude, it was enough to deceive an assassin who was not skilled at perception!
These aberrations would be scattered throughout the thick smoke. The rogue would have difficulty identifying Punk's location, and if a fragile rogue focused on close combat dared approach any of them, Punk could command the Mana Aberrations to self-destruct and give her a very big surprise!
As long as Punk's luck was not too bad and this rogue did not guess his position immediately, there would be no danger. Surely this enemy would not have the nerve to charge into a fog laid out by a mage for a surprise attack! Besides, the place where Punk and Kane had been ambushed was not far from Konola City. Even if he had to patiently guide this colorful "auspicious cloud" forward inch by inch, Punk was confident he could make it back to Konola City before any massive reinforcements arrived!
As for Kane... Punk could not be bothered with whether he lived or died. Besides, this guy looked terribly unreliable, but he definitely had plenty of ways to save his own life. Even through the fog, Punk could clearly sense that Kane's battle aura fluctuations had quickly disappeared.
"Sure enough, Kane used some method to hide as well. Now it is this rogue's turn to stare helplessly at this fog."
Punk thought calmly.
The battle had begun—votes and bookmarks, come quickly!
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