In the bewildering night, dense, nine-colored smoke rolled and churned gently in the breeze. All around was silent, everything seemingly as peaceful and tranquil as ever... Yet the heavy killing intent shrouded in darkness silently proclaimed what an extraordinary and terrifying night this was!
The prolonged standoff Punk had envisioned never came. Almost the instant he finished setting up his diversion, an obscure yet unmistakable ripple of shadow energy drifted in from directly east of the smoke...
Damn! Punk cursed inwardly. He did not need the system's analysis to know what the rogue had done. She had just used a rogue's signature skill—Enter the Shadow Plane!
The Shadow Plane could be considered the reverse side of the Faerun plane. Its forward aspect was the vibrant and colorful real plane, while its reverse aspect was the mysterious and unpredictable Shadow Plane. A rogue's Enter the Shadow Plane skill consumed a great deal of shadow energy to briefly shift the body into the Shadow Plane. This period generally did not exceed two seconds, so the skill was primarily used to evade powerful attacks. But this rogue had used it to confirm Punk and Kane's positions!
The magical smoke Punk had created could not spread into the Shadow Plane. As long as the enemy located them within the Shadow Plane, the smoke's concealment would become utterly meaningless!
Sure enough, in the very next instant, Punk felt a chill energy attach itself to him. It was a rogue tracking skill—Shadow Attachment. With this shadow energy serving as "positional guidance," finding Punk within the dense smoke would be effortless for the rogue!
Although the enemy had only managed to cast a relatively low-level tracking skill, and a single Lesser Dispel would make the tracking energy vanish without a trace, Punk did not believe the enemy would wait for him to cast it.
In that flash of lightning, the located Punk decisively ordered every Mana Aberration to self-destruct. The violent blast winds unleashed by the terrifying mana explosions instantly scattered all the smoke. Amid roars and tremors, the flat ground was blown open with several massive craters, while pale-blue energy tides blanketed the entire area!
The explosions covered such a vast area that they swept up both Punk and Kane. However, both Punk and Kane possessed sufficiently powerful defensive measures; even under the repeated battering of the energy tides, they could hold their ground. But if it had been that physically fragile rogue... Even though she had keenly sensed the aberrations' unusual energy fluctuations while rushing toward Punk and evaded them in time, being struck by the energy's aftermath would still not feel pleasant. And... most importantly... she could not possibly continue concealing herself amid the violent shockwaves!
"Hah!!!"
Kane, who had been carefully using his battle aura to sense the energy changes, instantly locked onto a spot where the energy fluctuations were clearly being impeded by something unusual. The suppressed battle aura within every inch of his muscles erupted fiercely, and the Charge combat technique instantly began operating at full force. Kane stomped down hard, and amid shockwaves tinted pale yellow by overflowing battle aura, he reached his target in a fleeting golden flash like a bullet leaving its barrel.
"Boom!!!"
A tremendous roar exploded through the night. Surging airwaves mixed with shattered sand and stone swept out from where Kane's lance struck. Standing in the enormous impact crater, Kane lightly shook his nearly white-hot steel lance. Due to the intense friction against the air, even his armor had turned red-hot.
If that strike had hit its target, the enemy, as a rogue, would surely have become a splattering mass of flesh and blood.
But unfortunately, Punk's mana-filled eyes clearly caught a graceful figure wreathed in shadows flickering away like an illusion in the instant before Kane's lance arrived...
"You think you can hide again? Now that you're out, don't even think about going back!"
The system keenly detected faint shadow fluctuations beginning to arise around the enemy's body again. A sharp chill flashed through Punk's eyes as he shouted in a low voice and aimed the spell in his hand at the exposed rogue!
"Abnormal Lightning!" With the system's assistance, Punk had completed constructing this spell the moment Kane charged out. A cluster of Aether Energy had only just been summoned when it began transforming at an astonishing speed into chaotic, explosive lightning energy. As Punk released his control and restraint over it, the terrifying energy mass—constantly releasing colored lightning in all directions—shot forth instantly. A dazzling bolt of lightning, emitting continuous ear-piercing crackles, engulfed the rogue's entire body at the speed of light. Violent discharges left crisscrossing blackened scars across the surrounding ground!
The spell itself traveled at light speed, but Punk's casting was not light speed. The rogue had noticed the explosive energy gathering in Punk's hand the instant she evaded Kane. Thus, regardless of the strain on her body, she immediately used Enter the Shadow Plane again. With the help of this immensely powerful evasive measure, she once more avoided a lethal blow!
Something's wrong! Punk frowned slightly. Even if the enemy entered the Shadow Plane again to evade them, Punk and Kane would still lock onto her and attack the moment she emerged. Escaping into the Shadow Plane to hide at this time was useless apart from delaying her death for a brief moment. Punk and Kane's follow-up attacks were already prepared. When the enemy reappeared in the real plane, she would have no way to avoid the next wave of attacks. If she dared enter the Shadow Plane a third time, they would not even need to attack her. A Journeyman Level rogue who used a high-burden, high-consumption skill like Enter the Shadow Plane repeatedly in such a short time would definitely fall unconscious. Then Punk and Kane would not only avoid further fighting, but could even capture her alive.
Precisely because of this, when faced with Punk's attack, the more reasonable choice for the enemy would have been to endure it and sustain severe injuries, because that would at least leave her with a sliver of hope of escape...
This is absolutely wrong. The enemy isn't some inexperienced novice. She shouldn't throw away her final chance at survival over such a basic mistake. At that thought, Punk's mind tightened. He decisively dismissed the second Abnormal Lightning already prepared in his hand. The intuition he had gained from frequently using Divination Spells told him that the one in danger now was not the rogue, who had spent more than two-thirds of her shadow energy, but rather himself and Kane, who appeared to have victory in hand!
Without them noticing, gloomy clouds hid Gaal, the brightest moon. The silence of the dark night did not last long. Before the enemy could emerge from the shadows again, danger descended without warning alongside the gentle breeze!
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