Suddenly, silently, a dim black figure materialized out of thin air behind Punk. At the same time, an identical figure appeared behind Kane!
"Three enemies?" In that instant, Punk's mind raced at top speed, azure magical radiance whirling through his pupils like tiny vortices!
"No! That's not it. It's a skill—Shadow Clone!"
Punk arrived at the correct answer almost immediately. If there had truly been three enemies, he and Kane would have died in the first ambush. They would never have had the chance to think about the enemy's numbers!
Just as Punk reached his conclusion, the two pitch-black figures slashed the curved, slender dark-green daggers in their hands toward Punk and Kane's throats with lightning speed! As the green blades of death drew closer and closer, Punk's face showed not the slightest trace of panic.
The effect of Shadow Clone was to use shadow energy to create a phantom nearly identical to the original body and control it to perform actions such as attacks. However, this clone was ultimately nothing more than an illusory shadow. She possessed no real offensive or defensive power, so her sole purpose was to confuse enemies rather than inflict harm.
Now, according to the system's analysis, the energy flow within the shadow before him contained a trace of disorder and redundancy. There was an eighty percent chance that she was an illusory clone. Yet Punk still released the Lesser Shield Spell he had just prepared without hesitation. Make the real seem false and the false seem real. Both the system's analysis and the logic that the enemy should attack Kane first, since he was closer to his companion and thus needed protection, indicated that the sharp enemy attacking Punk was merely a phantom. But who could say for sure that the enemy would not exploit such habitual thinking, disguise her true body as an illusion, and launch an attack? Punk did not dare gamble with his life.
This time, however, the enemy played no tricks. The dagger glimmering with eerie green light dissolved into a misty shadow the moment it touched the pale-blue shield Punk had created. It truly was only a clone!
"Then..." Punk looked toward Kane. Without question, the jet-black figure wreathed in shadows attacking Kane was the enemy's true body.
As a knight, Kane excelled more at charging after building momentum. His sharp but overly long lance was ill-suited for close combat, while his enchanted armor provided formidable defense at the cost of mobility. Being closed in on by an agile rogue was extremely disadvantageous for Kane.
But Kane was no pushover. He abruptly threw himself backward with lightning speed, while his scorching lance, wrapped in intense battle qi, swept upward in a diagonal strike at the enemy. By then, Kane had avoided being killed in a single blow while also mounting an effective counterattack. If the enemy chose to continue pursuing the kill, she might well tear open Kane's throat—but she would inevitably be cut in half by the lance as well.
Because he was inside the pit, Kane had not immediately noticed Rogue Number One's abnormal behavior. When Rogue Number Two launched her sudden attack, Kane had not prepared a defense in advance like Punk had. Even so, he chose the response with the greatest chance of survival—he gambled!
He gambled that the enemy would not dare perish together with him!
The facts proved that he had won. Rogue Number Two lightly stepped through the air. As faint ripples of shadow spread from where her toes touched nothingness, her figure drifted gently away like a petal in the breeze.
Shadow Step. This nimble skill, which allowed rogues to leave no trace even on snow, enabled Rogue Number Two to evade Kane's attack with effortless ease—but she had also lost her final opportunity to kill Kane!
Kane erupted with battle qi and launched a charge while his body was almost pressed against the ground. He shot out of the pit, nearly scraping along the earth, then came to a stop beside Punk after several momentum-dissipating rolls.
By then, both enemy rogues had entered stealth once more. Across the cracked ground beneath the night sky, everything returned to a calmness as though nothing had happened. Yet everyone knew that an enormous danger was quietly brewing in the darkness...
Punk's face was somewhat pale, and Kane's was no better. Putt, who had long since been frightened senseless by the fast-paced battle where every step carried deadly danger, was trembling so badly that he could not even stand!
Under the current circumstances, victory was already beyond reach. Retreat—escape—was the only way out. But it was night, a time incomparably favorable to the enemy. Escaping in front of two rogues who were clearly higher-level than them was easier said than done!
With no time to think further, Punk immediately cast the costly Journeyman Level conjuration spell—Mage Armor—upon himself. A round gray barrier glittering with specks of blue light enveloped him. Against two enemies who could burst forth from any direction at any moment, all-around defense without blind spots was crucial. Kane also disregarded the damage to his armor and flooded it with Light Battle Qi. Now, he resembled a statue gleaming with golden light, gripping his lance without moving!
It could be said that this was the most complete defensive state the two could achieve. Even if the two rogues attacked with all their strength, they would not only fail to break through such layered defenses, but would instead expose themselves.
However... one enormous drawback could not be overlooked—the consumption was far too great.
Whether it was Punk's Mage Armor or Kane's battle qi infusion, both required their caster to continuously supply mana or battle qi to sustain them. Even without fierce attacks further increasing their energy expenditure, Punk and Kane's Journeyman Level Soul Levels could maintain this state for only a few minutes at most. Once their mana and battle qi were exhausted, the two would have even less hope of survival without their "turtle shells" to protect them!
Actually, given Punk and Kane's speed, if they fled at full speed—no, retreated at full speed—they still had a fair chance of escaping successfully. Rogues who excelled at concealment did not possess a warrior's immense stamina, nor did they have the convenient speed-enhancing spells of mages. Thus, Punk and Kane were like antelopes trying to escape a cheetah. So long as they survived the cheetah's initial full-speed sprint, they could easily shake off the exhausted predator through sustained speed.
But the question was... how could they maximize their chances of evading the initial pursuit of these two exceptional cheetah-like rogues?
Punk quietly turned his head toward Konola City, whose outline had begun to emerge in the distance. Under the system's analysis, the result came quickly. Judging from the mobility the two enemies had displayed during the recent battle, they could maintain their peak speed for at most fifteen seconds!
But during those fifteen seconds, Punk and Kane would be in tremendous danger. No one could guarantee that the enemy did not possess some special secret technique to explosively increase her speed, while the two of them would have no ability to fight back if they fled at full speed!
Therefore... if they had some way to stop the enemy from pursuing them for a short time, it would greatly improve the safety of their retreat. Ideally, it would force the enemy to stop and deal with some trouble. By the time the enemy finished handling that "trouble"... they would already be far away!
And that method... was actually quite simple!
The corners of Punk's mouth curled into a faint, bone-chilling sneer!
Time to stir up trouble. Where are those votes and bookmarks? Feel free to join the group: 548859662
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