In front of the Despair Valley Laboratory, the doors suddenly flew open. A group of Star-Ring Wizards turned into streaks of starlight and were forced out.
Behind the doors stood a Bitter Wood, towering like a mountain. It barred anyone who had lost the right to enter but still tried to force their way in.
The Star-Ring Wizards looked back at the laboratory doors.
The Star-Ring Wizard from the Sword-Armor Dragon Garden gritted his teeth. He seemed determined to try once more. His entire body liquefied into a sword of liquid metal, and he cast the Star-Ring Spell Swordfall of Myriad Stars. The sword became countless silver stars amid a blaze of magic, swept past Wizard Probus, who stood guard at the entrance with his hair and beard bristling and his body covered in black fur, and flew toward the doors behind him.
Wizard Probus, strangely enough, made no move to stop him.
The next instant, the Bitter Wood appeared within the doorway again. A branch shot out from its bare, trunk-like surface and struck the wizard, sending him flying.
The blow instantly broke the Star-Ring Wizard out of the special state maintained by his Alchemy School metallurgy magic. Wizard Probus then swung a Phoenix-Tail Bamboo at him. A piercing sound rang from his Permanent Defense Field Shell, Metal Master, as it strained beyond its limits.
The Star-Ring Wizard screamed. His lower body had nearly been severed at the waist. He hurriedly chanted a spell and landed on the ground, his whole body transforming into a Metal Sword-Armor Dragon. Then he turned and fled.
"Locke Augustine!"
He had tried to force his way into the laboratory, only to be stopped by the Bitter Wood, a dominant Representative Species of the Bitter Love Tree Genus. Then Wizard Probus had almost cut