The Pursuit, Part Three

The blue-robed mage immediately fired an Ice Arrow at the Undead War Horse.

Compared to Magic Arrow, Ice Arrow clearly consumed far more mana, but the blue-robed mage still chose to use it.

The blue-robed mage knew that if he used Magic Arrow, even if it hit the Undead War Horse, it would only punch a hole in its body unless it struck the head. The wound might slow it down, but it wouldn't kill it in one blow, and it would still be able to chase him from behind.

Since he had to cast magic while riding at a gallop, the blue-robed mage feared the jolting would throw off his aim. Worried that Magic Arrow wouldn't kill the Undead War Horse, he chose the more powerful Ice Arrow instead.

The Ice Arrow shot toward the Undead War Horse beneath the vampire. A normal creature—like the Wolf King Rhode had faced at the beginning, or a vampire with combat instincts—would have sensed the danger instinctively and tried to dodge the spell.

The transformed Undead War Horse clearly couldn't do that. As a low-level Undead Creature, it had no will of its own and made no attempt to dodge the Ice Arrow flying at it. Instead, it continued to obey Rhode's command and charged at full speed toward the blue-robed mage ahead.

The vampire had recognized that the mage was about to cast a spell when it saw him raise his hand, and it began looking for an opening.

The Ice Arrow was about to hit the Undead War Horse. At the instant the horse came closest to the blue-robed mage, the vampire leaped from its back, extending the claws in its hand straight toward the mage.

The Ice Arrow struck the Undead War Horse's forequarters, blasting away half its body and coating it in frost.

The vampire had leaped off the horse a moment earlier and was unaffected by the Ice Arrow. Thanks to the Undead War Horse's mad charge, it was now close enough to tear the blue-robed mage apart if he failed to react.

Sure enough, a second Ice Arrow came straight at the vampire. Seeing it, the vampire immediately used Bat Form, turning into a cloud of Black Mist. The Ice Arrow pierced the mist but did no damage.

From within the Black Mist, a swarm of bats rushed toward the blue-robed mage and the horse beneath him. Under cover of night, they seemed to blend into the surrounding shadows, their fearsome fangs bared in the darkness.

As soon as the Black Mist appeared, the blue-robed mage had begun preparing his next spell.

Now, seeing the bats swooping toward him, the blue-robed mage raised his hand, and the Ice Ring that had cleared out most of the bats on the battlefield appeared once more.

With a deafening blast, an icy-blue ripple spread outward in all directions, centered on the blue-robed mage. The bats formed from the vampire's Bat Form died in droves, and Black Mist burst through the air one cloud after another.

The vampire's figure emerged from the Black Mist, barely able to stand and almost collapsing to the ground. It was clearly in terrible shape.

This time, the vampire had used Bat Form very close to the blue-robed mage, so every bat was within the Ice Magic Ring's area of effect. As a result, the mage killed most of them instantly with a single Ice Magic Ring. The vampire had almost no health left.

Once Bat Form ended, the vampire paid no attention to the blue-robed mage behind it. It hurried to the slain Undead War Horse and began greedily devouring its flesh and blood.

The vampire could recover health by consuming flesh and blood, whether from an ordinary creature or an Undead Creature whose flesh had yet to decay. By consuming the horse's flesh and blood, the vampire restored its health.

Meanwhile, after casting Ice Magic Ring, the blue-robed mage had planned to kill the vampire with an Ice Arrow, knowing what kind of creature it was. But he hadn't expected the explosion caused by Ice Magic Ring to frighten the horse beneath him.

Though the blue-robed mage and the horse were at the very center of Ice Magic Ring and the horse hadn't suffered any damage from it, the violent explosion had triggered its instincts, making it panic and bolt out of control.

The horse beneath the blue-robed mage reared up on its hind legs and thrashed wildly, throwing him to the ground before galloping off in one direction.

The blue-robed mage was suddenly thrown from the horse and fell to the ground. Drawing on his past experience, he knew to take most of the impact on his back.

The unexpected fall hadn't injured him too badly, but watching the horse disappear into the distance left him in a foul mood.

The blue-robed mage clearly hadn't expected that, at this most critical moment, the horse he depended on to escape would panic, throw him off, and run away.

The blue-robed mage got to his feet, took a Healing Magic Scroll from his pocket, tore it open, and used it to restore himself.

Turning toward the vampire devouring the horse's flesh and blood nearby, the blue-robed mage conjured an Ice Arrow in his hand and fired it at the creature.

The vampire devoured the flesh and blood in haste, unaware of the Ice Arrow hurtling toward it. By the time it sensed something was wrong, it was too late—the Ice Arrow was already right in front of it.

Suddenly, a Round Shield flew in and blocked the Ice Arrow. With a loud blast, the shield was knocked away and sent flying toward the vampire.

The vampire reacted at once and dodged to the side.

By then, Rhode had arrived and dismounted. Seeing the situation, he immediately threw the Round Shield from his Space Ring and blocked the Ice Arrow.

Rhode was more worried about the blue-robed mage hiding in the woods than about him riding away.

Since it was already nearly midnight, Rhode could still quickly make sense of the many tracks left by the galloping horse. But if the blue-robed mage hid in the woods, Rhode wouldn't be able to find him quickly and would have to wait until daylight to figure out what to do.

So Rhode had sent the vampire ahead on the Undead War Horse to catch up with the blue-robed mage and engage him in battle.

Rhode understood how dangerous mages were. He knew the vampire couldn't defeat the blue-robed mage on its own. All he hoped was that it could hold the mage off, and, ideally, kill his horse first.

The vampire was badly wounded, but what it had managed to accomplish was clearly beyond Rhode's expectations. Not only had it forced the blue-robed mage to expend a great deal of mana, it had also frightened his horse into running away.

Rhode knew that before a battle, one effective way to weaken a mage was to trick him into using his skills through various means, making him waste his mana.

Rhode took the iron sword from his Space Ring and looked toward the blue-robed mage nearby.