1v5

Kuang Tu led a group of bandits at a brisk pace toward Lincoln Town, intending to find a suitable place to rest for the night, then carry out a robbery the next day.

They found a small grove and were just about to rest.

Another shadow flashed past. It was that guy again. Kuang Tu immediately flew into a rage and ordered everyone to chase after him.

Let's see where you can run this time, Kuang Tu thought bitterly.

But this time, strangely, the thief didn't disappear. He remained in full view of everyone.

But in his fury, Kuang Tu didn't realize it.

Only after the figure led them in a loop, leaving them all panting with exhaustion, did they realize they might have been tricked.

But by then, the figure had stopped.

They had reached the foot of a slope, with the figure standing at its crest.

Though they were gasping for breath, their opponent was alone. Kuang Tu immediately ordered everyone to charge.

As they rushed forward, the figure stood perfectly still, utterly calm. Kuang Tu was puzzled, but he had no other choice.

After all, the enemy was right in front of them, and there was only one of him. There was no reason to back down.

Just as they were about to reach him, the figure beckoned, and a group of people suddenly charged up from the other side of the slope.

Kuang Tu and the others immediately halted. It was obviously a trap.

But Kuang Tu soon realized that the group charging toward them numbered only a dozen or so. Including the person on the slope, they had just two intermediate-class professionals and nine novice-class professionals. The rest were apprentices.

Even exhausted as they were, they had nothing to fear from such a small group.

Kuang Tu felt his confidence return and shouted, "Are you the sneaky thief?"

"No."

"What?!"

"I'm a mage."

"I don't care what you are. You're the one who destroyed our supplies and killed our men, aren't you?"

"That's right."

"You treacherous little bastard! Grrr!" At last, Kuang Tu had found the culprit. He charged forward in a fury.

"Wait. You say I'm treacherous, so I'll do something fair. I'll take on all five of you by myself. Do you dare?"

"Hmph." Kuang Tu said nothing and charged forward with several others. Joseph and the rest withdrew.

Drew watched them draw closer until they were finally within effective range.

He took out his staff, applied his buffs, raised his shield, and channeled Arcane Missiles toward them.

The enemy mage braced behind his shield and began chanting a spell, preparing to cast Fireball. But an Arcane Missile struck his shield, interrupting his spell.

The mage hadn't expected Drew's damage to be so high. Even with his shield up, Drew had interrupted his cast.

After all, Drew's cultivation had already reached the peak of the intermediate level. He wielded an epic staff enchanted with Arcane Intellect, and had also taken a beginner's Wisdom Potion.

The damage of his spells far exceeded the enemy mage's expectations.

At the same time, the enemy ranger tried to dodge the Arcane Missiles with agile movements while attacking Drew.

But he hadn't expected Drew to multitask, sending Arcane Missiles at everyone while also making them curve through the air.

As the ranger shifted his stance to dodge, the Arcane Missile curved as if alive and shot toward him.

The ranger couldn't evade in time and was hit. He had also misjudged the Arcane Missile's damage and took a heavy blow. What kind of Arcane Missile was this? It hit harder than Fireball.

Then he looked at his own attack: his arrow stuck in Drew's shield like a blade of grass.

The shield barely seemed to have taken any damage. He didn't know that Drew was a High Elf. Among mages of the same level, long-lived High Elves like Drew studied magic particularly deeply, giving them especially deep mana reserves.

And a mana shield was powered by your mana.

The higher your remaining mana percentage, the more stable your shield.

The shield converted the damage from the ranger's attack into mana loss. That small loss made little difference to Drew.

Kuang Tu hadn't seen what happened to the mage and ranger. They were ranged fighters, while he and the Shield Warrior beside him were melee fighters, so they were at the front.

At first, Drew's Arcane Missiles had ignored the two of them. Melee fighters were only dangerous at close range.

At last, Kuang Tu and the Shield Warrior reached charging distance. Charge!

They activated their skills and rushed toward Drew.

Only then did Drew send Arcane Missiles at Kuang Tu, leaving the Shield Warrior alone.

While charging, Kuang Tu gained a 300 percent speed boost, so he could easily dodge the Arcane Missiles.

But Drew didn't aim at Kuang Tu. He aimed at the ground beneath his feet.

The Arcane Missiles missed Kuang Tu's feet and struck the ground instead, leaving a hole.

By sheer bad luck, Kuang Tu was about to step right into it. His foot would sink into the hole, tripping him mid-charge.

And the hole was fairly deep. He might not just fall; he could even break a leg, given how fast he was moving.

Kuang Tu had no choice but to stop charging, and his speed returned to normal.

If Drew had struck the ground earlier, Kuang Tu could have gone around the hole or changed his stride to step over it. If Drew had struck any later, Kuang Tu would have made it past.

He'd timed it perfectly, leaving Kuang Tu awkwardly caught between charging and stopping.

That was the power of the system's analytical ability: it knew exactly where Kuang Tu would step next.

Then it struck the ground with pinpoint accuracy, at exactly the right moment.

The attack's power and direction were just right, and the hole it made was exactly the right size.

Kuang Tu could only watch as the Shield Warrior continued charging.

At that moment, Drew stopped casting Arcane Missiles and gathered magic to cast Frost Nova, commonly known as Frost Ring.

A wave of frost magic spread outward from Drew.

Everyone was puzzled. The Shield Warrior was still charging, so Frost Nova couldn't freeze him. And with the momentum of his powerful charge, he could smash straight through the ice.

This clearly wasn't a good time to use Frost Nova. Why had Drew chosen to cast it now?

Then everyone understood. A figure appeared within Frost Nova's range, and the newly revealed figure was frozen by the spell. He was some distance from Drew, too far away to attack him.

It was a thief. Counting carefully, there were only four people who had attacked Drew from the front: a mage, a ranger, a berserker, and a Shield Warrior.

He'd said there were five people, five intermediate-class professionals. One was clearly missing.

The missing one was a thief. He'd turned invisible from the start, circled around the battlefield, and crept toward Drew.

The other four had only been there to distract Drew. The thief was the real killing blow.

If he got close enough to Drew, a full set of control skills would leave Drew helpless as the others beat him to death. It wouldn't matter how sturdy his magic shield was.

But the thief's level was too low. He couldn't travel through the Shadow Plane and could only move through the physical world.

Under the system's incredibly powerful scan, even the shifting grit on the ground was perfectly clear.

The thief's movements were just as clear under the system's scan. Drew had pretended not to notice him at first and left him alone. Then, just as the thief was about to succeed, he caught him.

Once the thief was frozen, Drew immediately hit him with a Fire Blast at close range, knocking the lightly armored thief to the ground. Then he used a Sleeping Potion to take him out of the fight.

The badly wounded thief couldn't resist the potion's effects. He lay motionless on the ground.