Nolan

Night fell, and Nightfall Town slowly sank into silence.

Ian, lightly equipped, gradually disappeared into the darkness.

He did not know whether Nolan would come this time. This was an obvious baiting plan.

Nor was he certain whether Malena and the others could arrive in time. He could only be cautious, then even more cautious.

Ian stopped five or six li outside Nightfall Town.

From the shadow of a dead tree ahead, a patch of shadow suddenly "flowed" out.

The instant it emerged, the shadow sprang up from the ground and condensed into a solid form, its feet stamping down.

"Wither!"

The complex incantation was completed in an instant. Centered on the shadow, a gray, decaying ripple swept outward with a whoosh.

The stench of rotting, decaying flesh filled Ian's nose. He hurriedly activated the protective ring Malena had given him, and a circular shield wrapped around his entire body.

Then he pushed off hard with his feet. With a bang, the earth exploded, launching him rapidly backward.

The fierce gusts made the translucent circular shield around him sway slightly.

"Ian, get out of the way!" Malena appeared at some point, but seeing that Ian had already run far away, she breathed a sigh of relief.

A gentle glow rose from her pale fingers as she pointed straight ahead.

"Purification."

When the glow collided with the gray ripple, sizzling sounds rang out continuously, and the ball of light rapidly dimmed.

The grass and trees on the ground withered and carbonized, shattering into powder in an instant.

"Watch out!" Harvey had also arrived. He charged forward a step, rapidly forming hand signs and chanting, "Fire Wall!"

Boom! A scorching orange wall of fire rose before Harvey, cutting off the gray ripple.

Ian was already far away and still retreating. His task was considered complete.

He darted into the woods and watched the surging wall of fire advance, blocking his view of what lay behind it.

"Darkness!" A murmur drifted over.

A mass of viscous darkness abruptly swelled, swallowing the fire wall and the starlight.

It did not feel like night falling. It felt as though the light had been devoured!

Their vision was stripped away, leaving nothing but pure black.

Within the darkness, Malena and Harvey sensed their Mental Power and physical strength slowly draining away.

Ian watched as the dark halo continued expanding. Malena and Harvey inside were already nowhere to be seen.

"Flash!" Clayton bellowed, approaching the black sphere with light shining around him. Clearly, he intended to join up with Malena.

Unfortunately, the moment he drew close, the light compressed tightly against his body.

"Don't split up." Christine moved to support him. The two of them continuously cast light-based witchcraft, attempting to disperse the darkness.

"Vines." Malena's voice came from within.

Rustling sounds rang out! Countless tough Vines burst from the earth, twisting and tangling through the darkness, yet they failed to find their target.

Nolan's soft chuckle came from the rear flank.

Whoosh! The Vines leaped into the air and lashed toward the sound, but struck nothing.

"Follow the Vines' guidance and come closer. Don't leave the range of my witchcraft. Keep casting light witchcraft to wear him down. He can't leave this darkness either."

Malena had seen the weakness in this powerful witchcraft and directed the others to gather around her.

"Heh." Another soft laugh came. Nolan was now directly ahead, but Malena did not attack blindly again.

As Harvey and the others continued bombarding the area with witchcraft, the dark curtain began to tremble on the verge of collapse.

Ian watched anxiously from afar, but did not step forward.

He was now the only outside support. He could not act rashly.

He was waiting for an opportunity!

"Life... Drain."

Strands of cold, slick gray-white light curled around Malena and the others' ankles like snakes.

The bands of light had no physical form, merely wisps of energy. The instant they wrapped around them, the group seemed to hear faint sucking sounds.

Clayton let out a muffled grunt. His strength drained away rapidly, and he was the first to collapse to his knees.

The energy bands were extremely tough. Without the right witchcraft, they would be difficult to break free from in a short time.

Then Christine also dropped to her knees, no longer able to resist.

"Found you!"

At the critical moment, Harvey's roar exploded through the darkness.

"Flame Storm!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! A blazing gale erupted, spiraling in every direction and tearing apart the viscous darkness.

It revealed Nolan's blurry figure thirty meters away to the right.

Gray-white bands of light coiled around his outstretched hands—the links of Life Drain.

The flame storm swept toward him, forcing Nolan to interrupt his witchcraft.

He hurriedly retreated several steps, then brought his hands together.

"Touch of Withering!" A thin gray-white line shot toward the center of the flame storm.

Sizzling rang out continuously as great clouds of white vapor rose, filling the surroundings with a sweet, cloying stench of decay.

In the instant the witchcraft clashed, Ian's figure flickered several times, and he had already reached a point forty meters from Nolan.

Hiss...

Two deep-blue rays shot rapidly toward Nolan.

Nolan's heart tightened. The icy aura made every hair on his body stand on end, and he hurriedly activated a witchcraft shield.

He had kept a sliver of weak Mental Power focused on Ian. Perhaps it was an illusion, but he did not seem to have seen Ian chant an incantation.

After two soft pops, all Nolan could see was white. A thick layer of ice completely encased him, blocking his vision.

At this moment, Nolan was in his most dangerous predicament. He no longer dared to hold back his trump card.

His lips moved, releasing four syllables as heavy as stones.

"Death... Knell..."

There was no light and no wind. An invisible, heavy wave crushed outward in all directions.

The air froze. The surroundings first fell silent, then an enormous, illusory toll of bells rang out!

"Dong... dong..."

The ice covering Nolan shattered first. The ripples continued spreading, followed by four muffled grunts.

With a bang, Ian's body arched backward. The shield around him held for several breaths before shattering as well.

A suffocating pressure descended. A sharp gleam flashed in Ian's eyes as his body swayed. His powerful physique finally displayed its might, directly smashing through the ripples.

"This shield is way too weak. Good thing I'm sturdy."

The moment the ripples shattered, Ian saw Nolan staring at him intently. His heart skipped a beat, and with a flash, he slipped into the woods and vanished.

"Wrath of Nature!" Malena cried out, clearly fighting with everything she had.

Three Bloodthirsty Thorns as huge as giant pythons burst from the ground, strangling Nolan from three directions.

"Solar Flame!" Blood dripped from the corner of Harvey's eye. Holding his hands up, he instantly formed a blazing Fireball as dazzling as a tiny sun.

Harvey hurled it forward. Carrying heat that could incinerate everything, the Fireball smashed toward Nolan.

Nolan's pupils contracted. He could no longer bother chasing Ian. Just as he tried to turn into a shadow and flee, the thorns wrapped around his ankles and waist, firmly imprisoning the shadow he had just formed and preventing his escape.

Flashes of light flickered repeatedly across his body. Four or five shields appeared in succession, tightly surrounding him.

Boom! Solar Flame fully blossomed above his head!

The blinding light swallowed everything!

"Aah!!" Nolan let out a pained scream.

Then came the sounds of flesh burning and thorns crushing bone with constant cracks.

When the light faded, all that remained where Nolan had stood was a patch of scorched earth and a few wisps of black smoke rapidly dispersing.

Looking at the empty ground, the four of them felt chilled to the bone. The Tranquil Flower they had longed for was nowhere to be seen.

"Nolan should be dead, right?" Harvey was not sure either. He was half-kneeling on the ground, a trace of lingering fear on his face.

Malena looked at her companions, all of whom were exhausted. Vibrant green light quickly blossomed in her hands as she began treating them.

"We have to leave immediately. The disturbance here was too great."

Ignoring their injuries, the group hurriedly retreated.

"Where's Ian? Did anyone see him?" Malena grew anxious when Ian did not come to meet them.

"He ran off ages ago. He went back to Nightfall Town."

When Clayton had been lying on the ground earlier, he had seen Ian vanish in a flash.

Only moments after they left, the first person arrived at the scene. Then more and more people gathered, all of them Advanced Apprentices.

"There are traces of Nolan's witchcraft here. Hurry and pursue..."