Morlock

Another eight days passed, and the Forest Patrol gradually discovered two more identical dried corpses along the forest's outer perimeter.

During this time, Aina Town grew even more chaotic, and the academy gradually lost control over the town.

The entire town was filled with intense unease, outrageous prices, and an atmosphere of anxiety and tension.

More and more information about the Duskblood Council was leaked.

More and more men in town were forcibly conscripted into the army and sent to the front lines as expendable tools to drain the mental power of the Duskblood Council's Black-Robed Wizards.

Many people who had exhausted their savings and wandered in despair with reddened eyes began robbing and killing.

The academy's wizards were stationed in the wealthy district, so order was still barely maintained there.

However, the town's shantytowns and outskirts were in terrible condition, with robbery and murder becoming commonplace.

A few days ago, Vissel had appeared at the Treehouse Outpost one morning covered in blood, giving everyone quite a fright. Only after he had washed himself clean did they learn what had happened.

A group of foolish bandits had attacked him on his way to the Treehouse Outpost. Vissel had slaughtered them all, leaving himself drenched in blood.

As a result, the Forest Patrol became somewhat famous nearby, and the bandits lurking around the town outskirts no longer dared to target them.

However, the patrol soon discovered that nearly all the wizards in the entire forest had fled, leaving only them still active.

At 8:50 in the morning, at the Treehouse Outpost, damp mist drifted between the ancient trees, carrying the mixed scent of decaying leaves and moss.

The Forest Patrol members had already finished breakfast and equipped themselves. They chatted and laughed as they waited for Vissel to arrive from the academy.

Before long, Vissel arrived at the outpost in an ornate robe.

Everyone carried out the forest patrol according to their usual assigned groups, and they had become quite coordinated by now.

Unfortunately, no newcomers had joined, so Dago's group still had only two people.

"Each group, keep two hundred meters apart. Move out," Dago ordered, taking the lead.

Compared to before, Dago seemed like an entirely different person. He had a slender build and refined features.

His long black hair fell over his shoulders, while deep-blue halos flowed within his pale-blue eyes, unable to conceal the sharpness in his gaze.

Selena followed behind him like a little fangirl, stealing glances at him from time to time.

Dago unfolded the parchment map and examined it. The route he chose was one they had patrolled before, making it relatively safe.

He walked along the familiar dirt road, keeping the Detection Technique active as he continuously scanned the hidden spots around him.

After walking for more than half an hour, a Swift Deer fleeing in panic bounded into his line of sight.

With a swish, it vanished into another thicket. He stopped at once and became alert.

The Detection Technique swept over the area and found nothing unusual, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief.

Just as he thought nothing was wrong, Ian's desperate shout came from the distance: "Duskblood Council~~~~"

Dago's pupils contracted. Realizing that Vissel's group had encountered members of the Duskblood Council, he hurried toward Vissel's group to his right.

In a clearing not far away, Vissel stared fixedly at the Black-Robed Wizard before him, tightly gripping an oak wand set with a sapphire and pointing it at him.

"Look what I found, Morlock. Three cups of fresh, delicious blood."

The Black-Robed Wizard Morlock spoke in a voice like gravel grinding in his throat.

After hearing Ian's panicked shout beside Vissel, Morlock's expression changed. He immediately drew his Spine Wand.

He rapidly chanted a spell, and a cloud of dark-red blood mist poured from the Spine Wand, winding around his body.

Seeing this, Vissel hurriedly chanted as well. A faintly glowing shield instantly enveloped the two-meter area around him.

Morlock swung his wand forward, and ten blood-red spears burst from the blood mist in the air, baring their fangs like venomous snakes as they shot toward Vissel and the other two.

With sharp whistling cries, like bowstrings snapping after being pulled taut, the blood spears tore through the forest air.

Then came a series of dull thuds as they plunged into the grass ahead.

Several blood spears had fallen in front of Vissel. Behind him stood Ian, whose legs had gone so weak that he could barely remain standing.

Gavin, however, had been pierced through by three or four blood spears and nailed to the ground, blood pouring from his mouth...

His eyes unfocused, he muttered, "Mom... save me." Then his head tilted to one side, and he died.

Vissel looked at the scene with an ugly expression. The protective barrier before him had already dimmed until it was nearly transparent.

He swung his wand again and chanted a spell. More than ten seconds later, a one-meter-long Wind Blade shaped like a curved saber condensed and shot straight at Morlock.

Naturally, Morlock was not about to stand there and do nothing while Vissel chanted and prepared his spell.

During that time, he also cast a spell at Vissel and Ian...

A misty vengeful spirit flew from his Spine Wand and lunged directly at Vissel and Ian.

The saber-shaped Wind Blade rapidly flew to within a meter of Morlock, but the blood mist in the air transformed into a massive bloody hand and smashed it apart.

The misty vengeful spirit Morlock had released was blocked by Vissel's protective barrier...

But then, the misty vengeful spirit continuously rammed the barrier. With every impact, the barrier grew dimmer.

Watching the vengeful spirit strike again and again and the protective barrier about to vanish, Vissel gritted his teeth and actually grabbed Ian, holding him in front of himself.

Ian, lifted by Vissel, was stunned. His entire body went limp as he stared at the terrifying, savage misty vengeful spirit, then fainted from fright.

Just one second before Vissel's protective barrier disappeared, Mariko arrived first with Evan and his wife.

Gentle silver light radiated from Mariko's hand, surging toward the misty vengeful spirit like a raging tide and instantly blasting it away.

Seeing the vengeful spirit knocked back, Vissel released Ian and began trembling all over in fear.

Evan and his wife each hurled a small fireball at Morlock, but two blood spears flying out of the blood mist dispersed them.

"Look at you weaklings. Wouldn't it be better if you obediently became my blood food?" Morlock said hoarsely, a bloodthirsty gleam in his eyes.

Just as Morlock finished arrogantly saying that, a violent tearing sound suddenly came from afar...

It rapidly drew closer, accompanied by an incomparably powerful fluctuation of ice-element energy.

Morlock suddenly turned toward the source of the sound and energy fluctuations.

The next second, his pupils shrank sharply!

A dark-blue Ice Crystal Cannon shell the size of a football skimmed along the ground, howling toward him.

The ice crystal shell spun fiercely, trailing a powerful current of frost and carving a white streak through the air...

Like a meteor hurled by a god, yet more scorching and violent than starlight.

The Black-Robed Wizard Morlock instantly transformed the blood mist into a massive crimson hand, shielding himself tightly behind it.

Boom! The ice crystal shell collided with the crimson hand, and the instant the roar tore through the air...

A blazing white light filled the space before Morlock. The shockwave, like an invisible giant hand, flung sand, stones, and turf within a ten-meter radius into the air.

The next second, the ice crystal exploded into countless sharp ice blades. Carrying bone-piercing cold, they shot in every direction like frost crows driven by an unseen force.

A massive altar of ice spikes formed at the center of the explosion. Sharp ice ridges stretched toward the sky at bizarre angles, while layers upon layers of frost flowers spread across the ground.

The remaining icy mist churned through the air, turning the area into a frozen hell.

Morlock, who had been blasted away, raised a hand and wiped the bloody water and melted ice from his face. Intense shock and terror flashed through his eyes.

His teeth chattered as he survived, his limbs stiffened, and even his courage to flee was frozen in place by the bone-deep cold.

Morlock held up a thin layer of blood mist that was nearly gone. His expression twisted as he shouted through gritted teeth, "You're an Advanced Third-Level Apprentice Wizard, yet you're using a sneak attack? That's truly shameless!"

What answered him was a fist-sized Compressed Air Bullet.

That deathlike shriek through the air rang out again, and Morlock had no time to make any evasive move.

Boom~

The Air Bullet struck Morlock squarely. His paper-thin blood mist could not stop it at all.

The Air Bullet exploded, blasting a huge crater directly into the soft grass.

Morlock was violently flung away by the explosion's shockwave like a kite with its string cut.

After rolling several times across the ground, his black robe was in tatters and his body was covered in wounds.

Great streams of blood spilled from Morlock's nose and mouth. His internal organs had almost all been shattered.

Morlock forced himself to cling to his last breath and struggled to crawl across the ground.

At that moment, the remaining four people were all still stunned. They had charged at Morlock prepared to die.

Yet the situation had reversed far too quickly for them to react.

One moment, the evil and powerful Duskblood Council Black-Robed Wizard had been arrogantly posturing. The next, he had been blasted half to death by a spell, with no ability to resist at all.

Under Morlock's unwilling and humiliated gaze and the hopeful eyes of the patrol members, a figure strode out of the forest.