Battle Against the Black Robes Again

The next five days passed without incident.

Dago's three-man team's tactical coordination grew increasingly seamless, with Dago serving as the main attacker.

Mariko handled defense and harassment, while Selena was responsible for control and healing.

After eliminating any dangers during their patrols, they would conduct tactical drills. Dago even took out one of his remaining four silver-white Mental Potions and gave it to them.

It was used to improve their combat strength, and all three of their mental power increased considerably.

After drinking the potion, Selena also recently learned a family-inherited spell, Healing Technique. It accelerated wound healing and was an extremely practical spell.

Naturally, Dago had not fallen behind in his own progress. The greatest change was in his Detection Technique.

He could actually detect the approximate effects of an enemy's spell while it was being cast.

This undoubtedly greatly improved his ability to adapt on the battlefield.

That afternoon, in the forest, Dago's group of three—

Dago activated Detection Technique and took the lead, while the other two formed a triangle with each person standing ten meters apart.

Through their testing, they had found this to be a relatively safe distance for three people.

If any one of them was ambushed, the other two could ensure they would not be caught in the spell's area of effect and could swiftly counterattack the enemy.

During forest patrols, the three did not communicate through conversation, but through the simplest hand signals.

For example, just then, Dago raised a hand to signal them to stop moving and remain on guard.

Selena and Mariko immediately stopped and waited for Dago's next instruction.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle—"

The sound of branches and grass scraping together reached Dago's ears.

He turned and used Detection Technique to look toward the source of the disturbance, carefully observing the fluctuations of energy particles as he prepared to enter battle at any moment.

In the distance, a black-robed wizard was angrily tearing away obstructing vines, his face full of irritation.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck! Where are those damned forest rats hiding? They actually dared make this wizard suffer like this. I'll slaughter them!"

The black-robed wizard loudly cursed at certain people, speaking in a furious rage.

Though Dago was somewhat nervous upon hearing this, he was not particularly afraid. He remained mostly composed.

He glanced at the two behind him, raised his hand in a finger-gun gesture, and pointed toward the black-robed wizard.

At once, mental power began spilling from the three of them. They muttered softly, preparing to cast their respective spells.

Energy particles began to emerge and move, and the oppressive atmosphere started to affect the air around them.

The black-robed wizard stopped complaining. He sensed the heavy air and the approaching danger.

But it was too late.

Mariko was the first to release a gently glowing ball of light. When it flew to within a meter of the black-robed wizard's face, it suddenly erupted with ten times its original brilliance.

The black-robed wizard's eyes were instantly swallowed by white light. He instinctively covered them and tried to flee.

But his legs were bound in place as though giant pythons had coiled around them.

Selena had cast Vine Art, and vines were tightly wrapping upward from beneath the black-robed wizard's feet.

"Urgh—" The howl forced from his throat suddenly cut off halfway through, because the deep-blue sphere of energy condensed by Dago's Ice Crystal Technique had slammed heavily into his chest.

Icy patterns crawled across his entire body at a visible speed, and even the fluttering hem of his robe froze into a rigid curve in midair.

The chill froze his twisted, agonized face, while a layer of white frost covered his eyeballs...

The final image reflected in his pupils was the dark-blue ice sphere constantly spreading from his chest.

The black-robed wizard, now like an ice sculpture, remained standing as the ice sphere on his chest slowly faded...

Freezing his blood into gorgeous crimson ice blossoms that, under the refraction of sunlight, were more dazzling than any magical gemstone.

After conducting a round of detection and finding no companions nearby, Dago signaled for his teammates to come forward and collect the spoils.

They found a total of six Low-Grade Magic Stones and a purple Mental Potion, then quickly left the scene.

After winding through countless twists and turns, they did not return to their treehouse base until the sun was about to set. Only then did the three finally breathe a sigh of relief.

This was Selena's first time killing someone. To help her overcome the shadow in her heart, Mariko personally cooked that day and brought out his specialty, roasted meat.

The three sat around the campfire, eating fragrant roasted meat and chatting idly...

Mostly, they listened to Mariko recount stories of the wars he had experienced in his youth, using them to comfort Selena.

"There have been more and more signs of black-robed wizards lately," Dago said worriedly.

"The worst possibility is that the front lines ahead of the academy are suffering increasing losses, allowing more and more black robes to break into the forest region."

Mariko also spoke with a worried expression.

Selena still lowered her head in silence, only curling herself up even more tightly into a small ball.

Over the next three days of patrols, they were like true forest rats, careful and cautious.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, Dago led his two-man wizard tactical squad on a routine patrol through the forest.

But they did not have their usual luck that day. They encountered a team of two black-robed wizards in the forest.

Dago's team still launched the attack first. His Detection Technique, like radar, gave them the advantage of striking first.

Dago opened with his ultimate move, Ice Crystal Cannon. Mariko cast Flash Orb, and Selena cast Vine Art—their classic tactical combination.

Unfortunately, the enemy was no pushover either. One of them, like Morlock before, was actually a Late-Stage Third-Level Wizard Apprentice.

The power and momentum of Dago's Ice Crystal Cannon were simply too domineering. Even after the two black-robed wizards jointly cast two defensive spells, one was still blasted away and fell to the ground, groaning in pain.

The other black-robed wizard ignored his teammate's fate and charged directly toward Dago.

Dago gritted his teeth, looked at the two of them, and said, "You two run first. I'll lure this black-robed wizard away."

Without waiting for their reply, he charged straight toward the black-robed wizard, who was running while chanting a spell.

Along the way, he fired an Air Bullet. It was intercepted by the black-robed wizard's protective barrier, but it successfully drew his attention.

The two then vanished into the forest, disappearing from sight. After Mariko and Selena came to their senses, they did not flee either...

Instead, they planned to finish off the other black-robed wizard lying on the ground before going to support Dago.

And so, an intense wizard chase unfolded in the forest.

More than ten minutes later, in the forest, Selena supported Mariko as they staggered forward.

"Don't worry about me. Go support Dago first."

Mariko suddenly spoke, then broke into violent coughing. His gray robe's sleeve was stained with blotches of blood.

"I didn't expect that heavily wounded black-robed wizard to still be capable of fighting back. I was careless."

Mariko's face was pale and bloodless as he spoke weakly.

Selena bit her lip without saying a word and cast Healing Technique to treat Mariko's wounds.

"I'm old. I can't do it anymore."

He let out a deep sigh and could only shake his head helplessly, allowing Selena to support him as she continued healing him.

The two hurried through the woods, stumbling over uneven ground. Fallen trees, towering ice pillars, and deep smoking pits along the way showed just how fierce the spell exchange between Dago and that black-robed wizard had been.

The black-robed wizards who had fought their way out of the Dark Crystal Highlands amid schemes and bloodshed were simply far stronger than the wizards who lived comfortably in the academy.

Even if academy wizards might exceed them by one or two minor stages in cultivation, they were often killed in life-and-death battles.

During the wizard wars Mariko experienced in his youth, he had seen far too many similar examples.

As they continued onward, smoke and frost mist intertwined eerily among the trees.

On the trunk of an oak tree not far away, half a bone staff was lodged at an angle in a charred tree hollow. The skull gem at its head had cracked into a spiderweb pattern, and the remaining shadow energy was slowly being consumed by the surrounding ice spikes, producing a hissing sound as it dissolved.

Countless ice spikes burst from the piles of rotting leaves on the ground.

Some of the ice spikes still had scraps of black robes impaled on their tips, swaying slightly in the cold wind like mourning banners hanging from branches.

Several ancient trees that had fortunately escaped the blast leaned to one side. Their trunks bore both charred holes burned by shadow energy and transparent openings pierced through by ice spikes.

Not far away, the corpse of a black-robed wizard was embedded in an ice wall in a twisted posture.

His black robe had frozen into a hard shell, and the exposed skin at its tears was covered in bluish-purple ice patterns...

His finger bones had futilely clawed into the ice, leaving five deep scratches across its transparent surface.

And Dago stood not far away, one arm already covered in a savage layer of ice armor.

Two utterly different elemental energies, one black and one white, left winding, intertwining patterns on the ice armor, like two venomous snakes tangled together unto death.