Battle the Black Robes Again

The next five days passed without incident.

Dago's three-person team grew increasingly coordinated in their tactical cooperation, with Dago serving as the main attacker.

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

After eliminating any danger during their patrols, they would conduct tactical drills. Dago even took out his remaining four Silver-White Mental Potions and gave one to each of them.

They used them to increase their combat strength, and all three saw considerable growth in their mental power.

After drinking the potion, Selena also learned a wizard spell passed down through her family: Healing Technique. It could accelerate wound recovery and was an extremely practical spell.

Dago had not fallen behind in his own progress either. The greatest change during this period was his Detection Technique.

He could actually detect the approximate effects of spells his enemies were casting.

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

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

Dago took the lead with Detection Technique active, while the other two stood ten meters apart from each other in a triangular formation.

Through testing, they had found this to be a relatively safe distance for a three-person team.

If any one of them was ambushed, the other two would be certain to avoid being caught in the spell's area of effect and could quickly counterattack the enemy.

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

For example, just then, Dago raised his hand to signal them to stop moving and remain alert.

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

"Rustle, rustle—"

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

He turned and looked toward the source of the disturbance with Detection Technique, carefully observing the fluctuations of energy particles and preparing to enter battle at any moment.

In the distance, a Black-Robed Wizard was angrily tearing away obstructive vines, his face full of irritation.

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

The Black-Robed Wizard loudly cursed at someone, speaking in a furious frenzy.

Although Dago felt somewhat nervous upon hearing this, he was not particularly afraid. He was more composed than anything else.

He glanced at the two behind him, raised his hand into a finger-gun gesture, and pointed toward the Black-Robed Wizard.

At once, mental power began to spill from all three of their eyes as they murmured softly, preparing to cast their respective spells.

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

The Black-Robed Wizard stopped complaining. He sensed the low pressure in the air and the approach of danger.

But it was too late.

Mariko was the first to cast a softly glowing orb of light. When it flew to within a meter of the Black-Robed Wizard's face, it suddenly erupted with ten times its previous brilliance.

The Black-Robed Wizard's vision was instantly swallowed by white light. He instinctively covered his eyes and tried to run.

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

It was Selena's Vine Art, winding tightly upward from beneath the Black-Robed Wizard's feet.

"Ugh, ah—" The roar forced from his throat abruptly caught halfway through, because the dark-blue energy sphere formed by Dago's Ice Crystal Technique had already slammed heavily into the Black-Robed Wizard's chest.

Frost patterns crawled over his entire body at a visible speed. Even the fluttering hem of his robe froze into a rigid arc in midair.

The cold froze his twisted, agonized face, and a layer of white frost covered his eyeballs...

The last thing reflected in his pupils was the dark-blue ice sphere spreading continuously from his chest.

The ice-statue-like Black-Robed Wizard remained standing as the sphere on his chest slowly faded away...

Freezing his blood into gorgeous red ice blossoms that, beneath the refracted sunlight, were more dazzling than any magical gemstone.

After conducting a round of detection and finding no companions nearby, Dago signaled that his teammates could come forward and loot 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 detours, they finally returned to the Treehouse Outpost just before the sun set. Only then did the three of them 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 the fragrant roasted meat and chatting idly...

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

"Recently, there have been more and more traces of Black-Robed Wizards appearing," Dago said worriedly.

"What we should fear most is that the frontline ahead of the Academy is suffering increasingly severe losses, allowing more and more black robes to break into the forest."

Mariko also spoke with a worried expression.

Selena still kept her head lowered in silence, only curling her body into an even smaller ball.

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

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

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 was like radar, securing 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, their opponents were no pushovers either. One of them, like Morlock from before, was actually a Late-Stage Third-Level Wizard Apprentice.

The power and momentum of Dago's Ice Crystal Cannon were simply too overwhelming. Even after the two Black-Robed Wizards simultaneously cast two defensive spells, one of them was still blasted away and fell to the ground, groaning in pain.

The other Black-Robed Wizard ignored his teammate's fate and charged straight toward Dago.

Dago gritted his teeth, looked at the two of them, and said, "You two run first. I'll draw this Black-Robed Wizard away."

Without waiting for them to reply, he charged directly 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 of them then vanished into the forest, disappearing from sight. After Mariko and Selena came to their senses, they did not run either...

Instead, they planned to execute the other Black-Robed Wizard lying on the ground before going to support Dago.

And so, a fierce wizard chase unfolded in the forest.

More than ten minutes later, in the forest, Selena staggered forward while supporting Mariko.

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

Mariko suddenly spoke, then began coughing violently. Mottled bloodstains had stained the sleeve of his gray robe.

"I didn't expect that heavily injured Black-Robed Wizard to still have the ability to fight 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, healing 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 craters billowing with smoke lined the way, showing just how fiercely Dago and that Black-Robed Wizard had exchanged spells.

The Black-Robed Wizards who had fought their way out of the Dark Crystal Highlands, a land of schemes and bloodshed, were simply far stronger than the comfortable wizards of the Academy.

Even if Academy wizards might surpass them by one or two minor realms in cultivation, they were often killed in life-or-death battles instead.

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

As they continued forward, smoke and frost mist intertwined strangely among the trees.

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

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

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

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

Not far away, a Black-Robed Wizard's corpse 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 frost patterns...

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

Dago stood not far away, one of his arms already covered in a ferocious suit of ice armor.

Two utterly different elemental energies, one black and one white, left winding, intertwining patterns across the ice armor like two venomous snakes locked in a fight to the death.