"Only 13% mana left."
Leo grew anxious. Controlling the Gatlings with shadows consumed little mana, but even that expenditure had nearly exhausted his already meager reserves.
The two short blades in his hands danced up and down, hacking away the beasts blocking his path as Leo began to accelerate.
With an average attack power of 200, Leo could ensure that any beast that broke through the Gatling barrage and approached him would be torn apart instantly.
"You're still three hundred meters from the edge of the pack. You need to break through another two hundred meters quickly," Benji reminded him in support. Once Leo came within a hundred meters of the edge, Shadow Jump could instantly take him out of the encirclement.
The black cloud formed by the gregarious creatures kept pursuing Leo and attacking, but he was faster, his figure drawing steadily closer to the edge of the pack.
Barring any accidents, he could definitely escape. It was just that every step now demanded tremendous effort!
"All right."
Leo growled under his breath. Veins bulged on his forehead, the shadows beneath his feet seemed to boil, and his heart pounded violently as he desperately squeezed out every bit of mana.
Another five Gatlings rose from Shadow Space with their ammunition belts.
Their barrels spun, instantly erupting in a terrifying buzzing roar.
Controlling fifteen Gatlings simultaneously with his shadow talent was already Leo's limit. With his mana nearly exhausted, he was fighting with his back to the wall.
The fifteen Gatlings shifted direction. Rather than protecting Leo from every side, they all aimed ahead. Their terrifying spinning roar thundered, and a passage was instantly cleared before him.
His firepower had abruptly increased by 50%, and it was concentrated, too. Nothing remained alive within ten meters ahead; everything had been cleared away.
Leo completely abandoned his rear defenses and instantly charged forward at full speed.
With fifteen Gatlings providing fire support, Leo could charge without hesitation.
The mana in his body dwindled further. Leo was fighting with his back to the wall.
As for attacks from behind, he blocked those aimed at vital areas with his short blades, while wounds instantly appeared elsewhere.
When a spike pierced him, Leo immediately felt a tingling numbness. The entire patch of flesh lost sensation. This was a sign of poisoning!!!
Leo merely sensed it briefly before his mind settled, because the toxin just injected into his body was rapidly breaking down.
After taking all kinds of poisons without interruption for over a decade, Leo had long since developed antibodies against ordinary toxins. This unknown creature's venom did not exceed what his body could withstand.
The situation was indeed as Leo had expected. The injected venom only caused numbness in a small area, which soon faded without any other reaction.
"One hundred and fifty meters. Speed up." Benji was even more anxious than Leo. He could see scythelike forelimbs streaking with eerie light behind Leo, tearing his clothes to shreds in an instant.
Fortunately, Leo's years of training under Gru had not been for nothing. His defense was quite good. The scythelike forelimbs lined with sharp barbs could only leave shallow wounds across his back. Before blood could flow out, the wounds were already almost healed.
"One hundred meters. You're there!" Benji shouted anxiously.
Leo's gaze remained resolute and unwavering as he continued controlling the fifteen Gatlings and charging madly forward.
Even as Benji repeatedly reminded him that he could escape with Shadow Jump, Leo remained unmoved.
Only when the sound returning from the bullets became the whistle of shots passing through open air did Leo's eyes react. He had reached the edge of the pack. Relying on the foundation he had built as a body-refining wizard and his fifteen Gatlings, he had forcibly carved his way through hundreds of thousands of gregarious creatures.
"Have you gone mad?"
Benji demanded loudly in bewilderment. It had been so dangerous just now. He could clearly have escaped a hundred meters earlier, so why take so many attacks and force his way out?
Leo offered no explanation. The fifteen Gatlings turned behind him together, spraying a crazily dense barrage into the pursuing pack. In an instant, severed bodies and limbs littered the ground.
Perhaps sensing that Leo was not to be trifled with, the pack actually stopped after he broke through. Without the slightest hesitation, they all turned and returned to their former territory, behaving completely differently from their relentless pursuit moments earlier.
The Gatlings stopped spinning, all their barrels radiating intense heat. After firing continuously at their highest rate for ten minutes, these Gatlings were nearing their operational limits.
Leo ignored Benji and did not put the Gatlings away. Instead, he reached out, and a shadow tendril delivered a potion bottle into his hand.
Uncapping it, Leo took a small sip, roughly one-tenth of its contents.
The moment the potion entered his stomach, an unnatural flush spread over Leo's face, and his aura surged visibly outward. This only happened when his mana exceeded his control.
Ever since breaking through the pack, Leo had kept his eyes fixed on one particular spot. Even the Gatlings aimed behind him turned toward it, their pitch-black muzzles displaying the violence of gunpowder. These Gatlings had just slaughtered tens of thousands of beasts, too, brimming with killing intent.
Leo's brows knitted tightly, and the space between them throbbed. Although he could sense nothing, his intuition kept warning him of danger, instinctively telling him not to approach.
"What's wrong?" Benji asked in confusion. He could sense nothing either.
"Come out," Leo barked coldly, his muscles taut.
The spot Leo was watching was merely where several large trees crossed one another. His senses clearly detected nothing, yet his instincts told him there was danger there—lethal danger.
"If you won't come out, don't blame me."
The Gatlings had dissipated much of their heat and cooled considerably. Leo's fingers twitched, and all fifteen Gatlings opened fire at once.
Bzzzz!
Fifteen terrifying streams of bullets struck, instantly riddling the spot Leo was watching with holes. Even the trees were shot in half.
The entire ground was plowed over. Leo dared say that even any anthills in the targeted area had been blasted apart.
Yet when the Gatlings ceased firing, there was still nothing there, as though Leo's perception had been wrong and he had been attacking empty air.
"The pack didn't leave because my firepower was strong enough, or because they'd left their territory. They sensed your presence. They were frightened of you, afraid of you, and that's why they let me go and returned to their territory. In their minds, you're more dangerous than I am."
Leo stared fixedly at the area that had just been swept by thousands of bullets. The sensation of danger between his brows remained, which meant the other party had not left, but was merely using some method he could not detect.
His entire body was taut, his vigilance heightened to the utmost. Mana beyond his body's limits stood ready to erupt at any moment. The shadows beneath his feet lay silent, but Leo was certain that the instant he saw the enemy, he could use Shadow Jump to close in and behead them.
"I thought you might be someone formidable. Just a little wizard apprentice who can't even see me. How dull."
"Forget it. Killing you would only sully my reputation."
A voice finally came. Although Leo could clearly determine that it originated from that spot, he examined it dozens of times and still could not find any sign of anyone.
That emotionless tone in particular reminded Leo of weather cold enough to freeze someone into an icicle.
The space between his brows throbbed wildly, his mouth went dry, and cold sweat poured from his forehead. He felt an urge to flee.
"Ice Age Grand Witchcraft!"
Leo's pupils widened. The instant danger descended, his brain frantically urged him to escape, but the thought had barely formed before his body could no longer move.
At some unknown instant, everything within a ten-meter radius centered on Leo had been covered in thick ice. Through it, one could still see the fear in Leo's eyes and his intention to turn and flee.
The enormous block of ice radiated freezing cold, plunging the entire area from summer into bitter winter in an instant.
The forest was silent. From beginning to end, Leo had never seen the other party's figure. It was as though they had simply cast a spell at random and then left.
The sky darkened until night fully descended, and roars and howls rose one after another through the forest.
Many fierce beasts saw the enormous block of ice that had suddenly appeared, but not one approached. They all tucked their tails and stayed far away.
The ice created through witchcraft radiated its creator's terrifying aura. It was stronger, more terrifying, and more ferocious than the aura of any beast they had ever encountered!
Night passed and daylight returned. White mist rose, and Leo's eyelid suddenly twitched inside the enormous block of ice.
Boom!
The enormous block of ice that had stood in the forest for an entire day finally exploded, and Leo jumped out, shivering.
"That attack power was definitely close to rank one."
Benji's vexed voice sounded in his mind. He had not even noticed the instant that Ice Age Witchcraft was cast, leaving him, a self-proclaimed demigod powerhouse, utterly ashamed.
This did not mean that the wizard apprentice who had never shown himself was stronger than him. It could only mean that this wizard apprentice's mastery of certain spells exceeded Benji's understanding.
Mana circulated rapidly through Leo's body, dispelling the cold as mist, while lingering fear filled his heart. Upon detecting danger, he had drunk one-tenth of the Black Pearl Potion, replenishing his nearly exhausted mana to 110%, and had been ready at any moment to release the triple gravity.
This could be called Leo's strongest state!
Yet he had never expected that against such an attack, he would not even have a chance to prepare. The thought had barely stirred before he was frozen.
The gap was too great, the sort of gap none of his methods could bridge.
Leo did not understand. He had suddenly encountered such a powerful wizard apprentice, who had abruptly attacked him, yet had not killed him afterward. What was the reasoning behind this?
For fun?
Or for some other purpose?
There was no treaty forbidding wizards from killing one another. As long as they did not cause too much trouble, killing a few wizards was no problem at all.
A wizard's growth was often a bloody history of slaughter, though most of the bones belonged to other races, of course!
Leo had a guess, but dared not be certain. It would have to wait.
"Surviving is good enough. There are only two days left. Get moving."
The most important task now was to reach Tiyama City and meet Gru. If he failed to arrive within five days, Leo did not even dare imagine what Gru would do to him.
Time had already been tight, and now he had spent another day frozen in ice. Fortunately, his mana had been replenished at extravagant cost, allowing him to maintain full speed.
Before he knew it, the fourth day had arrived. Leo traveled smoothly to within just a thousand li of Tiyama City.
The rest of the journey went so smoothly that Leo could hardly believe it. He encountered no more fierce beasts stronger than himself. Everything he met was within his ability to handle, sparing him any detours and allowing him to proceed in a straight line. It looked as though he would arrive within five days.
"Did you sense it?" Benji asked.
"Yes, of course. The auras of fierce beasts in many places have dissipated. They disappeared less than a day ago, as though someone deliberately cleared them out."
"I sensed them at close range. Those lingering auras were very familiar," Leo said.
"Keeping you trapped for a day, then dealing with the fierce beasts you couldn't handle. Who knows what he was thinking," Benji said, speechless.
Leo said nothing, instead recalling that day's journey. The lingering auras of some beasts alone had left his heart pounding, and several had clearly reached rank one, yet all had been swiftly dealt with.
There were no traces of fierce combat left at the sites. Almost all had been instant kills!
If his senses were correct, the person who had frozen him had definitely not reached rank one. At most, he was at the peak of wizard apprenticeship, yet he could still instantly kill those rank-one beasts!
How formidable!
Just thinking about it made Leo shudder.
They were clearly at the same rank, so why was the gap so enormous?
The remainder of the journey was indeed smooth, without any difficulties. On the evening of the fifth day, he saw Tiyama City's walls.
Leo had long since learned that the wizard world was a polarized world. Wizards possessed a universe-level civilization, yet ordinary people's lives remained backward and feudal.
Various kingdoms, fiefs, and knights controlled the lives and deaths of vast numbers of people. Although they did not slaughter and exploit commoners at will as on Earth, neither would they allow commoners to possess too much knowledge or wealth.
Neither impoverished nor wealthy-that was the life of ordinary people in the wizard world!
Tiyama City was a newly established city under the Purple Flame Wizard Academy, founded by a wizard apprentice who had no hope of advancing to become a rank-one official wizard.
Only a tiny fraction of wizard apprentices could advance to become rank-one official wizards. Because of their long lifespans, these official wizards had long since abandoned the living habits of ordinary people. They preferred conquering other worlds and researching strange and unusual knowledge, often spending most of their lives in laboratories.
Most wizard apprentices who failed to reach rank one returned to life among ordinary people, becoming nobles or city lords.
Although these wizard apprentices had not reached rank one, they had still broken the shackles of life and could easily live for centuries. They would produce descendants within their territories and establish enduring families.
Backed by the academies, these wizard apprentice families were as numerous as the stars. Closely connected to the academies, they formed the bottom tier of wizard society.
Tiyama City had been founded a hundred years earlier by its lord, a wizard apprentice named Samatchi who had no hope of reaching rank one.
From the information Leo had gathered, this Samatchi was also an extremely capable figure.
After failing his advancement back then, he had not returned to his family, but had come here alone. A hundred years ago, there had only been a few small tribes here. He had unified them and built the city.
Drawing on the connections he had accumulated at the Purple Flame Wizard Academy, he vigorously developed it. In just a hundred years, Tiyama City's overall strength had increased more than tenfold.
Had it not developed well, it would never have been registered with the Purple Flame Wizard Academy, prompting the academy to dispatch a wizard to guard it.
"Finally here."
Having maintained his peak speed continuously, Leo walked wearily toward Tiyama City.