Only now did Leo understand how that teacher from Purple Flame Academy had died. Anyone struck by an attack like that had to be powerful just to avoid being pulverized.
"I didn't realize you had some talent. All the more reason not to let you live."
Nox was surprised that Leo had survived his casual strike, but that only made him want to kill Leo more.
His expression grew a little more serious. He waved his staff, and fluctuations of mana appeared.
Leo watched Nox's movements intently and was just about to escape with another Shadow Jump when Nox unleashed an attack that instantly plunged him into despair.
Boom!
The attack was more than ten times larger than the last, covering hundreds of meters. Regardless of how far Leo could escape with Shadow Jump, Nox simply included everything within several hundred meters in his attack.
There was no precision strike, only total coverage!
This was the crushing domination of absolute strength, like the sky falling. It required no technique whatsoever!
The air exploded in a shock wave. Leo did not understand how Nox attacked; even the power of his attack exceeded what Leo could perceive.
There was no hope!
Even the teleportation range of Shadow Jump fell within the attack!
But Leo did not give up. He desperately stirred the energy in his body. His already weakened body began to swell, his muscles bulging as though inflated. The instinctive awareness of a body refinement wizard was awakening: never give up!
The shadow beneath his feet instantly fused with his flesh, strengthening Leo's feeble aura a little more!
Just as Leo, his eyes wide with fury, prepared to withstand the attack with his body, walls of ice suddenly appeared before him in a series of swishes.
Fifteen ice walls, each half a meter thick, stood before Leo. Before he could react, something like the roar of heavy artillery exploded beside his ears.
All fifteen half-meter-thick ice walls were instantly blasted into powder, adding a trace of coolness to the scorching air.
The icy air struck his face, clearing Leo's head.
Then his expression grew even more resolute!
The air shock wave arrived. Its power had clearly diminished considerably after passing through fifteen ice walls. Leo clenched his teeth and, with a muffled grunt, charged into the shock wave like a fierce tiger released from its cage.
Most of the attack's power had already been blocked. The rest was up to Leo himself.
Boom!
Every cell in his body seemed to have been placed in a centrifuge and spun madly. Even though the attack had been weakened countless times over, the instant it struck, more than a thousand tiny wounds burst open across Leo's body. Blood sprayed everywhere. Leo, who had looked like a lump of charcoal a moment earlier, instantly became a blood-soaked figure.
Leo did not fall. He reached out, and a vial of black potion appeared from the Shadow Space. It was the Black Pearl Potion Gavarci had given him, a single mouthful of which could completely restore his mana.
Gulp.
Without the slightest hesitation, he swallowed the potion. His mana instantly filled to capacity, and the thousand tiny wounds on his body rapidly healed.
Leo's aura rose straight to its peak. With his shadow fused into his body, he estimated that a single strike could now deliver nearly 400 points, the standard of an advanced wizard apprentice.
An icy, peerlessly beautiful figure appeared beside Leo. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
So beautiful!
If beauty could be converted into attack power, this stunning woman would be invincible.
This was the wizard who had saved his life with fifteen ice walls at that critical moment, and also the person who had frozen him for a day and a night on the road.
Leo could roughly guess this beautiful wizard's mission: to protect him. In other words, she was his personal bodyguard.
But her appearance did not make Leo rejoice, because this peerlessly beautiful wizard's aura had not reached level one. She was only a peak apprentice.
Even though her aura was stronger than that of any peak wizard apprentice Leo had ever seen, and she could even kill a level-one beast instantly, she was still a peak wizard apprentice.
He had just watched an official wizard have half his body blasted apart and fall into the lava.
"Oh? I didn't realize you had a personal protector. Which great figure's descendant are you?"
With Ice Woman's appearance, Nox's casual attitude toward killing Leo immediately changed. He had thought he had merely been lucky enough to encounter a young wizard out gaining experience. He had not expected a big fish concealing his identity.
With a top-tier wizard apprentice protecting him personally, this inconspicuous little apprentice naturally had secrets that set him apart.
"I've already sent word to the academy. Reinforcements will arrive within twenty breaths."
Ice Woman's voice was icy. Hearing it, Leo, covered in injuries inside and out, immediately felt a refreshing coolness. A chance to survive had appeared.
"Thank you."
Now was not the time to build a relationship or ask her name. Leo could see that Ice Woman's expression was even graver than his, and he knew that the level two wizard in the sky had absolutely exceeded her expectations as well.
Twenty breaths. Leo licked his black-and-red lips. That level two wizard in the sky could kill the two of them three times over in a single breath. Holding out for twenty breaths really would be difficult.
Leo acknowledged that he had no means of buying time. Now he could only depend on Ice Woman.
Nox seemed not to notice Leo and Ice Woman whispering. Instead, he stared at Ice Woman's appearance and aura, looking slightly distracted. Only after two breaths did he say to her thoughtfully, "A hundred years ago, I heard that great figure took a disciple with a rare innate ice physique."
"I imagine you're that wizard with the innate ice physique from a hundred years ago!"
Leo gave Ice Woman a surprised glance. This beauty was actually a hundred years old!
Ice Woman did not blame Leo for his surprised look, nor did she answer Nox's question. But from the faint excitement in Nox's voice, Leo could tell that Nox had already confirmed her identity without needing her to say anything.
Then I'm the only one here who doesn't know exactly who Ice Woman is!
Leo immediately felt the gaze upon him intensify. Nox had shifted his eyes from Ice Woman to him.
That gaze held curiosity and traces of excitement!
Leo understood what Nox meant. If Ice Woman's status was already so distinguished, then for him to receive her protection, his status could only be more important—far more important!
Otherwise, Ice Woman would not have been protecting him!
"This is Nox, a level two wizard from Black Skull Academy and a recipient of the Second-Class Wizard Medal."
Ice Woman explained his identity in one simple sentence, but to Leo, she might as well have said nothing. Neither identity was something he could handle.
It was like asking Leo whether he could stop a rocket launcher barehanded, or a tank!
Nox smiled silently, seemingly excited to have encountered two big fish. He waved his staff, and his presence abruptly surged. This was the windup for a major move.
The volcano shook, and the earth seemed to come alive. Chains of mud and stone suddenly shot from underground, instantly winding toward Leo and Ice Woman.
Nox had changed his mind. Rather than kill Leo and Ice Woman, he wanted to capture them alive.
"Ice Break Thousand Kills Grand Witchcraft!"
Facing Nox's attack, Ice Woman's aura seemed to detonate. Her mana surged, and icy energy erupted with a howl. Every earthen chain approaching Leo and Ice Woman instantly froze, losing its ability to move.
Within three meters of the pair lay a world of ice. Countless earthen chains moved like snakes, but the instant they entered that three-meter radius, they froze.
In less than a breath, all the space within three meters was filled with frozen chains.
Ice Woman was terrifying indeed. With the abilities of a peak wizard apprentice, she could actually block a level two wizard's witchcraft!
But before Leo could smile, more earthen chains surged from underground. Each carried tremendous force, instantly shattering all the chains Ice Woman had frozen.
Although Ice Woman maintained her witchcraft with all her strength to freeze the chains of mud and stone, they broke through in the blink of an eye. Leo and Ice Woman had no chance to react before they were tightly bound.
Leo had originally planned to use his body to protect Ice Woman while she cast, but in the end, he had failed to stop even a single chain.
His fist struck with 400 points of attack power, yet it could not shatter a single chain made of earth.
Only at this moment did Leo feel the gap between himself and Ice Woman.
She had frozen a full hundred of these chains just now!
Leo grunted repeatedly. The earthen chains kept tightening as though they meant to crush every bone in his body. His supposed body refinement wizard apprentice physique was no different from a chick's.
Ice Woman's constitution was clearly even weaker than Leo's. Blood was already seeping from the corner of her mouth. The peak wizard apprentice was gravely injured in an instant!
Too powerful. They had no ability to resist at all!
Nox raised his palm, and Leo and Ice Woman floated into the sky. It looked as though Nox intended to take them away.
Leo looked at Ice Woman. Even in such a desperate situation, she remained expressionless, though her face was a little paler.
After being severely injured by Nox, her aura was even weaker than Leo's!
Seventeen. Seventeen more breaths before the academy's wizards come to save us. Leo counted silently.
Nox had not chosen to kill them immediately, so they could survive once those seventeen breaths passed.
But before Nox could fly away, a black dot rapidly approached from the edge of the sky!
"Die!"
A furious shout suddenly came from the distance. A fist of raging wind larger than a small car smashed past Nox. It missed him, but the instant it struck the ground, it left a bottomless fist imprint.
Nox looked over in surprise. A burly figure displaying a powerful physique had already reached a point a hundred meters away. His heaving chest was like an ignited engine, bursting with tremendous power.
It was Gru!
Gru had come from Tiyama City!
He had finally arrived at the critical moment!
Seeing Leo nearly twisted into a pretzel and Ice Woman with her weakened aura, Gru instantly flew into a rage!
Boundless power gathered. The surging of blood through his vessels was deafening even a hundred meters away, and his bulging veins writhed beneath his skin like winding spirit snakes.
The runic formations that had originally resembled tattoos on his body all lit up. Amid the dazzling light of the overlapping formations, there was no telling how many functions Gru had activated at once.
Forgive Leo's limited knowledge: he did not recognize most of the runic formations on Gru's body. He only knew that after Gru activated all the formations across his body, the pressure he unleashed was as vast as raging waves.
Leo had never seen Gru in this state. This was not witchcraft manifested through an elemental wizard's elemental power, but a body refinement wizard's pure physical strength!
Ultimate strength was compressing. Ultimate violence was revealing itself!
Though Leo was bound and unable to move, the aura Gru displayed still shocked him beyond control!
So powerful, so overwhelming.
Was this a body refinement wizard?
"First stage of body refinement, Wild Giant Bloodline-activate!"
With Gru's roar, the strength and violent factors compressed to their limit exploded like a collapsing black hole. A three-meter giant appeared, his canine teeth protruding two inches.
His loose, disheveled hair could not conceal the killing intent in his blood-red eyes. Muscles swollen almost to bursting displayed supreme power!
He was the very embodiment of strength, a true portrait of savagery!
Nox was clearly a little surprised, but his expression did not change. Even after Gru transformed, he remained unshaken, merely beginning to retreat with Leo and Ice Woman to create distance!
No matter how powerful an elemental wizard was, he would not want to fight a body refinement wizard at close quarters. That would be using his own life to forge a medal for the body refinement wizard!
Leo could sense Nox's aura changing as well. If Nox had treated him like a cat toying with a mouse before, he had now grown serious and begun to face Gru, transformed into a Wild Giant, in earnest.
Gru did not attack after transforming into a Wild Giant. Instead, his aura began to climb. His wild presence stirred winds across the sky. Leo did not even dare open his eyes fully, afraid the fierce wind would blind him.
This was what he felt from more than three hundred meters away. Leo estimated that if he stood beside Gru, the force of his erupting aura could instantly blast him apart!
The Wild Giant's power was still compressing. His violently beating heart was like a sounding war drum, making the blood on the verge of boiling throughout his body give an unyielding roar!
"Second stage of body refinement, Enraged Giant Bloodline-activate!"
The roar shook heaven and earth, and killing intent soared into the sky. The three-meter Wild Giant instantly became a Furious Giant nearly ten meters tall.
The Furious Giant displayed a sense of power to its fullest. His furious face seemed capable of unleashing 120 percent of his combat strength at any moment. Anyone caught in those scarlet eyes' gaze would feel a chill down their spine!
His massive size brought endless pressure, and his aura, surging like a tsunami, battered the surrounding space wildly.
Affected by the Furious Giant's aura, the volcano beneath his feet began to boil. Leo estimated that in less than half an hour, this volcano, which still had eight years of dormancy left, would erupt ahead of time.
Leo's palms sweated. Looking at that ten-meter giant who seemed to hold up the heavens, his heart pounded uncontrollably.
As expected of wizards who could conquer countless worlds. What kind of life could still have the courage to fight when facing a wizard?
And this was only a level two wizard, at the very bottom among wizards. What would higher-level wizards look like?
Leo could not remain calm. Even being captured could not calm him. The impact of Gru's transformation into a Furious Giant far exceeded what Leo could endure.
Leo firmly etched the Furious Giant's figure into his heart. It was not that he wanted to say he could take Gru's place, but that he too wanted to become such a powerhouse!
"A level two body refinement wizard, and a rare Furious Giant at that. It seems these two youngsters' status is far more important than I thought."
Nox's expression was grave, but Gru, having activated two stages of bloodline power, had clearly not yet filled him with awe. Instead, even in the presence of the ten-meter Furious Giant, he still had the leisure to glance at Leo and Ice Woman.
He was wondering which apprentice possessed the status to bring out a level two body refinement wizard like Gru.
Just as elemental wizards differed in strength, body refinement wizards had clear distinctions among them as well. The Furious Giant Gru had transformed into was clearly a superior bloodline power.
Fifteen breaths. Until the twenty breaths Ice Woman had said it would take for Purple Flame bloodline reinforcements to arrive, there were still fifteen breaths!