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The small sword, entangled with black threads, was repelled by the barrier but did not fly backward; it merely flipped over gracefully and floated silently, standing upright not far from the giant Salamander.
The black flowing light emanating from the sword's body seemed to carry malevolent souls.
As Ladis and Valtos were distracted, a gap quietly opened in the smoke on the ground, and Bai En darted out, rushing towards them.
With his blade, Zhan Yan, propelled by Water Breathing, he swung out a current of water, and white foam carved a path through the tide of Corpse Puppets.
Sally, inside the purple gel, saw Bai En running and controlled the Salamander's tentacles to strike; shadows fell to the ground as the massive creature descended from above, its immense size covering a vast area. Even with Bai En's rapid speed, he couldn't escape in time.
But Bai En didn't seem to intend to dodge either.
He stopped abruptly, looked up at the increasingly close tentacle above him, took a deep breath, and held his long blade horizontally, level with his shoulder. Then, white hot breath, like mist, exhaled from his mouth and nose.
"Total Concentration."
"Water Breathing, Sixth Form, Twisting Whirlpool."
Bai En, using his Mana Zone, lifted off the ground, continuously stepping lightly in the air. His long blade and the dancing water ascended and spun, forming a constantly rotating water vortex.
The sharp blade continuously struck the descending gel tentacle, dismembering and separating the purple gel, which was constantly cut from chunks into fine particles.
His figure, dancing into the air, naturally caught the attention of the other two. Ladis had Corpse Puppet Jimmy release cursed bullets, and Valtos also condensed spatial spheres, sending them towards Bai En.
In the air, he was an excellent, easy-to-hit target.
The dark cursed bullets and spatial spheres drew graceful arcs. Silently, a dark shadow, a small sword, reached Bai En faster than they did!
It was Bai En's cooking utensil—"General."
The surrounding natural mana was manipulated, and General's characteristic: Gravity, activated!
Instantly, immense pressure tilted down, changing the trajectories of the cursed bullets and spatial spheres, causing them to slide downwards and then explode in an unknown location.
Affected by gravity, the giant Salamander's entire body collapsed downwards. Its action of trying to strike Bai En in the air with another tentacle paused, unable to move even an inch!
Ladis and Valtos, inside the barrier magic, still didn't know what had happened. They only heard the barrier constantly creaking, as if it was about to shatter at any moment.
The outpouring of gravity did not last long.
Zhan Yan's gleaming white sharpness overshadowed the dark sword General. The gravity characteristic within the Mana Zone changed, and Ladis and Valtos inside the barrier felt a needle-like stinging pain on their skin.
The two exchanged glances, their solemn expressions... both indicating that something was wrong!
Valtos' grimoire flipped rapidly. With a wave of his hand, he instinctively tried to activate spatial magic to escape with his teammate, but in the powerful magical force field, the magic temporarily failed.
The power of the Mana Zone "Mikuriya," unleashed with Zhan Yan, was maximized.
Countless "Dismantles" cut through the air. The barrier constructed by Corpse Puppet Karl with magic instantly shattered, and sharp slashes landed on Valtos and Ladis, causing bloodlines to bloom one after another!
The slashes equally cut through the gel-formed Salamander. Its giant body showed cracks, and chunks of purple gel began to separate and break away.
"Dismantle" was quietly replaced by "Slicing."
Perhaps due to the compatibility of the magic, the gel had a certain resistance to physical slashes, which meant that the Salamander's body was constantly being cut and sharpened, but the slashes did not penetrate into the innermost part of the gel immediately.
Sally seized the opportunity to pull Ladis and Valtos, who had sustained damage from the slashes, into the remaining gel. Valtos then used his spatial magic within the gel magic.
The three instantly fell into a black spatial tunnel and disappeared.
The gel, deprived of its mana source, was instantly sliced into fragments by "Slicing."
"Did they escape?" Bai En murmured, looking ahead.
The next moment, the black spatial tunnel reappeared. Sally, with a hint of joy, leaped out of it. She grabbed Nois, who was collapsed on the ground, and blinked her large eyes, looking into the distance with the gaze of a top predator in nature.
"I really want to dissect him..."
When Nancy and Jie Kai reacted, fists carrying wind force and countless chains emerging from the ground attacked. From afar, another gleaming white arc of light struck. Sally licked her lips, and countless liquid-like purple gels surged around her, enveloping her.
The punch-winds and chains first bloomed on the gel, splashing jelly-like liquid.
"He's my precious experimental subject, I can't leave him to you!" Sally, holding Nois, fell backward into the spatial tunnel. The smile on her face did not fade: "Goodbye, everyone, we'll meet again next time."
The astonishing blade from afar struck in an instant.
The blade light fell precisely at the moment the spatial tunnel dissipated. There were no ripples in the air, only the "thud" of a long blade plunging into the ground.
Although Zhan Yan was sharp, it was not yet enough to cut through space.
Groups of corpses fell, piling up on the open ground at the foot of the mountain.
"Brother, wake up!" The little girl patted the unconscious boy on the stone platform. Soon, the boy startled awake with a panicked cry of "Run!"
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Bai En and the two others, with the boy and the little girl, began to leave the foot of the mountain. They learned that the boy was Walden Carter and the little girl was Dilia Carter, both residents of Mohat Town.
Jie Kai, acting as an elder and parent figure, began to lecture the two: "Walden, Dilia, why did you ignore the mayor's ban and come to the mine? Don't you know about the many disappearances that have occurred in the mine?"
"If we hadn't arrived in time today, what would you have done? What would your parents have done?"
"Especially you, Walden..." Jie Kai grumbled, still annoyed: "As an older brother, how could you bring your sister to a place like this?"
"I know, I was wrong, Uncle ~"
"I was the one who wanted to follow!" The little girl seemed not to want her brother to be scolded alone, taking responsibility and interjecting for him.
Jie Kai gave Dilia a stern look. Nancy smoothed things over from the side: "Uncle Jie Kai, that's enough. They are still children."
"It's precisely because they are children that they need a good lesson, so they learn their lesson." Jie Kai's face was serious, "Didn't you see those people? So many people... corpses... absolutely vicious!"
"When did such a vicious organization appear in the Clover Kingdom?"
Bai En, walking beside them, suddenly spoke: "Are you children from the town's church... or did something happen at home?"
Coming to the mine to dig for ore with his sister at such a young age clearly indicated an underlying reason.
Compared to Walden's silence, his sister Dilia slowly explained the situation: "Some time ago, there was a large collapse in the mine... Our parents were both in that mining accident..."
"Our family's food ran out yesterday. If we don't earn money, we'll starve, so my brother came to the mine this morning. I secretly followed behind him, originally wanting to help him, who knew..."
Jie Kai, who had been sulking, showed a slightly softened expression. Compared to his stiff lecturing tone, his voice was now much gentler: "Even so, don't do such dangerous things."
Afterward, there was a long period of silent travel. On the way, Nancy noticed Jie Kai secretly giving Walden some yule. After some "negotiation," the boy finally, blushing, accepted it under Jie Kai's approving gaze.
When they emerged from the darkness and saw the sunlight shining through the cave entrance, Bai En suddenly asked the siblings again: "You're both from Mohat Town, do you know Nois?"
"Of course!"
When Nois's name was mentioned, Walden, who had been shy, spoke up for the first time, his words revealing excitement and longing: "He's the first person from our town to successfully join the Magic Knights."
"I want to be like him someday!"
"Too bad... if it weren't for that incident..."
...