Right now, hiding in the grass thirty meters away from Linley, a black shadow lay in ambush.
“Just now, in that battle, from start to finish, he utilized six spells of the fifth rank. Although the spells only had the power of the fifth rank, given that he was able to cast six of them, he most likely is a magus of the sixth rank. His combat prowess should be that of a warrior of the fourth rank. Based on the fact that his movements were assisted by wind-style magic, he most likely also possesses affinity for wind magic. In summary: A dual-element magus of the sixth rank, and a warrior of the fourth rank.”
The distant dark shadow was calculating.
“90% chance of killing him successfully. I can make my move.” The dark shadow made his decision.
Linley had just finished with one large battle. Naturally, he would be a bit more relaxed. That dark shadow still remained unmoving. In the dark night, he was nothing more than just another shadow. Not even the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, had the slightest idea he was there, much less Linley.
The layer of glowing elemental essence on the ground had vanished.
The Supergravity Field had expired!
“Now!” The dark shadow, which had been lying in ambush this entire time, suddenly flew out silently, flying at astonishing speed towards Linley like an illusionary shadow.
Linley suddenly felt a sense of panic, and he immediately dodged at high speed while turning his head to look behind himself. He saw a dark shadow stabbing at him with a sharp knife, the knife emanating a cold light which made Linley’s heart turn to ice. Those cold, callous, murderous eyes in the dark shadow also made Linley’s heart tighten.
“How incredibly fast!” Linley hurriedly retreated, but clearly the shadow was even faster. The flashing black knife had almost reached his eyes.
“Clang!”
Linley wielded his straight chisel to block the opponent’s knife, and the black knife of the opponent viciously collided with the straight chisel. With a cracking sound, the straight chisel was totally shattered, with some of the shards of the straight chisel cutting into Linley’s face, leaving bloody lines over him.
“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”
Seven or eight blades of wind suddenly appeared next to Linley and chopped at the dark shadow. Based on Linley’s current level of ability, he was totally capable of subvocally casting the wind blades spell. Those seven or eight wind blades all chopped at the dark shadow, but once they came into contact with the black light emanating from the shadow, they all disappeared.
“Darkness-style battle-qi!” Linley immediately made the deduction.
Although these seven or eight blades of wind had not managed to block the dark shadow, they had managed to distract him momentarily. Linley immediately turned around and shot forward like an arrow from a bow. The dark shadow had fast reflexes, however, and chased after Linley, vaulting forward towards Linley at an even higher speed.
In midair, facing Linley, the dark shadow pierced at Linley with his knife once again, still aiming directly for Linley’s heart. At this moment, in the back of Linley’s mind flashed the image of those five corpses he had seen just before entering the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. All five of them had been killed by stabs to the heart.
“Die.”
The dark shadow was totally confident. His knife, covered with a black glow, had already reached Linley’s chest. In midair, there was no place for Linley to go or to hide. The only option he had was to instacast the most protective defensive spell available to him; the shield of earth! A small shield of earth, only a third of the size of a normal one, suddenly appeared in front of Linley’s chest.
“Hrmph!”
The dark shadow sneered. The knife in his hand pierced through the shield at an even greater speed. To someone on the dark shadow’s level, a shield of earth posed no barrier at all.
After having been shrunk in size, the shield of earth actually had quite respectable defensive abilities, but when faced with the attack from this knife, all it could do was slow it down and not stop it. Linley felt some pain in his chest as in just a few moments, the knife pierced all the way through his shield of earth.
“Raaaaawr!”
A terrifying, high-pitched scream could be heard as the little Shadowmouse, Bebe, suddenly appeared next to the dark shadow’s wrist. The Shadowmouse’s mouth was large enough to chomp down on a human hand, while his sharp teeth, were totally capable of chewing through anything. Bebe bit down hard on the dark shadow’s wrist. With an anguished cry, the dark shadow lost his hand at the wrist.
All that was left was half of a hand, still grasping the dagger that had pierced through the shield of earth and penetrated Linley’s chest.