“Gray!” Marcus looked over in alarm.
Faster… just a little faster!
Zelier was burning with anxiety.
Though casting Fireball only required five seconds, in such a perilous situation, the battlefield could change in the blink of an eye. Any single instant might decide whether a person lived or died.
Only three or four seconds had passed from the moment the Mist Demon appeared to when it knocked back Marcus and Gray.
And the Mist Demon was no brainless fool. After sensing that Zelier was gathering magic, it chose to end this round of attacks and wait for another opportunity.
Thick mist churned and surged up, once again concealing the Mist Demon’s form.
Only now had Zelier’s Fireball just begun to take shape.
“Zelier, where the hell is your magic?!” Valles turned to glare at Zelier, eyes blazing with anger.
“There wasn’t enough time. I couldn’t make it!” Zelier’s mind was in chaos.
“Can’t you charge it in advance?”
“I’m not at that level yet!”
Spell preparation was a high-level casting technique.
It allowed one to sketch out a spell formula in advance and keep it on standby for an extended period, so it could be released at any moment to deal with sudden situations.
But the current Zelier clearly did not possess that ability.
“Tch…!” Valles’s expression was filled with resentment.
Marcus bent over with his hands on his knees, panting heavily. The surface of his ruined round shield left him shaken with lingering fear.
“From that exchange just now, can you tell anything?” Marcus asked in a low voice.
“We’re very lucky… It should be a juvenile Mist Demon. The things it has chimerized are all low-level beasts, and its physical strength hasn’t developed to its peak yet.”
Valles looked toward Gray, who was lying off to the side. “If it were an adult, that shield of yours wouldn’t have stopped it at all, and Gray should already be dead.”
A juvenile Mist Demon meant the threat would be reduced by a great deal. At the very least, it would not reach a [Challenge] rating, and would at most count as a troublesome [Difficult] rating.
But because of the energy barrier on its surface, it was still extremely difficult to deal with.
“This damn thing is a juvenile?”
Gray struggled up from the ground. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, grimacing. “Just now, it felt like I got hit head-on by a battering ram.”
Low growls continued to echo all around them, now far, now near, mixed with a brutal killing intent that made one feel a chill from the bottom of the heart.
“Looks like this Mist Demon doesn’t plan on letting us go,” Marcus said, his expression grave.
“The next time the Mist Demon appears, no matter how fierce its attack is, we have to hold it down! If we let it slip away again, after a few more rounds of attrition, we’ll really be dead for sure.”
Zelier said in a deep voice, “I’ll find a way to release my magic as quickly as possible!”
Marcus and Gray exchanged a look, then both nodded hard.
The Mist Demon’s first attack had already wounded Gray.
With such destructive power, who knew when it might cause their team to lose a member? They absolutely could not afford a prolonged battle. They had to end this quickly!
Suddenly, another new progress bar popped up beneath the Formula Heavenly Deduction.
Mistveil’s Embrace, analysis progress—1%.
Zelier froze.
Mistveil’s Embrace… was that the magic it used to block physical attacks?
But the analysis progress is far too slow… It won’t be of any use at all in this battle.
Zelier’s thoughts raced as he searched for a countermeasure.
Since he could not prepare spells in advance… then he could only sense the Mist Demon’s presence as early as possible and sketch the spell formula before it launched its attack.
But the timing had to be exact.
If the magic finished charging and the Mist Demon still had not appeared, then the Fireball would not remain in his palm for long before dissipating, and he would enter a brief empty period during which he could not immediately cast again.
Zelier calmed his mind.
His Perception attribute was only 30, the standard average. In such dense fog, the odds of detecting the other party were truly rather low.
Where is it…
Where exactly are you…
Suddenly, something stirred in Zelier’s heart, and a strange feeling arose within him.
By sheer luck, he had actually caught a faint, intricate connection within the dense mist.
That was the magical fluctuation of Mistveil’s Embrace!
Through the connection between identical magic, Zelier could faintly sense the Mist Demon’s current state.
Bloodthirsty cruelty, the excitement of the hunt… and a surging desire to fight!
It’s moving!
Zelier did not dare delay for even an instant. He immediately began using his mana to sketch the spell formula.
Sure enough, only two seconds later, the Mist Demon’s reeking aura came sweeping back once more!
This time, it had chosen Gray as its target.
That mage was too well protected. There was no way to kill him immediately…
Then it would slaughter this injured human first!
Then hide back into the mist before the mage finished charging.
As long as it could reduce their numbers, it would inevitably trigger panic. This hunt would basically be a success!
Already injured, Gray was completely unable to contend with the Mist Demon head-on, and the pain in his chest made his movements even more sluggish.
“Gray!”
Marcus shouted.
The shadow of death descended. In the blink of an eye, the Mist Demon had already arrived before him!
Gray jerked his head around, his pupils suddenly dilating.
Between life and death, he had nowhere to dodge. He could only rely on his intense survival instinct to barely raise his longsword horizontally before his chest.
The ferocious bone claw slammed down without mercy. With a crisp sound, the blade shattered!
Metal fragments scattered in all directions. Quite a few stabbed directly into Gray’s body, and a spray of blood exploded before him.
But at that very moment, the Fireball Zelier had prepared in advance finished charging!
This was a situation the Mist Demon had never expected. It had clearly appeared for less than three seconds.
During the first attack, that mage had not shown such a fast charging speed.
Scorching heat dispersed the mist. A brilliant fireball swept out and struck the Mist Demon directly!
“Bang!”
Zelier’s eyes widened, his expression taut with extreme tension.
As expected, just as recorded in the Adventurers’ Guild’s Common Illustrated Guide to Monsters, the weakness of the Mist Demon’s energy barrier lay in magic and battle qi!
The mana contained within the Fireball interacted with the energy barrier, producing a sizzling sound. That layer of radiance dimmed by a visibly large amount, but it had not completely disappeared.
It worked!
“Get away!!!”
Marcus’s support arrived in time as well. His eyes were bloodshot as he let out a roar and slammed forward with his shield using all his strength!
After being weakened, the energy barrier could no longer completely isolate physical attacks. Even the Mist Demon’s massive body was knocked staggering by Marcus’s charge.
“Don’t even think about escaping…!”
Valles’s gaze was like lightning. He had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Having held his shot all this time, he released the bowstring, and the arrow shot out.
Valles had elven blood flowing within him. Every arrow he loosed would receive the blessing of the gentle wind!
Relying on muscle memory, Valles rapidly fired four arrows in succession.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
Of the four feathered arrows, two pierced through the Mist Demon’s kneecaps.
This was exactly the result Valles wanted. He absolutely could not let this thing escape back into the mist again!