Ivan had no intention of standing around waiting to be killed, and upon locating the position of the assassinator, he signaled to the swamp ant and the flame scorpion, assigning each their own attack targets.
On the left was the swamp ant, on the right was the flame scorpion.
He himself struck out with a palm, and the Black Magic Hand coalesced in an instant. The Grey-green palm, entwined with grey-green flames, pressed forward.
This palm strike was tremendously forceful.
Facing such an enormous palm, the assailant ahead seemed completely unaware, continuing to charge forward rapidly. Soon, they clashed with the fiery giant palm, his figure shifting as he stabbed a short spear into the flaming palm.
Where the spear’s tip struck, a gap appeared.
“Kolebas, Dark Elf, it turns out to be you. You must have been waiting for a long time.”
Now, Ivan finally recognized the attacker’s identity; it was indeed someone from the Dark Elf race, likely sent by High Priest Kolebas, and he had not expected them to wait in ambush at the Ancient Tree Spine camp.
It was fortunate he had not agreed to Adolf’s invitation earlier, or else he would have been even more caught off guard.
He also perceived that the Dark Elves held strange weapons, and their Secret Techniques were also peculiar. The spear could easily penetrate the Black Magic Hand, and their Secret Technique allowed them to transform their bodies into black smoke, attempting to squeeze through the gap in the Black Magic Hand to get to him.
“Utter arrogance. If you wish to die, I shall grant your wish.”
Ivan thought to himself that a sorcerer’s Spell was never out of control once cast but quite the opposite. There was a close connection, which relied on the sorcerer’s control over energy particles to induce changes at any moment.
As his thoughts shifted, the Black Magic Hand collapsed immediately, transforming back into flames and encircling the two Dark Elves as if they were inside a pillar of fire.
Of course, the situation was not so simple. Disturbing powers emerged from the two Dark Elves, protecting them within and preventing the grey-green flames from taking effect.
“Let’s try this then.”
Ivan was not discouraged; numerous white spatial threads spread out from his palm, wrapping around the fiery pillar from the outside and then slicing through it in bundles.
In an instant, flames scattered and extinguished.
Two clouds of black smoke became distinctly visible, with two young faces vaguely seen inside, enveloped by the dense spatial threads, and the strange powers they possessed became apparent as well.
So that was it!
Ivan realized; this power was familiar to him. He had sensed it before on the scroll that depicted Jenny’s portrait, which likely originated from the divine being mentioned by Kolebas. However, the energy signature of the power before him paled in comparison to that on the scroll.
The nature was the same, though, and could probably be defined as ‘Divine Power.’
Even so, he did not hold back.
Under the oppressive slicing of the spatial threads, the protective layer infused with meager Divine Power soon failed, the black smoke scattering and disintegrating, some turning into flesh and blood before being extinguished amidst spatial slicing.
Only two pairs of short spears remained of the enemy.
“Truly tenacious indeed.”
Ivan’s expression remained grave. During the confrontation, it was uncertain how many spatial threads had snapped, though he was able to replenish them in time.
The second reason for his concern was the final expression on their faces—a mixture of indifference and killing intent, devoid of fear and pain, resembling that of brainwashed Death Soldiers.
Just imagine, instead of four assailants, there were a hundred; how thrilling that scenario would be.
He was not sure he could handle it.
“It hurts! Damn it, you’ve angered me now,” snarled the flame scorpion.
“Don’t panic, I’ve got someone coming to help you,”
On one side, the swamp ant, protected by a Domain Aura, faced the enemy head-on, and the ground surged like a giant wave into the sky. The vast area immediately enveloped the foes within.
Ze King’s Aura was a viscous force field capable of slowing people down, suffocating them, suppressing them, and sealing them in place.
When the Aura Power took effect, the dark elf assassinator was not at all surprised to find himself trapped, unable to move forward even half an inch, his weapon imbued with Divine Power unable to easily pierce through.
What troubled the swamp ant was that the enemy had an abnormally tough protective layer, so resilient that it couldn’t easily kill the opponent.
Its situation was actually still manageable; the flame scorpion, eager to make a name for itself at its debut, did not hesitate to use its fire demon poison stake against the enemy.
Instead of striking its target, the poison stake was not only unsuccessful but also got chopped off by the enemy’s short spear.
The flame scorpion’s scream of pain drew the swamp ant’s attention, and it immediately commanded a squad of ant sentinels to kill their way over, while also directing a portion of Ze King’s Aura Power to converge there to bolster it.
“Take a mouthful of my magma.”
The flame scorpion wasn’t brainless; as its tail was severed, it immediately spat a large mouthful of molten magma, which collided fiercely with its opponent in a towering blaze.
Its magma was not ordinary, identical to the one found in the underground tunnels, forcing its enemy to be wary.
As expected, the dark elf was hindered; the ant sentinels nurtured by the swamp ant to Level 3 came rushing, just as fearless in death, and tightly protected the front of the flame scorpion.
Before long, Ivan had dealt with the enemies in front of him. Enjoy new stories from My Virtual Library Empire
Controlling a myriad of spatial threads, with the collaboration of the swamp ant, he easily exterminated the enemies on the left, then took some effort to subdue the foes standing before the flame scorpion.
All four enemies found their deaths at the hands of Sorcerer Ivan, which was indeed a bit embarrassing for both the swamp ant and the flame scorpion.
“If you’re not up to par, just think more and practice more, no need for such a crestfallen look,” Ivan glanced at the scorched stump of the flame scorpion’s tail, where magma was wriggling, rapidly regenerating.
This creature had a trait, an unusually strong recovery ability, and was not easily affected by negative forces; in short, it was quite hard to kill.
Otherwise, Ivan would not have allowed it to face the enemy alone.
Seeing that the flame scorpion was not seriously harmed, Ivan waved his hands around, and four short spears flew into his grasp.
The spears bore strange patterns, and as expected, they all retained the scent of Divine Power.
He attempted to activate them, but the spears reacted not at all, as if they were just ordinary weapons.
“Let’s go.”
The darkness around them had not yet dissipated, and Ivan had no intention of dealing with the people from Ancient Tree Spine. Accompanied by the swamp ant and the flame scorpion, he headed outside the pass, where its protective barrier was as fragile as paper against him, easily punctured.
They reached an area behind the pass where the light was plentiful—a valley plain abundant with life greeted their sight.
Drawing closer, they saw the ‘little sun’ above, that strange solar deity bird, and a golden nest, giving off an aura not unlike Pidel’s.
Beneath the little sun rose a pillar stretching from the ground to the heavens.
This must be the main body of the Pan Iron Root, but contrary to what Jenny had described, he felt no vast, benevolent aura from it, only an intimidating majesty that commanded respect.
Ivan looked around, his gaze settling on the deep passage on the ground.
This was the path leading to the underworld, long and complicated, usually referred to as ‘the Labyrinthine Undergut.’ Inside the Labyrinthine Undergut, there lurked dangers far beyond lava and volcanic creatures.
Without hesitation, one man and two insects stepped into the passage, their figures vanishing within.
At this time, on the other side of the pass, the darkness had already lifted, and the camp was once again bright with lights.
“It’s all over now, we’ve courted even bigger disaster this time.”
“I hope the great scholar isn’t angry, our academy can’t afford proper compensation any longer.”
Looking at the drastically changed landscape of the camp, Dean Lai Te, Adolf, and the others were on the verge of tears. Their original intention was a sincere invitation, but who would have expected assassins to be hiding among them?
Now, with a hundred mouths, they wouldn’t be able to explain themselves clearly.