Chapter 209 - 204: What About Ultra Rapid Fire?
Chapter 209: Chapter 204: What About Ultra Rapid Fire?
A garbled syllable escaped the man’s throat. His body reacted before his mind could—he threw himself backward and to the side with all his might!
’As long as I can dodge this potentially fatal blow...’
However, the terrifying sneak attack he expected never came.
Karon didn’t even hear the whistle of something cutting through the air or the crackle of gathering energy, but his leaping body suddenly froze in mid-air!
It wasn’t that he’d run into something. Instead... he’d slowed down.
He felt as if he were a small insect trapped in resin, his every movement meeting an unimaginably heavy resistance.
His prized agility, which allowed him to hunt wild deer in dense forests and escape from chaotic battles time and again, had now vanished without a trace. His once-swift leap had become a clumsy, frame-by-frame slow-motion playback.
Karon could even clearly feel the icy touch of snowflakes landing on his face and melting.
This bizarre feeling of losing control, like being trapped in a swamp, terrified him far more than a direct attack would have!
"Wha... What the hell is this?!"
The scrawny man was horrified, his murky yellow eyes darting around in terror, trying to find the source of the unknown danger.
At the edge of the sparse, withered woods behind him and to his side, a snow-covered shadow wavered slightly. A figure wrapped in a thick, fur-lined cloak emerged like a specter, silent and unseen.
Jon’s hand emerged from under his cloak, his fingertips swirling with a pure, ethereal blue light—he had no intention of giving his enemy any chance to understand or react.
[Arcane Arrow]!
Three beams of pure energy formed almost the instant he raised his hand, tearing through the air to blast Karon’s body with precision.
[-166! (Hit! Arcane Damage!)] x3!
SZZT! SZZT! SZZT!
In his slowed state, Karon tried to block, but the three ethereal blue arcane arrows still slammed precisely into his arm, shoulder blade, and abdomen.
The damage wasn’t high, but it was enough to break through his defense. The energy clashed violently with his flesh, and the smell of burnt skin mixed with blood filled the air.
The intense pain and bone-chilling numbness made Karon let out half a shrill scream, which was then choked off by the cold wind rushing into his mouth and nose, turning it into a pained whimper.
Beneath the shadow of his hood, Jon’s icy-blue eyes were as calm as a frozen lake, without the slightest ripple.
The arcane glow on his fingertips didn’t dim for even a moment. Thanks to the astonishing efficiency granted by the [Multiple Projections] Inscription, another three energy beams condensed and burst forth in almost zero time!
At this moment, he was following Claudio’s teachings, trying to discover his own combat style as a Mage in battle—precise, efficient, and ruthless, completely overwhelming the enemy with a continuous Magic Torrent.
[Arcane Arrow]!
[Arcane Arrow]!
The ethereal blue beams were like a reaper’s repeating crossbow, striking Karon in volleys of three without pause.
Every hit sent flesh and blood flying and left scorched black marks. Every explosion made Karon’s dying body convulse violently, like a live fish pinned to a cutting board, writhing and struggling futilely in the force field created by the [Balance Seal].
Jon could clearly feel his Magic Power pouring out of him like a flood from an open dam. Each triple-shot of [Arcane Arrow] instantly drained nearly a hundred points from his Magic Power Value.
However, the [Heart of Balance] was like an inexhaustible Magic Furnace, rapidly drawing on his Life Force to replenish the spent Magic Power, while the lost Life Force was quickly restored by the [Sun’s Blessing].
This gave him a strange sense of déjà vu—
’Does this count as infinite firepower?’
The slightly odd thought flashed through Jon’s mind but didn’t interrupt his spellcasting.
Under the endless bombardment of Arcane Energy, the scrawny man’s figure was completely swallowed. The ill-fitting fur coat he wore had long been torn to shreds, revealing the charred and peeling flesh beneath.
In this whole process, which couldn’t even be called a fight, he couldn’t even effectively gather his protective Battle Qi. Every time a faint resistance began to form, it was precisely interrupted and shattered by the next whistling Arcane Arrow.
"Ugh... cough... Spare..."
Broken syllables escaped Karon’s throat, his yellow eyes filled with incredulous fear and despair.
He wanted to beg for mercy, to curse, to make a final desperate struggle, but all these thoughts were crushed to dust by the endless arcane bombardment. In the face of this strange controlling power, his prized speed had become meaningless.
[-173! (Hit! Fatal Blow! Arcane Damage!)]!
As this line of text appeared, the arcane glow at Jon’s fingertips extinguished in the same instant.
The wailing cries of the wind and snow returned, replacing the hum of exploding Arcane Energy.
Karon’s mangled corpse lay in the mud in a twisted, bizarre posture, wisps of smoke rising from it, already burned beyond recognition.
The eyes that had once viciously berated the villagers had lost all their light, staring blankly at the gray, overcast sky.
Until death came, this notoriously vicious bandit had not been able to mount a single decent resistance, nor even clearly see who it was that killed him.
Jon let out a small puff of white breath, which quickly dissipated in the cold wind.
’A Mage who doesn’t have to worry about Magic Power consumption is really powerful...’
He had previously worried that the path he’d chosen as a Mage Apprentice, especially the [Mage: Arcane School] he was about to enter, would be lacking in damage output.
’Now that I think about it, how could that be?’
Just by having the [Heart of Balance] to solve the Magic Power consumption issue, the power of this class was beginning to show.
An efficient, ruthless, and nearly overwhelming Magic Torrent.
It was a completely different feeling from his previous close-quarters combat of flashing blades, but it was just as fascinating.
He glanced at the system notification.
[Successfully killed target (Lv. 24, Official Level Warrior)! Gained 440 Faction Contribution for ’Comprehensive Counterattack III’]
[’Advanced Trial: Oppression’ progress updated: Single-handedly kill enemies not lower than your own level (2/5)]
’That’s the second one... I hope I can complete this step before reaching Trulane County...’
Jon muttered to himself, his voice barely audible in the wind and snow.
The battlefield is always changing, and he couldn’t be sure that the intel he received before setting out would remain valid.
Still, helping the Resistance Alliance strike the Blood Eye Association forces distributed in this area was something he could do along the way. Every one he could kill was one less to worry about.
It was both to complete the mission and to test the results of his recent period of "secluded training."
So far, he was satisfied with the results.
Jon didn’t look at the villagers and captives who were already paralyzed with fear, shivering on the ground. His figure, like a ghost melting into the shadows, silently retreated back into the sparse, withered woods.
The swirling wind and snow quickly erased his footprints.