The vast Rune Serpent Manor, with its first floor as the base, rose from the ground. Alan watched dumbfounded as the ceiling above him moved further and further away, as if someone was lifting a pot lid for him.
"To find me, he'd rather lift the entire house into the air? It seems he's truly been pushed to his limit, but does he have to be so exaggerated?!" Alan couldn't help but let out a long breath as he looked at the astonishing scene before him.
Not long after, the entire manor mansion was lifted more than a hundred meters high, looking like a dilapidated city in the sky. The sunken basement on the ground instantly turned into an open-air square, revealing Alan's figure completely.
"I found you, mouse!" The Rune Serpent in the sky glared coldly at Alan. At this moment, her eyes were bloodshot due to the damage received from the mental link earlier, making her look like a hysterical madman.
Alan on the ground couldn't help but smile bitterly at the sight. He hadn't expected the other party to be so insane that she would even dismantle her own home to find him. It seemed impossible to deal with her using underhanded tricks anymore. Since that's the case, then let's have a head-on confrontation!
Thinking this, Alan steeled his heart, unfurled his Flying Cloak, and shot into the sky, confronting the Rune Serpent from a distance.
"After the previous encounter, the Rune Serpent probably won't use the clone spell again, but what in the world is that magic shield on her body? It can completely negate magic damage and its aftermath. I must find a way to figure out its secrets…" Alan felt his scalp tingle from the Rune Serpent's endless tricks. After taking out a vial of Felix Felicis from his body and drinking it, he finally regained his composure and began to analyze the situation calmly.
Meanwhile, the Rune Serpent on the opposite side was also coldly observing her opponent. Although she mocked Alan to the extreme, she no longer dared to underestimate him in her heart, and thus was secretly pondering.
*I remember this kid has a spell that can instantly boost his speed to the extreme. Although my main body's reaction and physical quality far exceed Peter's, I might still not be able to keep up with his speed. So, if I directly apply gravity to him, it won't just waste my magic power, but it might also scare him away! At the same time, that alchemy serpent in this kid's hand seems to be able to directly absorb magic power. Using clones against him will probably make me waste magic power for nothing.*
*In that case…* The Rune Serpent looked up and coldly glanced at the dilapidated house she had already lifted above herself. *He's forced me to this point, so I'll just go all out. Anyway, the things in this house are all insignificant Muggle items, as long as the treasury isn't harmed.*
The reason the Rune Serpent so violently lifted the house directly, besides being utterly enraged by Alan, was also to quickly get the other party out, lest Alan take the opportunity to steal or destroy her treasury.
"Scatter!" The Rune Serpent glared ferociously at Alan, then pointed her wand upward.
Immediately after, a sound of something shattering came from high in the sky. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that numerous cracks had appeared on the stone mansion above her head, looking as if it could crumble at any moment.
"Not good!" Alan's heart jumped at the sight. "This person isn't going to use the house above her head as a weapon, is she…?"
"Wild Lightning Sword - Storm Blade!"
Alan, who vaguely guessed the other party's intention, dared not delay. He drew his sword and unleashed a flurry of slashes at the Rune Serpent. Dense magical sword light cut through the air at an extremely fast speed, converging into a silver storm that looked incomparably powerful.
What surprised Alan was the Rune Serpent's reaction at this moment. She neither dodged like last time nor stopped her actions to counterattack. Instead, she just stood still in mid-air and used her own body and magic shield to directly withstand this wave of attack.
Nearly a hundred Wild Lightning sword waves, like an orderly flow of traffic, directly slammed into the Rune Serpent's magic shield. The impact force generated by the sword waves erupted into a violent roar upon striking the shield, and the accompanying Wild Lightning transformed into an electric net that spread around the magic barrier, continuously inflicting Eclipse-style damage.
If it were an ordinary wizard, this single blow could penetrate a Shield Charm, and if the Wild Lightning even grazed them, a large chunk of their body might be annihilated. And there were still a hundred more attacks of this intensity to follow.
But an astonishing scene appeared: the surface of the Rune Serpent's magic barrier was like a pool of water at this moment, with every slash and electric shock stirring up intense ripples. However, no matter how violent the reaction on the shield, these sword waves still could not break through it. In fact, let alone destroying this magic barrier, they couldn't even make the Rune Serpent move an inch.
"Azure Underworld Blade!"
Seeing that the Storm Blade's attack was ineffective, Alan suspected whether this shield had properties that countered Wild Lightning, so he immediately switched to blue Fiendfyre to launch an offense. Immediately after, Alan unleashed another massive wave of blade energy, entirely composed of blue Fiendfyre. As it flew through the air, it even coiled and transformed into a giant blue dragon, roaring as it crashed toward the Rune Serpent.
However, when facing such an attack, the Rune Serpent remained perfectly still, simply watching as the blue Fiendfyre completely engulfed her, transforming her into a scorching fireball. But after a while, the Fiendfyre, which could burn almost anything, slowly faded. The protective shield on the Rune Serpent's surface, meanwhile, began to rotate counter-clockwise, creating horizontal, arc-shaped ripples. As it continuously spun, the intensity of the Fiendfyre diminished until it was completely extinguished.
"What in the world is this thing?!" Alan looked astonished at the magic shield that seemed to ignore all his attacks. In his eyes, this was simply too exaggerated. What kind of shield could possess such high-intensity protection?
One must know that Alan was already close to depleting his second tube of magic power, which was a full eight hundred magic points! Additionally, due to his own powerful willpower, a body tempered by Wild Lightning, and the weapon Eclipse which could greatly enhance magic intensity, the attack intensity he could generate from eight hundred magic points was incredibly absurd. For an ordinary wizard, to cause the same amount of damage, they might need to use over two thousand magic points! The damage caused by two thousand magic points could probably smash a hundred or two hundred ordinary Shield Charms; it was simply not something a single shield could withstand.
In other words, the Rune Serpent's magic shield was no longer merely powerful; it had already defied common sense. This was completely unscientific! Even the understanding of the magical world couldn't explain this phenomenon!
At this moment, Alan was thinking rapidly, trying to find the weakness of this shield, because given the current situation, his attacks simply couldn't break through the opponent's defense, meaning the Rune Serpent was virtually invincible against him. Due to having consumed Felix Felicis, Alan's brain was operating at high speed, with various sparks of thought colliding rapidly, attempting to grasp inspiration from them!
"There are two main factors affecting magic intensity: magic reserves and emotions/willpower," Alan muttered to himself. "The Rune Serpent's emotions are quite agitated now, which might have some impact, but definitely not much. As for willpower… from observing Peter and Golden Knight for such a long time, her willpower is definitely not strong. Let alone me, perhaps even Jason and Bob are better. After all, they still dare to fight to the death, and for someone who fears death to the extreme, saying she has strong willpower is simply a joke. If we rule out influence from this aspect, then the reasonable explanation is magic reserves. The Rune Serpent possesses far more magic points than I do. If this magic shield is truly related to magic reserves, then it would be more logical…"
And just as Alan grasped the core of the problem, the Rune Serpent's spellcasting was also complete.
"Open!"
The Rune Serpent roared, and then the gigantic stone house above her head instantly shattered, breaking into thousands of pieces and slowly scattering. It was interspersed with a large number of exquisitely crafted furniture, decorations, and so on, looking from a distance like a meteor belt in outer space. After breaking open the mansion above her head, the Rune Serpent vigorously waved the wand in her hand, and then this spectacular meteor belt in the sky began to move rapidly, smashing toward Alan at an extremely high speed.
Facing the attack before him, Alan had no time to think further. He could only control his Flying Cloak to quickly dodge. These architectural debris assailing him, now broken into small pieces, moved at an astonishing speed. Fortunately, Alan's own speed was not slow, so dodging was not difficult. It was just that this continuous barrage of attacks kept him constantly on the move.
However, after Alan flexibly dodged them, these remnants did not directly crash to the ground, but floated again and circled around Alan. Therefore, after a short while, Alan found himself unknowingly surrounded by a large area of debris, looking as if he had stumbled into a lake made of architectural remnants.
"Arcane Serpent!"
After using the architectural debris to block most of Alan's movement routes, the Rune Serpent began frantically unleashing spells at him. Soon, dozens of cyan energy serpents, like plankton, twisted their bodies and rushed toward Alan.
Alan frowned at the sight. *Is she planning to overwhelm me with a massive amount of spells? But the Rune Serpent should know that this wouldn't work on me.*
However, now was not the time to overthink. Facing the dual encirclement of architectural debris and magic serpents, Alan was still able to calmly weave through the sea of meteors, using his longsword or shield to shatter or deflect the spells, or even directly using the architectural debris as cover to block attacks for him. For a moment, although Alan looked very disheveled, he was not actually in any real danger.