Ridiculous. Laughable. Absurd. Utterly preposterous!
How could he possibly be injured by a Level-2 mage like this?!
BOOM!
The massive explosion sent its body tumbling hundreds of times through the air. As it rolled across the battlefield, the frozen lakes, ice spears, earthen spikes, and groundfire scattered across the terrain continued relentlessly pursuing it.
The balance between offense and defense—
When exactly had it reversed?
Why had the situation changed?
He was growing stronger far too quickly.
The feeling Kanzaki Rei gave it was that he was constantly growing stronger during the battle itself. Every moment. Every second.
He was hundreds—thousands—of times stronger than the moment before.
When it first grabbed him, he had been nothing more than an ordinary Level-2 mage.
He had barely even managed to dodge its attack.
But after just a few seconds of fighting—
He was already capable of counterattacking.
And now…
He could injure it.
He could even…
Chase it down and attack?
Rei raised his staff high.
A sea of fire raged across the battlefield. Countless shards of ice fell from the sky toward it. The ground below formed a frozen lake.
Naya could clearly feel it.
Rei's casting speed was increasing continuously.
Had he been casting this quickly before?
Before one spell even finished forming, the next one was already following close behind.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Columns of force erupted from the ground everywhere, combining with underground fire to produce blazing magma.
Molten waves surged forward from three directions simultaneously, crashing together with towering walls!
From above, scorching meteors rained down!
Dozens of spells were attacking it at the same time.
It was like a heavenly net, leaving no path of escape!
Wait…
Why was it even trying to dodge?
Since when had it started dodging?
At the beginning, it had completely ignored this mage's attacks.
Naya touched its head.
Sticky.
The half-headed monster suddenly remembered.
Perhaps it was because that last explosion had blown away half of its skull.
That must be why…
Why it had begun trying to dodge the boy's spells.
BANG!
Behind it, dozens of earthen spikes erupted from the ground!
Like the horns of a barricade, they blocked its retreat.
At the same time, frost energy gathered beneath its feet. The instant its speed slowed even slightly, the ground would immediately transform into another frozen lake.
The spells weren't merely dealing damage.
They were restricting its movement.
Step by step—
Driving it toward death.
What a joke.
I came here to kill Izparut.
If I died at the hands of this child—
Wouldn't that be the ultimate humiliation?!
The moment that thought flashed through its mind—
SWOOSH!
BOOOOM—
Centered on its body—
The ground suddenly split open in dozens of directions like flower petals blooming!
Rending Earth Slash!
But this time—
The attack was broader. Larger.
The slashes cut straight through the city walls.
They split open the forest itself.
Rei used Death Substitute to switch positions again.
The attack still failed to touch him.
But Rei glanced toward Rain Town.
The city walls had shattered into pieces.
It looked like many people had died…
Even though he had tried to block the attack with a barrier.
It hadn't helped.
The monster's attack power was simply too overwhelming.
With his current defensive methods—
He couldn't block a single one of its attacks.
Unless he sacrificed massive numbers of dead souls.
But using large sacrifices just to defend against attacks that were practically its basic strikes—
Would put him at an enormous disadvantage.
Rei had many souls right now, but they were not infinite.
And he had no idea where the monster's defensive limit truly lay.
He only knew one thing—
If he couldn't kill it before his souls ran out, then the ones who would die would be himself and the entirety of Rain Town.
The best option…
Was still to replace defense with offense.
Kill it.
SZZZT—
The moment the monster paused—
A frozen lake formed beneath its feet again.
Trap-like spells layered over each other.
As long as it stopped moving—
Rei could catch it.
And this time…
"Spirit Detonation."
"Sacrifice Souls — 50,000."
Rei didn't hold back because he wanted to.
It was because—
The power would become uncontrollable.
If he sacrificed any more souls, the explosion would wipe out Rain Town along with it.
Everyone near the city walls would die.
BZZZZ—
Above the monster's head—
A soul light appeared, radiant and transparent like a miniature sun.
Spirit Detonation.
BOOOOOOM!
The explosion burst like soul smoke!
Dense streams of soul energy surged violently in all directions!
The earth collapsed into a hemispherical void.
A massive crater with a radius of one kilometer.
The destructive force of this attack surpassed even the evil ritual of sacrificing fifty thousand infants.
The explosion of annihilation surged all the way to the city wall's edge—
And finally stopped there.
Naya's shattered body tumbled across the ground.
It was still alive.
Its entire head was gone.
Both arms had been severed.
Its legs were broken and mangled.
Its body was riddled with open holes.
Yet—
It was still alive.
It twisted and rolled across the ground in a grotesque motion, desperately trying to dodge the attacks that followed.
After the Spirit Detonation exploded—
Rei's offensive never stopped for even a moment.
He immediately chased the blasted body with a barrage of ice spears, suppressing it with poison vines.
However—
The destructive power of Spirit Detonation was simply too overwhelming.
The instant it detonated, it also destroyed all the other spells Rei had previously cast.
As a result, he couldn't maintain continuous pressure.
"Human…"
"Human."
"Damnable human."
"If not for this cursed gravity…"
"If not for those worthless trash leaving so many wounds on me…"
"DAMN IT!"
The monster roared in fury.
But this time—
It no longer fought Rei head-on.
Instead, it ran.
Its headless body twisted as it sprinted wildly into the distance!
Like a beaten dog fleeing for its life—
Its broken legs dragging and contorting as it desperately escaped!
BOOM!
Three massive walls rose up in front of it!
It was trying to escape!
Rei saw it immediately.
How could he possibly let it get away?!
Rei could only fight within this area.
If the distance grew too great, there would be no corpses left for his Death Substitute.
Before casting Spirit Detonation, Rei had already stored several corpses in his spatial ring as backup.
But throwing corpses onto the ground beside him…
Was basically the same as standing still and letting the enemy slaughter him.
The purpose of Death Substitute was to avoid attacks, not to endure them.
And with his current speed—
He couldn't catch up to it!
He couldn't let the enemy escape!
Heavy walls blocked its path!
Barriers sealed the route!
Ice spears pursued it relentlessly!
Wind blasts slammed into it, forcing it back toward Rei!
The hunted had become the hunter.
And the original hunter had become prey, fleeing in panic!
"I'll remember you, human!"
"No matter where you hide in this world, I'll remember you!"
"One day I will kill you, tear your body into pieces, and sacrifice you to avenge today's humiliation!"
"No—not one day! Once my injuries recover, I will kill you immediately!"
"Spirit Detonation."
"Sacrifice — 10,000 Souls."
BOOM!
Rei predicted its movement trajectory.
But the moment the devastating Spirit Detonation began forming—
The monster noticed it.
It instantly rolled sideways and dodged a huge distance away!
"Repulsion Wind Blast."
"Sacrifice — 5,000 Souls."
BOOM!
The wind blast hurled the monster back toward Rei for a short distance!
But in the very next moment—
WHOOSH!
It suddenly flipped in midair—
And shot upward into the sky!
At last, it had realized something.
Most of Rei's control-type spells relied on the ground.
Tch.
If he couldn't grab it—
With that speed, it would be impossible to land a hit.
Rei's capture spells all had extremely short casting wind-ups.
Most people wouldn't even react in time.
But the creature in front of him clearly possessed far sharper perception.
Even in its heavily wounded state—
Its speed remained terrifying.
And it was moving farther and farther away from Izparut's Gravity Formation.
Its movements were becoming more agile by the second.
Izparut's gravity array could instantly crush and flatten a fourth-tier King-class monster.
One could only imagine how terrifying the gravity pressure was.
But once the monster moved far enough away—
Its speed began to skyrocket.
Rei accelerated himself with wind blasts, stepping on ice spears as footholds while chasing!
One chased.
One fled.
They had already penetrated deep into the forest.
But—
He couldn't keep chasing.
If he went any farther—
He would no longer be able to use Death Substitute.
That would be fatal.
And besides, the monster was already pulling away. Its speed was increasing.
The distance between them kept widening.
Was this the end?
Was he going to let the enemy escape?
Let such a dangerous enemy escape?
No.
There was still a chance.
They were already far enough away.
Rei thought of something.
He raised his hand.
Three streams of soul light condensed before him.
"Spirit Detonation."
"Sacrifice Souls — 250,000."
All the souls he possessed.
It should be enough to blow this entire area apart.
No matter where the monster fled—
It wouldn't be able to escape.
But if he did that…
He would have no souls left at all.
Use fewer souls?
No…
That thing's vitality was terrifying.
If it survived this attack, he would never catch it again.
And with fewer souls, the explosion wouldn't even hit it.
Rei had already made his decision.
The Spirit Detonation had already begun forming.
SWOOSH!
Suddenly—
A tyrannical gale swept across his body!
BOOOOM!
The dense forest on both sides was instantly blasted apart, revealing a perfectly straight road!
"That's far enough!"
A cylindrical passage stretched straight into the distance—
All the way to the edge of vision.
At the very end of that line of sight—
Stood a red-haired man, a massive greatsword resting across his shoulder.
"Yo."
"Not bad at all, kid."
"Leave the rest… to me."