Chapter 105: The Footsteps of the Final Battle
Unaware of everything happening in the town, Punk had already engaged in combat with the High Priest.
Amidst a sea of flames, Punk consecutively released over ten “Kinetic Bursts.” However, the High Priest, with her spider-like limbs, moved with agility no less than Punk’s enhanced speed under “Greater Haste.” Her several withered, branch-like limbs became a blur of afterimages, allowing her to swiftly dash and turn sharply, evading one “Kinetic Burst” after another.
During this process, the High Priest completed another spell:
“This is a spell bestowed upon me by Goddess Tisha Xia’er. It is a modified version of a spell. You… shall be reduced to ashes under the wisdom of Goddess Tisha Xia’er!”
As the High Priest spoke with fury, dozens of palm-sized, crimson, translucent flame spiders materialized around her. These spiders had enlarged abdomens, within which churning masses of incandescent energy emitted a terrifying aura!
Seeing the Flame Spiders appear, Punk immediately retreated at top speed. With the System’s analysis, he almost instantly recognized which spell this was a modification of. The System’s conclusions flashed in his mind—it was truly shocking!
Spell Name: Unknown
Spell Status: Medium Modification
Spell Prototype: Formal-Level Summoning Magic—Self-Detonating Fire Wolf: Summons a fire-elemental wolf that charges at the enemy and self-destructs.
Estimated Negative Effects of Modification: Reduced power, lowered spell defense, diminished virtual soul intelligence of summoned creatures, weakened armor-penetration capability.
Estimated Positive Effects of Modification: Enhanced mobility, increased quantity, improved continuous attack capability, reduced consumption.
Punk watched the dozens of rapidly approaching self-detonating spiders with a grave expression. The prototype spell of this unknown spell possessed formidable destructive power, though it was unclear how much these little creatures’ lethality had been reduced. Still, since the enemy had deployed it, the power was likely not insignificant!
“Should I use the golem to intercept them?”
With a heavy heart, Punk abandoned the nearly prepared “Harm Spell” and quickly cast “Iron Armor” on Golem Number One instead.
Formal-Level Summoning Magic—Summon a layer of iron armor for defense!
Punk dared not ignore these spiders. Their sheer numbers made them impossible to evade with mere “maneuvering.” However, he trusted that his golem’s strength could still destroy this swarm of spiders!
Clad in Iron Armor, Golem Number One resembled a rudimentary version of Iron Man. It strode toward one of the spiders and swung its sharp left claw down at the small spider on the ground…
“Boom!!”
A massive explosion sent shockwaves rippling through the air, causing Golem Number One to stagger back several steps from the blast.
“What happened?”
Punk’s pupils contracted as he stared at the site of the spider’s explosion.
Although he did not use the “Self-Detonating Fire Wolf” spell himself, he was well aware of its effects. The primary lethality of that spell’s explosion was high-temperature flames. Yet, this spider had released a powerful, scorching shockwave. In this scenario, while Golem Number One sustained less damage, it struggled to destroy multiple spiders at once. If it staggered with every spider killed, dealing with so many would take an indefinite amount of time.
“Brat, do you still have the leisure to be distracted?”The High Priest sneered and, using Mage Hand, hurled a massive sphere composed of dozens of Flame Spiders. The blazing spider bodies emitted a scorching red glow as they rapidly expanded!
“Damn it!”
Punk narrowed his eyes, tracking the trajectory of the fiery spider cluster, then rolled across the ground several times without hesitation!
“Boom!”
The mid-air explosion of the “self-destructing spider ball” unleashed a terrifying shockwave, blasting a large crater into the cave floor and sending shattered earth and rocks tumbling into the sea of flames.
Punk rose in a corner, swiftly sidestepping to evade a searing fireball. Shaken by the immense shockwave, he tasted a metallic tang of blood in his mouth—his internal organs had likely suffered significant damage.
“Hahaha, you still lack sufficient combat experience! Facing a mage, you can never predict their next move!”
The High Priest laughed maniacally as he raised another “self-destructing spider ball.” Since realizing Punk had no effective counter, he’d relentlessly summoned swarm after swarm of self-destructing spiders. The terrifying creatures split into two groups: one flanked Golem One to bypass its blockade, while the other crawled up the High Priest’s body to gather into a “self-destructing spider ball” in his hand.
“Another one! How long can you keep dodging?”
As he spoke, the High Priest viciously hurled the “spider ball” at Punk.
“Dodge? I don’t need to! Using the enemy’s attacks to your advantage—that’s what you just taught me!”
This time, Punk made no evasive moves. Seizing the moment before the “self-destructing spider ball” left the enemy’s hand, he cast Kinetic Crush.
“You think this can hit me?”
The High Priest roared, sidestepping with his eight limbs granting him speed surpassing Swiftness Spell. Evading the Kinetic Crush was trivial.
“Not done yet!”
Puck sneered inwardly, commanding Golem One to cease desperately intercepting the relentless “self-destructing spiders” and instead use its final daily Iron Shackles to block the High Priest’s retreat.
With the System’s analysis, the Iron Shackles materialized perfectly. The rapidly retreating High Priest, unable to change direction, could only watch as he collided with the sudden thicket of steel branches.
Punk had deduced this from observing the High Priest’s movements: though the seemingly gaunt but powerful limbs provided immense speed, they severely compromised agility. Thus, while Punk with Swiftness Spell could easily avoid sudden obstacles, the faster High Priest had no choice but to crash into them.
Shocked to find himself entangled in the steel thicket, the High Priest couldn’t believe Punk had entirely ignored the flanking spiders. Was he not afraid of being swarmed? Did he seek mutual destruction?
In horror, the High Priest knew he couldn’t evade this attack. Summoning his last ounce of strength, he twisted his head around…Three large pools of acid intercepted the self-detonating spiders along their path. Most of these spiders detonated halfway through the acid, and such explosions even triggered the spiders following behind!
“A Formal-Level Mage couldn’t possibly control this many spiders simultaneously, so your setting for these creatures is… detonation upon injury, correct? Although greatly weakened by high-temperature evaporation, this acid is more than enough to injure several spiders. Moreover, as a swarm, their intelligence is insufficient to recognize a large pool of magical acid—even witnessing their companions die ahead won’t teach them a lesson. You… why do you think the inventor of the ‘Self-Detonating Fire Wolf’ spell went through such trouble using mammalian virtual souls and mammalian bodies?”
Punk coldly observed the High Priest’s horrified expression while murmuring to himself. After analyzing most of these spiders’ capabilities, he concluded that this modified spell was utterly unsuitable for frontal assaults. A single large-scale area-of-effect attack would destroy all the spiders. Its purpose should be ambushes and assassinations. On an open battlefield, even if the enemy couldn’t deduce this much intel, it would still be far too risky!
“Have to admit, this spell is quite exceptional, but…”
Punk cast a sinister glance toward the High Priest, who was already engulfed by the scorching waves.
“Probably never occurred to this fool that his Golem Number One would possess a second solidification spell—and a large-scale area-of-effect one at that.””
The terrifying spider cluster instantly exploded under the effect of “Kinetic Crush.” The High Priest and his agonized screams were swallowed by flames and shockwaves. Barring any surprises, at such close range suffering such devastating explosive damage—while overly focused on high-frequency attacks without any defensive enhancements—the High Priest had almost no chance of survival!
Yet Punk remained entirely vigilant. His opponent was the type who believed “the best defense is a good offense,” but that didn’t mean the enemy lacked excellent survival methods. Moreover… he could perceive the one piece of information he least wanted to detect—a faint spatial fluctuation!
(End of Chapter)