"What can you do if you can't move!" Night Devil spoke cryptically while she was trying to compose herself.
The girl raised her right hand. As she did so, rays of red lit up out of the magic circle drawn on the ground such that it surrounded Angele in the middle.
Angele could only stand amid the magic circle quietly. He could not move freely due to the effects of the magic circle, which rooted him to the earth. The rays of red light were like oil climbing up his body.
His field of vision had been overlapped by the red light, so he could not see anything else. It felt like he was standing in a pot of boiling oil.
Blue light flashed in his eyes, but it disappeared seconds later. Disappointment took over Angele's expression.
"Not bad. I didn't expect that you could set up such a trap. It's impressive," Angele smiled and spoke aloud, "You can actually bind…"
Bang!
A towering stone fist bashed him from behind, hindering him from saying anything else.
The fist had a black-brownish color and the size of a wheel. It had been formed out of the deposits of rocks and mud.
Angele could sense another oncoming attack from behind. It was the feeling that something was about to strike him really, really hard. He frowned and tried to turn to where he was being attacked from, but the stone fist was much faster than his reflexes.
Thud!
Immediately, the strike landed on him. Angele knew, of course, that the fist had already hit him without him having been able to completely turn around.
Crack!
The stone fist cracked and reverted to countless rocks mixed in with mud as it dropped to the ground.
Chi!
A silver string drew a line in the air and disappeared into the red light at the back.
Following the attack was a roar that sounded like it came from a beast's, coupled with the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground.
"An earth golem?" Although Angele's eyes were still blurry, he could hear the roar from behind, one that he had already heard of many times during the time he was back in the laboratory.
"That's a high-rank golem. Why would you waste it here?"
Angele did not even look back.
Pa!
With a flick of his finger, black rocks of varying sizes floated up above the ground.
All of the stone pieces slowly reshaped into shards that were completely sharp and were seemingly aiming at all angles.
A trace of silver light flashed on the scars on Angele's face.
Chi! Chi! Chi!
Like droplets of rain, the stone shards darted toward all angles. The red light was affected by the explosive shockwave his relentless attack caused.
Angele was fully concentrated on listening to the noises around him.
Ahead of him was a sound similar to that of a stone hitting the surface of the mountain. By his left side, the stone had not seemed to have caused an effect. The same thing could be said for the one by his right side. However, when the stone struck toward the river, he heard the girl grunting in pain.
He remained standing at his original position, while at the same time, many silver needles materialized around him.
"Strike!"
Ss! Ss! Ss!
A shower of silver needles flashed toward behind him.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
There was the noise generated by metal hitting an object.
"d.a.m.n!" he heard the cursing from Night Devil herself, who was evidently behind him.
Angele's body became lighter, and the red light coming from the magic circle faded out.
"The time limit's reached? Well, it's impressive that you could trap me in this magic circle for so long. I presume that the magic circle should have worked longer if my body was not unbelievably stronger…" he spoke nonchalantly.
Angele stretched his body and turned around.
The red light had already disappeared, and now, there was that girl standing on the river surface. Her right arm had been injured in the battle, while the blade in her grip was broken in half. There was a pair of b.l.o.o.d.y holes on her right arm, caused by the silver needles.
Night Devil was scowling at Angele with eyes full of hatred. Angele could see a black human figurine in her left hand, but he was not sure what it would do.
"All right, you win," Night Devil breathed deeply to calm herself, "I will give you one complete core, while I keep the other one. What do you say? Or perhaps you want to fight to the death with me?"
Angele smiled gently and innocently and stomped the ground with his right foot.
Boom!
The cracks in the ground looked like a spider web, and Angele had already disappeared from where he was.
Booom!
Night Devil was shoved away by Angele. She then flew up into the air and smashed into the mountain walls with immense impact. Angele soon appeared before her.
Angele pummeled her into the walls of the mountain, resulting in broken rock fragments from falling from the cliff, but all of them were blocked by his energy s.h.i.+eld.
"Huh?" Angele stared at Night Devil confusedly, "Your energy barrier is strong." He discovered to himself that the girl was not in the slightest bit injured after being hit.
Night Devil sneered in response and waved her left hand.
Boom!
Green flames burst forth in the air. Angele was blown away by the strong impact that he had to retreat more than ten steps back, just so he would not fall to the ground.
Angele shook his head lightly because of him feeling dizzy. He looked at Night Devil, but the girl was yet to be injured.
"A defensive magic device from your teacher? Why didn't you activate it earlier?" he put forward his questions.
"I wanted to test how strong I am. That is why I said you wouldn't be able to hurt me. I shall give you one core instead, as a proof that I have lost a battle to you. You should know it's impossible if you want to stop me," Night Devil coldly barked in reply.
A gentle smile appeared on Angele's face.
"Believe it or not, the defensive barrier around your body wouldn't be able to stop me if I were to use my true power."
Night Devil narrowed her eyes. She suddenly detected an unusual energy wave exuding from Angele's body.
"This is the core," she threw a black crystal bead into the air as she focused her gaze on Angele. Night Devil leaped away and slowly disappeared into the darkness. The girl did not want to mess with him any longer, as she was not sure what would happen hereafter had she not left.
Angele took a step forward and caught the bead. His attributes were so high that his reaction speed was insanely fast. Night Devil could not damage him no matter what. The girl's attacks were weaker than the Thunderbird's, but her magic circle impressed him still.
Mediocre wizards would have lost their ability to fight after being trapped in that magic circle. Night Devil would then have won once the trapped wizards no longer had sufficient mentality to maintain their energy s.h.i.+elds. However, she could not at all do enough damage to Angele.
The black figurine was the girl's trump card, but she did not fully activate it. She seemed to have considered that she did not want other wizards joining the fray once they noticed that she had already become an arrow at the end of its flight. Angele had not been injured by her final strike, so she decided to drop one and leave.
At this moment, Angele now possessed two complete cores and even formed a third core by combining a whole bag of fragments.
He raised his hand, and three eyeball-sized, black crystal beads were spinning atop his palm.
"Three complete cores… But it was not mentioned that I would be able to leave just by collecting the cores…" Angele looked at the sky.
The soft, fluffy white clouds were floating in the azure sky. This place looked exactly just like an area in the main world. Angele would not believe that this was a world rift had he not taken the test.
Angele lifted up his left hand and looked at the amethyst ring worn on one of his fingers.
There was a black vortex silently spinning in the middle of the gem.
Angele focused his mind and observed the three cores in his hand carefully. He noticed that the s.p.a.ce around the cores was a tad twisted.
The twisted forcefield surrounded Angele's body, but it covered a radius so small that it could only fit one person.
So that's the benefit of the core — the forcefield will lead me to the coordinates and protect me from harm once the world rift completely collapses. I should be safe if I can protect the cores that will guide me back to the main world, Angele guessed. The only thing I must do now is to find a safe place and await its coming.
He probed the surroundings, then he walked to a hill and started his ascent.
Angele arrived at the hilltop minutes later. With a wave of his right hand, he created an empty field on the hill and sat down with his legs crossed to begin his temporary stay.
There were about 20 different energy waves around the hill, and it came from the wizards who had spectated the fight between Angele and the Night Devil. They were trying to ambush the loser of the battle, but no one had been severely injured.
The outcome of a battle between wizards mostly was reliant on their instant cast spells, talent spells, and magic devices or magic items. A battle like this would often conclude within minutes.
The difference in power between Angele and Night Devil was indisputable. Angele had walked straight into a trap, yet Night Devil failed to cause injury to an immobile wizard. That was the reason she accepted her loss without having the magic device fully activated.
Angele sat on top of the hill quietly, and time was pa.s.sing quickly.
It was becoming darker and darker. Once the night descended, the area visibility had become low.
Fissures slowly manifested at the edge of the dark sky. It looked like paint being torn apart, and its cracks were the gates to the endless abyss.
The thin airflow was drawn to the sky, being taken away from the world rift.
Angele was still sitting on the empty ground and was surrounded by the forcefield produced by the fresh air. The forcefield was sending in fresh air to him.
His eyes opened as soon as he detected the sudden change in airflow. Angele lifted his head and gazed at the fissures in the sky.
Boom!
Explosive noises came from a hill on the other side. A translucent serpent raised its head as white smoke appeared and roared at the sky.
It was a white serpent more than 10 meters long and it was moving its body around the hills.
Angele could see a person wearing a white-gold clothing flying around the serpent, releasing black smoke from his hand. It took form into human-like shadows and hit the serpent's body.
Every time the shadows. .h.i.t the serpent's body, the serpent would struggle and roar in pain. Meanwhile, the man had easily dodged all of the serpent's attacks.
Several minutes later, the serpent crashed to the ground, causing mud and water from the river to be splashed away.
Angele leaned down his head and stopped viewing the fight. It might have looked like a major fight, but the damage they could deal was lower than 200 degrees. A battle like that could easily be won by him.
