Chapter 33 - 32: Chain of Stratagems

Chapter 33: Chapter 32: Chain of Stratagems

Mage Seda felt a complex mix of jealousy and admiration, yet he still held victory firmly in his grasp.

"Your methods have indeed exceeded my expectations. But based purely on your mana, how many more times can you use magic?" Mage Seda was supremely confident.

"This robe of mine comes with an innate First-Ring Spell, the Shield Skill. Even if I stand completely still and let you attack until your mana is entirely drained, you still wouldn’t be able to harm a single hair on my head."

"Shield Skill..." Gaode silently memorized the magic.

Mage Seda wasn’t bluffing. The acid ball burst right in front of him, just as before, its splattering liquid entirely blocked by the magic barrier. Mage Seda remained completely unscathed.

"Just yield. Tell me where you learned this magic, and I might give you a quick death," Mage Seda said, shaking his head.

Having reached this point, even if the road ahead seemed entirely devoid of hope, there was no turning back now.

Gaode turned a deaf ear to the threat. Sweat beaded on his forehead. This was caused both by the stinging pain of the burn on his chest and the sheer exhaustion of having depleted too much mana. [Acid Splash+] was far more powerful than the standard [Acid Splash], but its mana consumption was proportionally greater. If not for his persistent cultivation over the past month, which had slightly increased his mana pool, he wouldn’t even have been able to cast five tricks.

Another orb of acid coalesced in Gaode’s palm. For his final magic attack, he once again chose [Acid Splash+]! Though Gaode remained silent, his actions made his intentions perfectly clear.

Mage Seda’s expression darkened further. Seeing Gaode provoke him time and time again, he could no longer suppress his simmering rage. "You foolish brat!"

The third acid ball was similarly intercepted by Mage Seda’s Shield Skill. However, after repeatedly blocking multiple tricks, the power of the Shield Skill—even as a First-Ring Spell—was now mostly depleted. Unwilling to expose himself to any potential danger, Mage Seda struck decisively. He intended to take Gaode down in one fell swoop before his Shield Skill’s power ran out entirely.

He took a sudden step forward and raised his right hand. A blindingly brilliant light—intense enough to blind an ordinary person—suddenly erupted. It was the exact same method he had used earlier against the Wolf Rats.

Gaode didn’t have time to close his eyes; it simply wasn’t something that could be dodged on reflex alone. The incredibly intense light seared into his vision in an instant.

He felt a sudden heat in his eyes, followed by a sharp, aching pain as involuntary tears began to stream down his face. His vision vanished completely. Gaode finally understood what it felt like to be blinded by a flash.

He didn’t bother wiping away his tears, nor did he attempt to open his eyes to look around. He didn’t even make any blind, panicked attempts to dodge. Instead, he decisively reached into his coat. He pulled out a bronze object shaped like a fang—the Hidden Mist Fang.

Gaode gave the Hidden Mist Fang a gentle wave. A thick cloud of fog instantly surged from it, rapidly expanding outward. At the same time, a powerful surge of energy began circulating around the Hidden Mist Fang, causing it to quiver as if alive.

Energy poured into the fang like molten lava. It let out a faint resonant hum, its surface shimmering with a soft glow. This signaled that it had been imbued with supernatural power, allowing it to inflict even more lethal damage on enemies.

Demonization!

This entire process flowed as smoothly and seamlessly as quicksilver spilling across the floor.

Meanwhile, the fog had spread in the blink of an eye. It silently filled the room, plunging the entire space into a hazy, disorienting mist. The once-clear surroundings became blurred in an instant. Only objects within arm’s reach could be vaguely outlined. Anything beyond five feet was completely obscured by the dense fog.

From the very beginning, Gaode had carefully maintained a distance of more than five feet from Mage Seda. To ensure this, he had even sacrificed some of his limited mana to cast the [Mage’s Hand] just to retrieve his magic potion.

"Since you blinded me, I’ll make sure you can’t see me either," he thought.

Now, the two were essentially back to a draw, starting from the exact same baseline. However, the flash only lasted for a fleeting moment, while the Hidden Mist Skill would persist for an entire minute.

"The advantage is mine!" he thought. For the remaining time, it was Gaode’s home court.

Mage Seda widened his eyes and stared in the direction where Gaode had just stood, only to see a murky expanse of gray. Forget about making out a person—he couldn’t even see a silhouette. He was both shocked and furious.

"The First-Ring Spell, Hidden Mist Skill! Where on earth did this kid get a First-Ring Extraordinary Item? Even I only possess two First-Ring Magic Alchemy Creations..." he thought. By now, his previous underestimation of the boy had vanished without a trace. "This brat is hiding a huge secret!"

Given everything Gaode had just displayed, Mage Seda would have to be a fool not to realize this.

WHOOSH!

A sharp whistling sound, accompanied by a gust of cold wind, hurtled toward him from straight ahead. Though his vision was blocked, his hearing remained completely unimpaired. Mage Seda reacted instantly, hastily dodging to the side.

CRASH! SPLASH!

Two distinct sounds echoed in rapid succession. A glass bottle and a bag of some unknown substance burst right next to Mage Seda!

Since his vision was equally impaired, Gaode naturally couldn’t aim at Mage Seda with precision either. It was only reasonable that his attack had been dodged.

"More acid." The pungent stench of sulfur instantly told Mage Seda what Gaode had thrown.

"Wait, is that... flour?" A secondary smell left Mage Seda utterly baffled.

Thrown alongside the vial of acid was actually a small sack of flour. Mage Seda couldn’t fathom Gaode’s intentions. The old "pocket sand" trick obviously only worked the first time, when it caught someone completely off guard. Moreover, how could flour that wasn’t even accurately aimed at his face possibly affect him in the slightest?

Gaode, however, had no intention of giving Mage Seda time to think. Immediately, another glass bottle and several consecutive small sacks of flour were hurled out from the depths of the fog. Though they still missed Mage Seda, a few drops of the splattering liquid from the shattered acid bottle flew in his direction. Fortunately, the Shield Skill was still active, forming a Protective Shield around Mage Seda.

Mage Seda had no time to ponder the purpose of the flour thrown alongside the acid. He simply assumed Gaode was trying to confuse him. He cursed viciously in his mind, "Where the hell did this kid get so many bottles of acid?" Meanwhile, he hurriedly shifted his feet to change positions.

But in the very next moment, he let out a sudden, agonized, and hoarse shriek. He looked down at his right foot. There, on the floor, was a puddle of acid, and Mage Seda had stepped right in it.

The acid instantly ate through the sole of his shoe, then began corroding the skin and flesh of his foot, emitting a gruesome, hissing sizzle. The moment his skin touched the acid, it began to dissolve, leaving behind a charred, bubbling wound that brought agonizing pain. When had Mage Seda ever suffered such an injury?

"Where did this acid come from? It must be from the bottles he threw earlier!" he realized.

Actually, not entirely. In addition to the acid spilled from the shattered glass bottles, there was also the acid left behind by Gaode’s earlier [Acid Splash+] attacks—a bonus effect: the acid could remain on the battlefield for up to a full day, depending on the caster’s preference.

Although the three consecutive [Acid Splash+] spells had all been blocked by Mage Seda’s Shield Skill, the residual acid had not vanished. Instead, it combined with the acid from the broken bottles to form a Landmine Array around Mage Seda, severely restricting his movements.

Under normal circumstances, puddles of acid on the ground wouldn’t pose much of a threat to Mage Seda. But now, with the Hidden Mist Skill completely obscuring his vision, it left him feeling as though he couldn’t even take a single step forward. If he moved, he risked stepping in more acid. But if he stayed perfectly still, wouldn’t he just be a sitting duck?

The power of his Shield Skill had almost entirely dissipated. Without the Shield Skill to act as a Protective Shield, he could no longer emerge completely unscathed from the acid as he had before.

Caught in this dilemma, Mage Seda suddenly recalled Gaode’s initially baffling use of the [Mage’s Hand] to retrieve the magic potion. He finally realized that, even back then, Gaode had been laying the groundwork for the Hidden Mist Skill. He also understood why the boy had brought so many acid bottles—they were entirely meant for setting up this Landmine Array.

Gaode had known perfectly well that [Acid Splash] was useless against his Shield Skill, yet he had persistently continued to cast it anyway. Mage Seda had assumed the boy was simply out of options and desperately forcing the issue. Now, it was obvious that all of those attacks were designed specifically to drain the power of his Shield Skill, ensuring that he could no longer just ignore the constant barrage of thrown acid bottles.

This masterfully woven trap had finally snared even a seasoned veteran like him, plunging him into an inescapable dilemma.