Chapter 1968 - 1056: Another Shadow_2

Chapter 1968: Chapter 1056: Another Shadow_2

But the intuition that surged up the instant he stepped out half a step yanked him back immediately.

He slammed on the brakes, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in his heart. His eyes quickly returned to calm, and his expression grew incomparably grave.

He knew all too well what the phenomenon before his eyes meant. If Yor were safe and sound, she would never appear here in such a bizarre, trapped form.

This eerie Shadow clearly showed that Yor was currently deep in danger, her Status extremely poor.

Cole rapidly weighed the current situation, his heart filled with heaviness.

With his present Strength, he had absolutely no certainty of breaking this beyond‑reason Shadow anomaly’s confinement and rescuing Yor.

If he acted rashly on impulse, he not only wouldn’t be able to save her, he might even sink into it himself and throw his life away for nothing.

Not daring to delay even a heartbeat, Cole immediately focused his mind and activated the Magic Communication Tool, giving the Black Cat a complete and precise report of the bizarre Shadow phenomenon he had discovered in a back alley of Jonas City.

At the same time, he simultaneously marked the exact position and the abnormal scene before him.

After doing all this, he stared unblinkingly at the eerie Shadow on the wall, and cautiously raised his right hand, probing as he stretched it forward.

The setting sun was completely blocked by his palm, and the normal shadow beneath his hand shifted accordingly.

But that strange, bottomless Shadow did not move in the slightest from beginning to end, completely unaffected by the obstruction of light.

Just as his fingertips approached the Shadow’s range, an extreme sense of warning suddenly surged up from the depths of Cole’s heart.

It was as if a pair of icy eyes hidden deep within the Darkness had locked firmly onto his figure.

A deadly sense of danger enveloped his whole body, the bone‑piercing chill making every muscle in him instantly tighten.

Without the slightest hesitation, Cole clenched his hand with gritted teeth and decisively twisted his body to retreat several steps back.

He was not cowering in Fear of danger, nor was he trying to abandon Yor, who was trapped in crisis.

He was incomparably clear in his heart that the Shadow Power at this moment was unknown and perilous beyond measure.

If he rashly stepped in and was swallowed together by this Abyss‑like Shadow, then no one would ever know Yor’s whereabouts.

No one to pass on the message, no one to come to her rescue; she would be completely trapped and die in this Darkness, with no chance of salvation.

He had to hold steady and wait for support from the Association to arrive.

But just as Cole’s feet had barely withdrawn a few steps, the eerie Shadow lurking on the wall suddenly erupted with a terrifying disturbance.

The human‑shaped dark silhouette that had only been faintly writhing suddenly twisted violently, like a living creature of the Abyss thoroughly enraged.

The pitch‑black Shadow continuously stretched and expanded, its edges tearing out shards of black light. In just a brief instant it broke free from the wall’s constraints and swelled outward with a roar.

Layers upon layers of boundless Darkness spread out, transforming into a huge, dense Shadow web with not a single blind spot.

Carrying a chilling wind pressure that sought to engulf everything, it crashed down toward Cole from above and from all directions, as if to seal off all his routes of retreat.

Faced with this sudden lethal assault, there was not a trace of panic in Cole’s heart.

Back when he first sensed the Shadow’s fatal killing intent, he had already been secretly gathering power, activating the full set of Magic Equipment and tools he had prepared in advance.

Accompanied by crisp rune vibrations, several condensed Magic Light Blades shot out from the Equipment on his body.

Ice Spikes, Wind Blades, Light Sabers crisscrossed in layers, carrying the sharp screech of rending air as they precisely slashed toward the onrushing Shadow web.

This was his usual Magic offensive pattern, specially prepared for dealing with all kinds of unexpected situations.

But in the next second, a hair‑raising scene completely overturned Cole’s understanding.

Every attack condensed with Magic Power vanished soundlessly the instant it touched that bottomless Shadow, without stirring up the slightest ripple, dissolving and collapsing without even leaving a trace of light.

Cole’s pupils shrank abruptly, and a cold conclusion flashed through his mind.

Conventional Magic Power was completely ineffective against this eerie Shadow!

At the brink of life and Death, he hesitated not at all, Instant Cast a Wind Acceleration Spell.

Pale cyan Wind Elements instantly wrapped around his entire body, pushing his speed to the extreme.

His figure turned into an afterimage, retreating violently toward the empty lot at the rear of the alley.

The wind howled past his ears; he had already wrung his movement speed to its limit.

But the Shadow’s speed far surpassed reason!

That pitch‑black web that devoured light pressed down as if by teleportation, several times faster than Cole retreating at full speed.

The bone‑chilling Darkness closed in behind him in an instant, the frigid aura of Death locking firmly onto his Qi, leaving him nowhere to run.

In the blink of an eye, the Shadow web was already pressed against his back.

An extreme cold pierced through his clothes and Magic Shield, seeping into his bones.

This was not an ordinary chill, but a cold that stripped away life force and Devoured the soul.

It made the blood throughout Cole’s body almost congeal, his scalp tingle, his body go rigid in an instant.

He felt the Shadow of Death had completely shrouded him.

Just as Cole was about to be wholly swallowed by the boundless Darkness, a thin yet incomparably upright figure appeared before him without the slightest warning.

It was Teacher Lis!

Cole did not see when he had arrived or from where he had appeared; it was as if his teacher had always been standing within this Space.

At that hair‑trigger moment, Lis precisely clamped down on Cole’s shoulder.

No gorgeous Magic halos, no complex runes flashing—just a simple grip and a wave.

Space instantly rippled with barely perceptible waves and folds, the twisted Space Power wrapping around Cole’s body.

In the next instant, Cole only felt the light and shadows before his eyes blur, and the sense of weightlessness around him flashed by in a heartbeat.

Then his entire person had already been shifted to an open lot dozens of meters behind the alley, completely out of the Shadow’s coverage.

At the moment he landed, before Cole could steady himself, a deafening boom echoed from the street behind him.

Boom!

Lis stood at the mouth of the alley, his thin right arm suddenly gathering power, then crashing forward.

This plain, unadorned punch had no arcane buff, no Elements surging, yet it erupted with an earth‑shattering, terrifying might.

The fist rent the air, stirring up a shrill sonic boom, and the fierce wave of Strength instantly crushed the entire Darkness.

The pitch‑black Shadow web had no power to resist and shattered like broken glass, exploding apart with a roar into countless tiny black fragments that drifted away on the wind in the afterglow of the setting sun.

What was even more shocking was Lis’s ultimate control over his Strength.

The force of this blow was enough to directly smash apart the Solid bluestone city walls of Jonas City.

Yet under his precise control of power, all destructive force was gathered entirely within the narrow area in front of his fist.

The violent fist wind folded inward layer by layer and quietly dissipated.

The surrounding walls were as smooth as before, the bricks in the alley did not budge; not even a single loose brick or a grain of Dust was shaken free—a level of precision that defied belief.

When the smoke and Dust dispersed, two figures quietly appeared at Cole’s side: Stephens and Tarinda, who had hurried over.

The two stood shoulder to shoulder, their eyes fixed on Lis at the alley entrance, their expressions full of gravity and astonishment, brimming with disbelief.

Both of them were Great Arcanists, their vision far beyond ordinary people; with a single glance they saw through the essence of that punch.

From beginning to end, that punch had not contained a trace of Mana flow, no Element buff at all, but was pure, ultimate, most primal physical Strength!

Lis was likewise a Great Arcanist. His body appeared thin and frail, showing none of a warrior’s burly frame.

Yet the explosive force and suppressive power of that punch had already surpassed the vast majority of close‑combat warriors of the same level.

Domineering, terrifying, inspiring dread from the bottom of one’s heart!

Even Stephens, who had long known a few of Lis’s secrets, now furrowed his brows, his mind shaken.

He simply could not connect this physically invincible powerhouse before him with the gentle, steady disciple who devoted himself to Magic research in daily life.

But then he thought: since Lis could even find the long‑lost Divine Position of "Magic", possessing such Special Power that transcended common sense seemed explainable after all... like hell it was!

This was downright supernatural!

Stephens and Tarinda exchanged a glance and saw deep shock in each other’s eyes.

If they had been the ones to face that heavy punch head‑on, they absolutely could not have fended it off easily.

If they hadn’t already been shocked once by Lis earlier and built up some immunity, the two of them might well have been unable to keep their expressions under control again at this moment.