Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

As soon as he finished speaking, three icicles emitting a chilling aura appeared beside Hughes. The next moment, the icicles spun wildly, causing the surrounding cold winds to rush towards Moken in three different directions.

These three directions locked down Moken's dodge routes. He had learned this from Keller and the others. Before Moken could even get up, three ice spikes were already in front of him.

As soon as Moken came to his senses, he saw the three ice spikes aimed at him and immediately raised his left hand; his left arm was encased in a gauntlet.

The sapphire at the center of the wrist guard shattered, and a viscous blue liquid quickly flowed out of the gem, spreading down the arm and enveloping Moken's entire body.

Just as it was about to spread to his head, Moken took a deep breath and held it in the blue slime. The three ice spikes were stopped as soon as they pierced the slime and could only slowly advance towards Moken in the slime. Strangely, the slime was not frozen by the ice spikes.

Hughes immediately followed up with a penetrating dark ray at Moken. The ray pierced through the slime and shot into Moken's heart. Moken coughed up a mouthful of blood mist in pain, while three ice spikes successfully pierced into Moken's body.

Seeing that the spells had all hit Moken, Hughes sensed something was wrong. He used his mental power to investigate and discovered that Moken's figure was different from what he saw with his naked eye.

The three ice spikes just now only pierced non-lethal areas, while the dark ray went to Moken's left side—Moken had previously used illusion magic to confuse Hughes's vision!

The ice spike lost all momentum as soon as it pierced Moken's body, becoming stuck inside. Meanwhile, the slime left Moken's body and rushed towards Hughes.

"Click—"

Hughes's Frostbreath Robe was already imbued with magic in the rich ice elemental environment of Levis, generating an ice wall that blocked Hughes's path. The sludge clump collided with the ice wall, and the immense force smashed several cracks into it.

Sensing the threat posed by the slime mass, Hughes held back. His Frostbreath Robe billowed, and dense ice element flowed from it, freezing the area around the slime mass and forming thick ice walls.

There is a time interval between the Frostbreath Robe casting Ice Crystal Barrier. Hughes quickly formed an ice wall to envelop the slime mass by manipulating the large amount of ice element released by the Frostbreath Robe.

Thump! Thump! Thump! ..."

The clump of mucus kept pushing outwards, seemingly trying to break free of its cage.

"Aaaaaah!!"

After emerging from the sludge mass, Moken quickly took a deep breath of the cold air. Looking at the wounds caused by the ice spikes, Moken was furious. He had never been made to look so pathetic by a second-level wizard apprentice.

Upon discovering that Hughes was trapping his slime ball with ice, Moken frantically chanted incantations, and two illusory clones emerged from his body.

The three "Mokens" rushed towards Hughes together, constantly changing positions to confuse him. Soon, the three surrounded Hughes and unleashed phantom daggers at him.

In an instant, dozens of energy daggers shot towards Hughes from three directions. The Phantom Daggers were a combination of real daggers and phantom daggers used to disrupt the opponent's defense.

Moken's change of position confused Hughes, so Hughes had to put on a short-range protective shield before the three "Mokens" arrived. But looking at so many daggers, Hughes was unsure if the shield could hold up.

At this moment, the Frostbreath Robe was too late to generate an ice wall, and the Light Barrier of the Light Armor could only defend one side. Hughes gritted his teeth and, without hesitation, cast the Light Barrier, charging towards one of the "Moken" randomly without fear.

Fortunately, all the daggers in this direction disappeared as soon as they touched the barrier of light, indicating that this "Moken" was an illusionary clone. The illusionary clone also caused real damage, which is a spell that only a formal wizard can use.

Hughes's charge missed its mark, as expected. "Moken" vanished from the spot, and Hughes quickly regained his footing. Just as he turned around, Moken swung his dagger at Hughes.

Hughes drew his cross sword and swung it upwards. "Moken" disappeared, and the real Moken, holding a dagger, stabbed at Hughes from behind the phantom clone. But this time, Moken's strength was much weaker, and the poisoned dagger was blocked by Hughes's light armor, failing to pierce Hughes's flesh.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Hughes swung his sword and severed Moken's right hand, which was holding a poisoned dagger.

"Aaaaah!" Moken roared in fury and kicked Hughes away, disappearing into the snowstorm. Hughes reacted quickly and froze the dagger, preventing Moken from taking it again.

The snowstorm intensified, leaving Hughes surrounded by a vast expanse of white. Moken quietly concealed himself in the snowstorm and minimized Hughes's presence.

Hughes, holding his sword and guarding the poisoned dagger, could not sense Moken's presence with his spiritual power. Just as he was about to unleash the deflection field, Moken jumped out of the snowstorm and interrupted him, swinging his scimitar at Hughes. Hughes parried with his sword.

"bite--"

After missing his first attack, Moken leaped back into the snowstorm and hid. Then, Moken launched a frenzied attack on Hughes from all directions.

Some of these attacks were illusions, while others were real. Hughes couldn't tell the difference and could only deal with them one by one. But whenever he blocked an illusion attack, a real attack would come from elsewhere, and Hughes gradually accumulated wounds of various sizes.

At the same time, Hughes also heard the sound of the slime clump crashing not far away. It seemed that with Moken's warning, the slime clump began to crash in one direction, and at this time, a layer of ice wall had been shattered.

Hughes knew he couldn't fight a protracted battle. His strength was waning, and casting defensive spells to buffer the bleeding would be interrupted by Moken. If the slime mass successfully escaped, he would surely die today.

Xiu Si made a decision. After withstanding a physical attack, he deliberately exposed an opening. Moken's scimitar slashed at Xiu Si's neck, and Xiu Si raised his left hand to protect his neck.

"Click—"

The scimitar shattered the light armor on Hughes' left arm, the blade sinking deep into his arm, fortunately without separating flesh from bone.

Hughes threw away the cross sword with his right hand, suddenly reached forward and grabbed Moken by the collar, pulling Moken towards himself with force.

Taking advantage of this gap, Hughes cast Frost Blast, and a bit of ice condensed on his forehead. He then slammed his forehead hard against Moken, and the two heads collided with a crisp sound.

"Crackling sound—"

The Frost Blast spell exploded in the opposite direction of the target it was attached to, so Hughes' head was unharmed. However, Moken's head was not so lucky; it was hit by the Frost Blast spell, and Moken's head made a muffled sound.

Hughes released his grip and slumped to the ground, while Moken showed no signs of life. A large hole had been opened in his forehead, and his brain matter mixed with blood had spilled all over the ground, staining the once pristine white snow red.

At the same time, the slime mass turned into a pool of blue liquid, and only a thin layer of ice wall remained between it and its escape from the cage.