Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

The sudden explosion of the ice spear caught Heleto off guard, but fortunately, a pale golden light shield suddenly burst open around him, locking all the flying ice shards and shockwaves outside. The ice blocks hit the surface of the light shield, creating ripples.

As the protective shield rose, Heleto belatedly clutched the magical artifact at his waist—an exquisite belt with a golden gem inlaid in fine silver thread on dark leather.

"Whoosh"

Another ice spear shot out, but unlike the last one, this one came spiraling inwards, enveloped in a white aura, leaving a trail of chilling energy in mid-air.

"Tsk, you've learned to change your tactics?"

Heleto raised an eyebrow and said, then gave a light nod to the golden gem. The next second, the runes inside the gem changed, and the pale golden light shield around him suddenly contracted forward, with an arc-shaped golden edge. The originally diffused halo condensed into a circular light shield.

The spinning ice spear collided with the light shield. The light shield shuddered violently upon contact, and the spinning ice spear shattered from the tip down into ice shards scattered all over the ground under the force of the shield's recoil.

Having been entangled with a half-dead second-class wizard apprentice for so long, Heleto was a little embarrassed. He quickly fired two light bullets, blasting two large holes in the frost-skinned dwarf's head and chest.

The remaining two frost-skinned dwarves both targeted Hughes. They charged one at Hughes while the other unleashed several dark rays at him.

Hughes unleashed a deflection field, causing a slight distortion in the surrounding space. The first ray, upon entering the field's range, was uncontrollably jerked upwards, as if pushed by an invisible wall, grazing Hughes's shoulder before flying off at an angle and blasting a small, smoking crater in the ground some distance away.

The following rays were even more bizarre. Some suddenly turned ninety degrees in mid-air, some drew an arc around the edge of the force field, and the remaining two turned and collided at the same time. At the moment of collision, two dark lights lit up and then disappeared into the air.

Hughes stood in the center of the field, observing the trajectory of the dark rays.

"As expected, as strength increases, the angle at which the deflection field can be deflected also increases." Looking at the dark ray that had deflected 90 degrees, Hughes confirmed his guess.

Seeing the frost-skinned dwarf charging towards him, Hughes bent down, grabbed a snowball, and with a flash of icy blue light in his hand, he threw the snowball at the frost-skinned dwarf.

"Bang—"

The moment the snowball hit the frost-skinned dwarf, it triggered the Frost Blast spell. A burst of icy blue light exploded on the snowball, tearing through the dwarf's rough skin.

The Frost Blast spell blasted a bloody hole in the Frostskin Dwarf's right shoulder. The dwarf's purplish right hand hung limply at his side, barely held together by some skin and flesh. The iron armor plates had long since disappeared.

"roar--"

He tilted his head, his pale eyes fixed on the direction from which the snowball was flying, and a muffled growl came from his throat.

His remaining left hand suddenly grabbed the iron hammer at his waist, but it was already too late. A snowball hit him on the head, and the icy blue light exploded again. His head was shattered into pieces, with only half of his mouth still attached to his body.

"laugh--"

Before the icy mist had dissipated, Hughes withdrew his hand, and the spinning ice spear, with a sharp whooshing sound, pierced the chest of the frost-skinned dwarf in the distance. The continuous release of dark rays depleted its magic power, leaving it without even the strength to dodge.

The moment the ice spear pierced the body, ice crystals spread along the wound, freezing it into a crooked ice sculpture before shattering into dust.

On the other side, the battle with Jovin was also coming to an end. The frost-skinned dwarf's heavy punches, which were covered in ice crystals, hit him, but could only leave slight marks, not even breaking his skin.

Jovin's attacks were simple and brutal, each punch accompanied by a tearing explosion of air. When his fists landed, the dwarf's rough skin would explode like paper.

"roar--"

As the opponent let out a dying roar, Jovin lunged forward, his right fist slamming down towards the dwarf's face.

"laugh--"

With a dull cracking sound, the dwarf's body slumped to the ground, his neck and above reduced to a blurry mass of flesh and blood.

The battle ahead had ended. Hughes turned around and looked back. The battle behind him had long since ended. Elena watched their battle expressionlessly, with only three pools of ice behind her.

As for Vilia, seeing that everyone had found a foe, she stood in the middle to sense the tree spirit's movements. Her eyes were closed, and she slowly raised her hands, palms facing each other, with emerald green light swirling around her fingertips.

She uttered complex incantations, and the light between her fingers rose and fell gently with her breath, as if resonating with it—her eyes suddenly opened, but the green light in them lingered.

Vivian's body tensed, her green eyes fixed intently ahead, and she said in a solemn voice:

"They're catching up, a lot of them! 50 meters—40 meters—!"

Hughes sensed something was wrong and abandoned his plan to sever the left ears of the two frost-skinned dwarves in front of him. He immediately cast a short-range protective shield and a deflection field on himself—suddenly! A sense of crisis washed over him, and Hughes instinctively activated the two elemental orbs of his Dark Absorber Robe.

The next moment, the purple magic patterns on the Dark Absorption Robe lit up rapidly, and the purple light moved across the fabric. The circular magic patterns on the left and right shoulders suddenly burst forth with a dark light.

Hughes felt a weight on his shoulder as two elemental spheres formed from dark elements emerged from the circular magic runes, hovering half an inch above his shoulder. After a short while, Hughes manipulated them to stop in front of him.

Just as the two elemental orbs stopped in front of him, a jet of venom as thick as a washbasin blasted towards Hughes, who was not far away.

At the critical moment, the two dark elemental spheres in front of Hughes sensed the deadly threat and seemed to gain their own consciousness, rushing forward instantly.

Just before the venom pillar arrived, the two dark orbs suddenly stretched and merged, transforming into a pure black round shield with a purplish-black halo around its edges, which steadily blocked Hughes's path.

"laugh--"

The column of venom slammed into the pure black round shield, producing a piercing corrosive sound. The black shield trembled violently, and ripples spread across its surface.

Some venom spilled from the point of impact, landing on the ground and emitting foul-smelling white smoke, but the pure black round shield showed no reaction, as if it were "absorbing" the venom column. Hughes stood there dumbfounded, watching the pure black round shield firmly block the venom that was enough to melt through iron armor.

"Be careful!"

"It's Vivian." The words had barely left her lips when the snow suddenly trembled violently. A decaying tree spirit, entirely black with vines coiled around its body like snakes, leaped out from the front, carrying a strong stench of decay, and jumped in front of Hughes.

Its right arm, made of twisted branches, suddenly tensed and slammed down with a whistling sound that tore through the air.

"boom--"

With a dull thud, the hard snow was smashed open with spiderweb-like cracks, snow and frozen soil flew everywhere, and Hughes was precisely struck by the corrupted tree spirit's right arm.