Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

The instant the ice wall rose, the dark elements surging in Billy's hands suddenly solidified, extending forward from his hands and instantly transforming into two giant claws covered in dark patterns.

The enormous, jet-black claw slammed forward with the force to tear through the air—"Crack!"

The ice wall shattered instantly, and ice crystals mixed with the cold air flew everywhere. Before the flying ice crystals could even land, they were touched by the dark elements emanating from the giant claw and instantly corroded into wisps of white smoke, which then dissipated into the air.

The dark giant claw dissipated, and Billy touched the ground with his toes, twisting all his muscles into a taut spring. He then forcefully sprang forward, piercing through the icy air bursting from the shattered ice wall, and rushed in front of Hughes.

His hands, enveloped in thick dark elements, slammed heavily into Hughes's chest with a sharp whistling sound that tore through the air.

Hughes drew his sword to parry, and at the same time, lightly touched the gem on the hilt of the cross-shaped sword with his fingertip—the Wind Barrier was activated.

The surrounding air currents surged and then condensed into a semi-transparent wind wall beside him. The air currents spun rapidly on the wall, emitting a faint whistling sound.

The moment the wind wall took shape, three wind projectiles glowing with a bluish light shot through the air and crashed into the wind wall with a sharp whistling sound.

"Puff puff puff—"

With a few muffled thuds, the wind bullets crashed into the swirling airflow, instantly pulverizing and dissipating into the air as wisps of wind.

"clang--"

The dark giant claw slammed into the cross blade that Hughes held horizontally, causing the blade to tremble violently and emit a painful hum.

Hughes felt a sudden numbness in the web of his hand gripping the sword hilt, and a piercing force surged up his arm, almost causing him to lose his grip on the longsword.

He gritted his teeth, unleashing his full knight-level physical prowess, and with the lingering force of the shockwave, he spun around violently, his cross-shaped sword flashing coldly as he swung it heavily toward Billy.

"Whoosh—Clang!"

Billy raised his hand to block, and a wisp of dark element was cut out, turning into a few wisps of black smoke that dissipated into the air.

"clang--"

"Clang clang—!"

Several rapid collision sounds rang out in succession as the blade collided with the dark elements, sparking tiny sparks. Hughes held his sword to defend while also controlling the wind wall to block the wind projectiles launched by Grimm.

Green's wind projectiles always had tricky angles, often skillfully bypassing the wind wall and whistling past Hughes's robes.

In fact, the elemental spheres on Hughes' black robe could have easily blocked these attacks, but Billy and Green's offensive was relentless like a storm, leaving him no chance to catch his breath.

The elemental sphere of the Dark Absorber Robe required Hughes to continuously mobilize his mental energy to activate it. However, Hughes was focused on fighting Billy and also had to use his mental energy to detect Green's movements in the distance, so he simply couldn't spare any mental energy to continuously activate the Dark Absorber Robe.

Just as Hughes was struggling against the two, the thick smoke around Heleto quickly dissipated, and Lyra and Hark saw the disheveled Heleto.

The light membrane surrounding him had completely shattered, and light element particles continued to scatter from the edges of the remaining fragments. These scattered particles swayed in the air before gradually dimming and dissolving.

Fortunately, the light membrane completely blocked Lyra's flame impact, and he was not injured. His clothes were wrinkled from the high temperature.

Upon seeing this, Hack and Lyra immediately unleashed the magic they had prepared beforehand at Heleto. Both of them had a high affinity for fire, and Lyra cast three green fireballs the size of human heads.

Hack then shook his arms, causing the fire element around him to suddenly boil. A twisted, rotating crimson pillar of fire condensed in his palms, as thick as a bowl, accompanied by crackling sparks—an enhanced version of the scorching ray.

The pillar of fire was the fastest, shooting towards Heleto first, while the three green fireballs spun rapidly around the edge of the crimson pillar of fire, following closely behind and rushing towards the same target.

Two fiery spells intertwined in the air, creating scorching waves that even slightly distorted the air itself.

Two spells struck Heleto, and red and green flames erupted one after another, distorting the space around Heleto.

Just when the two thought Heleto was going to perish in the fire, a circle of purple runes lit up around Heleto. It seemed that the flames were scorching him. The runes shattered, and Heleto's figure suddenly disappeared.

"phantom!"

Just as the two were reacting, suddenly—several arrows of light, gleaming with intense white light, shot out from behind without warning. Layla's pupils contracted sharply, and almost instinctively, she stepped to the side to shield Hack.

The necklace around her neck suddenly burst forth with dazzling golden light, which instantly condensed into a thick shield of light, its surface flowing with holy patterns, steadily blocking the two of them.

"Clang clang clang—"

The light arrows struck the light shield one after another, producing crisp impact sounds. The intense white light collided with the holy golden light, scattering countless tiny light particles. The light shield trembled violently, yet it remained firmly in place, blocking all the deadly attacks.

Just as the light arrows dissipated, a light bullet the size of a fist suddenly shot out and exploded abruptly just a few feet away from the light shield—a blinding golden light burst forth like the sun exploding.

The incandescent light instantly filled their vision, and Lyra and Hack felt a sudden white light before their eyes, instantly losing all their ability to see.

Hark clutched his eyes in agony, knowing all too well what this temporary blindness meant—the enemy would never let this opportunity slip by. He took a deep breath, his teeth grinding together, and a hoarse incantation was forced out from between them.

The next moment, the air around the two suddenly heated up, and the fire element surged and gathered wildly. Soon, a blazing ring with orange-red flames appeared around them, firmly protecting them in the center.

Without hesitation, Hack immediately cast the Ring of Resistance. The protective ring of fire suddenly contracted and then exploded outwards like gunpowder.

The fire waves formed by the resistance ring swept around the two of them, and the fire continued to spread. Heleto, who was hiding not far away, had to put up a light shield to block the fire waves in front of him.

Taking advantage of this brief respite, Hack and Lyra regained their sight. They drank a low-grade mana potion, and their mana quickly recovered. After the fire subsided, Heleto sensed danger.

The light membrane once again covered his entire body. The next moment, a crimson flame surged forth, shattering his light shield. Heleto ran to the side, dodging the attack of the flame, but then several green fireballs shot towards him.

"Boom—boom boom—boom—"

Heleto's boots were engraved with speed runes, allowing him to run quickly. Behind him, fireballs whistled and shot, landing precisely on the path he had just trod, exploding into bursts of scorching fire.

Heleto ran around the two of them, while Lyra kept releasing fireballs at Heleto, and Hack was storing fire elemental energy on the side, waiting for the right moment.