A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 291 The Battle of Holding Back

It actually shattered the blue light barrier. Rorschach frowned. Fortunately, Freddy and Singrev reacted quickly enough, discarding the fire poker as if it were a hot potato.

As the tentacles retracted, the viscous black liquid formed from the gun was absorbed by the tentacles and sucked into the old man's black robe.

Rorschach frowned. The other party hadn't made any spellcasting movements; it had simply used strange tentacles to easily break through his barrier.

It shouldn't be like this, even the metamorphosis dust could be blocked. Luo Xia prepared to fire the [Melting Ray] at the black monk, but suddenly a dark energy surged from the center of the black monk, and Luo Xia felt the gravity gradually disappear.

Weightlessness is a novel experience. Freddy and the dwarf were ready to fight, but during the sudden takeoff, they lost their balance and were spinning around.

"Ugh!" The upside-down church was simply a church with the ceiling and floor reversed. Freddy's physique was far inferior to that of the dwarfs or even the little soot sprites. This guy immediately lost his sense of direction and vomited after spinning around a few times.

Singrevive, who had taken to the air, positioned himself between Rorschach and the Black Monk, forcing Rorschach to abandon his attack. He quickly cast Levitation on his companions, attempting to stabilize their floating posture.

With Rorschach's spell, Singrev quickly regained his balance in the weightless environment, but he was not yet familiar with the way he moved and tried to dog paddle in the air.

Rorschach used the recoil from the Air Cannon to control his posture and move, and used the Mage's Hand to pull Singlev away from the dwarf and prevent him from getting too far away.

Theoretically, now is the perfect time for the Black Monk to make his move. In the weightless environment, countless tentacles float freely, but he did not launch an attack at this moment.

Within Rorschach's limited field of vision, he could see paint, turpentine, and buckets that had also taken to the air being hooked by tentacles, and suspended liquids being absorbed and swept away by the tentacles.

Finally, another attack from the whiskers began, and the poet was almost whipped, but at the last moment he suddenly changed direction. It turned out that Little Coal Ball had pulled him away.

Now, Little Coal Ball is being pulled along by three bats. Weightlessness is not a vacuum. The three pairs of wings pull Little Coal Ball and Freddy along, making them move easily and effortlessly in the main hall.

Rorschach had already positioned himself, and his [Melting Ray] easily severed the elongated tentacles from the side, like snips cutting off a strand of hair, while a strong smell of burning protein wafted over.

The attack on the black monk's tentacles has been temporarily interrupted, but it was only a feint by Rorschach using his staff. The real [Rorschach's Great Disintegration Technique] was launched as soon as it was ready, and the invisible ray roared as it aimed at the black monk.

However, the desired effect was not achieved. The old man (although the enemy's form only retained an old man's head) seemed to be able to see the trajectory of the invisible ray and easily sidestepped. A cluster of tentacles quickly became inactive and collapsed into ashes, but the black monk could actively sever the connection of the tentacles, and his main body, like a cloud of black mist, escaped the disintegration.

Damn it! Rorschach considered his Great Disintegration spell a deadly move, but it had a serious flaw: the molten ray could be continuously output, easily sweeping across a fan-shaped area. Furthermore, aside from the long casting time of the Great Disintegration spell, due to his limited blue proficiency and reliance on his own magical power, the ray could only last for an extremely short time, allowing the Black Monk to successfully dodge it this time.

Even more strangely, when the opponent lifted his black robe, the ashes blasted out by the Disintegration Technique no longer scattered. Instead, a viscous black liquid was generated from his body, successfully recovering the ashes and restoring the number of tentacles.

"Heh, it's truly incredible that you can master such magic at your age." The dark-skinned monk revealed a chilling smile. He remained calm and composed, even offering his critique: "But it's immature, the magic is far too immature! In my opinion, it's nothing special."

Despite the harsh criticism, Rorschach's decomposition technique was not in vain. Everyone experienced a momentary "throwing sensation," meaning the "weightlessness" in the space vanished instantly. The black monk's offensive rhythm was interrupted again. He didn't know why he was so obsessed with manipulating the gravity in the environment, and once again, dark energy spread.

Rorschach attempted to interrupt the process using "Magic Scream," but the dark energy itself did not seem to be entirely the same as the magic in the environment, and the mage's effort failed to stop it.

With a series of crashes and clatters, all the unsecured furniture and other debris fell onto the real floor. Now, the interior of the inverted church was inverted again, the ceiling and floor returning to normal. Rorschach waved his staff, casting the [Featherfall] spell on each of his companions. Not only the furniture, but the walls of the entire building were trembling and shaking. Rorschach was momentarily disoriented; was it a shift in gravity, or had the church itself inverted again?

The black-robed monk remained floating in the air, looking down from above.

Just then, a commotion arose outside the building, with the flapping of wings and cries. "It's the flying mice! They're back!" Singhlev shouted.

Bats hunt cyclically and in groups, so the entire upside-down church is clearly a colony's nest.

"ah----"

Little Coal Ball suddenly let out a long scream, which was deafening to Freddie, who was closest to her. The sound of flapping wings grew louder and louder, and a gray cloud rushed into the main hall from all the doors and windows.

"How many flying rats are there?" Singhlev felt a chill run down his spine. He looked up and saw his vision completely obscured by a dense swarm of bats, thousands upon thousands. They fluttered and shrieked, surging as one entity beneath the black monk's whiskers and above everyone's heads.

Little Coal Ball let out a few more screams, this time with a change in tone. Under her command, some of the bats circled around to form a flesh and blood barrier for everyone, while the other part rushed towards the Black Monk.

"Can the Rat Whisperer control an entire swarm?" The old man frowned. Faced with the horde of bats, he could have easily turned these little creatures into puddles of black water by waving his whiskers, but instead, he transformed into a cloud of black mist as a swarm of bats rushed over, allowing them to rush past and then reform their forms.

What exactly was the other party's intention? Despite the interference from the bats, Rorschach was certain that the Black Monk's attack had stopped.

The battle had just begun very suddenly, and Rorschach and the others were caught off guard. Now that Rorschach had calmed down and was on solid ground, he no longer needed to constantly cast protective and levitation spells on his teammates.

Arcane Vision and Magic Mastery simultaneously deepened and expanded, causing Rorschach to reassess his surroundings. Although they were now standing normally inside the building, the gravity was reversed because the church itself was upside down in the cave.

How did they do that? Rorschach could sense the energy fluctuations, but they were different from magic.

He recalled another detail: when the old man first altered the gravity, he didn't take advantage of Luo Xia and his group's panic to kill them. Instead, he immediately put away the paint, buckets, and other items that might ruin the painting.

A painting! He looked up. In his normal vision, there were only bats, but in Arcane Vision, a halo of light covered the ceiling like clouds. Everyone had been immersed in this "cloud" before, and Rorschach hadn't realized it until now, revealing his true form.

(End of this chapter)