Above the mage

Chapter 228 [Magic Energy Explosion+]

Everything happened so suddenly that neither the snow wolf nor the tribe members had time to react.

The only one who reacted at the scene was Lauter, who had narrowly escaped death.

Seeing the snow wolf that had knocked him to the ground being blasted away, Lauter, driven by his survival instinct, immediately scrambled to his feet as fast as he could.

Ignoring the intense pain from his shoulder wound, he hurriedly ran back to the tribe.

"kill!"

The clan chief finally realized what was happening and roared angrily.

Under his command, the tribe's hunters reacted quickly, throwing their spears.

The spears flew towards the wolf pack like raindrops.

Faced with this sudden counterattack, the wolf pack was instantly thrown into chaos.

The snow wolves howled angrily, attempting to launch an attack.

But before that, the threat of flying spears forced them to scatter and take cover.

The snow wolves are brave and fierce, and in just a moment they have already moved a great distance.

However, such a dense barrage of spears would not be without any results.

About seven or eight snow wolves were unable to dodge in time and were pierced through the body by the sharp spears, pinned to the snow, struggling in pain, their blood instantly staining the snow red.

But by this time, the remaining snow wolves had already adjusted their formation.

They were previously clustered together, so they were unable to defend themselves against the dense barrage of spears.

But now they have spread out, stretching the battle line extremely long. Given the snow wolves' agility and speed, it's unlikely that the flying spears will pose any threat to them under these circumstances.

Therefore, what follows will be the bloodiest and most brutal melee combat.

Meanwhile, the clan leader himself also suddenly sprang into action at that moment.

With a furious shout, his eyes turned a frosty, deep blue, and an icy blue light appeared in his hands.

A moment later, an arrow formed from solidified ice, without a bow, shot towards one of the ice wolves with a ring.

This is not a spell mastered by a conventional mage through constructing spell models, but rather a spell power that awakens spontaneously within one's bloodline.

The old patriarch was the only one in the entire tribe to awaken the Iceborn bloodline.

In other words, he was essentially the only mage in the entire tribe.

This is the biggest problem this tribe faces when confronted with attacks from snow wolves.

The people of the North live by hunting, and their combat skills and physical condition far surpass those of ordinary people. Even without magic, they can fight against ley line creatures with zero rings.

However, those three-headed, one-ringed ice wolves were far beyond the capabilities of ordinary Northerners.

Only the extraordinary can deal with the extraordinary.

In the North, the Iceborn bloodline is the extraordinary power upon which the people of the North depend for survival.

The old patriarch was very old and lacked both the confidence and the strength to fight three opponents alone.

But now, there's no other choice.

More importantly, the old patriarch also discovered the strange man who "flew" down the hillside.

He could only believe that the "weirdo" was powerful enough and willing to continue taking action.

Crack!

The icy arrow struck the snow wolf with pinpoint accuracy.

However, it was not as effective as the previous beam of flame.

With a crisp cracking sound, it shattered.

The snow wolf, having taken the blow head-on, only felt a slight pain and suffered some superficial injuries, baring its teeth and howling.

At its howl, the snow wolves pushed off with their hind legs, gliding across the snow as if on flat ground, and pounced towards the people of the tribe.

"ah!!"

The boy next to Joey was suddenly pounced on by a snow wolf and knocked to the ground.

Just one bite.

A huge bloody hole appeared on the boy's neck.

Before the hunters' spears could strike him, the cunning snow wolf had already landed a blow and nimbly retreated.

It merely bared its blood-stained fangs and stared at Joey, whose face was almost completely pale, with its cruel and ferocious green eyes.

It's like issuing a threat: you're next to die.

The battle had just begun on one side when another scream rang out from the other.

An elderly man, whose stomach had been ripped open by another ferocious snow wolf, collapsed to the ground and howled in pain.

Of course, the snow wolves weren't invincible either.

The most experienced hunter in the group thrust his spear with astonishing precision and power as a snow wolf pounced on him.

The spear made an aerial interception, its sharp, bone-like tip piercing through the snow wolf's most vulnerable abdomen, delivering a fatal blow.

The other hunters, though not as skilled as him, were also struggling to thrust their spears and drive away the snow wolves that pounced on them.

"Maintain your stamina and rhythm!" the hunting team leader shouted.

Each time you swing your spear with all your might, it takes a huge toll on your physical strength.

This is especially true when swinging the gun at a high frequency; one might become exhausted after dozens of consecutive swings.

These cunning giant wolves clearly understood this principle.

That's why they keep tentatively attacking the elderly, children, and women who have little ability to resist, rather than fighting the hunters.

This was to force the hunters to keep attacking and exhausting their stamina.

As predators on the snowfield, this is a common tactic they use when facing prey: by probing attacks and feints, they exhaust the prey's strength, and then easily pounce on it when it is exhausted.

However, the captain's reminder didn't have much effect.

It wasn't just the hunting team leader who could see through the snow wolves' scheme; the other hunters also understood their intentions. The problem was that the snow wolves were attacking their own kind.

The hunters dared not gamble and could only do their utmost to stop the snow wolves.

Meanwhile, after the old patriarch's attack, the Ice Wolf that had been blasted away by the fire beam had already gotten up.

The snow-white wolf fur at the wound site had now been stained a charred, mottled black by the embers of the flames.

This made it especially angry.

Anger stems not only from physical pain, but also from the trampling of dignity.

It fixed its gaze on the "culprit," the strange man who was speeding down the hillside at an incredible speed, kicking up clouds of snow.

Even the snow wolf that had taken a hit from the old patriarch was now too preoccupied to look at the old patriarch to focus its ferocious gaze on the strange man.

These creatures of the first ring of ley lines are extremely intelligent and clearly understand that this is the most troublesome enemy, and that they need to work together to deal with him first.

The three ice wolves slightly changed direction, and almost at the same moment, their strong and powerful limbs suddenly pushed off the ground, transforming into three white ghosts that rushed towards the strange man.

"Watch out!" the old patriarch shouted again, chasing after the three giant wolves to provide support.

In his view, the strange man was definitely in danger now that he was being attacked by the three ice wolves.

However, the strange man who "flew" down the hillside did not stop moving at all.

He began casting a spell as he moved.

Whoosh!Whoosh!

Two intense, dazzling beams of energy shot out from the "weirdo's" hands.

From its high vantage point, it shot towards two of the three ice wolves like two bolts of lightning piercing the sky.

The two ice wolves, locked in by the energy beam, used their hind legs to propel themselves to the right just as the beam was about to hit them.

Speed ​​is the Snow Wolf's forte.

However, the energy beam that had clearly been dodged suddenly drew a semi-circular arc in an extremely "flashy" manner, striking the two ice wolves that had relaxed their vigilance.

[Magic Burst+] (Evocation, 0 Rings):

Fires a powerful beam of energy at a creature within casting range (120 feet).

Additional: Within the casting range, the energy beam will continuously pursue the target.

After leaving Dandong Snow Peak, it took nearly a month before we officially entered the northern region via the North Mountain Route. During this time, we unlocked a new Zero-Ring Origin.

He decisively added this elemental power to [Magic Blast].

As the energy beam struck, the two snow wolves jolted violently, their rapid forward charge abruptly halting as they crashed onto the snow.

They did not have any obvious external injuries on their bodies, but in fact, they had suffered some kind of damage inside their bodies.

【Magic Blast】As the king of magic damage, in addition to its astonishing power of up to 10 degrees, there is another crucial point.

The damage it causes is "noble" force field damage.

Force field damage can penetrate material barriers, making it a powerful tool for breaking through defenses in most situations.

The power of force field damage is especially prominent when facing enemies with high defense or shields.

One of the main reasons why snow wolves "rule the country" in the North is that they have fur with considerable defensive capabilities.

Ordinary physical attacks are often largely neutralized by the smooth fur.

Furthermore, this fur possesses considerable ice resistance, which is precisely what the Northerners are best at and most commonly use in ice elemental magic.

This is why the old patriarch's Frost Arrows seemed so unreliable.

But Gao De, being an outsider, couldn't stand this treatment.

The penetrating force field damage directly ignored the Snow Wolf's fur defense, causing severe damage.

【Magic Burst+】Under the ring-up spell, the energy beam changes from one to two, but there are still three Ice Wolves.

So the last ice wolf was already close to its attack range and pounced towards Gaode.

Gao De's expression remained unchanged.

He had already cast [Shield] on himself as he began to slide down the slope.

However, he didn't say that he would just use the [Shield] spell to withstand the flying attack.

Gao De slightly turned his body to the side, using his superb skiing skills to press down on his body and make a sliding tackle, cleverly avoiding the snow wolf's pounce.

As Gao De descended the slope, the gravitational potential energy he accumulated was continuously converted into speed, making his speed extremely exaggerated. This allowed him to deal with the pounce of the Ice Wolf with ease.

This sliding tackle kicked up a cloud of snow dust, blurring the view to the point of obscurity.

But that's exactly what Gaode Maps was aiming for.

【Magic Blast+】has an automatic target acquisition function.

He only needs to see a blurry shadow, lock onto the target, and then leave the rest to the spell itself.

Therefore, this environment is actually Gaode's home ground.

Whoosh!Whoosh!

Another [Magic Blast+] was unleashed, bursting through the swirling snow dust as it sped toward the two badly injured ice wolves from before.

Take advantage of his illness to kill him.

In any situation, focusing fire to reduce the enemy's numbers first is a safe and effective combat strategy.

The incredibly fast movement speed meant that Gaode didn't have to worry about the Ice Wolf's attacks for the time being.

The built-in target-locking effect of [Magic Blast+] means that Gaode doesn't have to worry about the hit rate when moving at high speeds—casting while moving is a problem for most mages.

Just like shooting an arrow, the faster you are, the more difficult it becomes to control your aim.

Therefore, high hit rate "casting while moving" has always been one of the important indicators of a battle mage's strength.

Under the relentless barrage of attacks, the two heavily wounded ice wolves were never spared, each taking two more bursts of magical energy.

That accuracy chilled even the wolf to the bone.

A certain structure inside the body has been completely destroyed by the force field damage. Although it still has a breath left, it has completely lost its ability to fight.

It was at this moment that the snow dust had dissipated.

The last snow wolf, seeing its two companions already lying dead, let out a mournful howl.

Just seconds ago, the Ice Wolf was eyeing Gaode with predatory intent, but now, after howling in pain, it decisively turned and fled.

Upon seeing this, Gao De subconsciously frowned.

The snow wolf was running up the snow slope, while he was sliding down the slope.

At this speed, and moving relative to each other, in the blink of an eye, the other party had already escaped his spellcasting range.

"So be it." Gao De felt helpless; though it was a pity, there was nothing he could do.

He then waved his hand again, and two beams of energy shot out decisively from his hand, completely ending the two snow wolves that had lost the ability to struggle and collapsed on the snow slope.

In just a few exchanges, he killed two of the Ice Wolves, who were also at the first level, and one of them escaped.

Although he took advantage of the terrain, it was still quite exaggerated for a mage who had only recently advanced to the first level to have such combat power.

Having dealt with the three alpha wolves, Gao De turned his gaze to the Northerners who were still entangled with the zero-ring snow wolves. His expression suddenly changed, and he opened his mouth and shouted.

However, due to the heightened tension and the distance from the snow slope, no one heard what Gao De said.

Only the old patriarch, who had chased after the snow wolf to support Gao De, immediately heard the voice filled with obvious anxiety, thanks to his heightened hearing enhanced by the awakening of his bloodline power:

"Wow, save a few for me!"

The urgency conveyed in that voice caught the old patriarch off guard, leaving him momentarily speechless.

"Leave me a few." Are you referring to snow wolves?

Leave him a few snow wolves? What does he want? Does he want to capture snow wolves alive and then tame them?

How could one possibly tame a snow wolf? That's a secret technique known only to the Frostwolf Clan.

Apart from the Frostwolf Clan, no one else can do anything about these unruly and ferocious snow wolves.

Just as the old patriarch was thinking, Gao De had already used the huge momentum of sliding down the slope to "fly" past him and rush straight towards the center of the battlefield.

At the same time, a blazing beam of fire shot out before he could even move, accurately striking a zero-ring snow wolf that had just pounced out.

The snow wolf didn't even howl before it was engulfed in the fire and fell silent.

(End of this chapter)