Above the mage

Chapter 240 Baruch is seriously injured

With the sheer size of the beast tide, among the hundreds of snow wolves that surrounded them, there were no fewer than ten second-ring Frost Snow Wolves and forty or fifty first-ring Ice Snow Wolves.

In addition to the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf, the alpha wolf of the third ring, and the three or four hundred zero-ring snow wolves, this wolf pack of such size and strength besieged Chief Snowflake and Baruch, along with an Ice-Maned Tiger.

Even knowing Baruch's formidable strength, Gord couldn't help but feel a pang of worry for him upon seeing this.

Baruch looked at the snow wolves that had surrounded him; they were a vast, untamed mass, obstructing his view.

If it were any other mage in this situation, they would have been terrified out of their wits.

But Baruch was different; he remained calm and composed, the Frost Sword in his hand reflecting the moonlight and chill.

The next moment, at the signal of the alpha wolf, the golden-eyed snow wolf, the snow wolves pounced towards the two people in the encirclement, their blue pupils, full of ferocity, already wide open.

"【Frost Nova】!"

Baruch skillfully cast spells.

He stretched out his finger and pointed to the very center of the wolf pack.

In the next instant, a dazzling cold light suddenly burst forth from Baruch's fingertips, flashing like a comet in the night and spreading rapidly.

As Baruch pointed, a powerful burst of cold air erupted instantly at the very center of the wolf pack, forming a rapidly expanding halo of ice.

The halo expanded rapidly outwards, resembling the aurora borealis blooming in the night sky, yet even more dazzling and spectacular.

Wherever the icy halo passed, the moisture in the air quickly condensed into frost flowers, and the snow on the ground instantly froze into a hard ice shell.

The snow wolves that were pouncing on Baruch and Chief Snowflake were suddenly enveloped by the cold air.

Enveloped in the cold air, their fur was instantly covered with ice crystals, and their movements became sluggish.

Those snow wolves that rushed to the front line were even frozen in mid-air.

Their bodies were covered by a thin layer of ice, instantly transforming them from ferocious and menacing ley line creatures into motionless sculptures.

With a snap, the frozen snow wolves fell onto the snow, which had been frozen into an ice shell, smashing the ice and creating spiderweb-like cracks.

The icy aura continued to spread outwards.

The air around us was filled with a biting cold.

Everything touched by the icy halo was instantly covered with a layer of crystal-clear frost.

Within a spherical area with a radius of thirty feet, a dreamlike world of ice crystals was created.

Everything was frozen in that instant.

The whole process is like a magnificent ice dance, with cold air flowing in the air and forming beautiful ice crystal patterns.

A single spell caused a significant loss of snow wolves.

However, while Baruch's Frost Nova was very effective, there were more snow wolves than snow wolves, and under the "supervision" of the golden-eyed snow wolves, they all acted fearlessly.

"Ryan!"

Baruch had already jumped off the back of the Icemane Tiger, and was now back-to-back with Ryan.

He called out, signaling the Icemane Tiger to fight alongside him.

Ryan bared his fangs, his eyes gleaming fiercely as he stared at the restless snow wolves around him.

The Ice Mane Tiger's rank is definitely higher than that of the Snow Wolf.

Normally, these snow wolves would never dare to approach and provoke the Icemane Tiger, but now they are doing so without any regard for safety.

Awoo!

The golden-eyed snow wolf howled again.

The next instant, a new batch of snow wolves pounced forward.

When facing attacks from powerful enemies, leyline creatures typically follow this pattern:

First, send out low-level creatures to wear down the enemy with their lives. Only when the enemy begins to tire will the powerful ley line creatures make their move.

Faced with the snow wolf pack sweeping in again, Baruch did not use [Frost Nova] again.

Because it is a third-circle spell, it consumes a great deal of mana and requires a long casting time.

He simply gripped the icy sword formed by magic in his hand, his expression solemn as he watched the snow wolf rapidly approaching.

In that instant, Baruch had already cast multiple buff spells to empower himself.

These include [Foot Oil], [Jump], and [Mage Armor]. Combined with his superb swordsmanship and [Frost Sword], he is now like a knight, possessing incredibly powerful melee capabilities.

At this moment, the fastest-rushing snow wolves had already reached Baruch.

Although these snow wolves could sense Baruch's power, they pounced on him without hesitation or thought.

Baruch swiftly drew his Frost Sword, instantly beheading the snow wolves that pounced at him.

Blood splattered, but the sharpness and coldness of the Ice Sword caused the blood to freeze into ice crystals in the air in the blink of an eye.

But this was just the beginning. The snow wolves pounced from almost every direction, forming a dense encirclement.

Baruch's icy sword flashed through the air like lightning, each swing taking the life of a low-level snow wolf.

On the left, the enormous Icemane Tiger is also displaying its power.

It roared, its eyes flashing with a fierce light, and kept swinging its powerful claws.

Those fierce snow wolves, as soon as they were slapped by the claws of the Icemane Tiger Ryan, were immediately sent flying backward, howling as they fell to the ground, unable to get up.

On the right, Chief Snowflake continuously unleashed [Ice Bullet] attacks on the snow wolves.

Under his control, the ice bullets accurately struck every snow wolf that approached.

Although snow wolves, creatures of the ley lines, are naturally extremely resistant to ice, Chief Snowflake, even if not as strong as Baruch, is still an early-stage third-ring ice-blooded mage, so dealing with these low-ring snow wolves shouldn't be a problem.

Each ice bullet explodes upon hitting the snow wolf, creating patches of frost.

The ice shell area created by Baruch's previous Frost Nova spell also restricted the snow wolf's movement to some extent.

They move with ease on the snow, but not so freely on the ice.

The two people and the beast formed a triangle.

As the battle continued, Baruch also had moments of carelessness, but the [Mage Armor] protected him well, giving him a certain margin for error.

"Slippery Foot" makes Baruch more agile in battle, while "Jump" allows him to avoid fatal attacks when necessary.

I don't know exactly how many snow wolves they killed.

Chief Snowflakes was already panting, and was repeatedly overwhelmed and injured. Even Baruch had several non-fatal wounds.

This was left behind by a second-ring frost snow wolf attacking a pack of snow wolves.

Under the watchful eye of the golden-eyed snow wolf, these snow wolves seemed to have no fear of death and relentlessly pounced on Chief Baruch and Chief Snowflake.

The continuous high-intensity sword swings caused Baruch's arm muscles to ache, and he was close to exhaustion.

"If this continues, we'll be worn down and die here." At that moment, Baruch's voice echoed in Chief Snowflake's mind.

[Communication techniques].

Chief Snowflakes, his forehead already beaded with sweat, nodded with difficulty. "Then what should we do?"

The battle has only lasted for less than three minutes, but for them, it has felt like three hours.

Because the intensity was so great, with snow wolves pouncing at them every moment, they had to concentrate, constantly casting spells or wielding their swords, and they had to go all out.

This is somewhat similar to the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise:

You can do aerobic exercise for an hour straight without getting out of breath, but if you do anaerobic exercise for three minutes without rest, anyone would be exhausted.

"We have to take down the alpha wolf. Only then will these snow wolves retreat, and only then will the beast tide have a chance to disperse," Baruch said, exchanging ideas with Chief Snowflake as they fought.

"But it's hiding in the back now, waiting for us to be exhausted before I charge in its direction."

Chief Snowflake paused for a moment, then replied, "Are you sure?"

This was not a simple decision.

In the current situation, they can look after each other and still have some breathing room.

But once you choose to charge towards the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf, there's no turning back.

Not only must we make sure we reach the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf in one fell swoop, but we must also kill it in the shortest possible time, otherwise it would be tantamount to putting ourselves in danger.

Baruch naturally understood this principle as well.

But he nodded silently, giving an affirmative answer.

"Clear the way for me, I need to conserve some mana to deal with the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf," he said again.

"Okay," Chief Snowflake said nothing, only giving a resounding "okay."

Having made his decision, Baruch said nothing more, and he flipped over and leaped back onto the Icemane Tiger's back.

The Icemane Tiger growled, understanding its master's intention, and prepared to charge at any moment.

Chief Snowflakes, having agreed, roared and, bracing against the attack of several snow wolves, unleashed his strongest spell: "[Snowstorm]!"

As the spell ended, he pointed towards the pack of snow wolves in the direction of the golden-eyed snow wolves.

Wherever his finger pointed, the sky grew even darker, and a chill began to permeate the air.

Centered on the point he pointed to, within an area 40 feet in radius and 20 feet in height, a sudden, biting freezing rain and hail began to fall.

And these weren't ordinary hailstones, but fist-sized blocks of ice that crashed into the snow wolves in the area with a whooshing sound.

These hailstones were not only extremely dense but also extremely fast. Each hailstone was like a tiny cannonball, striking the ground with a crisp sound.

Immediately following the hail came a dense burst of freezing rain.

These freezing rains are not ordinary rainwater, but liquid ice crystals carrying intense cold.

Besides inflicting great harm on snow wolves by freezing them, these ice crystals also freeze instantly upon landing, forming a smooth layer of ice on the snow surface, making the ground extremely slippery.

In such an environment, it would be more difficult for the snow wolves to move around, and some would even slip and fall to the ground.

As the spell continued to be cast, the snow wolves, which had been faintly visible in the night, became chaotic under the onslaught of hail and freezing rain.

Some snow wolves howled as they were pelted by the hail, their heads bleeding profusely. Others were soaked by the icy rain and then frozen, becoming stiff and sluggish. Still others slipped and fell because of the wet ground.

But this will not have a significant impact on Baruch.

For a Northern mage, the spells [Ice Skating] and [Walking on Ice] are essential skills to master.

Seeing that Chief Snowflake had created a small opening in the encirclement, Baruch squeezed the Icemane Tiger's belly with his legs and cast the Icemane Tiger's [Ice Walk] skill on it, then decisively began to act.

Upon receiving the command, the Icemane Tiger shot out like an arrow.

With a roar, it reached its maximum speed, moving as fast as a blur. It first crossed the ice area formed by the snowstorm, and then crashed directly into the last lap of the snow wolf pack.

Like a bowling ball, it knocked away countless snow wolves in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, the man and the tiger broke through the snow wolves' encirclement and reached the golden-eyed snow wolf.

The golden-eyed snow wolf never expected that Baruch, who was surrounded by a bunch of snow wolves, could pull off such a trick. Seeing Baruch already "pouncing" on its face, the golden pupils suddenly contracted.

At this moment, Baruch leaped off Ryan's back like a Spartan warrior descending from the sky, wielding an ice sword and thrusting it at the golden-eyed snow wolf.

His body spun slightly in the air, and the Frost Sword gleamed coldly in the moonlight, like a silver lightning bolt slicing through the darkness.

At the same time, a magical fluctuation flashed across Baruch's body.

Then, the muscles under his clothes visibly bulged, and the muscle lines of his arms, chest, and legs became more pronounced, giving him a breathtaking sense of power.

The power of the ox.

As the spell took effect, Baruch's power surged, reaching its peak.

The Frost Sword drew a perfect arc in the air, aiming straight for the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf's throat.

The golden-eyed snow wolf reacted quickly, trying to dodge.

But it was horrified to discover that its actions couldn't keep up with its thoughts.

Whether lifting a foot or exerting force, everything became unusually sluggish.

[Slowness Spell]!

In that brief moment, Baruch actually completed the casting of a second-circle spell and a third-circle spell.

Of course, he paid a price for doing this; it wasn't as easy as he had imagined.

Baruch chose to burn his own mana source to forcibly increase his mana strength for a short period of time, thereby gaining a faster casting speed.

Original combustion is irreversible.

In gaming terms, his original mana was 50/100. After burning his mana essence, even if he fully restores his mana, he might only have 95/95 left, which is the maximum.

The golden-eyed snow wolf, struck by the [Slowness Spell], saw that it could not dodge Baruch's sword. Its eyes turned ferocious. It stopped dodging and defending, raised its head, opened its blood-red mouth, and revealed its sharp fangs.

Its intention is also very clear: it wants to exchange injuries for injuries.

In any case, its vitality is certainly much stronger than that of humans.

But faced with this situation, Baruch did not hesitate or back down in the slightest.

His momentum was overwhelming, and his icy sword aimed straight for the neck of the golden-eyed snow wolf.

puff!

In an instant, the icy sword pierced the golden-eyed snow wolf's neck, instantly freezing the blood inside, and the cold air spread rapidly along the wound.

A hint of disbelief flashed in the eyes of the golden-eyed snow wolf.

It clearly hadn't expected Baruch to be so brave and fearless, or that his attacks would be so deadly.

The next moment, its fangs plunged into Baruch's abdomen.

Baruch immediately felt a sharp pain in his abdomen.

The golden-eyed snow wolf's sharp fangs had now completely penetrated his body.

He gritted his teeth, enduring the pain, and continued to plunge the Frost Sword deeper into the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf's body.

The golden-eyed snow wolf howled in pain, its body convulsing violently as it strained its jaws to tear Baruch apart.

However, Baruch's earlier casting of [Mage Armor] bought him precious time, and the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf was unable to tear Baruch's body apart immediately.

No matter how intense the abdominal pain was, it could not shake Baruch's firm resolve at this moment.

The Frost Sword penetrated deep into the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf's body and began to stir. As Baruch moved, the Golden-Eyed Snow Wolf's strength gradually weakened, its body began to stiffen, and finally it collapsed helplessly to the ground.

Seeing that the golden-eyed snow wolf had lost its life, Baruch released the breath he had been holding in, and the intense pain in his abdomen completely overwhelmed his consciousness.

(End of this chapter)