Above the mage

Chapter 284 Ultimate Force: Construct Mage

call out!

In response to the Inquisitor Ryan, Sunefa decisively and resolutely drew his bow.

With a flick of her wrist, she drew her bow to its fullest extent, and an arrow imbued with extreme cold, called the Blizzard Arrow, was formed on the bowstring.

In an instant, it shot off from the bow, piercing the sky, and struck the still-rambling and nonsensical Judge Rui'an.

Ryan's expression hardened; he had just experienced the power of the True Ice Arrow.

Even the fourth-circle spell [Fire Shield], after being cast by the Ascended Ring, could only withstand one True Ice Arrow.

This means that if he weren't a fifth-ring mage, his fourth-ring spell, Flame Shield, wouldn't be able to stop an arrow from Sunaf, who was also a fourth-ring mage.

Just think about it and you'll know just how terrifying Sunefa's combat power is, at the same level.

But that's about it.

Even if Sunefa is invincible among her peers, so what?

The gap between the Fifth Ring Road and the Fourth Ring Road cannot be bridged simply by being invincible at the same level.

Ryan had a thought, and at that moment, the giant zombie beast beneath his feet emitted billowing black mist.

These black mists surged and boiled, quickly coalescing into a massive black energy blast that hurtled towards the rapidly approaching arrow of pure ice.

The two collided in mid-air.

With a deafening roar, a massive shockwave spread out like a raging storm, tearing the surrounding air to shreds.

The icy blue magical light and the surging black mist intertwined and tumbled in the air, as if two completely different forces were colliding and competing fiercely.

In the end, the icy blue magical light prevailed, annihilating all the black mist.

After this standoff, the True Ice Arrow seemed to have shrunk, becoming much smaller and its speed decreased significantly.

boom!

The weakened True Ice Arrow ultimately struck the zombie behemoth at Ryan's feet, shattering instantly into countless tiny ice crystals like a piece of fine porcelain.

The sudden release of chill condensed and covered the surface of the zombie behemoth with a thin layer of ice.

However, due to the limited power remaining in the arrow and the enormous size of the zombie behemoth, the thin layer of ice only covered the front half of the zombie behemoth's body before stopping abruptly.

This exchange posed no threat to Ryan, but it thoroughly enraged him: "Sunefa, why don't you just stay in Phoenix and be your war mother? Why do you have to come looking for trouble!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a dense aura of darkness surged up above Sunefa.

After Sunafal fired the True Ice Arrow, Ryan controlled the zombie behemoth to fight back against Sunafal's attack, while he himself was also busy casting spells to attack.

The dense dark aura gathered and, in an instant, formed a complex magical symbol.

The symbol emitted an eerie light, bursting forth with a dazzling yet deep, inky black light that enveloped Sunefa.

Sunafa's expression changed slightly.

The black light contained an evil power that was eroding her body and making her movements sluggish.

Fourth Ring Necromantic Spell: Curse!

A curse is placed upon the target, weakening one of the following: strength, mental strength, speed, mana, or reaction speed; or weakening elemental resistance or spell damage bonus; or giving the target a 50% chance of failure with each spellcasting action.

Ryan chose the last option: there is a 50% chance of failure with each spellcasting action.

"Porias's true magic and martial arts have indeed given you the ability to threaten me, but the greater the power, the greater the consumption," Ryan laughed.

"So, how many arrows like that can you shoot?" he asked, his tone laced with provocation.

Sunafa's expression was grave.

What Ryan said is the truth.

【Blizzard】makes her almost unrivaled in the fourth ring, and she even possesses the terrifying combat power to instantly kill a mage of the same level with a single arrow.

However, relying on his fifth-ring mage level, the Holy Inquisitor Ryan was able to block the most ferocious attacks of the Blizzard with his fourth-ring defensive spells.

To be honest, Sunafa is only a fourth-ring mage, yet she was able to break through a fourth-ring defensive spell cast by a rising ring mage. Her combat strength is already terrifying.

Under normal circumstances, even a regular fourth-ring mage would find it difficult to break through Ryan's [Flame Shield], no matter how hard they try.

But for Sunefa, that wasn't enough; she needed more than just to break through; she needed to pose a threat.

At this moment, she seemed to be standing on a delicate boundary.

If the power of the Frost Arrow could be increased even slightly, Ryan's defensive spells would not be able to completely withstand Sunefa's offensive, and he would have to be careful and not act so recklessly as he does now.

But that tiny difference seems like an insurmountable chasm.

Moreover, as Ryan said, the amount of mana she needed to expend to fire each True Ice Arrow through [Blizzard] was extremely astonishing.

More importantly, Sunaf is now under a curse, meaning that whether she's casting spells or drawing her bow, she may fail due to interference from evil forces.

What should I do?

Sunefa felt the extreme cold emanating from the blizzard. Although the situation was extremely dire, she remained unusually calm, pondering possible ways to break the deadlock.

While she was thinking, a dazzling silver-white light suddenly emanated from Sunafa's body.

The light burst forth from her body, carrying an indescribable purity and chill, like holy light pouring down, enveloping her entirely.

As the silvery light flickered and flowed, the evil forces that had bound her like shackles seemed to have encountered their natural enemy, fleeing from her body and dissipating into nothingness as a wisp of black smoke.

Sunafa's body, which had been hampered by the [curse], was restored to its original state. In fact, a faint light surrounded her body, making her movements more agile and even providing her with subtle protection.

A spell that has both purification and enhancement effects.

"Ice Spell." Ryan's expression stiffened upon seeing this.

He chose to cast [Spellcaster] because Sunefa would most likely have a way to deal with ordinary attack spells.

However, the Curse of the Curse is different. As a fourth-circle necromancy spell, the curse it creates cannot be dispelled, meaning that the Dispel Magic is ineffective against it.

To counter a curse, you need to use a more advanced or specific spell.

Examples include [Breaking the Spell], [Limited Prayer], and [Removing the Curse].

Apart from [Remove Curse], all the other spells are above the fourth rank, which a fourth-rank mage like Sunaf definitely cannot cast.

[Remove Curse] is a fourth-circle spell.

The problem is that the spells that can be awakened by the Iceborn bloodline do not include [Remove Curse].

The chances of Sunefa learning and mastering a spell whose effect is merely to remove curses from objects or creatures are extremely low.

But to everyone's surprise, the spell he had so carefully designed was cleansed and removed by Sunefa.

Ryan couldn't even identify what spell Sunafa used to counter his [curse], only confirming that it was a type of True Ice spell.

The Pure Ice spell is a spell that only pure-blooded Iceborn can awaken.

Pure-blooded Iceborn are extremely rare, so even for the people of the North, True Ice magic remains a mystery.

"The last pure-blooded Iceborn in this era, born of ice and snow." Ryan sighed with admiration. "How enviable! If I hadn't advanced to the fifth ring, what would I have to fight you with?"

He even sighed, because he was so confident and composed.

Compared to a fourth-circle mage, a fifth-circle mage's superiority over a fourth-circle mage lies not only in their ability to cast spells as they ascend through the circle, but also in their superiority over fifth-circle spells.

With each level of advancement in spellcasting, the power and effects of the spell will increase significantly.

Ryan had actually been promoted to the fifth ring for some time now, and he hadn't slacked off at all. So now he had mastered two fifth-ring spells, both of which were offensive spells.

This means that Sunefa is doomed to never recover.

"But now, you are no match for me," Ryan declared arrogantly.

"You are no match for him."

At the same time, Gao De's calm voice echoed in Sunafa's mind.

The same words, but different meanings.

She shuddered, only then noticing that Gao De, who had quickly left after her hasty instructions, had somehow quietly returned.

"My king, why have you returned?" Sunafa, who had maintained a calm demeanor towards Ryan, could no longer remain composed after discovering that God had returned.

Faced with Ruian's help from the Fifth Ring Road, she was already in a precarious situation herself, and had no energy left to protect Gaode.

For the Zhenbing tribe, Gaode was extremely important; in fact, in Sunafa's heart, Gaode's safety was more important than his own life.

Therefore, her emotions inevitably fluctuated.

"Can you beat him?" Gao De continued to communicate with Sunefa through teleportation, his tone extremely calm, as if he were asking a very ordinary question.

"It's difficult." Sunefa gritted her teeth and admitted, not trying to be brave, but also showing no sign of backing down or fear.

"I will do my best to hold him off. There are so many of us here, and we will all do our best to hold him off. My king, you must leave quickly and return to Phoenix. With the Guardian Tree here, even a fifth-circle mage cannot offend us."

"My king, since the prophecy has chosen you, Zhenbing will surely rise as long as you are here, and it will remain the same even without me." As she said this, a resolute glint flashed in Sunafa's deep blue eyes.

"The Zhenbing tribe cannot do without Sunafa," Gao De affirmed.

Just as Sunefa was about to say something, she was suddenly surprised to find that Flora had already flown to her side.

"The mage asked Lady Flora to give this to you!" The next moment, Flora's clear voice reached her ears.

Before she could react, Flora's figure had already disappeared in a flash.

This is because Gaode temporarily canceled the [Summoning Pet] and sent Flora to her own space, which she called the "little black room".

"This is."

Sunafa's lips parted slightly as she looked at the object that had suddenly appeared in her hand.

It was a set of stacked components, shimmering with a faint light.

These components are interwoven with silver and white light, and their surfaces are covered with complex and intricate runes and patterns.

They are like totem symbols, very mysterious, but different from totems, because they are delicate as silk, arranged according to specific logic and rules, and have a kind of exquisite and accurate beauty.

They resemble a traditional battle robe, with multiple parts including the head, body, and limbs, but they are more abstract and smaller than battle robes, and the overall shape is streamlined, which is somewhat like armor.

"Focus your mind on it, then put it on." Gao De's decisive voice echoed in her mind once again.

After advancing to the first ring, Gao De clearly realized the huge gap between a first-ring mage and a mage apprentice.

If the gap between the lowest-ranking first-ring mage and a mage apprentice is so vast, how much greater must the gap be between a fifth-ring mage and a fourth-ring mage?

Gao De was absolutely certain that even if Sunafa was powerful, he would probably have a hard time surviving under Ryan's command today.

But is there really no chance to break the deadlock?

Not all.

When He west was introducing rune constructs to Gao De, he once said:

In the mage world, it is generally acknowledged that fighting beyond one's ring is almost impossible. If it does happen, there is only one possibility: the lower-ring mage is equipped with runic constructs.

Construct Mages represent the ultimate force among mages!

As it happens, Gao De always carried with him a set of fourth-tier rune constructs left to him by He Xi - [Breath of the Wild].

Tier 4 rune construct + invincible Sunafa of the same tier.

If Hoshi hadn't been exaggerating, then Sunefa equipped with [Breath of the Wild] would definitely be able to fight beyond the ring level.

Clearly, Jose, as steadfast as a rock, is not one to boast.

Rune constructs are extremely rare, even outside the North.

Not to mention in the "primitive" land of the North.

Therefore, although Sunafa was the War Mother of the True Ice Tribe, this was actually the first time in her life that she had ever seen a runic construct.

Therefore, she didn't recognize what it was at all.

Not only her, but Ryan was the same. He noticed that something had suddenly appeared in Sunefa's hand, but he didn't recognize what it was.

According to Gao De's hometown dialect, both Sunaifa and Ryan should be called "country bumpkins".

It doesn't matter if you don't recognize the rune construct, because Sunefa has subconsciously focused her mental energy on [Breath of the Wild] as Gaudí had instructed.

The next moment, a layer of brilliant light flowed across the surface of many parts of [Breath of the Wild], as if it had been activated.

All the parts suddenly floated up, as if drawn by an invisible force, transforming into illusory scales that covered Sunafa's body, fitting her tightly and enveloping her completely.

Amidst the dappled light, these components rapidly solidified, transforming from illusory radiance into tangible form, arming Sunefa.

Its scales shimmered, exuding both majesty and splendor.

【Breath of the Wild】 is a robe-style rune construct with a main color scheme of silver and white.

The combination of these two colors creates an overall visual effect that is both noble and mysterious, and it matches Sunefa's attire and temperament perfectly, giving the impression that it was made just for her.

Perhaps, this is fate.

After they were fitted onto Sunefa, they were enlarged considerably to perfectly fit her body.

This is the "Adaptive Inclusivity" rune effect that comes with [Breath of the Wild].

As the overall component expanded, the runes on it became much clearer.

Finally, when all the parts were precisely assembled, the patterns on the runes were suddenly activated, flashing a dazzling silver-white light.

The light quickly spread to every corner of the battle robe, giving the originally cold parts a lifelike vitality.

All the runes and patterns flickered and intertwined into a dazzling net of light.

At the same time, some information entered Sunafa's mind:

[Breath of the Wild] (Tier 4 Rune Construct):

Rune effects: Level 4 Elemental Resistance, Level 4 Fortitude, Level 4 Agility, Level 4 Spell Damage, Adaptive Tolerance.

Construct Effect: The wearer's stamina regeneration rate is increased by 57%, mana regeneration rate is increased by 62%, and the mana cost of casting spells is reduced by 31%.

The effects are doubled when the wearer stands with both feet on the ground.

(End of this chapter)