Her supernatural intuition rang an alarm bell deep inside her, and Li Fei threw herself into a sideways roll without a second's hesitation.
A black shadow shot past. The impact tore a crater into the earth, sending dirt and blades of grass flying. She had avoided the attack by the skin of her teeth, and now she got a good look at the monster up close.
It was a deformed, enormous black creature built something like a spider, its limbs so long they made its torso look small. Muscular lumps of every size bulged under its jet-black hide, rippling and twitching, savage and powerful. Its face was an oval, like a rugby ball that had soaked in swamp muck for decades, with cracks running clearly across it.
Even on all fours, the creature stood nearly three meters tall. Whenever its pitch-black oval head turned, it made a nauseating, sticky squelch.
Li Fei didn't waste a word. She bolted, slipping the [Guardian Mage Robe] over herself as she ran. But the monsters seemed to be everywhere. The moment she turned her head, she saw several more crawling out of the dense woods.
— This isn't scientific!
Her slim, black-stockinged toes dug hard into the mud. Li Fei dropped her center of gravity into a defensive stance, screaming silently.
If the island were this crawling with monsters, packed into herds in every corner, the outer-ring students would have been wiped out long ago!
But in the last three-plus hours, she had changed hiding spots several times and hadn't seen a single one of these things on the way. Yet whenever a student made a sound, these monsters arrived in an instant to slaughter and hunt.
She'd been too busy hiding and summoning to notice the anomaly. Only now that she'd been cornered, with her mind racing at full speed, did it click.
— These monsters can move across space in an instant… If I could figure out how that works, and interfere with it, or even turn it around and use it myself…
The thought ended there. With a soft sigh, she snuffed out the flash of inspiration on purpose.
Maybe the young Nicole or the Twin Stars could have followed this line of reasoning when they came here, and ruled this night.
But Li Fei knew her own level perfectly well. Neither her store of knowledge nor her grasp of spells was enough to solve this crisis the way a caster would. The gap in talent was just too wide.
Luckily, she had her own way of handling things.
With a soft chant, the [Blade of Joy] left its sheath. Her soft, boneless feet were caked in mud, yet they carried her forward in firm steps toward the massive shadows.
The Spell Encyclopedia Lady was going to try charging in headfirst.
The prey walking right up to them seemed to enrage the monsters.
So their heads split open.
"Hissss—"
The surface of each pitch-black skull peeled outward all at once, like a flower bud bursting into four petals. The edges of the petals were lined with dense little teeth, and the red muscle inside throbbed and let out an ear-piercing, tooth-grinding screech, wrapped in a gust of rancid stench.
Li Fei wanted to yell right back, but the environment didn't allow it. So she puffed out her cheeks, leapt forward, and answered with the sword in her hand.
A crimson sword glow swept across, and blood sprayed.
Before Li Fei could even register surprise at how easily the monster had been cut in two, its corpse still writhing and twitching, several more pounced.
A crimson phantom and snarling black shadows crossed paths, and filthy blood splashed up again.
The [Guardian Mage Robe]'s defensive charges dropped to zero in an instant, but one monster fell to the ground in return.
"The outer ring's rules work greatly in your favor…"
The blonde teacher's words echoed in her ears again, and Li Fei understood.
The monsters were only Sequence 7, after all. They could have outstanding burst power, swift movement, sharp hearing and lethal killing power. They could have startling magic resistance and a degree of stealth. But they could never be perfect.
Even witches, a race that combined beauty with strength and had unmatched cohesion, were bound by their chaotic, unhinged natures, with a bottomless greed for beauty, wealth and slaughter. How much more so for monsters nobody had ever heard of?
In just two exchanges, Li Fei realized these things would be deadly to other mages. With resistance, speed and killing power all together, they were practically born mage-assassins. But they had one fatal weakness:
Weak physical resistance.
Cutting through their bodies was as easy as slicing an elephant. Their hides might be tougher and their muscles denser, but against Furnace Battle-Qi and the [Blade of Joy], they had no chance of surviving to their next breath.
"Heh…"
Li Fei's lips curled back. She whipped around and charged the rest, crimson battle qi roaring like a river and dyeing the night an ominous, dangerous scarlet.
A dozen breaths later, several mangled corpses lay scattered across the ground. Ignoring a rib that had been broken in the collision, Li Fei raised her arm and stared at the scratches on the [Guardian Mage Robe], her eyes full of heartache.
The robe was expensive and had stayed with her a long time, and its defense was reliable. The downside was that once its mana ran dry, the fabric itself wasn't very durable.
She had barely taken the robe off and stowed it when a violent wind howled in from behind. She jumped sideways on instinct.
Shhhk—
With a soft tearing sound, a shocking gash opened on her left thigh. Her stocking, soaked with the welling blood, turned a darker shade.
Li Fei looked back at the newly emerged monster and felt beyond furious.
These stockings weren't cheap!
Premium goods, three gold coins a pair. Even Qin Zhihua didn't dare tear them!
They could have been washed and worn again!
Her rage became firewood, and the scarlet battle qi blazed. Li Fei's eyes glinted with undisguised malice as she locked onto that monster.
Then several more black shadows burst out of the woods.
"Just you wait…"
After cursing under her breath, Li Fei, at the height of her fury, chose to turn and run.
Weak physical resistance was one thing, but getting slammed by these creatures really hurt. Their sharp claws and fangs tore through muscle with ease, and they were so fast that Li Fei could hardly dodge.
Fighting just a few had already left her wounded and used up the robe's defensive charges. If she got tangled up here and surrounded by an endless stream of arrivals… even with [Dragon's Strength] added, she'd be killed sooner or later!
The wind roared in her ears as Li Fei tore through the dense woods, trying to shake off the monsters behind her.
But once speed hit sprint level, even barefoot, she couldn't avoid making noise.
"Damn it all!"
Her eyes went red. She screamed silently, and crimson sword light erupted, cleaving the monster lunging at her. Before the corpse even hit the ground, she plowed straight into the rain of blood, leaving behind two trails of bloody footprints, one deep and one shallow.
She didn't dare stop. Vague black shadows hung on her tail, and the pack chasing her had quietly swelled to several dozen. They were nimbler than apes, faster than cheetahs, and more agile than flies. Strung together in a line, the shadows were like the tide of the River Styx. Once she was swept in, she was dead.
— This isn't going to work.
The dread of a parasite clinging to her bones made her heart pound, yet as her body temperature climbed, her mind cooled, searching for a countermeasure with cold logic.
Dawn was still more than two hours away. If it were just running at speed, she could circle this isolated island over and over until sunrise. But this was an all-out sprint, and she had to kill whatever blocked her path as well. Even with Furnace Battle-Qi and a body close to a mid-Sequence warrior's, her stamina couldn't take this kind of spending. In half an hour at most her combat strength would sag from heavy fatigue, and within an hour she'd be completely drained. By then, things would probably end badly.
Waiting for a slow death wasn't Li Fei's style, so she tried things.
First she tried to conserve her stamina sensibly by slowing the spin of her battle-qi vortex. But the moment her steps slowed, the black tide behind her closed in, ready to swallow her.
Then she overloaded her battle qi and squeezed out every drop of potential. With no time to cast, she even shopped on the System Panel at lightning speed and tore apart three Spell Scrolls in a row, [Acceleration], [Terrain Awareness] and [Summon Faun], hoping to shake the danger.
Li Fei failed again. The monsters were like the evening wind in the woods, silent and everywhere, seeping into the marrow bit by bit and snuffing out life.
The faun had barely been born when, before it could finish a single breath, the monsters tore it apart in a few swipes, and it returned to the embrace of the Nature Goddess. Li Fei finally seized a fleeting chance to open a gap, but in the darkness there were always more monsters waiting. They leapt out from the front and the sides, claws bared, to drag her into the mire.
On top of that, the monsters' eyesight had degraded, but they weren't blind. She couldn't just duck into some hole and escape without making a sound.
— What do I do? What do I do?
After a full quarter hour of running for her life, she looked like she'd just climbed out of boiling water, steaming hot. A few strands of ink-black hair clung to her flushed face, and the crystal beads of sweat on the tip of her nose flew off with the jolting of her body and vanished into the soil.
Heavy panting and a rapid heartbeat filled her ears. Her aching lungs reminded Li Fei that her stamina was draining fast.
But the monsters knew nothing of not pressing a desperate foe, and they didn't fear a cornered Li Fei fighting to the death. Her vision blurred, and she saw another black shadow leap out from a corner of the bushes.
The soles of her stockings, already worn thin, stamped into the mud once more. Li Fei knew stamina was precious and didn't want to break out by brute force. She twisted her waist as she stopped her charge, meaning to change direction and keep running.
"Ssss…"
But her left leg, which bore the most force, suddenly sent a gut-wrenching pain from the outside of her thigh deep into the flesh. The big tendon twitched. A cramp was coming.
Li Fei stumbled and nearly fell, and that moment's pause let the monster pounce.
She gave a delicate snort and slashed down with her sword. A crimson ribbon fell like a waterfall from the sky and cut the close-in monster aslant. She forced herself through the pain for a few more steps before she had time to lower her sweat-soaked forehead and check the injury on her leg.
The wound the monster had torn open earlier was still bleeding, the curled flesh shocking to see. From thigh to slender ankle to the arch of her foot, the stocking was completely soaked through and had turned dark red. Every time she lifted her leg, it left an exquisite, eerie bloody footprint on the ground.
She also noticed the blood from the wound had a purplish tint. That was a sign of poison. Evidently those pitch-black claws weren't clean, and they were coated in a deadly toxin.
— Fuck!
Her lips moved and she nearly cursed aloud. She barely managed to hold back that great American art of swearing, biting deep into her lower lip to keep it on the tip of her tongue.
Li Fei kept her face dark. With one hand she cleared the way with her sword, and with the other she pulled out an antidote potion and a healing potion in turn and gulped them down. She even splashed a topical potion over her leg.
A cool sensation spread through the wound, and the poison was no longer a threat. But a gash deep enough to show bone didn't heal that easily. Her long, firm legs kept straightening and stretching as she ran, wrapped in black stockings soaked with blood, showing a sickly, eerie yet vibrant beauty. But this undoubtedly pulled at the wound, sped up the blood loss, and drained her precious stamina.
Shhhk—
Applying the potion one-handed had split her attention a little and left an opening in her movements. A monster suddenly jumped out on the left. Li Fei twisted and swung, but the crimson sword glow only severed its shoulder rather than killing it outright.
The monster let out a low, shrill hiss and swung its long ape-like arm. Li Fei dodged as hard as she could, but she still heard a rip.
Her leg wasn't healed yet, and now a fresh gash had opened at her flank.
The sword light that followed gave Li Fei her revenge, but the alarm bell ringing in her mind only grew louder, deafening.
Li Fei had already realized she didn't need to wait until exhaustion. Once her movements started to lose their form and her focus scattered, the monsters would tear her apart.
— No way out on the ground? Then go up.
Biting her lip, she took out her Flying Broom, took a few running steps, and shot into the sky.
When she looked back, the skin on the monsters' backs had split open, and wet wings grew out of the flesh. A dense mass of black shadows streamed up over the woods, chasing close behind in a line.
Luckily, their flight speed wasn't that fast. They couldn't hold a candle to a Nimbus 6S at full power.
But Li Fei's furrowed brow didn't ease at all.
Because she had seen other students try to escape by flying, and it hadn't ended peacefully.
Sure enough, the Miss Witch soaring through the night sky on her broom hadn't gone far when spell light flickered in the nearby darkness and shot up into the sky.
Speed and agility in the air clearly had little to do with Li Fei's own attributes. They depended mainly on flying skill and the performance of the flying item. Of course, hitting a fast-moving target hundreds or even thousands of meters away also demanded a great deal of casting range and precision.
Unfortunately, the witch's flying skill wasn't great, while the genius mages, who averaged a Silver Brooch at minimum, were excellent casters.
With a thunderous burst, dazzling mana light swallowed Li Fei in an instant.
The spells didn't do much damage, but they were extremely threatening. Her cunning opponents were using casting technique, sacrificing power in exchange for greater casting speed and range, and every spell was low-tier. For Li Fei, who had [Advanced Magic Resistance], that kind of damage was about like getting a Thai massage from a 200-jin masseuse. The back-walking part hurt a bit and left some bruises, but you could grit your teeth and get through it.
However, the noise of the exploding spells startled the silent island under the curtain of night.
On every side, as far as the eye could see, black shadows with flapping wings rose into the air and rushed at Li Fei.
"How did she do it…"
Several hundred meters away, a young mage murmured to himself, his eyes full of shock.
There were simply too many black shadows chasing behind Li Fei, packs of them, at least seventy or eighty monsters. By rights, someone who carelessly made a noise would be handled by three or five monsters at most. It should have been impossible to cause a commotion this big.
Out of respect for a strong opponent, he extended a fingertip and silently released a magic bolt, and a brilliant firework burst over Li Fei.
"I hope that when we get out of here, she won't turn me down when I ask for her contact info…"
Not far off, a beastkin mage with a face smeared in colorful paint also threw an electric ball at Li Fei, muttering silently to himself.
"As expected of Loxibrook's melee-type Spell Encyclopedia Lady, the Twin Stars' junior… Teacher told me to watch out for her, and she was right."
A girl stood on tiptoe, gazing unblinkingly at the figure with flying hair against the night sky, her face full of longing and amazement, her eyes sparkling. "Even her escape looks so beautiful… Sorry, Zack. Forget about me. I've fallen in love at first sight with someone else."
After silently apologizing to her childhood-sweetheart boyfriend, the girl blinked guiltily, took out her staff and aimed it at the woman in the sky who had stolen her heart.
"That said… the Altar matters a lot to me, so she probably won't find out it was me, right… Mm, even if she does, it's fine, probably… We haven't made it official yet, so it doesn't count as domestic violence. It's just fair competition, and it won't affect our marriage…"
The girl kept muttering to herself in silence. Full of guilt, she fired a slow spell at Li Fei, followed by Ice Arrows, Magic Fist…
Bam!
The Miss Witch, who had been gritting her teeth and running silently through the spell barrage, was suddenly smacked on the forehead by a Magic Fist. A spell with physical damage like that wasn't pleasant even for Li Fei, and her skull rang.
"Is there no end to this?!"
The black shadows rising into the air multiplied, filling every direction and closing in on Li Fei, weaving a rapidly shrinking encirclement. At last the cornered Miss Witch snapped. All her pent-up resentment and rage turned into one furious demand that echoed over the dark woods.
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