BANG!
Shang immediately used his left arm to shoot himself to his right.
Just an instant later, a bullet of purple sludge hit the place where Shang had just been. There had been enough sludge to cover Shang's entire body.
SSSSSSSSS!
A violent and high-pitched sizzling noise came from the sludge as it burned a hole into the ground.
Shang gritted his teeth. 'This is troublesome. The Spells of Poison Mages aren't very fast, but they are extremely effective against humans.'
Why were they so effective?
Well, what could the protective Magic Circle on Shang's uniform do against that?
Nothing.
Whenever Shang had fought Mages, he had always had his uniform to rely on, and he had definitely used the Magic Circles to his advantage in the past.
This wouldn't work against the Poison Adept.
This Spell was called Sludge Bolt, and if Shang got hit by it, he would definitely die.
The Poison Adept raised an eyebrow when he saw that Shang had evaded.
He hadn't expected that at all.
His target, Shang, was supposed to be a newly advanced Initial General Stage warrior. His speed shouldn't have been fast enough to evade the Sludge Bolt.
Sure, the Poison Adept had noticed that Shang had somehow reached the Early General Stage already, but that still shouldn't have been enough to evade the Sludge Bolt.
The Poison Adept was a Mid Adept. He was an entire level above this warrior.
Yet, this warrior managed to evade a Spell that came from a Mage an entire level above him?
This was very unusual. Many people would even say that this was impossible.
However, the Poison Adept didn't panic.
So what if his target evaded a Sludge Bolt? He would just need to use different Spells.
BANG!
Shang charged toward the Adept with all his speed as he readied his sword.
The Poison Adept began to chant a different Spell.
Shang reached the enemy very quickly since there hadn't been much distance between them. After all, they weren't fighting in the open but inside the Caves.
BANG!
Shang's heavy sword hit the Poison Adept's Mana Shield and bounced off.
The Poison Adept's eyebrows rose in surprise.
That was a lot of Mana that had just been used up!
'Doesn't matter,' the Poison Adept thought.
A second later, his Spell was finished, and his hand pointed at Shang.
Shang's eyes shone.
Thanks to Vice-Dean Ranos' thorough lessons, Shang knew exactly what kind of Spell this was.
"You can die now," the Poison Adept said calmly.
BANG!
Shang's legs exploded with Ice, and he jumped upwards with all his power.
Not a moment too soon.
An instant later, a gigantic wave of purple water exited the Poison Adept's Mana Shield and swept throughout the entire cave.
Sludge Wave.
That was the name of the Spell.
It cost several times more Mana than Sludge Bolt, but it was basically unavoidable by anyone close to the Mage.
Sure, Mages could use Mana Step to get away, but Sludge Wave wasn't designed to deal with Mages.
It was a Spell specifically created to kill large groups of warriors.
Shang barely managed to avoid the Sludge Wave with his Ice Blast and kept flying upward.
CLINK!
As Shang hit the ceiling, he buried his sword into it in a diagonal manner, allowing him to hang from it.
If the Tunnel Pangolins hadn't hardened the walls over this many years, the ceiling would have crumbled under Shang's weight.
Shang gritted his teeth as his breathing stopped.
The poisonous gas coming from below him was burning his skin and even a bit of his insides.
If just the poisonous gas was already this deadly, how deadly would the sludge itself be?
The Poison Adept looked calmly at Shang.
He hadn't expected him to evade the Sludge Wave, but this was not an issue.
The many brilliant Mages that had designed this Spell over the years wouldn't overlook such a simple counter as jumping.
If jumping worked, the Spell would basically be useless.
Shang looked at the sea of poison below him with narrowed eyes.
The sludge wouldn't vanish for over half a minute.
So what if a warrior jumped?
As long as they couldn't fly, they would still land in the sludge.
At that moment, the Poison Adept's Focus began to shine.
It had finished preparing its Spell.
An instant later, a Sludge Bolt shot at Shang.
BANG!
Shang pulled out his sword, fell for a bit, and unleashed another Ice Blast with his left arm.
BANG!
Then, Shang landed on one of the walls of the tunnel and hung from there.
At the place where Shang had just been, the Sludge Bolt hit the ceiling, and the ceiling began to vanish at that place. A big part of the sludge also fell to the ground, leaving behind purple gas.
The Poison Adept frowned with annoyance.
Then, his Focus had readied another Spell.
Another Sludge Bolt later, and Shang hung on a different part of the ceiling.
"How long are you planning on keeping this up?" the Adept asked as he shot another Sludge Bolt from his Focus.
"You do know that I am recovering Mana right now? Casting Spells with a Focus doesn't consume any of my Mana."
BANG!
Shang avoided another Sludge Bolt. This had been the seventh one.
By now, Shang's entire body was steaming. He had used different parts of his body to use Ice Blast to evade, and he was at his limit.
"Do you actually know how fast an Adept recovers Mana?" the Poison Adept asked with annoyance as he shot another Sludge Bolt.
"By the time the effects of the Sludge Wave end, I have recovered all the Mana I expended."
"This will continue indefinitely, and you will eventually die."
BANG!
Another Sludge Bolt hit the place where Shang had just been.
"Or do you plan to escape into a different tunnel?" the Poison Adept asked.
As the Poison Adept shot another Sludge Bolt at Shang, he looked at the other entrances.
If Shang truly managed to escape, it could become troublesome.
"Well, how about I make the other tunnels collapse?" the Poison Adept said with a smirk.
The Focus continued shooting at Shang with Sludge Bolts as the Adept readied another Sludge Wave.
WHOOOM!
Another Sludge Wave left the Poison Adept's Mana Shield. A huge part of the wave filled the tunnel even more with sludge as some of the wave washed over one of the entrances.
The walls and ceiling of one of the entrances began to sizzle until…
BOOOOM!
The entrance collapsed.
At that moment, the Poison Adept got another idea.
"How about we make a poison sea?" he loudly muttered to himself.
Shortly after, the Poison Adept unleashed another Sludge Wave to increase the amount of sludge in the tunnel.
BOOOOM!
Another entrance collapsed.
Crk!
At that moment, the ceiling at Shang's current location gave way, and Shang fell.
The Focus unleashed a Sludge Bolt, and Shang evaded with another Ice Blast, severely burning his left arm.
Shang looked around and noticed that the poisonous gas had severely deteriorated the ceilings and walls.
It became harder and harder for Shang to keep himself above the sea of poison.
On top of that, there was only one entrance left.
At that moment, the Poison Adept seemingly took to the sky as he began to levitate.
However, he didn't actually fly.
It was simply his Mana Shield pushing him up as it isolated him from the poison around him. One could say that the Poison Adept was in the center of a sphere, swimming in a sea of poison.
Some seconds later, the Poison Adept appeared near the last entrance.
"Let's see how you flee now," he said with a smirk.
Shang's eyes narrowed.
"Shang?"
Shang's eyes widened in horror.
He had just heard Astor's voice coming from the last entrance.
The Poison Adept, who stood near that entrance, looked into it and groaned.
"Great, now I have to kill them too. Hope you're happy," he said to Shang with annoyance.
Then Shang heard with horror how the Poison Adept readied another Sludge Wave.
"A human? Who are you?" Shang heard Elver's voice coming from the entrance.
However, the Poison Adept didn't answer.
At least, not until his Sludge Wave was ready.
"Doesn't really matter," the Poison Adept said in a bored tone.
The team looked at the Adept in confusion before they saw the scene behind him.
Their eyes widened in shock, but it was too late.
The Poison Adept unleashed his Sludge Wave.
