Shang quickly shook his head to regain his focus.
'I don't have time to think about that right now! I can think about that stuff when I'm safe!'
Shang focused on the distant towers again as he summoned a hood made of fish scales. He didn't want the Grandmountain Kingdom to recognize him.
If they recognized him, they would know that he only had one eye, which was basically unique in this world. Then, if Shang appeared back in the Skythunder Kingdom eventually and they connected the sudden appearances of the Abominations with his identity, the Kingdoms might decide to ignore the war to deal with Shang.
After all, someone like him was a threat to all of them.
Shang had to keep his identity a secret if he wanted to live openly inside the Skythunder Kingdom again, and he couldn't allow his identity to be connected to the Abominations.
By now, he could see two Mages standing on each tower, and they were talking with each other as they glanced at the lake.
They noticed that the water level was dropping.
'They will see me soon, but I can't kill them. These towers are fortified with a gigantic Mana Shield that uses Mana stored in Mana Crystals. Exhausting the supply of one tower would be like trying to break through a Peak True Mage's Mana Shield. By the point I broke it, the Mages would have already contacted their superiors.'
'Additionally, they will notice the power of my attacks, giving them an inkling of my power. Right now, my advantage is that they don't know how powerful I am.'
'If I get chased by a Late True Mage, I might not be able to escape in time, and if a Peak True Mage comes after me, only death awaits me.'
'I have to keep my power a secret, and I will only have a single opportunity to unleash my power!'
BANG!
Shang released an Ice Blast and shot towards the northwest, past the northern tower.
At that moment, the Mages noticed Shang. After all, he was literally exploding through the sky.
"Stop or we will kill you!" one of the Mages in the northern tower shouted loudly.
Of course, Shang didn't stop, and he unleashed a Fire Blast to keep his speed at its peak.
"Attack!" the Mage ordered.
A moment later, the tower began to light up as the two Mages focused their Mana on it.
A second later, a huge fireball appeared above the tower, which directly shot at Shang.
Shang immediately released a ranged attack at the fireball with his sword, the recoil throwing him further towards the north.
BOOOOOM!
The fireball exploded in the distance as Shang kept going.
"Change to crowd control!" the Mage shouted.
The light of the tower started pulsating quickly, and about ten small fireballs appeared above it.
And then, the ten fireballs shot toward Shang one after the other.
Blocking one powerful attack was easy for Shang, but he couldn't possibly unleash his ranged attacks fast enough to block all of these small fireballs.
Even more, as the tower kept firing, more fireballs appeared around it.
It essentially acted as a gigantic machine gun!
However, when Shang saw that, he didn't become nervous.
'I knew it was the correct decision to strengthen my Affinity before leaving the Tide Serpent Zone!'
Shang let go of Sword, which automatically clung to Shang's body.
Then, Shang extended two fingers each on his hands.
SSSSS!
Shang's body began to release steam as it heated up.
Shang pointed two of his fingers at one of the fireballs.
BANG!
An icicle shot out of Shang's fingers and hit the fireball.
BOOOM!
The fireball exploded in the distance, and Shang did the same thing to the next one.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Shang shot down each and every fireball as the recoil of his ability threw him further and further north.
This was one of Shang's new abilities he had gained after strengthening his Affinity for two years.
He had gained the ability to somewhat spread the temperature fluctuations over a wider area of his body while gaining the ability to focus his Blasts more.
There wasn't a lot of destructive power in these icicles, but they could be used in quick succession.
If the fireballs were as powerful as the first one, the power of the icicles wouldn't be enough to detonate them. However, these fireballs were smaller, and Shang could detonate with no problem.
Shang called this new ability Icicle, a simple but very descriptive name.
By now, Shang had already passed the northern tower and was over two kilometers to its northwest.
From such a distance, it became much harder for the Mages to focus on him. If they were using their own Spells, they would still have very high accuracy from such a distance, but they were using the tower's Spells.
Sadly, they couldn't use their own Spells. If Shang could react fast enough to deal with these fast-moving fireballs, he would very likely be able to completely evade their Spells.
Shang had been forced to directly destroy the fireballs since they were so fast that he couldn't avoid them.
The Mages watched with shocked eyes and gnashed teeth as Shang kept gaining more and more distance.
He was near the northern border of the Plague Rat Zone, which was close to the Core Tiger Zone, which belonged to the Blackshadow Kingdom.
There were not many of their forces stationed there, but there were several towers to keep watch over the border.
However, there were still around three kilometers more until Shang reached the border to the north, which was just enough not to get into the range of the towers without some loss in accuracy.
Yet, this place was also not close to their headquarters, which was where their main force in the Plague Rat Zone resided.
It was almost like this invader knew exactly how their forces were distributed in this Zone!
One of the Mages quickly summoned a Communication Crystal.
"An unknown male with a big sword just came out of the Tide Serpent Zone, shot across the sky by using several explosions, destroyed the tower's fireballs, and entered the Plague Rat Zone north of our tower! He keeps charging towards the west!" the Mage quickly reported.
Then, the Mage very quickly recounted Shang's abilities.
The person on the other side of the Communication Crystal raised an eyebrow.
It was the young man with icy blue hair, the leader of the Plague Rat Zone.
He was a Peak True Mage.
He had expected an assault from the Blackshadow Kingdom when the emergency Communication Crystal rang, but he hadn't expected that.
Someone exploding through the air?
He was carrying a big sword?
The big sword made the image of a barbarian appear in the leader's mind, but barbarians couldn't explode through the sky with fire and ice, and they certainly didn't have the necessary control over Mana to summon icicles.
'Is that a warrior?' the leader thought with furrowed brows.
'I don't know what the Skythunder Kingdom is planning this time, but this doesn't sound like any of their two warriors in the Fourth Realm, which means this is a warrior at the Commander Stage.'
'But why only one? Also, shouldn't they have tried a more subtle approach?'
'Is this a rogue warrior?'
'This far in the north?'
This entire thing didn't make much sense to the general, but he guessed that this was probably a solo warrior. He didn't think that this was some elaborate ploy from the Skythunder Kingdom.
"Understood. Keep guarding the lake," the leader answered.
After cutting the connection, the leader was looking at the hall.
There were five Late True Mages in the hall.
The emergency Communication Crystal had gone off during a meeting.
"Esther," the leader said.
"Yes!" Esther, a Mage with green hair, shouted as she stood up and saluted.
"We have a warrior invading from the Tide Serpent Zone and charging towards our western border. He is powerful enough to block the attacks of the towers."
"Get your unit and deal with him."
"Yes, sir!" Esther answered as she ran out of the hall.
At the same time, Shang had already landed and was running towards the west at his full power, his face hidden by the cloak made of fish scales.
He saw some Adepts and barbarians scattered around the place but ignored them.
They were only looking at him with confusion.
Why was this barbarian in such a hurry, and how was he so fast?
After about five minutes, Shang had already crossed half of the Plague Rat Zone.
"Leader?"
Shang stopped.
Shang's heartbeat quickened as he heard a familiar voice.
He looked over at the person that had just called him leader.
It was Lash, Shang's first follower from back then, the one he had taught about fighting.
Lash was still at the Peak Fighter Stage, but his body had become very powerful. He was probably only waiting for the Ascension.
Right now, Lash was looking at Shang with shock.
Lash had thought that Shang had died seven years ago, but now, he was here!
"Is that you, leader?" Lash asked.
At that moment, Shang gnashed his teeth and clenched his fists so tightly that blood came out of his hands.
Shang's entire body began to shake in stress.
"I'm sorry," Shang said quietly. "I can't get recognized."
Then, Shang pointed two of his fingers at Lash's head.
BANG!
An icicle punched through Lash's head, and Shang continued running.
Lash's corpse fell to the ground, a shocked expression on his face.
