Shang kept charging towards the west on autopilot. He felt like a hole had opened up inside of his chest, but he couldn't deal with that now. He had to get to safety first!
He kept running towards the west, past several barbarians and Mages looking at him with confusion and surprise.
They had no idea what was happening.
Suddenly, Shang's instincts were screaming at him, and he quickly took to the sky with an Ice Blast.
BOOOM!
A huge fireball exploded at the place where Shang would have just reached, but he managed to avoid it.
Shang quickly looked towards the southwest and saw five Mages preparing Spells.
The amount of Mana they were giving off told Shang that they were Mid True Mages. He couldn't feel all of their Affinities, but he could feel two of them.
'With at least two Mid True Mages, this is probably a Circle led by a Mage at the Late True Mage Realm, which means one of the people with an Affinity I can't feel is at the Late True Mage Realm.'
'I just hope the Late True Mage is not of the powerful kind, or I will die.'
BANG!
Shang kept charging towards the west. He couldn't waste his time with these Mages right now. The longer he remained here, the more backup they would receive. Additionally, if Shang showed his power right now, they might decide to send a Peak Mage after him.
Esther, the leader of this Circle, narrowed her eyes when she noticed that the intruder just kept running to the west. She didn't know what he was planning, but his actions were strange.
"Shoot him down!" she commanded.
The Mages performed Mana Step twice in a row, depleting their Mana by quite a bit. However, they managed to close the distance to Shang by quite a bit.
And then, all five Mages prepared their Spells, and they shot at Shang.
Two of the Spells were targeted directly at Shang, while the other three Spells targeted a wider area.
BANG!
Shang flew higher into the sky, a bit of blood coming out of his body. He couldn't remain airborne indefinitely, but it was a necessity right now. Dodging while being in the air was easier for Shang than being on the ground.
The smaller Spells missed him, but one of the bigger Spells would hit.
A wave of icy mist engulfed Shang's surroundings.
This Spell was called Ice Wave.
BANG! BANG!
Shang quickly released two Ice Blasts to keep his body warm. Normally, the Ice Wave Spell froze the target, but with Shang's control over his temperature, he managed to shrug off the Spell while gaining more speed.
The Mages were quite surprised when they saw that Shang seemingly ignored the Ice Wave Spell. Shouldn't he have been frozen? What was going on?
"Ice Spells only concentrated from now on," Esther ordered. She didn't know how the intruder managed to brush off that Spell, but wide-range Ice Spells obviously didn't work.
The Mages used another two Mana Steps and prepared their next Spells.
This time, Shang had to deal with a Lightning Net Spell after avoiding the other ones.
Shang put his left hand onto Sword and released a ranged attack shortly after.
BANG!
A black wave hit the Lightning Net, nullifying it. However, in exchange, Shang's left arm lost quite a bit of life energy.
"Only wide-area Spells from now on!" Esther ordered. She had seen that Shang managed to evade all the concentrated Spells, but he had to actually expend effort to deal with the wide-area Spells.
The Mages used another two Mana Steps to get even closer.
'They are using more Mana than they are regenerating by using Mana Step in such quick succession. In the short term, they are faster than me, but that won't hold for long.'
By now, Shang felt the Darkness Mana lighten, and the Light Mana become denser.
He was reaching the border.
But then, five wide-range Spells shot at Shang, and the most dangerous Spell was the Wind Wave. By now, Shang knew that the Wind Mage was the Late True Mage.
'If I get hit by that, I will be severely injured.'
BANG!
Shang released another blast and hit the ground. He quickly flattened his body.
WHOOOM!
The powerful Spells shot past him. Shang hadn't been flying high in the sky, which allowed him to quickly evade to the ground.
"Do it again!" Esther shouted.
The intruder had managed to evade the Spells, but all his momentum was gone. Without his momentum, it would become much harder to evade.
The next Spells quickly shot at Shang, and he looked at them.
If he got hit by that, he would die. This was a pure wave of destruction.
"Ishah!"
BANG!
The Spells missed Shang as he appeared around 500 meters further to the west.
Shang didn't pause and immediately continued running.
"Quick! Follow him! He used up all his Mana by using Mana Step! He has nothing left to counter our Spells!" Esther shouted.
There was a reason why no warrior used Mana Step. It was simply too unpractical.
The warriors needed their Mana to control their Affinities, but they didn't even nearly have as much Mana as a Mage.
A quick step over a big distance was definitely useful, but the warrior would no longer have access to any of their abilities that needed Mana after that.
The Mages performed another two Mana Steps. By now, they were only about 500 meters away from Shang.
Then, the next storm of wide-range Spells shot at Shang.
BANG!
Shang blasted into the air again and placed his feet on Sword as he angled his body.
WHOOOOM!
A storm of destructive Mana reached Shang, but Sword parted it like a stone between the waves.
The wide-area Spells didn't have enough destructive power to damage Sword, allowing Shang to block it.
But wait, why hadn't he done that earlier?
Because his position had been suboptimal.
He had been on the ground previously and had been to the north of the Mages. The force of the attack would have pushed him closer to the Core Tiger Zone, which was not where he wanted to go.
But now, Shang was already northwest of the Mages, which meant that his back was now to his goal.
Shang felt a powerful force push his body away, and he accelerated even more as he was thrown towards the Ancestral Mountain Zone.
When Esther saw that, she gritted her teeth.
Their attack had not only not hindered the intruder but even aided him!
Even more, her Circle was running low on Mana.
They had been using Mana Steps several times while unleashing one Spell after the other.
"We can't unleash any more wide-range Spells," she said with annoyance. "We will follow while recovering our Mana. When we are full again, we will kill him!"
After giving her orders, Esther cast a complicated Spell, which took about three seconds to complete.
When she finished her chant, a green wind appeared around the Circle.
Blessing of the Wind!
The five Mages quickly began charging after Shang, their speed a bit slower than Shang's. However, only Esther was using up Mana while everyone else was recovering Mana.
For now, they had lost their momentum, but they would very soon explode forward with another assault.
With the high density of Light Mana, Shang could watch the Circle without turning his head.
'The leader is using up Mana while the others recover.'
'Bad idea.'
