Chapter 323: Going all out! (1/2)

After the initial exchange of blows, it quickly became apparent that even while poisoned, the enemy team couldn't land a hit on Raven and Blaze.

Despite the fact that their spells kept failing, they were able to avoid the enemies' attacks. Blaze had been careless at first when he was struck on the hand, but after that one exchange, he made sure not to rely on a single spell.

It wasn't that they were gradually gaining back absolute control over their Mana over time but started to get used to their weakened state.

On the contrary, the duo clearly felt weaker the longer their battle continued.

”They won't be able to hold for long! Don't hesitate to attack with everything you've got!”

The leader of the three-man team shouted at the other two. They were feeling quite helpless against these Rank-8 Mages who should have been easy to deal with as they were poisoned.

His encouragement reminded them that even if they weren't able to seriously harm these people, it was only for a limited time. The longer the battle continued on, the weaker they would get!

Their attacks got fiercer and they didn't hold anything back this time.

Even Raven and Blaze were made aware of this alarming reality. They knew their bodies best and had already felt their movements getting sloppier and their thoughts getting cloudy with time.

'Tch! We have to end it quickly. Otherwise, we might actually lose this!'

Raven glanced in Blaze's direction and for a moment, their eyes met. They nodded their heads at each other; both decided to give their all before it was too late.

Only a few minutes had passed since they were fighting and making a mess all over the forest.

Both sides fought intensely. Despite the size of the surrounding trees, they fell as if they were made from sand.

”How long do you think will you last?! Give up now and we will give you an easy death!” shouted the man as he muttered a spell, creating a big circle under Blaze's feet, emitting a purple light.

In response, Blaze summoned an ice floor to push himself up in the ground, only to see his opponent in front of him, about to hit him with the same spell he used before.

He reacted quickly, pulling the ice floor in front of him as he kicked it forward, crashing with the darkness-enhanced fist.

Both he and the enemy flew in the opposite direction. The latter falling to the ground and him hitting a tree trunk.

*Urgh!*

Though he had a much higher endurance than his enemy who was two small realms below him, each direct confrontation always caused him to suffer more. All because his control and senses were muddled.

Right now, Raven and Blaze were mostly fighting with their instincts as their bodies reacted on their own after years of experience.

Ozul had never let them lag behind in that regard. He always made sure to put them in situations where their bodies would adapt to fighting.

All of the torture and near-death experiences were finally paying off.

Nevertheless, that didn't mean that they weren't at a significant disadvantage right now.

Blaze stood up groggily. His expressions didn't reveal how much pain he was in right now.

Opposite to him, the man also stood up with only a little difficulty. He had a smirk on his face as he noticed the thin trail of blood leaving from Blaze's lips.

Looking at that annoying smirk, Blaze couldn't keep calm anymore. After all, until now, he had only been dodging or blocking instead of focusing on attacking.

”AHH!!”

He suddenly shouted as his Mana flared many times over!

Since he already had a limited amount of time to finish this battle, he might as well stop trying to contain his Mana in order to gain finer control and just go all out with whatever he had.

The Mana which belonged to a peak Rank-8 Mage finally showed its effects on the enemy who was merely in the Initial Stage. The taunting smirk was instantly wiped out from the face of the enemy as he realized that he couldn't afford to be careless now.

Blaze didn't give him much time to think and disappeared from his spot and appeared right before the man as he kicked the latter in the abdomen with his whole leg covered in ice!

That man didn't have much time to dodge the attack; at most, he was only able to reduce some force behind the attack using his hands.

That too was only possible because Blaze's speed was significantly lowered.

It was at that point when Raven found a few seconds to observe Blaze's situation. When she saw him letting his Mana run rampant, she was about to scold him for that.

However, when she noticed the kick sending the man flying in the air after the contact, she smiled instead.

”Perhaps that's the most effective way right now,” she muttered as she let her Mana loose as well.

Due to the effects of the poison, their Mana was becoming uncontrollable by the second. Keeping it under control took away most of their concentration. Now, they had one less thing to worry about.

Faced with the flaring black colored Mana which was even denser and more eerie than their leader's, the two Rank-7 Mages immediately retreated to create some distance between them.

Unfortunately, Raven was even faster than Blaze in agility!