1517 Mage! Part 2 (1/2)

Twenty-four Dimensional Blades cut up the pests. The Dimensional Blades attacked their targets incessantly until they were dead, which identified them as vastly different levels from common Dimensional Blades. It was precisely due to such traits that the unique properties of pests held the Dimensional Blades back for repeated cutting until the blades ran out of energy and dissipated.

The pests no doubt died right after they were hit, but their bodies continued to reconfigure themselves.

Saleen fired a lightning icicle and hit the bug that was magically marked, killing it immediately. That was the easy one, though. The smaller bug behind the huge one was more difficult to deal with.

That smaller bug started at a little more than a meter in length and expanded suddenly, getting ready to charge at Saleen. Rafel lashed out with her Inferno Spear, but the weapon was surprisingly unable to get through when it crashed into the bug's carapace.

Rafel put quite a bit of strength behind the thrust, causing the bug to fall but remain unscathed. It also prevented the bug from charging at Saleen.

The parties crossed each other and Saleen fired his second lightning icicle at the bug's eyes.

Saleen had stopped relying on his lightning icicles to take out enemies. He had instead been using all kinds of elemental magic spells to keep things in control, reserving that very penetrative weapon only for the killing blow. It was too draining otherwise.

”Rafel, get it over with quick.” The lightning icicle had already killed that powerful magic beast when Saleen said that.

Regardless of how high the level of a magic beast was, if it was devoid of intelligence, then it would be a piece of cake for Saleen. The bug thought it would be able to repel the lightning icicle simply by shutting its eyes, never expecting the electrical power on the icicle to paralyze it before the icicle itself shot right through its brain.

Rafel nodded and dumped the bit of metallic poison into the pool.

No more large magic beasts emerged from the pool, but if smaller ones—like the thousands of tiny bugs that emerged earlier—emerging again, it would keep Saleen's hands full.

There was no telling just how many of the tiny bugs flipped when the metallic poison was dumped into the water, causing them to float on the water.

Saleen unleashed two lightning warriors and had them drag the two magic beasts' dead bodies over, before putting them into his Ring of Cosmos. The two magic beasts were of very high levels, and they died in vain.

The very reason why Saleen did not call for the lightning warriors to help him out, was because of the level difference. Lightning warriors were puppets and advancing further would require materials to be swapped and the puppets to be reworked.

Saleen's lightning puppets were of materials of ample strength, but he did not put too much work into crafting them. As such, most of the lightning warriors were level ten, with a handful of them being level 11. Only those that Dante used often reached level 12.

Level 12 lightning warriors were fully capable of taking on level ten magic beasts even without Saleen's command. That was because lightning warriors were capable of overwhelming elemental skills, and their bodies far exceeded the strengths expected of level ten puppets.

All the magic beasts were carefully selected by the goddess, so they were probably somewhere between level 15 to level 16, which made them very capable of posing a threat to Saleen but unable to kill him off right away.

The goddess put extreme pressure on Saleen, but she did not intend to get him killed. As such, so long as Saleen was willing to bring all he had to the table to deal with the magic beasts, it would not be much of a problem for him to leave the space alive.

The problem, however, was that Saleen had no intention of bringing all he had when dealing with a few magic beasts. He intended to take every single dead magic beasts in that space. Magic beasts of such high levels were only found around the Oceanic Ice Block on the Myers Mainland. If not, they would only be found in areas that were even more dangerous.

The metallic poison spread throughout the pool, but Saleen was not done yet. He unraveled a Deep Blue Territory. All water within a 1,000-meters radius froze over, preventing any bugs from flying out of the pond.

The bugs were capable of casting Wind Blades, but the spell was weak against cold. While Saleen's skill might not have killed them, he had put them back into hibernation, and it would take them three to five months to awaken.

The bug space had a radius of over a dozen kilometers, and Saleen was able to sense it all. Now that he had taken flight, he was able to see a cave at the edge of the space and a passage leading to the next space.

Damn it. The goddess has designed the place like that to have him burrow holes.

Saleen thought for a bit before telling Rafel, ”Get behind me.”

Rafel fell into step behind him without knowing what he was up to.

”Put your weapon away and grab onto my belt.”

Rafel put away her Inferno Spear and grabbed hold of Saleen's belt. It was only then that she realized that she was hugging Saleen.

Rafel was baffled. ”Are you looking for warmth, mage?”

”Nope, you need to stay guarded against the cold!” Saleen smirked before the ice on his body enveloped both him and Rafel, encasing them completely and protecting them from the magic beasts they were passing. He then shot into the cave like a meteor.

The length of the cave was only several kilometers long, but Rafel felt as if her blood had been frozen over. If she had not been frozen together with Saleen, there was no telling where she would have ended up.

Saleen was flying too quickly. He zipped past over a dozen kilometers in the swamp area, preventing any remaining magic beast from even trying to attack them.