"Shields!" Xi yelled hoarsely.
Pale blue waves of water struggled to form a spiritual filtering barrier, but it was instantly torn to shreds. Blood trickled from Xi’s eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
Legolas drove his longbow into the ground and pressed both hands against its stave.
Verdant Power of Nature radiated out from him, forming a tiny "Pure Land" that struggled to resist the spiritual pollution.
But his face visibly grew ashen.
Hector was the fiercest of them all.
Or perhaps, the Death Witchcraft of the Withered Council shared so affinity with this type of Abyssal Spiritual Attack, granting him a degree of innate resistance.
He let out a ferocious roar, and the Death Qi around him coalesced into a giant skeletal specter that enveloped him completely.
Ghostly fire blazed within the specter’s eye sockets as it began to devour the incoming chaotic spiritual Power. However, the skeletal image trembled violently, and cracks continuously spiderwebbed across its form.
Ian bore the brunt of the assault, as the Demon seed to have focused its attention on him—the human who could "devour" its Power.
More than half of the spiritual torrent and Tentacle attacks surged toward him!
"I’m not hiding anymore! I have to help you! Gaa!" Gaga shrieked, about to erge from the shadows.
’Wait. You’re my trump card. Don’t co out yet.’
He first activated the Ring of Overlapping Peaks. The first two layers of the Shield shattered instantly, while the third trembled violently but barely held.
He pretended to stagger backward, but he was secretly channeling the force of the impact into the Spirit Devourer’s vortex to dissipate it.
Seeing how critical the situation had beco, Ian’s gaze turned sharp as a blade. He would hold nothing back!
He pushed his Crystal Energy Barrier to its absolute limit, and three stacked layers of Floating Crystal Guards shielded him completely.
The dark red runes of the Spirit Devourer swirled madly across the surface, Devouring the encroaching spiritual pollution like a black hole.
But this Devouring power had its limits. The sheer volu and chaos of the spiritual torrent made the Spirit Devourer’s Runes hum, as if strained to their breaking point.
He thrust out both hands—his left glowing ice-blue, his right a brilliant white—unleashing his Frost Ash Beam without concealnt.
A destructive beam from the Ice and Fire Spiral blasted forth!
Wherever it passed, Tentacles disintegrated into nothing. It even blasted a huge, charred, and frost-rimd crater into the massive, eye-covered mountain of flesh!
A great howl erupted from the Demon.
But it was a silent shriek, one that tore directly at their Souls!
Even more of its eyes locked onto Ian, and the Spiritual Attacks grew more focused, more venomous.
It even began using bizarre new tactics, such as soul-rending interrogations and assaults of fragnted mories.
At the sa ti, dozens of exceptionally thick Tentacles, their tips splitting open to form maws ringed with suckers, lashed out to constrict him like giant pythons.
The suckers were lined with sharp teeth and radiated a chill that felt as if it could devour one’s Soul.
The battle instantly reached a fever pitch!
Seeing this, a glint of ruthlessness and greed flashed in Hector’s eyes.
He had seen the terrifying power of Ian’s Ice and Fire Spiral beam, and he had seen the Demon’s pained reaction when it was struck.
"Let’s team up! Attack that huge, dark golden eye in the center! That’s its core, and it might be where the Eye of the Gazer is!"
He roared, waving his Bone Staff. Beams of concentrated black light—the Death Finger spell—shot out alongside Ian’s beam, targeting the Demon.
Legolas and Xi also gritted their teeth and fought with everything they had.
The Elf stopped trying to maintain his defense, instead pouring what little Power of Nature he had left into his arrows. One by one, verdant arrows flew with a clear, evil-warding chi, aid at the gaps between the Demon’s eyes.
As for Xi, he abandoned his reconnaissance role and condensed the water around him into a sharp, swirling Water Blade Storm. It sliced through the approaching Tentacles, creating an opening for Ian and Hector to attack.
Working together, the four of them actually managed to hold back the Demon’s frenzied assault for a ti, even inflicting nurous wounds on its mountain of flesh.
But the Demon was too strong!
Even though it was grievously wounded and had been slumbering until now, its fundantal nature and residual Power had only just barely fallen below the threshold of the Level Two Wizard Realm.
Its attacks were endless, the spiritual pollution was all-pervasive, and its Tentacles regenerated at an astonishing speed.
Worse still, its combat instincts were incredibly cunning. It quickly identified the Elf and the mber of the Sea Race as the weak points.
A preditated Spiritual Spike, combined with a surprise attack from several camouflaged Tentacles, instantly shattered the already faltering defenses of Legolas and Xi!
SQUELCH! A Tentacle pierced through Legolas’s chest, though he managed to avoid a fatal blow at the last second.
But the Spiritual Poison and Devouring Power coating the Tentacle grievously wounded him in an instant. His Power of Nature rapidly dissipated as another Tentacle snaked toward his neck!
Xi’s Water Blade Storm was shattered by an even stronger Spiritual Shock.
Several Tentacles seized the opportunity to ensnare his arms and legs. The sucker-maws bit down hard, and the intense pain, coupled with the sensation of his Soul being ripped away, made him cry out in agony.
"Watch out!" Hector cried out.
But he didn’t rush to their aid. Instead, a ghostly light flickered in his eyes as he appeared to weigh his options.
Ian frowned, redirecting his Frost Ash Beam to sweep across the Tentacles entangling the Elf and the mber of the Sea Race, severing most of them.
In that brief mont of distraction, the Demon’s main attack fell upon Ian once more. Several multi-colored spiritual rays, so condensed they seed tangible, slamd viciously into his Shield!
BOOM!
All of his Shields shattered instantly!
Ian let out a muffled grunt as a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
His Spirit Devourer, whirring madly, had only managed to dissipate a fraction of the impact.
Legolas and Xi had a mont to catch their breath, but they were already spent.
The two exchanged a look, seeing the grim resolve in each other’s eyes.
"Go!" Legolas rasped, ripping a verdant, leaf-shaped pendant from his neck and crushing it in his fist!
A vast, gentle wave of the Power of Nature erupted, temporarily repelling the surrounding corruption and Tentacles and forming a brief corridor.
His face instantly beca as pale as paper and his aura plumted, but he used this burst of Power to transform into a streak of green light, shooting up toward the sealed exit above.
He rapidly drew and fired his longbow, sending a few weak arrows at the barrier of roots in an attempt to open a gap.
Xi likewise gritted his teeth, pulling an azure conch from his robes. He placed it to his lips and blew with all his might!
There was no sound, but a strange vibration spread out. The surrounding space seed to ripple like water. Xi’s body blurred, undergoing Liquefaction, and began to "flow" unnaturally up the cave wall through its cracks.
This was the Tide Transformation Escape, a life-saving Injured Secret Technique of the Sea Race. The price was a drop of at least one minor Realm, with no hope of recovery for three years.
Xi pulled another item from his robes, a Shell-shaped Witchcraft Tool, a look of grim resolve in his eyes.
"Legolas, I’ll use the Tide Technique to get you out of here!"
Legolas shook his head. "Together!"
He took out another Jade Leaf, bit the tip of his finger, and dripped blood onto it.
The two activated their Witchcraft Tools almost simultaneously.
The Shell exploded, wrapping Xi in a dense cloud of mist.
The Jade Leaf burst into flas, enveloping Legolas in a verdant light.
"Go!"
The mist and the green light shot upward, ignoring the seal on the ceiling and forcibly blasting a channel through it.
Two Tentacles shot out in pursuit, but the mont they touched the mist and the green light, they were blasted to smithereens by the furious Energy contained within.
In the blink of an eye, both of their auras vanished from the cave.
Relying on their last-resort Disposable Witchcraft Tools and Injured Secret Techniques, the two of them, grievously wounded, made a desperate escape from the terrifying Demon Cave.
Within the cave, only Ian and Hector remained, along with the enraged Thousand-Eyed Soul-Stealing Demon.
But at that mont, the fires of greed in Hector’s eyes burned brighter than ever.
His gaze was locked onto the Demon, specifically on the glints of golden light that occasionally flashed between its attacks.
It was a dark golden eye, and within it, a galactic vortex seed to swirl.
The Eye of the Gazer!
For a Wizard from the Withered Council, who delved into the arts of death and the Soul, an eye containing such a pure Spiritual Power Origin was a priceless treasure!
It could vastly increase the strength of one’s Soul, aid in achieving breakthroughs, and even be used in the Refining of powerful Soul Witchcraft Artifacts!
Hector wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked at Ian, his eyes a swirling mix of greed and murderous intent.
"Kid, it’s just the two of us now."
Ian looked at him calmly. "So?"
"We team up. We kill this Demon."
Hector licked his lips. "As for the Eye of the Gazer... it’s every man for himself."
"Fine." Ian nodded.
The two of them turned to face the Thousand-Eyed Soul-Stealing Demon simultaneously.
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