Chapter 2744 Mist Spells and Petrification <TOC> Chapter 2746 Means of Victory
Translator: SumTLMan
After Vai finished the potion, he decided on the spot and dispelled the Stone Prison.
At the instant the Stone Prison was lifted, petrification spread across Vai’s skin.
As the prison vanished, the outside scene entered Vai’s eyes, and in that very moment his pupils shrank sharply. Reflected there was a pitch-black ogre mask, the very mask worn upon Ghost Shadow’s face!
Which meant… Ghost Shadow had been waiting right outside the Stone Prison! Now he was practically pressed against Vai’s face!
Vai’s heart lurched; he launched an attack straight at Ghost Shadow.
He brought both palms together; multiple earthen spikes sprouted from his palms, and after continuous segmenting and successive acceleration, those sharpened spikes achieved triple impact, shield-breaking, boring, bone-shattering, each layer advancing upon the last.
At the same time, the laterally released spikes produced a recoil that could instantly drive him backward to open distance.
The spikes pierced smoothly into Ghost Shadow’s body, and Vai did succeed in widening the gap; yet no joy crossed his face, for the force feedback from the spikes was plainly wrong. Soft and cottony, as though stabbing into fluff rather than a solid person.
While Vai hesitated in alarm, a rush of wind sounded behind him.
Without turning, Vai tapped the ground; a stone pillar thrust up from the earth, and standing atop it he rose straight into the air, to a height of ten meters.
Only then did Vai turn to look below.
From the pillar’s shadow, a humanoid form slowly detached. The fading shadow gradually became solid, like an ink-dark silhouette that a painter was now filling with color.
Once solidified, that person was none other than Ghost Shadow!
Vai immediately looked back to where he had unleashed his spikes earlier; Ghost Shadow there was gradually fading… vanishing into nothing.
One side fading out, the other side fading in. He did not know the linkage between the two, but Vai understood that his previous strike had not harmed Ghost Shadow at all.
At this moment the now-solid Ghost Shadow tilted his head, and Vai clearly saw his face. Only, Ghost Shadow now wore no mask; his face was a sheet of blackness, like an abyssal hollow.
Under Vai’s horrified gaze, Ghost Shadow slowly raised a hand; a swarm of black particles diffused across it and finally assembled into an ogre mask.
With one hand Ghost Shadow set the mask upon his face; as it settled, Vai could sense the face beneath changing from abyssal void back to true features.
Just as the mask was about to be fully donned, Vai glimpsed Ghost Shadow’s lips, thin and sharp.
The corners lifted in an arc, half-mocking, half-proclaiming victory.
Vai did not understand why Ghost Shadow had suddenly revealed a physical form, nor why he deliberately unmasked to show that eerie smile. But none of this hindered Vai from attacking.
Had Ghost Shadow remained in shadow state, Vai might not have been able to inflict much harm; but daring to show a true body, Vai did not fear a face-to-face clash.
Vai crouched, touched the pillar’s crown, and channeled a current of earth power downward.
Rib-like stone spikes, like the ribs of a giant dragon, probed up from the ground, branching along separate paths, trying to encircle Vai.
Once those slightly curved spines closed into a ring, they could form a dome similar to a prison. Though like the Stone Prison in that it could confine an enemy, confinement was not its greatest effect!
This dome was called the Earth Cocoon, a secret spell inherited by the Noah family.
Since it was a secret spell, it naturally had its peculiarities. It could create a vast space like an insect’s cocoon; when the Earth Cocoon formed, it would directly strip all active non-earth elements from the space within.
Once trapped inside, apart from using earth power, one could only brawl bare-handed.
Put simply, if Ghost Shadow were caught, the fight was essentially over.
Do not be fooled by how those spikes surfaced one by one, seeming to probe out slowly and giving the illusion that anyone could dodge, so it was not.
If an outsider learned about the Earth Cocoon, perhaps one could slip it. But when the Noah family cast it, the Noah bloodline was immediately activated; an imposing aura spread outward along with the emergence of every spike.
Once engulfed by that aura, movement was near impossible.
Ghost Shadow was presently within that aura.
It was not that he had failed to dodge; rather, Vai had cleverly made the pillar beneath his feet the first「spike」of the Earth Cocoon, and Ghost Shadow happened to be right beside it, instantly falling under the aura’s shroud.
Before their eyes the spikes were extending by「fencing」the ground; very soon they would complete the「Earth Cocoon」.
But just then, Vai suddenly spat a mouthful of blood and dropped to one knee upon the pillar. At that same moment the spikes paused for exactly one second.
A second later, before Vai could check why he had vomited blood, his first act was to glance at the ground.
Ghost Shadow was still there, good…
Vai readied himself to keep extending the spikes, when suddenly a thought struck; he caused a thin spike to probe from the ground, aiming to stab into Ghost Shadow’s body.
But once the spike sank in, all he felt was that same cottony softness, the identical feedback as when he had first tested Ghost Shadow with earth spikes!
This one was a fake!
Startled, Vai immediately ceased the Earth Cocoon. Though the secret spell was formidable, its cost was great; if he completed the spellcasting only to pen in a false Ghost Shadow, he would suffer a huge loss.
Those rib-like spikes sank back into the earth.
Vai scanned the surroundings; Ghost Shadow was nowhere to be seen, and even the earlier fake had vanished.
Unable to find Ghost Shadow nearby, Vai could only look toward the distant mists. Barring surprises, Ghost Shadow must have slipped back into the fog.
Yet when Vai turned to the fog, his expression grew a shade of dread.
The mist Ghost Shadow had cast earlier had already spread full; why had it suddenly begun spreading faster?!
And by the look of it, the fog was rolling straight toward him!
……
「Fooled again.」Daus sighed lightly over the mental connection.
Kael:「Did something happen? It looked like Vai had the upper hand earlier. Though I don’t know why he withdrew the ground spikes after that, it should still be a fairly even fight, right?」
Daus:「Even or not, I can’t say. Because Ghost Shadow has never actually engaged Vai head-on. Without a direct clash, where’s the ‘evenly matched’? Ghost Shadow is purely relying on tactics to drain Vai’s magic.」
Up to now, Ghost Shadow had used only the Mist Spell and the Shadow Concealment Spell.
Of these, the Mist Spell didn’t even count as a spell so much as a technique, a ploy. And the Shadow Concealment Spell was itself fundamental to the shadow school.
As illusion nodes are to illusion wizards, it could not be more basic.
Even the shadow clone he produced was merely one application of Shadow Concealment.
And yet with two simple cantrips, he’d already teased out Vai’s two trump cards. The ultimate outcome of this duel was still unknown, but tactically the other side utterly overwhelmed Vai.
「Talks a great theory on the tongue; once he’s actually on stage, the mask drops at once.」Daus shook his head and sighed.
「Then why did you lose to him back then?」Angel’s voice sounded in the mental connection.
Daus snorted twice:「I was young then. Besides, Vai knew all my tactics and abilities, whereas he liked to hide his own, always calling them family secrets. So losing when we faced off, doesn’t that make perfect sense?」
「And back then Vai was very good at setting the board. When we went out to train, he handled the tempo and solved the puzzles; I just…」
Angel:「You just hung there like an accessory?」
Daus choked, then after a long moment muttered:「My intuition was decent…」
Angel:「So aside from the talent of inspiration, you were basically just a charm.」
Daus fell silent for a beat, declined to retort, and changed the subject:「Anyway, Vai back then was quite strong, only, after all these years, it’s been wasted.」
Daus dared mention only so much, for the reason for that waste was in fact related to the Black Count.
Vai was very wary of the Black Count and never dared pursue cultivation too aggressively. That is why Daus had been a formal wizard for years while Vai still hovered at the peak of apprenticeship.
To avoid being controlled, Vai also went years without leaving Mesomiya. However sharp a sense for layout, however keen a blade, with time it dulls.
Watching Vai fare poorly in the fight, Daus held no mockery, more helplessness and sighing regret.
「Maybe Vai is laying out a plan right now?」Kael spoke, then snuck a glance at the Black Count, hoping to glean a hint. Alas, the Black Count showed no reaction at all.
Daus:「If this is a plan, the stakes are far too big. Using your own trump cards to bluff against the other side’s basic cantrips?」
Daus shook his head:「And didn’t you notice? When Vai cast just now, he suddenly spat blood.」
Kael had of course seen the moment Vai coughed blood. He had wanted to ask what happened, but since Vai quickly righted himself, he thought nothing more of it, assuming it was a side effect of casting.
Yet from Daus’ tone now, was there something fishy after all?
Daus:「Naturally there’s something fishy. No one coughs blood for no reason.」
Here Daus did not go on, because change had come again upon the arena.
The fog had spread wide, completely and utterly enveloping Vai within it.
Though Vai had activated his bloodline and stone-hardened his skin, temporarily blocking the mycobarrier’s intrusion, he himself had fallen into a bind, two binds, in fact: being lost and being attacked.
To call it 「lost」 meant he was trying to find some place not covered by the fog; yet no matter how he moved, he could not walk out of it.
As for the ambush, Ghost Shadow kept striking from the shadows, and despite the stone skin, Vai was beginning to tire.
「Ah, this is getting hard to watch.」Daus sighed.
Watching Vai flit about like a headless fly, Kael’s face showed anxious color.
Daus turned to Kael:「Well? Do you understand now? Best to understand it well, there’s a good chance you face Ghost Shadow next.」
At Daus’ question, Kael forcibly drew his thoughts away from worry.
No matter who won in the end, it was best he analyze for himself and see precisely where the pivot of victory lay. Otherwise, in the battles to come, he too might fall into the opponent’s traps.
And if Ghost Shadow was this cunning, were the others not also cunning? Perhaps even more so.
With that, Kael began to sort things through from the beginning.
Reviewing the prior exchanges, he found that the key point indeed lay where Vai suddenly coughed blood, interrupting the Earth Cocoon and letting Ghost Shadow escape.
Had Vai remained fine then, Ghost Shadow might already have failed.
But why had Vai spat blood at that moment?
By Daus’ account, there was certainly something fishy. If so, then Ghost Shadow must have done something.
It could have been a sneak attack, or some tampering in a particular place.
To make a sneak attack, Ghost Shadow would have needed to come into direct contact with Vai. Up to this point, there had been only one such contact, right at the start.
At that time, Ghost Shadow’s overhead strike had swept Vai, sending him flying more than ten meters.
That, as Kael recalled, was the only head-on collision. Could Ghost Shadow have done something in that brief close quarters?
Kael pondered a moment, then rejected the guess. Because after that contact, Vai had ducked into the Stone Prison to start downing potions.
Lord Red Sword and Lord Super Dimensional even spoke then, and from their conversation Kael had not heard any sign that Vai had been surreptitiously struck at that time.
Had there been a covert hit, even if Lord Super Dimensional said nothing, given Lord Red Sword’s temperament, he would have muttered a few lines.
But excluding that one contact, they had not touched since!
So how had Vai been attacked?
……
On the arena, Vai was being attacked again and again; each time Ghost Shadow struck and withdrew at once, no entanglement, no greed for extra blows.
At first Vai could weather it, but as the hits came more frequently and his stone skin was beaten off, he could no longer hold.
He had to fend off invading mycelium on one hand and spar with Ghost Shadow on the other, he was stretched too thin and kept getting caught out.
By now Vai was bloodied from head to toe.
Yet even so, he had not yet lost. Which meant Ghost Shadow had not used pheromone-based methods to attack him.
So the Pheromone Variance Water Vai drank earlier had been basically wasted.
Below the arena, as Kael kept replaying the battle scenes, he finally uncovered a moment among the many that felt off.
The moment when Vai suddenly created the stone pillar, that was odd.
But from his subsequent reactions, Vai must have been avoiding an attack from behind.
Though from Kael’s perspective no one had been behind Vai then, true battle is decided by the fighter’s own sense.
Creating the pillar was odd enough; odder still was that Ghost Shadow did appear, and he emerged from the pillar’s shadow.
That was very strange.
When had Ghost Shadow slipped into the pillar’s shadow? And why leave through the pillar’s shadow, and even then turn solid?
As these questions made Kael uneasy, another image surfaced in his mind.
Vai standing on the pillar’s crown; Ghost Shadow exiting from the pillar’s shadow.
Earlier Kael’s doubt had been Ghost Shadow’s motive. But on reviewing, he discovered a blind spot.
When Vai stood atop the pillar, his shadow was actually connected to the pillar’s shadow!
In other words, Ghost Shadow leaving the pillar’s shadow was equivalent to leaving Vai’s shadow!
Ghost Shadow was a shadow school apprentice, and what the shadow school excelled at was harming the body through shadows.
On that point alone, it was basically certain how Vai had been attacked.
Vai’s spitting blood was surely connected to this!
And on the arena Ghost Shadow was an opponent, an enemy. He would not be merciful enough to hurt Vai only once.
Having successfully slipped into Vai’s shadow, he must have done other, unseen things at that time.
And the plight Vai now faced, was it not perhaps caused right then?
Chapter 2744 Mist Spells and Petrification <TOC> Chapter 2746 Means of Victory