After quickly taking down one opponent, Starlight immediately shifted his focus to the second black-robed figure nearest to him.
At the same time, the remaining figures had already retreated more than ten meters with their injured bodies and begun to gather their spells, intending to eliminate Starlight, who stood at the center of their encirclement, with concentrated fire.
However, they still underestimated Starlight’s extraordinary explosive power.
Before the corrosive magic could even take shape in front of them, Starlight’s figure had already shot out like an arrow from a bow. The six bursts of corrosive magic landed right on his heels, yet failed to harm him in the slightest.
As Starlight took his second step, the wind elements flowing around him provided a second burst of acceleration, pushing his already impressive speed even higher.
The black-robed figure not far away felt his vision blur, only to find the black-haired youth already standing right before his eyes.
The figure instinctively tried to manifest a shield to block, but there was no time.
The black light in his hand flashed momentarily in the air before Starlight’s palm pressed against his head. A cold current instantly froze his tongue, successfully interrupting his spellcasting.
Only then did Starlight see clearly that the black-robed figures all wore masks painted with eerie symbols, concealing their true faces.
However, he had no interest in their appearances, and the strange masks did not seem to possess any special functions.
The black-robed figure held by Starlight was quickly solidified into an ice sculpture by the released chill.
“Second one!”
By then, the remaining five had successfully put some distance between themselves and Starlight, working together to launch a reinforced burst of corrosive magic at him.
Having anticipated this, Starlight easily dodged the attack with a horizontal dive. The magic struck the person who had been frozen into an ice sculpture, shattering his body instantly. In an instant, the scent of blood filled the air.
Feeling the spray of blood and fragments beside him, Starlight’s eyes narrowed as he felt the pressure for the first time.
This group was completely indifferent to the lives of their companions, as if the person who had just been shattered was merely an insignificant piece of wood.
Fortunately, all the captives had already evacuated the battlefield; otherwise, their fate would have been unpredictable.
“Only two down. Now that they’re on guard, it will be much harder to find another opening...” Starlight thought to himself, calculating his next move.
Just then, Noah’s urgent voice came from his waist: “Behind you! Dodge!”
Starlight felt a sharp, violent wind rushing at him from behind. Without time to think, he immediately lunged forward, narrowly avoiding the sudden attack.
The blow was immensely powerful, shattering the ground where Starlight had been standing just moments ago. When Starlight saw the attackers clearly, he was shocked by their appearance.
Two incredibly muscular figures had appeared behind him at some point, and the attack had come from them.
Judging by their clothing, they clearly belonged to the bandits, but they were now in an unnatural state.
The muscles on their bodies had ballooned several times over as if inflated, and their upper garments had been torn into rags. Under their skin, which emitted a black mist, veins bulged like black worms writhing inside them.
Abnormal black light flickered where their eyes should have been, and they showed no signs of life.
In Starlight’s perception, he could not sense the slightest hint of vitality from these two, which meant his magic detection could not capture their presence.
They were like two blank objects that had appeared silently behind him. If not for Noah’s timely warning, Starlight might have been in grave danger.
“What are these monsters!?” Amidst his shock, Starlight didn't dare pause his movements, quickly retreating backward.
After missing their strike, the two ox-strong monsters immediately let out deafening roars and gave chase.
In terms of common logic, a creature's strength and speed are often inversely proportional, but the speed of these two monsters was astonishing. Even with the support of wind elements, Starlight was only barely a step faster than them.
More troublesome was the fact that their attacks could not be predicted using magic detection at all; he had to rely entirely on his eyes to track them. For a mage like Starlight, this was undoubtedly a massive challenge.
“These two are no longer living; they are more like human puppets controlled by some kind of evil magic,” Noah quickly analyzed their state and calmly reported to Starlight. “Their intelligence seems low, so there must be a controller hidden behind them.”
However, even knowing the origin of these puppets, Starlight was helpless. At that moment, the five black-robed figures behind him also launched their attacks.
Under these circumstances, Starlight had to keep his magic detection at full power to stay alert for spells flying from behind while constantly dodging the heavy strikes of the human puppets.
Several of the missed spells passed right through Starlight’s afterimages and struck the muscular puppets. Surprisingly, these two puppets seemed to have an extremely high resistance to dark magic.
The magic that could easily corrode even rock only produced a puff of green smoke upon hitting their strange bodies, failing to even slow their movements.
Seeing the human puppets grow even more aggressive, their rapidly swinging fists raining down like a storm, Starlight found it hard to keep up. Moreover, there was still the hidden controller who had yet to show themselves.
In just a few breaths, Starlight was trapped in a pincer attack from both sides, and the situation turned dire in an instant.
Under such pressure, Starlight couldn't even find an opening to cast magic, and his instant-cast spells were ineffective against them. Was retreat the only option?
Starlight gritted his teeth. After dodging a heavy blow from a human puppet, he used its broad palm as a springboard and leaped into the air. He soared over the two behemoths in an elegant arc, racing toward the fortress gates.
He had already planned a retreat route in his mind. Without other enemies interfering, regrouping with Po Kong was undoubtedly the wisest choice.
This way, he could lead the monsters away from the direction Tara and the others were escaping and fully utilize his advantages as a mage with the help of Po Kong, who could act as a vanguard.
But he had only run for about ten seconds when he saw a commotion ahead. The rising dust suggested that something significant was happening there.
As Starlight hesitated and slowed his pace, the two human puppets caught up with a speed that defied their massive frames, surrounding him from both the left and right.
“Oh no!” Starlight cursed inwardly. He barely managed to raise his right hand to block the attack from the right, leaving his left side completely exposed.
Seeing the fist shrouded in black mist drawing closer, Starlight quickly condensed a layer of ice armor over his body, hoping to mitigate at least some of the incoming damage.
Just as he braced himself to have a bone or two broken, a streak of silver light shot out from directly in front of him, piercing straight through the large hand attacking from the left.
The powerful force even sent the two-meter-tall human puppet flying several meters before it came to a halt.
Starlight took the opportunity to adjust his position. As the attack from the right was about to touch him, he stepped hard to the left, using the momentum of the human puppet’s attack to fly backward.
Although he was still sent tumbling a good distance by the massive force, his proactive retreat had indeed allowed him to avoid most of the damage.
Quickly scrambling up from the ground, Starlight rubbed his numb right arm and let out a sigh of relief. Although his right hand was temporarily immobile, it was better than a fracture.
He looked toward the human puppets and saw that the one that had been knocked down now had a silver longsword embedded in its arm, while the other was being held firmly in place by a tall, blond figure with a shield.
“Starlight, are you alright? Can you still move?”
Po Kong shouted while slamming his shield into the chest and abdomen of the human puppet before him. The hard muscles that had remained unscathed under magical attacks actually dented visibly under Po Kong’s shield.
The massive impact even lifted the human puppet’s body several dozen centimeters off the ground, and the bones within its body emitted a sickening series of cracks.
“I’m fine! Watch your back!” Starlight responded quickly.
By now, the human puppet that had fallen was shakily standing back up, preparing to pull the longsword out of its arm.
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