“It really is tracking magic,” Ethan said, sucking in a breath of cold air.
Tracking magic that even his Golden Eye couldn't see through had actually been spotted by Zoe.
Ethan raised his sword to destroy the flesh infested with the tracking magic, but Zoe stopped him.
“I will take the tracking magic and lure away the pursuers.”
“Use this opportunity to keep fleeing toward the east.”
Hearing Zoe's words, Ethan rejected the proposal without a second thought.
“Don't underestimate me.”
“I know very well that the chances of escaping the Death Swamp are incredibly slim.”
“I am merely gambling on that tiny possibility. There is no need for you to sacrifice your life for it.”
If there were indeed a great chance of escape, Zoe's sacrifice might be worth it.
But he was only gambling on a sliver of hope, and Zoe's sacrifice in all likelihood wouldn't change anything.
Therefore, he couldn't let Zoe die.
“So, if we truly end up in a desperate situation where nothing can be changed...”
“...abandon me and run away on your own. Run as far from the Death Swamp as you can.”
“Don't worry,”
Zoe scooped up the chunk of flesh from the ground.
“this body is only a clone. Even if it dies, it won't affect me.”
“My main body will meet you in the east.”
A look of surprise and astonishment appeared on Ethan's face.
A clone?
“A Dual Shadow?”
Well-traveled and knowledgeable, Ethan immediately recalled this rare monster.
Dual Shadows were indeed highly intelligent, incredibly mysterious, and exceedingly rare.
“Correct. So, there is no need to worry.”
“...I understand. Thank you again for your help, Dual Shadow.”
Ethan said. “If I can make it out alive, I swear on my life to repay your kindness.”
After making his vow, Ethan wasted no more time. Tolerating the sheer exhaustion of his battered body, he continued sprinting through the swamp toward the east.
Zoe, carrying the piece of flesh with the tracking magic, ran in a different direction.
Just as Zoe had expected, carrying the tracking flesh meant he didn't run very far before falling into another lizardman ambush.
“It seems that in the Death Swamp, you guys occupy the same ecological niche as goblins.”
Zoe extended a shadow tentacle, sighing in lament.
“You're courting death! Hiss!”
Furious at Zoe's insult, the ambushing lizardmen screamed in rage and charged toward him.
Seeing this, Zoe condensed a hard warhammer. Instead of retreating, he advanced, his warhammer kicking up splashes of muddy water.
Boom!
With a deafening crash, the bone spear raised in defense bent to its absolute limit, and the charging lizardman was sent flying backward at an even faster speed, slamming heavily into the mud.
“Watch out! This monster has incredible strength!”
As the lizardmen shouted their warnings, sharp arrows rained down on Zoe.
Several spear-wielding lizardmen charged forward, the wind magic wrapping around their bodies propelling them at extreme speed.
“Acid Rain Bullet!”
Zoe spat out a dense shower of acidic bullets, lobbing them to cover the area directly ahead.
The lizardmen twisted their bodies, relying on their sharp senses to weave through the rain of acid as they closed in on Zoe.
At the end of the day, Zoe was only a clone right now, meaning there was a limit to how much damage he could take.
Seeing several spear-wielding lizardmen charging at him, he did not dare to recklessly take the hit.
Dodging the incoming arrows, he transformed into a shadow and swept aside.
“Don't think you can escape! Hiss!”
The closest lizardman let out a sharp shriek upon seeing this, hurling its spear forward.
The gale wrapping around the spear tore through the fog, thrusting fiercely toward Zoe.
Zoe dodged to the side, evading the spear's attack.
The lizardman was not surprised. It reached out toward the spear embedded in the swamp, curling its hand into a claw from afar.
A fierce gale erupted from the spear, lifting the mud of the swamp and sweeping Zoe into it.
Secret Technique: Swamp Tornado!
Seizing the opportunity, the rest of the lizardmen surrounded him. Generating a crushing wind pressure, they pinned Zoe down on the spot.
“I underestimated you all.”
Zoe opened his mouth, exhaling the corrosive gas he had been steadily accumulating since the start of the battle.
The air in the Death Swamp was naturally rich in corrosive gases.
Although not much time had passed since the fight began, Zoe had already accumulated a highly substantial amount of corrosive gas.
“Spray: Corrosive Torrent!”
An endless stream of yellow-green corrosive gas erupted from Zoe's mouth like a rushing river.
As the gale conjured by the lizardmen blew wildly, the corrosive gas instantly surged in all directions, enveloping every lizardman in the vicinity.
“This is bad! Get away!”
Even though they didn't know if the gas was toxic, the lizardmen scrambled in panic to back away from Zoe at the center.
“Dragon Flame: Accumulative Corrosive Burn!”
Zoe quickly spat a spark of Dragon Flame, instantly igniting the entire mass of corrosive gas.
The orange-red Dragon Flame erupted into a violent surge. Fanned by the winds, the sounds of roaring explosions and howling gales merged into a single deafening din.
“How is this... possible... That is Dragon Flame!”
The lizardmen paled in utter shock.
As the lizardman vassals under the Black Dragon King, how could they not recognize Dragon Flame?
But why was this monster able to use Dragon Flame?!
That was their final thought before being incinerated into charcoal.
Once the Dragon Flame dissipated, Zoe's clone had nearly exhausted its mana, collapsing limply onto the ground.
Fortunately, the corpses inside the Shadow Pool were rapidly being digested, and the converted mana prevented Zoe from dispersing immediately.
Zoe forced himself to stand, using his Shadow Pool to swallow the surrounding charred corpses.
Then, he resumed his flight.
It was only during this intense focus on fleeing and fighting that Zoe realized something. While he was completely concentrated on his clone, the sensory inputs and sights transmitted from his main body were processed without distracting him in the slightest.
This sensation...
[Proficiency requirements met. Acquired skill: Parallel Thinking Lv1 (E-grade).]
[Parallel Thinking Lv1 (E-grade)] Allows the mind to process thoughts in parallel, handling multiple tasks simultaneously without mutual interference.
“I actually unlocked a skill like this!”
Zoe had not expected that the breakthrough for his polyphasic sleep would actually be triggered by a battle like this.
He ran at full speed.
At the same time, Zoe partitioned his mind, fully absorbing the corrosive gases in the air while desperately digesting the consumed matter to restore his mana.
But before his mana could even recover to a third,
a deadly sense of crisis surged from behind.
Zoe rolled into the swamp nearby, dissolving into shadow.
Yet it was still useless.
A white bone spear tore through the mist. Wrapped in light vapors, it transformed into a spectral white snake, biting down relentlessly on the fleeing Zoe.
The spearman's figure manifested in the next instant.
“Wait—”
Before Zoe could finish speaking, the spear-wielding lizardman kicked him brutally.
Zoe instantly spent his remaining mana to condense a black shield to block the strike.
But the sturdy shield was completely helpless against the sheer physical power, shattering instantly.
[Lizardman Spearman Lv40]
[Mana] 10170/16541
It was the very same lizardman that had been locked in combat with Ethan earlier.
“Was I discovered?”
The lizardman poked Zoe's shadow with his spear, revealing the fragment of flesh hidden inside.
At this distance...
“Corrosive Gas Slash!”
Zoe opened his mouth, exhaling all his accumulated corrosive gas to unleash a sharp cutting wave.
The lizardman's slitted pupils locked onto Zoe, sending a powerful mental shockwave directly into Zoe's consciousness.
In an instant, Zoe felt as if his connection to his clone's body had been severed, rendering it uncontrollable.
“Where did you come from? Why are you helping that human?”
The lizardman interrogated as he looked down at Zoe.
“Wait a minute. This fellow is a bit unusual.”
On the other side, a lizardman shaman furrowed its brow as it stared at Zoe, seemingly noticing something off about him.
[Lizardman Nature Shaman Lv40]
[Mana] 17312/24137
“No, wait, this guy is... a Dual Shadow!!”
The lizardman shaman finally realized.
“Seal him, quickly!”
The shaman shouted, waving its wand at the same time.
But a complex sealing spell could not be cast so easily.
Moreover, shortening the chant for a sealing spell required pearls as a medium, and the shaman did not carry any pearls on him.
“Goodbye.”
Zoe swiftly deactivated his clone. The body pinned down by the lizardman dissolved into black mist and vanished.
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