Chapter 164: You're the One Who's Alone

Chapter 164: You’re the One Who’s Alone

No one expected the enemy to pull such a move.

Caught off guard, they hadn’t even managed to escape the cavern before being buried under the massive boulders that rained down from above!

BOOM!

The cavern erupted in a cacophony of noise and dust.

Su Nan felt the world turn dark before his eyes, and the ground beneath him vanished, sending him plummeting.

In a split second, Su Nan decisively activated his Magic Pattern Core, enveloping his entire body. Combined with the protection of his Ring of Extreme Defense and Shield Spell, the boulders falling from above couldn’t harm him in the slightest.

He then activated the Levitation Spell on his Invisibility Robe, quickly stabilizing his descent and hovering in mid-air.

Gradually, the roaring in his ears began to subside.

No more boulders rained from above.

Only then did Su Nan have a moment to survey his surroundings.

He found himself in another enormous cavern. The only difference was a roughly seven to eight-meter-wide irregular opening in the ceiling, leading upwards into the darkness.

That was where he had fallen from.

The underground world was complex, like a giant, more intricate beehive.

One cavern led to another, and Su Nan wasn’t surprised by this.

What stunned him was the sheer scale of the stone scorpion’s attack, which had collapsed the entire cavern and altered the surrounding terrain!

This was definitely not something a Wizard Apprentice’s spells or magical items could achieve!

“Bloodline ability, perhaps.”

Su Nan mused.

It was most likely a directed ability to manipulate earth and stone to alter the environment.

Otherwise, if the stone scorpion’s true power could cause such widespread changes, it would be on par with a fully-fledged wizard. It would have been more efficient to kill them all on the spot instead of staging this elaborate trap.

However, this had shattered their encirclement.

If the Immortality Society members took this opportunity to escape, their mission would be a failure.

“But those lunatics won’t just leave.”

As if to confirm Su Nan’s thoughts, a section of the rock wall about forty to fifty meters ahead slowly began to protrude, quickly forming the shape of the stone scorpion.

“Indeed.”

Su Nan sneered, his gaze fixed on the stone scorpion.

“Choosing to fight in a place like this is a colossal mistake that will make you regret it.”

The stone scorpion detached from the rock wall, hovering in mid-air, and looked down at Su Nan with a gaze that resembled a predator watching its prey fall into a trap.

“This is my domain!”

“In a place surrounded by earth and stone, no one can match me!”

Su Nan’s eyes swept over the scorpion’s tail, and he suddenly chuckled.

“Don’t act so mysterious. It’s just the Shattering Scream, isn’t it? You’re a Stone Singer, yet you’re pretending to be a creature of earth.”

The stone scorpion’s expression froze, and its pupils narrowed.

How did this guy know?

Stone Singers were extremely rare. If not for his fusion with Stone Singer blood, he wouldn’t even know such an ancient bloodline existed.

He had never revealed his bloodline to anyone, not even his Immortality Society comrades.

How did this guy see through him so easily?

Seeing the stone scorpion’s uncertain expression, Su Nan inwardly laughed.

In his previous life, he had encountered a wizard who had fused with a Stone Singer bloodline. The external characteristics were slightly different from the stone scorpion in front of him, so he didn’t recognize it at first.

However, once the stone scorpion used the Shattering Scream, a signature ability of the Stone Singer bloodline, he immediately made the connection.

Stone Singers were terrifying and peculiar creatures composed of flexible, deformable stone. At first glance, they looked like scorpions.

They excelled in using their songs to manipulate earth and stone, creating effects similar to earth elemental spells.

Of course, what humans heard as their songs were just piercing noises.

Their ability to manipulate earth and stone was inferior to that of earth elementals, but they possessed petrification powers.

Creatures pierced by a Stone Singer’s tail would be petrified.

Afterward, the Stone Singer would drag the petrified prey back to its den, forcing them to listen to its song. When hungry, it would consume them for sustenance.

Su Nan remembered that Stone Singers no longer existed on the Starlight Continent.

Even in the future, during the Elemental Revival era, wizards had to capture Stone Singers from other dimensions.

The stone scorpion’s ability to fuse with a Stone Singer bloodline was a stroke of incredible luck.

In the current Starlight Continent, this was one of the few powerful ancient bloodlines that didn’t alter one’s personality and had negligible bloodline rejection.

"Your knowledge is quite surprising."

Stone Scorpion regained his composure and sneered.

"Unfortunately, that won't change your fate."

"Now that you and your companions are separated, you're all alone. I'll kill you first, then deal with the others!"

His icy tone was filled with murderous intent.

Su Nan remained unperturbed, smiling faintly. "The one who’s alone is you."

As he spoke, countless gray mists suddenly appeared around Stone Scorpion, swiftly coalescing into massive gray claw shadows. They then hurtled toward him with a piercing whistling sound.

"Doom Claws!"

Stone Scorpion's face paled.

Wasn't this the ability of the Doom Ring, a minor light-level magical item?

But he was certain the Doom Ring could only summon one Doom Claw!

Su Nan was somewhat surprised that Stone Scorpion recognized the Doom Claws, indicating he had likely read about them in some wizard's tome.

Knowing the power of a minor light-level magical item, Stone Scorpion didn't intend to resist head-on and immediately dodged. However, the four Doom Claws pursued him relentlessly, like a persistent disease.

Desperate, Stone Scorpion let out a long howl, causing the surrounding rock walls to crack and shatter, with numerous fragments converging to form a thick rock barrier in front of him.

Crack!

The four Doom Claws instantly shattered the rock barrier, but during this moment, Stone Scorpion had prepared his spell and emitted a shrill scream.

Shattering Soundwave!

Enhanced by the Stone Singer bloodline, the Shattering Soundwave's power was multiplied several times, visibly distorting the air and turning the Doom Claws into wisps of gray smoke that slowly dissipated.

However, before Stone Scorpion could celebrate, more gray mists appeared from the void, once again forming four Doom Claws that lunged at him!

Stone Scorpion's face twisted in shock, and he glanced at Su Nan, who was removing four rings from his left hand and replacing them with four new ones.

The next second, four more Doom Claws appeared!

Seeing this, Stone Scorpion's face contorted in a mix of horror and envy.

This guy had over a dozen Doom Rings!

Was he selling minor light-level magical items in bulk?

Why did he have so many minor light-level magical items?!

This time, Stone Scorpion couldn't dodge. After using all his strength to destroy four Doom Claws, the remaining four pierced through his body.

A hissing, eerie sound filled the air as the corrupting energy swept through Stone Scorpion's body, causing him to stiffen mid-air and let out a piercing scream.

But the truly horrifying part was yet to come.

Four more Doom Claws appeared from the void.

Wait, how did more appear?

Again!

Seeing the numerous gray claw shadows in front of him, Stone Scorpion's eyes were filled with terror and disbelief.

How many Doom Rings did Su Nan have?

Whew!

Over a dozen Doom Claws passed through Stone Scorpion's body almost simultaneously, sapping his vitality and dealing a severe blow to his soul.

In Su Nan's perception, Stone Scorpion's soul energy weakened to the point of being like a flame flickering in the wind.

After such a severe blow, Stone Scorpion fell from the air with a thud.

A bolt of lightning shot from a distance, piercing his forehead.

As his consciousness plunged into eternal darkness, a single thought flashed through Stone Scorpion's mind.

The one who was alone was indeed him!

Su Nan, though alone, had an absurd number of minor light-level magical items. He would have been better off facing multiple third-level wizard apprentices!

A hundred meters away, Su Nan slowly withdrew his hand and glanced at the four rings on his left hand.

The underground cave environment was indeed suitable for the Stone Singer bloodline's abilities. If Stone Scorpion had taken the initiative, dealing with him would have been much more difficult.

Thus, Su Nan decisively used over twenty Doom Rings to quickly resolve the situation.

Pity this third-level wizard apprentice, who was as strong as Blood Mouth and Magic Hand, didn't even get a chance to fully utilize his abilities before being crushed by Su Nan's equipment advantage.

If he had known Su Nan still had over twenty Doom Rings in his spatial ring, he might have despaired and smashed his head against a wall.

Replacing the Doom Rings, Su Nan expanded his mental perception to survey the surroundings.

Unfortunately, the underground world's natural magnetic fields and geological conditions greatly limited mental perception techniques.

After a moment of fruitless searching, Su Nan shook his head and randomly chose a direction to fly forward.

Whoosh!

Fiery waves crashed against the rocky walls, instantly scorching and cracking the surface.

The cave echoed with the maniacal laughter of Embershade.

He had transformed into a sixty-meter-tall flaming giant with a demonic appearance, his head almost touching the ceiling. He swung his massive fists, relentlessly attacking Scepter, Traveler, and the others.

The intense heat raised the temperature in the air, causing it to warp and distort.

The vast cavern had turned into a blazing inferno.

In a corner, several charred corpses lay sprawled.

They belonged to members of the Holy Fist.

At the start of the battle, the few First Circle Legendary Knights were quickly and decisively slain by Embershade, unable to put up much of a fight.

"A bunch of rats from the sewers!"

"Are you just going to keep hiding?"

Embershade taunted, trying to provoke Scepter and the others into a direct confrontation.

However, they remained unfazed.

A faint golden glow enveloped Scepter, protecting him from the intense heat and granting him incredible speed and agility to dodge Embershade's punches.

The source of the golden light was the scepter he held in his hand.

moments earlier, in full view of everyone, Scepter had extracted this golden scepter, adorned with countless rare gems, from within his body.

Meanwhile, Traveler relied on the protection of the Green Spirit Branch, immune to the heat and flames.

Each time Embershade struck him, the green light around Traveler's body deflected the blows.

Compared to Traveler and Scepter, Pavedo and Moss were faring much worse.

They could only use elemental powers to resist the heat, and soon their faces showed signs of fatigue, clearly having expended a lot of energy.

Scepter noticed this and frowned inwardly.

He raised his golden scepter, and a golden beam shot from its tip, piercing the air a hundred meters away and creating ripples.

In the next moment, a beast-like hoof stepped out from the ripples.

Then another foot, a torso, arms, and a head followed.

Soon, a creature with a canine head and a human body appeared in the air.

At first glance, it looked like a dog-headed man.

But a closer look revealed significant differences.

Unlike the dirty and weak dog-headed men, this canine-headed creature was robust and muscular, radiating a heroic and fierce aura. He wore finely crafted armor and wielded a broad-bladed greatsword.

"Boar-Headed Spirit!"

Traveler was taken aback, casting a surprised glance at Scepter.

This was a rare and powerful extraplanar being, and Scepter had managed to summon it.

Was it a random summon, or a specific target bound by a contract?

The Boar-Headed Spirit immediately locked onto its target and charged at Embershade like an arrow.

Embershade swung his massive fist, but the Boar-Headed Spirit easily dodged and swung his sword, slicing through the fiery giant's arm.

Despite the sword being only two meters long, it cleanly severed the four- to five-meter-wide flaming arm.

"Ah!!"

Embershade let out a deafening scream, clutching his arm and stumbling backward.

Traveler's eyes lit up.

So that was it. The Boar-Headed Spirit's attacks were infused with powerful positive energy, which was a perfect counter to Embershade's fiery giant form, a combination of fire elements and negative energy.

But before Traveler could fully rejoice, he heard a sudden rush of water.

Looking up, he saw a torrent of water pouring down, filling his entire field of vision!

Boom!

The wave crashed into Traveler, the force nearly knocking him out of the air.

Traveler's mind raced, and the green light around his body intensified. In the next second, the water around him vanished without a trace.

Looking around, the ground and walls were dry, with no signs of moisture.

Not far away, Scepter's face was grim.

In the brief moment, the Boar-Headed Spirit had fallen victim to an illusion and was quickly killed by Embershade and Iro.

"Again!"

Scepter seethed inwardly.

This had happened more than once since the battle began.

Whenever they were about to gain the upper hand, Iro, hiding in the shadows, would intervene and shift the tide.

Her illusion abilities were exceptionally strong, and even with the information from the Hunter and the use of clarity potions to enhance their resistance to illusions, they couldn't fully counter her.

If not for Iro's interference, Scepter and Traveler would have defeated Embershade long ago!

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end