"The night was like a deep lake,"
The darkness of the night was so thick and terrifying, that it made one feel, as if they would drown inside it forever, and now, in this deep lake like night, Punk encountered the best swimmers-The Assassins.
"Both of them are trainee-level? And this familiar feeling!"
Punk's mage armour was shining with a faint light, like the last ray of hope in this gloomy night!
The Assassins did not make any sound. A qualified Assassin never needed the help of words when fighting, because shadows were their best friends.
The enemy, who had disappeared without any trace, was as if they had melted into the darkness, but everyone knew that the enemy was just like a venomous snake, lurking in the dark, ready to emerge from the shadows and deliver a fatal strike in the instant Punk let down his guard a little.
As for the only remaining warrior... He was approaching Punk's mage armour with an unusual expression...
"Poor fellow."
Punk uttered these words and took a sip from the bottle of night vision potion he had crafted. After a cool sensation rushed into his eyes, he could finally discern the scene more clearly in the dark night. His sharp blue eyes keenly noticed the purple steel needle lodged in the warrior's neck. It appeared to be coated with a hallucinogenic poison, rendering the soldier completely unconscious!
"Oh! Are they trying to deceive me?"
Punk made a silent guess and was almost 80% certain that the reason the warrior hadn't been killed by the enemy but left in this half-conscious state was that the two Assassins intended to pressure him into taking action.
However, being inside the mage armor, Punk was not afraid of any attacks for the time being.
And the enemies' also seemed to be planning to wait, wait until Punk exhausted his mana reserve, just like the last time!
That's right; Punk was familiar with these two Assassins as he clearly recognized their shadow energy fluctuations. They were undoubtedly the two Assassins who ambushed Kane and himself last time!
But this time, Punk would no longer be forced to run like the last time, even when this time he was facing the two enemies alone, and there was also no dispensable cannon fodder by his side!
"Very courageous, you dare to use the same trick twice in front of the same enemy..."
Punk narrowed his eyes slightly; the cold light in his eyes penetrated the dark night like a ghost!
"... After all, A assassin who only good at hiding can't imagine how dangerous a prepared mage is."
Punk understood that even if the two Assassins believed they had the upper hand, they still would not be foolish enough to talk to the enemy and expose their position. So Punk stopped talking. He took out a greyish vial from the pocket of his robe, which actually contained human bone powder!
When Punk realized that Assassins were following him, he was ready to use a spell that he exchanged from McNeesey, which was especially to counter such a situation when he couldn't find enemies' location.
...
The spell's enchanting and prolonged incantation felt like a gentle stream weaving through the air. This unique chant resembled the joyful singing of many young children with ethereal voices. However, Punk didn't utter a word aloud. It was the voice of his soul materializing as a lifelike illusion. In his hand, fine threads of human bone powder trickled out of the bottle's mouth, transforming into a golden dust suspended between energy and matter under the spell's gentle influence. A large amount of golden dust gathered into a football-sized "sand ball" in Punk's hand. Some scattered fine golden dust was swirling soothingly around the "sand ball" like smokey rings. Under the faint blue light of the mage armor, and the soft brilliance faintly radiated from the "sand ball," drew a golden layer of light on the clothes and armours worn by Punk and the princess next to him!
In truth, after that failed attack on the night when Punk fled back to Konola in a humiliating state, he had made a firm decision to acquire the skills to confront Assassins effectively. Therefore, he had resolutely redeemed this rather unpopular spell from McNeesey. Now, it seemed that the choice he had made at that time couldn't have been wiser!
Trainee-level spell-" Dust of Appearance," this spell could be said to be the spell version of " Dust of Appearance Alchemy Potion," but different from Alchemy Potion, it was a complete Advent/Dream spell, It meant the caster summoned this mass of powder fluctuating between the state of energy and matter from their soul directly, so they also could use it more effectively and multiple times. This completely unreasonable "philosophical" concept was the effect of Advent spells, but most people have only heard of "Alchemy potion Dust of Appearance," and few people knew that there was such a Dust of Appearance spell, it was mostly because this spell was relatively unpopular.
However, there was a clear and critical reason why it was an unpopular spell. This reason was its evident and fatal drawbacks. For instance, it required a lengthy casting time (a full five seconds to recite the spell), it was challenging to master (a common issue with Advent spells), and it had absolutely no lethality (frequent exposure to the spell could even enhance one's physical fitness).
But its advantages were also extremely obvious- as all the hiding methods below the official level could be eliminated by it.
Of course, the premise was that you had the opportunity to cast this spell successfully...
But now, Punk had successfully released this "chicken rib" spell!
(Tl note: Slang: chicken rib: It is a metaphor which refers to something/someone is almost useless, but people don't want to discard it completely.)
The Assassins, who were still hiding in the shadows, became dumbfounded when they saw that while Punk was casting the Advent spell, which needed extreme concentration, the mage armour did not show any sign of instability. One must know that although it was possible to maintain two ordinary spells for skilful mages, but a mage who could maintain two complex and mana-consuming spells stably was such a level of genius that even in the entire Camos Kingdom, they could be counted in one hand!
While Punk was in the process of casting the spell, the enemies manipulated the near-unconscious warrior to attempt a break through the mage armor. However, this was clearly a futile effort. The massive shock wave sent five or six small trees nearby flying, but the mage armor remained unscathed, showing just a minor ripple.
In the end, the two Assassins could only watch helplessly, as Punk completed casting the spell that would certainly tilt the scale of victory, but the two Assassins did not choose to escape. They were not rogue Professionals like Punk with the freedom to make their choices, so one could say that if they dare to flee, Lunka, who was already very angry, would definitely never let them go.
So the two Assassins could only grit their teeth, and as a desperate move, tried to escape into the plane of shadows.
No matter how difficult it was, the fact was that the "Dust of Appearance" was a trainee-level spell, and with the system's assistance, It was relatively easy for Punk to complete this spell.
After completing the spell, Punk was a little surprised when he find out that the two Assassins actually chose to escape into the shadow plane in order to avoid this spell.
"In your dreams!"
Punk's heart almost laughed out loud. It was not that enemies were stupid; the other side probably didn't understand what the 'philosophical concept of aspiration' was, as even legendary powerhouses had limited knowledge about this kind of information about the mysterious soul.
Even though Punk only employed a small portion of that knowledge in this spell, it was unquestionably not something that could be easily countered by two trainee-level Assassins!