Chapter 477 Invasion [43]

Wes stopped, realizing he might have gone too far.

The smoke had spread across too much of the battlefield, and he could no longer see his target clearly. That was dangerous. Zarah could be preparing that attack of hers, the one he had already learned not to underestimate, and he wouldn't know until it was too late.

He slowly elongated his head upward, stretching his neck above the thick layer of smoke so he could get a better view of the battlefield.

There.

He found her standing in the middle of the smoke.

Zarah had already drawn her bow.

The arrow was fully formed, its surface covered in layers of condensed ice that glowed faintly with magical energy. The cold radiating from it was strong enough to make the surrounding smoke crystallize around its edges.

And she was aiming directly at him.

Wes clicked his teeth.

That wasn't good.

Zarah released the string.

The arrow shot forward.

Wes reacted immediately.

Instead of taking the attack head-on like he usually did, he twisted his body sideways and swerved out of its path.

The ice arrow passed by him with a deafening BOOM, the pressure from its speed disturbing the surrounding smoke as it tore through the air, crossing a massive distance.

Wes glanced over his shoulder.

He expected the arrow to continue forward and either disappear into the distance or crash into one of the buildings behind him.

But it did neither.

Instead, the arrow suddenly curved upward, climbing into the air, then it rotated sharply, and then began descending again. Straight back toward him.

Wes laughed and immediately took off, running straight toward Zarah.

He knew about the homing nature of those arrows now, and he had already decided that they were far too troublesome to allow her to keep firing them.

The arrows she had fired weren't ordinary arrows. They were projectiles supercharged with mana, compressed so tightly that the energy reinforced the ice itself.

Wes had learned that the hard way when one of them struck him.

He had managed to hide the damage it caused, making sure Zarah wouldn't realize just how much stronger those arrows were compared to her ordinary attacks. And he was sure he succeeded.

At least, that was what he had assumed. Apparently, he hadn't hidden it nearly as well as he thought.

Wes sucked his teeth.

To think a regular goblin could be this dangerous.

Her fighting ability was already comparable to that of a veteran Chosen, and what made it worse was that she wasn't relying entirely on raw power. She was observing him, adapting to his strange fighting style, and constantly searching for ways around his defenses.

That was what made her dangerous.

The ice arrow was still circling far from him, but it was rapidly closing the distance as it corrected its trajectory.

Wes lowered his body and increased his speed, his rubber-like legs stretching and compressing with every stride as he charged directly toward her.

He could try to outrun the arrow. But that wasn't ideal, as focusing on running would only give Zarah more time to fire another supercharged arrow.

So... he planned to make sure Zarah was close enough to suffer from her own attack.

A grin spread across his face.

If the arrow failed to hit its assigned target, it exploded on impact, and Wes knew from experience that even getting caught in the blast was enough to cause serious damage.

One of the previous arrows had nearly taken his arm off despite his body's elasticity, forcing him to take the attack far more seriously than he had initially intended.

Now, he didn't know whether Zarah would suffer the same effect if she was caught in the explosion, but that hardly mattered anymore.

He wanted to bring the battle to an end one way or the other. And that relied on chaos like this.

The homing arrow curved behind him, rapidly closing the distance.

Wes didn't look back again.

He stretched his arm forward, his rubber-like hand shooting through the smoke toward Zarah, who appeared to be preparing another one of those dangerous ice bolts.

His fingers wrapped around her and he pulled, using her as an anchor.

But he noticed something odd. Zarah's body didn't move.

Wes's eyes widened slightly.

She was far more firmly planted than he had expected.

Instead of dragging her toward him, his body snapped forward as he propelled toward her, arm contracting with tremendous force as he closed the distance. Then he pulled his fist backward, mana surging through his body.

He was ready to throw an explosive punch, but as he got closer, something immediately felt wrong.

His grin disappeared. And he saw the figure standing in front of him wasn't moving. Wasn't breathing. Wasn't even reacting to his approach.

Wes's eyes widened.

This wasn't Zarah. It was a frozen figure of her.

A perfect ice replica stood where she had been, its surface so detailed that it had fooled him completely from a distance.

Wes's expression changed.

He had been tricked.

He barely had time to process what he was seeing before he felt something grab his hand.

His eyes widened.

It was Zarah, the real Zarah.

She had somehow concealed herself from his senses, using some sort of camouflage skill while the ice replica stood in her place and drew his attention away from her actual position.

Before Wes could react, Zarah's fingers tightened around his hand.

A layer of ice instantly spread from her palm.

It raced up his arm, freezing his hand before continuing across his shoulder and down one side of his body. The sudden cold locked his muscles in place and pinned him against the frozen ground before he could pull away.

"Damn it!"

Wes tried to yank himself free. But Zarah caught his other hand as well.

Then she moved.

She began spinning around him, using his own elasticity against him.

Wes's body stretched as she pulled his arms in opposite directions, his limbs elongating farther and farther as she moved around him with controlled momentum. His rubber-like body made the technique even more effective because instead of simply tearing free, his flesh stretched like a thread being pulled from a spool.

Round and round she went.

Each rotation increased the tension.

Wes's body was stretched thin across the ice, leaving him almost completely immobilized as the freezing effect continued spreading through him.

Then Zarah stopped.

The remaining parts of his body were immediately coated in ice.

His arms. His legs. His torso. Everything.

Wes was left frozen in place, his body stretched out and partially encased in ice.

Zarah released him and quickly moved away.

Wes's expression inside the ice changed. Panic finally began creeping into his eyes.

The homing arrow was still coming.

And it was getting closer.

He could hear the sharp whistle of its passage through the air as it tore toward him, its mana-reinforced body cutting through the smoke without losing speed.

Wes's body suddenly began glowing red.

He clenched his teeth. He had one option. If he could gather enough mana, he could force an explosion from his body and use the blast to break the ice holding him down.

It was dangerous, but being struck by that arrow while completely immobilized was even worse.

The red glow intensified. His muscles strained beneath the ice.

"Come on..."

He tried to force more mana through his body. But there wasn't enough time.

The repeated explosions, the movement, and the attacks he had already used throughout the battle had drained far more of his reserves than he realized.

He couldn't gather enough power in time.

The supercharged ice arrow struck.