Chapter 248 – The Crucial Spell

Just as the Wind Elemental’s blade viciously stabbed toward the first Fang Wraith’s neck, the second Fang Wraith had already arrived.

During its flight, this wraith’s entire body began elongating and thinning. Its large mouth rapidly shrank until the second Fang Wraith transformed into a strange serpentine form.

Indeed, Fang Wraiths were capable of shapeshifting, and their transformation speed was remarkably fast. The reason these two wraiths had maintained their large-mouthed forms earlier was solely to maximize their attack range. Now, to assault the Wind Elemental summoned by Punk, this reinforcing wraith swiftly adopted a slender form, allowing its sharp fangs to bypass the elemental’s blade attacks and strike at its core!

The Fang Wraith’s teeth possessed extraordinary armor-piercing capabilities. Punk noticed the Wind Elemental’s bitten arm was already being eroded by negative energy. If another Fang Wraith struck a vital spot, this elemental might very well perish on the spot.

Clearly, the Soul Shepherd had decided to sacrifice one Fang Wraith as bait to eliminate Punk’s precious Wind Elemental. After all, Punk’s mana was nearly depleted. Once he lost this elemental, even if he obtained another Lantern, he wouldn’t have enough magic power to summon a second one.

In contrast, the Soul Shepherd still possessed abundant mana. Casting “Negative Energy Finger” every three seconds, he could leisurely maintain this pace all day long!

But would Punk allow the Soul Shepherd’s plan to succeed?

Of course not. Punk had formulated his strategy the moment he obtained the Lantern, leveraging his initial advantage – I know what spells you possess, but you remain ignorant of mine!

Indeed, having lived his entire life in the Nether Plane without literacy or knowledge of Common Tongue, the Soul Shepherd couldn’t possibly comprehend the wondrous spells existing in the world, let alone know which spells Punk commanded. He might not even understand the nature of his own magic!

Thus, while the Soul Shepherd might guard against Punk’s ambushes, traps, or cunning schemes, he would never anticipate Punk employing spells – precisely because such defense would be inherently impossible.

Seeing the Soul Shepherd recall the second Fang Wraith not to rescue the first but to resolutely attack, Punk felt no panic but secret delight. Even now, the Soul Shepherd remained unaware that his actions actually played right into Punk’s hands.

A Formal-Level spell materialized almost simultaneously with the second Fang Wraith’s transformation.

“Formal-Level Conjuration Spell – Control Summoned Creature”: Instantly usurp control of an enemy’s summoned being. High probability of failure if the target possesses superior soul hierarchy, strong resistance, or magical defenses.

This spell specifically targeted summoned creatures and proved most effective when deployed unexpectedly. Truthfully, Punk hadn’t expected his spell to achieve significant results – merely delaying the second wraith’s movements to allow the Wind Elemental to calmly eliminate the first wraith would have sufficed. After all, even with the “Master Amplification Art” enhancement, directly seizing control of a Fang Wraith remained exceedingly difficult!But this time, perhaps because Soul Shepherd was truly caught off guard by Punk’s spell, possibly due to Soul Shepherd’s warlock rank being too low (barely reaching the Master-Level threshold), or maybe because the “Master Amplification Art” solidified on the Lantern was sufficiently powerful… Of course, the latter was eighty percent likely. Regardless, Punk’s “Control Summoned Creature” spell, entwined in multicolored ribbons, not only doubled in speed several times over but also took immediate effect upon striking the vengeful spirit that was nearly attacking the Wind Elemental.

The serpentine vengeful spirit had just opened its fang-filled maw when its entire body abruptly froze. The negative energy within it began to fluctuate violently, its body branded with ominous black runes trembling uncontrollably. Abnormal flashes of colorful light occasionally flickered across the fanged vengeful spirit.

Finally, the energy rampage in the second fanged vengeful spirit subsided. Listlessly, it abandoned Soul Shepherd’s command and instead obeyed Punk’s orders, swiftly biting down on the tail of the first fanged vengeful spirit with lightning speed.

Clearly, Punk’s spell had succeeded. The second fanged vengeful spirit had now become Punk’s servant. Though it seemed to have lost considerable energy during the struggle, it was still capable of turning around to bite Soul Shepherd.

Under the surprise attack of the traitorous vengeful spirit, even though the first fanged vengeful spirit received Soul Shepherd’s “Emergency Evasion” command and desperately twisted its body to avoid the Wind Elemental’s blade, it was all in vain.

Though the fanged vengeful spirit’s explosive power managed to pull half its body away, the first fanged vengeful spirit—firmly gripped by the traitorous second one—ultimately failed to evade the attack.

The Wind Elemental’s blade mercilessly pierced the vengeful spirit’s body. The sharp wind-element energy propelled the blade, slicing through all the negative energy defenses the fanged vengeful spirit had mustered. In the end, the Wind Elemental’s blade struck directly at the vengeful spirit’s spell core. Without its negative energy defenses, the spell model was incredibly fragile; after the Wind Elemental released destructive energy, the entire Master-Level spell model shattered effortlessly.

The first vengeful spirit, its spell core shattered by a single strike, dissipated into a cloud of ash-gray mist without even a whimper.

In the blink of an eye, one of the two vengeful spirits was dead, and the other had its control seized by the enemy.

From the center of the Trial Grounds, Soul Shepherd watched with eyes blazing in fury. It roared in rage, soul flames erupting from its three eyes. A terrifyingly powerful “Negative Energy Finger” completed its preparation and charging process in an instant. No one could doubt that in the next second, this full-force spell from Soul Shepherd would launch retaliation against the Wind Elemental that had just slain the first vengeful spirit!

“Launching a sneak attack right in front of me? Do you think I don’t exist?”

Punk would never allow Soul Shepherd’s attack to succeed. He had invested too much effort to achieve this favorable situation. If the crucial Wind Elemental were instantly killed by Soul Shepherd’s “Negative Energy Finger,” Punk would be left utterly devastated.

So, without sparing his last “Master Amplification Art,” Punk cast his spell simultaneously with Soul Shepherd’s release, managing to fire it off a split second sooner.Time was too tight for Punk to use any other spells. The only option available to him was the most frequently used, most familiar, and most guaranteed instant-cast spell for interception—the Kinetic Cone!

To ensure this fifty-times-supersonic spell could intercept another spell traveling at over fifty times the speed of sound, Punk’s System’s computational power surged to its limits. Vast amounts of data were analyzed instantly, and precise trajectories were verified over a dozen times in a split second.

Finally, after countless trajectory calculations, a fleeting opportunity presented itself before Punk. Now, all he had to do was seize this critical moment and release the all-important Kinetic Cone in his grasp!

(End of Chapter)