Chapter 608: One Clash

Chapter 608 -523: One Clash

“Hey, buddy!”

Holland grunted with effort as he lowered the Ogre from his shoulder, placing it on a relatively flat patch of ground nearby.

He then shook out his slightly aching arm, narrowed his eyes, and took the Iron-Wrapped Oak Shield from his back. Its edges were already covered in new dents and scrapes. He held it steady before him.

His gaze swept back and forth across the three figures radiating an ominous aura, but he spoke in a low, intentionally casual tone.

“Say… if we were to raise our hands right now and tell them we’re just passing through, completely uninterested in disturbing their… uh, ‘late-night snack’…”

“You think these tentacle-headed gentlemen would be so kind as to let us pass?”

“I’m guessing that’s not an option.”

Roland’s voice sounded from the side, so calm it held no hint of a joke.

He too was staring ahead, his gilded, vertical pupils shining with a particular brilliance in the dim light.

“These ‘visitors’… aren’t like the businessmen in the market outside, the kind you can haggle and negotiate with.”

Roland held his dagger in a reverse grip, the tip pointed inward, his arm hanging naturally at his side.

He glanced at Ellis, whose body was visibly tense and whose brow was still beaded with sweat, and asked in a clear, quick voice.

“How’s your recovery? Can you cast?”

Ellis took a deep breath, forcing himself to tear his attention away from those terrifying “Brain Eaters” and focus on the flow of Magic Power within him.

A flash of displeasure, as if he’d been offended, crossed his gray-blue eyes. His voice was stiff with tension.

“…I can. But without a Magic Staff to act as a conduit and amplifier, the Spell Ring Tier I can safely cast is limited, and its power will be reduced accordingly…”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Roland’s reply was short and sharp; he didn’t even wait for Ellis to finish.

The next moment, he shot forward like a suddenly released, fully drawn bow, leaving only a swift, blurry residual shadow in his place.

And the second half of his sentence, drawn out by the night wind yet delivered clearly into Ellis’s ears.

“…Just give me Beneficial Spells.”

“Beneficial Spells?”

Ellis froze, taken aback. He retorted almost subconsciously in a low voice, his tone laced with the subtle disdain for “support” work characteristic of an academy-trained Mage.

“I’m a Mage who studies Elemental Transformation and the Mysteries of Constructive Energy, not some… tinkerer who only fiddles with protection and enhancement…”

But before the complaint had fully left his lips, his well-kept, slender-fingered hands rose as if of their own accord.

His fingertips tapped quickly and precisely in the air before him, tracing a simple yet rhythmically specific Arcane Trajectory.

His lips parted slightly, and the syllables of the spell flowed out, clear and steady, in a near-chant.

“Stone Skin Technique!”

The instant the final syllable fell, an earthy-yellow Magic Radiance rippled through the air.

Like iron filings drawn to a magnet, these points of light swiftly converged on Roland’s charging back, sinking silently beneath his clothes.

In an instant, on the surface of Roland’s exposed skin—

his neck, the backs of his hands, his ankles, and even the torso beneath his clothes—a rocky, grayish-brown sheen faintly appeared. The texture of his skin grew coarse and hard.

It was as if he were instantly encased in an invisible suit of granite armor, yet it didn’t hinder the flexing of his muscles or the fluidity of his movements in the slightest.

With almost no pause, the trajectory of Ellis’s fingers changed. The tone of his spell also rose, carrying a completely different, expansive rhythm.

“Giant Transformation Technique!”

A more dazzling, pale golden light erupted, like an invisible Force Field suddenly expanding from Roland’s center.

While still charging, his body visibly grew taller and stronger. His muscle contours bulged to an exaggerated degree, and his already form-fitting clothes were stretched taut in an instant.

The ground beneath his feet sank slightly from the sudden increase in weight and impact, cracking and sending rubble flying.

His presence and physical pressure swelled several times over as if being inflated, transforming him into a charging Rock Giant wreathed in fierce winds and an imposing aura.

The casting of the two First Ring Spells was almost seamless, the entire process completed in a flash.

Precise and efficient, it fully demonstrated Ellis’s solid foundation in Arcane Magic and his excellent instantaneous Casting Ability.

And in the very same instant that the glow of the Stone Skin Technique completely saturated Roland’s body and the power of the Giant Transformation Technique turned him into a charging giant…

He had already shot forward like a cannonball, an appalling wind pressure and the thud of heavy footsteps in his wake, as he fearlessly charged the High Tier Heartstealer on the left—the one standing guard like a sentry, its short staff slightly raised.

Sensing the anomaly, the Heartstealer’s head, which was covered in a slimy, dark purple carapace, turned slightly. Its inhuman, dark eye sockets precisely locked onto the colossal, rapidly approaching figure.

Within its field of Spiritual Perception, the biological energy field of this rapidly approaching “carnivore” physique was undergoing a drastic…

‘…crude change.’

‘The Earth Element is forcibly bound to the body’s surface, forming an inefficient layer of hardened energy.’

‘Life Energy is combined with some kind of low-level expansion formula, clumsily expanding the physical framework of muscle and bone.’

The assessment was generated instantly in its cold, efficient stream of consciousness.

‘Threat level: Low.’

‘Tactical model: Typical primitive-mind thinking.’

‘Overly reliant on physical muscular power and basic elemental adhesion. Lacks sophisticated control over the essence of energy, to say nothing of touching upon the level of Spiritual Energy.’

‘Trajectory is direct and reckless, with no awareness of tactical maneuvering.’

‘Response protocol.’

‘Standard countermeasures procedure.’