Illyan felt disgruntled after seeing the trap they had id down for him to fall into.

  ‘Weren't these ballistae meant for troll hunting? Why would you use them on poor me?’

  As he thought this, he jumped from the hole just slightly above the surface of the tower’s ground room. Varel was probably still fine since his aura protected him.

  That was also the reason why Illyan and Aurelia hadn’t pnned to fight these guys in the first pce. Varel was someone allied with Brynjar and Ezekiel.

  There was no way he was so simple. Aurelia had also suggested avoiding direct confrontation with him.

  The guy had lost his leg in Svanor’s ambush, but it didn’t mean he couldn’t fight. In fact, if not for Illyan’s regeneration, he would already be dead.

  Not to mention, they weren’t sure if someone had already left to report the situation here.

  They had to reach all the nodes at all costs!

  “Shoot!”

  The ones waiting for him yelled as the sound of ballista bolts being released echoed.

  Illyan looked around with a bnk expression and threw the amulet he had prepared for this expedition.

  Once it turned into a protection field, Illyan gently tapped it with his outstretched arm and pushed himself back into the hole.

  The ballista bolts passed above him, cracking the barrier open as the amulet’s power was useless against them and continued on their way.

  The attackers couldn’t even react before several of them were punctured, their bodies hanging on the walls, nailed. It was an instant death; they couldn’t do or feel anything as they fell into eternal darkness.

  “H-he dodged!” one of the men yelled in terror when he saw the man next to him impaled to the wall.

  “Release the oil!”

  Several men ran toward the man-made hole with big containers filled with cooking oil that one of the wagons had prepared.

  Now, it was boiling at a high temperature as they poured all of it into the hole.

  ‘Hmm?’ Illyan looked up and frowned.

  He threw another amulet into the oil and jumped up with his sword, drawing an arc.

  The moment the amulet activated, the oil was blocked and poured along the edges of the barrier. Unfortunately, it didn’t st long as the barrier cracked open within seconds.

  But it was enough to create an opening as Illyan released an air ssh with his sword, separating the oil completely into two sides before jumping out of the hole again.

  Some of the oil droplets fell on him, but he ignored them.

  ‘Boiling oil… It hurts quite a lot. This would incapacitate even powerful warriors…’

  Illyan thought idly as he emerged from the hole, only to be met with arrows and bolts from crossbows.

  Looking at these crossbows, they were the same ones that belonged to the Heart Bearer Gang members. They had probably borrowed some.

  Trying to avoid all of them would be annoying, but fortunately, Illyan was not alone here.

  Everything happened within a few seconds, which was enough for Aurelia to catch up and use the opening Illyan had created to jump up. She put her palms together and released a small wave of Mind Power that changed the trajectories of the projectiles.

  The moment they fell back to the ground, another salvo of arrows and stabs from gang members followed right after. Most of them used breathing techniques, and some even had flow within themselves.

  But Illyan and Aurelia didn’t stop fighting with them as they passed right through their rows.

  Avoiding all the traps and attacks, they made their way toward the exit.

  Originally, Illyan had pnned to run up the stairs and jump from a window since the exit could also be filled with traps.

  Unfortunately, they had wasted too much time, and Varel was probably on their heels by now.

  Because of that, they hurried on their way, prepared for any ambushes.

  However, just then, Illyan suddenly felt lightheaded and almost missed a step.

  “What’s wrong? Is the injury hard to recover from?” Aurelia, who went behind him, asked worriedly.

  “No…” Illyan shook his head before diving with his Mind Power inside his body to see the problem.

  It didn’t take long, as his understanding of human anatomy allowed him to find the problem right away.

  Without wasting time, he uncorked one of the healing potion vials and drank a bit.

  “It’s poison. It must have been Varel’s daggers,” Illyan frowned as he expined to Aurelia.

  Varel was known to use his flow like poison. That’s why Illyan had taken precautions by countering that flow with his own.

  But it seemed that man was craftier than he had let on.

  ‘Well, before he became a flow master, he had to get the idea from somewhere…’

  To be honest, Illyan was quite inexperienced against poison masters. Not because he hadn’t met any—since in the north, there were plenty of tribes using poisons—but those poisons didn’t have any effect on him.

  His regeneration gave him great immunity to such harmful substances.

  Fortunately, Illyan’s ability was still mitigating the effect heavily, so he could continue their escape.

  Instead, he used the acolytes’ potion to slow the poison’s effect even further. The potion didn’t have the ability to treat poisons, but it heightened the user’s immunity for some time to some extent.

  At least, that was what was written in Arwen’s diary.

  Illyan hoped that it would suppress the poison for the duration of their escape at the very least.

  “Let’s go!” Illyan roared as he jumped out of the hole in the tower.

  The moment his figure fshed outside, there were people shooting at him with bows and crossbows.

  ‘Tch, this could be a problem.’ The bows here were much better in quality than the ones the tribes in the north used, and their power was also greater.

  Not to mention crossbows, which didn’t exist there.

  Unless they hit him in a vital point, he wouldn’t die, but it would hinder him.

  And Aurelia didn’t have the ability to withstand it without using spells…

  With that in mind, he stopped on the spot, halting his momentum.

  “Jump!” he roared as he reached out with his palm.

  Aurelia, who was right behind him, immediately understood and jumped right at the open palm.

  Without wasting time, Illyan mustered as much power as possible to throw her diagonally beyond the walls of the stronghold.

  Aurelia also curled her body as her muscles tensed and her breath quieted.

  In a split second, their timing was perfect as Illyan used all his weight to throw her, while Aurelia sprang up like a spring, using his palm as a springboard.

  At the same time, all the projectiles were right in front of Illyan.

  With a sigh, Illyan put his hands in front of his vitals and ran through the salvos with grit in his teeth.

  Squelch The sounds of flesh being torn apart by the arrows and bolts resounded in Illyan’s ears as he employed his flow.

  It was a burden on his mental state, but he still used the flow to split into the same amount as the number of wounds the projectiles inflicted and sealed the wounds.

  ‘My flow will soon dissipate. I can recover it quickly as I did against Varel, but if the blood flows out and leaves traces…’

  Illyan thought about using his new spell but then realized that he shouldn’t forget that just because he learned magic didn’t mean the other skills he had accumuted were useless.

  Since the blood hadn’t spilled yet, he decided to use herbal powder to stop the bleeding.

  He also broke the shafts of the arrows so that they wouldn’t hinder him and continued on his way.

  “Stop him!” one of the men roared as he charged at him with a spear.

  Illyan dodged with minimal effort and tore his throat apart with his nails.

  Whenever someone got too close, he would either use his sword or nails to get rid of them, and without any other obstacles, he arrived right at the gate of the stronghold.

  A normal person would feel hope or jubition at a successful escape at this time.

  Even with spiritual perception, there was no man or any kind of trap nearby.

  But Illyan knew that it would be naive to think like that.

  That’s why he counted.

  It took them a minute and 46 seconds from stunning Varel and running through the hidden passage to reach the front of this gate.

  Which was far more seconds than Varel needed to catch up to them…

  ‘He is too fast, so I can only employ spiritual perception at all times…’ Illyan thought heavily.

  He didn’t even bother trying to get through the gate, as opening it would take time, and instead climbed the wall right away.

  It was then that his right side started to tingle as his spiritual perception detected a blur.

  “Behind the right shoulder!” Illyan roared as he continued his climb.

  An ordinary dagger flew from the top of the wall toward Illyan’s right shoulder.

  A clink of metallic objects was heard as the dagger was deflected.

  “I see that you came prepared. But one dagger won’t be enough!” Varel grinned as he jumped around like a monkey, deflected that dagger, and pursued Illyan with ease despite having just one leg.

  “Hah!” This time, he didn’t continue pying; he sshed with his serpent daggers one by one and sent his aura bdes at Illyan.

  Illyan had to swing himself to the side, avoiding the aura bdes that destroyed the wall where he had been moments ago.

  However, that only slowed him down as his body was within Varel’s reach. There were times when Illyan was almost sliced or stabbed, but he predicted Varel’s moves. Unfortunately, sometimes there was no way to avoid being injured.

  But in these moments of crisis, Aurelia would throw another dagger to cover him.

  Sadly, Varel would always dodge fwlessly as he ughed maniacally.

  “If you just throw it at me without thinking, it will never hit me, you stupid brat!” With his mind’s eye almost open, there was no way he would be hit by a dagger.

  In this manner, a chase between them on the wall continued.

  But just when Illyan was almost at the edge, Varel also compressed his aura as he prepared to go all in.

  Even if Aurelia threw another dagger, he would just obliterate it with his aura.

  Because of that, a grin appeared on his face. But it faded away when he saw the contempt in Aurelia’s eyes.

  “You are quite naive, Viper,” Aurelia, who looked down from above, grinned as she waved her hand.

  Mind Power flowed as the daggers she had thrown away stopped mid-fall.

  Varel frowned upon seeing her do this.

  After all, he knew what a magician’s most basic ability was.

  Telekinesis.

  The moment a wind stirred up behind him, he gave up on pursuing and turned around midway, releasing all his aura at the dagger that flew at him from below.

  It took only a few seconds to get rid of these ordinary weapons, but Illyan and Aurelia were already far down in the forest.

  Varel, who had just climbed the wall and looked into the vast forest, clicked his tongue.

  “Nobody told me there would be such troublemakers. Well, I did my part. They can’t tell me anything now…” Varel smirked as he sat down at the edge of the wall.

  If Illyan and Aurelia had been any weaker, he would have definitely killed them.

  But they weren’t. In fact, he would probably fall in a prolonged fight against them, even if he was at his peak.

  ‘If they weren’t in such a hurry, it would be me who’d have to run at some point. But that’s fine. Running was always my specialty… But the same couldn’t be said for my “dear” comrades. Don’t take it personally. I am just not naive enough to believe there is enough pie for all of us.’

  “Best of luck, my friends,” Varel muttered as he turned around and left.

  This time, he was left battered after falling into Svanor’s trap and wanted to recuperate.

  ‘I wonder how he suppressed my Devil’s Kiss… Even the acolytes’ potions can suppress it for only a while before they succumb to it… Well, I guess everyone has their own specialty.’

  Varel started to hum on his way as he walked past the battlefield filled with debris and corpses.

  ‘Soon, it will be time for the array’s activation. I need to synthesize the bodies…’

  ……..

  Two days ter.

  Illyan and Aurelia moved stealthily through the forest under the veil of night.

  In front of them was another stronghold.

  It was in a small mountain pass that seemed to have formed after one of the mountain peaks cracked open in the distant past.

  The entire structure held only because of the ice structures that were perpetually frozen throughout the years.

  After it was found by the Gondorians, it was reinforced even more and became one of the hidden strongholds.

  “Hmm? I thought that this stronghold should be empty,” Illyan muttered to himself.

  “That’s what those guys you interrogated said. Even if they didn’t lie, it didn’t need to be the truth. Look at them closely. These guys wear shabby clothes and weapons, not to mention their crude behavior,” Aurelia said as she watched the men going to and fro at the stronghold.

  Most of them looked disgruntled by the weather, so they drank booze to warm their bodies despite having a job to do.

  They also overheard the dirty jokes the men exchanged.

  “They are bandits… Be careful of Ezekiel,” Illyan said with a serious expression.

  They knew that the expedition’s forces had split into three groups, so they came here hoping that this pce was still empty.

  Of course, they didn’t believe it themselves.

  They knew Ezekiel was lurking around, after all.

  Because of that, Illyan circuted his [Nature Breath Method] as much as possible a while ago.

  “Yes. We are here together, so it should be possible to repel him. However, I don’t think he will be here…” Aurelia said while trying to rex with closed eyes for a bit before they raided the pce.

  “You think he would also be at the mine?” Illyan asked.

  “Yes. For them, Aziro is the only threat. Of course, there should be some countermeasures like a pack of Wendigos, but since you faced him alone once before and have experience fighting Wendigos, then it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  After saying that, she took out a bow with arrows and went next to Illyan, who had the best view of the mountain pass.

  Illyan didn’t know when, but she attacked one of the guards and took their weapon for herself.

  Without wasting time, she shot several arrows in succession, killing the guards without any noise.

  Then she threw the bow away. Holding onto it was too bothersome, so she only took out the ones that could alert the people inside.

  “Alright, let’s go,” Illyan said as they rushed toward the entrance.

  They passed easily and safely sneaked around in order to find the stele.

  Since they were in a hurry, they didn’t avoid the bandits at all and instead stealthily killed them before using a solution on them to turn them into an energy source.

  “Illyan, this will not be enough. These bandits are nothing. They do not have any energy within them, nor is their vitality strong. They have to have some hidden energy source,” Aurelia said as she compared the energy created from the bodies.

  As they discussed this, an unknown being crawled from the top of the mountain range to the pce where the first guards had been killed.

  Only small drops of blood remained there, as the rest was dissolved.

  The creature had very long limbs and a completely hairless body. Its eyes were big but at the same time empty as it approached the bloodstain.

  It sniffed it for a bit and then stretched out its long tongue to swallow up the stained snow and ground.

  “Grieyeshiesh.” Emitting a strange noise, it caught a new scent of blood.

  With a bloodthirsty grin, it followed the trail where Illyan and Aurelia had passed a few minutes ago, looking for traces of their break-in…