Chapter 287: Settling the Wind and Waves

At this moment, Su Su Su Nai Fa, after arming herself with the rune construct, looks less like a traditional magic user and more like a ranger, just by looking at her appearance.

【Breath of the Wilderness】 consists of five parts in total, including a breastplate, bracers, leg armor, combat boots, and a headpiece.

The breastplate is the largest part of the entire rune construct set, covering the torso, entirely silver, with a tight-fitting design, presenting a metallic luster overall, perfectly fitting Su Su Su Nai Fa's body curves.

The surface of the breastplate is smooth and textured, as if it were forged from the purest silver.

The silver bracers wrap around the forearms and extend all the way to the palms, with an especially exquisite design, composed of multiple layers of thin sheets similar to metal sheets, with each layer of thin sheets combined through a method similar to inlaying.

And in the most central position, where Su Su Su Nai Fa's wrists and palms meet, there is an extremely complex rune array, glowing faintly.

Looking from afar, it looks like a blue gemstone embedded on top, appearing exceptionally noble.

The tight leg armor wraps around Su Su Su Nai Fa's slender legs, the smooth lines perfectly merging with her body shape, showing both a sense of power and the beauty of agility.

The surface of the leg armor also shines with the cold metallic luster unique to metal, echoing the torso breastplate, forming a set of unified style.

In terms of design, the leg armor adopts a lightweight construction concept.

Through precise hollow carving techniques, the weight is greatly reduced while ensuring protection, allowing Su Su Su Nai Fa to move more freely.

At the knee area, the leg armor is also specially thickened and designed as a sharp knee guard shape.

Not only does it enhance protection, but it also adds a sense of ferocity visually.

Especially eye-catching is that a circle of fine silver runes is inlaid on the edge of each piece of leg armor.

The combat boots are white, with the boot shafts tightly wrapping Su Su Su Nai Fa's calves, and fine runes are also inlaid on the boot shafts.

At the ankles, the combat boots cleverly form exquisite silver ankle guards, on which rune arrays identical to the "blue gemstone" at the bracers are engraved.

The front of the boots is slightly upturned, as sharp as an eagle's claw.

The design of the headpiece is especially complex, with intersecting metal pieces forming a three-dimensional sharp shape, different from the wrapping structure of a helmet, but more like a skull, only sharper and more magnificent.

There are places where each part is directly connected, and the connection points are fine rune lines; the five parts together constitute the powerful construct effect of 【Breath of the Wilderness】.

And the moment 【Breath of the Wilderness】 was put on, Su Su Su Nai Fa clearly felt a powerful force surging continuously from the earth under her feet.

This is the rune array on 【Breath of the Wilderness】 drawing power from the earth for Su Su Su Nai Fa to use.

The most powerful aspect of rune constructs lies in shrinking a powerful large-scale magic array into a portable personal array.

"Breath of the Wilderness..." Su Su Su Nai Fa muttered to herself, a smile appearing on her face, clearly very satisfied with the powerful power of the rune construct.

Why would a First-Circle magic user possess such a powerful thing?

This is something that ordinary people cannot understand at all.

But Su Su Su Nai Fa did not consider these things: being able to be called the person of the prophecy of War Mother Oretia, no matter what astonishing things one does, it is reasonable.

She just understood more clearly why Gao De would be the person in War Mother Oretia's prophecy.

The next moment, in Su Su Su Nai Fa's deep blue eyes, the coldness suddenly intensified.

How to break the situation?

The answer was already there.

Whoosh! Su Su Su Nai Fa took a deep breath, her right hand not holding the bow slightly raised, making a gesture similar to "firing a gun" diagonally upward, her index finger pointing into the air.

The next instant, a point of blue light suddenly bloomed at her fingertips, and quickly extended, forming a floating light circle with her fingertip as the center.

Subsequently, Su Su Su Nai Fa flicked the blue light circle, letting it fall onto the bowstring of 【Blizzard】.

The blue flowing light flashed by.

It was another enduring ice spell.

Even if Rian had never seen a rune construct, he could see the clues from the changes in Su Su Su Nai Fa's body at this moment, smelling a hint of an unusual signal.

But Su Su Su Nai Fa did not give him too much time to think.

She drew the bow again.

A deep blue light far more dazzling and piercing than before lit up on the bowstring.

Fine ice crystals were like stars, continuously shooting out arc light.

As Su Su Su Nai Fa pulled the bowstring tighter, ice crystals rotated and condensed in the air.

At the same time, the "blue gemstone" rune array on Su Su Su Nai Fa's bracers also flashed with fluorescence, merging into the arrow of enduring ice.

This is the rune effect that comes with 【Breath of the Wilderness】: Fourth-level spell damage bonus.

An instant later.

A terrifying energy like a vast ocean had condensed.

"This arrow?!"

Rian felt unprecedented threat, noticing some subtle signs of something bad.

Whoosh! The arrow of enduring ice shot out, its tail swaying a brilliant blue flame tail, against the backdrop of the deep ink-like night, like a meteor.

Looking at that deep blue arrow light descending from the sky, a hint of solemnity flashed in Rian's eyes, and he couldn't help but grit his teeth.

How could he not see that Su Su Su Nai Fa's attack this time was extraordinary, and definitely not something that the 【Flame Shield】 cast by rank-up spellcasting could block.

While pondering in his heart, the huge Zombie Behemoth under Rian's feet suddenly let out a deafening roar, as if it were burning some unknown power.

The thick black mist erupting from its body was far more surging and violent than before, almost swallowing all the surrounding air; the black mist boiled, even shooting into the sky, quickly condensing into a huge black hand covering the sky and the sun, tightly gripping the shooting arrow of enduring ice in its palm.

The earth-shaking thunderous sounds echoed continuously in the night sky, the black hand constantly shattering into black mist, dissipating and scattering, but also little by little wearing away the power of the arrow of enduring ice.

"You are ultimately just a Fourth-Circle magic user, let alone being alone!"

A hint of gloom flashed in Saint Xi En Rian's eyes.

The Zombie Behemoth under him is a Fifth-Circle undead creature he created through the Fifth-Circle necromantic spell 【Dance of the Skeleton】.

Although the zombie itself is not a particularly powerful undead creature, with the Fifth-Circle level as a foundation, under the level suppression, it was more than enough to block the Fourth-Circle Su Su Su Nai Fa's attack for a short time.

Under Saint Xi En Rian's mental control, the Zombie Behemoth roared low again, its huge body rushing toward Su Su Su Nai Fa like a wild horse that had broken its reins.

And he himself, mobilizing the mana in his body, began to mobilize another extremely complex and huge spell model in his spell star sea.

Seeing this, Su Su Su Nai Fa stepped on her toes, tapped the ground lightly, and her figure actually swept toward the side like lightning, the speed so fast it was breathtaking.

She actually didn't cast any spells.

Such astonishing movement speed is because the rune lines on Su Su Su Nai Fa's combat boot ankles are glowing—rune effect: Fourth-level agility.

Fourth-level agility is equivalent to the movement speed buff brought by a Fourth-Circle spell.

Su Su Su Nai Fa understands that her greatest advantage lies in 【Blizzard】's spellcasting distance, which is a full four or five times longer than ordinary spells.

Therefore, maintaining distance is beneficial to her.

At this moment, watching Rian drive the Zombie Behemoth to approach her, she already understood the other party's intention in her heart: the distance between the two must have exceeded the spellcasting distance of the spell he wanted to cast.

Although she didn't know what spell the other party was preparing to cast, it certainly wouldn't be wrong not to let the other party succeed.

While retreating rapidly, Su Su Su Nai Fa's hand movements did not stop.

Another arrow of enduring ice condensed and shot out, the air seemed to be frozen, the murderous aura permeated, and the weather was terrifying.

Rian did not show the slightest panic, the Zombie Behemoth's huge body once again surged with rolling black smoke, turning into a black hand, blocking the arrow of enduring ice.

With a dull explosion, huge mana fluctuations erupted and spread at the center of the two's contact.

The two dissolved and melted each other. In the end, the power of the arrow of enduring ice erupted to the extreme, completely piercing the giant hand turned into black smoke, but it was also slapped by the remaining power of the black hand, twisting its direction and shooting diagonally into the sky.

At the same time, another spell light appeared in Saint Xi En Rian's hand, and he slapped it onto the Zombie Behemoth under his feet without hesitation.

After the spell light entered the body, the Zombie Behemoth's speed visibly increased by a large margin, rumbling toward Su Su Su Nai Fa.

Third-Circle transmutation spell 【Haste】.

All obstacles on the road were easily knocked away by the Zombie Behemoth.

Su Su Su Nai Fa did not cast spells to restrict the Zombie Behemoth's actions.

Because she noticed that the four feet of this Zombie Behemoth were already shrouded in a layer of powerful mana fluctuations, and even the thin ice condensed by the previous arrow of enduring ice could not affect its actions.

That should be Rian having blessed the Zombie Behemoth with the Fourth-Circle spell 【Freedom of Movement】 in advance, which allows it to ignore any difficult terrain restrictions when moving, and makes any spell or magical effect that reduces the target's speed or causes the target to fall into paralysis or restraint ineffective against it.

To be honest, undead creatures really restrain her a bit.

Because another powerful aspect of the arrow of enduring ice lies in the extreme cold that erupts and spreads after hitting.

But undead creatures themselves have no sense of pain, so the influence of extreme cold on them is also weakened to the extreme.

Under the blessing of 【Haste】, the Zombie Behemoth's speed had already exceeded Su Su Su Nai Fa's, and it was constantly closing the distance between the two sides.

Fortunately, the Zombie Behemoth's body was too huge, and its turning and changing direction were not flexible enough, so Su Su Su Nai Fa could still use flexible changes in direction to barely pull away.

Su Su Su Nai Fa guessed correctly.

The reason Rian let the Zombie Behemoth carry him and constantly charge, approaching Su Su Su Nai Fa, was precisely because he needed to shorten the distance with Su Su Su Nai Fa to cast 【Energy Drain】 for an attack.

Fifth-Circle necromantic spell, 【Energy Drain】! Archbishop Lu En, who was also a Fourth-Circle, died under 【Energy Drain】 without any struggle.

This is the power of a Fifth-Circle spell.

But even for a Fifth-Circle spell, the spellcasting distance of 【Energy Drain】 was far from being comparable to the arrow of enduring ice shot by Su Su Su Nai Fa's 【Blizzard】.

So the situation now is that Su Su Su Nai Fa can hit him, but he has no way to make an effective counterattack, and can only be passively defensive.

This is something Rian cannot tolerate, even in his view, just dragging it out like this is his victory—Su Su Su Nai Fa's mana reserves certainly cannot compare with him, a Fifth-Circle magic user, and she will sooner or later exhaust her mana.

But such a suffocating way to win is not what Rian wants.

Another thing is that he actually cannot drag the battle time too long.

This is the camp of the Enduring Zhenbing tribe after all, and the other party has many people and great power; even if they are all low-circle magic users who are not worth mentioning, many ants can kill an elephant.

Rian must take advantage of the fact that the ice-descendant magic users of the Enduring Zhenbing tribe are still being held back by the skeleton mages he had ambushed long ago, and behead Su Su Su Nai Fa first.

"Go to hell!"

Finally, after this long and tense chase, Rian discovered that the distance between him and Su Su Su Nai Fa had reached the spellcasting distance of 【Energy Drain】, and immediately cast the 【Energy Drain】 he had prepared long ago.

However, in his heart, he was also marveling at Su Su Su Nai Fa's combat power, actually being able to shoot so many arrows of enduring ice through 【Blizzard】; if he hadn't created a Fifth-Circle undead creature, he would probably have had a headache.

Thinking this way, Saint Xi En Rian's back had already suddenly extended a piece of huge dark tentacles.

These tentacles were deep in color, and even in the night sky of the same color, they were exceptionally eye-catching and prominent.

They twisted and swirled, baring fangs and brandishing claws, carrying an ancient and evil aura, like living things, dancing flexibly in the air, violently wrapping around Su Su Su Nai Fa.

"Don't come and provoke me in your next life!"

Rian stood on the Zombie Behemoth, head held high and chest out, speaking.

Watching the dark tentacles of 【Energy Drain】 extending with unstoppable momentum, about to wrap and wrap Su Su Su Nai Fa's body, Su Su Su Nai Fa suddenly stopped her steps and stopped moving.

Is this scared silly, giving up the struggle? Rian's heart subconsciously flashed this thought, and the next instant he returned to sobriety.

Su Su Su Nai Fa is not such a person with an unstable will! She was still drawing the bow.

But this time, there was more than one arrow of enduring ice condensed on the bowstring.

It was a full three.

The sharp-eyed Saint Xi En Rian even noticed that on the fingertips of Su Su Su Nai Fa's right hand pulling the string, a silver-white light also lit up, just connecting with the light of the strange patterns on the bracers, forming a linkage.

In the night, it seemed as if a crescent moon had lit up.

Su Su Su Nai Fa's face was pale, but she firmly tightened the bowstring.

Stepping on the earth, 【Breath of the Wilderness】 can reduce her mana consumption for spellcasting by 62%.

These reduced mana are not disappearing out of thin air, but are replaced by 【Breath of the Wilderness】's rune array drawing power from the earth, allowing Su Su Su Nai Fa to cast powerful attacks with limited mana.

However, even with more than half of the mana consumption reduced, this blow was still very strenuous for Su Su Su Nai Fa.

She was almost overdrawing her limits, just to give Saint Xi En Rian a fatal blow at this moment.

Saint Xi En Rian widened his eyes, tightly staring at the cold woman drawing the bow and shooting the arrow, as if he wanted to firmly remember her face in his heart.

Three arrows of enduring ice shot out, like three cold lights tearing through the night sky.

It was not a simple 1+1+1.

The three arrows of enduring ice were just connected into a fan-shaped arc light.

Within the arc light, the three arrows rotated continuously, bringing up a slight air vortex.

Outside the arc light, countless broken ice condensed and generated, forming an ice storm.

Su Su Su Nai Fa didn't care at all about those 【Energy Drain】 dark tentacles approaching her.

Because she was incomparably certain that it must be her "arrow" that was faster.

Apart from spellcasting distance, spell speed is also an advantage of the arrow of enduring ice.

And at this moment, Saint Xi En Rian is casting 【Energy Drain】, which means he has no spare energy to cast other spells.

What he can rely on is only the Fifth-Circle undead creature he created, the Zombie Behemoth.

But in the continuous chase just now, Su Su Su Nai Fa had already figured out the power limit of the Zombie Behemoth.

Rian felt something wrong.

The Zombie Behemoth, this undead creature he had spent a lot of effort to obtain, was currently erupting all the black mist in its body in a near-self-destructive way.

These black mists were originally the source of the Zombie Behemoth's power, but at this moment, they were like a burst dam, pouring out uncontrollably.

Visible to the naked eye, with the loss of black mist, the rotten flesh on the Zombie Behemoth began to shrink and shrivel rapidly, as if the essence of life had been drained.

Rian, at the cost of self-destructing the Fifth-Circle undead creature, controlled the Zombie Behemoth to erupt with the most powerful force.

It must be able to block it; this is a Fifth-Circle undead creature!

Rian thought to himself in his heart.

As long as this attack is blocked, the battle tonight will end, and Su Su Su Nai Fa will die under his 【Energy Drain】.

However, the black mist that could originally contend with the arrow of enduring ice, under the impact of the fan-shaped arrow light, was like a fragile bubble, instantly disintegrating and completely disappearing into nothingness.

Those three arrows of enduring ice, carrying unstoppable momentum, descended with arc-shaped arrow light and ice storm.

The cold air instantly swept through, freezing all vitality.

Accompanied by an unwilling scream, in just one breath, the previously arrogant Fifth-Circle necromancer was completely frozen with the Zombie Behemoth under him, turning into an ice sculpture connected together.

Inside the ice sculpture, Rian widened his eyes, dying with an unclosed gaze, his face full of shock and unwillingness.

And those dark tentacles that had originally approached Su Su Su Nai Fa also collapsed violently the moment Rian turned into an ice sculpture, turning into black smoke and floating up.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 288 =====