Chapter 165

Dai'er spread her small hands, and the chain of water bullets dropped from her water wings fell like raindrops.

Amidst the tiny popping sounds of "pat-pat," they actually inflicted extremely obvious, dense wounds on the manticore.

The manticore's tail hooked with lightning speed, but it was easily dodged by Dai'er, who had been prepared.

Seeing that the strike missed, the giant monster seemed to have instantly lost interest in this cute little snack.

It pounced and bit, devouring another battle slave, its half-lying body gradually becoming active, ignoring the dense water bullets that were like a dive-bombing raid from Dai'er.

The fine, dense wounds continuously appearing on its body were healing visibly as it fed on the satisfying flesh.

At the same time, Luo En also began his own action, employing the concentrated impact technique of spiritual interference.

At this time, "Spiritual Interference," after learning advanced courses and Suo Lun's private guidance, coupled with the "Sluggish Circle" trait he possessed, had astonishing power.

The manticore that was hit became noticeably sluggish, its head shaking constantly, as if trying to shake off the interference that made it uncomfortable.

Luo En rapidly constructed spell models again, and invisible sound waves were released from his fingertips, precisely hitting sensitive areas such as the manticore's ears and eyes.

Although these sound wave vibrations were invisible, the effects were exceptionally significant.

It was a pity that "Ring of Radiance" and "Slime Splash" were not suitable for this occasion, otherwise the containment effect would only be better.

Caught off guard, the manticore was hit by continuous penetrating attacks, and even dark blood appeared around its mouth and nose, and its movements became noticeably sluggish...

This series of operations was smooth and flowing, almost without a single pause, demonstrating Luo En's extremely high level of spell control.

His goal was very clear—to consume the manticore's physical strength and attention, while searching for its weaknesses, preparing for the final winning blow.

Other contestants in the arena cast surprised looks, especially Trish, who was closest, a flash of disbelief crossing her eyes.

It is well known that potionists often lack strength in battle, but the effect of Luo En's long-range attacks was the most significant among everyone in the arena, except for Huo Erte.

His precise spell control and calm tactical considerations demonstrated combat literacy that was completely inconsistent with his identity as a potionist.

However, the manticore did not turn its attention to this side because of his harassing attacks as Luo En had thought.

Instead, it hooked its tail, and with a sound of breaking wind, it hooked another slave, this time the giant insect with many wings.

Luo En did not stop his restrictive attacks, using sound wave vibrations and spiritual interference one after another.

In fact, the manticore's tail hook just now didn't hit Dai'er, thanks to Luo En's precise use of spiritual interference wave pulses to impact it while it was attacking; otherwise, the little sea siren, who was only gliding with the wind, could not have dodged so easily.

Luo En furrowed his brows, watching the manticore, whose body was becoming less and less active, just lying on the ground and devouring food...

The other party was currently focused on chewing the crunchy, hard food in its mouth.

It seemed to particularly like this, and its desire to prey on the individual insect was much higher than for other slaves.

On the high platform, a faint, almost invisible smile appeared on the corner of Hayek's mouth.

"Interesting, it seems my experimental subject has received enough flesh energy."

Of course, Luo En could not hear this sentence at this time, but through his Extraordinary Identification ability, he could see the massive energy fluctuations that had completely activated like a volcanic eruption within the manticore after it swallowed the last mouthful of blood food...

His heart sank, and that ominous premonition was confirmed.

He immediately realized that the situation might deteriorate rapidly and quickly warned Dai'er through spiritual connection:

"Prepare to retreat, the manticore may be about to fully awaken!"

And at this moment on the battlefield, those contestants who were still attacking the manticore at close range were completely unaware that danger was about to descend.

After Luo En's attacks achieved results, they seemed to follow suit, becoming more confident, and their tactics became increasingly aggressive.

And the manticore, which had been sluggish, suddenly erupted with astonishing speed; its eyes changed from chaotic to sharp as knives in an instant, and its muscles seemed to swell a bit invisibly.

Even more terrifying was that an invisible sense of oppression radiated from it, making all the contestants in the arena feel a palpitation.

Only to see the manticore flash, and the stinger on its tail pierced out like lightning.

Instantly piercing through a battle slave controlled by a contestant, which was a bear-man whose entire body burned with ghostly blue flames.

The stinger pierced the bear-man's chest, and ghostly green venom was instantly injected into its body.

That scorching blue flame was actually extinguished in a moment, and the black bear's sturdy body collapsed to the ground like a puppet with cut strings, its life breath dissipating rapidly.

Even more terrifying was that the manticore did not stop there; it waved its massive front paw, directly slapping that contestant onto the protective wall.

With a dull "bang," the contestant's body hit the rune protective wall heavily.

Blood overflowed from his mouth, the light in his eyes faded rapidly, clearly having lost consciousness.

The contestant's chest and abdomen were torn by the claw strike, exposing white ribs, and blood and internal organ fragments spilled all over the ground.

This series of actions was smooth and flowing, so fast that almost everyone didn't react, and the atmosphere on the battlefield instantly became deathly silent.

Many contestants had faces full of fear, their legs weak, having completely lost the courage to fight.

Luo En observed all this, his face still maintaining calmness, but the vigilance in his heart had been raised to the highest level.

He immediately adjusted his breathing, adjusted his spiritual state to the best, and simultaneously closely observed every movement of the manticore, looking for possible weaknesses.

Through previous observations, he had already discovered that although the manticore had astonishing speed, it would have a brief pause every time it turned;

More importantly, although the manticore's stinger attack range was wide, it required a brief charge after use.

Grasping these, at least he could retreat unscathed when it attacked.

And the manticore's next target was the multi-legged creature covered in black carapace that had been attacking it all along.

Only to see it stride forward, its speed so fast that it almost left afterimages, arriving before it in an instant.

The arrogance on its master's face had long since disappeared, replaced by pure fear.

He seemed to have been frightened by this sudden change and reacted half a beat too slow.

By the time he came to his senses and wanted to let his slave retreat, it was already too late.

The sharp claws swept through the air like blades, and the multi-legged creature's body was torn in two in an instant, internal organs and blood spilling all over the ground.

That final hiss was shrill to the extreme, as if it were still accusing its master of incompetence before death.

Then it turned again, and the tail stinger hooked toward Liyue like lightning.

The leopard woman reacted extremely quickly, almost instinctively rolling backward, but she was still a step too slow.

Although the stinger didn't hit a vital point, it left a hideous wound on her arm.

"Liyue!" Trish exclaimed, immediately beginning to cast healing spells, attempting to reduce the spread of the toxin.

But judging from Liyue's expression, the speed of the toxin's spread clearly exceeded Trish's expectations.

The leopard woman's arm swelled rapidly, her skin presenting an unnatural purple color, clearly in a poisoned state.

Her breathing became increasingly rapid, and her eyes began to become unfocused, a large amount of sweat seeping from her pores, mixed with blood flowing on the ground.

Luo En watched this scene quietly, already calculating various possibilities in his heart.

At this very moment, rushing forward to help would only put himself in danger.

And with the manticore's speed, he would likely be intercepted before getting close to Trish.

Calmly analyzing the situation and preserving his own strength while waiting for the opportunity was the best choice.

Having crippled a major combat force, the manticore had turned toward its most hated target—Huo Erte's earth elemental colossus.

The earth elemental colossus was indeed, as everyone expected, the ideal choice for countering the manticore in this battle.

Its inorganic nature made the toxins completely ineffective, and its sturdy rock body could also withstand most physical attacks.

This was why Huo Erte dared to keep the colossus on the front line at all times.

But at this moment, the manticore had clearly fully awakened, and its power far exceeded everyone's expectations.

Only to see it let out a deafening roar, its front limbs raised high, carrying astonishing power as it slapped directly onto the chest of the earth elemental colossus.

This slap was clearly much harder than all the previous attacks, even bringing up a violent whistling sound in the air.

"Boom!"

The sturdy earth elemental colossus cracked directly at the chest under this strike, and almost one-third of its entire upper body was shattered!

The colossus's arms detached from its body, hitting the ground with a dull sound.

Then more rubble fell from its broken body, exposing the fragile energy core inside.

That once-indestructible defense now looked so fragile, as if it would completely collapse in the next second.

Huo Erte's face turned pale instantly, clearly suffering from the spiritual backlash of the elemental body being attacked.

He staggered back a few steps, his face full of disbelief.

Even he, this experienced law enforcement team captain, was shocked by the manticore's strength to the point of being unable to remain calm.

At this moment, all the contestants felt a sense of oppression that was almost suffocating.

"That slap just now clearly approached the level of a formal wizard; if it were outside, it could potentially blow up a small hill..."

Luo En evaluated secretly in his heart, while continuing to look for a chance to win.

The battlefield had become an ocean of chaos and panic, and those survivors had mostly lost the courage to fight, seeking only to escape unscathed.

Luo En, however, captured a key detail in this chaos:

After several high-intensity attacks, especially the full-power eruption against the earth elemental colossus, the manticore's movements seemed to become slightly sluggish.

Its dark golden mane also lost its previous luster, and the red light in its eyes dimmed slightly.

"I understand a little..." Luo En analyzed silently in his heart:

"It seems this abyssal creature's eruption period cannot last; it can only maintain it for a very short time each time, and then it must absorb new energy through blood food or energy attacks."

Thinking about it, since it was a selection-style melee, the Vice Dean couldn't possibly pick an opponent they couldn't defeat at all.

Thinking of this, he immediately used this discovery to adjust his tactics:

"Dai'er, keep your distance, but be ready to launch an attack at any time when I give the signal. We need to consume its physical strength and wait for it to enter a weak period before making a move."

On the high platform, the observing mentors were closely following the situation in the arena.

"This potionist named Luo En is very interesting."

One of the female mentors wearing a dark blue robe commented:

"Most contestants panicked, only he remained calm and made rational judgments."

"Indeed." Another white-haired old man nodded in agreement:

"He seems to have seen through the manticore's weaknesses and combat patterns; this kind of observation is rare among apprentices."

Vice Dean Hayek stood to the side, his face showing no expression, but a subtle emotion welled up in his heart.

"It's a pity that I didn't give the priority for talent cultivation to Suo Lun and Youni last time; otherwise, this little guy might be my student now..."

According to the school's talent equal-distribution system, every formal wizard, after selecting a cultivation target, needs to give up the priority cultivation right for a period of time to other wizards of the same level.

Hayek had eaten enough grace corrections after successfully cultivating Ke Linna last time.

So for a long time, he had lost the priority guidance right for newly discovered talents.

"But that's fine." Hayek quickly adjusted his mindset:

"This manticore experiment has already collected enough data, and by the way, I can also take this opportunity to see the true level of these candidate sequence members."

In the arena, the manticore began a new round of predation.

It locked its gaze on another contestant who failed to escape, a female apprentice controlling a half-human, half-snake monster.

The manticore rushed forward with an arrow, opened its blood-red mouth, and was about to swallow the snake-person into its belly.

At the critical moment, Huo Erte's voice came from the side: "Everyone, pay attention to dodging! Fighting alone will only lead to us being killed one by one!"

He controlled the broken earth elemental colossus and forcibly launched a charge, hitting the side of the manticore.

Although the colossus was already broken, this hit still caused the manticore's attack to deviate from its original trajectory, temporarily saving the female apprentice.

Luo En saw this scene, his face still calm.

This kind of short-term cooperation was actually beneficial to everyone:

Only by consuming the manticore's physical strength could everyone's survival probability be increased.

"The time is ripe." Luo En said softly, then raised his hand to signal Dai'er.

The little sea siren immediately dove from high altitude, her hands drawing a beautiful arc in the air.

A series of water element bullets were released from her fingertips, precisely hitting the manticore's eyes, causing it to let out a painful roar.

At the same time, Luo En also began his own action.

He activated the Skin of the Shapeshifter, and then ran toward the scattered corpses all over the battlefield.

In the chaotic battlefield, no one noticed the energy fluctuations completely masked on his body.

After the Skin of the Shapeshifter was activated, it began to silently absorb the soul energy remaining on those corpses.

If a creature dies for more than a certain period of time, the soul will naturally dissipate.

And according to what he understood, among the mentors in the school, it seemed that none were proficient in necromancy.

So Luo En was not worried that his behavior of quietly absorbing soul energy would be noticed by those mentors.

(End of chapter)