Chapter 42: Justifiable Defense

The owner of the voice was Enrik.

Beyond the thick fog, he stood on the shaded path, his left trouser leg empty below the knee, leaning on a crutch under his left armpit to help support his weight with his right leg.

His left arm was also severed above the elbow, and his intact right hand waved forcefully, venting the anger in his heart.

However, no matter how wide he stared, his face showed no expression.

That fire of Rivers not only burned Enrik's left arm and leg, amputating them and making him disabled, but also completely disfigured Enrik.

The skin on his face was completely burned away; he couldn't make expressions, and he had lost all sensation entirely.

His nose was merely an outline, without any shape.

"Get out!"

Enrik roared, growing ever more angry: "You despicable villain who only uses petty tricks! Do you dare to act but not to face the consequences?"

Lin Ke heard this and was utterly speechless.

Such a person's mindset is like this: only he can scheme against others, others cannot scheme against him.

However, Lin Ke didn't care about that.

He merely had two doubts:

First, Enrik's words indicated that he knew the reason for Rivers' sudden conflict with him; so, who told him?

Second, Enrik ambushed on this shaded path, choosing time and place perfectly; so who told him Lin Ke and Mo Li's schedule?

Lin Ke began practicing the second layer of the Water-Wood Mutual Growth Meditation Method, and his perceptive ability greatly increased; from then on he cultivated the habit of constantly sensing his surroundings.

If someone were tailing or following him, Lin Ke could not possibly fail to sense it.

After all, even a Third Grade Wizard Apprentice is still a Wizard Apprentice, with no essential difference from a First or Second Grade Wizard Apprentice.

Undoubtedly, the answers to these two questions point to the same person.

Mina Havcheck!

"Have you ever discussed our schedule with Mina Havcheck before?"

Lin Ke whispered his question to Mo Li.

"Hmm."

Mo Li thought seriously, her voice low as a mosquito.

"I know."

Lin Ke combined that recent encounter with Mina Havcheck, her malice, her sudden warning, and her dark past, and figured it out in his mind.

But that is something to be resolved later.

For now, we still need to first deal with Enrik.

But why has the Intelligent Law Enforcement Puppet not arrived yet?

"Ha!"

Enrik sneered, "Are you waiting for the Intelligent Law Enforcement Puppet? I dare to come kill you—how could I be unprepared? You won't get to wait for the puppet; come out and die!"

Lin Ke simply didn't believe that a mere Wizard Apprentice could prevent the Intelligent Law Enforcement Puppet from being deployed.

At most, it could only delay time by some means.

Such means certainly wouldn't last.

Otherwise, how could the institute manage so many people, enforce its will, and ensure its authority?

Seeing Enrik standing there, utterly unprepared, Lin Ke had no urge to break cover and engage in a duel.

If he dared to do this, he surely had some backup.

Such an obvious baiting strategy, Lin Ke could still see through it.

But continuing like this in a stalemate is no solution.

Although Lin Ke was confident the Intelligent Law Enforcement Puppet would eventually arrive, having someone who harbored murderous intent toward him left him uneasy.

Hardening his heart, Lin Ke made a decision.

Today, I must kill Enrik!

If the mountain won't come to me, I'll go to the mountain.

Since Enrik doesn't take the initiative to attack, if we want to lure him out, then we go out.

Lin Ke took off his cloak, gave it for Mo Li to use alone, and gave her a glance, signaling her to hide in the woods to the left.

Mo Li didn't waste time making excuses; she silently put on the cloak and gently moved to the left.

Her pair of green eyes fixed intently on Lin Ke's face, full of worry.

Lin Ke smiled, then turned resolutely.

He counted the time, raised his left hand, and shot a crossbow bolt at Enrik.

Almost simultaneously, the seeds he had scattered earlier all activated and grew, creeping along the ground, waiting for an enemy to step into their attack range, then they would burst forth and entwine, thereby controlling him.

Lin Ke also didn't stay still; he activated the levitation and acceleration function of his boots, silently leaping several meters.

In the blink of an eye, the crossbow bolt pierced Enrik's figure.

After a ripple, Enrik's figure turned into scattered light and quietly dissipated.

"As expected."

Lin Ke saw this, and his heart felt no disturbance.

He had long guessed that it was a decoy similar to an illusion or a clone.

"Whoosh."

A metal arrow as thick as an arm shot out suddenly and then fiercely struck into the soil where Lin Ke had originally stood.

Unfortunately, Lin Ke had already moved elsewhere.

The metal arrow's force was ferocious, its tail end continuously trembling.

Enlike, hiding in the dark, saw the metal arrow miss its target and withdrew the magic sustaining his witchcraft.

The metal arrow quickly vanished.

It turned out Enlike's witchcraft aptitude was an affinity for the light element and an affinity for the metal element.

The previous illusion was a zero-ring light witchcraft.

The metal arrow just now was an arrow-shaped witchcraft usable by all systems.

However, the attack power of metal-system witchcraft is somewhat greater than that of the other systems.

Therefore, although both are second-rank witch apprentices, in a direct confrontation, aside from equipment factors, Lin Ke cannot match Enlike.

Lin Ke thus became even more cautious.

He thought for a moment, then cast another secondary mist rain technique, expanding the rain area to a circular region with a fifteen-meter radius around himself.

Thus, although it consumes too much mental and magical power, as long as he senses carefully, he can quickly find Enlike's hiding place.

While calculating the consumption of mental and magical power, Lin Ke kept moving about in the super-dense mist.

Enlike had already become anxious.

He had spent all his savings to acquire this disposable magical device from the external black market, capable of shielding an intelligent law enforcement puppet for three minutes.

Who would have thought Linke Grand's sensing ability was so super strong that it turned his perfect ambush into nothing, forcing him to resort to a direct attack.

Though the opponent had been lured out with great difficulty, he instead adopted a 'fearful of death' guerrilla tactic.

This made Enlike extremely frustrated.

He had no choice but to randomly fire metal arrows in all directions, hoping to pressure Linke Grand or just get lucky and hit him.

Faced with this indiscriminate superior firepower 'bombardment', Lin Ke was fine.

Mo Li, however, almost got hit by a metal arrow.

It was only a step away.

Fortunately, Mo Li's psychological resilience was fairly strong, and she promptly covered her mouth with both hands, making no sound.

Lin Ke couldn't help wiping away a cold sweat.

The saying 'When poor, use tactics; when rich, blow things up' makes sense.

By this time, Lin Ke had also discovered Enlike's true position.

He took a deep breath, withdrew the mental and magical power sustaining the two secondary mist rain techniques, and quickly cast the water shield technique he had just learned.

The water-formed curtain protected his upper front head.

Lin Ke rose from the bushes under the tree, went around the path, and ran toward Enlike's hiding place.

Enlike saw Linke Grand finally stop hiding and was overjoyed.

Unfortunately, Lin Ke moved in an irregular zigzag pattern at astonishing speed.

Enlike was too far off, so he couldn't aim at all.

You're the one being bullied because you can't move well!

Ah! The timer I set, as a result, blew up during chapter forty-one's review!

(End of chapter)