Chapter 60 - 8: Shadow Mage
From the inside out, the wolf exploded, John had expected to get caught up in the blast, but its body absorbed all of the impact and it dispersed into the air.
John\'s hand was freed, but the pain remained. A consistent surge of pain passed through his arm as blood dripped out of the hole formed due to the bite. Its canines had managed to penetrate through his skin and formed a hole.
"Ahhhh!" John unintentionally let out as he tried to resist the pain.
He placed his unwounded hand slightly above his injured arm and cast \'sana\' Translation: Heal.
The amount of blood pouring out of John\'s arm decreased and the wound slowly began to close up.
"Around 10 minutes huh..." John muttered as he looked over at Ariel and Serena\'s direction.
They were waving at him to come over, so he waited a minute for the blood to stop pouring out like a stream, and flew over to them with levite.
John landed safely on top of the ice, and both Serena and Ariel rushed to see his wound.
He made sure to put a cloth over it, because it wasn\'t something you\'d want to show to others.
"John, how\'s your wound?" Asked Ariel as she tried to see it.
"It\'s fine, It\'s healing up with \'Sana" John replied as he moved his arm so that she wouldn\'t see it.
He really didn\'t want to show this to them. It managed to pierce its fangs pretty deep into his arm, and although blood had stopped pouring out of it and it was already starting to close nicely, it still looks unpleasant.
"We saw the fight, it bit pretty hard into your arm, can you move it?" Asked Serena as she tried not to show that she was worried.
"I can\'t move it, it probably broke my bone even with magic reinforcement, but It wasn\'t able to pierce through it"
The human bone is obviously more durable than the skin. Once he reinforced it with magic, it\'s much harder to pierce through or break. Although its jaw strength was very high, all John had to do was reinforce more magic into his arm, but his bone didn\'t break because of its jaw bite.
"Thank god... I-I mean, that\'s good!" Said Serena with an embarrassed expression.
John and Ariel looked at each other and then laughed.
"Pff"
"Serena, you should be more honest," Said Ariel.
"Ariel, are you laughing at your big sister?" Asked Serena with an evil smile as she began to tickle Ariel.
"W-Wait, S-Serena I\'m sowwy! pff- hahaha, Sewena!!" Ariel protested.
"Can you two save this for later? There\'s still a guy trying to kill us out there." Said John.
"Right, Sorry," They simultaneously replied.
"How can you two be in sync so often?" John asked.
"You\'re only asking this now?" Serena asked.
"Why does the timing matter-"
John stopped once he noticed a presence near one of the trees. It wasn\'t an animal; it was a person. He had been silently casting deprehendre in case they decided to show up.
Perhaps through his expression, Serena and Ariel noticed that something was wrong.
"How many?" Serena asked.
"Just one." John replied.
"If it took only one could summon all of these wolves, then they must be strong." She deduced.
"Yeah..."
John\'s arm, he could slightly move it, but it\'ll take around 4 more minutes until it could return to a condition that he can fight with.
"Magnum Ventus," John muttered.
Air began to gather in front of him and he directed it straight at the direction where the person was standing.
He had noticed it beforehand and managed to get away in time, so John ended up only cutting down a few trees, but thanks to that, he had nowhere to hide.
"I\'ll be back." John said as he cast levite and was about to head towards him.
"No, you don\'t" Said Serena as she grabbed on to his uninjured arm.
"What? We don\'t have time for this," John said.
"We\'re coming with you" Said Ariel as she grabbed on to Serena.
"Fine..." John said as he let out a sigh.
\'Honestly, these two…\' He thought.
"Furtim"
The person simply stood there wearing a cloak which covered his face and figure. He was taller than them and didn\'t seem scared at all once he appeared a few meters in front of him out of nowhere.
"You can teleport?" The person asked.
It was the voice of a man.
"I guess." John replied.
It wasn\'t really teleportation, he just cast Furtim, and flew over. Serena and Ariel were next to him but didn\'t say anything, they were prepared to fight at any moment.
"You... I didn\'t see you using any chants, Earlier, How did you hide it?" The man asked.
"I don\'t know, Maybe the wind covered my mouth?" John asked in a questionable tone.
"So you won\'t talk?" Said the man.
"I don\'t know, I\'m talking right now, aren\'t I?" John asked.
"Guess I\'ll just have to force you."
The man began muttering a few words in a low tone, John couldn\'t hear it, but he was sure he was chanting something.
"Velox Duplici." John muttered and propelled himself straight at him.
John only had one hand, so if the man dodged this it would be problematic..
John went straight at him at high speeds and he jumped to the side to dodge it. Right before John went past him, he cast it again while mid-air, and changed the direction of the attack to the area he jumped to while keeping the momentum.
John slashed at him, and he had no opportunity to dodge.
To his surprise, his dagger went right through him, more like his body dispersed.
"He disappeared?!"
John stopped himself by creating an air cushion in front of him and turned around.
The man had finished chanting and said the words "Dark Domain".
After that, everything around him became pitch black, John could only see himself and couldn\'t hear anything.. Everything was shrouded in darkness.