The moment Gray appeared, Paine instantly summoned a storm around himself, sweeping both him and Grey up and carrying them into the distance.
Seeing the enemy trying to flee, Gray, however, first wanted to check whether Norris had dropped any scales.
“Gray!” Lin Jun’s voice roared through the mycelium network. “See that guy flying in the sky with horns on his forehead? Knock him down! I’ll feed you red Pujis until you’re full! Plus one extra-large chunk of red! Shiny! Crystal!”
“Red shiny crystal! Big piece!” Gray’s dragon eyes lit up at once!
“Yes, yes, a huge piece!” Lin Jun’s promise was irresistible temptation.
Between the immobile Norris and the flying red shiny crystal, Gray’s clever dragon brain only spun three times before deciding which was more important.
Her wings snapped open, kicking up a blizzard of snow, her body becoming a streak of black lightning as she shot toward the two fleeing figures in the sky, leaving Norris coughing in the choking dust.
When the smoke cleared a little, Norris scrambled over to the Gida suit whose head Grey had smashed, and checked the Yellow Hide Book inside its chest.
On its charred cover, a clear, burnt-edged fist mark had been pressed deep—but the book itself was tough as ever, unpierced and unbroken.
“Whew… still reliable as always, senior…” Norris sighed in relief, tucked the book safely away, and ran off toward where Shou had fallen.Meanwhile, seeing Gray closing in at high speed, Paine quickly assessed the situation.
This Dragonkin only appeared now—meaning the enemy had been holding back. There might be more tricks. Staying here was too dangerous.
But fleeing? She was too fast.
Even if he dropped Grey, he couldn’t outpace her.
Still… maybe speed was all she had?
Worth a test.
With a sharp motion, he hurled Grey downward. From twenty meters up, Grey wouldn’t be hurt by the fall.
Freeing his left hand, Paine whipped out a short, finely crafted secondary wand from his robe!
Now holding his main staff in his right and the secondary wand in his left, two completely different magical lights flared at once!
In front of him, a massive fireball entwined with crackling lightning rapidly condensed into form.
Flame and thunder fused, lending it far greater speed than any normal fireball!
Locked on by Paine’s will, the fireball flew as if with eyes, sweeping across Gray’s flank even as she swerved desperately!
A deafening explosion bloomed in midair, smoke and fire rolling, blasting Gray back in a tumble.
But after only ten meters, she steadied herself, wings beating hard, tearing through the smoke and charging once more—faster and fiercer than before!
“What incredible defense!”
Paine dropped rapidly. Wind magic made him agile, but against an enemy like a Dragonkin, aerial combat left him clumsy and exposed.
The moment his feet hit the ground, his staff stabbed forward!
From cracks in the frozen earth, several water-serpents of ice and frost surged forth, coiling toward Gray.
At the same time, jagged stone spears thrust up from the tundra, shrieking as they shot at her.
[Title: All-Class Mage (Can use all schools of magic, sharing magic level)]
So he’d somehow obtained this title.
Yet despite the endless tricks, Paine’s face grew darker by the moment.
He darted backward with wind movement while bombarding Gray with low and mid-tier spells like a rainstorm. To outsiders it looked as though he had her kite-locked.
But he knew the truth—almost all of it glanced harmlessly off her deep black scales, leaving not even scratches.
To truly wound her, he needed high-tier spells, ones that demanded long casting and heavy focus!
And with this black dragon chasing his tail, he could barely breathe, let alone prepare such magic.
Not to mention the damned Pujis constantly popping from holes—spitting acid, firing mana blasts, releasing toxic gas, or leaping in to self-destruct!
Individually weak, but endlessly disruptive, spoiling his casting and movement space.
He might have all schools of magic, but his mana was finite. At this rate, he’d be drained dry.
Thinking frantically, Paine tossed out several illusionary clones.
Gray, mid-charge, suddenly screeched to a halt, her head swinging confusedly.
Her [Mana Sense] could pierce invisibility—but these illusions were pure magical constructs. Each radiated real magic!
Looking back and forth at six identical Paines, Gray recalled what her boss had said: knock him down, and there would be red shiny crystals. But now… there were six!
Unfortunately, the one she lunged at winked out like smoke.
Paine: !!!
He immediately doubled down, filling the field with illusions, splitting the battlefield into a maze of false selves.
At the same time, both wands blazed—preparing two 8th-tier spells at once: Light Prison and Thunder Spear!
One to bind, one to pierce—this would decide everything.
But Gray didn’t notice, still chasing illusions in circles.
“Gray, left side! That one!” A certain blue mushroom shamelessly cheated, pointing out the real Paine—the only one with a proper panel.
Gray reacted instantly, slamming her fist toward… the illusion on her right!
“Damn it—wrong side! The other one! The other one!” Lin Jun’s voice cracked in panic.
Gray’s eyes widened in sudden realization. With a sweep of her massive wings, she slammed the left side instead.
Faced with the sudden blow, Paine had to abort his casting.
The backlash of two collapsing high-tier spells churned painfully in his chest.
Coincidence? Luck?
More illusions burst forth as he endured the nausea, once again trying to cast.
“Gray! Straight ahead, charge!”
This time she couldn’t get it wrong.
As the dragon hurtled toward him, Paine couldn’t fathom it. How could the same creature who failed to distinguish the lowest-tier illusions earlier now strike true among twenty at once?
Had she been playing dumb from the start?!
Whatever the truth, he had no choice but to break off casting again, retreating in haste.
But behind him, several whip-armed Pujis flung themselves in his path, fearless, blocking his escape!
“Out of my way!” Paine snarled, lashing a crackling arc of lightning that felled two Pujis instantly.
The arc leapt toward a third—
But a glowing barrier flared around it, blocking the strike!
Knight Puji No. 3!
Point-blank, with [Crystal Symbiosis] amplification—200% power Puji Cannon!
“Son of a—”
Even here, Paine forced up a shield, barely canceling the cannon blast—but his retreat was broken.
The next instant, Gray’s claws smashed square into his chest!
It felt like being struck by a flying mountain. His body snapped back like a ragged ball, blood spraying wildly!
If Grey hadn’t caught him midair, he would’ve been half-dead on the tundra already.
“Uniel! Cover me!” Paine coughed blood, shouting.
“Useless fool!” she snapped, but still flew to him.
She had kept Xīnghuo and Louisa pinned, but wasted precious time exterminating those blood-manipulating Pujis.
Fragile though they were, given a chance they could control whole streams of blood—by eliminating them, she could have crushed both opponents.
But every time she killed a batch, more crawled out of holes. It was pointless.
And by the time she realized it, Paine was already faltering.
Blood-blades slipped between the cracks of Gray’s scales, drawing shallow cuts.
Stung, Gray snarled, unleashing a blast of corrosive gray-black dragon breath that engulfed the blades, devouring them and hurling them back toward Uniel!
Meanwhile, Paine seized the moment. Hidden among illusions, his wand flared with black light—
A freezing, chaotic, ominous aura spread outward, shrouding the battlefield.
7th-tier Abyssal Magic—Gate of Transfer!
Abyssal magic!
Lin Jun instantly recognized the aura of that strange school.
Of course—“All-Class Mage” included abyssal magic too!
He didn’t know which spell it was, but he wasn’t about to let it finish. “Gray, front left!”
The target was really front right. But to account for Gray’s “intellect,” he gave her the optimized answer.
Gray roared, wings snapping, lunging full speed toward… the front left!
Lin Jun: “%@#…!!”