After a brief spatial distortion, Leon set foot on the land of the Bone Plane once more.
The blood-red crescent moon had already dipped below the horizon, yet the sky above remained oppressively gloomy. Dense, black clouds hung over the dark earth, and a cold, fetid wind whistled through the air. Leon couldn't help but pull his black robe tighter around himself. The soil beneath his feet was soft and damp, mixed with rotting weeds and fallen leaves, exuding a nauseating stench.
Around the Nether Iron Vein, the largest gathering of skeleton warriors on the wasteland still remained. The Bone Demons below were still dormant, but the deathly aura they emitted was almost tangible—so oppressive even Leon found it hard to breathe. These high-tier undead creatures were vicious, their combat strength nearly rivaling that of master mages. The mere presence of their death aura was an invisible, crushing pressure.
Fortunately, Leon had no intention of provoking the Bone Demons on this trip to the Bone Plane.
His target was only the countless skeleton warriors scattered across the hills...
As his boots sank into the blackened earth, Leon unleashed an Undead Detection spell.
"At least ten thousand skeleton warriors..." Leon mused, his senses now honed by Archmage mastery. Life Detection was sharper than ever, and the black wasteland unfolded before his mind's eye with a clarity he'd never known. Every undead on the plain was laid bare in his thoughts—lucky him.
With the wasteland and its legions of skeleton warriors mapped out in his mind, Leon split them into dozens of zones. The Bone Demons' domain was strictly off-limits; the rest he eagerly tagged as hunting grounds.
First target: the region nearest the Plane Path, where about fifty skeleton warriors loitered.
A few incantations slipped from Leon's lips, and a wall of flames surged up, cutting off the skeleton warriors' advance. At the same moment, an Explosion Flame spell came crashing down from above. With a deafening roar, a burst of incandescent fire blossomed among the skeletons.
In an instant, fire splashed everywhere, sparks raining down on the black wasteland. Nearly ten skeleton warriors were torn apart by the Explosion Flame before they could even twitch.
As he cast Explosion Flame, Leon was already prepared. Red and blue light coiled together, conjuring a Frostfire Shield. He knew that for these death-defying skeleton warriors, a single Flame Wall would never be enough. What came next would be their inevitable, frenzied assault.
Sure enough, the flames from Explosion Flame hadn't even faded when dozens of skeleton warriors barreled forward. The blazing Flame Wall barely slowed them. After sacrificing a handful, they crashed through the fiery barricade—now less than fifty meters from Leon.
Leon kept chanting, hurling Flame Spears one after another, toppling the front line of skeleton warriors as he began to retreat. At the same time, his gestures started weaving the next Earthfire Eruption...
[Author's notes and voting requests are skipped as irrelevant to the novel's story.]
[Author's notes and voting requests are skipped as irrelevant to the novel's story.]
Only when fire magic elements are active does the battlefield become favorable for mages. Such an environment not only amplifies the power of fire spells but also weakens the undead.
This kind of combat wisdom could only be distilled by someone like the Flame Tyrant, who spent his entire life battling the undead...
After retreating ten paces, Leon's Earthfire Eruption was primed. Now, all he needed was for the skeleton warriors to close in—and then, a blinding surge of fire would erupt.
Yet, just at that moment...
Leon suddenly noticed that the skeleton warriors charging at him had come to an abrupt halt. Almost simultaneously, the Soul Fire within each of them flickered, like candle flames caught in a gale—ready to be snuffed out at any moment.
Then, the skeleton warriors began to retreat...
"What’s going on!" Leon was startled, and without thinking, he reflexively interrupted the casting of Earthfire Eruption, twisting the final incantation into a Flame Barrier instead.
With a thunderous boom, a Flame Barrier rose instantly. The retreating skeleton warriors stepped right into the roaring flames.
But none of the skeleton warriors dared to turn back. It was as if Leon standing there was even more terrifying than the blazing Flame Barrier—they would rather charge through the fire than face him...
The Flame Barrier was already deadly, and with the fire elements so active, its power was raised another notch. Over thirty skeleton warriors rushed in, but fewer than ten emerged alive. Leon finished off the rest with just a few Flame Spears.
"What the hell just happened..." Leon muttered, brow furrowed as he fished the Sage’s Chapter from his pocket. Instantly, dozens of points of Soul Fire shot up from the ground and merged rapidly into the artifact. Well, at least something was working today.
Normally, he’d be itching to test the Sage’s Chapter with a flashy spell. But right now? No chance—his mind was still stuck on that freakish spectacle he’d just witnessed.
No matter how he turned it over in his mind, Leon couldn’t fathom why the skeleton warriors, all set to tear him apart, had suddenly bolted. They’d rather dash through a wall of flames than stick around for a chat. Was he truly scarier than the inferno itself?
And what was the meaning of their Soul Fire flickering so violently earlier?
If memory served, Soul Fire only flickered like that when an undead was about to die—or when it was scared witless.
Dying was out of the question. When the skeleton warriors turned to flee, they ran faster than ever—there was no sign of impending death.
But if it wasn’t death chasing them, could it really have been fear?
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