Realizing this problem, Kolin felt that something was increasingly wrong. The chill permeating the surroundings was even affecting them! This could no longer be explained by simple low temperatures.
Kolin quickly gave Liyami a look. Upon seeing it, Liyami did not ask, but instead cast “Presence Reduction” on herself and slowly moved toward the surrounding shadows.
During this time, Kolin talked loudly with Eleanor to cover for Liyami. Lavinia’s trembling movements began to become rhythmic, and her eyes, narrowed from the cold, began to observe the surroundings slowly and sharply.
Even Laine, who had no idea what was going on, felt the atmosphere in the team change. He wisely shut his mouth and pretended he did not exist to avoid causing any trouble.
Unfortunately, the culprit creating the cold seemed to have seen through their performance. The chill permeating the surroundings intensified in an instant, and now even Kolin felt his movements being affected.
Seeing this, Kolin decided to stop pretending. He drew his Temple Sword and prepared to plunge it into the ground. The creature creating the cold could not bear it and immediately made a move to interrupt him.
Several large boulders suddenly fell from the ceiling, heading straight for Kolin. But Kolin did not move at all, letting the boulders crash onto him.
As expected, the boulders did not affect Kolin; instead, they shattered upon impact and fell to the ground as rubble around him.
Kolin’s action of plunging the sword into the ground was not hindered, and he was nearly finished. The culprit behind the cold stopped its probing attacks and unleashed its full power.
Just as the tip of Kolin’s sword was about to touch the ground, his shadow—cast by his Illumination Magic—suddenly twisted. In an instant, several sharp spikes formed from shadow shot out toward him.
Still, Kolin did not move, letting the spikes strike him. As the shadow spikes were about to pierce his head, a transparent shield easily blocked the lethal attack. Meanwhile, the Temple Sword in Kolin’s hand landed on the ground without incident. After the tip hit the ground, Kolin glanced up at the ceiling, where a strange, humanoid shadow was lurking.
As the sword tip pierced the ground, a ring of light spread from Kolin’s position to the entire hall-like room, successfully forming a faintly shimmering Magic Barrier at every accessible entrance, including the path they had used to enter.
This scene clearly provoked the culprit. It was preparing to launch an even more ferocious attack, but at that moment, it felt a trace of killing intent. It immediately manipulated its shadow to leave its position. Less than 1 second later, the spot it had occupied was filled by a mass of shadows, and the ground was instantly sliced into several pieces by an invisible edge. This included a small portion of its shadow that it had to abandon in its escape.
Seeing that the opponent possessed abilities similar to its own, it did not dare to be careless and chose to distance itself. But just then, a sharp arrow flew rapidly, piercing the rock wall in front of it. Had it been a moment slower, that arrow would have hit it.
It looked down to see the elf who had been shaking in fear; she had pulled out the longbow from behind her and was aiming in its direction.
Seeing this, it dashed to the left, thinking it had dodged the next arrow. But the danger had not ended; a pillar of light suddenly appeared where it rushed. Judging by the intensity, if it had run into that, it would have been forced out of its shadow form.
To avoid losing its shadow form, which was difficult to wound, it had to shatter the rock wall it was standing on before reaching the beam of light, causing it to fall.
This, however, put it right in Kolin’s attack range. Kolin had already pulled the sword tip from the ground and held it level with his shoulder. He stepped forward with one leg and crouched slightly, assuming a charging stance. In an instant, he leapt into midair and slashed at the humanoid shadow, which was also suspended in midair and unable to dodge.
Because it happened so suddenly, Kolin had no time to charge up; he relied on pure strength to swing his sword. Even so, it was enough to severely wound the enemy and make it difficult to maintain its shadow state.
This all happened in a few seconds. Kolin’s Temple Sword successfully struck the humanoid shadow and, without any resistance, cut it in two. It did not end there; as Kolin’s feet touched the ground, blinding light erupted from the edges of the severed humanoid shadow. As soon as the light appeared, it devoured the shadows at an incredible speed, vowing to annihilate them.
After a mere second, the light vanished without a trace, and the shadows that had been covered by it were gone as well, seemingly completely consumed.
But the group did not relax, because the chill permeating the area had not dissipated with the shadow; it had surged even more violently.
The space sealed by Kolin’s barrier suddenly felt like an ice cellar, becoming bone-chillingly cold. Even Kolin felt his hands, which were holding the sword, grow stiff, and his movements slowed down.
The others in the area, whose levels were lower than Kolin’s, were in even worse shape. Liyami could hide in the shadows to mitigate some of the effects, and Lavinia could use her high level to withstand it, but Eleanor was shivering. Even using “Holy Light Fire” to surround her body, she could hardly resist the intensifying cold.
As for Laine, the weakest member of the team, he was the only one at the scene not affected. That was because he was not within the range of the cold the entity had created. He was hiding behind an opening, watching the battle in the empty space through the barrier Kolin had set up.
As soon as Kolin had drawn his Temple Sword, he had run to the nearest opening. The reason Kolin did not immediately set up the barrier, but instead slowly plunged his sword into the ground as if to distract the culprit, was to buy time for Laine to reach a safe position.
Once Laine successfully reached the nearest opening, Kolin set up the barrier to seal the entire space, ensuring no exits could be used. This kept the enemy trapped and allowed Laine to hide safely outside.
To be able to conceive of such a plan in an instant and put it into practice, he truly lived up to his title as the strongest Paladin of the current era!
Watching Kolin slash the humanoid shadow in midair, Laine could not help but marvel. Although he had heard of Kolin’s strength before, it was only when he saw it with his own eyes that he realized just how powerful Kolin was.
If Lord Kolin is here, should we be able to rescue Xiaolan and the others easily?
Just as Laine thought this, he suddenly noticed some very faint movement at the opposite opening. It sounded like… “someone” was walking toward him?
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