“You’ve chosen the wrong opponent, you know?”
The shadow rushing toward Liyakade only felt a flash before his eyes.
The girl who had been facing away from him, seemingly defenseless, vanished into thin air.
Then her voice, cold and sharp with disdain, came from diagonally behind him.
Hearing Liyakade’s voice, the shadow was shocked.
He quickly turned around, only to hear a sound of wind breaking and see a blur shoot toward his face at incredible speed.
The shadow hurriedly raised his arm to block, his mind gradually calming down.
But the next moment, his expression changed again.
Crack!
A crisp sound echoed through the forest.
The shadow’s eyes instantly widened, filled with disbelief.
A piercing pain shot through his arm.
He quickly channeled magic power, reinforcing his arm with Earth Element.
His skin immediately took on a yellowish hue, mixed with a faint iron-gray, making his flesh and bone as hard as stone.
But even so, it couldn’t fully withstand Liyakade’s seemingly casual yet overwhelmingly powerful punch.
After the cracking sound, the shadow spat blood and flew back several meters, stumbling to barely stand, then couldn’t help bending over as if about to collapse.
“What in the world…”
The shadow’s arm felt scorching hot, as if it had been struck by red-hot iron.
Not only that, intense pain radiated from his shoulder, making it hard for him to bear.
He looked down at his arm.
The spot he had used to block now had a deep dent, a depression that went all the way to the bone.
If he hadn’t reinforced his arm with Earth Element in time, his bone would have been broken in two.
At the same moment the first shadow was sent flying, dozens more shadows burst out from all directions, charging toward Liyakade at speeds almost impossible to track with the naked eye.
The shadow who struck first was actually the captain of Vidar’s Dark Guard.
His name was Lei Ke Si.
He usually disguised himself as an ordinary traveler, blending into the caravan with the other Dark Guards to monitor and provide information to Vidar.
The news that Vidar saw Natalia couldn’t purify the poison, followed by the argument between Liyakade and the others, and that Liyakade had left camp alone—all of it came from Lei Ke Si and his men.
In Lei Ke Si’s hand was a towel soaked with a strange toxin.
Originally, he had planned to sneak up behind Liyakade, wrap the towel around her mouth and nose while she wasn’t looking, and knock her unconscious.
The original plan was: after Lei Ke Si knocked Liyakade out, they would take her back and hand her over to Vidar.
Vidar would then “train” her properly, using the Purple Mist Donkey Grass to make Liyakade completely his plaything.
When Vidar got tired of her, he would pass her to Lei Ke Si and his men.
But as a Dark Guard under Vidar, Lei Ke Si was no saint either.
He was also a lecher.
Seeing a beauty like Liyakade, how could he resist?
He intended to enjoy her first after knocking her out, and then take her back to Vidar.
At first, the plan went as they’d arranged.
Even though everyone saw Liyakade as a decorative vase with no combat ability, they were still cautious, bringing over a dozen Dark Guards to stealthily track her.
Although Liyakade seemed weak, the Field family backing her was another matter.
Field surely wouldn’t let her act alone, so it was possible that they had sent their own Dark Guards to follow in secret.
That was why Lei Ke Si and his men dispatched over a dozen people to capture a single girl.
When they found Liyakade, she was sitting beside a fallen tree trunk, resting.
Because they arrived late, they hadn’t seen Liyakade punch the tree in two, nor heard the commotion she made.
Of course, with her frail appearance, who would imagine she was the one who broke that tree?
After locating her, they carefully scouted the surroundings, making sure there were no hidden guards nearby.
Only then did they decide to strike.
Though Lei Ke Si believed his plan was flawless, in truth, Liyakade had already caught the dirty stench on them long before.
Whoosh!
Back to the present.
Several sounds rang through the forest, and one by one, over a dozen shadows were thrown out, sent flying from all directions like garbage.
They crashed heavily to the ground, groaning in pain.
Yet Liyakade’s figure moved like a ghost.
After knocking everyone down, she stood calmly in front of the tree stump, looking disdainfully at Lei Ke Si.
Lei Ke Si broke out in a cold sweat.
His back was soaked.
He couldn’t understand why all his men had been defeated in just a few breaths.
Was it a Dark Guard sent by Field?
No, they had scouted a wide area and hadn’t sensed anyone’s presence besides Liyakade.
And the person moving did appear to be Liyakade herself.
If it was a Dark Guard, that guard would have to be incredibly powerful to move Liyakade while simultaneously taking down all of his men in an instant.
Lei Ke Si himself was a LV.45 Earth Element Fighter, and the other Dark Guards were LV.40 Assassins known for speed.
For someone to knock them all down in a single exchange was utterly baffling.
“This is… illusion magic?”
After a brief moment of thought, Lei Ke Si considered that possibility.
Among the branches of Water Element magic, there were indeed spells that could create illusions or trap people in an Illusion Realm.
If that were the case, everything would make sense.
Liyakade’s guard must be a high-level Water Element Magic User who sensed their presence and immediately cast magic on them.
After all, from such close range, with him launching the first strike, how could a mere noble’s decorative vase like Liyakade react and counterattack at the same time?
Those soft, delicate hands looked weak and untrained.
How could they be so strong, almost breaking his arm with one punch?
But… when had he fallen under the illusion?
“Still thinking this is an illusion? Even now, you can’t face reality.”
Just then, Lei Ke Si felt a tremendous force on his shoulder.
The beautiful yet icy voice came from behind him.
He looked ahead in horror and saw that Liyakade was no longer there.
In the blink of an eye, she had appeared behind him.
“Ah—”
Liyakade suddenly increased the pressure on her hand.
Lei Ke Si felt as if his shoulder was clamped in a pair of iron pincers, about to be crushed.
The intense pain made him cry out involuntarily.
He could no longer maintain his stance.
His knees gave way, and he fell to the ground.
“Speak. Who sent you?”
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