Starlight finally snapped out of his daze.
A look of determination flashed in his eyes as he clapped his hands together, ultimate dark magic frantically converging in his palms.
“Shadow of Annihilation!”
With a low shout, a pitch-black orb of light shot from his hands. As it passed, the bodies of the Stone Trolls crumbled like sand, leaving a scorched, blackened trail through the passage.
Taking advantage of the opening, the two immediately rushed toward the entrance of the rift.
However, even more Stone Trolls surged from all directions like a tide, their rough stone bodies making a grating, ear-piercing sound as they rubbed together.
Seeing that his ordinary tribesmen could not stop the group, the Stone Troll King finally made its move.
Its massive frame suddenly crouched, and its thick legs exploded with incredible power. Its entire body soared into the air like a cannonball, lunging straight for Starlight and Po Kong.
“Think you’re hot stuff? Get down here!”
Seeing the Stone Troll King leaping toward them with a strange screech, Po Kong let out a roar of fury and hurled the stalactite in his hands like a javelin at the massive shadow in mid-air.
The sharp stone pillar tore through the air with a shrill whistle, accurately striking the Stone Troll King in the chest.
However, the piercing impact he expected did not happen. At the moment of contact, the seemingly indestructible stone pillar shattered like fragile glass, turning into a cloud of crystal dust.
The Stone Troll King’s descent did not slow in the slightest. It opened its massive claws, which were covered in crystal clusters, and a dark red energy began to condense at its fingertips once more.
Starlight wanted to grab Po Kong and use instant movement to dodge, but he suddenly found several crystal clusters appearing around him. A strange power surging from them forcefully interrupted his casting.
Just as the dark red energy at the Stone Troll King’s fingertips was about to erupt, a sharp wind blade whistled in from the side, slamming heavily into its crystal-covered neck.
The giant’s massive body shook violently, and its building attack stalled.
The two fire arrows Xia Duo fired followed immediately after, accurately striking the Stone Troll King’s eyes. The fire battle qi attached to the arrows triggered instantly, exploding into two fireballs on its face.
“Roar—!”
A deafening roar echoed through the cavern. Although the Stone Trolls’ skin was covered in a carapace formed from earth elements, their eyes remained one of their few weaknesses.
The Stone Troll King flinched in pain, and the spell originally aimed at Starlight veered off course, grazing Po Kong’s shoulder as it flew past.
“Now! Jump!” Maela’s voice called out from ahead.
The two then noticed her hands held out as if supporting something, and two shimmering crystal stairs materialized out of thin air.
Po Kong immediately grabbed Starlight by the collar and smashed through the surrounding crystal clusters. Taking advantage of the Stone Troll King’s stumble, he leaped onto the first of the crystal stairs.
The moment they landed on the steps, they heard a deafening crash behind them.
The Stone Troll King’s out-of-control body slammed into the ground, its frenzied fists smashing the entire rock wall to pieces. Flying debris rained down like a storm.
“Spatial barrier!”
Starlight raised his hand, and a translucent screen of light instantly unfolded, freezing all the flying debris in mid-air.
Every piece of rock maintained its trajectory but could no longer advance an inch.
With this momentary block, the two leaped forward and finally dove into the narrow rift entrance.
Outside the rift, the spatial barrier shattered into countless fragments under a heavy hammer-blow from the Stone Troll King.
As the group fled frantically into the depths of the rift, the enraged Stone Troll King charged into the entrance, madly destroying everything in its path.
Although its body was much larger than the rift, the hard granite blocks were as fragile as biscuits under its terrifying strength, offering almost no resistance.
“Tsk! What a troublesome guy. Earth-Surging Crystal Pillars!” Maela glanced back at the closing Stone Troll King and fired a spell backward through gritted teeth.
In the next second, the ground in front of the Stone Troll King surged upward as a sharp rock spike, as thick as an adult’s waist, burst from the earth. Its tip crystallized instantly under the influence of Maela’s magic, glinting with a diamond-like chill.
The hardness of the crystal pillar far exceeded that of ordinary stone. It stabbed directly into the Stone Troll King’s lower jaw, halting its momentum.
But that was only the beginning. The entire passage began to erupt as dozens of similar crystalized rock spikes thrust out from all directions.
Some stabbed upward from the ground, some descended vertically from the ceiling, and others even pierced through the side walls. In an instant, the Stone Troll King was trapped within a forest of crystal spikes, skewered like a hedgehog.
“Go! This won’t hold it for long!”
Maela’s face was pale; such multi-casting had put a significant strain on her.
Sure enough, the Stone Troll King behind them already showed signs of breaking free. Dense cracking sounds began to echo from the crystal pillars, and a storm of dark red energy was gathering frantically around the King.
“Oh no, it’s charging a big one! The whole tunnel will collapse!” Starlight immediately pressed his palms together, earth elements beginning to condense within him. “Moen, give me a hand!”
“Understood!”
Moen expertly waved her short staff, lightly tapping the rock wall.
Instantly, countless thick plant roots burst through the walls, climbing up the crystal pillars Maela had created and coiling around the Stone Troll King’s body like giant snakes.
However, as soon as those deep green roots touched the dark red energy on its body, they crystallized at a visible rate, turning into transparent crystal branches that reflected a strange light in the darkness.
Though Moen’s strike hadn’t achieved a significant effect, Starlight’s spell was ready.
He was surrounded by a heavy torrent of earth elements as he slammed his palms forward.
“Wrath of the Earth Core: Collapse!”
With a roar, the rock walls of the entire tunnel instantly disintegrated, turning into a grey-brown elemental vortex.
Rocks, crystal pillars, and even the air were sucked into this violent energy flow, slamming the Stone Troll King deep into the rock wall like a massive wave.
“Dark Tide!”
One strike wasn't enough. Starlight’s left hand quickly changed gestures, following up with a spell formed from Shadow of Annihilation energy.
The black dark elements seeped into the cracks in the rock. Even if the Stone Troll’s unique physical structure could ignore most physical attacks, the power of Ultimate Darkness would still deal it a heavy blow.
After completing this, the group fled deeper into the passage without looking back.
Seeing the passage ahead begin to slope downward, Starlight and Maela exchanged a glance and simultaneously struck the side walls.
As their palms hit the rock, a strange magical ripple immediately spread along the stone walls.
“Shape!”
Starlight shouted, and the jagged rock walls were instantly smoothed out as if by an invisible hand, becoming a single, uniform surface.
Then, with a wave of his right hand, the earth elements filled in all the uneven spots on the ground, forming a perfect slide.
“Everyone on! Hold tight!”
Maela crossed her hands, and a massive, transparent crystal sled condensed beneath their feet. Magical patterns flowed across the crystal surface, and a railing automatically rose around the edges.
The crystal sled was like a giant sleigh, beginning to accelerate as it slid down the smooth slope.
The Stone Troll King’s frenzied roars echoed through the tunnel behind them. Its massive body had broken through part of the magic, but it was still stuck between the narrow rock walls.
Though it frantically tore at the surrounding walls, sending debris flying, it could not catch up to the wind-swift speed of the crystal sled.
Dark red energy erupted from its body, corroding countless pits of all sizes into the rock walls, but it was all in vain.
The group looked back and saw that terrifying figure receding into the distance.
As the crystal sled turned a corner, the suffocating pressure behind them finally vanished completely. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, their tightly wound nerves finally relaxing a little.
“That guy shouldn’t be able to catch us now, right?” Stark looked back with lingering fear, his voice much lower than usual and carrying a noticeable tremor.
As the weakest member of the team, this was the first time in his life he had faced a Saint Rank opponent head-on, and the pressure it brought was unimaginable.
Rate on N.U.
