Chapter Ninety-Two: The Turning Point

After seeing that everyone had rushed out, Zhao Xu hurriedly shouted after them, “Keep two meters apart from one another. We still have time.”

By then, Zhao Xu had already regained his bearings. In his haste, his judgment had still been somewhat lacking.

If there were more hidden floor traps ahead, and one of them required the combined weight of two people to trigger, then a whole group charging together would be no different from being dumped into a pot and cooked at once.

Besides, Rainbow had already verified from the start that a single person could pass safely.

In this underground labyrinth filled with unknown dangers at every turn, it was indeed wise to repeat an experience that had already been tested.

Still, seeing everyone scrambling to spread out and rush forward in batches, Zhao Xu did not worry too much about time.

Counting from this tenth round onward, as long as they reached the end within five rounds, it would not affect the plan for Zhao Xu and Luo Ya to leave on the fifteenth round—at that moment, the turret would be recharging for the third time.

And the two stretches of road were only seventy or eighty meters in all; thirty seconds would be more than enough to get through them. They might as well crawl.

“The power of magic is truly marvelous.” Watching the others already round the corner, Luo Ya sighed in admiration.

He spread out his hands as though he wanted to touch the mysterious magical particles drifting through the air.

Zhao Xu glanced at Luo Ya, surprised that the man was actually rather perceptive. He understood that it was not the outermost shield protecting them, but the magical effect permeating the entire sphere.

That was the true reason low-level spells were suppressed.

It was also why when a fireball entered the barrier, there were no special effects inside the sphere, yet the shockwave from the spell still appeared outside the barrier.

“If warriors could master this kind of spell, would it be able to suppress low-level mages?” Luo Ya asked after a moment’s thought.

By then, only Zhao Xu and Luo Ya remained.

“It only suppresses magical effects—and only magical effects,” Zhao Xu said after some thought.

On the first day, Antinoya had already told him not to trust too much in spells of immunity or nullification.

Their greater significance was merely that they could waste one casting action of a high-level mage.

“Can you explain it?” Luo Ya asked, his curiosity about the mysterious and the unknown plain to see.

Perhaps only when faced with life-and-death danger did people dare to ask so freely.

“Things created by magic can still be struck by physical force. And secondly, mages can dispel this spell,” Zhao Xu said, giving a simple example.

The reason why the right hand of god in some anime boy could nullify all effects, yet still could not stop flying stones from cutting him, was the same.

“Get ready. I’ll first put some distance between us. When I shout run, you charge ahead—don’t worry about me.”

Zhao Xu looked toward the spell turret as he spoke.

The others of the party who had already reached the destination had also shouted to them, though this time their voices sounded somewhat faint.

By now, Zhao Xu’s lesser spell-nullifying barrier had already blocked the third spell, and the timer had reached the thirteenth round.

He first moved ahead three or four meters. Besides creating some distance from Luo Ya to avoid certain hidden risks, it was also to reach a safe range first.

Only after he was safely out of danger could he free his hands to cast.

Only then, if Luo Ya failed to get out in time, could he protect him with a timely spell.

The lesser spell-nullifying barrier was fixed and immovable, which made him far more passive. Otherwise, he could simply have walked across with the barrier over him.

But with a radius of three meters, its coverage was enough to reverse far too many things.

At that moment, Zhao Xu’s brow twitched—the demon statue had finally fired its fourth spell: Vampire’s Touch.

This spell, which was originally meant to take effect only through close physical contact, only needed a distant hit when used by the spell turret.

The instant the light of Vampire’s Touch landed on the barrier, Zhao Xu decisively shouted, “Run!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he dashed forward with all his might without looking back.

It was a pity that Luo Ya might not be able to endure the damage from Vampire’s Touch head-on; otherwise, Zhao Xu would have told him to simply take the blow midway and be done with it.

From the Vampire’s Touch of the fourteenth round to the fireball that fell in the sixteenth, Zhao Xu had, at most, only twelve seconds to work with.

And they had to run at least seventy meters.

If the spell turret cast a little faster, they might not even have twelve seconds.

The only truly absolute safe window was the six seconds of the fifteenth round.

For people carrying burdens, this was not a sprinting match where one merely wore quick-dry clothes.

Though his strength was only eight and his explosive power was lacking, his agility of thirteen and his constitution and stamina of fourteen still gave him a remarkably good pace.

By the time he reached the end and arrived beneath the spell turret, less than half the allotted time had passed, and the fifteenth round was not even halfway over.

After hearing Luo Ya’s footsteps behind him, Zhao Xu took a deep breath of the stale dungeon air, then forcibly changed direction and turned right, running toward the torchlight.

There, the waiting party stood ready.

“Quick, almost there!”

In the end, amid the party’s cries, Zhao Xu burst into the safety distance they had estimated.

Rushing in beside him was Luo Ya as well. In that desperate sprint, the dagger at his waist had shaken loose and fallen to the ground, but he did not even dare look back.

After Zhao Xu came to a skidding stop, he planted both hands on his hips and panted hard, feeling the burning heat in his lungs.

At that moment, time had only just reached the end of the fifteenth round. His sprint had brought him to the goal earlier than expected.

Even after the sixteenth round passed, the demon statue’s mouth still did not begin to condense another fireball.

“We’re finally safe.”

After saying that, Zhao Xu relaxed his grip on the staff he had been holding so tightly.

“Mr. Midsummer, you’re really amazing. When will I ever be able to be like you?” the priestess said, looking at him with admiration.

Rainbow the rogue and Blue Frog the poet were also gazing at him with respect.

Zhao Xu tightened his hold on the protective staff in his hand just a little.

“Yoyo, then you should have studied divine magic properly back at the Church of the Goddess of Magic.”

“Hehe, I know,” the apprentice priestess said with a pout.

“It’s too dangerous ahead. Let’s sort ourselves out first before moving on,” Zhao Xu said.

“Right.” Luo Ya, as the leader, also took over the conversation then, while drawing his weapon from its sheath.

“I’ll cast some spells first. Later I’ll stand a little farther ahead. I was too passive just now.” Saying this, Zhao Xu began to move into position and chant the incantations.

“Mage Armor!”

“Protection from Evil!”

“Hallow!”

One spell after another was cast upon himself by Zhao Xu, as though spell slots were free bonuses.

“Looks like I gave myself away just now,” came a hoarse voice.

At the opposite side, the six who had arrived first stood there, their faces twisted with sly smiles as they looked at Zhao Xu and Luo Ya, and from their mouths came the same voice.