Versatile Mage

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

Yu Qingsu finally realized that the God of Death’s kiss had just swept past her throat when she heard the cry behind her. Her body subconsciously shivered.

“What…what was that!?” Yu Qingsu had fought against countless undead, yet she had never heard of a creature with goat horns that was able to turn into a lump of shadow.

The creature had suffered quite a serious injury from the Sacred Shield. It fled into the shadows of the chamber while uttering a cry of agony. Yu Qingsu barely saw its savage appearance when she turned her head around.

“Hehe, you should thank me for being more knowledgeable than most of the so-called experts on the rankings! That creature is a Throat-slicing Horned Demon, one of the most dangerous kinds among the Phantom Generals. Their ability to utilize the shadows to launch their ambushes greatly surpass any Shadow Magician you’ve met before. It could even crawl out from the shadows and onto your back without you noticing, and slowly slice your throat open. Many strong Magicians like you have died to those creatures; they usually don’t prey on ordinary Magicians, but select their targets from the elites. If the undead have a leaderboard, that Throat-slicing Horned Demon is surely ranked close to the top!” explained Shorty.

Mo Fan nodded slightly. No wonder he kept feeling that the Cloth-wrapped Corpse General was trying to set them up. It turned out that it was simply posing in front of them after it had tons of opportunities to finish Scar Face whom it captured as a hostage. It was purposely trying to catch their attention just so the Throat-slicing Horned Demon could eliminate its greatest threat, Yu Qingsu!

Unfortunately, the Cloth-wrapped Corpse General had made mistakes, too. It was likely that it was planning to keep all of the Magicians busy, so they would not be able to keep an eye out for the surprise attack from the Throat-slicing Horned Demon. To its surprise, the little Flame Belle that Mo Fan had Summoned was enough to drive the creature into running wildly around the chamber, giving Shorty plenty of time to observe their surroundings. His Light Element made him more sensitive toward the darkness in his surroundings, as the two Elements naturally repelled one other!

The perfectly-timed Light Protection: Sacred Shield totally nullified the plans of the two cunning undead. It was impossible to tell how many Magicians the two creatures had killed using the same deadly trick!

“The Cloth-wrapped Corpse General is most likely not an undead, but a living dead instead. That thing is going to be a disaster if it’s left alive. We should kill it at all costs. Same goes with that Throat-slicing Horned Demon too. If it somehow sneaked behind our troop, it would simply slit many of their throats open while they were busy drawing Star Patterns!” Mo Fan said to the others.

Mo Fan finally understood Yao Nan’s intentions. Their captain had most likely sensed that something was weird about the Corpse General, and had purposely sent those who were relatively reliable in his troop to handle the creature.

Yao Nan was quite a capable Hunter, able to identify potential threats that would lead his entire team to destruction while in the middle of the mess!

“Shorty, Scar Face, Qing Lajiao, you three handle the Throat-slicing Horned Demon. Leave the Cloth-wrapped Corpse General to me and my daughter,” Mo Fan ordered as the team’s Vice Captain.

Yu Qingsu was not as stubborn as before, after witnessing the strength of Mo Fan’s Summoned beast. Besides, she was not going to allow the creature that almost took her life to run away!

“With me here, I bet that asshole won’t have many corners to hide after I light the place up with a few Brilliant Lights!” said Shorty heroically.

Many people assumed that the Light Element was not as useful as the other Elements. The Light Protection: Sacred Shield was not as sturdy, nor did it have a huge area of coverage when compared to the Rock Barrier. The truth was, only mediocre Magicians would think that the Light Element was useless. In special circumstances, for example, when fighting against the Throat-slicing Horned Demon, the usefulness of the Light Element was fully displayed.

As for the other Elements, no matter how destructive and effective they were at controlling their enemies, none of them could pose a threat to the Throat-slicing Horned Demon, since they could not even spot the creature. It was simply impossible to inflict any damage on the creature, unless their spells could cover the entire chamber. In addition to that, the creature would continue to hide in the shadows close to the Magicians and tail them. As soon as they lowered their guard, blood would be jetting out of their throats!

Shorty had gone through a lot as a Hunter, and heard lots of stories. He once heard that a group of over ten Hunters consisting of the elites had gone to exterminate the undead in a tomb. They managed to clean the tomb of the undead and were on their way back full of loot from the victorious battle. However, they were killed one by one on the way back. When the team made it to the safe zone, only one person from the team of elite Magicians had survived the Throat-slicing Horned Demon!

It was the first time Shorty had heard of the vicious Phantom General. Everyone in the team was capable of killing a Warrior-level undead on their own, yet they all ended up dying to the Throat-slicing Horned Demon. They were aware of the creature targeting them, yet they simply could not do anything about it, but watch their comrades die one after another.

Their greatest misfortune was that none of the Magicians in the team was a Light Magician.

If they had just one Light Magician, they could have prevented the tragedy from happening!

Shorty was unwilling to earn a living in other cities, as he knew that Light Magicians were more valuable in the Ancient Capital, especially someone like him, whose Light Element was his Primary Element!

Shorty admitted that it was his first time encountering a Throat-slicing Horned Demon, yet any Light Magician was like a bane to Dark Creatures like the Throat-slicing Horned Demon. A Brilliant Light with exceedingly huge coverage could simply light up the whole chamber. No matter where the Throat-slicing Horned Demon was hiding, when the white glow descended upon the place, it would clearly reveal its position!

“Brilliant Light!” A ball of light appeared on Shorty’s palm.

As he threw the spell into the air, the ball of light immediately turned into countless rays, pouring down in the chamber. The light quickly purified the strong presence of death, driving the darkness away.

Yu Qingsu scanned her surroundings, searching for the Throat-slicing Horned Demon.

The light was extremely bright, enough for her to see the entire chamber clearly. However, even when the light had filled every corner in the chamber, she still failed to spot the Throat-slicing Horned Demon.

“Has it run away using other passage?” asked Yu Qingsu with a frown.

“Humph, that asshole dares to outsmart us? If we can’t see it after lighting up the whole chamber, it means that it’s hiding behind the pillar!” Shorty grinned, looking down at the sly trick that the Throat-slicing Horned Demon was using on them.

Yu Qingsu did not waste any time further. She quickly directed the lightning about her hand toward the spot behind the pillar. The lightning arcs conducted rapidly along the ground, surging toward the pillar.

The unexpected curves of the lightning arcs implied that something was hiding behind the pillar. As more lightning arcs arrived at the spot, they quickly framed the silhouette of the creature…

Lightning Strike was only a Basic Spell, after all, thus its paralyzing effect was not strong enough to handle the Throat-slicing Horned Demon. The creature immediately ran away when it realized that its position was compromised!

“I’ll keep casting Brilliant Light to prevent it from running away using the shadows. You two will hunt it down. As long as the creature is unable to flee into the shadows, it’s no different than a Servant-class undead,” said Shorty with a smile

Scar Face, who had finally caught his breath raised his thumb, at Shorty.

Both he and Yu Qingsu chased after the Throat-slicing Horned Demon, as the hatred they bore had reached the limit after they almost lost their lives!