Ascension from Dual Professions

Chapter 161: Chapter 159: The Old Man is Angry, the Consequences are Severe

With Jon’s life hanging by a thread, the Power of this strike was pushed to its absolute limit.

A tragic, unyielding aura erupted from him, breaking through the strange, time-slowing Power surrounding the gray-robed man. The blade in his hand transformed into a streak of red light, surging upward against the momentum, determined to sever the villain’s hand!

Unfortunately, the difference in their levels was a chasm that could not be crossed. To the gray-robed man, this desperate counterattack was certainly interesting, but that was all.

The light from the blade never even reached his sleeve before it was stopped by a Shield glittering with specks of light.

’Did it delay him for a mere instant, at most?’

In the end, the hand descended, irresistible.

Everyone who witnessed Jon’s counterattack get so easily neutralized nearly fell into despair.

But just because those on the battlefield could not interfere didn’t mean those outside of it were powerless.

As the cloaked man’s hand continued its descent but never made contact with Jon, he instantly realized what was happening and looked up toward the Golden Maple Leaf Trading House.

Beneath the sign that glowed with magical light, a tall, slender figure in a pale green robe had silently appeared.

It was Claudio.

The Elf Blacksmith’s cold gaze was locked on the cloaked man, his tone severe.

”Uninvited guest, what possessed you to abandon the dignity of the powerful and ambush a young man?”

As he finished speaking, the Old Dwarf, his face as black as a skillet, stepped out from behind him and roared in fury.

”Why waste words on a coward who hides his face! Just kill him!”

The normally easygoing Old Dwarf now had his hair and beard standing on end, his small, cloudy eyes blazing with a terrifying light. This was the pure rage of one who had been thoroughly provoked, whose deepest line had been crossed.

’Jon is his junior, and one favored by an Ancient God. And he was ambushed right under my nose?’

’This is absolutely intolerable!’

Arcane Runes, like molten lava coming to life, flowed wildly across the surface of the hammer in his hand. It let out a low hum, and then, a torrent of lightning poured forth!

KRA-KOOM—!!!

A bolt of lightning, its brilliance and ferocity beyond description, shot from the tip of the hammer like a spear of judgment tearing through the heavens!

This lightning, containing the entirety of Sutton’s understanding of Rune Energy, ignored the distance and slammed down in front of the cloaked man!

If Jon had been conscious to see this move, he would have recognized it as the signature Skill of an Advanced Level Professional, the Rune Master: Thunder Call!

The Old Dwarf was an Advanced Level Professional!

In the same instant that Sutton unleashed his furious attack, Claudio moved as well.

He didn’t watch the lightning’s path. His slender fingers traced a profound and indecipherable path through the air, faint silver ripples of spatial energy flowing from his fingertips—silent, yet as swift as a beam of light.

”Phase Pull!”

The cloaked man’s hand appeared to be only inches from Jon’s head, but under the influence of Claudio’s Magic, those ”inches” were in fact a chasm that could not be crossed by any ordinary means.

As the second stage of the Spell activated, Jon and the patch of snow beneath him vanished without a trace, as if wiped away by an invisible eraser.

The next moment, Jon’s grievously wounded, near-dead body appeared silently at Claudio’s feet, cradled by a soft, silvery halo.

RUUUMMMBLE—!!!

At the very instant Jon was teleported away, Sutton’s Thunder Call slammed squarely into the spot where the cloaked man had been standing—a testament to the perfect coordination between the two old friends!

The frenzied Power of the lightning poured out and exploded. Blinding blue-white light completely submerged the area, forming a terrifying sphere of electricity several meters in diameter. Countless thick arcs of lightning, like writhing silver serpents, whipped wildly at their surroundings, vaporizing the snow, melting the frozen earth, and setting the very air alight!

However, in the center of the storm, the cloaked man’s figure merely wavered slightly amidst the destructive Energy.

An invisible Shield materialized around him—a gray film of light covered in countless tiny, intricate geometric patterns.

CRACKLE! SIZZLE!

The torrent of lightning, powerful enough to instantly vaporize Fine Steel and grievously wound an Official Level expert, crashed against the seemingly thin film of light. Yet it was like a furious tide breaking against a reef, capable only of creating intensely fluctuating ripples and a dazzling spray of Energy sparks.

The geometric patterns on the film spun and reconfigured at high speed, either redirecting the destructive lightning Power into some unknown dimension or simply breaking it down and annihilating it.

Despite Sutton, hair and beard bristling, pouring his surging Rune Power into the hammer to maintain the continuous barrage, the Shield held firm—an impassable chasm.

The roar of the lightning lasted for a full three seconds.

When the last, reluctant serpent of electricity dissipated into the air, the cloaked man was still floating silently in place. His gray cloak was pristine, without a single speck of dust or even a wrinkle.

The hand in the gray glove was still outstretched, only now it grasped at empty air.

Beneath the hood, the inhuman glimmer in his eyes seemed to flicker. His gaze shifted from where Jon had vanished, swept over Sutton, and finally settled on Claudio.

”You are strong. But not strong enough to keep me here.”

Before his voice had faded, the fingers of the hand still hovering in mid-air—the one that had just missed its target—flicked several times with a speed that defied the naked eye.

With no incantation and no sign of gathering Energy, a pure white orb of light, no bigger than a fist, appeared silently above his head. It glowed with a soft light that nonetheless made one’s heart palpitate with fear.

The instant the orb appeared, a sense of crisis even more profound than before—one cold enough to freeze the soul—gripped the hearts of everyone present.

It gave off no powerful Energy fluctuations, but it radiated a sense of being ”locked on.”

”You despicable coward!”

Claudio’s expression changed drastically. For the first time, his handsome and perpetually aloof face was twisted in shocked fury.

He could see it. The orb’s targets were everyone on the field who was too weak to resist or too slow to react to the cloaked man’s oppressive aura. This included Reya, who had just rushed out of the trading house only to be held back by Joyina; Rosalind, who was desperately running toward Jon; the sisters Xia and Xina, their faces pale as they maintained the pillar of light from their Divine Technique; Julian and Vedri, who were still entangled with the remaining cultists; and all the Ordinary guards and Defender Warriors behind them!

It was an indiscriminate, wide-area attack of annihilation!

’What a shameless bastard!’

The Elf Blacksmith held back no longer.

He threw his arms wide. His pale green robe billowed without a wind as a dazzling silver radiance erupted from his body. He began to rapidly chant an ancient, abstruse Elf Spell, each syllable causing the very space around him to tremble.

”Mirror Realm Corridor: Myriad Image Refraction!”

As his final syllable fell, the space in the plaza before the Golden Maple Leaf Trading House rippled like the surface of a lake struck by a stone, instantly creating countless, delicate spatial undulations!