NOVEL NEXT Ch. 158
Chapter 158: Second Tier Peak Apprentice
Janna felt slightly disappointed, but she wasn’t in a hurry to make a conclusion.
After all, the participants in the current group battle didn’t represent all the remaining apprentices in the secret realm.
Just from what Janna had detected using [Plant Vision], there were still at least three or four people hiding in the shadows nearby, yet to reveal themselves.
“Bang bang bang bang—”
Watching the increasingly intense battle below, and the White Coral Academy members being steadily driven back, Janna, who knew that everything in the secret realm would inevitably fall under Anthony-Rook’s watchful gaze, didn’t plan to go against the “group cooperation mission” he had specifically emphasized before they arrived.
“Awooo—”
Just as Janna was preparing to find a chance to intervene, a sudden wolf howl echoed.
About a hundred meters to her front-left, a menacing Shadow Creature, an ominous Shadow Direwolf, leapt out from the shadows and plunged directly into the fray.
“It’s a Shadow Creature!”
Seeing the ferocious Shadow Direwolf, Maro Heigel, who had been preparing to join the fight from the sidelines, froze instinctively.
“Don’t worry, that Shadow Creature isn’t an enemy.”
Hearing Janna’s words, Maro Heigel focused his gaze and seemed to realize something.
He then whispered through a sound transmission near Janna’s ear:
“Don’t tell me… this Shadow Creature was summoned by Miss Bell?”
“That’s right.”
As the most outstanding young apprentice of the Moonshadow Family, Bell Moonshadow’s magical energy was quite unique.
Just like this Shadow Direwolf locked in fierce combat, Janna, who had extensive battle experience with Bell Moonshadow, quickly sensed a familiar aura from its body.
It was the extremely pure dark-attribute Magical Particle aura unique to Bell Moonshadow.
From its appearance alone, this Shadow Direwolf charging into the battlefield was indeed the same one that had once fought against Janna.
“Normally, creatures summoned through [Shadow Summoning] would indiscriminately attack everyone except the summoner— but this Shadow Direwolf’s targets seemed limited only to apprentices from Blackbone Grove and Mist Tower— could it have already been completely tamed?”
Whoosh whoosh whoosh— Just as Janna was feeling puzzled, a barrage of Ice Spikes, exuding white frost, howled toward several Blackbone Grove apprentices like a blizzard.
“Don’t run!”
Accompanying the exploding Ice Spikes, a sharp, spirited voice rang out from within the bushes.
Immediately after, frost spread, and the rapidly dropping temperature made the targeted Blackbone Grove apprentices shiver involuntarily.
“It’s them, just as I thought.”
Seeing two figures—one black, one white—darting out from the bushes, Janna’s expression softened slightly.
“How long do you all plan to hide? Are you really going to wait for White Coral Academy to group up and crush us!?”
The original battle of eight versus thirteen had now become ten versus thirteen with the arrival of Vivian Rose and Bell Moonshadow. Though White Coral Academy was still at a numerical disadvantage, the previously one-sided defensive posture was beginning to shift.
Seeing this, a Blackbone Grove apprentice, clearly already at the peak of Second Tier Apprentice level, naturally didn’t want to miss the opportunity to crush the White Coral apprentices.
As soon as he saw two more join the fight, he shouted out in all directions, forcing those Black Witchcraft apprentices who had been planning to “reap the benefits” to step in and stop them.
“Boom—”
Thunder roared, deafening and intense.
Prompted by the Blackbone Grove apprentice, a male apprentice clad in a deep purple Wizard Robe quickly emerged from the bushes.
Even before he approached, a bolt of violent, deep purple lightning shot from the tip of his wand, striking the nearest White Coral apprentice.
Ah—
With a shrill scream, the apprentice struck by lightning convulsed and collapsed on the spot.
As another wave of lightning rose, the Black Witchcraft apprentice in the purple robe was about to finish the job when Hugh Stone, also at the peak of Second Tier Apprentice level, raised his golden shield just in time to block the killing blow.
“So it is you, Reiman!”
Beneath the deep purple Wizard Hood was a male face etched with thunder runes, without eyebrows or beard.
Due to being constantly surrounded by Lightning Element Particles, every step Reiman took crackled with static, creating a strange atmosphere.
“Boom—”
Ignoring Hugh Stone’s words, a third, fourth, and fifth bolt of lightning quickly gathered into electric serpents around Reiman. With a flick of his wand, crackling electric sound and rumbling thunder struck mercilessly at Hugh Stone’s rapidly expanding golden shield.
While Reiman and Hugh Stone clashed in a one-on-one exchange of offense and defense, two more impatient Black Witchcraft apprentices sprang out from the shadows, unleashing rolling clouds of poisonous smoke in a sneak attack on Vivian Rose, Bell Moonshadow, and Nia Flare—three new Second Tier apprentices with comparatively weaker magical energy.
Now, excluding the White Coral apprentice who had already collapsed into a state of shock without even managing to utter a command, the battlefield situation reversed once more.
From the original ten versus thirteen, it had suddenly shifted again to a lopsided nine versus sixteen.
“Die!”
Under the effects of a curse weakening, magical depletion, and physical exhaustion, Nia Flare—now partly transformed into a “Lava Dragon Lizard” form—was struggling to withstand the combined assault of the two murderous Blackbone Grove apprentices.
Without reinforcements, her passive defense would collapse completely in just three more minutes.
“Splash—”
The sound of rushing water—just as one of the Blackbone Grove bloodline-type apprentices raised a fist to strike Nia Flare in the face, a transparent Water Serpent suddenly appeared between them, baring its gaping jaws to block the attack in front of Nia Flare.
“Maro? You haven’t been eliminated yet?”
Seeing Maro Heigel suddenly appear at her side, Nia Flare’s eyes were filled with surprise.
“What? In your mind, I should’ve already been out of the game?”
“Wasn’t that the case?”
Hearing Nia Flare’s reply, Maro Heigel couldn’t help but look a bit helpless.
“After all, your life is worth quite a lot to those Blackbone Grove apprentices—”
Just as Nia Flare had said, the moment Maro Heigel appeared, the two Blackbone Grove apprentices who had been attacking her immediately turned their focus, launching a coordinated assault on Maro Heigel.