Narrow Finish

Ervin was quick to move back right when he flung out the grenades, but the shockwaves of the grenades were far too fast. All of them contained prowess faintly stronger than Adept Mages, just how could Ervin fully escape that kind of power?

Even without being at the center, the shockwaves still drained away his Mana reserves at a lightning-speed pace.

He was at 8% of Mana reserves in only a few seconds, the drain of his Mana actually didn't cause Ervin to panic. This was a risk on his part, but one that he knew would pay off well. 

When the flash cleared away an utter scenery of carnage was before Ervin. 

All trees were blasted apart into tiny pieces, large craters littered the ground, and faint stains of blood painted spots where the Novice Mages once stood. 

One of the Adept Mage's bodies was in utter shambles, pieces of everything scattered about the area, his guts, organs, and various other putrid intestines were all about. 

The other Adept Mage was alive, albeit barely. That Adept Mage lay in a pool of his own blood. His legs were completely blown off, one of his arms was shattered while the other was nothing more than a mangled pile of flesh. 

His horrifically gruesome face was unrecognizable, large pieces of his flesh brutally torn apart. 

Ervin didn't care about the gore and instantly dashed right towards the near-death Adept Mage. As he moved, he spread his Magical Sense and Demon Orb detection out for any wandering Demonic Beasts. When detecting nothing nearby, Ervin recalled his Complete Invisibility.

Phasing through all of their shockwaves left him greatly drained. It would only be for a few seconds, but he wanted to tightly converse every ounce of Mana for any situation.

He traveled quite far from Lightwall City, and making it back was a trek he needed to have the Mana for. Ervin had to multitask at this moment. Without using Complete Invisibility, he can regenerate Mana far faster, thus he swallowed half of a Mana vial as he dashed forward.

With his Mana reserves regenerating, an empty vial instantly surged into Ervin's hands, he had to take his focus off the Mana vial. 

He didn't dare to taint the blood with his hands, thus Ervin used Telekinesis to manipulate pools of blood under the Adept Mage, flowing it directly into the empty vial. 

Ervin didn't have to get too much of his blood, a good small quart size would be enough to attract the mad dash of any Ice Crystal Gorillas. 

But another thought entered Ervin's mind. 

Why just stop with someone like Chen Xun? 

If there really is a target that he sees far too strong for him to handle, but needs their talents and magical essence, leading over Demonic Beasts to them would be his best play. 

He decided to completely fill up an empty vial with Noble Mage blood and a second just for added measure. Putting away the vials of Noble blood, Ervin took another look over the convulsing Adept Mage. 

He was only seconds away from death with some amount of blood still flowing through his veins. 

Cyan never really said what state the person has to be, just that they have to be alive. And Ervin didn't want to miss out on an easy opportunity, any bloom to his Magical powers is both an assurance to keep his life and a fulfillment to his very soul. 

Ervin swiftly plunged the Demon Orb straight into the Adept Mage's grotesque broken flesh of a chest. 

The Adept Mage faintly trembled. It was only now could he sensed that somebody was actually with them this entire time, and this person was currently plunging something into his body. 

The Adept Mage could barely see the outline of this mysterious person. All that he could tell was whoever this demon was would be the reason none of them would ever see the light of day. 

It was faint, yet a spark of unending hatred jolted through the Adept Mage's soul. That hatred was just further amplifying fuel for the Demon Orb. 

With only seconds, Ervin believed he would be done with this entire group. 

However, only inches from completing the absorption, Ervin felt his soul go frantic, unleashing crazy waves of sensation that made all the hairs on his body stand up straight. 

Ervin practically moved on instinct, instantly surging his Complete Invisibility once again. 

'Chi!' 

A flash of suffocating black Mana lights dazzled through the air, the roar of a beast sent shivers down Ervin's spine, and the air split apart as the ground trembled from a powerful weight crushing down it. 

Ervin trembled as he felt his Mana reserves had drained at a lighting-like pace. He only had a brief chance to look behind to witness a terrifyingly large Demonic Wolf beast clutching at the ground merely meters away from him. 

The crimson glow of the beast's eyes illumined the faint darkness of the word, its razor-sharp was deadlier than the finest mortal sword, and its entire body radiated a suffocating aura of magical power. 

The feral savage look within its gaze told that anyone would be brutally shredded apart limp by limp with its overwhelming strength. 

Ervin's expression turned completely solemn. Truthfully, if it wasn't for the Demon Orb combining with his soul at the last second to give him that frantic warning, he would've been split in half just like this Adept Mage! 

Complete Invisibility should be the ultimate advantage Ervin has. And while it is useful now, the best advantage would be when nobody saw Ervin turning invisible. 

The Demonic Wolf before him not only saw him, but it also exuded the overflowing Mana power of Adept Magical energy! 

A class 2 Demonic Beast has far better spiritual awareness than any Class 1 beast. Not complete intelligence like a human, but certainly enough to have the most fundamental thinking skills to scout situations. 

Ervin had already put back his Demon Orb the very moment Demonic Wolf came towards him. He wanted to make an instant mad dash out of here. 

However, the Demonic Wolf, frantically searching around for Ervin, had the faint awareness that somebody was very wrong. Its magical symbols around its large fur coat began to violently pulsate, rippling out waves of black Mana light that drenched the world into darkness. 

The Demonic Wolf moved at speeds far faster than Ervin could hope to react to, opening its massive jaw to unleash the most terrifying roar Ervin had ever heard! 

'Chi!' 

The beast's roar generated a massive field of airwaves that frantically sliced through the entire area. 

Powerful slashes of Mana airwaves caused even more destruction on the already ruined battlefield, breaking everything in its path of chaos. 

Even large craters broke open the ground, massive spiderwebs stretched along the woods and the mangled body of the Adept Mage was savagely sliced into little horrific bloody chucks that were then blasted all across the area. 

'Shit!' Ervin violently gritted his teeth as he made a mad dash toward the direction of the city.

He could feel his Mana reserves dropping lower and lower at an astronomical pace, far faster than he could hope to leave out of the range of this Demonic Beast attack. 

The force of his physical strength did allow him to cross over twenty meters within a split second. But just this wouldn't be enough to escape the Demonic Beast while keeping his Mana. 

Ervin made a split-second decision at this moment. He first jumped over thirty meters, then upon landing on the ground, deactivated his Complete Invisibility. 

At this point, Ervin was on the edges of the wild surges of airwaves, the concentrated point of Mana power in the attack was at its weakest here. 

Weaker it may be this was still a higher force of Mana far beyond Ervin's current prowess. A single slash of the airwaves brutally smashed into his body with the ferocious intensity of a massive stone boulder. 

"Ngn!" Ervin couldn't stop vomiting seas of blood as his body was sent flying like a withered leaf in the end, numerous bones breaking and organs rupturing before he even hit the ground. 

The violent smash into the ground forced out another blotch of blood from Ervin's mouth. Overwhelming pain flooded throughout his body; every waking sensation of his body was in complete agony. 

Although, for some reason, Ervin could feel that the Demon Orb was quivering, spewing out crimson lights that rippled through his body. 

Perhaps the Demon Orb is what allowed Ervin to keep his limbs from being sliced off and keep himself awake. 

But there was no time to think about that. 

He instantly surged another Mana grenade into his hand, forced out the last of Mana to activate Complete Invisibility, and flung the Mana grenade right in front of him. 

Without even needing to look up, the Mana grenade sailed straight toward the rushing Demonic Wolf! 

The Demonic Wolf does have more spiritual awareness to take note of a situation. But its danger instincts weren't at the keen point of humans, moreover, at the speeds it was rushing at, the Demonic Wolf could only feel something very strange was going to happen at the very last second. 

Its eerie crimson eyes slightly widened at a particular object flying right towards its face. 

'Bang!' 

Another rumbling explosion shook the area. Waves of compressed Mana obliterated everything in its path. 

The Demonic Wolf couldn't even get the chance to shriek. The explosion completely burst apart his massive body into nothing more than a mist of blood!