Chapter 0024: Competition

The moonlight was like water.

Within a small grove.

Su Lu and Donald were looking at each other with preserved expressions as if they were sculptures.

Fear, helplessness, and struggle were all clearly visible in Donald's eyes.

Crack!

At this moment, Donald moved!

Naturally, it wasn't him who moved, but his shadow, manipulated to step forward, and reach out with both hands, attempting to throttle Su Lu.

'Is their goal this time... to kill me?'

In an instant, Su Lu got goosebumps: 'Is it because of recent events, that It became alert?'

Donald revealed a sense of helplessness as if he were a puppet on strings, continually advancing.

'I can't keep going like this!'

Su Lu glanced at his attribute bar and quickly activated the level 4 Maga fighting skill exclusive to him — Power of the Tiger!

[Power of the Tiger — Strength +0.4! Duration 30 seconds, after use, enter a state of weakness with Strength -0.2, Constitution -0.2, duration 3 hours!]

If this still doesn't work, I'll dump all my experience into Maga Fighting Skill!

Roar!

In an instant, he felt a massive surge of warm energy coursing through his body, bringing terrifying power!

The Maga Fighting Skill had only increased his strength by 0.4 up until now, but it suddenly doubled!

How horrifying was the increase?

Su Lu's veins bulged, and he seemed to swell as he shouted, "Get...out of my way!!!"

Rumble!

His voice was like thunder, echoing throughout the forest.

Snap!

The shadow entwined at his feet, like a taut rope, suddenly broke in the middle.

A black figure swiftly retreated, disappearing into the forest.

Nearly twice the strength of an adult, finally Su Lu shook off the shadow's restraint and regained mobility.

On the other side, Donald also seemed to have been relieved, immediately collapsing on the ground.

"You won't get away!"

Taking advantage of the Berserk technique, no! The Power of the Tiger, Su Lu pushed off the ground.

Bang!

A small indentation emerged in the ground from his push and, using this force, he chased after the fleeting black figure like a cannonball, rushing into the forest.

As a physical warrior, he would be a fool to fight ranged battles with a mage, he must fight up close!

Whoosh!

The sudden increase in strength made him feel like the king of beasts in the forest, crashing through everything in his path.

Finally, after sprinting hundreds of meters, Su Lu saw a figure in the shadows.

This shadow was crouching in the forest, the black figure melded with it, making it groan, "Damn it..."

'Could it... be spell backlash?'

Seeing this, Su Lu became even more motivated, and sped up.

Based on his own experience practicing [Creation of Dead Princess], every spell, once failed, will surely backfire on the caster. The only difference lies in the severity of backlash.

Maybe if I run up and use the Tiger Form, it will be over in one blow!

The distance between the two rapidly closed.

100 meters!

50 meters!

20 meters!

By the time he got here, seeing the fiery curves on the other party, Su Lu was certain that the hidden mastermind was a woman! And she was still in the state of spell backlash!

'An opportunity!'

Su Lu's heart burned:' This is it, I'll deal with her here!'

A mysterious spellcaster! The shadow that killed Beryl! The true perpetrator trying to frame me!

All of this, it was always destined, that there's no turning back in his fight with her!

A faint murderous intent was already lingering in Su Lu's heart.

Although he had lived two lives, he had never killed anyone. But he knew that if he left this mastermind behind, he would be in serious trouble! Even if he managed to suddenly break free from the shadow's restraint earlier, it was because he took it by surprise, not because he could ignore it next time.

Therefore, he must kill her!

"What are you waiting for?"

At this moment, the shadow suddenly looked up, emitting a deliberately suppressed voice.

"What?"

Su Lu was shocked.

In the dense forest, another person appeared around the shadow.

There were two masterminds behind the scenes, and they were both women!

This figure also had a hot body and pointed a finger at Su Lu.

Suddenly, Su Lu grunted, felt a pain in his head as if he was pricked by a needle, and his speed slowed down.

'Another spellcaster!'

At this moment, he involuntarily considered retreating.

He had dared to pursue earlier because there was only one person on the other side who suffered backlash from casting spells, but now, it was completely different.

"What's going on?"

However, the spellcaster on the other side seemed to be even more surprised: "His spirit is too strong, I can't suppress him!"

"Help me get away!"

The first woman using shadow magic spoke hoarsely.

The woman beside her immediately helped her up. Both were dressed in black overcoats, faces hidden, but they didn't appear to be old, more like two witches.

While retreating, the second witch glanced at Su Lu again.

Those bright, shining eyes now became the hole where a flood was venting from.

In an instant, Su Lu felt a great pressure crashing down on him.

Unlike the previous needle prick, this time it felt like a complete weight, not on his body but like a heavy armor set directly on his soul!

This was an invisible struggle originating from the mental realm.

'Thankfully!'

Though Su Lu felt incredibly heavy, he managed to move, due to his spiritual power being much higher than ordinary people.

"What's going on? Why is he still standing?"

The two female spellcasters on the other side were exclaiming in surprise and quickly fled in panic.

After an unknown amount of time, the pressure receded like a tide.

Su Lu breathed a sigh of relief, almost collapsing on the ground.

Even though his spiritual power was decent, he still lost to the spellcaster on the other side in the clash.

This proved that the other party's spiritual power was higher than his own.

Under such suppression, challenging two people would simply be unwise.

Therefore, he chose to give up.

"Fortunately... Today I obtained quite a lot of information, at least, there are two enemies, both are females!"

Su Lu's gaze fluctuated: "One uses shadow magic, one directly uses spiritual power to harm enemies... The one who casts shadow magic, seems to have some limitations, like... they can't control too many people at the same time, nor can they command the shadow to kill directly?"

Whether it was the previous box attack or just now, there were only two targets controlled by the shadow.

Furthermore, they didn't let the shadow kill directly, but manipulated the bound, like before when Su Lu couldn't be controlled to kill himself, and Donald had to do it. This gave Su Lu a lot to think about.

Could this be the limitation of the shadow?

"The so-called spells... especially these manipulative ones, similar to mind-level contests, are like a top hypnotist in my previous life who couldn't hypnotize people to commit suicide because it contradicts subconscious instincts..."

"Yet, even so, it's still very powerful!"

Su Lu took a break and got up somewhat despondently.

On the attribute panel, the Power of the Tiger faded and a Weakness state emerged which made him pant harder.

"Where are the attackers?"

Behind him, Donald followed up hesitantly.

Seeing Su Lu still alive, his expression became extremely strange.

"You look... like you want to collect my dead body, right?"

Su Lu was somewhat speechless, realizing that his previous actions were indeed reckless.

If those two women were a bit more powerful, the one who would have died could have been him.