Chapter 54: Missed?
It was tiny at first.
Then it gradually became clearer.
The phantom arrow suddenly shot forward.
Whoosh!
It tore through the grey fog before disappearing into the distance.
Cole watched the scene quietly.
A faint smile finally appeared on his face.
Fortunately...
He had succeeded on his first attempt.
With the three nodes successfully constructed, he had officially obtained the ability to cast the Lightning Arrow spell.
However...
The smile on Cole’s face didn’t last long.
His expression soon became slightly solemn.
Creating the spell model...
Didn’t mean he had mastered the spell.
It merely meant that he had crossed the threshold required to use it.
There was still a vast difference between being able to cast a spell...
And being capable of using it smoothly in actual combat.
He would still need to practice.
He would need to familiarize himself with the spiritual force required to activate the nodes.
He would need to learn how much mana to inject.
He would need to control the spell’s trajectory.
And most importantly...
He would need to reduce the casting time until it became fast enough to use during a real battle.
Cole’s thoughts were still occupied with these problems when...
His eyes suddenly narrowed.
His entire consciousness became alert.
From outside the broken wooden window...
A faint sound drifted into the abandoned building.
Footsteps.
Very faint.
But approaching.
Cole remained motionless.
His perception instantly spread outward.
Who?
For a brief moment, a thought flashed through his mind.
The Saint Family had found him.
That possibility wasn’t impossible.
The Saint Family was one of the true behemoths of Blessed Moon City.
Its influence extended throughout almost every corner of the city.
It possessed countless eyes and ears.
Even though Cole had spent the past week deliberately avoiding attention...
That didn’t mean someone couldn’t eventually discover his whereabouts.
His eyes slowly opened.
A faint killing intent appeared within them.
But instead of panic...
The corners of Cole’s lips gradually curled upward.
If they really are here...
Then they arrived at exactly the right time.
His gaze became increasingly sharp.
After all...
He had just successfully constructed the Lightning Arrow spell.
He had been searching for an opportunity to test its true power.
And now...
Someone had conveniently delivered themselves to his doorstep.
Cole slowly raised his hand.
The three spiritual nodes within his spiritual space began to tremble.
A faint current of lightning quietly gathered between them.
"Perfect."
A cold smile appeared on his face.
"Let’s see..."
"...just how powerful this Lightning Arrow really is."
All this time, Cole had deliberately remained hidden.
He had avoided unnecessary conflicts.
He had endured provocations.
He had concealed his strength.
But there was a limit to everything.
If these people refused to let him live peacefully...
Then he would simply show them...
What happened when they disturbed someone who had just stepped into the Moon Wizard Realm.
Just as Cole was thinking about how he would test his newly acquired spell, the broken wooden window suddenly shook violently.
Before he could react, the rotten frame was kicked open with tremendous force, sending splinters of wood and clouds of dust flying into the abandoned room.
A black figure immediately leaped through the opening, landing silently on the dusty floor. The moment Cole saw the familiar black robes and metallic mask, his pupils contracted slightly.
It’s those people again...
A strange feeling immediately surfaced within Cole’s heart.
He had expected the Saint Family to find him eventually, especially after everything that had happened in the city.
Yet the person standing before him wasn’t a Saint Family member.
It was one of the mysterious attackers who had ambushed him earlier.
Cole’s opinion of these people was somewhat complicated.
On one hand, he naturally hated them. They had tried to kill him without hesitation, forcing him into a desperate battle and leaving the surrounding street covered in corpses.
But on the other hand...
His gaze unconsciously shifted toward the masked figure.
A faint trace of anticipation appeared within his eyes.
After all...
It was these people who had conveniently delivered the Lightning Arrow spell into his hands.
Now that another one had appeared before him...
What else might they be carrying?
Perhaps another technique?
A cultivation method?
Some valuable treasure?
The possibilities caused the corners of Cole’s lips to twitch slightly.
Meanwhile, the masked figure was carefully observing him as well.
Unlike the previous attackers, this person didn’t rush forward immediately.
It remained several meters away, its body slightly lowered and every muscle prepared to react at any moment.
It had personally witnessed the previous battle.
It had seen this supposedly useless young master slaughter dozens of its comrades without hesitation.
Not a single scream had managed to make him hesitate.
Not a single corpse had caused him to blink.
The figure naturally understood that the young man before it was far more dangerous than the information they had received suggested.
One mistake...
And it would become another corpse lying in this abandoned building.
For several breaths, neither side moved.
The room was so quiet that even the faint sound of dust settling onto the wooden floor could be heard.
Two figures stood several meters apart.
One concealed behind a cold metallic mask.
The other calmly watching with an unreadable expression.
The atmosphere gradually became heavier.
Finally, Cole broke the silence.
"Who are you...?"
His voice was cold and steady, carrying a faint trace of killing intent.
The masked figure didn’t answer.
Cole frowned slightly.
He waited.
Still nothing.
Only then did he notice something strange.
The lower portion of the mask completely covered the figure’s mouth.
Its lips...
Had actually been sealed shut.
Cole’s eyes narrowed.
So they can’t speak?
Or...
They don’t want to speak?
Before he could investigate further, the masked figure suddenly moved.
Its wrist flicked.
Shing!
A sharp metallic sound echoed through the abandoned room.
A saber roughly one foot long suddenly appeared in its hand.
The blade was narrow and dark, its edge reflecting a cold silver light beneath the faint moonlight entering through the broken window.
Cole’s expression became slightly more serious.
It seemed...
He wouldn’t be able to obtain any information through ordinary questioning.
Since that was the case...
There was only one way left.
Cole slowly raised his right hand.
The moment his thoughts moved, the spiritual space within his consciousness trembled.
The three spirit nodes that had been floating within the endless grey fog suddenly began rotating.
Spiritual force surged through them.
A faint triangular formation slowly emerged before Cole’s palm.
The formation was almost transparent at first, resembling three points of pale light connected by countless thin threads.
Then...
The first symbol illuminated.
Then the second.
Then the third.
Tiny arcs of blue-white lightning began crawling across the triangular formation like living snakes.
Cole’s eyes became focused.
He carefully fed mana into the spell model.
The formation trembled.
A low electrical hum gradually filled the room.
Buzz...
The masked figure’s body suddenly stiffened.
Its eyes, hidden behind the dark metal mask, narrowed into thin slits.
Magic...?
The thought struck it like a hammer.
How is that possible?
Wasn’t this Saint Family’s young master supposed to be nothing more than useless trash?
The information they had received clearly stated that Cole Saint possessed almost no combat ability.
He couldn’t even properly wield a sword.
He had been regarded as one of the greatest embarrassments of the Saint Family’s younger generation.
But now...
A genuine spell formation was floating before his palm.
The masked figure’s mind raced.
Since when...
Had this trash learned magic?
Before it could finish thinking...
Cole’s eyes suddenly flashed.
"Go."
His palm thrust forward.
The triangular formation erupted with dazzling blue light.
BOOM!
A lightning arrow instantly shot out from the center of the formation.
It wasn’t large.
Only about the length of an ordinary arm.
Yet the moment it appeared, the surrounding air violently distorted.
Electricity crackled around its surface.
Its sharp tip seemed capable of piercing through anything standing in its path.
The lightning arrow crossed the distance between the two in almost an instant.
The masked figure’s pupils contracted violently.
Too fast!
It had barely even seen the spell being released.
The next moment...
The lightning arrow was already directly in front of its face.
The masked figure’s entire body went cold.
Its muscles instinctively tightened.
Its heart seemed to stop.
I’m dead!
A wave of regret instantly flooded its mind.
Why did I come alone?
Why did I underestimate him?
Why didn’t I retreat the moment I saw the spell?
Countless thoughts flashed through its consciousness in that brief instant.
Then...
Regret turned into anger.
If it somehow survived this...
It swore it would find the bastard who had originally told them that the Saint Family’s young master was nothing more than useless trash.
It would beat that person to death with its own hands.
Unfortunately...
There was no time left.
The lightning arrow had already reached its face.
The masked figure instinctively closed its eyes.
It prepared itself for the pain of death.
Yet...
Nothing happened.
Several seconds passed.
The expected impact never came.
The masked figure cautiously opened one eye.
Its body immediately froze.
The lightning arrow had somehow passed directly beside its face.
Only a faint warmth remained where the lightning had grazed its skin.
The arrow continued forward.
Then...
BOOM!!
A deafening explosion erupted behind it.
The thick stone wall was struck head-on.
For a brief moment, the entire wall seemed to tremble.
Then...
CRACK!
Countless cracks rapidly spread across its surface.
They branched outward like enormous spiderwebs, covering the surrounding stones within an instant.
The next second...
The entire section of the wall collapsed inward.
BOOM!
Stone fragments and dust exploded throughout the room.
A thick cloud instantly swallowed everything nearby.
The masked figure stood frozen amidst the flying debris.
Its breathing was noticeably heavier.
It slowly turned its head toward the enormous hole in the wall.
Then toward Cole.
It had survived.
It was still alive.
The realization left the mysterious attacker completely shaken.
Cole was equally stunned.
He stared at the destroyed wall.
Then at his own palm.
Then back at the wall.
For several breaths...
He didn’t say anything.
The excitement that had been building inside him moments ago slowly disappeared.
His expression became strangely stiff.
The first Lightning Arrow he had ever cast...
Had missed.
And not by a little.
It had missed by several meters.
Cole’s mouth twitched.
A long silence descended over the abandoned building.
Finally, one thought slowly emerged inside his mind.
Damn...
I missed.