Chapter 384 — An Unexpected Battle

In the massive explosion, Clement felt as if he were being swept up by a gale, losing all balance, his senses thrown into utter chaos. A shock utterly unlike any normal magic—formed of the most primal, most savage energy—was tearing at his protections. The attack had come too suddenly. Pooling all his spellcasting experience over a lifetime, he had never imagined any high-tier spell could be released so swiftly and without the slightest magical fluctuation. Caught unprepared, his shield failed to deploy; instead, two protective artifacts he wore activated automatically, absorbing at least half the damage for him.

But as a high-tier Transcendent, he still managed to survive, barely.

He was not the true "Legendary Mage Duke," but he was still a high-tier powerhouse—and among all Transcendent professions, the fallen druid was the best at staying alive. Relying on his protective artifacts and sacrificing a portion of his own flesh as the price, he preserved his life in that brief instant.

This might be a trap. The moment Clement realized this, he chose first to escape this situation that had spiraled beyond control—at the very least, he had to figure out who on earth had attacked him.

Suojilin was stunned to see a man drenched in spurting blood charge out from the firelight of the explosion—and more stunned still that this blood-soaked man in a mage's robe revealed, beneath the torn robe, a layer of grayish-brown "skin" like tree bark.

Barkskin—a druid's power?!

Suojilin's mind stirred, but his hands moved even faster. Against a swiftly moving enemy, grenades were no longer much use, so he drew the short bow he favored, raised his right hand, and nocked three arrows to the string. As three arrows radiating faint arcane light flew toward the target, a series of sounds—runes triggering, beams piercing the air—rose from all around, and a continuous barrage of searing rays and small arcane missiles flew at the enemy like rain!

Several attacks struck Clement. The high-tier druid, enduring the sharp pain radiating from every part of his body, stopped beside a pool of water and immediately raised a hand toward Suojilin's direction: "Wither!"

The sensation of life draining from his body surged up at once. Suojilin found his hands rapidly being covered by an ominous grayish-white layer. He had to halt his shooting and begin using the mana within him to resist the spell—but the other steel ranger squad members were not idle. In this brief interval, the grenadiers had swiftly reloaded and aimed their launchers at the blood-spurting enemy by the pool.

In that instant, every hair on Clement's body stood on end.

But the very next moment, a far greater sense of crisis surged through his heart.

Suojilin and the Steel Rangers froze in place as well, every one of them.

Behind Clement, the pond churned violently, accompanied by the grotesque sound of something soft-bodied thrashing through the water and a string of rolling bubbles. Several thick tentacles burst suddenly from the surface and whipped around the terrified fallen druid, coiling tight.

Then more tentacles emerged from the water, one after another wrapping around Clement, and at the same time a furious voice came surging up from below: "I was just trying to get some sleep! Did you really have to go blasting howitzers right next to me?!"