Advent of the Archmage

Over the surface of the black lake, the incandescent Flame Blast fireball shot through the air in a long arc. It went past the black water droplets that formed after the Black Phlegm collapsed and the Firework released by the Hydra and hit right at the Hydra's body.

Boom!

It was another earth-shattering explosion. Regardless of its power, Flame Blast was one of the loudest spells among all the elemental spells.

The incandescent flame wreaked havoc to the part of Hydra's body where its six heads were connected. The explosion lasted for five seconds before it completely disappeared.

Under the explosive impact of Flame Blast, the Hydra's six heads looked confounded. The half-formed spells that they were about to unleash in their mouths were disrupted and then collapsed. Its colossal body also lost its balance for a while, and that caused it to wobble about for a few seconds before it could stabilize itself again.

Still, the power of Flame Blast was insufficient to cause much damage to the Hydra. When the explosion died down, all that was left was some shallow scorched marks on the Hydra's skin, which recovered quickly. Then the Hydra shook its six heads and let out a thundering roar and was ready to move forward again.

In the end, one Flame Blast attack could only slow down the Hydra for five short seconds.

Link was mentally prepared for this outcome. In fact, the moment he unleashed the first Flame Blast he already had the second one in the works. They've worked so hard to finally gain the upper hand, so Link would never give the Hydra the opportunity to retaliate!

When the Hydra's body had just returned to balance and was about to move forward and attack Link with another bout of spells, the second Flame Blast shot out from the tip of Link's wand. The spell was heading towards the same spot.

Link's timing was precise and the second attack hit the Hydra right at the second before it regained its footing. The Hydra couldn't block the attack at all, which was why this time there was no need to worry about its counterattack.

Boom!

Once again, another Flame Blast hit the Hydra's body at exactly the same position as before. Right after the explosion, Link went straight back to casting another one.

The third Flame Blast fireball quickly followed the previous one. Under Link's precise control, the second Flame Blast had moved slightly slower, while the third one moved much faster. This meant that the third attack hit the Hydra only about half a second after the second one.

The result was that the third Flame Blast burst into a blistering flame right when the explosion of the previous one was at its peak.

Ka-boom!

An earth-shattering boom resounded across the horizon as the two Flame Blast fireballs lined up almost perfectly to double their tempestuous power.

Wahhh!!

Finally, Link managed to make the Hydra howl in pain!

It was truly injured now and the wound wasn't shallow either. Its gigantic body began to flail and the Hydra started to seem wary of the small opponent in front of it. It then began to step backwards instinctively.

Splish, splash, splish, splash. The monster created huge waves with each of its footsteps.

Aren't you starting to get scared now, little guy? Link sneered silently, though he slightly regretted not being able to cast ten Flame Blast fireballs in a row – that would've been adequate to finish this monster off. Still, he had to preserve his Mana, so he had to be satisfied with the little progress he'd made.

After unleashing three Flame Blast fireballs in a row, Link had used up a good chunk of his Mana. He was down to 360 points now, which was only enough for one more Flame Blast. But using all of it up with one spell would just be too risky.

With his eyes fixed on the retreating Hydra, Link focused on a gaping wound on the huge scorched mark near its heads where thick black blood was gushing out. One of its head was almost detached from its neck, and the head was hanging limply from the joint. The eyes on it were still open, but it was basically next to useless.

The Hydra's will to live was ridiculously strong, though. While it was retreating, Link could discern how the gash was already starting to close in and heal. At this rate it would recover and attack them again soon.

Link's Mana was too low now to cast another Flame Blast to create another gaping wound on the Hydra's body, but he had enough Mana still to keep that wound open!

He still had Whistle after all!

Whistle was a spell of his that only consumed 3.5 points of Mana and its specialty was superior penetrative power. Its impressive effective range was at more than 300 feet.

Right now, the Hydra was about 290 feet away from Link, which was beyond the reach of Flame Blast. But it was also too far for the monster's spell to reach Link.

This meant that the ball was now in Link's court.

Link was now standing on the ice sheet. Although the monster was retreating from them, it was still within 300 feet from him, which meant that it was still within Whistle's range.

Ever since casting the last Flame Blast, Link's wand hadn't stopped glowing even for a second. It flashed every 0.2 seconds and one by one the metal spikes shot out from it and whistled through the air, aiming straight for the gaping wound on the Hydra's body.

The Hydra's skin was originally very thick and sturdy. Attacks from Link's Whistle could do nothing more than just tickle it. But now that the triple Flame Blasts had managed to puncture its skin and created an open gash, Link could aggravate its pain and suffering by attacking the wound with his Whistles – it would be just like rubbing salt on its wound!

Roar!!

With each attack, the Hydra's roar sounded more like a wail. It began to retreat, increasing in speed until at last it reached beyond Whistle's attacking range. That meant that Link was even further out of the monster's range of attack as well.

All the Hydra did now was stare at Link from afar and roar, perhaps out of anger, or perhaps even out of fear. Its multiple heads kept spewing out the different magic spell attacks at Link's direction – although to no avail. Each attack was unleashed at a high frequency, yet they had no effect on Link at all because they couldn't reach him.

And as soon as the monster advanced a little further forward, Link would immediately unleash the Whistle to attack its wound, aggravating its pain, which would then cause the Hydra to step back again.

When placed side by side for comparison, one was a young man who was less than six feet tall, while the other was a terrifying monster standing at a height of almost a hundred feet. One was a Magician who only had enough Mana to cast four Flame Blast fireballs, while the other had an inexhaustible energy to endlessly spit out powerful Level-4 spells. No matter how one looked at it, the disparity between these two sides seemed to be in the order of magnitudes.

Yet, strangely enough, they had now reached a virtual stalemate. There now seemed to be an invisible wall in front of the Hydra which stopped it from advancing further towards Link. And so each second passed by, and Link had now succeeded in delaying 40 seconds.

But the Hydra was not the sole threat that Herrera was facing. Just as Link managed to fend off the Hydra, the undead army then appeared.

These ghouls couldn't break through the thick sheet of ice, so they climbed up from the edge, and then mindlessly and fearlessly rushed toward the center of where Herrera was.

They all completely ignored Link and went straight for Herrera.

With the threat from the Hydra temporarily eliminated, Link retreated to Herrera's side, and his wand began to light up in a higher frequency now. He gave up on using Whistle because it worked on single targets, required longer spellcasting time and consumed too much Mana. It would be too wasteful to use Whistle attacks on low-level opponents like the undead army.

Neither did he use the Level-2 spell Blizzard. The spell was highly effective in blocking the advance of normal opponents, but the undead knew no fear, so even if they were covered completely with ice shards, it would still have no effect on them and they would still be running and charging as if nothing happened.

Link's ultimate choice was the Level-0 spell Glass Orb.

Each Glass Orb consumed only 0.9 Mana points and they each contained the explosive power equivalent to a small grenade – overall, the Glass Orb spell was the best weapon to kill the undead!

Under Link's intense focus, he needed only 0.05 seconds to cast each Glass Orb, which would then accurately hit the skull of the undead. The undead was controlled and manipulated through the Flame of the Soul inside its skull, therefore as long as their skulls were blown up, they would either be dead or incapacitated.

There almost seemed to be an endless number of the undead. A steady stream kept climbing up the ice sheet. Fortunately, Link's spellcasting was faster. At a glance, a countless number of blue light orbs seemed to appear simultaneously, and each would hit a different target and then explode on impact.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of the orbs exploding in close succession was similar to the sound of machine guns.

After each of the undead was shot, its head would be blown into pieces, and the Flame of the Soul in its brain would either be extinguished or at least damaged enough to incapacitate it.

When seen from above, each of the undead was like black dots that kept climbing up the ice sheet, then they were immediately knocked down by the light blue orb. Corpses began to pile up on the ice sheet. On the whole, the pile of corpses was gradually approaching Herrera, albeit very slowly.

Link fought with all the might he had left in him, maintaining high spellcasting speed and high accuracy in each shot.

As the seconds ticked by, the throbbing pain in his head became more and more unbearable. Beads of sweat constantly formed on his forehead, then it streamed down his face and flowed into his eyes, blurring his vision.

He knew that he wouldn't last much longer now, but he must hold out for as long as possible, otherwise it would be the end for both him and Herrera.

Time seemed to have come to a standstill, and each second felt like a year to Link. In the last five seconds, the undead army had reached less than 13 feet away from them. The stench of death and decay filled Link's nostrils, and he could see their rotting flesh and their dead eyes in gruesome detail.

Suddenly, one of Link's Glass Orbs missed its target. It should've hit the skull, but it hit the undead in its neck instead.

The explosion caused its head to be half disconnected from its shoulder. The wound would've been grave enough to kill a living person instantly, but on the undead, it seemed to make no difference at all. It stormed ahead as if nothing had happened, while half of its head was hanging off its shoulders!