"Bang!!!"
A white sphere smashed beside Gauss, flames enveloped in shockwaves exploded with a roar.
Even though Gauss had dodged at the first moment, the aftermath still swept over him.
The force field hummed, steadily isolating the scorching flames.
Gauss pushed himself up from the ground.
Two other figures grasping ghastly green daggers lunged at him from two different directions, their cold killing intent seemed almost tangible.
A crossbow in the distance had locked onto him tightly.
Gauss’s mind momentarily blanked, but only for a flash, then he quickly shook off that suffocating feeling.
His hand shook, and the fine steel longsword was firmly grasped.
With a thought, monstrous strength surged forth, the previously smooth muscles of his arm instantaneously bulged with tautness, like twisted steel wires, veins popping.
The fine steel longsword in his hand felt weightless, slicing through the air with a sharp whistle, an arc like a crescent moon traced towards one of them.
Gauss chose not to block but to fiercely counterattack!
Daring to target their team, he would show no mercy.
"Clang! Clang!"
The clash of metal rang unexpectedly in the quiet environment.
The wanderer’s ghastly green dagger broke with a sound, and the longsword traced a deadly semicircular arc, fiercely slashing at his armguard.
The man screamed and flew backward.
His forearm, along with the armguard, were severed, a terrifying wound appearing on his chest.
Meanwhile, the other attacker’s dagger and the crossbow arrow were blockaded by Gauss’s unbreakable force field.
The team of wanderers underestimated the strength of Gauss’s protective spell, assuming that after taking the explosion head-on, it must have been severely weakened, or even completely shattered.
But in fact, even after enduring so much attack, Gauss’s force field protection was still more than half intact.
Moreover, they believed in close combat, as wanderers, they surely had the advantage over Gauss.
Such misjudgments led them to make this decision which they would regret deeply.
From the distant camp, Aaliyah and Serdur had already swiftly risen from the tent upon hearing the explosion.
Lifting the tent flap, without seeing Gauss by the campfire, alarm bells instantly rang in their hearts.
Gazing toward the direction of the explosion, they indeed saw glints of blade and sword flickering.
Serdur immediately slid out at high speed, his entire body transforming into a golden flash racing forward.
Aaliyah mounted the drowsy Ulfen, closely following.
Opposite Gauss, the leader of the wanderers’ eyes continuously narrowed.
Gauss’s swelling arm, and that extremely fierce slash, were beyond his comprehension.
Did a skill go wrong? Could this person be a warrior?
Seeing from a distance, their own companions quickly coming to assist.
While on their own side, it would be difficult to take down the opponent in a short time.
He decisively shouted to the other two companions.
"Retreat!"
As for the injured companion, in such a critical moment, naturally, he was left behind.
Gauss re-cast a Gauss force field, yet found the remaining wanderers’ figures slowly fading into the darkness.
He hadn’t expected their retreat to be so decisive.
At this moment, he felt a bit anxious inside.
He couldn’t let these snakes eyeing him and his teammates escape.
Even if they couldn’t win a direct confrontation against him, having a few wanderers lurking in the shadows meant always having to guard against possible sneak attacks on the team.
Seeing the three wanderers decisively abandon their injured companion and swiftly flee.
Gauss made a decisive choice.
Ghost Mode, activate!
He knew Aaliyah and Serdur were right behind him, and even if he was exhausted, they would protect him.
With that thought, his body underwent a transformation.
His originally neat jet-black hair crazily extended, the color fading visibly, from jet-black to deep gray, then turning purely, immaculately frost-white.
On his forehead, energy condensed into two sharp, bone-like glossy white horns.
A grating "ka-ka" sound emitted from within him, his body stretching to two meters in height within just a breath.
After entering Ghost Mode, Gauss’s mind became icily cold, a surge of abundant strength coursing through him.
The "elegant" aura typical of a caster diminished slightly, replaced by a blend of primordial savagery and icy killing intent.
"Huff—"
Though his appearance had greatly changed, the process was extremely brief.
The three runners had only covered a few paces.
Gauss exhaled a turbid breath, flexing his now more slender and powerful fingers.
"Ka-ka-ka!"
A crackling sound emitted from the joints of his fingers.
In the next moment, his cold gaze, like an ice spike, locked onto the backs of the three fleeing figures.
Stomping down.
"Boom!!"
The hard ground issued a muffled explosion.
Centered at his landing point, spiderweb cracks rapidly spread, tiny stones shooting into the air by explosive force!
After upgrading his strength to level 9 yesterday, the explosive power in his Ghost Mode became even stronger!
His figure suddenly vanished.
No, to be precise, he was so fast that normal eyes could no longer clearly capture him, only a stretched, blurry white shadow could be seen.
In the distant Aaliyah’s astonished gaze, in the fleeing figures’ hastily glancing pupils, that remnant shadow tore through the thin dim light, carrying a piercing sound of tearing through the air, instantly traversing the seemingly safe distance between them.
The first to feel the intense threat was the crossbowman at the rearmost.
The instant Gauss approached, a bone-chilling cold climbed up his back. He didn’t even have time to make any evasive or protective moves before a slender, icy yet inhumanly powerful hand clamped like an iron vice on his nape.
That slender hand didn’t pause for a second, clutching and then pressing down fiercely at the same time.
"Crack!"
A chilling sound of neck bones snapping rang out.
"Boom!!"
The crossbowman’s entire body, as if struck by a battering ram, was slammed down to the ground by an irresistible great force.
His head collided violently with the hard rocky ground, issuing a sound like a watermelon bursting.
Red and white matter instantly spattered between the slender hand and the ground.
The crossbowman couldn’t even let out a scream before collapsing limply like a rag doll, completely silent.
The entire process was as quick as if it were an illusion.
Activate, close-in, capture, kill—all done in one fluid motion without any hesitation!
Gauss’s gaze turned to the other two who had again fled further in the time bought.
The two no longer dared to look back; the immense disturbance that erupted behind them, as well as the sight of Gauss’s ghostly, godlike form, had already scared them out of their wits.
Their survival instinct flared unprecedentedly as they finally reached a corner.
They split, going left and right.
However, that white shadow of death quickly pursued once more.
His figure did not slow down at all, and at the instant he approached the wall, his thigh kicked fiercely against it.
In the next moment, the wall, like a spiderweb, rapidly cracked open, and using the rebound force, the white shadow instantly halted his advance.
Like a hawk’s eyes, Gauss’s gaze locked onto one of the wanderers, fingers clutching the air, a white magic wand appeared in his hand.
"Magic Missile!"
Five missiles wrapped in pale energy instantly materialized.
Then in the next moment, they shot towards the target.
After firing the missiles, Gauss without looking back, turned and charged at the last person to the right.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!!!"
A series of dense explosive sounds came from behind.
The moment the explosion sounded behind him, Gauss also closed in on the last wanderer.
Immediately, he lightly tapped his foot, his body appearing directly above the wanderer.
In that instant, while his opponent’s hairs stood on end, his slender fingers once more clasped the wanderer’s neck.
"Deep breath, dizziness is normal."
Gauss’s other fist came down, the force intentionally restrained, smash hitting the back of his opponent’s head.
"Boom!"
The last wanderer passed out, lost consciousness, his body dragged by Gauss skidding several meters across the ground.