Advent of the Archmage

After escaping from the underground palace, Link had 2300 Mana points remaining. It wasn't a lot, but he drank a Perfect Mana Potion and activated the robe's Clear Thoughts effect. His Mana immediately became 4300 points and continued to increase.

At this time, the closest Winged Howlers were about 3000 feet away. Based on their speed, it would only take them seconds to arrive.

Link immediately channeled Mana into the Nightingale's statue, expending 1500 Mana points in one go.

The statue lit up, revealing numerous runes carved on its surface like an intricate spider web. Then, the spider web started shining very brightly, until it almost became blinding. It looked as though the statue was going to fall apart.

Suddenly, it really exploded into pieces!

Link threw the statue towards the ground in front of him. Ka-cha! The statue immediately started expanding. As it expanded, it turned into many small cubes, which rapidly floated about and joined together to form a black stallion that was about nine feet tall.

This was a practical usage of the Spatial Folding skill. It was very mystical.

This horse was completely black, and it caused flames to emerge as it stamped its feet, distorting the air around its body. Its skin was tough like a sculpture, but its muscles were flexible, containing explosive strength.

On its broad back were two saddles. The Night King had constructed this horse with the intent to ride around the world with his wife, Vivian. Unfortunately, that could only remain a dream now. The horse now belonged to Link.

"Hurry, get on it!"

Although there were only two saddles, this horse was created for traveling and was thus very broad. It had no problems carrying four people.

As the party climbed onto the horse, Link got into the front saddle. In order to protect Link, Nana sat directly behind him. Melinda sat in the second saddle with Skinorse behind her to prevent her from falling.

By now, the Winged Howlers were only 600 feet away. The front-most Howler had drawn out its sword, blazing with thick black Battle Aura. It was definitely going to attack.

"Lord!" Skinorse shouted. His muscles were already tensed, and he was ready to duck aside if necessary.

"Stay calm!" Link pressed down on a rune in front of the saddle, channeling Mana into it. Whoosh. The Nightingale Horse trotted forward, digging its hills into the mountain rock.

Simultaneously, a one-directional magic barrier appeared around them, protecting them from falling off the horse.

"Here we go!" Link increased the Mana input to about ten Mana points per second. It was not considered a lot, but the effect was very visible.

Whoosh. Suddenly, the Nightingale bolted forward, flying across the mountain rock.

Almost at the same time, the Winged Howler's Battle Aura came slashing over, cutting towards the Nightingale.

"Constrict!" Link pointed his magic wand, and a dimensional ball flew out, exploding and blocking the Howler's attack.

The next instant, the Nightingale ran off into the distance.

Its speed was ridiculously fast. On top of the horse, the party could only see a white mist surrounding their barrier. Outside the mist, the scenery passed by in a blur, while behind them, only a dust cloud could be seen. From afar, they looked like an earth dragon rushing across the land.

"How fast are we going?"

Skinorse felt his heart thumping. He realized that the flying demons were getting further and further from them. What's more, the speed that they were pulling away was incredible—over 300 feet in one second!

If anyone were to tell him that someone on the ground could travel faster than someone flying, Skinorse would never have believed them. However, he was now experiencing that first-hand.

"We're now going at 1300 feet per second," Nana reported. It was a relatively accurate number.

Melinda was shocked. "This thing is actually faster than our assault airships! It's incredible!"

Link's expression was serious compared to the rest. He was left with only 1800 Mana points. Adding the Flame Controller Robe's Mana recovery ability, he estimated that he would only last three more minutes.

Three minutes later, his Mana would run out, and he would need to use Omni Points to raise his maximum Mana limit in order to sustain Nightingale's running.

He currently had 700 Omni Points. If he spent them all on increasing his maximum Mana, he would gain enough Mana to power Nightingale for another ten minutes. That would be enough to shake off all the demons. However, that was in an ideal scenario. There was one other major problem.

That was the durability of Nightingale.

Nightingale's size was large. Running at high speeds across the earth's surface, the damage to its components was many times higher than flying up in the air.

In the game, the durability of Nightingale, the artificial stallion, was always a point of headaches for players. After every use, it would require repairs. At most, it could only travel for 100 miles before stopping for repairs. Otherwise, it would directly explode while running.

That would be an absolute disaster resulting in many deaths.

To make matters worse, the Night King was a king. Naturally, he was rich and would not consider the cost of materials when constructing the Nightingale. However, for players, that would mean 2000 gold per repair due to the expensive materials used. That was simply burning money.

Therefore, most gamers would never opt to use Nightingale to travel in this manner. The Nightingale was often used for traveling slowly instead. It was very good for showing off, especially for dates. After bringing a girl out on a ride on Nightingale, it was almost guaranteed that you would succeed in chasing her.

Right now, after running for about a minute, Link could feel many small cracks starting to form on Nightingale's four legs. This was even more inefficient than within the game. Link predicted that it would only last five minutes before becoming useless.

Looking back, Link noticed that the Winged Howlers were now little black dots in the distance. Even though there was already over half a mile between them, they showed no signs of giving up.

There was no way for Link to engage in a battle of attrition against the demons.

All this time, they had been traveling along the upper region of the Wailing Gorge. At this point, the road had reached a dead end. Ahead of them lay a 3000-foot-tall cliff.

"Lord, there's no more road up ahead. Can this thing fly?" Skinorse and the women asked.

Link did not reply. He was busy thinking about their next step. Suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration. Seconds later, he controlled Nightingale to rush to the side of the cliff and jump right off!

Nightingale's speed was truly fast. Jumping like this, it was just like a cannonball, piercing downwards through the wind.

The cliff was 3000 feet high. It would take them just over ten seconds to reach the ground. At the base of the cliff were many rocks jutting out, which would turn them all into meat paste if they could not find some way to fly.

"Lord, this thing's protective barrier is sturdy enough, right?" Skinorse was shivering as he asked this.

He had traveled all over the world, but this was his first time experiencing something so exciting. After rushing forward at the speed of 1200 feet per second, he had now jumped off a 2700 feet cliff. This was truly living life on the edge!

"Don't think too much. Let me tell you, this protective barrier is only meant to block the wind. Going down like this, we would definitely all die, with the exception of Nana," the black cat interrupted. Of course, the black cat was not the least bit worried. He knew that Link had some plan.

Link naturally had a plan. After Nightingale had descended 1200 feet downwards, the cliff behind them blocked them from the line of sight of the Winged Howlers.

Right at that moment.

"200 Omni Points, raise maximum Mana limit."

Instantly, there was a flowing sensation from within his body. Link's maximum Mana was raised to 20500 points, and the current Mana he had was 2600 points. He didn't hesitate to use Dimensional Jump in midair.

Whoosh. Nightingale, along with the party on its back disappeared into thin air. One breath later, they appeared on a spot half a mile away.

This region was probably out of the Wailing Gorge's area. The trees looked more lush. The position Link selected to teleport to was right underneath a big tree.

Link brushed his hand over the magical lines on Nightingale, keeping it. Then, he began to cast Traceless Spells.

"Alright, we're safe now. Let's continue onwards."

…

Back at the cliff, the Winged Howlers had rushed to the cliff's edge.

"They're gone."

"Did they fall to death?"

"No way. There's not a single mark on the ground. It's definitely the Magician. They've teleported away!"

"Then how are we supposed to find them?"

There was a forest up ahead without red monkeys guarding them. If Link and his party ran into the forest and used spells to hide their tracks, then they would essentially be like a fish that found the ocean. They would be able to hide anywhere they wanted.

As the demons stood around helplessly, a black figure flew over. It was the demon commander.

The demon commander was now in a mess. Its black aura was now much thinner than before, and it was missing one arm. It also flew much slower now, not much faster than ordinary birds.

He slowly landed on the ground, staggering forward and nearly falling down. Looking at the forest up ahead, he helplessly sighed. "Go back and report that there's been a change in the situation. The Magician, Link, has taken a Yabba person and broke through the barricade. They are approaching Orida Fortress."

However, after he had spoken finish, the Winged Howlers stood there without moving.

"Commander, are you alright?" At this moment, one of the Howlers asked. It was the one that had been beaten up by him previously.

The fallen angel naturally understood his intention. He laughed coldly, and a knife appeared in his hand, surrounded by black lightning. "Gori, are you perhaps thinking that you can defeat me now?"

"Oh, no no, I had no such intentions. I just wanted to know how you were doing… I'm going to report," Gori replied. Flapping his wings, the Howler flew off into the skies, heading towards the northwest.

The fallen angel looked at the forest and commanded, "The rest of you, continue searching. The enemy's teleportation distance is small. He is definitely still around the area.

"Yes, Commander!" The rest of the Winged Howlers spread out to search.

Finally, there was only him left on the mountain cliff. He could no longer hold it back, and suddenly, he puked out a mouthful of blood, crumbling onto the floor.

He had escaped from the trap earlier, but amidst the collapse of the dimensional space earlier, he had been heavily injured.

"This is all because of the Magician that stole away the princess? Haha, he certainly possesses the threat of a realm lord. He's already a Level-8 Magician. I need to report this news to my lord."

The Dark Elves had summoned them, but they were only in a collaborative relationship with the elves. The one they truly obeyed was the Lord of the Deep, Nozama.