Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix
Chapter 1201 - 1201: Trick

Despite Rain's usual tactic of taunting the enemy, the king in the shadows remained stoically unaffected this time. Lately, the effectiveness of such taunts had decreased a lot, forcing Rain to consider abandoning the approach altogether. The enemy's indifference served as a stark reminder that some strategies had a limited shelf life.

Undeterred, the king in the shadows continued his assault, summoning dark spheres into the air. As the team readied themselves for the next wave of adversaries, the shadows coalesced into unexpected forms that caught everyone off guard—storm dragons. They were a lot smaller, but they were certainly storm dragons…

"Where did he see them?" Rain furrowed his eyebrows.

Everyone couldn't help but be paralyzed for a moment, and thanks to it, the mini dragons had the chance to fire dark lightning bolts at them.

Rain reacted fast and summoned a wind wall and blocked all the attacks, but that forced him to show another one of his tricks… for that kind of situation, he should have brought Vanessa and Liss, but there was no point in thinking about that.

"They will keep their distance and attack us until we run out of energy," Sealyn said as she watched the monsters moving away while still attacking. "Time for a change of plans."

"Unnecessary," Rain said. "I will focus on defense while you guys help Asche."

"She can only fire one arrow per shot," Seadrei said while furrowing his eyebrows.

"I wonder about that," Rain said.

Seadrei took a glance towards Asche, and in that brief exchange, he caught sight of her grinning. The unspoken understanding between them was evident. In the next moment, seamlessly and without the need for words, they assumed the same defensive stance, positioning themselves strategically to shield Asche and Sealyn from the imminent threat.

The storm dragons unleashed torrents of dark lightning bolts, creating an onslaught that sought to overwhelm the group. Meanwhile, Rain took the role in the defense, enhancing the resilient wind wall to intercept the dark lightning bolts. The protective barrier crackled with energy as it absorbed the relentless assault.

Yet, with each passing moment, Rain felt the strain on his mana reserves as maintaining such a formidable defense consumed a considerable amount of energy.

All of a sudden, Seadrei and Danny opened the way, and then three arrows were fired toward the shadow dragons. They pierced through three of them completely and made them shatter after freezing like dark glass.

The king in the shadows clicked his tongue… he should have known that the others were doing something in secret, but he couldn't imagine that they still had that much power after fighting the golems… he finally realized that Rain wasn't the only anomaly in that zone.

The Magic Weapons path leveled up.

The Spiritualist path leveled up.

…

Upon realizing that he didn't have many options back, the king in the shadows made the dragons use all of their power and cover themselves with electricity while it charged at Rain and the others… his wind wall could block magic attacks, but not something physical like that.

Still, when Danny and Seadrei moved to attack the shadow dragons, they stopped when Rain suddenly moved and blocked their charge with his bare hands… in the next moment, the beasts froze over, and then Rain crushed their heads and made them creatures fall into pieces… this time, the king in the shadows wasn't the only one surprised… for Rain to be able to pull off something like that so fast… they couldn't understand how.

The answer was very simple, actually; half of it was the fact that Rain was also a master of ice magic…, and the other half was thanks to his tolerance against the sins of magic. After getting used to Elisabetha's rage, the corruption power of those creatures was lukewarm… they lost most of it at the moment, Rain used ice magic to drop the temperature on their bodies way below zero.

Still, all that came with a price…

"Touching this kind of thing in its purest form is bad news," Rain thought while he was trying to clear his head. "We have to be careful. Otherwise, all of us will awaken the sins path."

Lustful thoughts, prideful thoughts, slothful thoughts, envious thoughts, greedy, thoughts and gluttonous though thoughts… all of them bothered Rain for quite a while. Fortunately, his poker face was amazing, and the enemy didn't realize his struggles at all.

"Are you not entertained?" Rain asked while looking at the king in the shadows. "Send more and stronger minions, or this will be boring. Or are you just waiting to have your ass kicked again? I bet that, at this point in time, you are already enjoying it. You pervert."

Despite Rain's successful taunting and the apparent effectiveness of his strategy, an unexpected consequence unfolded—his reputation among the group was on the decline. The reason behind this was rooted in the methodology of Rain's taunts. While the taunting worked to provoke and distract the enemy, it wasn't a tactic embraced by the rest of the team.

In the eyes of many, Rain's taunting was perceived as cheap and lacking in honor. The majority of the group adhered to a more straightforward and direct approach, and Rain's unorthodox methods clashed with their ideals of honorable combat.

The disapproval among his comrades stemmed from the belief that taunting undermined the integrity of their battles, making victory feel less earned and diminishing the honor of their achievements.

"They are so hard to please…" Rain thought and then sighed.

Before the eyes of the others could pierce Rain's back even further, the king in the shadows summoned another beast… everyone was expecting a group of beasts again, so they were caught off guard when they saw that.

A new monster emerged, its appearance reminiscent of a beholder, with numerous dark tentacles extending from its central form and a large, watchful eye. The ominous creature hovered menacingly, casting an unsettling presence over the grand chamber.