A Stroke of Luck

"Gray!" Marcus shouted, glancing over in a panic. *Faster... just a little faster!* Zelier's heart burned with anxiety. Although casting Fireball took a mere five seconds, in such a perilous fight, the battlefield shifted in the blink of an eye. Any single moment could mean the difference between life and death. From the instant the Mist Demon appeared to when it repelled Marcus and Gray, barely three or four seconds had passed in total. And the creature was no mindless brute. The moment it noticed Zelier gathering magic, it chose to break off its assault and wait for another opening. Thick fog surged and churned, veiling the Mist Demon's massive form once again. By then, Zelier's Fireball had only just begun to take rudimentary shape. "Zelier, where the fuck did your spell go?!" Vallis snapped, whipping around to glare at him with furious eyes. "There wasn't enough time! I couldn't make it!" Zelier's thoughts were in a chaotic scramble. "Couldn't you have charged it up in advance and kept it ready?!" "I'm not at that level yet!" Spell preparation—an advanced casting technique. It allowed a caster to fully outline a spell structure beforehand and keep it on standby for extended periods, ready to unleash at any second to handle sudden ambushes. Right now, Zelier clearly lacked that ability. "Tch...!" A look of bitter frustration crossed Vallis's face. Marcus bent over with his hands planted on his knees, panting heavily. The battered surface of his round shield stirred a lingering dread within him. "Could you tell anything from that clash just now?" Marcus asked in a low voice. "We're lucky... It should be a juvenile Mist Demon. The grafted beasts are all low-level, and its physical strength hasn't peaked yet." Vallis looked toward Gray lying nearby. "If it were an adult, there's no way you could have stopped it with that shield, and Gray would already be dead." A juvenile Mist Demon posed far less of a threat—it wouldn't reach a [Challenge] rating, qualifying at most as a tricky [Difficult] tier. Yet because of the energy barrier blanketing its body, it remained extremely troublesome. "This damn thing is a juvenile?" Gray struggled up from the ground and wiped the smear of blood from the corner of his mouth, his face twisted in a pained grimace. "Felt like I just took a direct hit from a battering ram." A low, guttural growl continued to reverberate through the surroundings, sometimes distant, sometimes near, laced with brutal murderous intent that chilled them to the bone. "Looks like this Mist Demon has no intention of letting us walk away," Marcus said, his expression grim. "The next time it shows itself, no matter how fierce its attack is, we must hold it down! If we let it slip away again, after a few more rounds of attrition, we'll all end up dead for sure." Zelier spoke in a heavy voice. "I'll find a way to loose the magic as fast as possible!" Marcus and Gray exchanged a glance and both nodded firmly. The Mist Demon's opening strike had already wounded Gray. With destructive power like that, a casualty could strike the party at any second. A protracted fight was out of the question; they had to end this swiftly! Suddenly, a new progress bar popped up beneath Formula Deduction. *Embrace of the Mist Veil, Analysis Progress—1%.* Zelier froze. *Embrace of the Mist Veil... Is that the spell nullifying physical attacks?* *Still, the analysis progress is way too slow... It won't be of any use in this battle at all.* Zelier's mind raced, searching for a strategy. Since he couldn't use spell preparation... his only option was to sense the Mist Demon's presence as early as possible and sketch out the spell structure before it launched its assault. Yet the timing had to be precise. If the spell finished charging before the Mist Demon appeared, the Fireball wouldn't hold in his palm for long before dissipating, leaving him in a brief lull where he couldn't immediately cast again. Zelier calmed his racing mind. His Perception stat was only 30—an average baseline. In such thick fog, the probability of detecting the enemy on his own was dreadfully low. *Where...* *Where the hell are you...* Suddenly, Zelier felt a stirring within, a wondrous sensation washing over him. By an extraordinary stroke of luck, he caught a subtle thread of connection woven through the dense mist. It was the magical fluctuation of Embrace of the Mist Veil! Through the resonance between the identical magic, Zelier could faintly discern the Mist Demon's current state. Bloodthirsty cruelty, predatory excitement... and a surging thirst for battle! *It's making its move!* Zelier didn't dare waste a single split second, instantly channeling mana to trace out the spell structure. Sure enough, barely two seconds later, the Mist Demon's foul, bloody stench swept back in with a vengeance! This time, it singled out Gray as its target. *That mage is well-protected and can't be dispatched instantly...* *Then butcher this injured human first!* *After that, fade back into the mist before the mage can finish charging his spell.* *As long as it claims a casualty, panic will inevitably set in, and the hunt will be practically won!* Already wounded, Gray had no hope of matching the Mist Demon head-on, and the searing agony in his chest slowed his movements even further. "Gray!" Marcus roared. The shadow of death fell over him as the Mist Demon closed the distance in the blink of an eye! Gray jerked his head around, his pupils dilating violently. Poised between life and death with nowhere to dodge, he relied solely on raw survival instinct to haul his longsword across his chest. A hideous bone claw swept down mercilessly. With a sharp snap, the blade shattered! Jagged metal shards sprayed in all directions, several driving straight into Gray's flesh, and a burst of blood erupted before him. Yet at that very moment, the Fireball Zelier had prepared in advance finished charging! This was an outcome the Mist Demon had never anticipated—barely three seconds had passed since it broke cover. During the first assault, that human mage hadn't displayed anything close to such casting speed. Blistering heat tore through the fog as a blazing sphere of flame swept forward, striking the Mist Demon dead-on! *Boom!* Zelier's eyes went wide, every nerve strung taut. Just as recorded in the *Adventurers' Association General Monster Compendium*, the weakness of the Mist Demon's energy barrier lay in magic and battle aura! The mana packed within the Fireball clashed violently against the barrier with a sharp sizzling sound, causing the glowing veil to dim noticeably to the naked eye, though it did not shatter completely. It worked! "Get off him!" Marcus's support arrived in the nick of time. His eyes bloodshot, he let out a furious bellow and rammed forward with his shield using every ounce of strength he had! The weakened energy barrier could no longer completely ward off physical impacts, and even the Mist Demon's massive frame staggered under Marcus's charge. "Don't even think about running...!" Vallis's eyes flashed like lightning; he had waited for this exact opening. Having held his draw until now, he loosed the bowstring, sending an arrow streaking through the air. Vallis carried elven blood in his veins; every shaft he loosed was blessed by the gentle breeze! Relying on ingrained muscle memory, Vallis fired four rapid shots in succession. *Thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip!* Of the four fletched arrows, two pierced clean through the Mist Demon's kneecaps. This was precisely the result Vallis had aimed for—he would never let this beast escape back into the fog again!