The death of Andonara’s mother was quite uncanny too.
Though she was not very strong, Andonara’s mother was a Warrior. It was very strange that she died abruptly because of illness.
However, everything was possible when curses and spells were involved.
Seeing that they looked awful and lost their fighting will, Roland realized that they might’ve been hit by the psychological attack.
The purpose of such attacks was not always to cause delirium or unconsciousness.
Triggering depression was a way to fight, too. In a battle, grimness and low morale could affect one’s performance.
Roland immediately said, “Don’t overthink yet. Let’s get rid of this enemy first.”
Hearing that, Cage and Andonara broke away from their devastation. Their faces immediately changed.
In fact, they were not exactly weak or undetermined. This cunning specter wouldn’t have affected them so easily if it hadn’t torn apart their defenses with a few simple words.
But now that Roland had woken them up, they looked at the weird specter gravely and seriously.
It was impossible for the specter to put them in such a position again, unless it was really far more powerful than them.
The horned specter burst into fury at Roland’s nosiness. It slapped Roland so quickly that barely anyone could’ve reacted.
But Andonara did. She stepped quickly in front of Roland and pressed her sword forward.
However, she was a pure melee class without any energy attacks.
The gigantic hand of the specter penetrated through Andonara and hit Roland’s magic shield.
Roland was thrown into the wall, leaving a huge dent on the wall. But thanks to the protection of the magic shield, Roland was temporarily stunned but wasn’t really hurt.
Andonara’s face became pale, and she fell on her knees. She would’ve collapsed if she hadn’t been supporting herself with her sword.
She felt cold and absolutely exhausted.
She didn’t pass out only because of the high magic resistance of the Great Swordsman. If a random Warrior were hit like that, they probably would’ve been killed.
“Diablo, you can go back to hell!”
At this point, Cage charged and slashed his longsword of blue flames, which drove the coldness away.
The specter, greatly scared of the blue flames, suddenly drifted two meters back, and Cage’s attack missed its mark.
Then, the specter pointed at Andonara, launching a ball of pale flames at her.
Cage turned around and cut the pale fireball into halves. Though the latter half of the fireball was gone, the front half kept flying at Andonara.
Greatly shocked, Cage tried to stop it again, but there was no time.
The specter put on a smile.
However, the shield-holding puppets that everybody ignored took action and stepped before Andonara.
The pale hemisphere of fire hit the blue shield and exploded, blowing the shield into pieces, which turned into elemental power and disappeared into the air.
The pale hemisphere was gone too.
Though the shield was broken, the puppet was still there. It condensed another shield and raised it, although it looked smaller than before.
Slightly relieved, Cage looked at the specter.
At this point, the specter looked awful and exasperated.
It grew larger as it floated forward and bashed at Andonara’s head with its two hands.
Cage rushed to Andonara’s side and lifted his longsword, hoping to block the attack with the blue flames.
But at this moment, the specter smiled hideously.
Its fists came to a sudden stop halfway through the bashing, and a sharp thorn protruded from its abdomen and pressed forward.
The bashing was only a distraction!
Cage was rather cautious, but having not been in a life-and-death fight in ten years, he had lost his battle instincts.
Caught unprepared, he was stabbed in the chest by the spirit thorn.
There was no blood or wound, but Cage’s face suddenly became pale. The blue flames on his longsword vanished, and he fell on his knees helplessly.
Retracting the thorn, the specter laughed crazily.
While it laughed in greatest satisfaction, a gigantic rainbow was launched and hit its face.
Then, the rainbow exploded together with the specter’s head, resulting in colorful pieces of magic power.
Roland shook his head and walked forward.
He had gotten rid of his previous dizziness, and he had realized his weakness again.
His reaction was too slow.
The greatest disadvantage of a focus on Intelligence and Spirit was the slow reaction.
It was true that his reaction was much faster than ordinary people’s, but he was not nearly as good as the melee classes or the Rogues.
Just now, even Andonara had reacted to the specter’s sudden attack, but he failed to.
Therefore… it seemed necessary for him to learn Foresight, a level-three spell, and keep it on permanently.
While walking, Roland snapped his fingers, and two blue puppets appeared next to Cage and Andonara and protected them.
Then, Roland cast Lesser Healing on them. The paleness on their faces gradually faded away, and they were regaining their strength.
At this point, the specter had regrown its head, but its size had been reduced too.
Seeing that Roland was healing Andonara and Cage, it roared in fury and pointed at Roland. The pale brilliance of magic was taking shape on its fingertip.
But Roland would not let it attack again, not after the setback that he suffered just now.
In fact, Roland had never stopped casting. From Prismatic Spray, to summoning the magic puppets, and then to healing, he had never stopped working.
The brief gaps between them were only illusions when his magic power was regenerating.
Thirty blue bullets of light were generated around Roland, before they were shot at the specter with fuzzy shadows behind them.
Greatly shocked, the specter stopped casting and flashed two meters away.
But Roland had seen it coming. His magic bullets were not concentrated but scattered, like a spray gun.
Though it flashed away, the specter was still hit by four magic bullets.
The magic bullets were not powerful individually, but they could be fatal collectively.
Hit by the four magic bullets, the specter went somewhat stiff like a living creature even though it was made of energy. Then, Roland’s second wave of magic bullets was ready.
This time, Roland reduced the range of the magic bullets, because he could tell that the specter could only flash two meters at best.
Therefore, he only had to cover the area within two meters from the specter.
The specter flashed again, this time to the left. Because the magic bullets were more concentrated this time, it was hit by six more bullets.
It roared in pain, shaking off some of the dust on the ceiling. It staggered back like a normal creature, and it shrank in size. Cracks could be found on its black body of energy too.
“Damn it. Who are you exactly?” The spirits ruthlessly glared at Roland. “An Elite Mage can’t cast such destructive spells so fast.”
It was well known that when a Mage was still weak, it was impossible for them to cast a spell both fast and destructively.
In fact, it was not wrong. Even Roland had to prepare for five seconds in order to build an Inferior Fireball into a big one.
However, compared to other Mages, Roland was fast, and in addition to being fast, his spells were more powerful than other people’s.
Unwilling to waste his time with the specter, Roland began to condense fire. Since the specter had been hurt, Roland only needed to prepare for one second to build a fireball powerful enough to kill it.
As the fireball on Roland’s fingertip grew larger and more powerful, the specter was frightened at first, then it dropped its concerns and stopped struggling.
“Wait.” Cage stood up. Thanks to the power of the Hero, he was resistant to the foul energy of specters, so he recovered faster. He said after he got back to his feet, “There’s something that I’d like to ask him.”
Roland closed his hands and extinguished the fist-sized fireball.
Very soon, Andonara stood up too. She seemed frustrated and even slightly guilty.
“You’re not Diablo.” Cage looked at the specter and spoke slowly.
After a brief shock, the specter burst into laughter. “Who else can I be if not Diablo? Your ancestor Kelter…”
“You’re not the real Diablo,” Cage said confidently. “Diablo is a Devil King. His soul can’t be so weak that a Mage can take it down so easily. He’s better than that as a Devil King.”
After a moment of silence, the specter smiled. “You’re right. I’m not the real Diablo. I’m just a piece of his soul, one that is only the size of a fingernail.”
