51: Exposure

"Just like that?"

Ash Leaf's raised short staff paused mid-air, her ritual magic not yet unleashed.

Watching the four-legged creature she remembered as unbeatable have its head severed just like that, Ash Leaf found it hard to believe.

"It's not that easy."

Ronan's gaze remained calm, his eyes fixed on the Second Young Master's head, which was beginning to sprout countless blood vessels.

Seizing the opportunity, the artificial puppet Faros quickly fired a fireball at the severed neck of the Second Young Master.

The fireball shattered several thick blood vessels, causing the Second Young Master to freeze momentarily.

But then, countless more blood vessels sprouted from the wound, intertwining and rapidly forming the outline of a head.

"Why can every monster regenerate?!" Ash Leaf complained.

She had intended to use the tiny bit of magic she'd just recovered to help Ronan a little.

Now it seemed that even if she helped, it would be like a drop in the bucket—insignificant.

At that moment, a familiar figure leaped out from a cave entrance.

"Captain, let it try my Corrosive Poison," Drill Mouse shouted loudly as he charged toward the Second Young Master.

But the Second Young Master didn't even glance at him, simply kicked him away with a hind leg, sending him flying.

Drill Mouse entered invisibility mid-air and reappeared beside Ronan.

"Cap..."

He had just opened his mouth when a Ray pierced through his head.

Seeing the misaligned double image on Drill Mouse's body up close, Ronan immediately knew it wasn't human, let alone Drill Mouse.

Drill Mouse wouldn't charge forward so dryly without even using invisibility.

"Ah!"

Ash Leaf was startled by the corpse at her feet.

She watched as the fallen Drill Mouse turned into a lump of asphalt, twitched twice, then suddenly wriggled and leaped into the distance.

Not long after, the lump of asphalt transformed back into Drill Mouse's form.

The weak point isn't the head... So far, this was the third type of Polluter Ronan had seen.

The most basic Polluters were the ones scattered all over the square, numerous and capable of polluting others.

The second type had camouflage abilities, distributed in the passage areas, with the same weak point as the first type—the head.

The third type was the current Drill Mouse, also with camouflage abilities, but its weak point wasn't the head, and it seemed capable of regeneration.

Summarizing, Ronan felt these Polluters were constantly evolving.

Not only were their abilities iterating, but their weak points were gradually disappearing, and their autonomous consciousness appeared more intelligent.

Like this fake Drill Mouse, its intelligence was clearly much higher than the 'first generation' Polluters on the square, who only mindlessly charged at the Altar.

Realizing its disguise was exposed and that it was no match for Ronan,

it directly chose to flee, charging toward the three people activating the Secret Formation.

At this point, the Secret Formation had already begun operating.

A bizarre Void Black Hole appeared at the center, slowly and rhythmically absorbing the Flesh and Blood Essence of the three.

"Damn it..."

Ronan was too far from the three; if he shifted his focus to the Secret Formation, no one could suppress the Second Young Master.

Seeing the fake Drill Mouse rapidly approaching, even holding an extremely familiar dagger, Ronan's expression immediately darkened.

"Red Star!" he shouted, signaling Red Star to call back the artificial puppet to hold it off for a while.

"Faros," Red Star instantly understood, calmly recalling the puppet without a hint of panic.

The artificial puppet immediately released several fireballs, slowing down the fake Drill Mouse's advance.

The Secret Formation was steadily absorbing the Flesh and Blood Essence of the three.

At this moment.

The Second Young Master's recovery speed was getting faster and faster.

Apart from the head repairing slightly slower, other parts, once pierced by a Ray, could almost recover within ten seconds.

This reminded Ronan of the scene in the Bear Goblin cave where he and the Second Young Master were locked in a stalemate.

This couldn't go on... A sense of unease stirred in his heart as he turned to look at the Altar.

The shadowy figure on it had long stopped charging, instead staring intently in the direction of the Second Young Master.

Seeing this, Ronan made a decisive move, firing four "Scorching Rays" from his fingertips, instantly severing the Second Young Master's four limbs.

Without the support of its four limbs, the Second Young Master should have crashed to the ground with a thud.

Then extend blood vessels again, quickly intertwining them to regrow the original limbs.

However, the moment it landed.

The Second Young Master, now just a bloated torso, abruptly halted its fall, as if floating in mid-air.

Ronan timely cast "Mage Hand," supporting the entire Second Young Master.

The zero-circle magic "Mage Hand" cannot be used in combat.

First, the advantage of this invisible giant hand is its fine finger manipulation, but once the grip strength exceeds a certain threshold, it begins to consume massive amounts of Spiritual Power.

Not only that, during the process of converting grip strength, often only one-tenth of the Spiritual Power is successfully converted—the conversion rate is just too low.

With that amount of Spiritual Power, casually casting an attack magic would likely be more effective than the grip attack of the invisible giant hand.

Second, the solidity and duration of the invisible giant hand are also closely tied to massive Spiritual Power.

Therefore, "Mage Hand" is generally used more in scenarios like daily research.

No one can strangle someone to death with an invisible giant hand in combat, nor would any mage think of using the fist formed by an invisible giant hand to smash people.

But at this moment, Ronan's "Mage Hand" was not used for attack.

His gaze fell on the shadowy figure on the Altar, a slight smile curling at the corner of his mouth as he said loudly,

"You seem very interested in it, so I'll give it to you."

A massive amount of Spiritual Power suddenly surged out, the invisible giant hand grabbing the Second Young Master, aiming to hurl it toward the Altar.

At that moment, a fireball silently shot toward him from a blind spot in his vision.

Boom.

"Magic Shield" appeared, perfectly blocking the attack.

Ronan looked toward the source of the attack, where a familiar figure stood.

The artificial puppet, Faros.

"Sorry, can't let you throw it over."

Red Star's voice came from Faros's mouth; the artificial puppet had become a mouthpiece.

"Just kidding."

Ronan finally breathed a sigh of relief, immediately canceling "Mage Hand," and the Second Young Master crashed to the ground with a thud.

"Actually, I couldn't throw it over either."

Seeing the artificial puppet fall silent, Ronan asked,

"The one who attacked us in the passage was also you, right? Red Star."

"How did you figure it out?" Red Star's voice carried inquiry and confusion.

Actually, due to the distance at the time, Ronan wasn't sure if the fake Red Star had a misaligned double image.

But another scene had made him suspicious.

"Do you remember your reaction when you returned to the square from the passage and saw me?"

"Was my reaction unnatural?"

Ronan smiled and retorted, "Since you knew there were Polluters with camouflage abilities..."

"How could you immediately assume I wasn't one?"

"Didn't you see that even my own close teammates, upon first seeing me, were wary and first thought to verify my identity?"

"That's the normal reaction."