**Chapter 55: Turning the Tide**
In the native coalition’s command post, the earlier excitement gave way to tension and fury.
“The flank’s lost! Heavy casualties!”
“Damn it! Who is that guy?!”
“We can’t pin down his position!”
The knight commander glared at the map, at the blackened areas “plowed” by that figure, his face ashen.
Their proud ambush plan was utterly disrupted by this sudden variable.
This wizard was a sharp thorn piercing their net.
“Redirect forces! Spare no cost—encircle and eliminate him!” he barked.
Large numbers of native troops peeled off from the valley encirclement, converging on Jie Ming’s area.They aimed to use their numerical advantage and tighter encirclement to force the wizard into a mistake.
Elite squads with special magical artifacts and totems were dispatched in all directions to predict and intercept Jie Ming’s movements.
At the battlefield’s center, Jie Ming keenly sensed the shifting pressure.
“Hm? More coming?” he noted, eyeing the natives surging from all sides.
Unfortunately, sheer numbers were useless against him. Well-versed in guerrilla tactics, he cycled multiple mobility runic tools, never lingering too long in one spot.
Yet, as Jie Ming reveled in this one-sided “hunt,” dismantling the native coalition’s outer defenses, trouble brewed within the valley.
The trapped apprentices’ defenses finally collapsed.
Despite Jie Ming drawing most of the firepower, the native forces inside the valley remained numerous and disciplined.
Realizing Jie Ming’s threat, the natives abandoned restraint, launching frenzied assaults.
Shamans collectively unleashed curses and weakening spells on Horn’s stone fortress, while knights braved witchcraft barrages, charging relentlessly, their axes and warhammers pounding Horn’s defenses with deafening roars.
The squads targeting Augusta grew even more desperate, trading lives to suppress her strongest bursts.
*Crack!*
On the light screen, a massive fissure split Horn’s struggling stone fortress.
*Buzz!*
Augusta’s lightning armor flickered, clearly under immense strain.
The native commander seized the moment, his eyes gleaming with bloodlust.
“Full assault! All forces charge! Ignore the outsider—prioritize wiping out the wizards inside!” the knight commander roared.
The native coalition’s main force, long held in reserve, surged like unleashed tigers, charging the apprentices’ final defenses with murderous intent.
Having cleared the last batch of enemies, Jie Ming paused, his gaze locking onto the despair-shrouded valley.
Lingering at the battle’s edges, he clearly sensed the shifting dynamics—something was wrong in the valley, prompting the natives’ reckless push.
Their retreat suggested their goal was achieved, but Jie Ming was far from satisfied.
“Think you can hit and run? What am I, a public restroom?!”
A cold glint flashed in his eyes. He changed direction, activating his mobility runic tool. No longer circling the valley’s edge, he shot toward its entrance like a cannonball.
Spotting the valley’s intense elemental fluctuations from afar, Jie Ming pushed his mobility runic tool to its limit.
The runes spun furiously, wrapping him in raging energy.
His trajectory cut a near-right-angle path, rocketing straight to the battlefield’s skies at terrifying speed!
Before ascending, he activated Alchemy.
Under invisible forces, massive rocks broke from the ground, floating around him.
Jie Ming, with the rocks in tow, soared over a kilometer high—far beyond the limits of apprentice-level flight spells. Without Light Body Technique, this would’ve been impossible.
At this altitude, the mobility runic tool, at full power, would overheat in under a minute.
But Jie Ming had prepared for the trial, crafting ten spare mobility and attack runes each.
Cycling them at peak output, he let overheated ones cool while activating the next, maintaining stable flight at this unimaginable height.
He chose this altitude to evade the natives’ ground-based anti-flight and spatial restrictions while minimizing incoming attacks.
The valley’s apprentices watched, stunned, as the figure wreaking havoc on the outskirts suddenly rocketed skyward like a madman.
“What’s he doing?!”
“Is he crazy? Flight spells can’t handle that height—he’s asking to die!”
“Is he escaping?”
Shock and confusion rippled through the apprentices.
But Jie Ming’s intent was neither escape nor suicide.
On the contrary, he planned to face the natives head-on.
This distance exceeded the precision range of apprentice-level attack spells, making targeted strikes difficult.
But Jie Ming didn’t need precision.
Positioned above the entire valley, nearly over the native coalition’s heads, all he needed was to rain destruction downward.
Since he was going all-in, Jie Ming held nothing back.
He unhooked the remaining pendants from his belt, retrieving all his attack runic tools.
Having lost one to testing earlier, nine remained, now floating behind him under Alchemy’s influence.
As the runes activated, they absorbed endless elemental energy, forming a fiery red ring behind him, radiating staggering power.
His defensive wizard tool activated simultaneously, three vibrant energy shields—earthy yellow, flowing cyan, raging red—encircling him like iron walls.
The rocks he’d brought aloft morphed into four massive stone shields, orbiting above, below, and to his sides, blocking potential attacks from below or the flanks.
All was ready.
Jie Ming’s mind entered a state of intense focus, his vast mental energy flooding into the runic array behind him.
*Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!*
The runic tools vibrated in unison, unleashing a torrential flood of witchcraft upon the native coalition below!