Ahead, the Shadow Devourer suddenly split into dozens of tentacles, which shot out like venomous snakes toward the Apprentices in Kelly’s group.

One Apprentice failed to dodge in time and was snared by the ankle. The face that appeared on the tentacle’s surface immediately latched onto him, sucking frantically!

The Apprentice shriveled at a rate visible to the naked eye, his skin turning ashen and his eyes losing focus. In just two breaths, he was reduced to a withered corpse.

"Purification Light!" Kelly shouted, her Metal Short Staff erupting with a blinding, holy white light that shone upon the Shadow Devourer’s tentacles.

Like ice and snow meeting a scorching sun, the tentacles sizzled and rapidly retracted. The Shadow Devourer let out a silent shriek, its gelatinous body undulating violently.

But two Poison Claw Nightwalkers had already cut through the middle of the defensive line like phantoms!

"Flash Thunder!" With a loud CRACK, Kelly heavily injured one of the Poison Claw Nightwalkers, but her own aura diminished significantly.

"Watch out!" a young Apprentice cried out. He was concentrating all his power to cast a Binding Vine, trying to restrain the Demon’s movements.

A purple afterimage flashed by.

Three thin lines of blood appeared on the young Apprentice’s neck. His eyes widened in shock, the Magic in his hands dissipated, and he slowly collapsed.

The defensive line fell into complete chaos.

Screams of agony, furious roars, the crackle of Magic, and the sound of tearing flesh and bone all mixed together. The air filled with the thick stench of blood and burning.

Ian moved through the chaos.

He appeared to be frantically dodging the flying debris, venom, and energy shockwaves, but in reality, every step he took precisely avoided lethal threats while he calmly observed the entire battlefield.

That sturdy Apprentice was on the right edge of the defensive line, working with several other Apprentices to surround and attack the heavily injured Poison Claw Nightwalker.

Although this Poison Claw Nightwalker was injured, its speed was still extremely fast, its bone claws leaving purple afterimages as they slashed through the air.

"Hurry! It can’t hold on much longer!" the sturdy Apprentice roared, slamming a fist into the Nightwalker’s chest and knocking it staggering backward.

The other Apprentices seized the opportunity to unleash Fireballs and Wind Blades, which slammed into the Nightwalker, blasting away blackened chunks of its flesh.

The Poison Claw Nightwalker let out a sharp hiss. A large amount of purple-black Poisonous Fog gushed from its wounds, and its body began to swell!

"Fall back!" one Apprentice yelled, and the group hastily retreated.

The sturdy Apprentice also tried to pull back, but he had charged too far forward and was a fraction of a second too slow to turn.

That fraction of a second was all it took.

Ian, fifty meters away, was "struggling" to force back a Demon with a Scorching Beam, but his peripheral vision was locked onto the sturdy Apprentice’s back.

His left hand hung naturally at his side, his index finger twitching almost imperceptibly.

A sliver of frost energy, simplified to its absolute limit and compressed into a nearly invisible thread, shot out silently.

The target wasn’t the self-destructing Nightwalker, but the surface of the Rock where the sturdy Apprentice’s right foot was about to land.

PFFT.

An almost inaudible sound.

A layer of frost, as thin as a cicada’s wing and utterly transparent, instantly condensed on the rock’s surface. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

The sturdy Apprentice’s right foot came down.

The frost was bone-chillingly cold.

His body faltered for a moment, and his retreat was delayed for half a breath.

For the self-destruction of a Wizard Level Demon, half a breath was an eternity.

The Poison Claw Nightwalker’s body swelled to its limit and exploded!

The purple-black Poisonous Fog, mixed with flesh and bone fragments, spread out in a circular shockwave.

"No—" The sturdy Apprentice only had time for a short, horrified cry before he was consumed by the Poisonous Fog.

SSSSSS...

The nauseating sound of corrosion filled the air.

After the Poisonous Fog dissipated, all that remained was an incomplete, charred skeleton. Even his enhanced, metalized skin had failed to withstand the point-blank toxic corrosion from the explosion.

The other two Apprentices who had been slightly slower to retreat were also thrown by the shockwave, slamming hard onto the ground. Though battered, they had only sustained minor injuries.

Still shaken, they stared at the skeleton, their faces deathly pale.

Ian had already looked away, as if he had never been paying attention to that corner of the fight.

He was "clumsily" raising an Energy Shield to block a piece of flying debris, while simultaneously hitting a Corrosive Claw Inferior Demon that was trying to approach with another Scorching Beam.

Throughout the entire process, no one noticed anything unusual.

Even Kalem, Rod, and Kelly were each caught up in their own desperate battles, with no attention to spare for anything else.

The Magma Rock Scale Beast finally succumbed to Kalem’s relentless attacks. Its neck was severed by a highly condensed Wind Blade, and its massive body crashed to the ground.

The Sewn Hatred was thrown into total chaos by Rod’s Pain Storm. Its countless arms tore at each other until it finally exploded into a pile of shredded flesh.

Besieged, the Shadow Devourer was hit by Kelly’s alternating attacks of Purification Light and Thunder Strikes. It gradually disintegrated, dissolving into a pool of slime that emitted black smoke.

The last Poison Claw Nightwalker was bombarded from a distance and killed by the combined efforts of some twenty Apprentices, including Ian, before it had a chance to self-destruct.

When the last Demon fell, the area before the cave was a complete wreck.

Corpses were scattered everywhere—some human, but mostly Demons. Dark red, dark green, and purple-black blood mixed with slime, forming sickening rivulets on the ground.

Besides the stench of blood and burning, the air was filled with an oppressive, deathly silence.

Kalem gasped for breath, the scars on his face looking even more ferocious due to his exhaustion.

He surveyed the battlefield, his gaze sweeping over the corpses of the Apprentices, his expression terrifyingly grim.

Rod retrieved his Blood-Colored Dice, which now had several new cracks on their surface. He licked his lips, a morbid excitement in his eyes.

Kelly silently performed healing Witchcraft on several heavily injured Apprentices, but the light from her staff was noticeably dimmer.

Ian stood his ground, his gray robes stained with blood and grime. A cut on his left arm, caused by a piece of debris, was slowly oozing blood.

His face was "pale" and his breathing "labored"—he looked utterly exhausted.

In reality, if he hadn’t secretly helped just now, it would have been nearly impossible for the Apprentices to kill the Poison Claw Nightwalker.

And that was with the Underworld Demons having low intelligence, knowing only how to kill by instinct. Their power was still somewhat inferior to that of an Official Wizard.

He still had over seventy percent of his Spiritual Power left, and Gaga, who was in his chest, had not made an appearance. He just looked as battered as the other survivors.

"Head count," Kalem said, his voice hoarse.

A moment later, the results were reported.

Of the sixty-eight High Level Apprentices who fought, seven were killed, eight were heavily injured, and nearly everyone else had minor injuries.

The first day, the first encounter with a group of Wizard Level Demons, and the casualty rate was already over twenty percent!

"Captain..." an Apprentice with a bloody face said, his voice trembling. "These Demons... they were too strong."

Kalem didn’t answer.

He walked to the entrance of the cave and extended his Spiritual Power deep inside at full strength. After carefully sensing for a long time, he slowly stepped in.

A short while later, a violent fluctuation of Energy came from inside the cave, and Kalem reappeared.

His gaze swept over the survivors’ shaken faces. "I have destroyed the Demon Nest."

"But the strength and number of Demons in this Demon Nest far exceeded what our intelligence suggested. Something’s wrong."

He paused, his voice grave. "The western side of Iron Ridge Canyon is just an outer region. Logically, there shouldn’t be so many Tier One Demons here, and there certainly shouldn’t be five of them gestating at once... Something we don’t know about might have happened deeper in the Underworld."

Everyone’s hearts sank.

"Now, listen to my orders." Kalem quickly issued his commands.

"The heavily injured will receive treatment on the spot. The lightly injured will help set up defensive fortifications.

Rod, take ten men. Set up a triple perimeter of warning and trap Runes at the cave entrance.

Kelly, you take another ten. Clear out all scattered Underworld creatures within a one-mile radius to secure the outer perimeter of our defensive line."

"The rest of you, reinforce the current defensive line with me and collect all the Abyssal Crystals and valuable materials."

He glanced at the pile of Demon corpses. "Move quickly. We don’t know when the next wave will attack."

Ian silently walked over to the corpse of a Poison Claw Nightwalker and began to extract the crystal.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the charred skeleton nearby—the remains of the sturdy Apprentice. It was quickly dragged aside by two expressionless Apprentices and tossed onto the pile with the other corpses.

No one mourned for him.

In this Underworld, death was all too common.

Ian looked away, his fingertips touching the cold crystal.

In his mind, Gaga’s voice sounded softly. ’Ga... That last move... clean and efficient.’

Ian didn’t respond, simply placing the crystal into his leather pouch.

He gazed into the eternal darkness of the cave’s depths, his eyes profound.

The hunt had only just begun.