Claude grabbed some fallen leaves and mud from the ground and hurriedly threw them at the magus.
The magus hurriedly stopped his charge and covered his eyes with his hands.
Unexpectedly, the mud and leaves seemed to be blocked by something when they were about an inch away from his body and fell to the ground.
Under the moonlight, Claude noticed that there was a transparent bubble around the magus's body. Occasionally, there would be a few colorful rays of light shining from it.
It was only then that the magus snapped out of his daze. Oh yeah, I have an energy barrier on me. Why would I have to worry about dirt getting into my eyes? He laughed. "Kid, you're out of tricks, right? Take out the item and draw out the magic formation for Magic Missile. Otherwise, I'll make you regret your mother ever gave birth to you."
Claude had already retreated two to three meters away. Seeing the magus closing in on him again, he couldn't care less anymore and placed his hopes on the mental shock spell.
Thud!
The magus felt as if he had been hit in the head with a stick. However, he only paused and touched his head. He even looked around as if he was wondering what had bumped into his head.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
Claude panicked. The mental shock spell didn't seem to be very effective on the magus. It didn't make him feel dizzy or confused. It looked more like he had bumped his head accidentally.
The only thing he could be sure of was that the spell still had some use. It wasn't blocked by his energy barrier like Magic Missile.
Claude cast five mental shock spells in one go.
The first and second mental shock spells weren't that effective. The magus still clutched his head and yelled, "Who hit me …"
But after the third mental shock spell, the magus couldn't stand still anymore. He staggered and felt dizzy as if he was going to fall to the ground. More importantly, he lost his grip on his shortsword and it fell to the ground.
Delighted, he took off the backpack on his back and pounced forward to grab the shortsword on the ground.
With a sharp weapon in hand, he felt more confident. Since the magus was bare-handed, there was nothing to be afraid of.
The magus shook his head a few times before coming back to his senses. The moment he saw Claude's shortsword, he knew that he had fallen into Claude's trap and pounced forward in a fit of rage.
Claude thrust the shortsword in a perfect manner, but he didn't expect it to slide to the side when it struck the magus' bubble.
Caught off guard, the masked magus grabbed him and threw him to the ground. The two of them wrestled and the masked magus used his body to pin Claude down while reaching out with both hands to grab the dagger in Claude's hand.
That was something Claude would never have dreamed of. To become a one-ring rune magus and still have to rely on close combat to defeat an enemy, especially one who was also a magus, was the biggest joke in the world. The two magi rolled around in the clearing in the forest.
Claude was in despair. Magic Missile was useless and the shortsword couldn't break the bubble either. The magus was much stronger and stronger than him.
Even though his combat skills weren't as good as Claude's, the problem was that Claude's punches landed on the magus a few times and all of them slid off the bubble. Not only was it a waste of effort, he was even beaten back by the magus. Punches to the face hurt, didn't they?
Fortunately, when Claude realized that the shortsword was useless against the magus and instead became a threat to him, he tossed it to the side to prevent the magus from hurting him.
The two of them fought bare-handed. Even though Claude wasn't able to heavily injure the magus, he could use some grappling techniques to restrain him. He could only hope that he could keep the magus in a stalemate until the bubble on his body, which was the duration of the barrier, wore off.
The magus wasn't an idiot. Even though his combat skills weren't as strong as Claude's, he was strong enough to take down ten opponents.
He pinned Claude to the ground with his strong physique and blocked two of Claude's attacks with his right hand while his left hand gripped Claude's neck tightly.
He already knew that Claude still had one more spell that could threaten him. Even though it was only a slight dizziness, this was a battle of life and death for the two of them. How could he let go and give Claude the chance to cast another spell?
Claude was starting to feel suffocated. Even though he tried to tighten his neck, the hand on his neck only tightened and he couldn't move it no matter how hard he tried.
Not to mention, he didn't dare to loosen his grip on the magus's other hand. If he were to let both of them wrap around his neck, he would be dead for sure.
Claude's brain started to lack oxygen and his eyes started to roll back. He tried to open his mouth to take a deep breath, but the hand on his neck was like a metal ring that wrapped tightly around his throat. He couldn't take in any air at all.
Claude struggled with all his might, but the hand on his neck only tightened its grip.
In a moment of desperation, Claude suddenly remembered that he still had a dagger in his boot. He had already forgotten that the magus had a bubble-like energy barrier that made him immune to magic and physical damage.
All he wanted to do was poke the magus with something to force him to let go of his throat so that he could breathe.
He bent his leg and reached for the dagger in his boot.
But the moment he moved his hand away, the magus's right hand was released as well. Similarly, the magus placed his right hand on Claude's neck and started squeezing it.
Claude struggled like a fish on its last legs, but the magus's huge body pinned him down. Blood was already flowing out of the corner of Claude's mouth.
His tongue was also sticking out of his mouth.
Finally, he felt the fishbone handle of the dagger. He grabbed it tightly and stabbed it upwards without a care in the world.
Pfft … Pfft … Pfft …
All of a sudden, he felt the grip on his neck loosen and a few hot streams of blood splattered onto his body. The masked magus that was pressing on him fell to the side and muttered, "I-Impossible! H-how do you have a magic breaker dagger …"
Claude panted heavily and touched his neck. It took him quite a while to regain consciousness. He forced himself to kneel on the ground and looked at the corpse of the magus who had died with his eyes wide open. He felt pain all over his body.
He slowly reached out his hand and pulled off the veil of the corpse. What he saw was a bearded face with a very small scar on it.
Claude was certain that he had never seen the burly man before. He didn't have any recollection of the bearded man at all.
Hurian must have leaked the information about his deal and the bearded man must have heard it. That's why he decided to ambush him in the forest.
This debt will be settled with that fat old man Hurian.
However, Hurian probably didn't know about it either. Otherwise, he wouldn't have sold him the long-range arrow protection spell.
Thanks to that spell, the bearded man's crossbow didn't work and he had no choice but to come down from the tree to fight him.
The dagger was still stuck in the bearded man's waist. That area was almost like a beehive from Claude's stabs. Claude didn't know how many times he stabbed the man, but the left side of the man's waist was a bloody mess. The dagger was stuck into his body along with the hilt.
Claude pulled the dagger out with all his might.
He didn't think that the ordinary-looking dagger would actually save him.
Thinking about the bubble-like energy barrier around the bearded man, Claude felt a lingering fear.
If the dagger wasn't that magic breaker dagger, he would have been the one to die.
At that moment, Claude's mind was a little muddled. The only thought in his mind was to breathe. He needed air.
Stabbing with the black iron dagger could be said to be an instinctive bodily reaction. If he couldn't break through the energy barrier, then the only winner would be the corpse of the bearded man.
After kneeling for a long time, Claude finally stood up and moved his limbs to check if he was injured.
In the end, he realized that his luck wasn't too bad. The fight with the bearded man didn't cause too much damage to his body.
His face, on the other hand, was a little swollen from the two punches he took.
His palms and wrists were bruised from rolling on the ground. His left thigh was a little swollen from the bearded man's knee, but it didn't affect his mobility.
He first went to find his magic crossbow and put it next to him.
He picked up the backpack he had left on the ground and picked up the shortsword he had thrown out.
He took the scabbard from the bearded man's corpse and sheathed it at his waist before going to pick up the crossbow the bearded man had thrown on the ground.
Claude couldn't be bothered to look for the fine iron bolts he shot out. Who knew where they went? Two of the bearded man's bolts were stuck in a tree, but Claude couldn't be bothered to pull them out. They cost one for each sunar and the weapon shop had plenty of them. There was no need to collect them.
Seeing that there was nothing else to clean up in the forest, Claude went to the bearded man's corpse.
He crouched down and searched the corpse from head to toe. All he found was a sheepskin pouch with three thales and around ten copper coins of various denominations. There were even four black iron coins, the smallest of pennies, which were equivalent to a penny.
"Pauper!" Claude spat on the ground.
As expected, reality wasn't a game or a web novel. Claude didn't find any spatial rings or storage pouches. The bearded man didn't have any magic tomes on him, either.
Claude was still hoping to find the energy barrier spell scroll, but it turned out that no robber would bring their most valuable item with them. He was there to rob, not to deliver.
Claude also found a copper key in the corpse's pocket. It wasn't a key to a treasure vault, but a normal room key. The handle of the key was a wooden carving of a mermaid with the number 219 engraved on it.
It was the key to Mermaid Tavern. The number 219 referred to room 19 on the second floor and the key was used to open the door.
Claude did hear from Eriksson that the biggest and best tavern in the docks was Mermaid Tavern, which also doubled as a hotel for people to stay in.
Kefnie's elder sister, Katherine, worked there as a maidservant and was known as the tavern queen.
Claude looked at the key to Mermaid Tavern in his hand. It was obvious that the bearded man lived there and came out to ambush him in the forest at night.
In that case, his belongings should be in the guest room. Perhaps I should go there and take a look. Who knows, I might be able to find something there.
However, Claude was faced with the problem of how to deal with the corpse. He couldn't just leave it there. Who knows, someone might notice it later.
When he thought about that, he couldn't help but be thankful that the fight took place in the forest. It was close to the slums and the night patrols of Whitestag wouldn't usually come close.
It was already late and the weather was getting colder. No one would go out for a stroll, so the fight didn't catch anyone's attention.