The smoke had a hypnotic effect, and Ma Lin held his breath, protecting his entire body.
He reached the original position of the rat-man only to find his opponent absent.
A fire burst exploded on the ground as if to devour him.
He dodged it easily.
Then a whirlwind came through, which Ma Lin also avoided and lunged toward the source. By that time, the smoke had thickened.
Rat-men mages are skilled in using smoke to attack or escape, but Ma Lin had never imagined someone could use smoke to such an extent. It quickly enveloped the entire arena, reducing visibility to less than two meters. Now, not even the rat-man's voice or scent was detectable, as if he weren't present in the arena at all.
Ma Lin felt somewhat drowsy, aware that he was under the effects of a hypnotic spell. Another specialty of rat-men mages was hypnotism, which sometimes required smoke and sometimes did not.