Volume 2: Chapter 5 – Meeting a Formidable Opponent
At last, the final “decisive battle”. I don’t know who the final opponent is, but the best who be someone in the middle ranks. This way I can lose and appear weak.
All of the examinees have already drawn lots. Following is the announcement for the battles. The first exam is 1st rank Zhang Gong against 12th rank Ma Ke Wei. The second exam is 2nd rank Li Zha Lun against 79th rank Lei Sai Heng Lan.
What an unexpected coincidence. To my surprise it’s this fellow Ma Ke. I’m also throwing caution to the wind, otherwise I’ll be ranked 1st. I would preferably achieve first today and have revenge for yesterday’s grievances. I secretly made up my mind, I’ll get revenge for informing the nobles. Hehe. Just you wait Ma Ke, see how I’ll mess with you….”
The order of matches is according to the rankings, from the bottom to the top. People near the bottom will fight spar. Therefore I am the one to spar.
Where did that loathsome fellow Ma Ke run off to? I searched within the crowd of people. Unbelievable, I can’t find him. He couldn’t possibly be afraid of me correcting him today that he ran off could he? Surely not. Otherwise his teacher wouldn’t spare him. Hmph! I’m not looking for him anymore. I’ll see him when it’s time for the match.
The matches are held on 10 different stages.
Actually, Ma Ke was in a small nook. When he heard his partner for the match is me, he nearly fainted. After saying those words yesterday, he immediately regretted it. —— I’m done for! Tomorrow elder brother Zhang Gong certainly won’t forgive me. How could I be so foolish? It’s all my fault. God. Please bless and protect me and permit me to have an intact corpse tomorrow.
Wow! In order to enter the Royal Intermediate Magic Academy, all the examinees are fighting like their life depends on it up on the stage. Right now I don’t know which match number is happening at the moment. The current match has one water mage and one wind mage. The both of them don’t use defensive magic at all, instead they exhaust all of their magic power with the most powerful attack spells they have. Up on the stage it’s practically like they’re calling the wind and summoning the rain. You use a hail spell then I use a tornado spell. Truly too frightening. I can’t help but think of what methods will I need to use in order to win the match? After thinking for half a day I came up with one method, which is to use defensive and fleeing magic to exhaust the opponent’s magic power then to defeat him. Fortunately my magic power should be higher than theirs. At last the match finished due to the water mage being careless, thus being defeated by the wind mage’s wind blade.
Because of these matches, the academy dispatched 10 great water mages, and 2 water magisters in case of any accidents. As a result of their presence, even though the matches are very intense, there haven’t been any accidents.
3 hours later it’s finally my turn. I stretched my muscles a bit then slowly walked onto the stage.
“This is the first round’s top ranker, Zhang Gong Wei!”
“His appearance seems to be nothing extraordinary. Unexpectedly, someone who learns light magic and doesn’t know any attack spells at all, is able to be the top ranker. He definitely bribed a proctor.
“How come his opponent still hasn’t come up?”
I arrived on the stage then looked all around. Ma Ke’s figure still isn’t here. It couldn’t be that he actually ran away just before the battle? I already made plans earlier which required beating Ma Ke into a spectacle too horrible to endure. Thus giving the examinees in the audience a warning that it’s not good to provoke me. In the future, the troublesome things will lesson.
“The first round’s twelfth ranker, Ma Ke, hasn’t come yet? If in 30 seconds this Ma Ke still hasn’t arrived then we’ll consider it him forfeiting.”
“I’m here, I’m here.” Helplessly, Ma Ke finally appeared. With a storm spell, he flew onto the stage. First he paid respects to the proctors then facing he quietly said: “I didn’t do it on purpose yesterday. Don’t be angry. Please do not be too harsh on me.”
It turns out that he also knew I wouldn’t forgive him. He’s quite self-aware.
“Hmph! You already did enough. Could it be that you’re telling me that the rice you’ve already eaten can still be spit out. Let me beat up you up one time then I’ll forgive you.”
“Don’t! Boss, I’m really scared of pain. Please spare me!”
“You. Spare no effort and let me see you strength. Don’t even hope that I’ll show mercy.”
“Fine. Boss, you be careful then.” After saying this, he cast a fire shield on himself.
I also immediately cast a light prism shield. I don’t dare to be careless. This fellow’s strength is actually quite strong. It wouldn’t have been hard for him to have ranked first.
“Come, Boss.” Ma Ke also knew that it’s impossible for me to be lenient on him. Without any better option, he’s forced to use his full strength. Neither of us knew the the other’s strength, but from the rankings, we both knew the other is a formidable opponent. Not using our full strength will lead to only one result, being beaten up by the other.
The elementary spell, fireball, came flying towards me. I lifted my left hand and used the light prism shield to face the fireball. In a moment, the fireball arrived then suddenly moved, thus going around my light prism shield to my back. Truly worthy of being top ranker in magic control. As expected, he’s difficult to deal with. I immediately used teleportation to dodge to the side while shooting a light arrow at him. The light arrow hit his fire shield, with absolutely no effect on it. At this moment, his fireball is once again chasing me.
“Your fireball won’t explode???”
“Hehe. Boss, this isn’t an ordinary fireball. It’s concentrated fire element, so I can simultaneously control up to four fireballs. Can you avoid them all?” While saying this, he cast three more fireballs. Four fireballs came at me from different directions. With this, I can also handle it. I fled.
The audience began booing. “Unexpectedly the top ranker is running away from several fireballs that are chasing him. How could this be?”
I think to myself, not being afraid of the fireballs is easier said than done, but I have the ability so I have to try.
I used teleportation to run away for a while then I suddenly realized this won’t do. Our magic power doesn’t have much of a difference and right now my magic power consumption is even greater than his. I can’t dodge anymore, otherwise I will lose. Looks like I have no other choice but to use a few dirty tricks.
Thinking this, I immediately used teleportation to move to Ma Ke’s side. Then I used my left hand’s light prism shield to hit his body. Ma Ke’s fire shield is this strong, almost as strong as my light shield. Furthermore, Ma Ke was proud of himself as he watched me be chased round and round by the fireballs but didn’t think I would suddenly appear at his side. Due to being hit by my light prism shield, he fell down. As a result of losing his concentration, he released the fireballs causing them to explode in the corner.
“Wow. Boss is even capable of this.”
I don’t reply, but instead move to his side and give him a left hook. Ma Ke dodged to his left, while using sending the intermediate class magic, Cruel Flame, towards me. I move backwards out of the way.
“Boss, this is what you forced me to do. Oh, fire spirit, heed my summons, form boundless meteors and annihilate my enemy!”
Crap! This fellow is still really fierce. Advanced area fire magic, Flaming Meteor. I can’t help but recognize that his strength is powerful. The stage is too small after all. If he used this in open space, it would be able to cover two hundred square meters, so it definitely wouldn’t be able to hit me. However this stage is only fifteen by fifteen meters.
I know that the light spirit shield definitely will be unable to resist it. So while risking my life: “O great light elements, my friends, I earnestly request you all to assemble into countless numbers of sharp blades and annihilate everything!”
Light Severing Sword VS. Flaming Meteor. I’ll tell the outcome tomorrow.