After Ellen summoned the Ice Lotus to separate them, Laust raised his sword again and reached the lotus. Unlike Theo or any other else, he slammed his sword toward the ice without hesitation.
"Gargantuan Swing."
Ellen widened her eyes and leaped backward to avoid this strike. She planned to go around the ice to strike Laust, but he seemed to be better than her expectation.
Laust cut all the ice spikes in his way into two.
With his figure reappearing after the top of the ice fell to the ground, Ellen summoned four blue lights and shot them at the same time. "Freezing Shot."
Laust disappeared again, but Ellen could fully see his figure floating in the air.
"I know you're going to jump." Ellen smiled and summoned another magic to shoot him down.
But Laust shocked her once again, showing his huge leap of improvement after his defeat. He stepped on the air like solid ground and launched himself to Ellen, reaching Ellen before her magic was completed.
"Ho?!" Ellen didn't feel any excitement and simply stopped using her magic while blocking Laust's slash with her staff. She even jumped a few inches above the air and turned Laust's attack as a free ride to gain distance. "This is getting interesting."
Laust clicked his tongue, knowing a third-year student wouldn't be that easy to deal with.
The center of the field.
Seeing this attack before him, Phyrill stopped and turned around, looking at Kong. His eyes were icy cold as if there was no shred of playfulness anymore in those two eyes.
Since Phyrill stopped his movement, Jay quickly raised his staff. One palm-sized green light shone brightly above Phyrill, illuminating both the ceiling and him with light.
Raising his head, Phyrill took one deep glance at Jay as if he was stunned looking at this magic.
The green light suddenly expanded as the air started to swirl around.
It became bigger and bigger until one huge tornado swallowed Phyrill as a whole.
Phyrill, on the other hand, let out a long sigh before a pair of wolf ears and grey tail emerged from his body. Right before the tornado swallowed him, Phyrill disappeared.
This was a part of the plan and Sihan knew it. In fact, Sihan had been placing himself on the very edge to make sure he could go around to approach Jay without stopping.
After taking one deep breath, Sihan suddenly ran around Kong, and his path gradually curved toward Jay.
Kong and Jay were dumbfounded, never imagining Sihan to be the one claiming Jay's head. This was truly unexpected, especially since they thought Theo would be the one. But the reality kept changing to Phyrill and lastly Sihan.
"You won't—" Kong tried to follow him, but he suddenly felt someone's presence on his right.
The next thing he realized, he heard a loud sound of himself crashing into the wall and felt the pain all over his body.
"!!!" Kong clenched his teeth and raised his vision to see what just happened, finding Phyrill landing on the ground after he kicked him in the face. "You."
Phyrill looked down on him and said coldly. "Dumbass. It's because of you I can't make the biggest contribution in this match."
"Ha?!" Kong obviously couldn't understand him. But he soon noticed Sihan almost reached Jay.
"Wind Storm." Jay used another skill to summon a gale that would swallow Sihan like how it almost killed Theo.
According to Theo, the moment Jay's assassination failed, they would have him stop Jay for a period of time because they needed to change their target and Theo said he had freedom if he wanted to kill Jay because it would confuse the entire battlefield. Hence, Sihan didn't hesitate to use one big move like Kong.
He raised his hand as his sword glowed in orange. Before the tornado hit him, Sihan slashed downwards, releasing all his power. "Dawn Strike."
A crescent-shaped slash ran through the ground, cutting the tornado into two as Sihan followed right before the slash, traveling between the tornado that had yet to disperse.
"What?!" Jay widened his eyes and leaped backward to gain more distance with him, but Iv's shout made him think otherwise.
"Jay. Watch out!"
"!!!" Jay's head turned around to see why his teammate warned him and found a flying spear in his direction. Jay stopped in his tracks and avoided the spear, but at the same time, he let Sihan catch up.
The spear pierced the wall behind him, but Sihan took it to another level. He slashed his sword, which was stopped by his staff, before slamming his shield to pin Jay to the wall.
However, there was one thing missing in this strategy. They indeed managed to corner Jay, but Theo also lost his spear.
Trying to take advantage of the situation, Iv planned to cut him down.
"Since you have abandoned your spear, I'm going to kill you!" Iv reached Theo with his glowing sword and slashed Theo's back since Theo just turned around to throw that spear.
Little did he know, Theo grabbed the sword someone left behind earlier and turned around, striking Iv's sword with his own version glowing sword.
"Focused Charge."
Clank.
Iv widened his eyes and found the familiar-looking sword. "Wait, that sword… Phyrill!"
Yes, they didn't pay attention to it, but Phyrill stabbed his sword to the ground before moving to intercept Kong. And hearing that shout, Kong realized Phyrill only held one sword in his hand.
"You…" Kong sucked a cold breath, wondering how many steps ahead they had planned.
Phyrill only pointed his sword and smirked. "Our plan is simple. You're the one who makes it complicated."
Still, no matter how good he was, Theo's main weapon wasn't a sword.
When Iv realized it, he began to take it to his advantage and suppressed him within a few moves. "Hmph! Switching your weapon to something you're not familiar with, it's your worst move!"
It was at this time, Theo showed another degree of planning. The one he had been building since he was with Alea.
"Do you think so?" Theo made an evil smile before his clone suddenly appeared next to him.
"Clone?!" Iv widened his eyes. When he was about to take a step back to assess the clone's situation, Theo's blade slid down his sword and cut two of his finger before Iv managed to get away. "Kh!"
Iv glared at Theo before finding his clone making his way toward… Laust. Yes. Their plan was for Phyrill to kill Jay. But one simple move from Kong turned the entire plan complicated and changed their target to Laust Lange.
Theo pointed his blade toward Iv with a smile after showing a bit of his sword prowess. This was the weapon he used the most other than his spear, so he had a certain degree of mastery. He smiled while looking down at him. "Sword may not be my main weapon, but my mastery should be enough to stop you for a while."
***
Every 100 power stones = 1 Bonus Chapter on the weekend.