Chapter 75: A Fair and Square Match
It would not be too long before Mia had to face her second opponent in the next round. Her opponent was the girl who wore the translucent tulle-style white robe. The display of her water spells earlier had left a lasting and pleasant impression on most of the spectators. Sure enough, when she took her first step into the ring, loud cheers could be heard coming from the boys.
“Remember to use the scrolls and the special spells that I’ve taught you,” Baiyi reminded Mia before she went on stage.
Mia nodded her head and quickly ran on to the stage with the staff in her hand. Another enthusiastic cheers erupted from the boys when they saw the appearance of the pretty fairy-like Mia. Be it the cheers or applauses, the ovation that Mia received was much louder than her opponent. There were a few particularly shameless boys among the spectators who were whistling and shouting at the same time.
“Mia! You’re so beautiful! Be my wife, okay?”
“Mia! Go on a date with me!”
“Mia! Let’s have a baby together!”
Urghh… look at these delinquents! Hooligans! Such a young age and you guys are acting like this already? Baiyi secretly cursed in his heart and fiercely stared at the boy who made the loudest noise, he cast a forbidden spell listed by the Sorcerers’ a.s.sociation as a super-dangerous Earth-element spell— The Penetration!
A second later, that boy who was the most rowdy jumped up holding his a.s.s all of a sudden, shrieking and wailing in pain, his voice was louder than all of the spectator’s voice put together.
“AHHHHHHHH! What the f*ck! My a.s.s!!”
“Why did a f*cking stick appeared on the chair all of a sudden! Ahhh, the pain!”
“Sniff! This is my f*ckin first time! Boo hoo hooo…”
A teacher who was in charged of keeping order immediately rushed over to have a look but after quite some time, she still could not see anything that was out of the ordinary, let alone realizing that it was Baiyi who cast the spell. After all, that forbidden spell was a technique that had been long lost so how could the people in that generation possibly know about it? They just thought that it was some magical mishaps because the ring and stand that was created temporarily for the occasion was set up using the soil from the academy lake so a mishap or two was quite normal.
That small episode had somehow interfered with the duel that was about to take place on the stage. The referee had no choice other than to wait until the situation had returned to normal before she announced the start of the battle. In that short period of time, Mia quickly recovered from her shyness and nervousness before bowing politely at her opponent.
Her opponent, on the contrary, was not as sportsmanlike as Mia was. When she saw Mia bowing, she snorted coldly and lifted her head high proudly instead as a mean of greeting. Then, with a contemptuous look, she blatantly sized up Mia’s chest before letting out a mocking smile. It seemed like the girl was jealous over Mia’s popularity with the speactators. She had gone all out and showed so much skin in the prevous battle but it seemed like the guys were more interested in the flat chested girl in front of her.
Objectively speaking, the white-tulle robed girl could actually be considered as pretty but unfortunately, other than her well-developed body, her face and her outfit was not a match for Mia at all.
Even the Voidwalkers were displeased with her att.i.tude as shouts came one after another from the Void.
“GO, MIA! Give this boor a lesson!”
“Crush that two lumps of silicones on her chest!”
“Mia! Use 100,000 Volt Thunderbolt! 1 “
PLEASE, GUYS! Do you think she’ll hear you shouting from the Void? Please use your common sense, okay?! And do they even have silicone implants in this world? By the way, what the h.e.l.l is with that last sentence? Do you all think that Mia is a yellow chubby rodent or something?
Fortunately, compared to those guys, Mia was very calm and it seemed like she did not give care about her opponent’s provocation at all. Instead, she coolly cast a defensive spell, Aquas.h.i.+eld. The spell was very effective against Water Spells. She then activated the magic on her bracelet, Energy Absorbing s.h.i.+eld, that Baiyi had set up beforehand as a protective measure.
In contrast, her opponent was much more extreme as she promptly set up a Mana s.h.i.+eld and immediately started to chant the incantation for an offense spell. A circle of translucent runes began to form on her chest and within a few seconds, the runes quickly turned blue in color. Soon after, a straight and narrow hydromissile shot out towards Mia, hitting her s.h.i.+eld.
“Hmmm… Quite skillful but too impatient. The power is just so-so as well…” Baiyi muttered under his breath evaluating the performance from the girl while shaking his head at the same time. There’s nothing out of special about her… In truth, sorcerers were actually vulnerable and weak, they needed to cast a good protection spell to protect themself before starting their attack. Even if the sorcerer wanted to attack first, he should use a tool or a scroll to help cast a protection over himself first. Rus.h.i.+ng to set up a Mana s.h.i.+eld and to hastily attack was definitely a wrong move.
Among all of the s.h.i.+elds that were used by sorcerers, the s.h.i.+elds that were most commonly used could be grouped into three categories— the Elemental s.h.i.+eld, the Mana s.h.i.+eld that relied on the caster’s Mana to keep running and the Energy Absorbing s.h.i.+eld that could be enchanted on any item beforehand. Of course, there was also the Heavy Tower s.h.i.+eld that was a favorite of the Sorcerer but let’s not talk about that.
Among those three commonly used s.h.i.+elds, the Energy Absorbing s.h.i.+eld that was enchanted on one’s tool was probably the weakest of all. The s.h.i.+eld could only withstand one to two attacks and there was also the possibility of it being smashed into pieces by just one powerful blow. However, the s.h.i.+eld grants absolute protection against physical and Mana attacks and the release speed was the fastest among all three. Anyone could use it easily regardless of whether the caster was a sorcerer or not as long as he has the money to buy the tool.
The Elemental s.h.i.+eld, on the other hand, was mainly used to defend the caster against an offensive Elemental attacks and each s.h.i.+eld could only block the attack of one particular element— for example, an Aquas.h.i.+eld could only block Water spells and a Fires.h.i.+eld could only block Fire spells. The downside was the s.h.i.+eld had no resistance against physical attack, it also had a long incantation as well and it would pose a problem if the opponent suddenly switched to another element. Even so, it could at least defend the caster from Level Three and below offensive spells. The s.h.i.+eld could nullify an elemental offense as well, making it the best protective measure among all three s.h.i.+elds, especially if the opponent was proficient in only one element. It was even more effective in protecting the caster against a Status Effect, such as frightening, hara.s.sing, deceleration and so on…
As for the Mana s.h.i.+eld, it was able to withstand all elemental attacks but not physical attack. Although it would continuously consume and deplete the caster’s Mana, it was the ultimate protection that a sorcerer would usually use. If the caster possessed a high amount of Mana, the s.h.i.+eld would be more durable as well.
Three s.h.i.+elds, three different effects, each had its own advantages and disadvantages. It was completely up to the sorcerer to choose which s.h.i.+eld worked best for them under the different circ.u.mstances that they faced. Looking back at that white-tulled sorcerer, she was actually too reckless in the battle. Casting a Mana s.h.i.+eld and rus.h.i.+ng into an attack so soon? Well, if the attack did not land, the opponent’s counterattack would force her to use a lot of energy and Mana to maintain her Mana s.h.i.+eld, forcing her to take a pa.s.sive stance instead.
Everything that was happening was just as Baiyi had predicted. When Mia realized that her opponent’s attack did not affect her at all, she began to work on her offensive spell instead. Soon after, a Fireball could be seen making its way towards her opponent, forcing the Water-type sorcerer to immediately stop chanting and cast a Fires.h.i.+eld around herself before continuing to chant again.
Baiyi had long taught Mia how to handle that kind of situation beforehand so after she had cast the first Fireball, she quickly crushed a scroll and released an ice pinnacle at the opponent while converting her body’s elements from Fire to Wind.
Once again, her opponent had no choice but to put a stop to her own incantation to quickly put up an Ices.h.i.+eld to block the ice pinnacle; then Winds.h.i.+eld to stop the Windblade. And when she turned her head around, Mia was already chanting another incantation for a Light spell. And when she finally blocked those three attacks, the Fires.h.i.+eld spell that she had cast earlier on had already expired and she had to cast another one again.
In a blink of an eye, the Water-type sorcerer had completely fell into a pa.s.sive position and it did not matter whether she knew more high-grade spells than Mia or not, with no opportunity to cast her own spells, along with the boost from Mia’s staff that sped up her incantation speed, she was completely suppressed by Mia and was backed to the corner of the ring.
That was one of the most clever strategies that one could use in a low-level sorcerers’ battle. With the help of magical tools and equipments, along with a fast battle pace, all one needed to do was to tire the opponent out and leave no window of opportunity for him to fight back at all.
But, of course, all of that could only be done if one’s defense and equipment were much better than the opponent. Not only did the s.e.xy Water-type sorcerer exposed her specialty in the previous battle, she also revealed her weakness of not having any powerful magical tools or scrolls as well. For that reason, Mia who was fully equipped and well-prepared, could easily overpower her without so much as batting her eyes.
After all, sorcerers relied heavily on their equipments. Even if one had already reached the Legendary, Immortal, or even the Holy Level, one still could not cut of the dependence on equipments. That was also why Baiyi had been emphasizing that point since the very start, especially in the defensive aspects, to the point that he was labeled conservative by the other Voidwalkers. However, it was all thanks to his faith in DPS that he had prepared so many protective measures for Mia. The battle between low-levels sorcerers had always been a kind of turn-based strategy, 2 where players would take turns playing to see who lasted the longest, which was not as difficult and exhausting as the game Contra. 3
The battle had long lost its suspense. The moment the white-tulled sorcerer realized that Mia was much faster in her element conversion as well as her incantation speed, she raised her hands up high in frustration and admitted defeat. Her face darkened with displeasure as she nodded her head slightly at Mia and cast an envious glance towards Mia’s robe and staff before she unwillingly walked out of the ring.
Well, what could she do? Life’s like that. A premium player bullying a free player was not something that could only be seen in games.
After winning another match fair and square, Mia excitedly ran back to Baiyi and with a slightly triumphant look on her face, she narrowed her eyes as she tiptoed slightly and offered her head to Baiyi, begging for him to pat her head.
Would you look at this girl? Why do you act like a kitten so much? Baiyi sighed contentedly as he lifted his hand up to stroke her head, “Good job, Mia! That was smart! You really did live up to my expectation! All the best, my girl!”
Joyfully, Mia nodded her head and recalled the feelings that she had during the battle. That was the first time she tasted the sweet taste of power.