Chapter 80: The Fateful Match
While the referee was setting up the protective enchantment,the girls used that short period of time to casually exchange a few words. After Vidomina had greeted Mia, she continued with her compliments, “You’re phenomenal, Mia! Not to mention cute too!”
In the face of such a friendly opponent, Mia was also polite and she replied humbly, “You are beautiful too, Vidomina. I must admit that you’re very strong but there’s no way I’d back down from this battle.”
“The same goes for me.” A confident smile lit up Vidomina’s face. Although Mia was her opponent, she did not feel the slightest dislike towards her, instead, one could say that she was pretty fond of Mia. “Let us give it our best then!”
As she finished her words, the referee had also completed the setup for the protective enchantment. The two girls ceased their conversation and each took a few steps back while taking out a scroll each and held it in between their fingers. It looked like both of them planned to strike the first blow as soon as the whistle was blown.
At that moment, the air in the arena was thick with antic.i.p.ation and there was a deafening silence, all the spectators were holding their breaths with their eyes wide while wondering what spell was in the scroll that they were both clutching tightly in their hands.
Unlike Fighters, in a battle between two sorcerers, the first attack was usually the most crucial, particularly for someone like Mia and Vidomina who each had a strong mentor behind them. One could not help but be curious and wonder what kind of spell was contained in their scroll. Who would be able to gain the upper-hand first? And who would cast the barrier that would dominate the match? All those questions did not only made the spectators held their breath in nervousness, they also held the full attention of the Immortal Level sorcerer as well.
On the stage, it was clearly a match between the two girls but below stage, there was no doubt that it was a match between Baiyi and the Immortal Level elder. The elder was originally a wandering sorcerer that was wanted by the authorities, his actual combat experience was on par with that of a Holy Level being. He had absolute confidence in the tactics and strategies that he drew up for Vidomina.
However, the moment Vidomina stood in front of Baiyi, the elder’s heart was suddenly flooded with a feeling of nervousness. The intuition that he had honed in the many years of fleeing and hiding from the authorities seemed to be vaguely telling him that the opponent that he was facing was someone with a monstrous existence.
“I must be thinking too much!” The elder shook his head trying to chase the thoughts away. He had managed to greet Mia’s Soul Armature before he sent Vidomina off into the ring. When they were both nodding their heads in greetings at each other, he could sense that the man in front of him only had the innate capability of an Intermediate Level being. It’s very strange! He’s so weak to the point that he can’t even sense my true strength and even mistook me for an ordinary old man so why am I feeling uneasy right now? Hmmmm… I’m sure he’s just some ordinary person. Yes, that’s it! Lady Vidomina will certainly win. By thinking those thoughts, he managed to calm himself down.
He obviously did not realize that Baiyi had long sensed his true innate capability. As to why Baiyi was still able to keep his composure even though he was facing an Immortal Level being? Well, that was because to the Voidwalkers, the Immortal Level was nothing but just the dirt on their shoes.
At the same time, on the stage, the whistle was finally blown. Soon enough, all of them would get their answer of who the strongest one was.
The first moves from the two girls were almost identical— after using their Psychic Energy to activate the scrolls, they both crushed the scrolls that they were each holding and threw it towards their opponent. As soon as they did that, they quickly activated the Energy Absorbing s.h.i.+eld on their equipments and started chanting their incantations.
That was where everybody could start to see the distinctions between the two girls. The runes that was lit up in front of Vidomina’s chest indicated that the spell that she was about to cast was a Level Three Dispel Spell but looking at Mia, the spell that she was chanting was a Level Two Fires.h.i.+eld?
Why did she choose this spell? All of the spectators, including President Rhansey who was watching the duel through a Surveillance Spell in his office could not help but wonder.
Before they could even verbalize the question, the scroll that Vidomina threw out earlier suddenly burst into flames that formed a ring-like formation rus.h.i.+ng towards Mia. The scroll was no other than a Level Four Flamewreath.
At the same time, Mia’s scroll exploded and it turned out the spell that she cast was the same as the gooey slime-like substance that she had just used just now. Similarly, the location that she was aiming at was Vidomina’s feet as well.
What took place next was Mia intercepting the Flamewreath with her Level Two fires.h.i.+eld and Vidomina dispelling the goo spell that was directed at her feet mid-ar.
Both of them tied with their first attack? The countermeasures that seemed illogical at first glance turned out to be spot-on in countering each other’s first move? Did they deliberately match their moves? Many students could not help but speculate.
“No, this is not playacting. The both of them really figured out their opponent’s intention!” President Rhansey obviously thought differently from the students. He was someone who knew the background of both parties, as well as the existence of both Baiyi and the elder. Not only that, he also knew how mighty and terrifying those two old monsters were.
“It may look like this is a duel between two students, in truth, it’s actually a showdown between that mysterious Soul Armature and the Immortal Level sorcerer, isn’t it? Nice… Looks like this match is going to become very interesting!” A pleased smile could be seen creeping up on President Rhansey’s face.
At that point, the said elder nodded his head, confirming his previous judgement, at the same time acknowledging the strength of the opponent that he was facing. The main reason he chose to use the Dispel Spell just now was because he was certain that Mia would use the same scroll again.
In fact, the elder did not think that the Soul Armature would be so careless in thinking that he could take down his opponent in just one blow. After all, it was necessary for him to test the water first. It was apparent that an Offense Spell would be intercepted by Vidomina’s equipment so it was almost certain that he would use either one of the two scrolls that he had used just now in the previous battles. Since the combination scroll of Flare and Blare would inflict a critical damage to Mia herself, the chances of them using the the other scroll was no doubt the highest.
Indeed, his prediction proved correct, the Dispel Spell was just the right spell to counter the opponent’s attack.
As for the opponent being able to intercept his own attack, the Elder was not surprised by it either. Even though in the previous duel, he had already exposed his Silence Spell, but it looked like that Soul Armature had also carefully weighed out the situation beforehand and figured out that he should not use his trump card in the first round. Not only would it be disrespectful, it was too risky as well. On top of that, the elder strongly believed that Baiyi would certainly have a preventive measure against it as well which was why he had told Vidomina to use her spell in mid-battle and use the Flamewreath that she had used many times before in the previous battles to test the water.
Although it would pretty exhausting for an ordinary Intermediate Level sorcerer to use a Level Four scroll but it was the opposite for the well-equipped Vidomina. More importantly, if there was an error in the opponent’s judgement, a powerful Level Four spell would be enough to allow her to gain the upperhand.
Be that as it may, Baiyi’s deduction was absolutely correct. The Flames.h.i.+eld had succeeded in stopping the Flamewreath beautifully.
“Seems like Lady Vidomina would be locked in a fierce battle now,” The old man murmured to himself. Although he still held on to the thought that he would win the battle, he understood that it would not be as easy as like the victories of the previous rounds.
On the hand, there seemed to be a slight look of displeasure on Baiyi’s face.
“Hahaha! Baiyi, you useless fool! Where’s your usual high and mighty haughtiness now, huh?” The Bard who had deep hatred towards Baiyi’s absolute power in the Void jumped out and mocked him immediately.
What would you know, you old fart! Almost instantly, Baiyi let him have a taste of his absolute power again.
“Oi, oi, oi, Sir Hope! That’s so unfair of you! Before this, you boasted that the strategy that you came up with for Mia is perfect and foolproof so why don’t I see you gaining the upper hand now? Not only that, you’re actually at a slight disadvantage? Muahahaha!” The Engineer joined in the mocking but in a slightly more subtle manner.
The Astrologer who was in the same league with them chimed in as well, “Exactly! You’ve already used that Goo scroll just now so why did you choose to use it again? Oh, my G.o.d, that move is so noob! That’s so lame of you! No wonder your attack was blocked! Loser!”
Oh, shut the h.e.l.l up! Baiyi sent those two away to the ‘dark room’ to accompany the Bard. Can’t you guys learn from the Paladin and the Cleric? Look at them! They’re not making any noise at all!
“What can we say?” The Paladin was filled with dismay, “You and your opponent merely calculated the move that the other party is going to make and then come up with a countermeasure. In a way, it’s like you are all playing a guessing game or rock-paper-scissor? From what I can see, the first few rounds are going to be a draw, right?”
In the face of such an amateur question, Baiyi did not bother saying anything at all. Instead, it was the Paladin’s partner-in-crime, the Cleric, who explained on behalf of Baiyi, “How is that possible? You underestimated Sir Hope too much! I think we’d be able to see the results in the third round.”
The Cleric continued, “Actually, although those three guys earlier don’t have much experience when it comes to actual combat, they are not stupid. It’s not that they don’t understand the logic of the game theory or that they don’t have faith in you, they were actually trying to get their revenge on you. Didn’t you just cast a Silence Spell on them in the afternoon?”
That three disgusting pedophiles! Well, actually, during lunch break earlier, when the spells on Mia’s skirt temporarily came to a halt, one of them was crying about how he wanted to lick Mia’s legs and another one directly asked Baiyi to remove the light effect completely, which was why in the end, Baiyi could not stand it anymore and banned them from speaking any further. And oh, yeah, the other one? That guy actually wanted Baiyi to dip his finger into the cream of the cake and then put it into Mia’s cute little mouth for her to suck on…
Serves them right! They are old men now and how can they look at a kid like that? Baiyi seethed in anger. At the same time, he looked at the stage to look at the progress of the two girls. The second round of their battle had ended and at the moment, it was still a draw between the two of them with n.o.body having the upperhand. Everything was exactly as he had expected, there was nothing to be worried about at all.
But then, at that moment, sweat could be seen beading on the forehead of the elder who was sitting at side of the ring. It seemed like he was starting to realize that something was wrong…