Close Combat Mage

Chapter 112 – The First Victory Pt. 2

“Good!” Although Suo Jia was still hidden within the smoke, making the audience unable to determine his status, Duke Wen Sha still banged his fist onto the table, shouting in excitement.

Any perceptive and experienced expert could tell that the counterattack just now contained intelligence that an 8-year old child should not have!

In reality, the fire mage hadn’t let his guard down. He had first used the explosions to cause the dust to obscure Suo Jia’s vision, and then he constantly moved around to continuously bombard Suo Jia with spells. That way, Suo Jia wouldn’t have had any way of determining the fire mage’s position.

However, although he hadn’t been able to see with his eyes, Suo Jia’s magic still accurately landed on its target. Suo Jia had calculated the fire mage’s general location from the spells’ trajectories. After going through more comprehensive analysis, Suo Jia had also been able to distinguish the fire mage’s movement habits, and was thus even able to determine the fire mage’s future locations.

Basically, Suo Jia had blindly managed to hit an invisible, moving target 50 meters away from him. Moreover, he had not only landed his attack once, but twice. Suo Jia had been able to completely simulate his opponent’s movements and state of mind. Otherwise, there was no way Suo Jia could’ve accomplished such a feat.

Moreover, Suo Jia had intelligently taken advantage of the instant the fire mage had paused after having finished casting a magic. Without this, even if Suo Jia continued to launch secret attacks, the fire mage could perhaps counter them with Fireballs. If the two collided, there’d be no way Suo Jia could discern the fire mage’s position.

Time, opportunity, analysis , and mental state…..in regards to all aspects, Suo Jia had completely defeated his opponent. The fire mage had been fully equipped all the way up to his teeth and even used such explosive Fireballs. Yet, the situation of the battle had been overturned by two uses of the most basic ice magic — the Ice Sphere Technique. The wisdom used behind this method was equivalent to that of a 50-year old sage’s!

Finally, the audience watched as the smoke gradually dispersed. Suo Jia’s figure appeared under everyone’s watchful gazes; Suo Jia, that fellow, had actually made an ice chair and was currently sitting on it while putting on airs. Both his eyes were closed and he was in a state of recuperation. God!? What kind of attitude was this? Was this an action that someone facing a powerful enemy would have?

Seeing Suo Jia comfortably sitting on his ice chair, Duke Wen Sha’s gaze was filled with admiration and praise. This child was indeed how his daughter had described him; too intelligent and too wise! This child’s future was really too unfathomable!

Sighing in admiration, Duke Wen Sha shook his head and slowly stood up, “I hereby declare that the victory of this challenge competition is the first grade water mage — Suo Jia!”

Hearing Duke Wen Sha’s voice, Suo Jia slowly opened his eyes. He leisurely stood up, and gracefully greeted Duke Wen Sha with the proper noble’s etiquette. However, he remained completely silent.

Amused by Suo Jia’s calm expression, Duke Wen Sha smiled and said, “Congratulations, Lord Suo Jia. You have won this round, and have earned another opportunity to raise your noble rank!”

Suo Jia wordlessly smiled at Duke Wen Sha’s words. As before, he was quietly recovering. He understood well that unless he abandoned the competition now, his next opponents would only be stronger and stronger.

As expected, Duke Wen Sha continued to talk with Suo Jia, “How about it? Do you want to continue challenging, or do you want to stop now?” Duke Wen Sha felt a bit conflicted; although he really wanted to watch Suo Jia continue fighting, his rationale was telling him that ending here would be the smartest action.

Suo Jia’s eyes suddenly lit up at Duke Wen Sha’s question. He locked gazes with Duke Wen Sha, and Suo Jia said resolutely, “I choose to continue the challenging!”

“Good!” Duke Wen Sha declared, “Since you still want to continue challenging, then you can now choose your next opponent. At the same time….you will have 30 minutes to rest.”

Suo Jia fished out the timetable and began to examine it closely. He had already beaten the 14 year old fire mage, and none of the 15 or 16 year olds were participating. His current choices were only a 17 year old wind warrior, and an 18 year old fire warrior.

Suo Jia couldn’t help but furrow his brows as he examined the timetable. This wind warrior was a super genius. He had the nickname of being the “star of speed”; his speed was so fast that it seemed like he could race straight to the moon. Even a powerful fire warrior would be completely unable to go against this wind warrior. The most extreme part was that according to this school’s records, his victory rate against mages was 100%! This wind warrior even gave a grand speech in the start of the competition, declaring that he was the bane of all mages. Even those that were much stronger than him wouldn’t be his equal.

As for the fire warrior, not much more needed to be explained. That guy had already been at the academy for 10 years. Within these 10 years, he’d always been his grade’s champion. Moreover….for the past 3 years, he was able to continuously completely overwhelm the wind warriors, and had become the final champion of the entire inter-championship competition. This was his last time participating in the competition, and his only goal was to become the overall champion for the fourth time in succession!

Suo Jia’s expression became pained as he looked over these two people’s details. The wind warrior who was the bane of all mages, or the fire warrior who was the reigning champion within Holy Light for the past 4 years? One was 17, and one was 18, while Suo Jia had only lived for a fraction of their lives. Did he really have to continue fighting through this competition?

Suo Jia tightly closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He knew that if his goal was a mere noble rank, it was better to simply give up now. However, his goal wasn’t the rank; his sole goal was to create history and become the champion!

Suo Jia’s nervous heart finally calmed down. He slowly opened his eyes and said in a heavy tone, “The next person I want to challenge is the wind warrior!”

“Wa!” All the people in the audience cried out in shock. They all looked at Suo Jia with gazes of pity; in their opinions, Suo Jia was definitely screwed.

Perhaps the wind warrior wasn’t as strong as the fire warrior, but the fire warrior had also lost to many mages before. On the other hand, the wind warrior had never lost to any type of mage. To any mage, the wind warrior was much more formidable than the fire warrior!

Everyone knew that if Suo Jia faced against the fire warrior, there would be at least a slight sliver of hope. However, against the wind warrior’s ridiculous speed, no mage would be able to do anything about it.

Actually, if it weren’t on a stage, perhaps the wind warrior wouldn’t be so formidable. However, this platform was only about 50m wide. There was nowhere to run. Once one left the platform, it would count as their loss! In a situation like this, the wind warrior’s specialty pretty much forced all mages to helplessly lose. In reality, mages weren’t really suitable for fighting on areas like this; platforms were the warriors’ realm!

After choosing his opponent, Suo Jia went back to lying on his chair. He closed his eyes, and focused all his efforts on recovering his magic and spirit power. The next battle would be one of matchless difficulty and he could easily lose. If he couldn’t recover his spirit power before the start of the round, then Suo Jia might as well forfeit the match.

30 minutes is a very long amount of time, but there are some occasions where it passes in the blink of an eye. Suo Jia felt that he had only just closed his eyes before his time was already up.

Perplexed, Suo Jia slowly woke up and rubbed his eyes. He then casted two Moisture Techniques to recover his spirit and clear his mind. Although he had just taken a short nap, Suo Jia had finally managed to recover to his peak state before the intense battle would begin!

Slowly standing up, Suo Jia walked over the edge of the platform. A battle between a mage and a warrior was always a battle of distance. Although Suo Jia used the ice stream, he didn’t dare to be careless. He’d have to first increase the distance between him and his opponent and test around for the wind warrior’s characteristics before doing anything else!

A wind warrior covered in golden armor strode up to the platform with a magnificent sword at his waist. The noon sun’s rays reflected off of his golden armor in strands, making him look like a war god as he walked over.

The wind warrior’s handsome face, his natural and unrestrained poise, his tall and straight posture, and his celebrity-like temperament all seemed to belong to a monarch’s. His expression of extreme self-confidence made it impossible for anyone to imagine him losing!

Leisurely standing in front of Suo Jia, the wind warrior elegantly waved at the audience. Immediately afterwards…..countless shrill shrieks from girls rang out. Suo Jia couldn’t help but bitterly smile at this. What exactly was he doing? Giving a performance? It looked like….he viewed Suo Jia as completely unimportant.

Suo Jia smiled darkly. Very good….The wind warrior could be arrogant and show off all he wanted right now. In a moment, Suo Jia would let him understand the consequences of belittling him! Even if Suo Jia didn’t win, he was determined to destroy him until people wouldn’t be able to distinguish if he was alive or dead; Suo Jia wanted to see how the wind warrior could act so arrogant then. This was the warrior’s punishment for being so disrespectful to Suo Jia!

Hehe, aside from the grade-level competition, there was no other battle that could be won so easily. Otherwise, wouldn’t it become a chaotic mess?