Chapter 94: The Battle of Separation

Chapter 94: Chapter 94: The Battle of Separation

Jeremy lightly tapped his fingers on the armrest, a sharp, calculating glint flashing through the depths of his eyes. He secretly felt fortunate that Leon possessed the exclusive skill of Spirit Covenant No. 303. This trump card truly helped him cut down countless troublesome hassles on the tactical chessboard.

The core skill belonging to Phoenix’s Spirit Covenant No. 301 was named [Nightmare Vision Eye]. Coincidentally, the enemy captain’s combat capability leaned entirely towards illusion control, and the [Nightmare Vision Eye] was its absolute natural enemy, fully capable of tearing through all ethereal illusions. Not only that, during the casting process, Phoenix could also establish a magic power link with his teammates to share vision and tracking capabilities. Because of this, establishing a meat shield to protect his safety was determined by Jeremy as the core mission of this match.

As for Evelyn, the exclusive skill of Spirit Covenant No. 302 was [Reconstructive Ideation]. A terrifying form of mental manipulation using telekinesis. It allowed her to forcibly invade and alter the memories of targets possessing a lower magic realm than herself. Naturally, the trade-off risk was also extremely stringent: the magic power consumption would spike exponentially based on the victim’s strength, along with the depth and duration of the implanted memory segment.

But what made Jeremy raise an eyebrow in highest appreciation was Lucius’s destined skill. Spirit Covenant No. 304 brought an ability named [Chaos of the Void Order] - an explosive combination of spatial manipulation and rule suppression.

When activating this domain, Lucius’s magic power recovery speed would reach an infinite threshold. Simultaneously, it generated a barrier forcibly sealing all exclusive skills of mages who were at the same realm, had the same number of stars, or were lower than him.

Taking the upcoming death match as a practical example. As long as Lucius activated [Orderless], except for the enemy captain who had a slightly higher realm, the other four members of the Begonia Team would instantly fall into a state of having their martial arts crippled, all their Holy Covenant skills firmly locked.

However, the magic matrix’s law of equivalent exchange never had an exception. The fatal flaw of this heaven-defying skill was: Lucius himself would also suffer a backlash seal. His entire arsenal of magic was frozen, forcing the caster to throw away his wand and plunge into the slaughter using purely physical close-combat capabilities. After all, this was also a form of cruel balance by the world’s laws.

Jeremy lightly rotated his wrist joints; outwardly calm, but deep within, a complex trace flashed by. Possessing a team of comrades carrying such bizarre and powerful skills, to say he didn’t feel a hint of jealousy would be a lie. Compared to them, his ability to morph weapon forms... besides changing slaughter tools to suit his hand, seemingly brought no other suppressive effects.

Brushing the miscellaneous thoughts out of his sea of consciousness, Jeremy poured his entire mind into the tactical sandbox. Based on the power stats, the skill structure of his teammates, and the intelligence gathered from the opponent, he began to distribute the formation in a cold, decisive manner:

"Lucius, if the opponent shows signs of gathering power to cast a Holy Covenant skill, you absolutely must not hesitate. Instantly accelerate to close in, and use a killer move to forcibly interrupt their chanting rhythm. Evelyn, right at the opening, you must go all out to pressure their support target, Vivian. As for choosing the moment to activate your mind control skill, it’s best to aim straight at..."

Jeremy meticulously laid out every single move. The only catch was that the Inscriptions of the enemy captain Aina and the assassin Sze sat loftily at the thresholds of Holy Covenants No. 15 and 20. The massive volume of magical archives he had crammed entirely lacked a single line recording the exclusive skills of these peak numbers. In addition, during the previous elimination rounds, they had also been so arrogant that they never bothered to use their trump cards, so Jeremy fundamentally couldn’t determine what their killer moves were.

Providing a series of backup plans, finally, the young captain merely concluded coldly with one sentence: "Everything else depends on improvising. Use survival on the arena as the most accurate benchmark."

Under the boiling, expectant gazes of tens of thousands in the stands, the final death match officially raised its curtain.

The referee spirit beast shaped like a cotton ball performed an artistic somersault in mid-air. After channeling magic to reinforce the entire defensive barrier surrounding the arena, its clear voice echoed: "Next up is the entrance of the Lunar Eclipse Team and the Begonia Team! Please allow the introduction of the formation stats, the captain of the Begonia Team - Aina, Holy Covenant No. 15..."

While the spirit beast cleared its throat reading the list, the ten youths had already taken long strides to stand facing each other on the freezing marble surface. The match hadn’t officially begun, but the murderous intent and explosive fighting spirit from both sides had already clashed, condensing into oppressive sparks of friction.

The captain of the Begonia Team - Aina - jutted her chin, her sharp, cold gaze sweeping across each face of the five Lunar Eclipse Team members. The corners of her lips curled into a half-smile, her tone carrying the arrogance of a superior: "You bottom-tier trash must have struggled pitifully to crawl to this step, haven’t you? I hope this round you can drain the last bit of your dying strength, by all means, do not hold back."

Whether it was contemptuous mockery or a formal reminder depended entirely on the listener’s reception.

Jeremy lowered his eyelids slightly, his gaze as flat as an autumn lake thrown straight at Aina, his deep voice spitting out a sharp mockery: "I also hope it is you guys who have to use your little lives to go all out."

The stands at this moment had exploded into a cauldron. The Inscription boundary and the realm gap between the two teams became the subject of bloody betting.

The referee spirit beast just finished its introduction formalities. Waiting for the ten people to complete the cold pre-match bowing ritual, it immediately shrieked: "I declare, the final match officially begins!"

There was no countdown. The moment the final syllable shattered, the ten figures on the arena simultaneously erupted with magic power. Ten destined Sacred Weapons tore through space in the blink of an eye, manifesting with sky-high murderous intent.

Aina had once stood at fourth place in the freshman individual tournament. One bearing Holy Covenant No. 15, only yielding under the hands of the devil Asharo. Before the match, Jeremy had taken the trouble to investigate and grasp a portion of her abilities. Aina’s second skill possessed a light attribute, capable of purifying and brutally countering the majority of moves belonging to the undead and necromancy systems. Recognizing this clearly, Jeremy completely scrapped the idea of opening the [Undead Spirit Domain].

But if he now overclocked his magic power to open the [Light Illumination Domain], it would be too hasty a move, easily revealing his trump card.

His golden eyes narrowed, quickly sweeping over the moving tactical map of the opponent.

Aina played the role of the central core - a long-range control mage doubling as the main burst damage dealer, a position similar to Phoenix’s.

Sze’s [Shadow Twin Blades] clearly defined him in the direction of a burst-speed assassin, specializing in backstabbing and cutting off the backline.

Davion, with his [Silver Light Sword], stood tall, advancing forward, naturally taking on the role of the entire team’s defensive meat shield.

Vivian held the [Floral Spirit Scepter], a pure support-type mage, retreating deep into a dead angle to scatter buffs and set up control traps.

As for the final member, Helyn... Her Sacred Weapon’s form was extremely bizarre: [Heavenly Spirit Cards]. A magical deck capable of randomly summoning various types of spirit beasts or combat elves. Based on her leveling progress, the limit of card manipulation would also be amplified. According to intelligence video recordings, with her current Basic Stage Nine-Star threshold, the maximum limit she could shoulder was two cards simultaneously, corresponding to two main skills.

Skill one: [Summon]. Opening a Spatial Door, calling forth a spirit beast possessing strength equal to her own.

Skill two: [Spirit Guardian Protection]. Randomly summoning elemental guardian elves, with a maximum quantity of two entities.

Helyn’s positioning leaned towards a DPS (damage per second) summoner mage. But precisely because of the unpredictable "lottery-like" nature of the summoned entities, she was entirely capable of filling in and concurrently taking on other vacant positions in the formation. A loose existence yet full of unpredictable variables.

Compared to the other targets, Jeremy’s blade was aimed straight at Helyn’s throat from the very beginning.

However, the proud geniuses of the Begonia Team were clearly no scarecrows either. They had meticulously dissected the Lunar Eclipse Team’s video recordings. From the very second the match opened, their standing positions immediately separated, spreading out a counter-network so perfect that Jeremy couldn’t find a single opening to launch a burst-speed assault.

Leon swung his twin crescent blades, instantly blocked by Davion wielding his heavy sword, the two streams of metallic magic power clashing loudly. The opponent glued tightly to Lucius was precisely the shadow assassin, Sze. Evelyn and Captain Aina had already plunged into a fiery magic duel, bursts of explosive light continuously erupting in mid-air. In the backline, Phoenix was being bogged down by Vivian using patches of enhanced magical vines and secret control spells, making it hard for him to free his hands to assist.

The four teammates had all been separated and locked into 1v1 death matches. And the only remaining opponent on the chessboard standing opposite him was none other than Helyn.

Helyn’s skills depended entirely on summoning arts.

She flipped her wrist, and the first skill was instantly cast without chanting. A blazing [Door of Resummoning] tore through the void, hovering right above her head.

Accompanied by a clear, arrogant phoenix cry piercing the eardrums, a massive Fire Phoenix spread its blazing wings and lunged out of the spatial door. It landed imposingly, blocking right in front of Helyn in the posture of an absolute guardian. The rolling barrier of fire exhaled face-scorching heat, making Jeremy’s intention to close in and launch a melee strike even more difficult than ever before.

Helyn coldly threw Jeremy a glance devoid of a single speck of emotion. She lightly lifted a finger, nonchalantly ordering the spirit beast: "Phoenix Fire, devour."

In just the blink of an eye, nine massive fireballs with metal-melting temperatures were compressed, frantically roaring and shrieking as they shot straight towards Jeremy.

Jeremy’s masculine face remained as flat as stagnant water. He lightly flipped his wrist, the Sacred Weapon changing its structure in the blink of an eye, transforming into a pitch-black Scythe of Death carrying a suffocating murderous intent. He gripped the scythe handle tightly with both hands, tensing his shoulder muscles, twisting his hips, and swinging out an explosive slash.

*Whoosh-!*

The crescent-shaped magic blade carrying razor-sharp death aura tore through the layer of void, colliding head-on with the meteor shower of fireballs. An earth-shattering explosion rang out. The nine massive fireballs were sliced in half, exploding into countless brilliant sparks, turning into sparse embers falling onto the marble arena floor.

Witnessing her proud bombardment being neutralized by merely a single, pure physical-magic hybrid slash, a hard-to-hide trace of astonishment flashed through the depths of Helyn’s eyes.

The limit of the magic power reservoir between a bottom-tier Spirit Covenant and a high-tier Holy Covenant was inherently a distinct boundary that could not be bridged. Even if standing together in the same realm, the depth and reserve volume of magic power of one bearing a Holy Covenant obviously had to absolutely overwhelm someone holding a bottom-ranking Spirit Covenant.

And yet... that scythe swing just now from the red-haired youth concealed a stream of power so thick and brutal it was unreasonable.