Chapter 96: The Boundary Breaker

Chapter 96: Chapter 96: The Boundary Breaker

"So... what if we win?" It was clear that the situation on the arena was extremely critical, fierce battles raging on all sides, yet the silver-haired young man did not reveal a single trace of tension.

Lucius tilted his head slightly, his narrow, elongated phoenix eyes carrying a bewitching smile as they locked onto Jeremy’s masculine side profile, his deep, warm voice brushing past with a hint of ambiguity: "Would you feel happy, Captain?"

Jeremy’s attention remained highly focused on the developments of the match, but the other party’s teasing rhythm made him frown slightly. He dodged a stream of magic power flying past, replying with a cold, slightly perplexed tone: "...Of course? Is there anyone stepping onto the arena hoping they’re bound to lose?"

Lucius let out a low, magnetic chuckle from his throat, not saying anything more. The brief conversation amidst the smoke and fire of the battlefield ended here, but the invisible synchronization between the two grew even tighter. The two masculine backs leaned close to each other, forming a solid defensive barrier, revealing absolutely no openings.

At this moment, the support mage of the Begonia Team - Vivian - had finished her incantation, immediately swinging her scepter to cast her first skill: [Wind Guardian’s Protection].

A violent gale carrying a sharp holy light roared as it swept across the arena. The pitch-black fog created by Lucius earlier was torn apart by the wind in the blink of an eye, restoring clear vision.

Taking advantage of the moment the fog dissipated, the Wood Elf and the Fire Phoenix spirit beast controlled by Sze and Helyn once again erupted with murderous intent, frantically charging in to close the distance.

Fortunately, Helyn’s Dark Ghost Spirit had already been shredded and destroyed by Lucius’s chain blade earlier, causing the dark elf to also dissipate into nothingness. Furthermore, Helyn’s summoning skill was restricted by a harsh cooldown time, unable to continuously call forth new entities in a short period. Thanks to this, the pressure weighing on Jeremy’s shoulders was also reduced, allowing him to catch his breath.

Seeing Jeremy and Lucius coordinating as flawlessly as a unified entity, with comprehensive offense and defense, Sze and Helyn immediately exchanged glances. They quickly adjusted their tactics, shifting from solo combat to coordinated strikes, intending to pierce through the two’s defensive layer.

Left with no other choice, Jeremy swung the Scythe of Death, and Lucius swung the Fang of Abyss chain. The two were forced to split off into a corner, directly opening an incredibly fierce, small-scale duo battle right inside the team battle.

The magic elements on the arena clashed wildly, explosive light flaring brilliantly, the entire arena submerged in a chaotic mess of power and slaughter.

---

In another hidden corner of the arena.

Although the magic threads summoned earlier by Phoenix’s skill had been cut by Aina’s sonic waves, the core nature of the linking skill was not completely severed. Capitalizing on the exact period when Lucius’s black fog provided cover, Phoenix, quick-witted and agile, shot thin threads close to the ground, successfully connecting with all four of his teammates.

Through the shared magic power transmission from Phoenix’s [Nightmare Vision Eye], the mind-controlling and hallucination-inducing effects accompanying Aina’s Nether Flute were almost entirely neutralized, unable to cause any significant impact on the nerves of Jeremy’s group.

With their manipulation intentions collapsing, the Begonia Team at this moment finally realized they were facing a true bunch of monsters, absolutely not daring to underestimate the enemy for another half-second.

Evelyn and Phoenix retreated, crisscrossing their angles, gradually forming a two-versus-two situation, directly confronting Captain Aina and support mage Vivian.

As for the final two individuals among the ten people on the field...

On the other half of the arena, two madmen seemed to have been blinded by the bloodlust of the battlefield, completely forgetting that they were participating in a team match.

Those two, naturally, were Leon of the Lunar Eclipse Team and Davion of the Begonia Team.

In reality, Davion’s original plan was to fight fast and win fast, cleanly dealing with this guy bearing a bottom-tier Spirit Covenant, and then immediately turn to support his teammates. But the catch was, he hadn’t expected the ferocious beast named Leon to possess such terrifying reflexes and physical strength. Beaten back a step, Leon would charge forward to slash twice. The fighting spirit in Davion’s eyes gradually flared into a loss of control, to the point where he threw his initial support objective out the window.

In contrast, Leon maintained an incredibly leisurely attitude. He was simply following his captain’s exact instructions: stick tight to this meat shield and drag out the time for as long as possible.

The twin Crescent Blades in Leon’s hands shrieked, launched like a pair of boomerang darts carrying a deadly trajectory, tearing through the wind and aiming straight for Davion’s throat.

Davion gritted his teeth, gathering his strength to raise his heavy sword, delivering an extremely powerful slash that batted the twin blades, sending them rebounding backward.

Seeing the Crescent Blades carrying a reverberating force flying straight towards him, Leon didn’t panic in the slightest. The firm muscles at his waist subtly shifted, and he leaned his body at a perfect angle, letting the blades graze past in mid-air, then his fingertips instantly condensed magic power, calling the pair of weapons to obediently return to their trajectory.

"You’re not bad." Davion lowered his center of gravity, using a scrutinizing, condescending gaze to assess Leon from top to bottom: "At first, I thought someone carrying a trash Spirit Covenant like you, even if you luckily dragged yourself to the same realm as me, would be crushed in a single move. But now it seems... you’re a bit stronger than I imagined. At least not useless to the point of being garbage."

Regardless of whether it was his condescending expression or his patronizing tone, it all radiated a blatant provocation and insult.

However, Leon had absolutely no interest in replying to the dog barking in his ear. His silver-gray eyes glanced sideways, nonchalantly throwing Davion a look full of contempt from above, completely ignoring the other party.

Treated like thin air, the muscles on Davion’s face twitched, his expression becoming incredibly ugly. Green veins popped along his temples; furious and not bothering to say another word, he immediately accelerated, hoisting his heavy sword and lunging to close in on Leon.

This time, Leon did not retreat. Following the explosive magic power pouring straight into his hands, the form of the Crescent Blades suddenly underwent a subtle transformation. The originally curved blades were now stretched out and sharpened, turning into a brutal crescent moon shape, specifically designed to tear through defensive layers in close combat.

This could be considered an accompanying weapon transformation effect after he broke through to the Intermediate Stage threshold.

Before Davion could close in, Leon channeled force into the tips of his shoes, proactively lunging straight forward.

His left arm swung up, using one side of the chakram to create a loud, harsh friction, roughly blocking the descending heavy sword. The very moment the opponent paused due to the reaction force, Leon’s right arm swung the remaining chakram, thrusting a fatal stab aimed right at Davion’s heart.

Davion, startled, instinctively twisted his hips to dodge. But this pathetic retreat happened to fall perfectly into the predicted trajectory that Leon’s combat brain had mapped out. Not giving the opponent time to regain his center of gravity, Leon’s long leg whipped up, delivering a thunderous kick straight into Davion’s abdomen.

Under the series of days being tortured by Griffin in extreme gravity and elemental resistance environments over the past few months, the physical intensity of all five members of the Lunar Eclipse Team had evolved into combat machines far exceeding the limits of their peers. Pure physical strength combined with the thrust of magic power produced a force entirely capable of smashing boulders.

Davion couldn’t react in time. The thousand-pound kick lifted his body off the ground, sending him flying into mid-air. The sound of ribs cracking "crack-crack" echoed exceptionally piercingly across the arena area...

Before Davion’s body could even fall and touch the ground, Leon’s figure had transformed into a streak of ash-gray afterimage. Borrowing momentum for extreme acceleration, he appeared right behind his opponent’s back. The crescent blade in his hand showed no mercy, plunging a stab deep to the hilt into the man’s spine.

The first core skill: [Prisoner] was instantly activated!

Following the depth of the stab, a type of venom that sealed the meridians rushed straight into Davion’s flesh and blood. He roared in agony, frantically trying to channel magic power to forcibly break the bindings, but horrifyingly discovered: his entire body was completely paralyzed, no longer obeying any command from his consciousness!

Sensing approaching death, Davion hastily used his dying breath to scream for his teammates’ help.

Captain Aina, seeing this from afar, changed her expression drastically. She immediately abandoned her attacking deadlock with Evelyn, decisively casting her ultimate trump card to provide rescue.

Aina unleashed all her magic power, directly activating the supreme exclusive ability of Holy Covenant No. 15: [Order of the Spatial Time Interval].

The exclusive ability of a top-tier Holy Covenant was absolutely not something that bottom-tier Spirit Covenants could easily compare to. Once the [Order of the Spatial Time Interval] was initiated, a rule-suppressing power descended, forcibly causing the flow of time around the arena to completely stagnate.

Even though with her current Intermediate Stage realm, forcibly using a time manipulation skill was strictly limited, its effect only maintaining for a few short seconds, that much was already more than enough for an expert to turn the tide of the battle.

Everything on the battlefield, from the hovering embers to the weapon trajectories of the members, seemed to be frozen in place. Capitalizing on that stagnant moment, Aina glided like lightning, instantly unleashing her second skill: [Illuminating Holy Lotus].

A massive lotus of light bloomed beneath Davion’s feet. This [Illuminating Holy Lotus] skill not only had the effect of purifying and countering evil entities, but also carried vitality restoration properties, helping a severely injured teammate heal their wounds and neutralize control states in the blink of an eye.

Right after pulling Davion away from Leon’s deadly blade and tossing him to a safe area, Aina did not stop her hands. She raised the flute to her lips and blew a rapid, urgent melody. Countless magical illusion butterflies condensed from the void into a massive phantom butterfly, carrying a destructive murderous intent as it lunged straight towards the immobilized Leon.

Right at this moment, the rule barrier shattered. The flow of time instantly returned to normal. Aina’s entire rescue and counter-attack sequence took less than three seconds.

But as soon as time ticked forward, the massive butterfly shadow had already closed in right in front of Leon’s face. At this moment, for someone not possessing an instant teleportation skill, dodging was completely impossible, and his teammates couldn’t accelerate to assist in time either.

The moment the explosive butterfly phantom slammed straight into Leon’s body, a blinding light erupted, its radiation so intense that it forced the entire audience to squeeze their eyes shut.

The crowd in the stands looked at each other, everyone standing on their tiptoes, curiously waiting to see what a miserable, shredded state that arrogant guy from the Lunar Eclipse Team would be reduced to after taking this killer strike head-on.

"That’s a crushed lung for sure! Taking a full-power strike from Holy Covenant No. 15, after all. It seems the tables have turned in this round, the Begonia Team holds a sure victory."

"What else could it be? Even though that Lunar Eclipse Team displayed quite good physical strength, when compared to the top-tier magic of the Begonia Team, an unbridgeable gap still exists."

"Hey! Wait a minute! Look quickly... that guy Leon, it seems he’s completely fine!"

Completely fine?!

Tens of thousands of eyes widened simultaneously, pinned to the smoke-filled arena.

A crisp shattering sound, like cracking glazed jade, rang out clearly. The smoke and dust, along with the light, gradually dissipated. In the center of the explosion, Leon—the person the stands had defaulted to being crippled and devoid of the power to resist—was still standing tall on the spot!

His back was straight, his tall figure still maintaining that lazy posture, one hand holding his blade, the other casually brushing the dust off his shoulder. If it weren’t for a thin trail of blood seeping from the corner of his lips, along with his ash-gray hair slightly messed up and dusted with smoke, anyone looking would not believe he had just blocked Aina’s killer strike head-on with his bare hands.

A male student who had bet his entire fortune on the Lunar Eclipse Team clutched his chest, breathing a sigh of relief so deep he almost cried: "Thank the heavens! Good thing his second core skill [Jade Transformation] carries an absolute damage immunity effect. If he didn’t have that jade protection layer, taking that move just now head-on would have definitely severed his meridian system, completely losing his combat capability."

But beside him, someone stood with their arms crossed, coldly analyzing, and tossed out a mocking remark:

"The time-stagnating flow move just now truly displayed the exclusive power of a peak Holy Covenant. Such a golden opportunity, the battle-hardened Aina definitely couldn’t have just used it to rescue a piece of trash without laying down another fatal trap."