Teaming Up
Leylin turned his attention to another screen.
In the sky above a verdant forest, Longbottom, disguised as Green-robed Carl, had run into Haylon.
These were two favoured dark horses had a large possibility of gaining victory. This immediately attracted attention.
Many contestants had already been eliminated in a short period of time. With fewer participants remaining, the remaining screens had increased in size.
……
Within the secret plane.
“Green-robed Carl?” Haylon glanced at the strange youngster in front of him.
“I’d originally wanted to skip the trouble of defeating you guys one by one, and had decided to wait to make a move and harvest a large number of points at once, but forget it. I’ll make an exception for you and take your point right away.”
Longbottom looked at Haylon in front of him, a sinister smile on his face. Now that he was getting closer to the goal, he did not have to disguise himself so carefully. His opponent’s identity as a genius made Longbottom, who had been born a commoner, feel a sense of disgust.
“You seem to hate me?” Haylon’s brows furrowed, “It’s alright, anyone who obstructs my path shall die anyway!”
“Jeje, who do you think you are!” Longbottom laughed weirdly, and released part of the bindings on him.
Cold! Powerful!
A berserk wave of spiritual force swept across like a hurricane.
“Peak rank 1?” Haylon’s expression that had always been as cold as ice was immediately smashed through.
Longbottom’s ‘burst’ had also caused a frenzy outside the plane.
“Peak rank 1? I remember Green-robed Carl is only forty-five years old, right?” A judge wearing reading glasses asked a Magus behind him, “Fano, when did you reach the level you’re at?”
The Magus by the name of Fano was an old geezer with a white beard. He looked ashamed as he spoke, “Your subordinate is ashamed. After training hard on the Icy Throne for 70 years, I reached this realm at 115 years old.”
“If he studied on his own, this Carl really is a genius!” This judge raised his spectacles, “Run checks on him. If there’s nothing wrong, we can consider enticing him into entering our guild.”
Leylin, who was also on the judge panel, saw that many of the other judges had sent down the same order and couldn’t help but laugh inside.
If this was a few days ago, they might be able to find out about Longbottom, but now? By the time they had run their checks, Longbottom might already have achieved his goal. What use was it then if they found out?
”You’re already at the peak of rank 1!” Haylon blurted out, unable to maintain his indifference any longer.
“This is the expression! This is the expression!” Longbottom chuckled aloud, “I want those people who look down on me to realise how wrong they are!”
He laughed crazily, flushing red as if he were sick.
“You’re crazy!” Haylon’s voice became cold, and large numbers of silver-white light blades appeared from his robes, swirling in formation.
“Go!” Haylon pointed at Longbottom, and the many light blades formed a dense mesh and tried to pull Longbottom in. Meanwhile, he turned into a black shadow and disappeared into the sky.
“You overestimate yourself!” Longbottom snorted coldly, a layer of green mist surging forth.
*Tss tss!* Great numbers of silver-white light blades entered the mist and immediately produced sounds of corrosion, dissipating one by one.
“Come here!” Longbottom’s right hand became a phantom image and reached deep into the air.
Next, a black shadow was pulled out from the surrounding space.
Haylon’s expression was that of disbelief. “That’s impossible. This concealing technique is my master’s special technique! How could it…”
“That strong aura of life on you betrayed you!” Longbottom explained, his expression showing his disdain.
Meanwhile, Haylon went limp, as if this was a huge blow to him.
“Kid, you’re very luckily. If we’d met earlier, you’d long since have turned into a corpse, but now?” Longbottom halted his intentions of using Life Absorption and turning him into a dried-up corpse.
This was still within the secret plane, and he was being monitored by the Magi outside.
If he hid his true strength, he could pass it off as being exceptionally talented or having gained some inheritance. Whatever it was, Twilight Zone was huge and it was no surprise to have some fortuitous encounters.
However, Life absorption was a dark-elven meditation technique. If it was exposed, the competition would be halted, and he would be faced with several rank 2 Magi who would combine their efforts to kill him.
“But I really don’t want to just let you off!” While lifting Haylon, a smile appeared about Longbottom’s lips.
This smile was enough for Haylon’s hair to be raised, and he immediately thought of using the spell pattern for escape. However, it was too late!
A green light sword ripped through Haylon’s forehead, and with the corrosive force invading, he could only cry out miserably.
“Ah…” Amidst the painful screams, Haylon’s body was bound in light pillars and transported out.
Longbottom took out his own amulet and saw the number rapidly rise to thirty, and revealed a satisfied expression. After closing his eyes for a short while, he began to hurry towards another location.
*Thud!* Outside the secret plane, Haylon’s body fell to the ground, large amounts of black blood flowing out of his orifices.
“His mind has been damaged! Quick, get Master Dojek here!” The healing Magus who came over took a look and quickly shook his head.
A moment later, Dojek narrated something to Leylin and the other committee members at the judging area.
“His sea of consciousness has been destroyed? There’s no cure?”
“Yes, Haylon’s sea of consciousness has completely been destroyed by a corrosive spiritual force. There is no way to restore it. At most, I can only save his life. From hereon, he can only live on as a commoner…”
Dojek’s expression was dim. Haylon truly was a genius, but he had not realised that no matter how amazing the genius, they could fall before they truly matured.
However, his long life had allowed him to experience much, and with a sigh, he left.
Leylin and the committee members had a brief exchange regarding the issue, before they promptly tossed this matter to the back of their minds.
The final competition carried the risk of death! Just crippling a Magus wasn’t much.
What they were more interested in were the methods Longbottom had used to heavily injure Haylon before he had been transported out.
“It seems to be a combination spell. By instantly transmitting large amounts of energy particles to destroy the composition of the sea of consciousness…”
There was a flash in Leylin’s eyes.
He felt that after large numbers of geniuses had fallen in this competition, the force of destiny shrouding the area had become richer till the extreme.
The surging river of destiny was like a giant gunpowder warehouse. With just a little spark, it would explode violently.
“I didn’t expect the three of them to meet. Time for a good show!”
Right after, Leylin realised something else and changed his focus to a screen at a corner.
“Based on the guide of destiny!”
Three voices sounded in unison, with both male and female voices.
Aaron, Vinas, and Ernis who were all training in Sacred Flame, the geniuses Leylin had created himself, finally came together.
If anyone had been focusing on these three Magi, they would realise that after entering the secret plane, they had not fought with any Magi and instead, had been hurrying forward.
Just as they were about to encounter enemies, they could predict and evade them.
Hence, the three somehow passed through half of the secret plane and met at a corner on the plains.
“It’s the first time we’re meeting in real life! I’ll introduce myself. My name is Ernis!” There was a smile on Ernis’ face. His gaze swept past Vinas and Aaron, and stayed on Aaron’s ring and Vinas’ multi-coloured necklace for a long while.
“Aaron!” “Vinas!”
“Are you going to repent for all you have done?” Aaron asked, standing with Vinas.
Though they were competing against each other, he and Vinas were on the humans’ side, and had no good feelings towards Ernis of the dark elven camp.
“I’m just used to looking at issues from a different point of view!” Ernis laughed, obviously not wanting to say more.
After all, there was a large group of Magi watching. How could he expose himself?
“Then die!”
Just a moment before, they had speaking nicely, and in the next, Aaron immediately became hostile and attacked.
A silver cross blade hilt appeared in his hands, and was only a third as long as a regular cross blade. It had lost its sword blade and point, but a sharp energy fluctuation burst out from it.
A ray of light streaked through the air, bringing about with it numerous ripples and aimed at Ernis.
Ernis seemed to have predicted it and dodged, looking delighted at the sword hilt in Aaron’s hands.
“So you’ve forged it too! I won’t have to conceal anything anymore.”
A silver-white slender long sword tip appeared in front of Ernis. The sharpness it emanated was even above that of Aaron’s attack.
“Go!” Ernis pointed at Aaron, and great amounts of silver light shot out from the tip of the blade.
Formless ripples collided with the silver light and quickly dispersed, as if nothing had happened.
However, the surrounding grass had become much shorter, cut through smoothly as if it had been sliced through in that instance by some light.
“This is it. All devious plots are useless to us. All we can depend on is solely strength to fight it out!”
Ernis yelled, his sword tip flying into his hands and shooting out great amounts of light.
Seeing this, Vinas sighed and retrieved a silver-white sword blade from behind her back and besieged Ernis with Aaron.
“Hmm?”
The Magi outside suddenly made sounds of astonishment.
“These three middle-grade magic artifacts have reached the peak. Also, why does it feel like the sword hilt, sword blade and sword tip can be combined to create a magic artifact with more power?”