The silvery wings burst forth once again, as he rocketed into the air like a fiery arrow!
He did not choose to ram through the dome to escape. If he were slowed down by just a tiny bit, there was a possibility of him being contaminated by the black flames. This was a speed and reaction speed that his opponent would definitely be unable to keep up with.
Sharmie’s fingers had already cut so deeply into her palms, yet she had paid absolutely no heed to them. Mario was risking his life on the stage! Any other opponent would have already been defeated by him. The Musk Family’s instantaneous movement capabilities were truly too superhuman!
Jumping dozens of metres in the air was an utter hoodlum way of defence! Within the Casted Soul Stage, other than special ability users with that had flight capabilities, only the members of the Musk Fiery Arrow Family and their Human Body Transformation Art possessed the capability to do such a move.
With a loud bang, the black flames erupted out, filling up the entire dome-shaped arena in the blink of an eye. Standing within the black flames, Mario raised his head to look at Tianqiong Musk in the air. With a smile, he said, “It’s the same move. To me, I will never let you run away like that again.”
Bang…
A black pillar of fire rushed towards the sky!
The entire space turned blurry, with the air appearing to have been charred to the point of changing shape!
“NO!”
Looking at the pillar of black flames chasing up to him, Tianqiong Musk finally lost his composure, revealing a look of terror on his face. That earth attribute special ability prisoner cage move was just a feint! It could never have trapped Tianqiong Musk! However, people would always have a lapse in their thought processes when pressured, resulting in mistakes being made. Tianqiong Musk’s subconscious reaction to danger was to fly up into the air. However, with walls surrounding him from all sides, his direction of movement could now be completely predicted. At the same time, due to the forceful use of his Human Body Transformation Art, he had also lost the ability to make large changes to his movements.
Furthermore, Mario had already calculated and accounted for all of the various possibilities. In the very instant Tianqiong Musk scuttled towards the skies, the black flames had already rumbled up in pursuit.
Mario wasn’t just any Quasi Sanctuary Division, but a true blue Sanctuary Division special ability user!
BANG! His entire body burning with flames, Tianqiong Musk dropped from the sky, shrieking as he fell to the ground.
Just at this instant, a glowing figure rushed out from the side of the stage. With a fierce grab, he caught the falling Tianqiong, before shooting a deep look at Mario before saying, “This duel is your win.”
Mario’s entire body had already turned ice cold when those words rang out. Obviously, that figure was a legendary expert of the Musk Family, a freak at the Heavenly Soul Stage. With a wave of his hands, the black flames on Tianqiong’s body immediately vanished. Nonetheless, Tianqiong’s body had clearly shrivelled quite a bit. That black flames weren’t actual flames, but were a clump of power that existed between a corporeal and ethereal state. The pain and suffering it inflicted were even more berserk and lethal than genuine flames.
It could be said that if the black flames had carried on burning for a few more seconds, Tianqiong Musk could have very well been turned from a genius into a wasted and useless person. However, even though it had been extinguished on time, there was still the possibility of affecting the base of his potential.
Without saying another word, the legendary expert from the Musk Family brought Tianqiong Musk and left. Although the victory was extremely important to them, the Musk Family did not attach the greatest importance to combat, but rather, to the survival of their successor.
A dozen metres in the air, the black flames had split up to form countless sparks and flame seedlings that spread in all directions. At this moment, the referees and expert guards were under great pressure and continued to pour in, while using various kinds of methods to stop the fluttering black flames from spreading even further in the air.
However, due to it being high up in the sky and there being no contingency plan set up to deal with the black flames, their actions weren’t very effective. With a gust of wind blowing by, a bunch of flames fluttered towards the region of the viewing gallery where Wang Zhong and the others were seated.
“Dammit! They’re floating over! Hurry up and run!”
The audience in the viewing gallery instantly grew flustered. Were they going to become innocent bystanders caught in a crossfire? Run!
Just making contact with those flames would spell trouble. At the very least, it would result in a considerable amount of medical bills.
On the contrary, Wang Zhong did not run away. Looking at the flames floating over, a focused look of curiosity appeared on his face. Tianqiong Musk’s final appeared had really spiked his curiosity.
By then, Ma Dong and Milami had already run away. Upon seeing Wang Zhong still sitting there, unmoving, they ran back over again. However, just as they were about to pull Wang Zhong along with them, they noticed him suddenly extending his hands out for a grab, causing a little clump of black flames to land into his hands.
Hiss! In what seemed like an instant, Wang Zhong’s hand was burnt. This caused a peculiar feeling to rise in him, as his fire resistance could be said to be invincible. However, these black flames were still able to injure him, with his fire resistance being unable to put up even a sliver of defence against them.
Based on its essence, the flames from hell weren’t genuine flames, despite their somewhat similar appearances.
Contained within them were devouring, ageing, terror… an extremely complicated flavour.
“Wang Zhong, don’t play with that fire!”
Hearing that, a smile appeared on Wang Zhong’s face as Soul Power abruptly surged out from him, suppressing the black flames in his hand.
There was some slight trouble; the black flames wriggled about, but were unexpectedly not extinguished. So this was why Tianqiong wasn’t willing to contend with the black flames head on for the entire duration of the duel, and did not even dare to allow even the smallest spark to make contact with him. Even when they were in an uncontrolled state, Wang Zhong wasn’t able to extinguish them.
Furthermore, it was just a small little clump of black flames, and they were currently absorbing, no, they were devouring the Soul Power that he had unleashed on them! As they devoured his Soul Power, despite appearing to have no resulting changes, the essence of those black flames had become increasingly resilient. This little clump of black flames appeared somewhat like a fire that had been ignited with oil. Using water to extinguish it would only cause it to burn even more intensely.
Wang Zhong continued to pour in Soul Power, and had even used a few methods of Soul Power explosion techniques in an expulsive effect, before finally being able to extinguish the black flames. This little clump of things was really troublesome, as most special abilities could easily be suppressed by the pressure of powerful Soul Power. However, this little clump of black flames had actually caused him to waste a large deal of strength just to deal with it. In general, one’s special ability was evoked by one’s Soul Power. However, upon taking form, these hellish flames appeared to have completely formed their own unique attribute and were extremely formidable.
In the future, Mario would become very, very formidable.
At this moment, Mario was already lying on the stage on the arena. This duel had really consumed almost all of his strength. Upon noticing the group of Blazing squadron members running towards him, he sent a smile towards Sharmie that appeared like a little kid that had just joined a society before saying, “Captain, I didn’t lose your face, right.”
Sharmie sent a heavy slap on his shoulder while replying, “Well done.”
“Big sis, lighter…my bones are fractured…”
After saying those words, Mario instantly laid back down on the ground in intense agony!
Under Tianqiong Musk’s explosively quick and brutal attacks, he had really suffered much damage from the repeated high-speed attacks. That was the genius among the younger generation of the Musk Family, and one of the 10 great soldiers on the Mo’s List!
Earlier, he was relying entirely on his earth attribute special ability to forcefully wrap and hold the splintered portions of his bones together to allow him to stand. Now, with the special ability fading away, his entire body was about to turn into a pile of mud.
“Doctor!” Sharmie was scared afraid by Mario’s reactions, causing her to shout out hastily in response.
The rest period given for the group battle preparation gave the Blazing squadron a chance to catch their breaths. Bringing along his injuries, Mario went to battle. With the intimidating might of his terrifying special ability, the Blazing squadron was able to unleash a successful counterattack on the Fiery Arrow squadron, and emerged as the final victors in this match between the 2 flames.
This was yet another squadron that had defeated an S ranked one to enter the top 16 ranks.
Yet another S ranked squadron had fallen?
The mysterious and unfathomable black magician, Mario?
A new combat strategy for Heroic Soul Stage soldiers seemed to have emerged.
It had to be said that Mario, with his entire body clad in black flames, was brimming with a bewitching level of charm. Perhaps it was due to the wave brought about by All Mouthy King, but there were too many weird and outlandish soldiers erupting out in this CHF, and even the monopoly of the 10 great families had been broken.
The Skylink was now filled with blazing wildfires of people shouting, cheering, and sighing in admiration towards the hellish flames displayed by Mario, which had promoted him into the realm of experts. The prairie fire lit in the Blazing City came from accumulation and good preparation. However, everyone had generally attributed the spark that had ignited it to come from Tianjing Academy, with them being universally recognized as the trend starters.
“The Tianjing squadron really is a demonic squadron! I have insider info about this. Can you guess where their captain, Sharmie, was at before the match against the Fiery Arrow squadron? Tianjing squadron!”
There were anonymous people now exposing news on the Skylink discussion forums, which resulted in intense discussions and debates. “Could it be that Sharmie and Wang Zhong have something going on? Ah, my ball queen!”
“Big bro’s worthy, big bro’s well matched!” There were serious Wang Zhong fans in the mix, who believed that Sharmie was extremely suitable for Wang Zhong, and that there were absolutely no problems with this pairing.
“Looks like the Blazing squadron’s relation with Tianjing squadron is really good. They even had combined training sessions before.”
“Why do I seem to hear that Laura’s relation with Wang Zhong’s even better? The Tianjing squadron seems to have also undergone combined training while in Copperfield City.”
“Could our great Laura have fallen under the grasp of “heavy” hands?” There were people stoking the flames while maintaining a neutral stance.
The crisis of Tianjing, the Tianjing disaster. These were some of the names people had given to Tianjing Academy in the Skylink, as they had already eliminated two seedling squadrons from the CHF.
Bella Dean, one of the upper 5 families in the Federation’s 10 great families. Even after their Wolf King bloodline had completely awakened, their asses got trampled and handed to them by Tianjing!
The Divine Dragon Academy and Zhao Family were burning with ambition, while Zhao Yilong and Zhao Tianlong were both geniuses within the younger generation, and were widely known to be god-gifted sons. Anyone could see that despite their attempts of keeping a low profile, the Zhao Family were, in fact, brimming with confidence for this CHF. They also had no intention of going head to head against the geniuses from the Gui Family and the gods of the Mo Family. However, the end result was that they had bumped into Tianjing squadron. Not only did they get eliminated from the CHF, they had also suffered a horrible beating. It was that match that caused quite a few people to be willing to call Wang Zhong “big bro”, as every squadron member would always want such a “big bro” figure in their squadron to stand and shield them from everything.
Naturally, the majority of the people felt disdain to pay attention to such gossip. Any rhythm or rumour regarding the Tianjing squadron garnered no reactions from them. To them, the only suitable title for the Tianjing squadron was “The miracle of Tianjing”!
That’s because they were a bunch of the most ordinary of people. They didn’t have any high or superior statuses, nor did they have any backgrounds worth mentioning. They had survived by struggling and relying on their hard work. They had hidden their own desires, and at times did not even dare to dream, as the reality was too cruel and the pressure was too great.
In their eyes, the Tianjing squadron was just like them, a weak squadron from a weak little academy hailing from a weak city. Of course, a C rank CHF squadron evaluation showed that they had some strength. However, massively heavy mountains were present above their heads, with them being specifically targeted, faced with loads of injustice and loads of grievances.
If the rational analysis was taken into account, according to the rules of this society, a squadron like Tianjing should have long been eliminated from the CHF. Just like those few hundred C and B ranked squadrons, they should have been suppressed and flattened, and be impatiently waiting to get tossed out. However, they had still continued to progress and walk forwards in this CHF! When they were suppressed, they would bounce back, before revealing the sharp tip of their horns to pierce and break through everything that stood in their way!
That’s right, everyone that had suppressed them had all been pierced through!
That’s why they were able to obtain victory against Bella Dean!
They had flattened the Divine Dragon squadron!
They had advanced into the top 16!
They were now living their dreams! Dreams!
It had to be said that Wang Zhong was already slowly being considered as a contender against the 10 great families to become the idol within the younger generation.
It was under such encouragement that the Blazing squadron was able to greatly boost their morale and accept the mantle of breaking the S ranked squadron’s progress, and advance, advance, advance!
“Daddy, daddy, why are you crying? I will listen to daddy and not be naughty, so daddy, don’t cry.”
“Silly son, your dad’s happy. Do you know, daddy had graduated from Tianjing Academy.”
A father was looking at his young son as he quietly changed the ID he had in the Skylink to “Tianjing squadron-If there are dreams”.
He really hoped that there would be squadrons that were able to receive the morale boost from the Tianjing squadron and defeat those invincible ones! Such thoughts had been planted in the hearts of countless people, though it was not known whether it could take root and germinate.
The great victory of the Blazing City, combined with the great victory of the Tianjing squadron the previous day, formed a gigantic storm that whipped about on the Skylink websites. Surprisingly, it had caused the Tianjing squadron to rise to yet another new height. However, this wasn’t good news for the Hell Academy squadron that was able to engage in a match against the Copperfield squadron late into the afternoon. Having just finished watching the morning’s match, the entire Hell City squadron was now in a daze…
How did the Blazing City squadron, which was considered to be the weakest among the A ranked squadrons, pull off a reversal against the true blue S ranked Fiery Arrow squadron?
“That Mario…had actually gotten rid of Tianqiong Musk in a duel!”
Extremely complicated feelings had now filled the heart of the Hell City squadron.
According to their plan, they, who would welcome a fight against Copperfield late in the afternoon, should be the second squadron that would defeat one of the 10 great S ranked seedling squadrons!
Looking at the various kinds of discussions and praises about the Blazing squadron present in the Skylink and CHF discussion forums, the Hell City squadron felt as though they had been robbed.
If the Blazing squadron had lost, they would become the main character riding the great waves and storm whipping through the Skylink websites.
That’s because they would definitely defeat Copperfield.
“That’s because we’re from Hell City!”
This wasn’t an advertisement or self-hypnotism to boost their own morale. The Hell City existed in an extremely dangerous geographical location, where there they would frequently erupt into battles against mutated beasts all year round. The tempering brought about by this suffering was honour and glory. A city standing for a 100 years, faced with 100 years of combat. Among the various cities of the Federation, the combat strength of Hell City was only matched by a handful of other cities. In fact, they were could even be ranked in first place!
However, due to the overly nasty environment, coupled with the tough-as-nails citizen culture, this had resulted in extremely severe internal conflicts breaking out, even more so in matters like group unity. However, over the last couple dozen of years, Hell City had managed to establish contact and collaboration with the empires on various levels via Stuart City. This had allowed them to grow increasingly strong and wealthy. It could be said that the combat strength of Hell City had already reached and surpassed the level of the 10 great families; they merely lacked in the aspect of fame and influence.
The rest period quickly passed. As the late afternoon approached, a heavy curtain fell on the CHF once again.
The two matches that were simultaneously taking place were the Copperfield squadron VS Hell City squadron, and Asuna Ocean God squadron VS Oak squadron.
Due to the Blazing City’s great victory, the match between Copperfield squadron and the Hell City squadron received great attention. Would Copperfield be the 4th S ranked squadron to get eliminated from the CHF?
Everyone was discussing and debating about this topic. If 2 of the 10 great S ranked squadrons were to get eliminated on the same day… just the thought of it had created great waves in the Skylink discussion forums. What a thriller it was! However, the possibility of that happening was also extremely high!
On the one hand, the Hell City was a combat oriented city. Never-ending battles with monsters all year round, coupled with their various exchanges with the empires, had allowed them to possess an abundance of combat experience and knowledge, while causing their thirst for victory to reach superhuman levels of resilience. Furthermore, they had also treated Copperfield as their target!
As for Copperfield squadron, if one were to create a ranking list for the combat strength of the 10 great S rank squadrons, they would definitely be ranked all the way to the bottom. Although Laura had extremely great potential, her combat strength had yet to truly mature, and it might take a year or more for that to happen, after the accumulation of combat experience and knowledge. Only then would she have the possibility of becoming a second Carolyn. However, that was presently not the case.