Above the mage

The opening match ended in such an unexpected way.

While everyone was still in shock and discussing, the aids on the dragon scales began to change rapidly once again.

The four stones, arranged in a group, rapidly joined, rose, fell, and rotated under the influence of the suspended runes.

In just a few dozen seconds, eight different terrains of fighting arenas were created.

There are icy plains, lush forests, howling deserts, and lava fields similar to the one we just saw—all kinds of attributes are available.

The referee then began announcing the upcoming matchups.

Yes, apart from Gaode's first match being held separately as the opening match to create an atmosphere, all subsequent group matches will be held simultaneously in eight different arenas.

This is to ensure that the entire competition schedule does not become too long.

After all, there are a total of 64 teams in this competition, divided into eight groups. Each group will play a single round-robin format, and each match will consist of two 1v1 matches and one 2v2 match.

If all are played, the total number of matches will approach 700.

If it were conducted game by game, even if each game ended in a few seconds like Gaode Maps, it would still take a considerable amount of time.

Not to mention, a solution as swift and decisive as Gaode's is extremely rare.

When the skill levels of the two teams are not significantly different, it is perfectly normal for a French fight to last for half an hour.

If you encounter a mage who excels at defense and attrition, a duel can last for an hour or even two hours.

Having eight French fighting arenas open simultaneously will undoubtedly compress the group stage schedule into a reasonable timeframe.

This ensures both the entertainment value of the competition and the efficient progress of the event.

In the second one-on-one duel, the Duchy of Aetheren sent out a mage at the mid-stage of the third ring.

Her mage level is on par with Arya's, so she should have a good chance of taking the lead.

However, the other party looked very reserved.

Clearly, Suo Yan's crushing defeat in the first match put considerable pressure on him.

It's not that he was being self-deprecating.

Barring unforeseen circumstances, there is indeed a significant difference in combat strength between the elite mages of the Golden Flower Dynasty and those of other smaller nations. While Aria's strength is somewhat inferior compared to the five official members of the Golden Flower Dynasty and God, she still possesses considerable power.

But this is definitely not because Aria is not strong, but because the others are too overpowered.

Among all the contestants in the entire competition, Arya is definitely a top-notch player.

In most small and medium-sized factions, she can steadily serve as a core member or even a captain.

How could a mage who has both talent and resources, and is also hardworking and diligent in daily practice, be weak? Therefore, Gao De was very confident in Ailiya's performance in the match.

So much so that he didn't pay much attention to Aria, but instead looked beyond his own team's arena and towards the magical arena called the Mad Sand Desert not far away.

Because one of the two sides in this magical duel is the Holy Empire.

Gao De was still filled with curiosity about this country, whose name was renowned and whose national strength and magical power could even faintly surpass the Golden Flower Dynasty.

Moreover, the Holy Empire Mage Team is the Golden Flower Dynasty's number one rival for the championship.

It's only natural to pay more attention to and learn more about their capabilities.

According to pre-match data, the Holy Empire's seven members, like the Golden Flower Dynasty, consisted of five official members, all of whom were fourth-ring mages. The biggest difference between the two was that the Holy Empire's strongest member was only at the mid-fourth-ring stage, significantly weaker than Liu Ying.

However, the opposing team is much stronger in terms of substitutes.

One is in the late stage of the Third Ring Road, while the other is already in the early stage of the Fourth Ring Road.

This substitute lineup is already enough to overwhelm 99% of the official players from small and medium-sized countries.

It is evident that the Holy Empire surpasses the Plantagenet Dynasty in the number of skilled mages.

This should be attributed to the meritocracy implemented by the empire.

Unlike the Plantagenet dynasty, which relied more on aristocratic succession.

The Holy Empire provides resources to any mage who demonstrates sufficient talent, regardless of their social status or race. This has allowed them to discover numerous talented mages from the common people and to recruit many geniuses from outside the empire's borders. The Holy Empire's first to engage in battle were precisely these reserve members.

He is also the only third-ring mage in the team.

Beatrice Vichy.

However, Gaode lost interest after only glancing at it twice.

Because her opponent was only a mage in the mid-stage of the third ring.

Even at the most basic mage level, she is weaker than Beatrice, let alone in terms of combat skills.

The magical clashes looked intense, but Beatrice seemed completely at ease, barely unleashing her full power. Indeed, given the disparity in strength, how much of Beatrice's true power could she possibly unleash?

Even if you manage to squeeze out a few points by luck, they won't be of much reference value.

After all, Beatrice was just a substitute player.

Gao De understood that the Holy Empire's strategy was the same as that of the Plantagenet Dynasty.

Both teams were conserving their strength as much as possible during the group stage, not easily fielding their core players, and only letting substitutes play to secure points. However, despite this, Gao De still opened Mandora's Eye and carefully watched Beatrice's entire French fighting match.

Finally, I simply created a character model of Beatrice in my mind.

Then, when he turned his gaze back to the arena where Arya was, Arya's battle was nearing its end.

Arya's opponent in this round is a mage who is skilled in earth elemental magic and uses a turtle-style strategy.

They must have already recognized the gap between them, and having witnessed their captain's swift defeat by Gaode, they had completely given up on the idea of ​​winning.

They simply abandoned all offensive ideas and focused all their energy on defense.

My only goal is to outlast Aria a little longer.

Therefore, as soon as he entered the arena, he immediately activated the earth elemental magic, creating layers of earthen slopes and rock walls.

He then cast protective spells such as [Stone Skin] to fully arm himself.

It only defended and never attacked, like a mobile fortress.

Even when Arya deliberately exposed a weakness to lure him, he remained hidden behind the rock wall, refusing to move an inch, stubbornly stalling Arya for time. Arya, as a typical highly mobile mage, was skilled in high-speed attacks and flexible maneuvering.

The corresponding drawback is that the output will be somewhat weaker.

After all, not everyone is as comprehensive as Gaode Maps.

Under normal circumstances, a mage's combat strength will follow this logic:

Strong defense leads to poor mobility, while high mobility results in slightly weaker attack capabilities. High burst damage, on the other hand, puts a clear disadvantage on the defensive end. ...So, this magical duel was indeed dragged out for almost ten minutes by the mage from the Duchy of Aethern.

For the next ten minutes, Arya kept attacking the rock wall with conventional spells, but she was unable to break through its defenses quickly.

The opponent hid behind the stone wall, constantly replenishing their mana and reinforcing their defenses, seemingly unmoved by any onslaught. Then, Arya seized an opportunity. During a brief lull in the opponent's reinforcement of the rock wall, she unleashed her maximum speed, flanking the opponent in their blind spot. Before the opponent could react, sharp wind elemental light emanated from Arya's fingertips, and a barrage of high-frequency [Wind Blades] shot out, one after another. While the [Wind Blades] weren't particularly powerful, their speed and frequency were their strengths, completely disrupting the opponent's casting rhythm and giving them no chance to reorganize their defenses, firmly securing the victory.

The mage contestant from the Duchy of Aethern, though he lost the match, left the field satisfied.

In both singles duels, the Plantagenet dynasty emerged victorious.

This means that the Golden Flower Dynasty has already secured the points in this group stage match.

However, according to the competition rules, the final doubles match will still have to be played.

To be on the safe side, Mage Fritz included Feng Lin and Ailiya's names on the contestant roster that had been discussed the previous day, in accordance with the plan.

For Feng Lin, a mage at the early stage of the fourth ring, to participate in this level of magical combat is like a complete dimensional reduction attack.

Therefore, this final two-person duel was a one-sided and overwhelming victory.

Feng Lin immediately used [Hypnotic Pattern] to suppress two opponents, while Aria utilized her high mobility to quickly launch an offensive. The high-frequency attacks poured down like a tidal wave, giving the opponents no chance to retaliate.

One pressed down while the other launched a strong attack; the two had a clear division of labor and defeated their two opponents one by one in just two minutes.

The opponent couldn't even mount a decent counterattack, making it utterly unwatchable.

However, the audience in the stands for Plantagenet Dynasty was still very excited and cheered.

One thing is that your own team achieved a complete victory, which is naturally something to be happy about.

Another factor is Feng Lin's outstanding appearance and unique temperament, coupled with her formidable skills, which created a lot of buzz and attracted considerable popularity. The morning's matches for the Golden Flower team lasted less than half an hour in total.

Looking at the other matches, most of them were still in the first singles duel.

The two sides were locked in a fierce and evenly matched battle.

Some are still probing and tug-of-war, and the real offense and defense have not yet begun.

Gao De and his team didn't linger, knowing they wouldn't get any useful information in the group stage, so they calmly left the stage under the watchful eyes of the audience.

Only the monk Fritz remained.

As the team leader of the Golden Flower Dynasty, he bears a heavy responsibility and must pay close attention to the matches of their strong competitors, even if it's unlikely he can discern much of their true strength.

Time quickly passed into the afternoon, and Gaode arrived at the Dragon Ridge Arena again.

The Golden Flower Dynasty still has one group stage match to play today.

The morning's matches went very smoothly.

Both Gaode and Ailiya were only testing the waters, without expending too much magic power, let alone getting injured, and were still in peak condition.

Therefore, in this second group stage match, team leader Fritz Mage's intention is to follow the original plan finalized yesterday, with Gao De and Aria taking on both singles matches and one doubles match.

Gao De and Ailiya naturally had no objections.

Arya was eager to try, while God remained calm.

Based on his intuitive feeling, this group stage was not even as difficult as the Art Museum Challenge.

This is the awkward situation of small countries:

Within a small country, those so-called top genius mages might only be considered above average in a large country like the Golden Flower Dynasty or the Holy Empire.

After all, the resources, teachers, and magical heritage of a great power are incomparable to those of a small country.

Of course, part of the reason is that Gaode's strength has improved significantly compared to when he challenged the gym.

However, to Gao De's surprise, after only one morning of fermentation, he had already become a celebrity in the arena.

As soon as he stepped into the arena, before the competition even started, many people in the stands recognized him, waving simple colorful flags and shouting his name.

As he entered the contestants' area, many participants from various countries instinctively glanced over, their eyes filled with obvious apprehension. Clearly, his ruthless and rapid barrage of fireballs that morning had left a deep impression on all the contestants.

In all the matches that have concluded, most of the duels were close and evenly matched.

Even if there are dominant games, they are few and far between.

For example, in the matches held by the Holy Empire, they all crushed their opponents.

However, their overwhelming victory was a calm and effortless suppression of a low-powered mage by a high-combat-power mage, their fighting style relaxed and natural, securing the win as if it were a natural outcome. At least there was a complete exchange of blows, allowing the audience to witness the exquisite connection of spells.

Gaode's overwhelming dominance, however, is the simplest and most brutal form of fireball bombardment.

There were no elaborate spell combinations; just two extremely fast Fireball spells were enough to secure a victory.

The entire process took only a few seconds, clean and efficient, giving the opponent no chance to breathe.

Neither of these two methods is superior, but Gaode's approach is undoubtedly more visually impactful and attracts more fans.

Unconventional actions always ignite the audience's enthusiasm instantly, leaving a lasting impression.

"Let's finish this quickly." In the Golden Flower players' area, Cedric yawned somewhat boredly and turned to Arya, saying this. There was also a match between the Holy Empire and Arya in the same morning, which could slightly pique their interest.

However, in the afternoon, there was only the match between the Golden Flower Dynasty. Those players who didn't have to play could only watch from the sidelines, which was somewhat boring.

To be honest, he wasn't even planning to come.

After all, in his view, with Gao De in charge, two wins were a sure thing.

What's so interesting about a game with no suspense?

However, Mage Fritz required that, as a team, they must arrive on time even if they were not going to fight.

According to the schedule, Gaode will once again lead the way in the afternoon's matches, taking the lead in facing their opponents.

The dragon scales' rune arrays were already prepared, capable of generating more than ten different terrain types.

This time, the venue determined by the referee through a draw was the Thunder Plateau.

You can tell what kind of venue this is just by its name.

However, for Gaode, at least in the group stage, terrain is not important.

A thick bolt of lightning suddenly streaked across the sky, accompanied by a muffled boom.

This is the signal to start the match, automatically triggered by the rune array on the Thunder Plateau field.

The moment the signal sounded, Gaode began to activate the spell model of [Fireball+].

Almost in the blink of an eye, the outline of a huge fireball appeared.

To be honest, he's been using this [Fireball+] move for over half a year now.

From gym challenges all the way to the current group stage of the Unrivaled French Fighting Tournament, it has proven successful time and again.

Although the gameplay may seem a bit "simplistic", Gaode doesn't see any problem with it.

To reiterate: if this tactic can guarantee a win, why deliberately switch to other tactics?

Practicality is the most fundamental principle.

Just as Gao De's [Fireball+] was about to be fully formed, his opponent had already cast a very inconspicuous first-level spell. A dense cloud of mist erupted from his body, spreading rapidly like a tide, completely obscuring his figure.

【Hidden Mist Technique】.

This was the first-circle spell that once helped God defeat the sorcerer Seda.

Oh? You were prepared.

Gao De raised an eyebrow slightly, a hint of amusement flashing in his eyes.

But I didn't take it too seriously.

They are all elite mages selected from various countries. It would be truly rare if they were completely unprepared after knowing about his fireball spell.

However, his [Fireball+] is not so easy to counter.