Above the mage

Chapter 753 A String of Four (Part Six)

As one of the most outstanding young mages in the Holy Empire, Bai Nord's consistent pride made him eager to witness Liu Ying's skills and strength firsthand.

Upon hearing this, Ellie gently shook her head and said softly, "Don't judge her potential based solely on her age and skill level."

Her gaze fell on the fireflies standing quietly in the distance.

That seemingly delicate and serene young girl, like a small white flower, was, in her eyes, more intimidating than any other contestant on the field, one brimming with fighting spirit.

"You think you can compete with someone your age because you've never been at her level."

As soon as Ellie spoke, the remaining contestants from the Holy Empire all straightened up and paid even more attention to the competition.

Even the Holy Empire, as an observer, maintained such awe and caution towards the fireflies.

The pressure faced by the four contestants from Linhai City, who were in charge, can be imagined.

"It's indeed difficult to beat her one-on-one, but this is a series of matches, giving us room for error and time to wear her down."

"Their choice of this lineup of one player carrying three others seems confident, but it's actually an opportunity for us to break the deadlock," Elwin analyzed to his teammate beside him, looking at the list of players representing the Golden Flower Dynasty.

"To win this knockout round, after already losing one game, we must fight with all our might to win at least one of her two remaining games."

"Even if we can't win, we should exhaust her mana to the maximum extent possible, force her to reveal her trump cards, and pave the way for the next round," Triss said.

"Leave it to me. Apart from Liu Ying, I can easily handle the other three without expending too much magic power," Olivia said confidently as she stepped forward.

"As for Liu Ying, if I encounter her, I will not be greedy for victory. I will try my best to deplete her magic power and force her to reveal more of her unique skills and trump cards. The rest of the game is up to you."

She was the first member from Linhai City to appear on stage.

As a melee mage, she is undoubtedly extremely well-suited for this kind of arena-style magical combat.

Even though this arena simulates various real terrains and covers a very large area.

However, there are ultimately regional limitations, which completely locks down the infinite space for ranged turret mages to maneuver.

This is a natural, hidden advantage for melee mages.

Tris nodded slightly, offering no objection.

The entire team focused their attention on the field, awaiting the start of the match.

"I'm going up now, it'll be over soon." Seeing Olivia take the stage, Liu Ying from the Golden Flower Dynasty said succinctly.

Even before the roster was finalized, she volunteered to play in the first round.

Evan, who had been somewhat eager to volunteer, immediately suppressed his thoughts after learning of Liu Ying's intentions.

Liu Ying's idea is actually simple.

She felt that since she had already entered the game, there was no need to make things so complicated and trouble her teammates to expend more effort in the fight.

Thus, under the solemn gazes of all the contestants in Linhai City, including Olivia, Liu Ying gracefully stepped forward.

She showed no fighting spirit or pre-match tension, and calmly stepped into the vast French fighting arena.

This was an arrangement that no one in the room had anticipated.

According to most people's understanding, in a gauntlet match, the stronger player should be placed in the later positions to cover for the weakest player and finish off the remaining opponents.

By fielding their strongest forces in the first round, aren't they afraid that multiple rounds of battle will expose too many of Liu Ying's tactics and trump cards, leaving them vulnerable to being targeted and having no cards left to play?

Only the members of the Golden Flower team remained calm and unmoved.

Feng Lin gazed at the slender figure on the field and muttered softly, "Looks like we can only be spectators this round."

"And there's not much to see," Gao De said seriously.

They hadn't seen much of Liu Ying's methods and strength, but it was enough.

She had easily crushed Cedric before, and the unstoppable dominance she displayed is still vivid in everyone's memory.

Liu Ying's strength has long since completely surpassed that of elite mages of her age, representing a genuine and overwhelming advantage.

Putting aside the methods, even just in terms of mage level, a mage at the late fourth ring is already at the top level, surpassing all others in the field.

Her matches will not be close or drawn out; there will only be one outcome.

They were mercilessly crushed by Liu Ying.

Just like how Gaode crushed the weaker teams from the Principality in the group stage.

The entire process was a one-sided crushing defeat, offering no reference value whatsoever, let alone any exciting or entertaining aspects.

The first round of the gauntlet match.

.

The Golden Flower Dynasty's shimmering light shines upon Olivia in the coastal city.

Game start.

Olivia erupted instantly.

The extraordinary longsword in her hand hung slightly at an angle, and all the runes on its surface were lit up.

The entire body was instantly covered with a layer of lustrous, translucent light blue watery radiance.

The radiance spread wildly along the sword, flowing through the hilt and into her limbs, giving her a speed boost. She pushed off the ground with both legs, causing the ground to tremble slightly, and she launched herself forward like an arrow.

Olivia moved with the speed of the wind, exuding the sharp and oppressive aura of a melee mage, and charged straight toward Liuying at high speed.

Their movements are unpredictable and extremely fast-paced.

This is precisely her specialty: close-range ambush tactics.

The intelligence system of Linhai City has always been highly efficient and top-notch. It has even collected relatively complete information on the members of the Golden Flower Dynasty's mage team, but there is very little information on Liu Ying.

Not only could her precise mage level be not determined, but it could only be determined that her level was higher than the early stage of the fourth ring.

Even her preferred faction, fighting style, and trump cards are all completely unknown.

But Olivia was certain that Liuying could not possibly be a melee mage—where would you find a melee mage who doesn't carry a melee magic weapon?

Not to mention that Liu Ying looks so slender and thin.

Olivia's analysis is not wrong.

Liu Ying is indeed not a melee mage.

According to traditional classification, she should belong to the artillery mage, and a very typical and orthodox one at that.

What's unusual is that she didn't even carry a staff; just like Gao De, she went into battle empty-handed.

But Gao De went on stage empty-handed because he is not a turret mage by nature.

There's only one reason why Liu Ying went up empty-handed...

She doesn't need magic weapons.

The light elements in the world are readily available to her, without the need for a staff to increase channeling speed or amplify power.

Facing the approaching Olivia, Liu Ying gently raised her slender, fair right hand, and a clear white light suddenly shone from her palm.

The light is gentle and restrained, neither dazzling nor violent.

There was no overwhelming magical pressure; it seemed ordinary, yet it made Olivia's heart tighten.

"What kind of spell is that?" Olivia looked at the light flashing in Liu Ying's hand and quickly recalled various spell information in her mind.

She tried to figure out what kind of spell this was and then react accordingly.

However, after searching around, she still couldn't make a judgment.

This light was neither as weak and ordinary as the [Light Spell], nor as violent and intense as the [Radiant Jet], nor did it have the oscillations of the [Holy Word Spell].

It resembles everything, yet it resembles nothing at all.

It seems plausible but is not, and there is no trace of it.

The unknown is the greatest fear.

This seemingly ordinary white light exerted a far greater sense of pressure on Olivia than any known high-level killing spell.

In a flash, Olivia gritted her teeth and made the safest decision on the spot.

The extraordinary longsword in her hand suddenly burst forth with runes.

The gold-plated patterns on the entire sword blade glowed with a pale golden magical light.

This extraordinary magical weapon, forged with the Okunli family's top alchemy skills, can be used as a melee weapon and also as a staff to record and store spells.

The spell slot on her sword contains a versatile and powerful technique.

Third Ring Spell: Counterspell.

In an instant, the longsword unleashed an invisible magical interference ripple, precisely locking onto Liu Ying.

[Spell Counter] Forcefully disrupts and dismantles the nascent spell, cutting off the convergence of magical power.

hum.

A subtle magical tremor resounded, and the white light that had been brewing in Liu Ying's palm suddenly vanished without a trace.

The countermeasure was successful.

Olivia seized this hard-won time difference.

In a melee mage versus a turret mage, the key to victory lies in distance control and tempo dominance.

This brief interruption in spellcasting is the decisive advantage.

Without faltering, she seized the opportunity of her successful counterattack to accelerate again, instantly crossing the center line of the court and closing the distance to the very end.

At the same time, Olivia raises her hand and instantly casts [Water Arrow].

A condensed, pale blue water arrow shot out from the sky, heading straight for Liu Ying's face.

Olivia never expected that this basic water arrow would cause any effective damage.

Her goal was extremely simple: to create a forced response node using the lowest-level spells.

Even though Flowing Fire is an instant-cast spell block that doesn't require casting time, it will still consume a very short reaction time.

This can disrupt the opponent's rhythm and allow you to close the gap again.

To a battle mage skilled in magical combat, this was an extremely shrewd display of melee mage's rhythm and maneuvering.

Use basic spells to create interference, disrupt the opponent's spellcasting rhythm, compress space layer by layer, and give the turret mage no chance to charge up and complete their spells.

In a normal battle, even a top-tier turret mage would find it somewhat troublesome to be constantly pulled back and pressed like this.

But at this moment, she was facing Liu Ying.

She neither dodged nor avoided the water arrow that hurtled through the air.

The instant Olivia closed in at full speed, Liu Ying's right fingertip, which had been hovering, lit up once again with an extremely refined white light.

There is no casting animation or magical fluctuation.

Before Olivia could fully lock onto Liu Ying's hand movements, the restrained white light had already been released.

It was neither a large-scale bombing nor a violent massacre.

It was just a slender, refined linear blade of light.

It moved at a speed that exceeded the limits of visual perception, precisely piercing through the air, shattering the water arrow, and then instantly landing in front of Olivia.

This is somewhat similar to the spell [Radiant Ray], but [Radiant Ray] has absolutely no such extreme speed and fierce attack.

Olivia froze, and in her haste, she only had time to raise her sword to block the way.

The longsword parted to create a curtain of water.

The linear light blade accurately hits the water curtain barrier.

There was no deafening explosion, only a ring of clear light energy ripples that instantly exploded outwards.

It instantly erodes the structure of the water element.

The thick water curtain barrier silently melted away and vanished into nothingness, leaving not even a trace of water vapor behind.

Moreover, the fragments of light energy that exploded did not dissipate, but instead adhered to the halo around her.

She maintained her forward momentum, but seemed to suddenly lose all power, her body stiffening in mid-air.

And this is just the beginning.

Liu Ying remained standing, her eyes calm and unwavering. She raised her hand and executed her technique with fluid grace, without the slightest pause.

The second ray of light spread out instantly.

This speed completely defies the logic of conventional mages.

The combos of Liuying's spells were even half a beat faster than Olivia's close-range attacks.

A gentle yet domineering white light instantly filled half of the arena, completely sealing off all escape routes and utterly wiping out the remaining water elemental power and magic around Olivia.

This is the purifying effect of light elements.

However, the purification effect of light is highly targeted, only able to suppress darkness, the undead, and negative evil energy...

How can you say that something like Liu Ying can purify water elemental energy and magic, which are perfectly normal energies?

In the final instant, the light at Liu Ying's fingertips converged, and a light element missile compressed to its limit was launched.

There was no explosion or loud noise, no violent impact.

But this seemingly insignificant light element missile actually managed to force open the protective array of the magic arena, thus protecting Olivia's safety.

The entire process took only a few breaths.

From Olivia's close-range attack, spell counter, and rhythm control, to Flowing Fire's counterattack, instant break, and crushing finish, it all happened in just a few breaths.

The outcome is now decided.

Even the referee's pupils constricted slightly. After the protective magic circle was triggered, he paused for half a second before hastily announcing: "In the first round of the gauntlet, the Golden Flower Dynasty's Liu Ying wins!"

The entire room fell silent.

For several full seconds, there was absolute silence; you could hear a pin drop in the entire stadium.

Everyone was still stuck on the image of Olivia's powerful charge and absolute initiative.

They were still anticipating the rhythm of the upcoming game, envisioning a thrilling clash between two titans.

But the battle ended abruptly, leaving no time for anyone to react.

In the contestant area of ​​Linhai City, the team leader mage, who was watching Liu Ying's performance and trying to analyze something with Captain Cui Si to increase his chances of winning against Liu Ying later, suddenly stopped talking, all his words stuck in his throat.

What else is there to analyze?

Olivia has already been defeated.

To be honest, he didn't think Olivia could win against Flowing Fire.

But wasn't this defeat a bit too decisive?

After a few seconds of silence, the cheers for the Plantagenet Dynasty finally erupted.

Applause, cheers, and shouts rose in waves, sweeping across the entire stadium and expressing the ultimate shock and ecstasy.

The viewers who supported Linhai City were somewhat confused.

The victory was so decisive that they didn't know how to react to comfort their own players.

Furthermore, they never imagined that the Linhai City mage team would ever lose so "cleanly and decisively".

There was no anxiety, no tragic grandeur, no sense of glorious defeat.

It was a one-sided, unsurprising defeat.

Liu Ying stood still in place.

When the game ended, she hadn't even moved an inch.

"Next." Liu Ying glanced at the Linhai City contestants' area and said softly.

She was not provoking anyone.

Rather, that's just her personality—very straightforward and direct, never beating around the bush.

It was only because Cedric was a teammate that they deliberately let him show off his skills.

But she doesn't think she needs to be so polite to foreign athletes.

So she didn't hold back.