Above the mage

Chapter 774 Withering and Flourishing

Gao De said this openly and honestly, not through any kind of "message".

Therefore, the rune array set up by the Magic Arena for "broadcasting" clearly captured this sentence, allowing all viewers to hear Gao De's words.

The polarized reactions were immediately apparent.

Viewers who support the Holy Empire don't believe Gaode has any chance of turning the tide: "They've already been beaten to a pulp, and they're still trying to be stubborn?"

"It's just a desperate act of bravado!"

In contrast, the audience who supported the Plantagenet dynasty fell silent.

They also couldn't see any chance for Gaode to turn things around.

However, they couldn't possibly mock the mages of their own country, leaving them unsure of how to react.

In the Golden Flower player area, Gao De's teammates all had their brows furrowed.

In terms of the situation, Gaode's disadvantage is obvious.

In this situation, such harsh words are meaningless.

Having fought side-by-side as teammates for so long, they have a certain understanding of Gaode and know that Gaode rarely speaks without reason.

"Could Gaode have some hidden tricks up its sleeve?" Gareth wondered, his gaze unconsciously drifting towards Liu Ying.

"Of course," Liu Ying said with certainty, as if sensing something.

In the Holy Empire's player section, Conrad immediately scoffed, his face full of disdain: "They're already being completely dominated, utterly powerless to fight back, and they're still spouting nonsense? Such meaningless rhetoric won't affect the captain in the slightest!"

"The captain didn't respond at all, clearly he couldn't be bothered to pay attention."

"Perhaps it's not that I'm too lazy to bother..."

97

But the Holy Empire's team leader mage, who had been silently watching the match beside him, now had an extremely solemn expression, staring intently at Ellie's movement trajectory in the arena.

"ah?!"

"Ellie's speed... has slowed down, it keeps slowing down." The team leader mage said softly, his eyes dark.

His brows furrowed, his gaze sharp: "Compared to her speed at the beginning of the war, her movements have been consistently slow."

At first, it was so subtle that it was hard to notice; even Ellie herself might not have realized it. But now, the slowing down is becoming increasingly obvious.

"When I first noticed, I thought Ellie had slowed down on her own, but given her abilities, even if she slowed down, the speed couldn't possibly be this 'slow'."

Ellie's slowness, in a broad sense, is not slow at all.

Ellie remained as a blurry shadow.

But the team leader spoke slowly, referring to Ellie herself.

In the French fighting arena, Ellie did not respond to Gao De's "provocation".

Because she knew perfectly well that Gao De was telling the truth.

At first, she felt nothing.

But as time went by, she clearly felt that each exertion of force was becoming more and more difficult, and her body was becoming heavier and heavier.

His limbs felt like they were filled with lead, and his originally smooth and flowing offensive first showed slight pauses.

Immediately afterwards, his breathing became heavy and hot, his physical strength was rapidly depleted, and the combat power boost brought by wolf transformation began to decline passively in an almost irreversible manner.

The wolf transformation itself requires a lot of physical strength, and now my physical strength is inexplicably being lost in extra ways.

At first, she thought it was just normal physical exertion from her injuries.

But as time went on, her physical strength declined in an unusually persistent way, and she realized that this was definitely not caused by her injury.

Gaode's "provocation" directly indicates that Gaode was the instigator of everything.

She didn't know what kind of method this was.

They had no idea when they contracted the virus.

Is it a curse? Or an invisible poison?

The mage had so many methods that Ellie couldn't determine which one it belonged to.

But often, you don't actually need to know the specific methods; you just need to respond to each move as it comes.

As a wolf descendant, she possessed an innate confidence.

Wolf blood has a strong restraining effect on both poisons and evil curses.

Ellie no longer hesitated, clenched her teeth, and took the initiative to ignite the wolf blood within her.

In an instant, her eyes turned even more bloodshot, the red so intense it looked like it was about to bleed.

At the cost of expending her physical strength and shortening the remaining duration of her wolf transformation, she once again boiled her wolf blood, all in order to forcibly clear all abnormal states from her body.

A torrent of scalding, dark red wolf blood instantly swept over his entire body, and the blood-red defensive membrane on his skin suddenly shone brightly.

The ferocious and domineering wolf blood washed over every inch of his body, brutally crushing all invading external energy, attempting to eradicate all the strange things lurking within him.

But after the wolf blood had finished washing over her, Ellie's pupils suddenly contracted.

In her perception, no foreign objects were cleared away by the wolf blood.

It didn't work!

It consumed a valuable portion of my energy and caused my blood to boil, but instead of clearing up the abnormality, it also wasted my energy.

As her strength waned, her offensive slowed down.

Ellie looked up, her scarlet pupils revealing fear.

She knew, just as Gaode had just said:

Her time is running out!

"That's enough!" Ellie gritted her teeth and said in a hoarse, low voice, "You'll be the first to fall."

She had a clear mind; since Blood Boil was ineffective, there was no point in dwelling on specific techniques.

All you need to do is knock Gao De out of the game before you run out of energy.

The fact is, Gaode Maps was already very close to its limit.

His magical ice sword was riddled with cracks like a spider web, and its repair speed couldn't keep up with the pace of its breaking. It was on the verge of collapse and disintegration.

The blood toxins had accumulated to an alarming level in his body.

Logically speaking, with so much blood poison injected, a third-ring mage should have been poisoned to death long ago.

But Gaode Maps is still managing to stay standing here.

Although his movements slowed down significantly and his breathing became noticeably heavier, he did not fall down.

She didn't know how Gaode had managed to survive until now.

However, Gao De could still hold out for a while due to the blood poison, but his body was already covered in wounds, and even without considering the poison, he definitely wouldn't last much longer.

Even so, Ellie is no longer prepared to engage in a protracted battle with Gaode.

Who knows what other unconventional tricks Gaode might come up with?

Long nights bring many dreams.

After making her harsh remarks, Ellie took a step back.

It's not a retreat.

It is gathering strength.

Her body underwent changes.

Further changes were made based on the wolf-like characteristics.

Her eyes turned into a blood moon, with crimson light reflected in her pupils.

The surface of the blood film covering the whole body began to ripple with layer upon layer, like bubbles that rise and burst as blood boils.

Her muscles became more defined and stronger.

The bones creaked and groaned, and the figure seemed to grow two inches taller out of thin air.

In wolf form, the werewolf mage gains increased attributes across all dimensions, at the cost of losing sanity.

And this ratio is increasing year-on-year: the more attributes you gain, the more sanity you lose.

Under normal circumstances, werewolf mages will keep their werewolf transformation within a controllable range, that is, retain a certain degree of rationality.

After all, if one loses too much of their rationality, they will fall into a beastly state where they cannot distinguish friend from foe, and will regard every living thing in front of them as prey.

Moreover, people have an instinct to resist falling into an irrational state.

But now, in order to win the game, Ellie no longer cares about any of that.

Moreover, this is a fighting arena, and apart from the "enemy" Gao De, there are no other living beings on the field.

She doesn't have to bear the consequences of accidentally injuring her teammates when she loses her temper.

She bent down slightly, her limbs on the ground, her posture changing from upright to a crawling position resembling that of a wild animal.

The blood membrane bulged, narrowed, and lengthened on her back, like an extra layer of muscle bundles, pulling her entire figure from a human shape to a more wolf-like silhouette.

Ellie's mouth was slightly open, revealing her fangs.

The clear, human-like light in her pupils went out.

Only scarlet remained.

Ellie moved.

It was no longer the methodical attack of the past, but a pure, unreserved slaughter.

She exerted force with all four limbs at the same time, and the fallen branches under the snow made a cracking sound as she stomped on them.

Ellie's entire body shot straight toward God like a dark red arrow.

Gao De's ice sword met the attack head-on.

Just like before.

Click!

The sword broke.

It wasn't a crack; the entire sword was cut horizontally in half.

Ellie's wolf claws gripped the middle of the sword, then she flung it away, sending the broken sword spinning and embedding itself in the snow several meters away.

The remaining half of the sword hilt trembled in Gao De's hand, and shards of ice crystals fell from between his fingers.

Her left claw struck Gao De's left shoulder before he could retract his hand.

The moment the claw pierced his flesh, Gao De's body was spun nearly ninety degrees by the enormous lateral impact, and his center of gravity completely shifted.

His feet slid on the snow, his knees bent, and he barely managed to steady himself by supporting himself with one hand.

Before Ellie could regain her footing, the next wave of attacks caught up with her, almost right after the trail of her first claw.

This time, they're targeting Gaode's neck.

Gao De's body reacted almost instinctively in that instant.

Instead of trying to stand up, he used the position of supporting himself with one hand to exert force and rolled his whole body sideways.

The wolf's claws brushed past his ear, a truly terrifying moment.

Ellie's third wave of attacks is about to begin.

In just a few breaths, Gaode was already in a state of being unable to defend himself, and the situation was becoming increasingly precarious.

But he had already begun casting spells the moment the first wave of attacks arrived.

The spell has now been cast.

Gao De lightly swipes his right hand in front of him.

Zhenbing's magical power surged from within his body and quickly condensed on his skin.

Visible hexagonal ice crystal patterns instantly formed a semi-transparent ice barrier, completely enveloping Gao De's entire body.

Like an ice coffin, it sealed Gaode inside.

The texture of that ice surface was completely different from that of ordinary ice.

It is not the kind of brittle ice layer, but a crystalline solid with a deep blue, translucent texture and a surface so smooth as to be almost mirror-like.

The outline of Gaode can be faintly seen standing quietly in the center of the ice.

A layer of extremely fine cold mist slowly swirls around the outside of the ice, each movement carrying a rhythmic quality similar to breathing.

【Ice Barrier + [True Freeze Spell]】.

Gao De stood in the ice, his lips closed, and even his eyelids drooped slightly.

During the duration of the spell, he was unable to move, speak, or perform any actions; even his thoughts became sluggish and stagnant.

But his body was completely isolated inside this semi-transparent ice coffin.

No attack could harm him in the slightest.

Ellie's offensive did not stop.

A beast that has lost its mind will not stop just because there is an ice wall in front of it.

Her claws struck alternately, with the ferocity of a wild beast, the cold light of her claws flashing on the ice.

However, this time, Ellie's fierce attack landed on the ice without even leaving a claw mark.

The ice barrier remained completely unharmed.

Faced with the motionless "target," Ellie's attack frequency reached its peak at this moment.

Her claws struck without pause or rhythm, a raw, frenzied barrage of blows.

Left, right, left, right—the speed was so fast that onlookers could only see two dark red streaks of light constantly intersecting and colliding on the ice.

Each impact was accompanied by a crisp sound, but this barrier was as hard as the hardest metal in the world and remained unmoved by Ellie.

Furthermore, at the moment each claw strikes the ice surface, a cluster of fine ice spikes emerges from the cracks in the ice.

Sharp, translucent ice crystal spikes shot out from beneath the ice as if a mechanism had been triggered, aiming straight for Ellie's claws and wrists.

The ice thorns weren't thick, but each one carried a unique aura of extreme cold, piercing Ellie's flesh and causing her frostbite.

Ellie's hands were soon covered with fine, dense icy thorn wounds.

The flesh was pierced, frozen, and then shattered by a new attack, revealing fresh red wounds once again.

The blood membrane on her skin was working overtime to repair itself, and the wound was torn open again by new ice thorns as soon as it had healed.

Her palms, knuckles, and wrists had turned a mixture of bluish-purple and dark red, with frostbite and scratches intertwined.

But she still didn't stop.

On the dragon claw platform, Richard's gaze was fixed on the ice coffin.

His brows furrowed slightly, then gradually relaxed, and a thoughtful smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.

"Such powerful protective magic. It can still provide such protection against Ellie in this state..." Fritz murmured in the Golden Flower contestant area.

"This spell requires a lot of mana to sustain. Ellie's attacks seem to be ineffective every time, and even injure herself, but in fact they are all consuming her mana," the Holy Empire's leading mage said seriously.

"Now it's a contest of who can't hold on any longer, whether Ellie runs out of energy first or he runs out of mana first," Fritz said.

"Then who will win?" Viola asked quickly from the side.

At this point, as an observer, she was actually quite nervous and needed some reassurance.

Logically speaking, it should be Ellie...

Making the same analysis, Fritz, when pressed by Arya, replied, "After all, a third-circle mage's magical power is inherently limited, making it difficult to compete with a fourth-circle mage, especially considering how many spells Goddard had cast earlier!"

"But you can't judge Gao De by common sense." This time, Gareth had complete faith in Gao De.

This French battle has given them too many surprises.

These surprises, accumulated over time, have transformed into the trust we feel now.

"You've become smarter." Upon hearing this, Liu Ying nodded and praised Gareth.

Gareth's lips twitched slightly, his eyes unconsciously fixed on the field, not daring to blink.

Inside the ice coffin.

Gao De's eyes were slightly lowered, and his breathing was almost still.

Two streams of mana with completely different attributes are being used in the mana pool in a way that is far beyond what ordinary people can understand.

The power of the True Ice provided him with the core driving force for the [Ice Barrier], while the power of the Green Wood became the continuous energy source for the [Ice Barrier].

The dual cultivation practice, especially the rare one, allowed the high-level virtuous monk's magical power to far exceed that of a third-ring master.

Not to mention, the wood element particles in the tree garden are continuously gathering into his body, providing a fine and continuous replenishment to his mana pool.

When the body of amber metabolizes blood poison, it also provides a certain amount of mana replenishment.

These two methods are not fast, nor are they large in quantity, but they are stable enough.

Like a never-ending stream of water, it continuously fills his pool of mana.

Outside the ice coffin, Ellie's offensive continued fiercely.

Her claws were a bloody mess, and the icy thorn wounds on the back of her hands were layered upon layer.

But her attack frequency continued to rise, because the loss of reason made her completely unaware of her own hands.

All she knew was that her prey was locked in that transparent ice coffin ahead, and she was going to smash it open and tear the prey inside to shreds!

Time is slowly passing by.

Ellie's claw attacks began to decrease in frequency.

Slower and slower, slower and slower.

Ultimately, it turned into a heavy slap.

That was the last time she swung her claws with all her might, leaving the deepest scratch on the ice.

Then it slowly slid down, slipped off the surface of the ice coffin, and hung limply at its side.

She took half a step back.

Ellie slowly straightened up from her crouching, animalistic posture, then slowly hunched over again, like a withered tree that had been drained of its moisture.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but only a very faint, dry, hoarse sound came out of her throat.

Ellie's knees buckled.

She knelt on one knee, her left hand supporting her on the ice, her right arm hanging down at her side.

The blood membrane covering her entire body began to peel away piece by piece from her shoulders, like charred paper shattering and scattering, revealing the skin underneath.

Their skin was covered with a bright green light, as if something was hidden beneath it, about to emerge.

It's a tender sprout!

The tender shoots are now emerging from the pores.

One, two, three —

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