Chapter 48 | Paladin Class: Awakening the Strongest Demon System

The battle between the two teams was on the verge of erupting.

This was essentially the final showdown of the exam.

Anya and the others were already somewhat drained from their previous skirmish.

However, the students following Jiang Lin had basically been window-shopping the entire way, so their stamina was quite abundant.

Thus, their frontliners stepped up to the very front, preparing to meet the opponent's first wave of offense.

The speed of magic was always a bit faster than that of summoned beasts.

Lina unleashed auxiliary skills imbued with a divine glow, which slammed directly into a student in the front row.

"Unblockable? What’s going on?"

The student was momentarily stunned. Then, his shield dropped as he clutched his neck, gasping for air.

"Whew... I can’t... I can't keep up with the breathing..."

The same thing happened with the subsequent skills.

"My heart... my heart is going to jump out of my chest!"

"Why is my right hand acting on its own?!"

"Aaaaah! My foot!!"

"..."

These spells were no exception; even though the students had activated defensive skills, there was no way to block them.

Soon, one student after another turned into white light and was teleported away.

Seeing this, Jiang Lin immediately went on high alert.

The other side had a toxic healer too!!

He slightly tilted his head, using the prediction of 【Chronowalker's Evil Eye】 to dodge the opponent's skills.

In truth, they were easy enough to deal with, as these skills all traveled in a straight line and couldn't curve. He could predict them well in advance.

It was just that his teammates couldn't handle it.

Seeing them being teleported away one by one, Jiang Lin felt a bit of a headache.

If his side ended up with too few people, he wouldn't be able to face the barrage of skills from dozens of opponents alone.

"Does anyone know curse-type magic or magic that can clear all status effects?"

Jiang Lin shouted to the crowd behind him.

"The other side has a toxic healer! Their skills can only be countered with negative buffs or neutralized with purification-type skills!

"If you have defensive skills that isolate all status effects, use them now!"

Jiang Lin dodged the incoming skills while thinking of a countermeasure.

He was a bit hesitant to use 【Strengthening Technique · Jetting Aura】 right now.

What if the other side learned it?

After all, seeing their use of 【Low-level Strengthening】 and 【Low-level Healing】 had given him a sense of inspiration.

If he used his strengthening technique, the opponent would definitely be able to figure it out.

Although seeing this toxic healer gave him a sense of kinship, like two soulmates meeting, this was a battlefield—not the place for a heart-to-heart chat over fine music.

At that moment, the first batch of summoned beasts reached Jiang Lin and his group.

A wild boar lunged at Jiang Lin.

Jiang Lin threw a punch. His strength was comparable to this demonic beast, but thanks to the near-perfect physical control of his 【Basic Punching】, the power he could exert far exceeded the boar's. He knocked the wild boar unconscious with a single punch, flipping it onto the ground.

Then, he hoisted the unconscious boar up, using it as a shield. The subsequent toxic healer skills from the enemy landed squarely on the pig.

"Oink! Oink!!"

The originally unconscious boar was stimulated awake, struggling wildly. Jiang Lin simply threw another punch, sending it back into a high-quality sleep.

It actually worked!!

Jiang Lin was overjoyed.

He also secretly felt relieved.

Fortunately, he hadn't exposed the 【Jetting Aura】 yet. Otherwise, if the other side learned it, his summoned beast shield wouldn't be as effective—it would just be disgusting to use.

However, Jiang Lin’s joy didn't last long before an arrow whistled through the air, aiming to finish off the still-breathing boar in his hands.

But with Jiang Lin’s reaction speed, how could he let the opponent have their way?

With a slight sidestep, he dodged the whistling arrow by a hair's breadth.

When a summoner's creature died, it didn't truly die; instead, it returned to the summoner's space to have its body repaired with magic.

So, the opponent was trying to force the wild boar back into the summoning space.

As for the number of summons, it was influenced by the summoner's level, magic power, and talent, varying from person to person.

Jiang Lin gripped the wild boar with one hand to shield himself while swinging his holy light longsword with the other, unleashing waves of holy light sword qi.

He didn't dare charge into the enemy crowd yet.

With so many people in their backline, even with the prediction of 【Chronowalker's Evil Eye】 and his fast nerve reflex speed, it was impossible to dodge a literal blanket of attacks.

Furthermore, his only defensive skill, 【Stone Skin】, was just a low-level skill. No matter how high his proficiency was, it would be difficult to tank a massive amount of offensive skills alone.

Seeing that Jiang Lin’s method worked, the others began to follow suit.

However, many of them soon found themselves in an embarrassing situation.

They... they didn't seem to be able to beat these summoned creatures?

It wasn't entirely their fault. Eve was a level 9 summoner, and her summons were generally the same level as her. Many of Jiang Lin’s teammates hadn't reached level 9 yet, so their basic physical attributes were inferior, and their mastery over skills was nowhere near as proficient as Jiang Lin’s.

When they hunted demonic beasts before, they always needed team coordination.

Now, in a situation where all sorts of skills were flying everywhere, they naturally found it more difficult to cope.

However, a turning point soon arrived for Jiang Lin’s side.

A magic formula radiating an ominous aura floated from the back of their team, hitting several frontliners who had been forced to their knees.

Suddenly, they found that the annoying positive buffs on them had vanished!

Though their bodies felt a bit weak, they could at least continue fighting.

"Someone knows curse-type skills! We can win!!"

The students in the front row were greatly encouraged.

In the back of the team, the young priestess Aili, who had just finished casting the curse, stuck her tongue out at her surprised companions.

"Hehe, I researched a bit of curse-type magic on my own before."

Seeing her curse take effect, she put in all her effort and continued casting, applying curses to her teammates.

Meanwhile, the opposing leaders, Lina and Eve, were shocked by this development.

They reacted that quickly?!

And they have a priest who can use curse-type skills?!!

Due to limited study time, whether they were priests or mages, students in the Radiant Junior Magic Academy generally didn't research curse-type magic in the early stages.

After all, in most exam formats, this type of magic was useless. It was better to spend that time learning a few more common offensive or defensive spells.

Usually, students would only start learning them after entering a Middle Magic Academy, where exam formats were more varied and emphasized comprehensive combat ability.

Under these circumstances, Lina’s toxic healing was usually very difficult to break within the scope of a junior magic academy.

That paladin swinging the holy light longsword was one solution, but so far, he was the only one who had thought of it and successfully implemented it.

"Hey, Sister Lina, isn't that paladin the guy who was practicing over there this morning?" Eve suddenly asked.

"It seems so. I underestimated him back then," Lina nodded.

Amidst the various incoming skills, those waves of sword qi shining with golden light were particularly dazzling.

Moreover, the power of each wave was comparable to a high-tier spell—even slightly stronger than many high-tier spells—making things miserable for the supporting priests in the back and the defensive students in the front.

Some people were already starting to get knocked out of the game.

And while they wanted to focus their fire on him, his team's priests were shielding him, and her toxic healing was being completely blocked by the boar in his arms.

After a moment of thought, she conjured another 【Strengthening Technique · Heartbeat Expansion】 and cast it at the wild boar in Jiang Lin’s hands.

Poor Mr. Boar, after a bout of squealing, had his heart burst, and blood seeped from his mouth.

Jiang Lin looked at the boar in shock and quickly used his 【Low-level Healing】 to keep it alive.

Originally, with its heart burst, the boar was about to die and have its spirit return to the summoning space.

But because Jiang Lin healed it, it barely hung on by a thread, unable to die. It was pure torture.

However, seeing this, Jiang Lin gained a new spark of inspiration.

So strengthening techniques could be used like that?!

The battle had devolved into a war of attrition with both sides blasting skills at each other.

Anya’s team members took a brief moment to recover and then threw themselves back into the fray.

They filled the gaps left by those who had been eliminated at the start.

Since it was an exam, neither side would deal lethal blows. Jiang Lin wasn't sure what level of control was needed to use 【Low-level Strengthening】 to increase heart rate, so he didn't want to use that newly learned trick to torment the opponents just yet.

After resisting for so long, Jiang Lin finally identified the culprit behind the toxic healing skills—a female priest with emerald eyes.

Jiang Lin assessed the situation on the battlefield and felt that, as things stood, the win rate for both sides was fifty-fifty.

Although his mana pool was terrifying and was constantly recovering slowly, it would eventually run dry if the attrition lasted long enough.

So now, he had to find a way to break the deadlock and expand his advantage.

Finally, Jiang Lin glanced at his hardworking teammates and decided to apologize to them in his heart as he unleashed his secret weapon.

In the next wave of attacks, dozens of scattered sword qi waves flew toward the other side. The opposing mages and priests, having dealt with them before, finally had some experience.

These sword qi waves were far stronger than typical high-tier offensive skills; each one required at least one and a half high-tier defensive skills to block.

However, this time, the sword qi was different.

Once they had skillfully blocked the waves, some unblockable golden light actually emerged from them.

What was this?!

The other side had learned toxic healing too?!

They were shocked at first, but then their expressions froze, and they all donned masks of pain.

The subsequent sword qi waves were blocked by shields, but the 【Low-level Strengthening · Jetting Aura】 hidden within them bypassed the defenses and hit them.

After another round of attacks, despite their strong endurance, they couldn't escape their tragic fate.

"Aaaaaah!"

"Who is that paladin on the other side??"

"What kind of degenerate skill is this?!"

"I can't take it anymore, save me! I'm no longer clean!!"

Soon, the other side was filled with a chorus of wails.

Lina, hiding in the back, was temporarily safe because people were blocking for her.

However, seeing Jiang Lin’s strengthening technique hidden within the holy light sword qi, she couldn't help but be dazed.

A strengthening technique... could achieve such an effect?!

For a moment, she felt a strong sense of kinship, as if she had found a kindred spirit.

But this was a battlefield, so she immediately found a suffering frontliner to examine their condition, quickly understanding the principle behind the magic formula.

Soon, she conjured an identical formula. Since she had already mastered the entirety of the 【Low-level Strengthening】 and had a deeper understanding of it, her version was even more powerful than Jiang Lin’s.

While Jiang Lin’s 【Jetting Aura】 required multiple hits to achieve the effect, she only needed one!

Consequently, Jiang Lin’s teammates began to suffer.

"Hahaha, Brother Jiang is awesome! He made the other side collapse so easily!!"

"Brother Jiang is too amazing, how did you do it!!"

"Holy crap, what is this skill from the other side?!"

"Aaaaah! My stomach!!"

"..."

Soon, the frontliners on his side who hadn't been cursed began to fall one after another.

At the same time, dozens of strengthening techniques flew straight toward the only priestess who could use curse-type magic.

The young girl had never seen such a scene. Seeing her teammates falling one by one in such a grotesque manner, she couldn't help but feel a chill.

If it were those earlier toxic healing skills, it would have been at most physical torture.

But this was pure psychological abuse!

How could the point rankings be more important than her innocent image?

It was just an exam, no big deal.

So, she simply chose to flee from the battle...

Subsequently, the scene devolved into even more indescribable and grotesque chaos.

The entire battlefield seemed to have become the home ground for Jiang Lin and the opposing toxic priestess. These two rising 'degenerate' suns caused one opponent after another to collapse while clutching their stomachs.

And these fallen students didn't have the courage Frederick and Eli had shown—to fight with bare bottoms—nor did they have the determination to fight while wearing pants in such a state.

Thus, even though many hadn't completely lost their combat capability, they still chose to turn into white light and flee this living hell.

"I'm not playing anymore! I'm done!!"

"Aaaaaah, you degenerate!!"

"Mom... Mom, I think I've gone to hell..."

"I still remember that afternoon running under the sunset..."

Someone even started seeing their life flash before their eyes?

Soon, the number of people on the battlefield dwindled rapidly.

With the frontliners down and the backline leaving the field, the opponent's leader—the toxic priestess—was finally exposed.

Lina looked at the paladin across from her, who remained standing while clutching a wild boar. Her normally calm expression finally showed a ripple of emotion.

Was she going to lose?

She had already launched a full-scale attack on him.

However, because she had lost many teammates, she couldn't trap him. With his powerful reaction speed, he could always predict her attacks and dodge them.

After another round of fighting, almost all the opponents on the other side had been dealt with, leaving only the last two standing firm.

Eve looked heart-brokenly at the Great Boar King, who was still being abused by Jiang Lin.

'Kill them, but don't torture them! You keep casting healing spells on it just to keep it from dying... isn't that just pure pig torture?'

'How can a guy like this awaken as a paladin?'

Eve thought back to the times she and her combat partner had run under the sunset together...

"Sister Lina!"

The normally cheerful Eve spoke with a hint of a sob in her voice.

"Let's just give him first place. I don't want to leave the secret realm like that!"

Ultimately, after a long silence, Lina agreed with Eve’s view.

"Yeah. I’d rather die on my knees than shit standing up."

Then, two flashes of white light rose as they chose to forfeit the match voluntarily.

As the two of them left, the wild boar in Jiang Lin’s hands finally turned into white light and dissipated.

"We are the champions!!"

Despite having used a massive amount of skills and being almost out of mana, Jiang Lin still turned around and cheered with his arms raised to his teammates.