Tier Nine early stage, pure ice mage!
Looking at Katelansi, who was radiating an overflowing chill, Zhang Ye couldn't help but shiver.
The iceberg tsundere Nan was cold, but that was purely psychological. This Katelansi, however, was freezing both physically and mentally!
The moment she stepped onto the stage, the temperature plummeted by more than ten degrees. She was practically a walking air conditioner.
Once they were ready, the referee raised his hand. “Begin!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Katelansi stamped her long leg on the ground. A wave of frost instantly surged out, sweeping across the entire arena and covering the floor in ice. At the same time, a path of ice spikes rapidly shot toward Zhang Ye.
Seeing this, Zhang Ye immediately erupted in blazing blue flames, sending out a ring of fire that dispelled the freezing cold.
The beautiful blue flames enveloped Zhang Ye, making him look even more handsome. Katelansi snorted coldly. A frost staff materialized in her hand, and she pointed it at Zhang Ye.
Zhang Ye instantly sensed danger and used Blink to vanish from the spot.
In the next instant, the cold air where he had just been standing suddenly contracted before violently exploding, scattering sharp shards of ice in all directions.
Zhang Ye was secretly alarmed.
This spell was called 【Cold Current Freeze Explosion】. When cast by Katelansi, it gave almost no warning. If not for Zhang Ye's danger perception warning him, he probably would have been hit.
Having missed her strike, Katelansi flicked her staff, and the frost beneath Zhang Ye's feet immediately converged, forming a hundred-meter-wide zone. The premonition of danger surged again, and Zhang Ye instantly used Blink to distance himself. In the next moment, the frost on the ground shot upward, turning the entire area into solid ice!
Zhang Ye swallowed hard.
Is she going to unleash an ultimate move and make ice spikes rain from the sky next?
Before his thoughts could settle, a freezing current surged around Katelansi. She suddenly erupted with a powerful aura as a massive magic circle covered the entire arena. Countless giant ice spikes fell from the sky, crashing toward Zhang Ye with immense power.
Zhang Ye's lips twitched.
No wonder this looked so familiar... Zhaojun, is that you, Zhaojun?
Watching this, the Class Two mentor, Katfina, smiled. “Little Lansie can already instant-cast Tier Nine magic? As expected of the strongest genius of the younger generation in our Morton family. Your little Ye'er is in danger.”
Leona chuckled. “That's it? Not even close.”
Sure enough, in the next moment, Katfina's eyes widened in disbelief as she stared at the stage.
It was the Tier Nine ice-attribute magic, 【Heavenly Ice Fall】, yet it caused almost no harm to Zhang Ye.
His figure flashed among the falling ice spikes, weaving through the storm without taking a single scratch.
Once 【Heavenly Ice Fall】 subsided, Zhang Ye was still completely unharmed.
Although 【Heavenly Ice Fall】 had decent overall destructive power, its explosive burst was far inferior to Nan's Thunderstorm.
On the stage, Katelansi couldn't help but open her mouth slightly, her eyes filled with utter disbelief.
Just how many ice spikes had 【Heavenly Ice Fall】 brought down?
Thousands of them!
Yet, Zhang Ye was able to flash and maneuver through the gaps between the ice spikes without taking any damage. Even the freezing currents were dispersed by the blue flames on his body, rendering them completely ineffective!
This was simply unprecedented power!
At this moment, Katelansi also realized that this was the strongest opponent she had ever faced!
And this opponent was actually a tier lower than her!
It was simply unimaginable!
However, after her initial shock, she quickly snapped back to reality, preparing to deal another freezing blow to Zhang Ye.
But in the next instant, Zhang Ye blinked directly in front of her.
Zhang Ye's sudden appearance out of thin air startled Katelansi. She immediately condensed an ice spike to stab at him while jumping backward to create some distance.
However, Zhang Ye easily dodged her ice spike, reached out, and grabbed her slender arm.
Katelansi was shocked and immediately tried to break free.
But she was a pure mage, after all. Once Zhang Ye got close, if her magic didn't work, she was completely at his mercy!
Holding her hand, Zhang Ye spun his body. “Off you go!”
In the next instant, Katelansi was thrown hundreds of meters away, flying straight out of the arena.
After spinning a dozen times in the air, Katelansi was left completely dizzy, but she still managed to stabilize herself and land firmly.
When she regained her bearings, she was burning with rage. She wanted to turn back and attack Zhang Ye again, only to realize she had already landed outside the boundaries.
“Number 88, victory!” As the referee's voice rang out, the match was decided.
Katelansi's eyes welled with tears.
She had never been defeated in such a humiliating way before—thrown out of the ring?!
What kind of defeat was this!
Even if he had defeated her in a fair and square duel, she wouldn't have been this angry.
Thrown out of the ring?!
It was simply too embarrassing!
Unable to accept it, she glared furiously at Zhang Ye. Just as Zhang Ye jumped down from the stage, he caught her gaze and felt a sudden chill run down his spine, making him shiver.
“Just you wait!” Katelansi snorted coldly, turning and walking away.
Zhang Ye scratched his head, completely clueless as to how he had offended this icy beauty.
He had clearly held back.
After all, losing without taking any injuries looked much better than being beaten black and blue before losing, right?
Still, Zhang Ye didn't dwell on it too much.
The matches continued. This round was to determine the top twelve, with one person getting a bye.
Renomon got the bye, which made him rather unhappy.
A bye gave one point, while a victory gave two. Confident in his skills, he felt he could have won his match anyway.
Next, Lina faced a tailed Lizardman from Class Two. The Lizardman was a body temperer; his mana rank was only Tier Eight mid stage, but his physical strength had reached Tier Nine early stage, specializing in agility.
However, his agility was a complete joke in front of Lina. No matter how fast he was, he couldn't outrun the speed of light. Thus, Lina secured a perfect victory!
Nan's opponent was also a classmate. The moment the guy saw Nan, his face fell, and he conceded immediately. There was no question about it; he was no match for Nan, and conceding voluntarily was far more dignified.
Zhang Ye's opponent was the gold-attribute pure mage from Class Two who had previously defeated Sacra.
Unsurprisingly, Zhang Ye won, and he won incredibly fast. Right at the start, the gold mage was punched straight out of the ring by Zhang Ye, because Zhang Ye was in a hurry to reach the finals and fight Gajeel!
Gajeel also won his match, advancing to the top twelve!
There were thirteen competitors left, including Renomon, who had received the bye.
The matches continued to determine the top six. This round, Shana from Class Two got the bye.
Renomon breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that he could finally show off his skills!
But then, the very first match was his, and his opponent was Lina.
Seeing Lina leap onto the stage and smile at him, Renomon's face instantly stiffened.
He... couldn't beat this girl!
In their practice sessions over the past few days, whenever he went up against Lina, Renomon had never won. He was constantly left utterly bewildered by Lina's absurdly high mobility. So the moment he saw Lina, he knew his run would end here in the top twelve.
Actually, wait, since he had received a bye, he technically didn't even get to fight to get into the top twelve...
He was practically in tears.
“Big Lion, are you ready?” Lina giggled, her dual pistols already in her hands.
Seeing this, Renomon nodded with a bitter smile. Conceding was out of the question; even if he knew he would lose, he would still fight.
“I'm ready!”
“Then let's begin!”
The battle commenced!
Renomon charged!
Renomon got outplayed!
Renomon got outplayed again!
Renomon lost!
Finished!
The moment he stepped off the stage, Renomon was covered in bruises, grimacing in pain.
Lina's dual pistols hurt way too much, firing non-stop. He had no idea how many thousands of Mana Balls he had taken; his entire body felt numb.
Having defeated Renomon, Lina was overjoyed, skipping over to cheer for Zhang Ye.
Zhang Ye's opponent was Qiya from Class Two.
A Tier Nine early stage space-attribute mage.
Meanwhile, Nan's opponent was also a space-attribute mage—Qiya's older brother, Costovar, who had already advanced to Tier Nine mid stage.
Space-attribute mages possessed immense dominance on normal battlefields, their high damage output and mobility crushing many other types of mages.
However, their space magic did not pose much of a threat to Zhang Ye and Nan.
This was because the greatest strengths of space magic, aside from mobility, lay in its lethality.
Mobility relied on teleportation and spatial gates, while lethality relied on spatial cutting.
Yet when it came to mobility, neither Zhang Ye nor Nan feared them. One possessed 【Blink】 and 【Retrograde】 just like Lina, while the other possessed an explosive speed that even Zhang Ye had to temporarily avoid.
And as for lethality, there was even less of a contest.
Nan's lightning-attribute explosive power and reflexes were incredibly terrifying, showing absolutely no fear toward space magic.
The same went for Zhang Ye. Moreover, both of them possessed incredibly powerful physical bodies, whereas Qiya and Costovar were pure mages. Thus, despite using their troublesome space magic to hold out for a short while, they ultimately met with defeat.
The top six were decided!
Including the one who received a bye, there were seven competitors left: Zhang Ye, Nan, Lina, Shana, Gajeel, Connor, and a light-attribute mage who had previously performed with Gajeel, Lev.
Next, they would determine the top three!
Lina got the bye.
Zhang Ye waited expectantly, but he was disappointed once again. His opponent this time was still not Gajeel.
His opponent was Shana.
Rate on N.U.
