Chapter 221: Facing the Son of Thunder
The halftime break ended, and the fifth elimination round began.
"Lelisa Academy, Seraphiel, versus Crystal Lattice Academy, Kailanli!"
After a fresh round of drawing lots, the two contestants made their way to the battlefield.
Crystal Lattice Academy had generated little buzz in this Winter Festival tournament; it seemed they themselves didn't care too much, but the performance of the students from Crystal Lattice Academy wasn't bad at all. They revealed some newly developed art formulas which caught the audience's attention.
Even without extraordinarily special geniuses, the high computational power from the Spirit Particle Sequence and the broad mastery over art formulas made the contestants from Crystal Lattice Academy have a high baseline; they were not at a disadvantage even when facing opponents with unfamiliar styles, able to choose appropriate battle tactics without being outclassed.
After stepping onto the stage, Kailanli twirled the barrel of her gun with an easy expression.
"I reckon I'll lose this match, based on the AI simulation results, your winning probability is about 96.73%," Kailanli said bluntly, predicting the outcome as she made her appearance.
"Are you planning to concede?" Seraphiel looked at Kailanli across from her.
"That's not it; although I will lose, to give up just like that would be a bit of a waste. How about this, I will try to use three special art formulas. If I can't injure you, I'll concede automatically."
"And if I do get injured?" Seraphiel felt that she wouldn't agree to such conditions for conceding.
"If you get injured, well, asking you to concede would indeed be a bit shameless and unlikely, so we'll just continue the fight," Kailanli shook her head.
"Since that is so, I accept your proposal," Seraphiel nodded slightly, which somewhat surprised Kailanli.
"Didn't expect you'd actually agree, people from Lelisa Academy are quite nice," she mumbled, but her hands were already in motion.
A deep blue Magic Cube Crystal levitated and rose, then expanded layer by layer, twisting and transforming into something that resembled a giant cannon. It slowly descended, ready for Kailanli to grasp.
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It looked intimidating, but the setup took quite a while. Had it not been for the agreement just now, Seraphiel had enough time to defeat Kailanli twice, forcing her to leave the stage.
Magic Power coursed through, and the patterns on the barrel lit up one by one. Then the gun body spun, the high-energy particles gradually transformed and converged within the firing chamber of the barrel.
[Dekelor Equation·Spiral Azure Twenty-Seven]
Three streaks of light flashed on the side of the barrel, converging into the light spot inside the gun barrel. Then the compressed recoil pushed inward, and the Energy Gathering lens at the back of the barrel flashed. A fierce energy surge then propelled the light spot forward, producing even more violent high-energy shock particles in the annihilation reaction.
A violent pillar of light aimed directly at Seraphiel, drowning her until, after a few seconds, the barrel overheated, the magic power receded, and the pillar of light gradually dimmed.
Seraphiel remained standing in place, holding her equally dazzling Holy Sword upright to divide the light pillar shining down on her. Even though the tips of her hair were slightly singed, she was largely unharmed.
The barrel in Kailanli's hands began to collapse and reshape.
"Blaze Window!" Kailanli snapped her fingers.
A virtual display of shelves emerged beside her, and Kailanli reached out to one. When she grasped a module component from the shelf, it transformed from illusion to reality, allowing her to retrieve it.
Two side modules, one Energy Gathering module, and four special art formula conversion modules were taken out for Kailanli, then added to the large machinery in front of her, altering its shape once more.
If it looked somewhat like a machine gun before, it was now indistinguishable from a large cannon, and on the side of the cannon's barrel, two secondary guns were charging up.
[Dekelor Equation·Increase Variant Four-Type·Spiral Azure Fifteen]
Magic Power storing cubes were pressed one by one into the slots behind the cannon barrel, and the large cannon quickly began to charge up. The sound of it drawing in air roared incessantly, the unsettling Magic Power compressed and transformed. Pale golden particles oscillated and changed within the reaction chamber before converging into the tiny yet dangerous azure flame.
"This is a bit of foul play, isn't it?" many in the audience commented.
"Even though it was agreed upon, Kailanli's summoning of additional armament does indeed seem like breaking the rules. If Seraphiel were to call for a pause in the match now, the judges would probably agree immediately."
"However, seeing Seraphiel's calm and composed demeanor, it seems she isn't really afraid, is she?"
"Let's see how she responds."
In the battlefield, the converging magic power radiance was almost visible to the naked eye, causing everyone to hold their breath, while Seraphiel also got serious. She unfolded her divine wings at her back, and a series of golden barriers rose in front of her, encircling her like transparent circles.
Just when everyone thought Kailanli would continue to charge, a bright column of light sloped down from the cannon, creating a surge so intense that the audience couldn't look directly at it, seeing only a blinding white.
"The Angel's Sevenfold Circle Sanctuary." Even if the final outcome wasn't clear, some recognized the secret technique Seraphiel had cast, which was also one of the once-famous spells of the Angel Sequence, known for its extremely strong instantaneous defensive abilities, isolating all kinds of harm and corrosion, and so on.
The dazzling surge instantly dispersed the first and second layers of circles; the third layer was torn apart in less than a second, followed by the fourth and fifth layers. By the sixth layer, the light cannon's power finally weakened, taking several seconds to break through the sixth defensive layer, and it was stopped and stalled at the seventh layer.
[Dekelor Equation·Variation Type Four·Spin Azure Seventeen]
Kailanli watched the cannon firing, altered the art formula again, and then the secondary cannons attached to either side of the main cannon fired, with deep purple and light blue particle surges sloped down, quickly penetrating the last layer of barrier.
Facing such an attack, Seraphiel finally stopped standing in place and started dodging by changing her form, then swung her sword to defend, with a mirror-like layer of magic power covering the blade and a faint white glow emerging on the surface of her body, countering the energy surge coming toward her.
The light blue particle surge was deflected off the mirror-like surface of the blade, but the deep purple particle surge shattered the mirrored surface upon contact and quickly penetrated through, with some particles passing through the fragmented blade and striking Seraphiel's shoulder. Although there was no blood splatter, the struck area showed a crystalline shatter pattern, making it difficult for Seraphiel, a member of the Radiant Feather Sequence, to heal herself.
After this strike, the light cannon's energy gradually faded, and the audience's vision began to recover slowly.
"I concede!"
Seeing that Seraphiel was still standing, Kailanli decisively gave up, fearing that if she was slow, she would receive a beating out of spite from the opponent, as her recent strategy indeed seemed a bit like exploiting a loophole in the rules and not entirely honorable.
"Lelysia Academy wins!"
After the announcement from the referee, Kailanli jumped down from the stage and then threw a vial of potion towards Seraphiel.
"This is a potion that can heal the crystal fractures caused by the spell just now." Having said that, she waved her hand and returned to the Crystal Lattice Academy.
Although she had lost, Kailanli, considering her own image as well as that of the academy, hesitated for a moment before choosing some remedial measures.
After receiving the potion, Seraphiel nodded slightly in thanks. Seeing her pure and flawless appearance made one unable to help but marvel at Lelysia Academy's pristine educational environment.
Following this first match, the subsequent battles lacked much suspense, with the few peers who far surpassed their age easily defeating their opponents. Even though the fighting among the remaining students was intense, it seemed somewhat unexciting compared to the bouts featuring Seraphiel and Levito earlier.
Gradually, the competition finally came to the ninth match.
"Edith Academy, Hexia Tilan, versus Thunder Edge, Sweitevi!"
The prodigal youngster who had emerged into the limelight and gained immense popularity during last year's Winter Festival competition, his mastery of lightning had amazed countless spectators, and this time too, he was among the favorites anticipated by many for the championship, riding high along with Seraphiel from before the competition had begun.
"Trouble, I didn't expect Tilan to have such bad luck, facing Sweitevi before even reaching the finals."
"Ah, if Tilan exits early, this year's Winter Festival competition won't be as good to watch."
As the draw results were announced, various discussions echoed throughout the venue, with many expressing their regrets.
"It's your turn, Tilan," cheered the group from Edith Academy's platform for the black-haired girl in white.
While everyone knew Tilan was strong, the fact that she was facing a current favorite for the championship unavoidably made them feel anxious.
"It's okay, I'll be back soon." Comforting her peers with a few words, Tilan leapt gracefully down and landed inside the battlefield.
Gazing at Sweitevi standing atop a small hill, with a longspear wrapped in lightning held in his hand, and an imposing gaze, Tilan walked step by step towards the hill. At her side, a longsword formed from black crystal coalesced into her palm.