Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

"Hey Reed, it turns out that these Asians aren't treating us seriously," a woman with a few obvious moles on her face spoke up.

The others knew what the woman was trying to say, since the formation of the Chinese team did not seem to be strong at first glance.

Every country was expected to give their best during the finals. The Chinese team was said to be the dark horse this year, after it was able to make it to the finals, yet as a country that had failed to make it to the finals for so long, they seemed reluctant to give their best, and were not treating the match seriously. The German team was struggling to understand what the Chinese team was thinking.

Did they seriously think they could handle the old, powerful nation that had rarely tasted defeat with these starting members?

"Don't they like to preserve their strength? Let's show them what we have and crush all five of their members before they can even send their substitutes in. That way, we'll be able to preserve our strength instead for the match tomorrow!" an Ice Mage from Munich sniffed.

"Don't be careless, they might be probing us," snapped their captain Johnson, who had always been cautious.

The two teams were around a hundred and fifty meters apart. The whole stage had a diameter of around three hundred meters. The stage was like a desert, with a dry, scorching heat, even though they were currently in Venice and surrounded by water!

The stage felt quite real. The two teams were standing on two sand dunes that were not too steep. As the two teams started channeling their spells, the sand slowly drifted in the wind.

On the side of the German team, the first spell that was cast was the Summit Wind. It swept fiercely, blowing the sand into the air...

More sand was blown into the air and slowly formed sandy clouds above the German team. The sandy clouds seemed to be controlled by some Mage, combining with the wind to form a strong layer of protection for the German team!

---

"They are pretty good at using the environment to their advantage. Behold, my sandcastle!" Zhao Manyan was not to be outdone either. He stomped the ground and constructed a sturdy wall from the golden sand, which gradually took on the outline of a sandcastle.

The five members of the Chinese team stood on the sandcastle. It was like a defensive fortress; any destructive Spells targeting them would have to destroy the sandcastle first!

"Seal of the Earth!" Zhao Manyan activated his magic ring, spreading the energy that was able to reinforce his Earth Spell.

The seal imprinted on the sturdy sandcastle was able to boost its defense by another twenty percent!

"Your sandcastle is pretty ugly," Jiang Shaoxu said.

"I'm not a f**king builder, it's useful enough as long as it's sturdy! Don't worry about its appearance. Some body parts we men have are pretty ugly too, but are still useful!" Zhao Manyan shot back.

Jiang Shaoxu stuck her tongue out, not willing to waste any more of her time talking to the pervert.

Jiang Shaoxu strongly believed that the reason why Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan were able to become best buddies was that they greatly appreciated how equally perverted they both were!

"It's the second-tier Sky-Flame Funeral, Hellish Flames!" Nanyu said to the others, glancing into the sky.

The first-tier of the Sky-Flame Funeral, Rain of Flames, was able to summon flames to pour down like a rain from the sky. The flames would promptly set the whole place on fire.

However, the Sky-Flame Funeral: Hellish Flames was completely different. It only had a single meteorite, but as it came closer gradually, the people would realize how enormous the meteorite was. The meteorite would even produce ghastly screams, like devils from Hell!

Unlike the ordinary red flames, the meteorite of the Sky-Flame Funeral: Hellish Flames was dark green, and the flames engulfing the meteorite were dark green, too!

With a huge explosion, the wind produced by the approaching meteorite blew the sand into the air, yet the sand was turned into nothing by the sinister green flames. Even the sturdy defense that Zhao Manyan had set up crumbled within an instant!

The Hellish Flames spread wildly. Its force swept across half of the stage fiercely, the barrier surrounding the stage even trembled from the impact!

The Chinese team was in complete disorder.

The members were forced to scatter due to the powerful flames. No one had expected that the German team would attack with such a powerful Fire Spell without probing them first.

The Hellish Flames finally calmed down after some time. Zhao Manyan's face was covered in sand, and his body already had a few burns.

"For f**k's sake, how did he break through my defense, just like that?" Zhao Manyan cursed anxiously.

Zhao Manyan had gone through lots of practice with Mo Fan, and even Mo Fan's spells were unable to break through his defense so easily. How did the German do it?

"Can your defense be any more useless?" Mu Tingying snapped furiously, her hair disheveled.

"Something doesn't feel right about that destructive Mage. Zhao Manyan, you'll have to set up an extra layer of defense next time," Ai Jiangtu said.

"That guy took Akira Matsuki out with a single spell. There must be more to his magic than meets the eye, if it can pierce our defense," Nanyu said.

"It's coming again! That guy is pretty quick at drawing a Star Constellation!"

The sinister, green flames appeared once again. It no longer came from the sky, but was lunging at them like a long and enormous fiery snake!

There was only one fiery snake, but it was extremely huge, set aflame by the dark green flames, its mouth gaping wide. Its body was a few tens of meters long!

"There's no way you can break through my defense again. Water Curtain!" Zhao Manyan was agitated. A brilliant, clear Star Constellation appeared around him.

Following the light of the Star Constellation, a huge curtain emerged from the ground. The crystalline blue curtain possessed overwhelming energy, serving as a line of defense for the team.

"Totem Mark!" Zhao Manyan went all out this time. He summoned the power inside the wooden clapper.

The Totem Mark consisted of ancient words being drawn across the Water Curtain that Zhao Manyan had cast!

"A Soul-grade Water Seed, and the hundred and fifty percent strengthening from the Totem Mark! I would like to see how you're going to break through my defense this time!" Zhao Manyan was infuriated too.

Normally, a destructive spell would struggle to break down a defensive spell of the same level. Zhao Manyan knew the opponent he was facing was a talented destructive Mage in the tournament, yet he strongly believed he could make his opponent despair!

The fiery, green snake collided with the Water Curtain. The defensive barrier shook vigorously, yet when Zhao Manyan assumed that the snake was surely going to dissipate, it simply went past the barrier and lunged at them!

"Zhao Manyan, what the heck are you doing!?" Mu Tingying screamed.

The fiery snake scorched the whole area. The formation of the Chinese team collapsed entirely as the members were forced to back away from the wild flames.

Zhao Manyan was dumbfounded too. He watched the enormous fiery snake destroying the sand dune in disbelief!

"Did...did it just pass through my spell… just like that?" Zhao Manyan murmured.

The Water Curtain was clearly still standing. How did the fiery snake even pass through it? It just did not make any sense!

"It seems like defensive spells are useless against his destructive spells, or perhaps his destructive spells are able to pass through elemental spells. It must have something to do with his innate talent. It explains why Akira Matsuki was defeated by a single spell. The man obviously did not expect his defensive spell to be entirely useless against his opponent's attack!" Jiang Shaoxu said.

The same thing had happened twice. The others were confused about why Zhao Manyan had failed to stop him.

The second time, the fiery snake had simply passed through the barrier. It was not because Zhao Manyan's defense was too weak, but the unique attributes that their opponent's magic had!

They had never seen anything like it; it had to be something to do with the man's innate talent!

"If all our defensive spells are useless against him, is there any point for us to fighting this match? Won't we just be target practice for him once we use all our defensive equipment?" Zhao Manyan said in low spirits.

The two spells had already forced the members to use four pieces of their defensive equipment. They were meant to use their defensive equipment as a last resort, yet they had already paid such a great price after the match had only just begun!

"Jiang Shaoxu and I will keep him busy. Old Ai, you better apply enough pressure to the other members of their team," Nanyu immediately said.

Jiang Shaoxu was a Psychic Mage, an arch-enemy of all destructive Mages.

However, Nanyu believed the man would have a way to defend himself from the Psychic Element. That being said, if Jiang Shaoxu kept applying pressure with the Psychic Element while Nanyu tried her best to disrupt the man's channeling with the Sound Element, they would be able to stop Reed from casting Advanced Spells!

It simply meant they would have to send two members just to keep a single member of the enemy team busy. Ai Jiangtu, Zhao Manyan, and Mu Tingying would have to take on the rest of the enemy team.

However, their team had no other choice. The destructive Mage could easily crush their whole team with his terrifying Innate Talent. They would lose before they could send in the substitutes!

"There should be some other way. It doesn't make sense that the guy is able to ignore all our defense, there must be something we're missing!" Zhao Manyan said.

"You can take your time to figure it out!" Mu Tingying harrumphed coldly, before following Ai Jiangtu to engage the rest of the enemy.

Zhao Manyan was unwilling to accept the truth, yet he could not afford to waste further time.

Even if he could not stop that guy's destructive spells, there was no way he could not handle the rest of the enemy!

They just needed to find a chance to eliminate the others on the enemy team, before dealing with the scary destructive Mage!