Just as I sliced my katana down, the knight suddenly twisted his body the other side with an abnormal amount of strength, and since his chestplate was slanted, this caused my foot to slip off the side of it, making me lose balance a bit. The knight, taking advantage of my momentary disbalance, continued rolling away from me and eventually got back up to his feet, picking up his fallen saber in the process.

I finally regained my footing, and glared at him. "That sudden turn...was too strong to be your muscles alone."

He nodded. "Indeed, I admit...I used Blessing Magic to empower myself there so I could break free. I have lost to you in a fair fight, and like I said, under normal circumstances, I would have just let you kill me. However...currently, my lady's life is on the line. I have no choice but to put down my honor and fight with all I have."

"Tch..." I snorted. "So much for a noble knight."

These words seem to hit him pretty deeply, as he looked downwards, and although I couldn't see his expression beneath his helm, I was certain he had a conflicted look on his face.

I then raised one of my katanas and pointed it at him. "Very well. I never expected you to fight fairly in the first place."

He looked up at me hesitantly. "Boy...you are no match for me if I use magic. To show my respect for you, I will not kill you if you get out of my way, now."

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. "If I would just get away from here now, we wouldn't be having this fight in the first place. Sorry, but if you want to save your lady or whatever, you're going to have to fight me - again."

The knight took a deep breath, and sighed. "...Boy, there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity."

I turned around to briefly glance behind me, where Mayor Zhou was completed depleted of mana, and Mr. Gao and Mr. Tan were busy trying to hold off the monsters. Our own army was all the way on the other side of these monsters, trying to get to us, but to no avail.

Looks like...I'm really on my own here, huh?

I smirked, and made a little 'come at me' gesture with my hand. "There is also a fine line between stupidity and confidence."

*****

- A Few Minutes Earlier, Within the Dimension Lockdown -

(Song Qian Long's Perspective)

"Legendary Shadow Magic..." Li Hai Tang muttered too beastly for a human. "Inescapable Nightmare!"

A shroud of pulsing shadow energy came flying towards us, and immediately, surrounded the three of us within it. We were now enclosed within a dome of Shadow energy, unable to escape. This spell injected nightmares within the heads of all those trapped inside this dome.

"To think he would strike first," Qing Xin murmured, trying to keep out the nightmares. "Despicable."

"Well...this isn't exactly Li Hai Tang's own will," Yu Ao said in his defense, similarly frowning to keep out the nightmares.

Qing Xin clenched her fists. "Even then...to fall for a simple Mind Control spell..."

"Enough about that. I will get us out of here." I muttered under my breath.

The ultimate counter to Shadow Magic...is Light, of course.

"Legendary Light Magic - Divine Purification!"

A bright orb of light appeared above my head, growing bigger and brighter by the second. Eventually, light met darkness, and the two forces clashed in vigor. When shadow and light fought directly, the power that would come out on top would be the one with more strength behind the spell.

And, after all...I am not the number 1 mage in Shenzhen for nothing.

Just as I thought this, the light began overwhelming the shadows, slowly eating away at the dark energy. After a few more seconds, the shadow dome was completely gone, and what was left was my radiating, purifying light, illuminating the sky.

The three of us relaxed as we were no longer under the threat of nightmares, and not giving our enemies a chance to react, we took on the offensive side.

"Legendary Sky Magic - Fang of Zeus!" I chanted, preparing to bring down a massive purple thunderbolt.

"Legendary Fire Magic - Solar Nova!" Yu Ao yelled, fusing his fire bomb with my lightning bolt to create a mixture of Fire and Sky Magic - more precisely, a massive sphere of fire, with lightning sparks emitting from it.

And then came Qing Xin - the final component in our attack.

"Legendary Ice Magic - Wrath of the Snow Wyvern!"

Once more calling upon the snow wyvern, the creature roared and flapped its wings once, sending an extremely powerful wind in Mei Mo and Li Hai Tang's direction. The ball of fire and lightning was caught up in this force, and also flew towards them, accompanied by hundreds of ice spikes, forming a deadly hail.

"D-Damn it!" Mei Mo cursed. "I can't evade all the ice spikes even if I turn into bat form...ugh, Li Hai Tang! Block the attack!"

"Ngh..." Li Hai Tang muttered in anguish. "Legendary Water Magic...Tsunami!"

Summoning a massive wave of tidal water, Li Hai Tang raised his attack as high as he possibly could, forming a curtain to block against our incoming attacks.

BOOM!

The fire evaporated instantly upon coming into contact with the water, and the now heated water evaporated Qing Xin's ice spikes with ease. In other words, this spell was the perfect counter to our combination of elements...not.

Even magic cannot escape the basic laws of physics. Water Magic may be the commonly known counter of Fire Magic, but...at the same time, it is also a direct conductor of electricity - in other words, it would not only be completely useless against Sky Magic - Raijin spell family - but it would also end up help powering the attack up further.

My electricity created from my Fang of Zeus spread through the water with ease, eventually converging together into one massive thunderbolt once more. Sadly, due to the size of the tsunami, some electricity was lost on the way, but the power it currently held was still enough to gravely injure a Golden Monarch, though not kill them.

The thunderbolt smote Li Hai Tang directly in the chest, sending him flying backwards, crashing into the walls of the invisible cube we were in. Mei Mo only barely managed to dodge out of the way of Li Hai Tang. After groaning in agony, he collapsed to the floor, seemingly unconscious.

Mei Mo glanced behind her, frowning at the sight of her newly acquired slave, defeated. She realized she had no chance of taking the three of us head on now that she lost her only ally.

"D-Damn it...! Damn it all!" she cursed, hands shaking out of fear.

Since Li Hai Tang had fallen, his conjured tsunami naturally did as well. The water simply evaporated into thin air, and now, all that was left in the dimension lockdown were Yu Ao, Qing Xin, and I, facing Mei Mo and a seemingly unconscious Li Hai Tang.

"Give up," I said quietly, walking closer to her. "Recall all of your monsters, and come into our custody quietly. If you cooperate...we may consider not killing you."

"H-Hah!" she laughed hysterically. "Killing?! Me?! Hahahahahah-"

I raised my arm and pointed it towards her, ready to send more offensive magic her way at a moment's notice. This silenced her frenzied laughter, and she fell to the ground, defeated.

The three of us walked closer to her, but then I quickly made a hand gesture to stop moving, and Yu Ao and Qing Xin obliged.

What made me stop was what Mei Mo was doing. Instead of weeping in defeat like I thought she would be, she was laughing - giggling, to be precise.

I narrowed my gaze. "You...why are you laughing?"

She continued to laugh, this time even harder. "Hehehehehe~if I'm dying anyways....I might as well take all of you - this entire city - with me!"

My eyes widened as her body began to glow a bright gold.

"No! You can't!" I yelled, desperate to stop her.

"HAHAHAHA! It's too late! No one can stop me now!" she screamed, continuing to laugh like a maniac.

"Principal Song! Don't tell me, she's going to do that?!" Yu Ao asked hastily.

I nodded, a grim expression on my face. "Damn it...I should have anticipated this. I never expected her to have the guts to do this..."

Qing Xin closed her eyes. "Principal Song, it is not your fault...however...if she is really using that technique..."

I nodded. "Yes...I understand. There is only one way to counter it."

Yu Ao had a conflicted expression on his face, and he looked away. "But...who will do it?"

I clenched my fists. "I will."

"Principal Song..." Qing Xin murmured in worry.

I closed my eyes. "As the top mage of this city...this is my responsibility."

Slowly, I opened my eyes once more, and walked towards Mei Mo, whose body was slowly turning golder and golder by the second.

Kai Kai...I'm sorry. It seems...I am unable to stay with you any longer.