366 Chapter 366: Winter Wins (1/2)
After a second or two, they snapped out of their stupor. One of them recovered enough to yell out an order.
”Attack him!”
Yeah, ”attack” me. Not ”kill” me. Honestly, if you think my opponents would try and kill me in a bloody tournament, you really have been reading way too many Chinese xianxia stories. Seriously, if I had a cent every time an antagonist screamed ”kill him!” in a xianxia story whenever they saw the protagonist, I would be a billionaire by now.
Anyway, I could only watch as a volley of fireballs, icicles, earth spikes, razor leaves, wind blades, lightning, holy beams, and a myriad of other elemental offensive spells shrieked toward me, almost like an artillery battalion firing in unison. Calmly watching the bombardment, I raised a single hand without bothering to unsheathe my swords. Instead, I called upon the services of another Soul Beast.
”Black Tortoise, over to you.”
The huge black Celestial Guardian lumbered out of the sea and onto the frozen surface, plopping himself down even as he finished the rest of his spell. A watery sphere engulfed all three of us – Cetus, Black Tortoise and myself – and shimmered brightly. The elemental projectiles from almost thirty students (by now, quite a few had been eliminated and there were about a dozen frozen because of Cetus's spells) collided against the glowing fluid barrier before detonating forcefully.
”Hey! Richard Huang, right?!”
I glanced down at the voice. For some reason, there was a guy standing on the deck of a frozen ship, waving his hands frantically. I had the impression that he would be jumping up and down wildly, were it not for the slippery icy surface that coated the metal floor. Noting the spiky hair and glasses, I recalled his name…Ding Ke Po, was it? The guy from the Divine Divination Academy, who was showing off his knowledge or something.
”Wait!” he shouted, as if afraid that I would attack him. I was tempted to – after all, we were still in the middle of a competition and I would score points for eliminating as many participants as I could. ”I just want to ally with you!”
I raised an eyebrow at that. ”Oh? And why should I ally with you?”
I knew this could possibly be a trap. I wasn't that naïve. Right now, almost all of the remaining participants in this stage were launching their spells at me, not because I was the protagonist or because they held some sort of petty grudge or thought I was ”trash”, but simply because they recognized me as the single biggest threat right now. Not to mention, my Constellation spirits were literally the biggest target at the moment, their immense sizes almost ten meters across. I had the potential to take out almost everybody in the stage, and they knew it. Therefore there was an implicit, unspoken agreement between them to cooperate to defeat me before they turned on each other again.
However, now that I thought about it, it was also precisely this impressive display of strength that made it not unusual for someone to seek an alliance with me. After all, if Ding Ke Po could piggyback my Constellation spirits and area of effect spells, he could potentially come out of this alive, and benefit from the entire situation.
Even so, I wasn't generous enough to simply ally with some random stranger who could potentially backstab me in the middle of a competition just because I was a nice guy. His life wasn't at stake here, and he evidently didn't need to be rescued. There was no reason or benefit for me to accede to his request.
Ding Ke Po must have anticipated my doubts, for he hurriedly shouted an offer.
”I can increase your chances of winning! Tremendously!”
”Oh?” Now that caught my attention. ”How?”
”Uh, can you help me first?”
Whoops. He had a point. While I was safely protected underneath the water sphere of my Black Tortoise, Ding Ke Po was at the risk of getting hit by the countless elemental projectiles that my opponents were flinging in my direction. I glanced at them, and wanted Cetus to freeze them, but I was aware that leaving the safety of Black Tortoise's water barrier would expose the azure whale to immense danger.
”Okay. Get in here!”
At my command, Ding Ke Po scrambled off the frozen ship and hurled himself in the direction of my Black Tortoise's water sphere. I muttered an incantation to slightly alter the impermeable screen, and the bespectacled divination mage passed through the watery barrier, unharmed. If I hadn't adjusted the settings, he would have been washed away by the imprevious wall of water.
”Thanks.” Ding Ke Po crawled to his feet and steadied himself on the ice before pausing next to Black Tortoise. I left him down below, not trusting him enough to allow him a ride on my Cetus. There was no telling what he could do if he had the opportunity to get close to me.
Fortunately, he didn't complain. Instead, he observed me for a moment, and then conjured an astrological circle with arcane symbols and weird, flickering patterns.
”Give me a minute,” he instructed without looking up, his attention completely focused on the astrological circle before him. I was about to nod when his gaze flickered from his astrological circle to the assailants outside, and then back to me. ”Heads up, powerful attack incoming. An ultimate spell that can break through your water barrier.”
”Oh?”
That was a useful tip. Unbeknownst to me, one of the students had withdrawn from the bombardment, leaving the relentless assault to the other participants while he accumulated enough mana to cast his ultimate spell. He was a holy mage who was crouching at the back and using the time his allies bought him to cast his spell.
A spear wielder. I noticed enormous volumes of golden mana swirling around his spear, and instinctively sensed danger. I wouldn't be able to dodge it, not with Black Tortoise's lack of speed. And Ding Ke Po was correct. The immense amount of mana that shrouded the spear suggested to me that it would be a technique powerful enough to penetrate Black Tortoise's water sphere.
”I am the soul of my sword.”
The holy mage chose that moment to hurl his golden spear at me. I watched as the Divine Device transformed into a blinding golden light that streaked across the space between me and the docks, shrieking with angry judgement.
Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes, raised my right hand and gathered as much azure mana as I could into my palm.
With a single bang, the holy spear pierced through Black Tortoise's water sphere instantly, rupturing the barrier and hurtling toward me unimpeded. Opening my eyes I completed the spell with a single incantation.
”Snow Aegis!”
The gigantic snowflake shield manifested in front of me, its icy petals unfurling as if blossoming. The entire area around me turned into fog as the temperature plummeted further, but Cetus remained unaffected, being an ice-type Constellation spirit.
The holy spear slammed into Snow Aegis with a thunderous crack, almost shattering the gigantic shield into frosty fragments. However, Snow Aegis held for now, enduring firmly under the vicious onslaught. The golden spear spun rapidly, almost as if trying to drill through the multiple barriers conjured by Snow Aegis, to no avail.
”UOOOOH!”
With a roar, I infused as much mana as I could into my Snow Aegis, weathering the relentless onslaught from the incredible Divine Device. The entire place erupted around me, the icy surface of the sea cracking. Ding Ke Po hastily jumped on top of Black Tortoise, clinging to his black shell for purchase as the thick layer of ice shattered and the sea rushed upward to lap at the Celestial Guardian's feet. Being a water type Celestial Guardian, Black Tortoise calmly waded through the waters, somehow maintaining his position and floating atop the surface almost lazily.