Chapter 20

The exchange among the three dark mages in the stands was absolutely beyond the speculation of the apprentices below.

After finishing their own battles, Sain and Boss moved to the combat area for the advanced apprentices, closely observing the battle process of the advanced apprentices.

"Hey, Sain, I'm over here." When Sain, wearing a pale mask, appeared in the advanced apprentice area, his senior sister, Phyllis, waved to him.

Senior sister Phyllis's battle had already ended. Due to her mastery of fierce and powerful fire element magic, and with the many magical items gifted by Master Moses and senior brother Zorro, Phyllis's ranking was already secured in the top three.

On the other hand, Sain's girlfriend, Lina, and Lilianya, whom Sain had once interacted with, had yet to finish their battles.

At this point, two spots in the advanced apprentice circle had already been decided, and they were competing for the last one.

Lina's opponent was an apprentice who controlled a rare necromantic composite beast.

From this apprentice, Sain saw a few traces of Master Kosolong, a formal dark mage.

Apart from the twisted monster that was a combination of several magical beast bodies and heads, the apprentice himself had four arms, which was enough to make one shudder.

However, what was even more chilling was the red flesh tumor on the apprentice's neck.

A slow, heart-like pulsation could be heard from the tumor, as if it were nurturing something.

The combat methods and techniques of the advanced apprentices far exceeded those of the intermediate and junior apprentices.

Not only did they master several, even a dozen, types of magic, but they also had a variety of trump cards.

For example, the apprentice with the tumor, besides having a twisted monster as a fighter, also possessed some special means similar to a death ray.

The gray cloak worn by the apprentice with the tumor seemed to be a magic equipment of no small grade.

In contrast, apart from the familiar black crystal bracelet, the only additional magic equipment Lina had was a black bracelet on her wrist.

Moreover, Lina seemed to have mastered two more dark element magics in the past two months: one was a ray released from her fingers, and the other was a dark energy ball.

As a new advanced apprentice who had been promoted for only half a year, it would be very difficult for Lina to win this battle.

"Your little girlfriend is quite capable. To force Death Hand Mike to this extent, I thought the battle would end quickly," Senior sister Phyllis said with a smile.

As advanced apprentices, they had a rough idea of who would achieve what ranking before the grade assessment began.

Death Hand Mike was undoubtedly one of the best among the advanced apprentices in the academy. Besides his mastery of formidable death magic, the pain-insensitive composite beast was also a tough opponent.

In theory, the last spot among the top three advanced apprentices was almost certain to be Mike's.

However, the current situation clearly did not give Mike a sure win.

In response to Senior sister Phyllis's teasing, Sain was about to say something, but his expression suddenly changed as he noticed the changes on the field.

Indeed, Lina, who was known as the 'crazy woman' among the intermediate apprentices, had not changed much even in the advanced apprentice circle.

Death Hand Mike and his necromantic composite beast alternated between close and long-range attacks. It was clearly too difficult for Lina to defeat him using conventional methods.

However, Lina was not one to give up easily. She condensed a fierce fireball in one hand, while a dense dark element glow gathered at her crystal necklace.

With both spells ready, Death Hand Mike also became more alert.

But what no one expected was that after the two magic glows appeared, Lina did not immediately release them. Instead, her bracelet flashed, and she transformed into a fast-moving shadow, rushing toward Mike!

"What?!" More than one magic apprentice exclaimed upon seeing this.

Even the three dark mages in the stands turned their attention to the scene.

One of them, perhaps to ease the cold hostility released by Andis, said, "She's releasing two spells at once, no, to be precise, three."

"Although she is using two magic items, her mental refinement and fine control of magic are indeed impressive," the dark mage praised.

The dark mage noticed the smooth operation of Lina's three spells, while the most powerful mage, Andis, noticed her combat intuition in directly approaching Mike.

As a spellcaster who had experienced countless battles, Andis knew the consequences of a mage being approached.

They indeed wielded powerful elemental forces, but their frail bodies were a well-known fact among mages.

Except for a few spellcasters like blood mages who were also skilled in close combat, most spellcasters relied on magic shields or slave creatures for close-range defense in battles.

Although Mike had a necromantic composite beast, it clearly lacked intelligence and had stiff movements.

As for magic shields, given Mike's current flustered state, it was likely he had not learned such spells.

"Boom!" A huge explosion of a fireball sounded.

Following the explosion of the large fireball, there were nearly twenty smaller, consecutive explosions.

Sain had already seen Lina's improved and enhanced explosive fireball two months ago in the black market.

The initial large fireball directly knocked down the necromantic composite beast in front of Mike. Just as the beast tried to stand up again, the subsequent twenty small fireballs immobilized it.

The fire element seemed to be particularly effective against the composite beast.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Lina approached Mike.

Mike hastily released two death rays, one of which Lina took head-on, and the other she dodged.

Just as Mike was about to release another spell, Lina had already reached behind him, her right hand, emitting a dense black glow, aimed at Mike's head.

To be precise, it was pressing against the tumor on Mike's neck.

"Wow!" Murmurs of surprise echoed throughout the training ground.

Two of the seven owls in the sky also flew down, their eyes fixed on Mike and Lina.

Mike, who was now under Lina's control, had a pale and flushed face.

It was unclear whether it was due to anger or the significant impact of the death modification magic on his body.

A faint, unique stench of corpses emanated from the joints of Mike's extra arms.

"Do you think you've won? Go ahead and make a move!"

"But I can guarantee that the moment you make a move, your body will be submerged in the toxins from my bone cloak, and even your corpse will become a meal for my precious pet!" Mike shouted.

Indeed, the magic cloak behind Mike was now floating in the air, subtly blocking all of Lina's escape routes.

The composite beast, which had been knocked down by the fierce fireball, was now dripping with mucus and blood, shakily standing up again.

This creature's vitality was truly remarkable!

Would Lina, who was known as the 'crazy woman,' be intimidated by Mike's threats?

Indeed, as Mike finished speaking, the dark element glow in Lina's hand did not weaken but became even brighter.

In the next second, a pitch-black magic beam was about to turn Mike into a sieve.

"Don't!" Sain's voice echoed from outside the field.

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