Vanguard of the Eternal Night

Chapter Ch146 - National Competition – Mage 2

translator: xiin

editor: kara

The lava waterfall flared out with brilliant red and gold lights.

Crimson didn’t pause for a single second. Before the blade could reach him, he’d already lifted his legs and jumped directly off the suspension bridge.

All of a sudden, the audience could see him in the air, his robes flapping around him. At the same time, his casting gestures were as accurate and precise as if he’d rehearsed them thousands of times––

He was casting a spell in mid-air!

In the face of the terrifying molten lava hell beneath his feet, Crimson fell with his back down, facing up as he seized this fleeting opportunity to chant his first magic spell: Spear of Fire.

Fire converged in the air as he chanted and quickly turned into a spear that was shot at Odin.

At this moment, Odin was standing at the edge of the drawbridge and had his daggers crossed in front of him. Just before the burning flame approached his eyes, he suddenly spun around!

Two snow-white blade lights flew out directly and clashed against the spear with a ‘clang’!

The spear cracked along with the sound. In an instant, it was scattered into pieces like countless flying fire insects before grouping back together––

In the air, Crimson stretched out his hand and chanted his second spell: Low-Pressure Wind Whirl.

This 0.5-second low-level spell perfectly gathered together the scattered fires and pulled them back together into a giant fireball whirlpool that flew towards Odin, pressing inwards!

Commentator: “This is Crimson’s magic reconstruction and combination technique!”

Some members of the team in the audience asked blankly, “Why doesn’t Odin jump after him?”

“Not enough time!” The team leader replied, “If the fall time difference is over half a second, then it’s enough to pull away from a close attack, and the second falling person will never be able to catch up with the first one. Instead of falling and playing a long-range attack exchange with a mage, it’s better to stay where he is––he knows what Crimson plans to do.”

While everyone was waiting for this low-pressure flame vortex to explode, Crimson had calmly finished chanting his last spell: Flash!

There was a flash of light, and Crimson, who’d been in the air, returned to the suspension bridge.

At this moment, the flame whirlpool exploded!

Fire spread out like fireflies in the air. From the deepest part of the whirl of light, a gap appeared, and Odin Flashed out of it. In the blink of an eye, he had arrived right in front of Crimson’s face!

The exchange of attacks at this moment happened so quickly that many people didn’t even notice how much of Odin’s health had been taken away by the spell attack.

His double blades were stained with a layer of brilliant red from the fire, and the blade lights flowed out with an incomparable sadness and beauty. For an instant, even the fire rain from the sky seemed to dim.

The two figures fell towards the lava together. This time, the difference in space between them was only half a body’s length, completely within the range of an assassin’s melee attack!

In the middle of the air, the scenery around them moved like strangely flowing colored ink, flying past swiftly.

Odin saw through Crimson’s next chant; it was Slow Fall!

If the spell was released successfully, then Crimson’s falling speed would slow down greatly, giving him another chance to launch a long-ranged attack. Crimson was making the best use of this map’s varying terrain heights.

It would only take less than four seconds to fall to the bottom of the 50-meter lava waterfall.

Crimson chanted non-stop, and Odin also acted decisively right from the beginning of the fall––

He directly bit down on the sword, Song of Triumph, and pulled out his cloak with his right hand. All of a sudden, whirling shadows filled his line of sight.

The audience exclaimed in surprise, and the commentators sped up their talking speed to exclaim, “Crimson can’t judge if he’s attempting a throat slice!!” His line of sight was blocked, and Crimson had no idea when Odin’s next attack would come!

His voice had just fallen when the system determined: Crimson had received a throat slice attack and fallen into a bleeding state.

––But, there was no silence effect!

At that critical moment, Crimson had directly interrupted his own chanting of the Slow Fall skill.

Compared to being forced into the silenced state by Odin, he would rather give up on Slow Fall and risk directly falling into the lava––this had been a very decisive choice that had to have been made even before Odin’s lightning-fast throat slice. It was enough to make others feel inferior.

In the middle of the sky, the cloak that had flared out was making a whistling noise with the wind resistance. It then flew off and directly fell into the lava waterfall with a sizzle before being gradually swallowed up by the molten lava.

At this time, the two players had already exchanged multiple attacks over the short fall time of two seconds!

Odin had directly cut Crimson down to 60% of his health!

Not only was the audience screaming and shouting, but also even the team leader was clicking his tongue, “This is amazing! In the air, both sides were falling continuously, and there’s lava at their feet. Odin also had to face Crimson’s magic. In such a bad damage-dealing environment, Lord Four was still able to play so calmly.”

The thieves in their team were also very attentive. “I’m not as good as he is. This man has full points for his aerial combat skills. It must be because he had fought against angels in his last life or something.”

While they were still shocked, Crimson used three linked-up instant spells: Fog, Oil, and Lightning to create a small explosion between the two players.

His precise calculation of the strength and angle needed was simply insane. He blew himself into a corner by the waterfall using the blast wave while also pushing Odin straight into the lava beneath their feet with a giant force.

However, the commentator was quick to exclaim, “The air really is the War God’s main battlefield!”

Odin was simply at his best. He threw out a dart, and the steel wire wrapped around it caught on the protruding stone edge nearby. The pull had only lasted for half a second before breaking, but he had used this limited, weak force to complete a turn in the air and land directly on a piece of black volcanic rock amidst the lava, rolling on the spot to offset the impact.

After he had landed, he raised up his head and shot out another dart, accurately pinpointing Crimson’s position.

At this moment, Crimson had been chanting for one second, and what he was about to release was a custom spell––

This was a small airflow vortex spell that formed the shape of a small tornado. It then picked up the surrounding fire and became a fire tornado.

It was a textbook example of using the environment to achieve a compounded magic effect!

At this time, Odin had to take a slightly tortuous route, both hands holding his blades as he moved over the constantly erupting magma, stepping on the red volcanic rocks beside the lava waterfall as he approached Crimson’s location.

The small tornado that Crimson had created had completely destroyed the surrounding environment, and the strong wind soon began to affect the two players’ balance, constantly scraping chips off the small rocks.

At this time, the commentators finally understood Crimson’s intentions, “Crimson is creating a terrain advantage! Odin is forced to use the only possible route to approach!”

On this sole remaining path, even the escape route was soon destroyed. In the blink of an eye, the two players were left on a steep cliff, meeting on a narrow road!

The next spell that Crimson chanted was his most aggressive spell from the start of the match: Nine-Turn Aurora!

The chanting time was 2.5 seconds, and it took the shape of a brilliant laser that shot straight ahead, causing blindness and shock to everything it encountered, followed by burning and cutting damage.

At 1.5 seconds, Odin had pulled away from the small fire tornado’s suction effect and used a double Flash to reach the foot of the lava waterfall. At this time, he also recognized the spell.

All spells were composed of three elements: Chanting determined the element, and gesture determined the form...

The principle of ‘Spellbreak Blade’ originated from this.

––As long as there was a form, it could be destroyed. Just like all life, there was a vulnerable point that was the key!

The caster was able to analyze the structure of matter and give form to intangible elements.

So, why couldn’t a killer grasp the essence of this fragile structure and cause it to fall apart?

In the time it took to breathe, the Nine-Turn Aurora had already taken form over the mage’s palm.

It was as though all the light sources at the scene had condensed together to form something so dazzling that nobody could look at it directly. After it shot out of Crimson’s hands, it headed straight through the rugged road that the fire tornado hadn’t covered––

At this time, the scene seemed to fall into a slow-motion playback state, and all noise had turned into silence.

Song of Triumph in Odin’s hand whirled sharply in the air several times and was held in a backhanded grip once again.

Then, he crossed his double blades, lowered his body, and closed his eyes to prevent being stabbed blind by the light in front of him.

The killing opportunity was always the most critical time!

It was at this moment that the scene that had once appeared in the arena between Odin and Jiuzhou once again reappeared in everyone’s eyes.

––He pierced the light, cut it, and shattered it apart!

The energy contained within burst out of the narrow confines of the spell like fireflies released from their cage and scattered into the sky, fluttering and hovering in the air.

Amidst such a beautiful scene, the dark golden eyes that reopened were still as merciless and cold as ever.

Crimson’s dark brown pupils suddenly contracted!

After this game, there was nobody else who would understand how it felt to face Odin directly more than he did. At this time, his heart suddenly sank, and it felt like he was being held by death.

In the moment he saw Odin, he’d already used an instant spell and tossed himself directly over the edge.

However, it wasn’t until he had begun to fall again that Crimson realized that he’d made a mistake!

At this moment, Odin, who’d been standing silently at the edge of the cliff, had blurred into a vague shape. He turned into a shadow and appeared instantly behind Crimson.

It was another aerial battle!

At this time, there was a flashing light rain all over the sky. Beneath their feet was the undulating, roaring lava, and even this space in the air was filled with twisting heat. Crimson knew that the angel of death had quietly approached him from behind.

––Throat slice!