Chapter 211: The Wingless Angel
“Advice naturally doesn’t count.”
“But don’t you think your actions this time are a bit excessive?”
“The exchange competition is a fair platform for all participating academies, and yet you rely on such means. It truly is disgraceful!”
I looked at the three figures from Holy Angel Academy before me. Although they seemed to have rushed over, it did not diminish their flair as they made their entrance.
The pair of white wings behind them spread wide, shimmering with golden holy light. It was this pair of golden wing phantoms that supported their flight.
Their flying differed from those in Dragon bl**d Academy; even when those wings flapped, they probably only stirred up winds of natural strength.
Clap, clap, clap.
Listening to their remarks, I couldn’t help but burst into applause, for their words truly were magnificent.
“Well said! As expected of Holy Angel Academy, your speech is impressive. So, what’s next? Am I to give you a fair one-on-one duel opportunity? Or perhaps… do you plan to unite to judge me?”
I asked with a smile.
“The angel judges the witch; it has quite a dramatic flair and a medieval farce aesthetic, doesn’t it?”
In the face of my sarcasm, those from Holy Angel Academy remained unfazed, recalling that character Yu Yatian made me wonder if all students from Holy Angel Academy were like that ascetic. That would be rather dull.
I just didn’t know if Yu Yatian was watching the live stream at this moment.
“Since you have foreseen the consequences you are about to face, then let’s not waste more words!” The leading angel saw that lecturing me had no effect, so she prepared to take action directly.
Although I was not very familiar with some of Holy Angel Academy’s techniques, I couldn’t just let them use those methods freely.
Whether it was their so-called judgments or their mastery of divine techniques, they were basically as troublesome as spellbooks.
Just as the other side was about to act, a figure appeared behind them.
“Fool, you fell for it!”
With a sudden teasing tone coming from behind one of the angels, the unexpected sound caused the angel to break out in a cold sweat.
“Watch out! She’s behind you!”
“Wait! She’s still in place! It’s a clone!”
“No! It’s a mental illusion! Use see-through!”
“Impressive! You actually figured out it was an illusion? But as long as you remain in this moment of hesitation, it means you’ve given me the upper hand!”
Seizing the opportunity, I quickly appeared behind the one I had most overlooked.
At that moment, I couldn’t help but admire the students of Holy Angel Academy; they indeed had a wealth of experience, knowing in an instant that it could be an illusion.
However, the cost of their realization was that I had gained the upper hand.
This strike, however, was not very successful. The angel’s pair of holy light wings instinctively defended her, almost as if it was an automatic action, and I felt the protective function of their white wings.
The fireball spell only left a charred black mark on her wings, and the power of the holy light gradually dispelled the high temperature and charred remnants of the fireball spell.
“Hmph! Such a little trick is meaningless to us!” The angel I attacked flapped her wings, and a powerful beam of holy light shot out, enough to match the power of a basic spellbook.
“Hehe, such techniques are truly against the rules.”
I shook my head, looking at the students of Holy Angel Academy again. They were different from the Dragon bl**d Academy’s defensive dragon scales; they did not rely on direct protection spells. That pair of white wings was one of their crucial means of casting divine techniques, while their halo served as the source of their power, somewhat akin to a magic source.
But I never expected their defensive power to be this strong. As the saying goes, “spells cannot break through defenses,” and it meant they were under absolute suppression.
Am I afraid?
Not at all! In fact, I felt a thrill! I was eager to try!
The confidence I felt was naturally due to the numerous recovery potions I had gathered.
It was so reminiscent of the training sessions with Tan Han, where I didn’t have to worry about depletion! Even the number of partners in training had turned from one to three!
“But this is perfect for me, hahaha!”
At this moment, I was genuinely happy, feeling joy from the bottom of my heart. The previous battles hadn’t gone as I had wanted; oppressive fights left me unable to learn anything from them. Hence, these battles became meaningless to me.
They simply consumed my magic, but this was an exchange competition. To obtain resources, I could naturally compromise. However, in this situation, I couldn’t miss the opportunity.
At this moment, the three students from Holy Angel Academy, along with the observing elves and beast academy students in the distance, felt I had gone mad, still smiling in the face of such opponents.
But I couldn’t be bothered to correct their convoluted reasoning.
At this moment, I just wanted to have a good fight!
Activate the practical magic.
Activate the Word Spirit Technique: Unity of Knowledge and Action.
“Concentrate your attention, stabilize your emotions, observe keenly, analyze thoroughly, and think from multiple perspectives.”
This was the first time I formally used the Unity of Knowledge and Action spell. I had dabbled in it before, but it had been cursory. Now, let me see how much spark can be generated by wholeheartedly engaging in battle, combined with these verbal suggestions and practical learning!
As I completed my preparations, the other side thought I was just talking nonsense. But what awaited them next were spells—one after another, spell attacks.
The energy manipulation spell was always my standby due to its low consumption, as well as the prerequisite for a lot of trial and error.
I was also probing their limits, for example, their reaction speed. Since they relied on their wings for protection, would attacks surpassing their reaction speed yield unexpected results?
The answer came to me quickly.
Without their wings, they too were mere flesh and bl**d! The blessing of holy light was also something that could be broken.
Of course, I was also testing other things, like their halos. Since that was their source of power, it could also be attacked. Such an obvious target would be quite a pity not to test!
But they seemed to be protecting it quite well. Even now, I had yet to ascertain whether that halo was a physical object or an illusion, or perhaps something akin to a magic source?
Using spirit vision to look, the terrifying information shock was similar to that from a single magic source, only allowing me to speculate that it contained a fearsome holy light power.
“Hey, hey! Where did your calmness go just now? Weren’t you going to judge me? Where are your divine techniques?”
As I watched them being somewhat flustered under the suppression of my spells, I had held back on using the “Floating Series” energy manipulation spell in order to spark new inspiration.
To some extent, they were even inferior to Tan Han. Or did their divine techniques require preparation time or ceremonies?
After all, the existence of spellbooks was itself a breach of rules; how could those spellcasters without spellbooks cast spells?
Mental power was something I had tried and could not achieve. So… there was only one possibility: racial talent!
Like the elf’s elven magic or the angel’s divine techniques? I understood divine techniques; they were similar to spells but were “borrowed arts.”
Looking at the depleting magic power, I couldn’t indulge them any longer.
I was facing two choices: one was to let them have the chance to use their divine techniques for a genuine duel against me.
The other was to strike them down decisively.
In an instant, I had clearly weighed my options.
k*ll.
In this stage, those who could be crushed and had not shown strong cooperation had been suppressed to such an extent by my spells. Did I expect them to provide me with pressure and inspiration?
If I wanted to find an evenly matched opponent in the future, there were plenty. There was Tan Han, and if not, there were always the senior sisters!
Instead, acquiring resources was very important. Each encounter would not have a second chance.
Although I was currently facing the dilemma of many confusing spellbooks and biting off more than I could chew, this was not my greatest predicament. I simply lacked the time to settle and digest things; that was no reason not to acquire resources and foundation.
Moreover, having experienced this exchange competition, even though it wasn’t over yet, I had realized many of my shortcomings; that alone was a gain.
Regardless of what valuable items might be in their storage equipment, killing them could open the store manager’s small treasury; that was quite a profitable deal.
“My patience is limited, so let’s take you down first!”
At this moment, I shifted my battle rhythm, turning focus on the three angels into one.
Taking them down one by one was what I needed to do.
After all, they were from Holy Angel Academy, worth dealing with individually, and that pair of wings was one of the most troublesome things I had encountered.
I truly wanted… to break them myself!
But before that, I also wanted to see if I could shatter that halo of theirs.
“You!”
Realizing she was my target, the angel I was directly focusing on showed a fleeting moment of panic.
But I appreciated her composure after the initial shock, unlike some in other academies who only cared about fleeing when emotions took over.
“Purify! Don’t you have many tricks?”
After being fully targeted by me, this angel could scarcely resist as I seized her jawbone.
Even like this, she wasn’t willing to give up and clutched the opportunity to bite down on my palm.
But her bite nearly knocked her teeth out.
Would I hold on without any protection?
“Elvis! Be careful!”
“Don’t think you’re safe just because I’m not targeting you.”
With my spell suppression lessening, the other two angels seized the opportunity to begin casting divine techniques.
However, I wouldn’t let them cast their divine techniques so comfortably.
Floating spell, fireball spell, wind blade spell, thunder strike spell—after using three spells, this was the first time they had appeared in public view, or rather, a certain bl**d clan had experienced a trial version of the thunder strike spell.
The thunder strike and wind blade spells were known for their attack speed and were excellent for suppressing effects. The fireball spell had the highest power, sufficient to delay tackling this angel.
The angel I held was then in quite an unhappy position, with the binding spell restricting her body, enhanced five senses intensifying everything, having received a blinding spell, and possibly not yet recovering her vision. The corrosive curse was gradually eroding her sanity under heightened touch.
She could use purification, but now she had no opportunity.
Flapping wings now felt like the fluttering of a white-feathered chicken.
My outstretched hand glowed with crimson flames, a utilization of the fireball spell, removing the explosion characteristic to produce sustained high-temperature spell effects in my hand, specifically modified for tearing that halo.
When my hand firmly grasped the halo, I only felt its material touch and the terrifying energy surging inside.
So, I directly prepared my last defense to prevent the halo’s explosion from affecting me.
“Don’t! Don’t…”
The angel in my grip spoke haltingly, her tone surprisingly carrying a hint of pleading.
“Here we go~”
I ruthlessly tightened my grasp on her halo, but at that moment it felt utterly immovable, as if it weren’t something to be taken by brute force, but rather a clash at the energy level.
Having understood this, I didn’t hesitate to once again summon the blessing of the Fire Elemental Sprite!
With the blessing of flames, I could clearly feel the cracking of the halo as I tore through it.
Crack!
A crisp sound echoed across the area.
Immediately, a torrent of holy light power poured out. At that moment, I became the center of what seemed like a gigantic flashbang, the holy light blazing forth with radiance that was pure and unviewable, creating a fierce and stunning force that surged outward.
Even the raging forest fire beneath my feet expanded in that instant, flames flaring outward.
But the burning trees wouldn’t extinguish so easily.
When everything returned to normal, the flames once again rose strong, even intensified due to the dispersal of energy, spreading out more violently.
“Elvis!”
“Run! We might not be able to defeat that witch!”
“She destroyed Elvis’s halo!”
“This isn’t the time for you to vent your unnecessary feelings for her. Did I not make it clear? We! Two! Even combined can’t deal with her. Going over there is certain d*ath! None of those would help us!”
“If you want to leave, go ahead! You can go back by yourself, don’t mind me; I’ll go down with her!”
“Tsk… If I don’t have that, there’s no way I’m leaving behind so many feelings. If you’re not leaving, then I’m going first.” Seeing this, the angel set to escape showed no hesitation and turned to flee.
What a joke! That was the fierce one who tore apart an angel’s halo, and the last explosion of the halo hardly harmed her. If she didn’t run now, did she really think she could achieve mutual destruction?
“Are you seeking d*ath?” I looked at the angel currently enveloped in holy light power.
“Angel Holy Ring liberation, witch, feel the culmination of my ultimate judgment!”
“Oh, self-destruct the halo?” I gazed at the cracks on her halo, indicative of a violent surge in holy light power, clearly signaling some sort of mutual destruction.
“Throwing caution to the wind is admirable, but being foolish remains foolish.”
With disregard, she charged at me, clearly ignoring the damage from my floating spell; she was intent on using this moment, d*ath no longer mattered—the full force of a strike was her only thought.
But in the next moment, a wind blade spell shot toward her.
Previously, when the wind blade spell blocked the elf, I had felt there was room for improvement in its power. The spell suppression I had just used served as an experiment, and now this wind blade spell was a product of that enhancement.
The wind blade spell obviously couldn’t be compared with her self-destructing strike, but for someone who had already abandoned their defenses, it was sufficient.
The already shattered halo became the last straw that broke the camel’s back under the arc of the wind blade.
With the final crack sounding, her divine technique began to recoil.
I quickly raised a protective spell to stealthily move away from the blast radius.
I had just endured the explosion of a halo; fortunately, I had shields from various protective spells, but I must say, I did suffer significant fallout, shaking me to a point where my body still struggled to adjust.
Consecutive bursts of holy light elevated the forest fire by several levels.
The shockwaves from the explosions whipped up hot waves among the flames, pushing the fire sources even further away.
It felt like the people in the distance were about to start cursing, rushing over to add to the chaos.
It seemed like the people from Holy Angel Academy came here just to help me; I should really thank them.
When everything returned to calm, a figure fell awkwardly into the flames.
But for safety, I transformed into a fire spirit to check things out.
And I brought along the angel named Elvis; I had a feeling a nice show was about to unfold.
However… without her halo, the angel at that moment looked like an ordinary person. The wings on her back seemed to have lost their luster, and in this high-temperature environment, the once beautiful white feathers curled and charred.
“El… Elvis…”
“Sure enough, not dead! Even without the halo, does the life force of the Holy Angel remain so resilient?”
When I found her, despite her clumsily falling to the ground, she hadn’t died. She was even calling out for her companion.
“You… witch!”
“Correction, I’m a prospective witch, but you can call me a witch anyway.” I lifted Elvis and threw her down.
“I heard that once you enroll in Holy Angel Academy, there is no longer a distinction between genders, not even beauty in lacking s*xual characteristics. This one named Elvis must have been a girl before enrollment, right? Why do you care so much for her? Is she your girlfriend?” I smiled and asked, looking at her still somewhat prominent chest.
“He’s not!” At that moment, the angel who was also called Elvis spoke instead.
“Oh~ I see. Since she’s not, why does she care so much for you? Are you her sister? Or is it another relationship?” I stepped forward to pinch her chin, smiling as I asked, but it was clear I didn’t believe her statement.
“They say wingless angels are the ethereal beauty who descends to Earth. A pure angel with broken wings symbolizes the pure and beautiful things, choosing to break wings for the pursuit of beautiful love.”
At this moment, my hand had reached the pair of wings on Elvis’s back. As my fingers brushed over them, I could still feel her tremble.
“I’ve never experienced this feeling. I want to see if your expression will be unexpectedly stunning when you have your wings broken.”
“No… no! Break them! Let me bear this pain!”
“No, no, no! I see you looking at me like this is painful; no need to experience it personally. How about thanking my mercy~”
I stood behind Elvis and deliberately raised her chin so she could directly gaze at her companion.
“What are your thoughts? By the way, when revived, the broken wings and halo should return to normal, right? Don’t worry too much…”
I mused, entirely ignoring the thoughts of these two, but I was thoroughly enjoying myself. The senior sisters watching the live broadcast must have liked such a scene, right?
As for playing too far… then let it be.
It’s just the manager’s task…
Crack!
A crisp sound was accompanied by painful howls and groans, along with a flurry of curses and expletives.
Reflecting on their earlier flamboyance when they arrived, this seemed to be what they deserved.
“If you hadn’t come to provoke me, wouldn’t all this have never happened?”
I seemed to be talking to myself as I approached them to take their storage equipment. I needed to cultivate good habits now—always loot before killing; otherwise, if I killed them and nothing dropped, it would be wasted.
The forest fire continued to blaze, and I still advanced the spread of flames, but this time, I had accumulated a total of six extra points.
It’s just a pity that the contestants who died in the fire wouldn’t add to my score. However, among them, there should be no one who would d*e here, right?
After all… they were all elite students from the academy wielding extraordinary power, and how could the spreading flames outpace their escape speed?
