"Attack him!"

Yeah, "attack" me. Not "kill" me. Honestly, if you think my opponents would try and kill me in a b.l.o.o.d.y 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 fireb.a.l.l.s, 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 s.h.i.+mmered 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 s.h.i.+p, 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 gla.s.ses, 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 compet.i.tion and I would score points for eliminating as many partic.i.p.ants 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 partic.i.p.ants 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 compet.i.tion 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 antic.i.p.ated 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 s.h.i.+p 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sailants 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 a.s.sault to the other partic.i.p.ants while he acc.u.mulated 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 s.p.a.ce 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 s.h.i.+eld 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 s.h.i.+eld 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 sh.e.l.l 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.

Boom!

The holy spear finally exploded, enveloping in a golden orb of destructive energy.

"Huff…"

Dropping onto the ground – or the sea, to be more precise, which froze again because of my basic ice spell – in a kneeling position, I dropped my wounded right arm down. It wasn't that bad, for my Snow Aegis had absorbed most of the explosion before finally shattering, but I was far from unwounded. As expected of an ultimate technique. Raising my head, I glared at the huge number of partic.i.p.ants, who were beginning to resume their bombardment when they saw that I was still in the game.

"Cetus!"

The azure whale leaped upward and soared high into the air, unleas.h.i.+ng another ma.s.sive wave of freezing energy across the docks, halting the elemental projectiles already unleashed while trapping more of the fleeing students in ice. The majority of them scattered, while the rest tried to break free.

At the same time, I had the water sphere back on, and began the process of summoning a new Constellation spirit. Which one should I call upon next? Draco? Hydra?

"I see something," Ding Ke Po spoke up from above. He clambered down from my Black Tortoise and waved excitedly at me, gesturing at his astrological circle. "Your sign of victory is the scorpion! I'm not sure what that means, but…that's what it shows here. Also, apparently you don't have to worry about death. The shadow of death does not hang over you. Oh, and I see a picture of…eternal winter. I'm not sure what that means, but maybe those words may mean something to you?"

They did, actually. I was impressed. Ding Ke Po couldn't possibly know about my new ice magic, yet he was able to somewhat predict the effects and inform me of how they were key to victory. I decided to place my faith on him. Glancing up, I saw Cetus slowly getting bogged down by the weight of spells. He had reduced the number of mages by a bit, knocking a few out with ma.s.sive ice spells, but the rest possessed high magical resistance and were able to break out of their frozen entombment and launch counterattacks.

Some of them even left the fight against Cetus to their comrades and targeted me with their spells instead. Lightning crashed against Black Tortoise's water sphere, followed by a hail of icicles, and then a bombardment of earth spikes. The holy mage from before was panting, trying to cast a second ultimate spell, but he was swept aside by Cetus's icy blizzard. A few of the other mages rushed in frantically to protect him.

That guy was a big threat. I should keep my eye on him for now.

"Be careful," Ding Ke Po warned, partially transfixed on his astrological circle. "I see a broken sh.e.l.l and an overturned tortoise. It wouldn't be a good idea to rely on your Soul Beast's defensive spell forever. They will break through eventually."

"Then I'll have to distract them a bit further." Raising my hand, I had Cancer materialize not far from me. Clattering across the dock, he launched himself at a gaggle of students who were a.s.saulting me – those not distracted by Cetus. Unleas.h.i.+ng Altarf, he slammed his gargantuan pincer down on their position, forcing them to scatter. One of the students wasn't able to evade in time and he went down, unconscious.

The rest turned to bombard the new Constellation spirit, but Cancer released a stream of rock-hard bubbles (yeah, bubble beam) in their direction, forcing them to evade. A few of them sliced through the bubbles or smashed them with their various weapons, which ranged from swords and spears to hammers and axes. Whatever armament they chose, they were able to easily cleave through Cancer's bubbles and protect themselves.

For now, anyway. That was fine. It was never my intention to have Cancer defeat them. That role fell to another Constellation spirit.

"I see a shadow on the floor. A few of them." while I was orchestrating the battle with Cetus and Cancer, Ding Ke Po issued another warning. He glanced up at me grimly. "I believe that means they will attack you from a place you least expect."

"That's helpful," I muttered. While that certainly a.s.sisted in causing me to put my guard up, I wished the divination mage could narrow down the methods a little more. However, out in the open, there was only one place that I would least expect…

"!!!"

I knew it. There were a couple of students coming up from underneath our feet, having dug into the ice some distance away and swam through the icy sea toward our position. That was a brilliant way of circ.u.mventing Black Tortoise's defenses. The two water mages blasted twin geysers of highly pressurized water that pulverized the ice and almost caught me by surprise. And they would have, if Ding Ke Po didn't warn me about them.

Wow…everyone had been underestimating how useful divination magic could be. Ding Ke Po's predictions essentially helped me avoid defeat twice in a row. I could feel some sort of affinity with him, having my summoning magic be dismissed as impractical in the past. It seemed that certain types of magic could only s.h.i.+ne through the use of teamwork.

"Get him!"

The first water mage – a short girl with chin-length blue hair and a short sword – lunged at me. Her companion, a taller girl with long, dark hair and a katana, also flanked me from the other side and lashed out with a deadly slash.

Drawing both of my swords, I managed to parry the short-haired girl's short sword before twisting around to deflect the katana from the dark-haired girl. I caught sight of the torrents of water that trailed their blades in a dangerous manner, increasing the force of their strikes. Skidding across the ice, I untangled myself from their concerted a.s.sault and hopped back frantically.

"Whoa, those are really cool sword techniques! What are they? Breath of water?"

"You've been reading too much Kimetsu no Yaiba!" the long-haired girl shouted at me, exasperated. Then she charged at me again, while her shorter companion ducked to the opposite side to execute a pincer attack.

It would be fitting if I could unleash Cancer on them, but he was currently engaged with three students on the sh.o.r.e. So instead, I summoned a Constellation spirit that was more appropriate for fighting atop the sea.

"Pisces!"

Twin sharks materialized underwater and burst through the icy surface to clamp their teeth down on the two water mages. The two of them shrieked as they were pulled under, but being water mages there was no way they would drown.

Instead, my Pisces rendered them unconscious by chewing through their magical defenses, their countless razor-sharp teeth piercing through their skin. The icy sea turned red as both of the girls bled out underwater, screaming incoherently. They would be teleported out instantly the moment they lost consciousness from ma.s.sive loss of blood.

Not that Pisces were going to wait that long. In perfect unison, both sharks tossed the girls through the ice, knocking them out when they crashed through the ice with colossal force. Their bodies slumped atop the cracked ice, slowly sliding back toward the cold waters, but they vanished before they could sink thanks to the boundary field and enchantments.

"Great." I turned my attention back to the sh.o.r.e, where both Cetus and Cancer were being worn down. Not that it mattered. My trump card was done. "Scorpio, over to you."

The azure scorpion climbed up from the sea, his stinger raised. Once, he was purple and red in color, to resemble the Death Stinger of legend. Now, because of my improved ice magic, I had altered him significantly and slightly repurposed his current role. After all, it wouldn't do to nuke the entire place.

"Antares Zero," I ordered. I could sense Scorpio smiling mentally, and then he unleashed the azure orb of mana that he had been acc.u.mulating at his stinger for the last five minutes or so. As the torrent of freezing energy streaked toward the sh.o.r.e, I immediately dismissed both Cetus and Cancer, who were pretty wounded by now. The other students glanced up, taken by surprise by their abrupt disappearance.

They never got to find out what had happened. Antares Zero struck the center of the stage and exploded.

Within seconds, the entire docks turned to ice.