I watched my opponents warily, aware that I was the only one in my team left. Harrison had collapsed, his body smoldering. He had taken that last spell meant for me, and despite his holy barrier, the combined efforts of our five opponents had broken through his defenses and finally fell him.

Yue Chu was lying somewhere else, unseen, along with Lily. Theodore was slumped against the wall, unmoving, his hammer a few meters from his hand.

We were already falling behind 2-3 thanks to our less than spectacular performance during the individual matches. And now the score was 2-7 because they had downed four of our members in the team match, with me being the sole survivo, and they still had five of their members standing.

"Do you surrender?" the opposing team captain, Harold Collainder, asked as he pointed his glowing sword at me. Despite his intimidating stance, he was clearly out of breath, sweat pouring down his pale face as he panted heavily.

"No. why should I?"

I swept my gaze across the five members. All of them were clearly worn out and badly injured, thanks to the tremendous efforts of my teammates. Harrison had switched to a more conventional tactic this time, with four of the team protecting me while I cast my summoning spells. Theodore, Yue Chu, Lily and Harrison had done their best to guard me from the aggressive spells and strategy of the opposing team, and paid the price.

They had been eliminated, sort of, and the score had gone to 2-7 in our opponents' favor. They were placing a lot of faith in me to turn this around by myself. If I failed, then we would be knocked out right here and right now.

"Don't you dare underestimate us!" a huge guy growled, lumbering forward with his axe. He was Aximand, the one who knocked out Theodore with brute force, augmented by his earth magic. Despite his immense strength, he was swaying slightly from the terrible wounds that my friend had dealt to him. The two giants had clashed so violently that they almost dragged the other teammates into their conflict. "No matter how beaten up we are, it doesn't matter! Even you can't take on all five of us at the same time, not by yourself!"

I smiled, amused. "What makes you think I'm by myself?"

At that moment, both Golden Kirin and Vermillion Phoenix manifested behind and above me, bellowing and screeching. My opponents recoiled from the sheer amount of mana that emanated from both Celestial Guardians, buffeted and sent staggering from their potent presence alone.

That was why I only summoned them after my teammates were down. It was because I was spending ten minutes to complete the summoning of two Celestial Guardians instead of one. To be honest, this was Harrison's idea. When I pointed out that I could support them earlier with just one Celestial Guardian, he rejected that plan and insisted that he wanted me to summon two of my most powerful Constellation spirits at the same time.

"Two are better than one," he told me with a grin. Time to see if he was right.

"f.u.c.k! We're too late!" Harold howled in impotent rage. He rushed forward, swinging his sword, but Vermillion Phoenix blew him back with a single swipe of his right wing, unleas.h.i.+ng a tremendous inferno that engulfed the poor enemy team captain and sent him sprawling onto the ground.

"Harold!" their team healer, a lady named Crystal, hurried over to cast a healing spell. Unfortunately, her mana was spent and near empty after repeated casting and she looked as if she was on the verge of collapse. Additionally, the severe injuries that Harold had suffered meant that he wouldn't be able to fully recover for the duration of the match. Even with healing magic, he would need several hours before he was fully restored to peak condition.

"f.u.c.ker!" Aximand roared as he barreled forward. Holding his double-bladed axe high up with both hands, he tried to cleave Vermillion Phoenix in two, but Golden Kirin stomped on the ground. A thick wall of earth shot out and struck the burly metal mage in the midriff. Ordinarily he should be able to dodge a slow attack such as Golden Kirin's spell, but his movemnts were dull from exhaustion and a few wounds sustained from dueling Theodore. Consequently, he crashed several meters away, winded from the blow and grunting in pain. "Ugh…d.a.m.n it!"

The remaining two members circled me, hoping to flank me, but Golden Kirin raised more barriers made out of earth, encircling me. They sprang back after inadvertently colliding against the newly raised walls of earth, huffing, sparks flying as they stabbed the barriers with their blades, to no avail. Spikes burst out and forced them back, and because of their weariness they weren't able to escape completely unscathed. Blood dripped onto the ground from various grazes and cuts.

Crystal raised her hand to cast minor healing spells to close the bleeding, but even those miraculous charms did nothing for the exhaustion they felt. They glared at me, burns evident from their clash against Yue Chu earlier. Lily also left a few cuts on them with her sword.

"Do you have enough mana to cast your Geyser spell again?"

The a.s.sa.s.sin wannabe, Arnold, asked the blue-haired girl, Leyla. She hesitated, and nodded.

"I have enough mana for one last spell, but after that I would be out."

"That's fine. He's the last one left. Let's do it!"

Harold had gotten up by now, and he issued a command to Leyla. The water mage acceded and raised both of her hands, conjuring a new spell with the final vestiges of her mana.

I smiled.

"Don't let him take her out! Distract him!"

Not noticing my glee, Harold issued more orders to his teammates. Arnold and Aximand obeyed, and the three guys sprang forward, evading the fiery feathers that Vermillion Phoenix sent from above. Golden Kirin stomped on the ground again, unleas.h.i.+ng another barrage of earth spikes that rammed toward the trio, forcing them back. Cursing, the three guys withdrew to a safe distance, casting whatever spells they could with what remained of their mana.

"Behind me!" Aximand bellowed before he swung his axe down and unleashed a metal wall that held firm against the earth spikes. There were several dents as the powerful earth spikes slammed into the metallic barrier, but Aximand infused whatever mana he had left into his defensive enchantment to protect his friends.

The moment it crumbled under the onslaught of earth spikes, the sheer volume of projectiles overwhelming his pitiful defense, the trio leaped away. Arnold threw a dagger in my direction while Harold mustered a beam of light that he fired from range. The dagger burned away from flames that Vermillion Phoenix unleashed from above while the golden beam of light was stopped by a wall of earth that Golden Kirin conjured.

"Kuh…"

The both of them exchanged frustrated glances, but grabbed hold of the staggering Aximand to pull him back.

"Are you not done yet, Leyla?!"

"Almost!"

A raging whirlpool of water swirled ferociously around her hands, and she launched it straight at me. The geyser spear took the shape of a spear and punched a hole through several layers of earth walls that Golden Kirin conjured.

That was fine. Mentally instructing Golden Kirin to take a step back, I myself strode to the front and drew Bai Yue. Raising my white sword with both hands, I swung it down and cleaved the approaching geyser in half.

I didn't just cleave it into two. The moment the white blade touched the ferocious water spell, it instantly froze it. The geyser transformed into ice, slowly at first, and then swiftly all the way back toward its caster. Leyla recoiled in horror as the ice reached her hands and encased her fingers in ice. If she hadn't pulled back, she would have lost both her arms to the rapidly expanding ice.

"What's this?!"

"d.a.m.n you!" Harold howled before whipping around and pointing his sword at me. A second golden beam of light surged out, but by now I was able to make use of the frozen ice from Leyla's spell and craft it into Snow Aegis. The beam of light bounced off the gigantic snowflake s.h.i.+eld, ineffective and pathetic.

"!!!"

"Is it my turn to attack now?" I asked pleasantly. Then I glanced up at Vermillion Phoenix before turning to nod at Golden Kirin. The both of them cast their spells simultaneously, with Golden Kirin stomping on the ground and unleas.h.i.+ng a gigantic ripple of fluid rock at the opposing team. Leyla hurriedly raised her hands to create a water barrier against the avalanche, only to realize that she had spent all of her mana on the last attack.

"Oh no!"

"Don't worry, I've got this!"

Aximand lumbered forward and smashed his axe against the ground, creating a metallic wall.

However, it was useless. Vermillion Phoenix's flames from above washed over the avalanche that Golden Kirin had created, and the two spells combined into one. In an instant, the rocky avalanche turned into a superheated torrent of molten lava that flowed over the opposing team like a fiery tsunami. Even Aximand's metallic barrier offered them no refuge, the poor screen collapsing into a disfigured hunk of melted metal that splashed across the shrieking metal mage.

All five opponents vanished under the huge tide of molten lava, their bodies scorched and burned beyond recognition. I took care to ensure my friends weren't caught up in the spell, of course, having quietly instructed Golden Kirin to bear their unconscious bodies away, aloft and far from any of the raging lava.

Pus.h.i.+ng my gla.s.ses up my nose, I couldn't help but smirk.

"I call this the Scorched Earth Tactic."

There were several groans from the spectators, but I ignored them all. Come on, you can't blame me for being pleased with myself after taking out five dudes. Of course, I wouldn't have been able to pull this off without my teammates' help. If they didn't fend the opposing team off and buy me the time I needed to summon two Celestial Guardians, I would never have been able to pull this off and take them all out.

This was only achievable because I cooperated with my team, and they put their faith in me, trusting me to turn the tables around after they sacrified themselves to protect me and buy me the time I required for my summoning. I was grateful to them.

"Are you guys all right?"

Using Golden Kirin's spells, I held them back and placed them in what I hoped was a comfortable position. Above, the commentator was shouting something. It took me a while to disengage from whatever I was doing and pay attention to him.

"The winner is Jing Tian Team! What an amazing comeback! From 4 members down, their last member did a reverse sweep and took out the entire opposing team with a combo spell! Impressive! With this, the score is now tied 7-7, but Jing Tian Team gets through because they won the team match! What a surprising turnaround!"

I could barely hear him over the applause and boisterous cheers from the spectators, but I didn't pay much attention to them. Instead, now that I received confirmation that the match was over, I immediately brought my friends to a waiting Pearl, who began to cast her healing spells even before the medics could arrive. Just as well, because the medics would be rus.h.i.+ng toward the buried opposing team and applying emergency treatment to them. They were probably on the verge of death, kept alive by the boundary field.

Hey, at least I didn't nuke them, right?

"Great job!"

Craig and Sheila showed up to smack me around, the two of them having won their matches. Surprisingly, it was Bu Fan who lost his match, along with Cody and Pearl. Harrison had sent our team healer against theirs, for the opposing team fielded Crystal in the individual matches. Pearl took that as a challenge and had requested Harrison to send her, and she…got eliminated. Fortunately, in a battle between healers, neither of them got too terribly hurt (though they were exhausted and depleted quite a bit of their mana).

Apparently Harold's strategy was to deny us of our healer, but he didn't realize that he was handicapping his team by using up quite a bit of his healer's mana during the individual matches. The gamble failed for him. Well, it wouldn't have mattered much even if Crystal was at full capacity anyway. Healing spells were not an instant heal like in games, where you suddenly restore full HP. Reality did not work that way. Healing spells worked more by speeding up the body's innate healing by accelerating cellular regeneration and using the target's own mana to slowly restore and recover lost organs, tissue and even limbs. And even these take time. It wasn't an instant heal where you snap your fingers and all injuries were gone just like that. Of course minor injuries took mere seconds to fully heal, but major injuries would require a lot more time – fatal wounds would require hours to recover from. Broken bones, regeneration of limbs and organs, etc. – all of these would take the better part of a day. The more severe the injuries, the more time the healing spell took to restore the target's body to its peak condition.

Certain fatal injuries even took days, maybe even up to a week. So to try and heal your teammate back to "full health" in the middle of a match was just impractical.

"Thanks to you, we made it to the next round! We should be in the round of 16! Excellent!" Craig was celebrating.

"No, it wasn't just me. Everyone contributed." I nodded at my unconscious teammates. Harrison was beginning to stir and I approached him to share the good news. "Without them, I would never be able to pull this off."

"You're right. This was a team effort." Harrison accepted my hand and allowed me to pull him up, grimacing despite Pearl's healing spells taking effect. "But you have validated our belief in you. And that doesn't mean you didn't do a good job. You still deserve credit for what you've achieved."

"It's an achievement by everyone," I insisted.

"Not denying that, but each and every one of us has a part to play, and you fulfilled your role above expectations."

"Uh, well…"

"Richard's as humble as always." Sheila giggled and reached out to ruffle my hair. "Now, now. Just accept the praise, okay?"

"…right."

"Get ready!" Craig grinned as he raised a fist. "We're going all out for our celebration tonight!"