The moment the probing ended, both of them moved at the same time.
Gaierte didn’t give Xing Yue a chance to catch her breath. He waved his Bone Staff repeatedly, unleashing another barrage of Fire Arrows like a rainstorm. This was continuous casting only possible with a staff’s enhancement, and each arrow precisely locked onto Xing Yue’s vital points.
The sight of the sky full of Fire Arrows made Xing Yue’s eyelids twitch. She couldn’t conjure enough Water Bullets to counter them like before, so she decisively switched to defensive magic. “Wind Spirit, please answer my call!”
“Second-order spell, Ice Wall!”
Three Ice Walls rose from the ground, blocking her front, refracting a blue halo under the moonlight. The moment the Fire Arrows struck the Ice Wall, they let out a sizzling sound of evaporation, and another thick cloud of white mist exploded, shrouding the entire front courtyard.
Gaierte squinted, his clouded eyes quickly scanning through the mist.
Suddenly, his instincts screamed danger. He instinctively dodged to the side as a Whirlwind shot out from the mist, grazing his gray robe.
The attack wasn’t over. Two emerald Magic Vines shot up from the ground beneath his feet, wrapping around Gaierte’s legs like living snakes!
“Fire Spirit…”
“Second-order spell, Eye of Fear.”
Just as Gaierte started to chant a spell to remove the vines from his legs, Xing Yue’s clear incantation came from within the mist.
Immediately after, Gaierte felt a chill run down his spine, as if some terrifying entity had opened its eyes and was staring at him from behind. Every hair on his body stood on end.
Although this feeling didn’t last long, his casting was forcibly interrupted! And it also left him in a brief state of paralysis!
Once he recovered, Gaierte’s pupils contracted. He slammed his Bone Staff into the ground. “Fire Spirit, please answer my call!”
“Second-order spell, Fire Vortex!”
A blazing ring of fire exploded from his feet and rapidly expanded outward. Both the Magic Vines on his legs and the white mist in the area were consumed by flames the moment they touched the Fire Vortex.
However, Xing Yue had already completed another magical incantation.
“First-order spell, Black Sludge!”
Just as Gaierte regained his vision, a lump of pitch-black sludge precisely smacked him in the face, causing him to stagger back a few steps.
Gaierte’s accuracy dropped significantly!
Xing Yue pressed her advantage, following up with a Gust Spell that sent Gaierte flying into the air.
But to her surprise, even while airborne, Gaierte managed to complete his chanting and casting, creating three Flame Rings that revolved around his body.
And these rings once again expanded wildly, riding the wind, turning into enormous rings of fire.
‘Bro, even when I’ve got you locked down, how can you still use skills?’
Xing Yue was stunned.
She had thought that with her extensive skill pool, dealing with a Third Order old mage would be more than enough.
But now, after a smooth chain of crowd control, this old mage still hadn’t lost his combat ability and could even counterattack.
Xing Yue realized that this old mage wasn’t as weak as she had thought.
At that moment, Gaierte also landed, wiping the black mud from his face, his breathing slightly rapid.
He looked at Xing Yue in the distance, and a storm was raging in his heart.
‘This young and mysterious girl…’
‘Just how many types of magic does she know?!’
‘In this battle so far, she’s used four completely different elemental magics! And most of them are Second Order spells!’
‘Each one is cast so smoothly, with almost no pause between switches, as if she’s doing it off the top of her head.’
‘How old is she? Fifteen? Sixteen?’
‘This is too absurd!’
‘Even if she started learning magic from birth, she couldn’t master so many types of elemental magic at this age! When I was her age, I had just learned two First Order spells!’
‘But she hasn’t used any truly lethal magic throughout the fight.’
‘All crowd control, disruption, and containment moves—none aimed at killing.’
‘She’s so young yet proficient in multiple magics. How could she not know actually damaging spells?’
‘If she had thrown in even one or two offensive spells between her controls, I would definitely be in a much worse state than just looking a bit disheveled.’
‘So…’
‘She’s toying with me!’
‘She doesn’t take me seriously at all!’
Realizing this, Gaierte clenched his teeth, suppressing his anger. He raised his Bone Staff again and commanded the Flame Rings to attack Xing Yue.
‘No matter how many tricks she has, the consumption must be enormous.’
‘No matter how many spells she knows, she still needs mana to support them.’
Gaierte decided to fight a war of attrition with Xing Yue.
The night at the manor was no longer quiet. Magical lights of various colors flickered one after another, blooming and extinguishing in the night sky, illuminating the scorched grass.
The battle had reached a white-hot intensity. Amid the flashes of light, their shadows were continuously stretched, twisted, torn apart, and then reassembled.
The two powerful mages fought so fiercely that the stone brick avenue was almost shattered. The surrounding guards exchanged helpless glances, unsure whether to step in.
At this level of combat, charging in would probably just be feeding the enemy…
Another magical collision exploded in the air. The scattered faint light illuminated Gaierte’s gritted teeth and reflected Xing Yue’s sweaty brow and uplifted lips.
By now, Xing Yue was completely in the zone.
She used many spells that she had never had the chance to use in the Demon King Castle, all directed at Gaierte.
After several rounds of probing, Xing Yue realized that Gaierte’s strength was not far from hers, and he could mostly parry her attacks. So she let herself go and exchanged spells freely.
After all, Gaierte was not just a punching bag; he occasionally counterattacked. This back-and-forth was like having a perfect training partner.
Fight! Awesome!
“Wind Spirit, Water Spirit, please answer my call.”
“Condense in silence, surge in raging waves; freeze warm breaths, seal beating pulses.”
“Third-order spell, Polar Storm!”
Xing Yue released another Third Order spell and used its additional effect to create her own domain field.
In contrast, Gaierte was sweating bullets.
Monster!
An absolute monster!
This girl had already used Third Order spells more than once, and the First and Second Order spells she threw at him continuously seemed endless, many of which he had never even heard of.
Normally, with a normal person’s mana pool, if they cast so recklessly, they would have long since exhausted their mana and collapsed from depletion.
But now? She only had a thin layer of sweat on her forehead. There was no sign of mana exhaustion or fatigue; instead, she was full of fighting spirit.
This left Gaierte with a bitter feeling but unable to express it.
He could only barely hold on in the howling cold wind, conjuring a few flickering fireballs to guard against any incoming attacks.