“Multiple Thunderstorm!”
Xiao raised the pristine longsword high in her hand, a surge of violet light emanating from its blade.
Qing Bai abruptly lifted her gaze, her eyes fixed on the triple layer of thunderclouds steadily coalescing above her head.
‘This is?’
‘My own skill!?’
In that very instant, a horrifying peal of thunder split the air, striking down from above.
‘This isn’t good!’
Instinctively, Qing Bai activated her [Backstep] skill, dodging the lightning strike by the barest margin.
“Flame Acceleration!”
Having displaced herself 20 yards backward with [Backstep], Qing Bai wasted not a single moment. She rapidly applied movement speed buffs to herself, then galloped relentlessly towards Xiao.
The reason for her haste was simple:
After activating [Backstep] just now, Qing Bai found herself a mere 10 yards from the edge of the arena.
She was acutely aware of a particular sword skill capable of knocking an opponent back 20 yards; to be struck by that skill would spell immediate defeat.
“Falling Moon Slash!”
Predictably, a silver arc of sword light shimmered, appearing before Qing Bai in the blink of an eye and striking her.
“Ah!”
Qing Bai’s body recoiled an uncontrollable 20 yards backward.
‘Whew~’
‘That was a close call; I was almost knocked clean out of the arena…’
‘Fortunately, I had activated [Flame Acceleration] just in time and managed to run forward a short distance.’
With a tremor of dread, she glanced over her shoulder at the edge of the platform beneath her feet.
The ability to cast even targeted crowd control skills remotely made Xiao’s innate abilities truly formidable in player-versus-player combat.
‘But what was that move just now?’
As Qing Bai continued to move, her exceptional speed keeping her clear of the arena’s edge, her mind replayed the image of Xiao casting that spell.
‘Could it be that this person can replicate others’ skills?’
She mused, a hint of trepidation in her conjecture.
Alas, she had only managed to watch the first half of Yan’s match against Xiao before being challenged herself, leaving her with neither the time nor the mental capacity to divert her attention to their contest.
Had she witnessed the latter half of that match, perhaps she would have seen Xiao employ [Sword of Drizzling Rain], and her current astonishment would have been averted.
“Multiple Wind Blades!”
Qing Bai’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly as she abruptly halted, unleashing three wind blades.
Within this game, mages were typically rooted in place while casting skills.
This inherent limitation was precisely why Qing Bai had chosen to specialize in movement speed, dedicating her swiftness points (TL Note: ‘迅捷点’ refers to points allocated to agility or swiftness, which directly impacts movement speed and casting time for certain mage builds.) to maximize her agility.
As an agile mage renowned for her lightning-fast incantations, she required only a fleeting moment to cast a spell, subsequently leveraging her superior movement speed to swiftly reposition herself, thereby evading incoming attacks from bosses or other players—a tactic she was now employing.
Three wind blades swiftly materialized in the air, streaking towards Xiao with the velocity of arrows loosed from a bow. Having unleashed [Multiple Wind Blades], she did not pause but continued to circle Xiao with rapid movements, denying her any opportunity to land a remote skill.
She held no illusion that her [Multiple Wind Blades] would inflict any damage upon Xiao. Her selection of this particular skill was purely strategic: its mana cost was relatively low, ensuring that even if Xiao managed to replicate it, Qing Bai would not incur a significant disadvantage.
Qing Bai’s true objective was to discern the limitations of Xiao’s “replication” ability.
“Consecutive Slashes!”
Xiao unleashed three rapid slashes, her sword light colliding with the three wind blades and once more neutralizing Qing Bai’s skill.
“Multiple Wind Blades!”
Immediately thereafter, Xiao lifted the pristine longsword in her left hand high, perfectly replicating Qing Bai’s skill.
Bluish-green, visible currents of air coiled around the longsword in Xiao’s hand. As she brought the blade sweeping down, three wind blades swiftly materialized in the air, hurtling towards Qing Bai.
‘Tsk, just as I suspected…’
Qing Bai clicked her tongue in exasperation. While in the midst of a swift run, she encountered this assault and executed a quick sidestep, effortlessly evading the three wind blades.
Following this exchange, Qing Bai began to dimly perceive the conditions for Xiao’s replication ability.
Though the intricate specifics remained elusive, one crucial detail stood out: only skills that had been successfully nullified could be replicated.
‘Moreover, is this person’s damage actually magical in nature?’
The very fact that Xiao could nullify Qing Bai’s skills implied that the damage dealt by Xiao’s abilities was of the same nature as her own—magical damage.
Qing Bai gazed at Xiao, who stood a short distance away, her brow subtly furrowing. Never before had she encountered a dual-wielding player capable of neutralizing magic, and she couldn’t help but feel a prickle of difficulty.
The mage profession in “Companion God’s Realm” was notoriously unpopular with the game developers, burdened by numerous disadvantages such as “no basic attacks” and “inability to move while casting skills.”
Despite these drawbacks, a considerable number of players still opted for the mage class, primarily due to the unique nullification mechanism.
Skills of the same damage type and comparable power could mutually cancel each other out, whereas those of differing natures could not.
In essence, a mage’s skill attacks would almost never be nullified, unless their opponent was also a mage.
Yet, Xiao had shattered this established rule; her sword light inflicted magical damage, possessing a dual nature of both physical and magical attack properties.
In her presence, the mage players’ cherished advantage—that their “skills would not be nullified by other professions”—was utterly obliterated.
Qing Bai’s gaze on Xiao was heavy, and though she vehemently wished to deny it, she found herself virtually powerless against Xiao’s combat style.
‘On a different note…’
“So, this opponent actually leverages the nullification mechanism?”
A rare, bitter smile of resignation touched Qing Bai’s pretty face.
“She’s truly my nemesis…”
“My apologies~ It seems our combat styles are quite incompatible, wouldn’t you say?”
Xiao parted her twin swords, tilting her head slightly as her dark, lustrous long hair cascaded over her shoulders. She spoke with a hint of an apologetic, wry smile.
What, then, constituted the greatest weakness of an agile mage?
Low single-skill damage in the early game.
While this drawback could typically be offset in standard combat through “multiple chants” and a high frequency of rapid spellcasting, for Xiao, who waged war by exploiting the nullification mechanism, low single-skill damage effectively meant that every ability Qing Bai unleashed could be countered.
Had Qing Bai been an intelligence-based mage, primarily investing in magic attack power or critical spell specialization, a casually cast Tier 4 high-damage skill would have rendered Xiao—who prioritized swiftness and attack speed—incapable of nullifying it, simply because Xiao’s Tier 4 skill damage paled in comparison to that of an intelligence mage.
As things stood, however, Qing Bai could, at most, only perform multiple chants for Tier 2 skills, their damage roughly equivalent to a high-damage Tier 3 swordsman ability—such as the [Thoughtless Slash] (TL Note: ‘无念想斩’ literally means ‘Thoughtless Slash’ or ‘Slash of No Thought.’) that Xiao had just used to nullify Qing Bai’s [Multiple Thunderstorm] (assuming no critical hit).
Her individually cast Tier 4 skills, on the other hand, inflicted even less damage than a multi-chanted Tier 2 skill, a consequence of her lack of investment in intelligence.
‘This is truly a headache now…’
Qing Bai rubbed her forehead, a picture of vexation.
Confronted by Xiao—her ultimate nemesis, capable of nullifying every single one of her skills and even turning them against her—Qing Bai found herself completely without recourse.
Nevertheless, she refused to surrender!
Since her magic-damage skills proved ineffective, she decided to attempt a few of the scarce physical-damage earth spells.
“Earth Spike!”
The magic tome in Qing Bai’s hand shimmered with an earthy yellow luminescence. She unleashed one of the rare physical damage skills available to mages: the Tier 3 earth skill, [Earth Spike].
A massive spike of earth erupted from beneath Xiao’s feet, lunging upward to impale her.
“Thoughtless Slash!”
Xiao’s reaction was incredibly swift; the instant the ground trembled, she leaped high into the air. Mid-air, she spun her body, swinging her longsword to activate [Thoughtless Slash]. With a fluid motion, she executed a flip, her keen blade precisely cleaving into the burgeoning earth spike, neutralizing it completely.
“Tsk, she can even nullify physical damage skills?”
Qing Bai clicked her tongue in exasperation, finally and reluctantly acknowledging the undeniable truth: Xiao’s attacks possessed a dual nature, encompassing both physical and magical properties.
‘Right, after all, Xiao *is* a dual-wielder.’
Qing Bai mused, her brows furthering in a blend of anxiety and utter helplessness. She lifted her pale, delicate left hand, seemingly scratching her head in frustration, a few fiery red strands of her curly hair peeking out from between her fair, slender fingertips.
At this point, she was genuinely at her wit’s end.
Every single one of her offensive maneuvers had proven utterly futile against Xiao; from the moment Xiao had stepped onto the arena until now, Qing Bai hadn’t managed to inflict even the slightest scratch.
She recognized with stark clarity that she could not possibly defeat the seemingly adorable, utterly non-threatening dual-wielding girl standing before her.
Yet, despite this sobering realization, Qing Bai refused to yield!
“Wind’s Blessing!”
“Elemental Shield!”
“Wood Spirit Dullness.”
“Stone Skin.”
“Flowing Water Shield!”
Qing Bai swiftly layered a multitude of buffs upon herself, encompassing acceleration and damage reduction. She further activated blocking skills, such as Elemental Shield, and culminated by conjuring a circular blue shield, fashioned from water, into existence upon her right hand.
Indeed, Qing Bai had arrived at a decisive resolution.
Her strategy was to stall! To stall relentlessly!
Abandoning all offensive capabilities, she would dedicate herself entirely to evading skills through movement and enduring targeted abilities with her water shield, striving to last the full ten minutes!
Should she successfully weather the ten-minute duration of the arena challenge, victory would unequivocally be hers, the reigning champion!
In this moment, she had effectively transformed into a staff-and-shield player…
‘Ah, no, given that her primary weapon is a magic grimoire, perhaps ‘book-and-shield player’ would be more accurate?’