Fighting His Grandmaster

On the lawn early in the morning, Li Yan looked grimly at Serie, who stood before him with a hint of anticipation, eager to begin.

"Seriously? Fight you, Grandmaster?"

Seeing Li Yan's fear, Serie smiled slyly. "What? How can you truly improve without fighting me yourself? Don't worry, I'll suppress my Mana to within the range of your Mana level."

Hearing Serie say that, Li Yan looked slightly relieved, but he was still reluctant. Though the gap between their Mana would be small once Serie suppressed hers, their skills and overall knowledge of magic were on entirely different levels.

"Enough nonsense. Are you going first, or am I?"

Serie spoke impatiently. Li Yan slowly let out a breath. It seemed there was no avoiding this match, and all he could do was hope that Grandmaster Serie would go easy on him.

"Then, Grandmaster, be careful. Here I come."

Li Yan unleashed the Mana held back by his Magic of Restraint and fired a massive blast of flames straight at Serie. At the same time, he instantly activated Space Magic, clenched his five fingers tightly together, and smashed a ferocious punch toward her back.

"Interesting. You used the tremendous impact of Fire Magic, then used Space Magic to teleport to my side for close combat."

A look of interest appeared on Serie's face. A magical barrier constructed from Mana automatically materialized in front of her, easily blocking the Fire Magic attack Li Yan had released earlier.

The impact of Li Yan's punch as he suddenly closed in was fierce, but the next second, Serie raised her right hand and sent a blast of Mana straight at him.

It was a blast of compressed Mana. By gathering Mana in the hand and blasting it all out at once, it could cause tremendous destruction and damage.

As his punch met the blast of Mana, Li Yan was knocked back dozens of meters. His body slammed into a large tree outside the lawn, and the successive impacts snapped several trees in two.

"How the hell am I supposed to play this? Grandmaster, your reaction speed, Mana, magic, and combat experience are so strong it's practically cheating."

Li Yan spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. From that sudden exchange just now, he had already realized the gap in strength between him and Serie. His Mana was clearly just as strong as Serie's suppressed Mana, and his physique was far superior to hers, but in an actual duel, he was completely unable to fight back.

Even his surprise attack had been broken so casually. Whether it was the defensive magic hundreds of years ahead of the magical era or the Mana-dispersing magic she had casually unleashed, neither was something he could master as he was now.

"Hey, hey, hey, Li Yan, put some effort into it! Is it over already when we've only just begun?"

Serie beckoned provocatively, her snow-white, jade-like feet resting lightly on the soil without picking up a speck of dirt.

"Damn it, Grandmaster, you're really pissing me off."

At an age when his competitive spirit ran high, Li Yan considered himself decades ahead of his young contemporaries and a promising talent among young mages.

Though he had been brutally trounced by his grandmaster, who stood at the pinnacle of the mage pyramid, when they had the same amount of Mana, he was confident that, as one of the outstanding talents of his generation, he could take one hair from Serie.

Space Magic activated again. This time, Li Yan did not confine himself to attacking from behind. Instead, magic descended from the sky, its flames vast as a falling meteor.

After releasing a giant Fireball Magic spell, Li Yan used the fireball's enormous size and activated Space Magic again. This time, he flashed between positions to Serie's north, south, east, and west, rapidly firing rays of flame using compressed Mana.

"Interesting. An indiscriminate attack using Space Magic?"

Serie looked somewhat impressed. Faced with the enormous fireball and the magical rays shooting at her from all directions, she watched calmly, not even deploying defensive magic.

As the giant fireball exploded, a cloud of smoke rose from the bursting flames. Li Yan watched with a hint of anticipation. At that moment, he desperately hoped Serie would suffer some damage, even if only a tiny bit.