Lanchi: All Set

Examiner Ferrat had originally been utterly confident.

Even if he could not use Magic Cards or most spells, he could still toy with Tier 3 Hughberlian as he pleased.

But now.

Because of the pain coursing through his body and the fury that had been building in his heart ever since he had been silenced, he found himself unable to focus on dealing with Hughberlian for the moment.

Besides, Hughberlian no longer mattered.

Ferrat only knew that regardless of the final result of today's exam, if he did not kill Lanchi, he would not get a good night's sleep for the rest of the month!

In the distance.

After realizing that Examiner Ferrat's hatred had been drawn entirely toward him, Lanchi immediately began to flee.

At the same time, he did not forget to keep taking out Mistaken Healing Cards that were off cooldown and applying them to Ferrat.

Continuing the torture.

Even though Ferrat could not say a single word at that moment, his emotions were so intense that they had returned to their simplest form, with a thousand words all conveyed through his expression. Anyone could read the most genuine thought on Ferrat's face—

If I don't kill you today, I don't deserve to call myself a Son of Man!

After a brief, system-crashing pause, Ferrat accelerated without hesitation like a comet, whipping up a gale as he charged toward Lanchi!

"Don't even think about getting close to him!"

Hughberlian was as nimble as a shadow, almost vanishing into the grassland. Only her cold eyes, like the pupils of a venomous scorpion, remained locked onto Ferrat.

The task Lanchi had given her was to stall Ferrat as much as possible while ensuring that she herself was not killed instantly.

Under the current circumstances, Ferrat, having been severely disrupted by Lanchi, could no longer pose an overwhelming threat to Hughberlian.

The longer she dragged things out, the more she could pull Ferrat into a chaotic rhythm.

The Scorpion Tail Dagger radiated a cold, lonely light beneath the dark clouds, like the Grim Reaper in a frigid night.

On the Ilyavin Great Plains, Examiner Ferrat and Hughberlian had actually begun a dramatic chase.

In the conference room of the Sage Institute.

"But how is he supposed to win?"

Seeing Lanchi use all his Magic Cards, one of the teachers could not help voicing his confusion.

The situation had been stalled for the moment.

But it clearly would not remain that way for long.

Hughberlian was doing everything she could to impede Ferrat and keep him from reaching Lanchi.

Lanchi, meanwhile, had begun casting while repositioning himself, using his long-range advantage to torment Ferrat as much as possible.

But Ferrat could afford countless mistakes, while Hughberlian and Lanchi could afford only one.

Even without making a mistake, the distance between Ferrat and Lanchi was continuing to shrink, impossible to stop, because Ferrat had previously cast a sustained wind spell.

There was no way they could simply drag this out for the full thirty minutes.

As soon as Ferrat dealt with Lanchi, Hughberlian would collapse instantly without the Silence and Mental Interference.

"After Lanchi cast a large number of Healing Spell Cards, he also revealed that he is not a practitioner of the reflected-damage school."

"Ferrat can kill him without any reservations now."

The teachers familiar with Ferrat naturally understood why he had not prioritized attacking Lanchi at the beginning, when Lanchi's card composition was unknown.

Now, based on the fact that Lanchi could carry cards with a combined tier cost of only 20, he had used Healing Spells totaling Tier 16 so far.

That was more than any of the teachers had expected.

Of the remaining cost of 4, one known card was the Tier 2 Friendly Exchange. The remaining card slots were nowhere near enough to form a powerful reflected-damage system.

"They can't win. They have no way to stop Ferrat from closing in."

Watching Hughberlian barely block Ferrat again and again as he pressed forward with grim determination, the teachers in the conference room knew that today's Entrance Examination was nearing its end after all the repeated struggles.

"Unless Lanchi has a trump card among his remaining slots."

"That's unlikely."

"If it could change the situation, he would have used it already."

Lanchi did indeed still have unknown card slots.

But.

Every teacher present knew that no Tier 1 or Tier 2 Magic Card, no matter how powerful or how demanding its activation conditions, could possibly launch an attack capable of defeating Tier 5 Ferrat in one blow.

A sharp metallic clash from the screen once again drew the teachers' attention away from their discussion.

They all turned their gazes toward the battlefield that was about to reach its conclusion.

On the grassland, Hughberlian chased Ferrat and threw a flying dagger at his head, but it was suddenly deflected by a magical shield.

A trace of astonishment flashed through her eyes, but she quickly returned to her usual indifference. Between the grasses, she moved like a cunning venomous insect, changing direction in an instant.

A few more throws would be enough to break through the shield.

And all the small spells Ferrat could currently use were on cooldown. Soon, he would have no choice but to face her threat head-on again.

However.

Just as she retrieved her weapon, Ferrat suddenly stopped.

Even without turning around, Hughberlian, who was chasing him, felt herself being locked onto by a magical sense.

Under that lock, a chill rose from the depths of Hughberlian's heart.

Ferrat seemed to have already noticed during their earlier battle that she revealed a slight opening each time she retrieved her weapon.

But perhaps Ferrat had not made this judgment through reason. Under the influence of his fury, his battle instinct had seized the best moment to defeat Hughberlian.

Before Hughberlian had time to react, wind magic surged from Ferrat like a blade, sweeping her entire body away and sending her flying.

It was merely a small Tier 1 wind spell, yet under Ferrat's fury, it erupted with power that Hughberlian could not resist!

The next moment, Ferrat once again charged madly toward where Lanchi was!

"Damn it!"

After crashing heavily to the ground and barely managing to rise, Hughberlian clenched her teeth and chased after Ferrat.

During their earlier entanglement, Ferrat had already closed much of the distance between himself and Lanchi.

Under these circumstances, even if she desperately chased after him now, it might already be useless.

A Tier 2 healer would be reduced to ashes in just a couple of attacks from a Tier 5 mage.

Although Hughberlian had staked everything on Lanchi and fought according to his tactics, she still found it difficult to accept the impending defeat now that things had reached this point.

Dark clouds pressed down from above. The air pressure grew heavier and heavier, while muffled thunder echoed across the grassland like the wrath of a heavenly god.

Lanchi watched Ferrat draw ever closer, unstoppable.

He roughly estimated that he was about to enter the range of Ferrat's small-spell attacks.

Lanchi slowly came to a stop. He stopped running.

First, he could not escape.

Second.

All the groundwork was in place. This was the last card of today's exam.

Lanchi calmly lowered his head and looked at the Magic Card that had appeared in his palm.

This was the Magic Card he had created in collaboration with Talia, using the ancestral ancient relic Poem of Compassion.

Talia had personally handled almost the entire card-making process, while he had worked as her assistant.

Only the step of drawing and granting the summoned creature its form had been primarily handled by him.

The finished product of this final card had not only exceeded Lanchi's expectations, but had also astonished Talia herself, the principal Card Maker.