Vacuum Zone

In stark contrast to Augusta's thunderous might was Horn.

This Level 8 prodigy displayed suffocating defensive and counterattacking prowess. Like an immovable mountain range, he stood firm, guarding every inch of land he had chosen.

"Hold your ground—they're coming!"

Wherever the team under his command went, they turned the surrounding Earth Elements to their own use.

Heavy rock shields could withstand the charge of heavy cavalry head-on, while stone pillars bursting from the ground could scatter Native formations.

Horn himself was like a moving fortress. A colossal fist of rock condensed in his hand, and with one punch, he blasted a group of Knights trying to close in into fragments, armor and all.

The Natives had once tried to lure him into an underground cavern, then detonate the surrounding rock layers and bury him alive.

Yet Horn had merely stamped his foot, forcibly calming the surging Earth Elements underground. He stabilized the cavern with an Earth Element shield and even turned the tremors belowground against them, shaking the Native ambushers until they were battered senseless.

Then, swinging his enormous stone fist, he unleashed an Earth Vein Tremor that shook the Natives within dozens of meters until their heads spun, before calmly counterattacking and crushing them all.

Augusta and Horn were like two sharp blades, cutting through the Indigenous Coalition's defenses again and again.

Their achievements spread among the apprentices like legends. Every report of a "desperate counterattack" sent the other apprentices' morale soaring.

Gradually, the communication Wizard Artifacts no longer carried desperate cries for help, but the latest news of Augusta and Horn breaking through encirclements.

"Lady Augusta has broken through another Native blockade! She's too strong—she hardly seems like an apprentice!"

"Young Master Horn led his team and crushed a Native Knight regiment head-on! Those Knights couldn't shake him in the slightest!"

"With them here, these natives are nothing!"

Without realizing it, the Wizard Apprentices' fear of the Natives had quietly transformed into a strange kind of "excitement."

They no longer saw the Natives as enemies capable of threatening their lives, but as enormous "targets" that could test their strength and earn them merit.

They began eagerly comparing Augusta and Horn's accomplishments, guessing which genius would ultimately stand alone above the rest in this "test" and become the final victor of this trial.

Gray Rock Plane.

Inside the massive tent at the Indigenous Coalition's secret camp, the atmosphere was oppressive, yet tinged with the excitement of those who held every move in the palm of their hand.

The beast-hide map was marked with the movements of the Wizard Apprentices and the locations of Native traps.

"Things are progressing smoothly." A young Knight commander spoke in a low voice, his finger passing over several areas marked "cleared." "Those outsiders took the bait more easily than we imagined. They are too confident in their strength and underestimate us too much."

"The Spatial Sealing Barrier has begun to take effect, cutting off their path of escape." Priest Oswaldo's voice carried an inhuman calm. "Once they are dragged into the battlefield we have chosen, their witchcraft becomes nothing more than consumables."

The other leaders nodded one after another.

Through the intelligence continuously sent back, they had precisely grasped the Wizard Apprentices' movements and energy expenditure.

Those apprentices who had survived the initial ambushes were like lambs driven into a slaughterhouse prepared in advance, walking step by step toward a dead end.

The high-level Wizard Artifacts the apprentices took such pride in were rapidly running out of energy amid the continuous fighting. Their potion supplies were plummeting, and their mental strength could not sustain high-intensity combat for long.

They were like a pile of firewood running out of fuel—seemingly blazing fiercely, yet in truth slowly and inevitably heading toward extinction.

Especially the apprentices who had shone brilliantly in recent battles—Augusta with her Thunderstorm, Horn with his Rock Fortress, and several other "geniuses" who had begun to make names for themselves.

Their strength had forced the Indigenous Coalition to pay a greater price, but it had also given them exceptionally precise intelligence.

"That one skilled in lightning attacks... Augusta." A Shaman spoke her name in a dry voice, a flicker of wariness passing through his eyes. "Her lightning can destroy our Totem Formations, and she is too fast. Our warriors find it difficult to catch her."

"Horn, the one who can command the earth, is troublesome as well. His defenses are too strong. The physical attacks we prepared have little effect on him; we must use more advanced magic to break through his defenses," another Knight commander added.

"All of these people must be taken into account..."

Various locations on the beast-hide map were marked with special symbols. Besides Augusta and Horn, there were several geniuses who had gradually earned reputations on the battlefield recently.

These symbols marked the areas in which those geniuses operated and their methods of combat.

They had not even spared a glance for the miscellaneous ordinary apprentices who had been easily eliminated earlier. Only by killing these most dazzling geniuses could they truly injure those "Wizards" down to the bone. That would be genuine "revenge"!

Yet amid this clear sea of intelligence, one region alone had no specific information whatsoever.

In the map's northwestern corner, an area originally marked "multiple ambushes deployed, high-level Magic Beasts entrenched" had recently seen its intelligence reports cut off in a bizarre fashion.

Like a black hole, it had swallowed every prying gaze whole.

Naturally, the strangeness of this area sparked debate among the Native leaders.

"The scout squad sent to that area... has lost contact."

"The assassination team has not returned either. We clearly instructed them to investigate in two groups, one in the open and one in the shadows."

"We sent three additional vanguard battalions in succession, including thirty elite Knights and two mid-rank Shamans... all have lost contact! Not a single distress signal was sent!"

Inside the council chamber, the atmosphere of total control had been shattered, replaced by unease and irritation.

"This should have been nearly impossible. According to our arrangements, it should have been impossible for no intelligence to return. Even if they encountered the strongest Magic Beast horde, or were defeated by those two geniuses, someone should at least have escaped to report back!"

A young Knight frowned. He was responsible for gathering intelligence, and this complete "Silence" made his scalp crawl.

"According to the information currently available, the traces of battle in that area... are highly abnormal. It was neither an ordinary battle with Magic Beasts nor the typical witchcraft destruction caused by Wizard Apprentices. Every part of the area has become a complete scorched wasteland, as if it had been forcibly 'plowed' over once by endless flames. Even the remains of Magic Beasts and Natives were burned to ash, impossible to identify."

(Today's extra chapter—there's one more coming. Please vote with your monthly tickets!)