A Way

On the competition grounds, all three individuals rushed toward Huo Yuhao's position, with Bei Bei in the lead, Xu Sanshi second, and Tang Ya last. Xu Sanshi could have stopped his rescue of Huo Yuhao and turned to attack Tang Ya instead, catching her off guard and rendering her combat-incapable. However, he clearly did not want to do so; he felt that he could not abandon a teammate until the very last moment, and besides, without Huo Yuhao's support, how could he possibly win?

Reason and logic dictated that he could not stop his advance, but that did not change Huo Yuhao's perilous situation. Bei Bei's speed was naturally faster than Xu Sanshi's—this was the attribute suppression of an Assault-type over a Defense-type, and among geniuses of their level, it was impossible to overcome this gap. Coupled with the initial momentum Tang Ya had provided Bei Bei, he easily bypassed Xu Sanshi to reach Huo Yuhao. Facing him head-on, Huo Yuhao had no ability to resist.

Huo Yuhao's victory over Dai Huabin had its powerful factors, but more importantly, his Martial Soul and Spirit Ring configuration were quite mediocre. You could be a top-tier expert among your peers, but you had no chance of becoming the strongest. Unless you possessed the immense talent of the Dai Clan ancestor who ascended to godhood, you would always be restricted. However, this generation did not seem to have produced such a genius.

Bei Bei was different; his Martial Soul represented absolute power—a top-tier Beast Martial Soul. His three Spirit Rings had formed a small, cohesive system: single-target attacks, area-of-effect attacks, and enhancement skills were all stacked toward offense, pursuing the highest possible damage output. He had abandoned all room for error, trusting that he would not make mistakes that others could exploit. Even if it were impossible to avoid all errors, such output capability was terrifying; if an enemy could not defend against it in a short time, it meant failure or even death.

Such Spirit Skills rarely gave opponents a chance to counterattack. He had the ability to leave his peers with no opportunity to strike back; those inferior to him were simply defeated, with the only minor drawback being high consumption and a lack of sustained endurance, making him ill-suited for drawn-out battles. The previous match between Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi was a similar case.

It wasn't that Bei Bei lacked the ability or opportunity to break Xu Sanshi's defense, but the cost was too high. If you exhausted all your energy just to break his defense without a follow-up move, the result would be failure. However, Xu Sanshi, having had his defense shattered, could also be considered incapable of counterattacking. Facing Bei Bei's all-out assault, he couldn't afford to be careless, forced to pour all his power into defense. Once his defense was broken, it meant he had lost; what use was a Defense-type Spirit Master once their defense was shattered?

Although the two had fought many times with the same result—both failing—to them, not winning was a loss, and a draw was intolerable. Yet, after enough such results, they slowly came to accept it. Those who knew the outcome considered them to be of the same level, neither superior to the other. Bei Bei accepted this situation quite happily.

However, Xu Sanshi knew in his heart that he had actually lost. As a Defense-type Spirit Master, once his defense was broken, he no longer had the right to claim equal strength. Everything was for the sake of the competition, but this was a team match; as a Defense-type Spirit Master, your job was to block all attacks. Even if you traded one-for-one with the opponent's Assault-type, so what? Your team would have already lost the majority of its strength, and no one would be left capable of going head-to-head.

It was equivalent to placing his own defenseless teammates right under the opponent's nose, leaving the center wide open. The opponent, however, only lost one frontal attacker, and the remaining members certainly wouldn't lack output. In other words, the entire system's output was explosive; the key was landing that output on the opponent. Assault, Agility, Control, and Defense types all had their own offensive capabilities, and in a one-on-one, it was hard to say who would win. Many had surely been tripped up by tricky support types.

Therefore, the role of defense could never be missing; even if the offensive environment was not as good as this two-on-two, it was still a failure. Xu Sanshi knew his own role was not as significant as Bei Bei's, and he felt quite guilty about such sentiments. He comforted himself by saying that when it came to team battles, he would never perform like this, which helped him build his confidence. In reality, his Martial Soul quality was currently inferior to Bei Bei's, but once he reached his full potential, Bei Bei would absolutely never be able to break it.

That was a bit too far off and had no deadline. This current match had completely stripped away Xu Sanshi's facade, making him realize that his strength and strategy were inferior to Bei Bei's. A simple delaying tactic had lured him into a trap, leaving Huo Yuhao in the back to be attacked at will. This was absolutely his mistake; it was a decision he had made.

A surge of hot-bloodedness rushed to his head, causing Xu Sanshi to lose his cool. The immediate manifestation was his pale face turning red, and if one looked closely, they could see subtle changes in his Martial Soul. The water content seemed to have increased. However, no one noticed.

His speed, previously inferior to Bei Bei's, suddenly surged, allowing him to overtake Bei Bei. But it was already a bit too late; Bei Bei's head start was simply too great, making it impossible for him to catch up in such a short time. Just like that, Bei Bei reached his desired distance; he was already in range to strike Huo Yuhao.

It was time to give this little junior a bit of a reality check. For a "glass cannon," meeting an Assault-type in close quarters meant death. As long as they were at the same rank, there were no surprises; the only remaining options were cheating or making the opponent miss.

After defeating Dai Huabin, Huo Yuhao thought carefully and realized that his victory was impossible to replicate. He had no way to repeat that day's triumph. If a head-on confrontation was unfeasible, then perhaps he should study how to evade?

Facing Bei Bei's seemingly unstoppable attack, Huo Yuhao looked at Bei Bei and smiled. If he couldn't beat him, couldn't he just dodge? Haha.

Bei Bei's arrow was on the string and had to be fired; he activated his second Spirit Skill, Thunderous Might. Lightning crackled around Bei Bei's feet before he stomped heavily onto the ground. Lightning ravaged the area around Huo Yuhao. Logically, he shouldn't be able to dodge, as this was a Spirit Skill Bei Bei had specifically chosen. Area-of-effect attacks were most effective against Huo Yuhao; he had watched that previous battle, but there was one detail he hadn't understood: how Huo Yuhao managed to make attacks miss him. He refused to believe that students capable of entering Shrek Academy couldn't even aim their attacks, so the problem had to lie with Huo Yuhao.

To ensure his Fury of Thunder wasn't wasted, he played it safe by using an area-of-effect attack to immobilize Huo Yuhao. After that, how he dealt with him would be entirely up to him.

Wait! Bei Bei realized his calculations were off; Huo Yuhao had not entered his attack range. He had made the same mistake as Dai Huabin. He had thought wrong; the logic of an area-of-effect attack was sound, but Bei Bei had forgotten the limitations of attack distance. His experience had led him to trust his eyes, and in the end, he had capsized in the gutter.