Fight to the Death, Never Retreat

"I have one final question, Wizard Raymond."

Dago took a light breath and said, "Doesn't the academy have a Formal Wizard inheritance? Why did you go to such great lengths to scheme for Vissel's inheritance?"

Raymond burst out laughing. There was not a trace of joy in it, only surging madness.

"You think the academy's employment contract really provides Formal Wizard instruction? It's just a lie to trick those idiot hired wizards into risking their lives. I've been at the academy for a full thirty years, yet I'm still only a Half-Step Formal Wizard. Do you think the academy would actually hand over a Formal Wizard inheritance?"

"Thirty years. How many thirty years does a person have? If you don't become a Formal Wizard, you're nothing but an ant. Even that old ghost, the academy headmaster, is merely a lackey of Emerald Life."

"That's why I have to become a Formal Wizard and see the view from above. This thought has gnawed at my soul like poison every day, driving me mad."

Raymond's cold, sinister gaze settled on Dago, as though he were delivering a final ultimatum.

Dago pondered for a moment, then said, "There's a saying in my hometown: villains die from talking too much."

With that, he fired the ice sphere at the tip of his Ice Crystal Wand at Raymond.

Seeing this, Raymond shouted, "You're courting death! Then I'll grant your wish, Dago!"

He flung the fireball hovering in his hand toward Dago.

The ice sphere and fireball collided with a thunderous crash in midair, instantly creating a spectacular clash of ice and flame.

The ice sphere, condensed from ice energy, glowed a deep blue, its surface wrapped in fine white frost. The instant it struck the fireball, flames surged three feet into the air.

In the end, the ice sphere shattered into countless ice crystals under the relentless burning, while the fireball was dimmed by the invading cold, turning into a shower of sparks that fell amid the rain of icy fragments.

The instant heat and cold canceled each other out, thick white mist and vapor spread outward.

Dago raised his Ice Crystal Wand. His gaze pierced through the white mist as his Detection Technique firmly locked onto Raymond's position.

The next second, the air and light at the tip of his wand began to twist.

A large amount of gathered ice energy and air formed fierce winds around him, blowing the cloak behind Dago upward.

An ice crystal shell as large as a basketball condensed into shape.

Aim, fire—done in one fluid motion.

The terrifying ice crystal shell shot out, tearing through the white mist and throwing up huge swaths of snow and dirt along its path.

Boom!

The spinning blue-black ice crystal shell slammed directly into a wall of fire before Raymond and was completely melted away.

Raymond held a crimson wand in his hand, his expression somewhat grim. It seemed the power of that attack had shaken him greatly, forcing him to draw his wand and fight in earnest.

Dago's Detection Technique fed him information: Flame Wall. A thick wall of fire rose before the caster, capable not only of blocking physical attacks but also of burning away elemental energy that came into contact with it.

A safe zone formed behind the wall. The flames released heat only outward, while inward, they were as gentle as warm light.

Dago's expression darkened. The ice crystal shell had basically failed, and he continuously calculated his next move.

In terms of experience, could Raymond's thirty years as a wizard possibly be inferior to his? In terms of strength, a Half-Step Formal Wizard was several times stronger than him.

But he also had his ultimate trump card, the Flame Core Air Bullet. Its charging time was far too long, though, making it almost impossible to use.

If he wanted to win, he had to exploit the advantage of the environment.

With that in mind, Dago took a bottle of purple Mental Potion from his storage pouch and drank it.

He then used mental power to compress trace amounts of air beneath his feet, activating Jumping Man Mode.

Dago leaped several meters at a time, bounding toward the vast fields between the town and the forest.

The moment Raymond saw that Dago was trying to flee, a pale purplish-blue halo flickered in his eyes. His body actually rose from the ground, hovering a meter above it as he pursued Dago.

Dago looked back and was instantly horrified. This damn Half-Step Formal Wizard can fly!

Raymond flew a meter above the ground while Dago leaped through the wide-open fields, and the distance between them steadily shrank.

Red energy gathered around Raymond's wand, condensing into fireballs that began bombarding Dago.

Dago had no choice. Gritting his teeth, he could only pour in more mental power to compress more air, using the resulting bursts of air to launch himself farther.

But that meant he could no longer maintain a stable landing posture, and the damage to his feet would worsen.

And so, Dago was bombarded by Raymond across the open field for more than ten minutes. During that time, he nearly got hit in the back several times, escaping each time by the narrowest margin.

The cloak on his body no longer resembled its original form. It had been torn into countless strips of rag, like the remnants of a banner hanging from him, its edges curled with scorch marks.

A foot-long gash had been cut across his shoulder, exposing the bleeding wound beneath. The torn cloth was stuck to his skin with blood, trembling slightly with every breath.

His sleeves were even worse, with only half of them remaining. His exposed forearms were covered in cuts, and the Cleansing Runes once embroidered on his robe had long since dimmed.

That tattered wizard's robe possessed more strength than any magnificent decoration.

Every tear was proof of a brush with death. Hidden within every scorched, ragged patch was an unbroken spine and an edge that refused to yield.

Dago stopped. He turned to look at Raymond, who hovered more than ten meters away, calmly watching him.

Raymond sneered. "Run. Why aren't you running anymore? This game of cat and mouse has been pretty fun."

Dago replied with an unruffled expression, "Wizard Raymond, haven't you noticed something? I've actually been jumping around one circular area the whole time."

"Oh? To a hunter, what's the difference between a mouse running straight and one running in circles?"

"Of course there's a difference, Wizard Raymond. Next, it'll be my turn. I hope you can take it."

The reason Dago had been injured during his constant escape, without the protection of ice armor formed from his pale skin, was because he had been using mental power to bury dormant ice elements throughout the fields.

Like a diligent old farmer planting rice seedlings, it was now time for him to harvest.

He chanted the spell for the Ice Crystal Technique, gathering ice elements into his palm and forming a massive blue energy sphere.

Raymond thought Dago was about to attack him, so he began chanting as well, condensing a fireball at the tip of his wand.

Dago shouted, "Bloom, Ice Crystal Flower!" Then he slammed the blue energy sphere into the ground.

Ice energy coursed through the snow-covered field, linking the dormant ice elements Dago had buried beneath the snow and forming dense veins of ice beneath Raymond.

Raymond swiftly redirected the fireball at the tip of his wand toward the field and fired it, but before such massive ice energy, the fireball was like something thrown into the sea, extinguished in an instant.

Crack, crack, crack—the sharp sounds of splitting rang especially harshly through the silent night sky, as if something were breaking free from beneath the earth.

At first, tiny ice spikes pierced through the frozen soil, their tips glowing with a ghostly blue chill. Then more and more ice spikes erupted wildly along the veins, shooting upward at a visible speed toward Raymond.

These ice spikes were not smooth pillars, but were covered in savage barbs and sharp ridges. Every inch was condensed with a chill that had not melted for a thousand years, their surfaces coated in frost-like ice crystals.

Countless ice spikes rose from the fields, eventually supporting an intertwined forest of ice in this frozen hell. Their pointed tops pierced the dim heavens, cold energy flowing through their veins and lowering the temperature of the entire hell by several more degrees.

They were like countless hands reaching out from the abyss—cold, sharp, and carrying irresistible might—trapping everything that had wandered here within this prison of ice spikes, a prison forever devoid of warmth.

As Raymond was trapped within this prison, he looked at Dago and laughed. "Dago, do you think this can kill me? You're underestimating a Half-Step Formal Wizard far too much."

But the next second, he was scared out of his wits. Dago held his wand high, and a Flame Core that resembled a miniature sun shone at its tip.

Raymond shouted madly, "Impossible! Apex of Sorcery! This isn't something someone your age could comprehend!"

Then he looked at Dago pleadingly. "Please, Dago, we can discuss anything. Don't fire it at me. For the academy's sake."

Dago's face was deathly pale as he said with a cheeky grin, "It's not up to me. Go talk to my little Flame Core."

Boom—

Without warning, an explosive roar tore through heaven and earth, forming a ring-shaped shockwave of flame. Wherever it passed, rocks melted, vegetation turned to ash, and even the ice forest formed from ice crystals was instantly vaporized.

A mushroom-shaped cloud of fire rose from the center of the explosion, its incandescent core churning within. Raymond had already been reduced to ash in the first instant.

The flames he had once controlled became the most violent destroyers, carrying his ashes as they swept everything within a hundred meters into this scorching catastrophe.

When the firelight finally faded, only a charred crater more than ten meters wide remained. Unextinguished sparks still lingered at its bottom, and the air was thick with the smell of sulfur and scorched earth.

There were no remains, no traces—only that completely burned land as proof.