"Archwizard-level combat strength" and a "true Archwizard" were not the same.
The latter belonged to the backbone of the Wizard Alliance. Every Archwizard held a seat in the Grand Wizard Council, the Alliance's highest authority, and could vote, discuss Alliance policies, and decide the fates of countless ordinary wizards—even the course of the River of Time. Every one of their names carried tremendous weight within the Alliance.
The former merely possessed some characteristics of an Archwizard—such as an enormous true form, overwhelming Magic Power, or ultimate mastery of a certain type of magic—and were Registered Wizards capable of displaying combat power equivalent to an Archwizard's for a short time. They were fundamentally different from true Archwizards.
But because they had already touched the boundary between top-tier Registered Wizards and Archwizards, even reaching several fingers across it, many wizards privately referred to such people as "quasi-Archwizards" or "pseudo-Archwizards."
The Alliance did not recognize those terms.
Yet it could not deny the existence of such wizards.
The most common examples were the high-bloodline clans within the Alliance: Titan Giants, Thunder Giants, Behemoths, the Changbai Mountain Red Chi, the Tanggula Ice Chi, Iron Eater Beasts, and so on. Their adult members were immensely large and naturally possessed an Archwizard's most conspicuous trait. Besides that, the Second Tier Battle Formation's expanded state had originally been created with Archwizard characteristics as a reference.
Since it was fake, naturally it could not defeat the real thing.
Just like now.
On the battlefield deep within the Silent Forest.
The Bofu Clan true form condensed by the You Zui Hunting Team after deploying their Second Tier Battle Formation was crushed by a gigantic claw attacking from the side in a single exchange.
The one attacking this young hunting team was not one of the berserk experimental subjects they