The wizard apprentice in the sky also turned to look over. He first saw Leo's hostile gaze and looked at him in puzzlement, then turned toward Alice beside him and instantly offered a friendly smile.
"Alice, long time no see. I didn't expect to run into you here."
With her whereabouts exposed, Alice stopped hiding and stood up. "Abigail, I didn't expect those two pieces of bait to be yours either."
Abigail? Was that his name?
Leo slowly stood up with Alice, but did not continue meeting Abigail's eyes. Reason had already smothered that momentary impulse. There was no need to invite complications and make more enemies in this tournament. He stepped back and hid in Alice's shadow.
"I'll talk to you later, once I've killed these three little fellows."
Abigail looked at the three wizard apprentices from Heluoluo Academy below, who were defending themselves with all their might. His expression was utterly relaxed, as though his opponents were not three apprentices of the same rank, but three ants.
The outcome was just as effortless as his demeanor suggested.
"Repulsion."
Abigail waved the staff in his hand. The three wizard apprentices, who were still trying to cast spells to attack him, instantly rose into the air from where they stood. They accelerated incredibly quickly, and within a few breaths, only three tiny black dots remained in the sky.
Abigail withdrew his staff and lightly pointed a finger downward.
The three Heluoluo Academy wizard apprentices went into free fall from a thousand meters up.
This was not damage wizard apprentices could withstand.
Three deafening crashes, three human-shaped craters, three shattered corpses that could not have been any deader.
Abigail ignored the three bodies and flew straight over to Alice and Leo.
Looking in puzzlement at Leo behind Alice, he asked, "Who is this?"
Leo stood behind Alice with his head lowered, silent, like a shadow of hers.
But no one could see the pain and savage expression on Leo's face.
He actually didn't remember me?
Why didn't he remember me?
How dare he not remember me?
He was the one who had thrown me up there with his own hands!!!
Leo roared inwardly, but his body remained as motionless as a clay statue.
"That's none of your business." As cold as ever, Alice stepped in front of Leo, blocking Abigail's gaze.
"All right, then."
Abigail did not probe further into Leo's identity. He seemed very familiar with Alice and even briefly told her about several places in the tournament zone that the six academies had already turned into bases.
If she ran into trouble, she could go to Purple Flame Academy's base for help.
In his words, if Alice went there, she could immediately become one of the base's leaders.
"Then why didn't you stay at the base?" Alice asked, staring at Abigail.
"Hahaha, only the weak huddle together for warmth. I don't need to."
The two beautiful wizard apprentices from Whisper Secret Realm Academy who had survived deftly removed the magic rings and academy badges from the corpses, then ran over and handed them to Abigail.
Judging by their coordination, this was clearly not their first time doing something like this.
Abigail used these two wizard apprentices as bait, and naturally, he harvested the fish they lured out.
As for the two wizard apprentices serving as bait, bait had to accept a bait's fate!
Abigail was just about to leave when he stopped again. His gaze clear, he said to Alice, "The top wizard apprentices from the other five academies have all appeared. Their strength is on par with ours. Be careful."
Alice nodded in a rare show of agreement, then quickly left with Leo. A battle had just broken out here, and Abigail was still releasing his aura without restraint. It would soon attract a great many covert, prying gazes.
Abigail watched the two departing figures and thought about the look in Leo's eyes when he had first seen him, but still could not recall anything. "Hostile toward me. If it weren't for Alice..."
"Forget it. He isn't even an advanced apprentice. Probably someone's descendant."
Meanwhile, Alice fixed Leo with her icy gaze. "You had killing intent toward Abigail just now. Why?"
"You sensed wrong." Leo looked back at Alice, denying his killing intent.
Alice stared straight at Leo without speaking, and Leo met her eyes without the slightest evasion.
"I don't care why you're hostile toward Abigail, but you need to understand that your current strength doesn't qualify you to challenge him."
"If I hadn't been there, you'd already be dead."
Alice was angry, a rare occurrence. She had accepted the mission, but that did not mean she had to deal with these troubles for Leo.
"I told you, I wasn't."
Leo refused to admit his killing intent, his eyes so stubborn that even nine oxen could not drag him back.
Seeing this, Alice said no more. Taking the initiative to ask was already her limit.
Leo said nothing either, and the situation immediately reached an impasse.
"Well, look who it is. Isn't this Alice, Purple Flame Academy's famous Ice Woman?"
"This really is my lucky day. I didn't expect to meet you here."
Just as Leo and Alice remained at an impasse, a voice came from nearby. A group of seven wizard apprentices had quietly surrounded them.
The academy medals on their chests all bore the same black skull design.
This was Black Skull Wizard Academy!
Looking at the wizard apprentice in the lead, Alice's expression immediately changed slightly. She stepped forward to shield Leo and said quietly to him, "This is Adelaide, Black Skull Academy's top wizard apprentice."
Leo glanced at Adelaide. His grayish-brown skin looked as though he had just been rescued from a mud pit, but the aura erupting from him was about equal to Alice's. He was absolutely one of the very strongest wizard apprentices.
As for the other six wizard apprentices surrounding them, three were advanced wizard apprentices and three were peak wizard apprentices, all releasing their auras without the slightest restraint.
A team of seven wizard apprentices like this was absolutely a force that could not be ignored!
Alice had given only a brief introduction, but Leo understood what she meant. This was the tacit understanding they had developed after spending a year together.
Alice meant that he could only hold Adelaide in check. Leo would have to face the remaining six wizard apprentices himself.
"I sensed Abigail's aura just now and came to kill him. I didn't expect to find you instead of Abigail."
"If I kill you, your Purple Flame Academy won't have much of a part to play in this tournament anymore, will it?"
Adelaide's sinister gaze kept sweeping over Alice. Killing an academy's top apprentice would bring him unimaginable benefits. As for Leo beside her, he had no interest in even looking at him.
"Hmph. If you die here, your Black Skull Academy won't fare much better either." Alice planted her staff, and a layer of ice instantly formed over the ground as her violent mana aura erupted.
"Attack."
At Adelaide's command, the other six wizard apprentices instantly began attacking from every angle.
The seven of them were clearly longtime teammates, their methods exceptionally well coordinated. Adelaide did not attack, while the other six apprentices all used their most powerful offensive spell-Explosive Flame Fireball.
"Thousand-Kill Ice Seal."
Alice's low voice rang out.
Inch-long ice spikes instantly formed in the air and shot out the moment they appeared, blanketing every angle. These ice spikes were not powerful, each possessing only a few dozen points of attack power, but their sheer numbers were enough to send the Black Skull Academy apprentices scrambling.
Even the Explosive Flame Fireballs they launched were blasted apart by dozens of ice spikes, and mist instantly enveloped the entire encirclement.
"Run."
Faced with seven Black Skull Academy wizard apprentices surrounding them to kill them, Alice immediately chose to run.
"Thunder Flash."
Electric arcs flickered around Leo as he flashed repeatedly through the air. His figure, which had just been surrounded, appeared outside the encirclement, trailing a mass of afterimages.
The lightning attribute offered not only high attack power but also fast escape speed. This was one of the few lightning-attribute spells Leo had mastered.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Adelaide snorted coldly and waved his staff. Mana erupted, dispersing the white vapor and blasting every ice spike into ice crystals.
Then Adelaide moved his feet, and the ground surged like waves. Riding the undulating ground, he instantly appeared in front of Alice.
Adelaide reached down and pressed a hand against the ground. The earth rumbled, several mounds bulged upward, and stone giants formed from piled rocks appeared before him, blocking Alice in a semicircle.
Alice glanced at Leo beside her. His body flickered with lightning and blurred, and without considering Alice, who had been blocked, he fled first.
"Don't worry about your little companion at a time like this. My companions will take good care of him."
Adelaide stood atop a stone giant's head, looking down at Alice with a smile, making no attempt to conceal his killing intent.
A top apprentice all alone-there was no better opportunity to hunt one down!
"Hmph."
Alice gave a low snort and stopped. With Adelaide blocking her, she could not escape.
As for Leo...
She raised her staff directly, rapidly uttering a torrent of tongue-twisting incantations. The icy elements in the air were rapidly increasing.
If she could not escape, then she would fight. They were both top apprentices; who would win and who would lose was still uncertain!
Meanwhile, Leo had only used Thunder Flash twice before a mass of fireballs blocked his path.
The fireballs' attack power was so high that they blasted the wilderness before him into a depression!
Feeling the intense heat ahead, Leo stopped. Behind him, the six Black Skull Academy wizard apprentices watched him with the expressions of cats toying with a mouse.
Leo's aura had, at most, only just reached the level of an advanced wizard apprentice. Any one of them was stronger than him.
Although aura could not serve as a standard for comparing strength, its intensity absolutely reflected whether someone was powerful.
"Kid, hand over all your academy badges, and perhaps I'll let you die a little more quickly."
Facing the six Black Skull wizard apprentices surrounding him, Leo's pupils contracted violently. He kept lowering his body, constantly shifting direction with small steps, trying to find an opening.
But these six wizard apprentices clearly had extensive combat experience. Even though the six of them visibly held an absolute advantage, they still took the safest approach, leaving no room for the slightest mistake. Whichever direction Leo tried to escape in, he would immediately face a merciless bombardment.
Watching Leo's helpless, despairing expression, the mocking smiles on their faces grew even wider.