On the large screen above the arena, the avatars of Qiji, Liuli, and Huomu rotated continuously.
Final frame —
A pure white mask.
Qiji.
"Qiji- kun..."
At that moment, several people looked at him simultaneously.
Qiji had somewhat anticipated this outcome.
Because the ritual within his body was trembling.
He could feel it; it was getting closer and closer.
More than nine years of planning, more than nine years of waiting—
Is this moment finally here?
Even though he was used to always pretending to be nonchalant, at this moment, his eyes showed a rare, genuine, and undisguised expectation.
Qiji looked at Huomu and Liuli, and said with a light laugh:
"Alright, you probably won't get a chance to play in this round."
Upon hearing Qiji's words, the four children exchanged glances, and a thought simultaneously arose in their minds—
Sure enough, that's very much in Qiji's style.
The four of them pushed the wheelchair together, helping Qiji to the stage.
On the other side of the ring, Pierce looked at the guy in the wheelchair, wearing a mask and coughing up blood, who was coming towards him. His calm face suddenly crumpled into a frown.
I felt a sense of unease in my heart.
After unexpectedly losing two games in a row, he had hoped to sweep aside all opposition and reaffirm Kalentia's dominance to the world.
So Pierce was thinking that it would be best to face that guy named Liuli.
He came in third in the preliminary rounds; his talent is certainly impressive.
A clean and decisive victory against the opponent's strongest player is undoubtedly the best way to quickly regain momentum!
Unexpectedly, it turned out to be this kind of patient.
Winning feels like bullying someone...
Forget it, let's just get rid of this small fry quickly.
"I said, the patient's family members can leave the ward... Pshaw, can they leave the ring now?"
Pierce felt that the opposing force was truly a bit too outrageous.
"For such a short walk up to the stage, he actually needed four relatives and friends to accompany him?"
How much do your teammates worry about you?
In that case, it would be more convenient to just admit defeat offstage.
Upon hearing Pierce's incredibly irritating words, he glared at him angrily Setsuna a moment.
Is this what you call providing care?
This is clearly a crowd!
Are they worried about Qiji- chan?
They're just too clingy with him!
Setsuna was already furious with this guy and was about to retort, but Qiji stopped her by raising her hand.
"It's okay, I can do it myself."
To dare to criticize him in front of the whole city, Qiji had to personally settle the score.
The four boys glared at Pierce before stepping off the stage at Qiji's signal.
Outside the stadium.
Xiwang was sitting in a wheelchair, with a little girl with pigtails sitting on her lap.
With delicate features, looking about eight or nine years old, she held a bucket of popcorn in her hands, popped two kernels into her own mouth, and then fed one to Xiwang.
She was Xiwang's only friend over the years, the daughter of Dr. Yin, Lingxing.
Seeing Qiji go on stage, Lingxing Xing also nudged Xiwang to remind him:
"Xiao Xi Xiao Xi, Xiao Ji is on stage! What are you looking at? Come cheer for Xiao Ji!"
"Hey, has my brother gone on stage yet?"
Xiwang quickly turned her gaze away from Suyo.
Although I also care a little about that guy from the Thousand Faces Family, my brother is more important to me.
"Go for it, brother!"
He clenched his fist and whispered something. The next moment, Xiwang suddenly realized something was wrong.
"Xiao Xing, stop stuffing popcorn up my nose!"
The competition venue.
A barrier of light slowly rose around the arena.
The battle begins!
The opening move of the Qiji Formula is still [Sword of Mirrors] as the starting move.
The Thousand Faces Card spun out, shattered and reformed in mid-air, transforming into a sword blade, radiating light.
Go straight for Pierce's face!
However, Pierce is clearly much more difficult to deal with than Bai Shi.
With a soft hum, he flicked his wrist and unleashed a massive fireball!
Third-order Echo, [Supergiant Fireball], Instant Cast!
The fireball collided head-on with the Sword of Mirrors. The sword trembled in the intense heat and shattered instantly, exploding into countless fragments.
Thousands of fragments deflected and tumbled, repeatedly refracting the light on the arena, causing blinding flashes!
"Oh?"
Pierce raised an eyebrow slightly, showing a hint of surprise.
Although Qiji had already used this move in the previous match against Bai Shi, the members of Kalentia clearly hadn't studied the replay.
For them, there's no need for that.
Therefore, when Qiji used it again, it still achieved an unexpected effect.
Pierce's response was far superior to Bai Shi's.
As he squinted, he instinctively conjured several smaller fireballs, which hurtled toward the pile of exploding fragments in front of him!
Some of the fragments were knocked off, but the rest, transcending the flames, reformed into a longsword and slashed straight at Pierce's face.
Seeing this, Pierce didn't hesitate and instantly unleashed another third-order Echo!
[Flame Shield]
This is his talent in the Flame Lineage.
His Echo Core allows him to pre-store two ordinary loops with no more than three nodes, which is the secret to his ability to instantly generate third-order Echo.
However, after using up this third-tier Echo, which combines offense and defense, you'll have to rebuild the circuit completely if you want to unleash a second Supergiant Fireball or Fire Shield.
The Sword of Mirrors struck the fire shield, sending sparks flying.
Qiji's attack was easily neutralized.
Is that all the tricks you've got?
Ultimately, he looked down on the country bumpkins from City of Kindling from the bottom of his heart. Pierce curled his lip in disdain.
"Alright, your attack is over. Now it's my turn—no objections, right?"
Pierce uttered these words and then prepared to finish off Qiji in one move.
However, the next second, he suddenly realized—
Wrong!
Behind you!
The blade whistled as it arrived!
Pierce turned around abruptly, only to discover that there was a Sword of Mirrors behind him.
No... when?!
In a moment of shock, Pierce suddenly realized—
It was that flashbang just now!
The real purpose wasn't to blind him, but to use that moment of intense light as cover to silently move the other half of the mirror shard behind him...
I really underestimated you!
At this moment, even someone as arrogant as him had to admit that this year's students from the City of Kindling were indeed a little stronger than those of previous years.
But it was only a tiny bit.
Did you really think you could win with such a paltry trick?
It's still a long way off!
Pierce narrowly avoided the sword strike and was about to launch his Echo, unleashing a powerful counterattack.
However--
With a soft "hum," a third sword appeared!
The mirror shards that had been knocked to the ground by his fireballs had somehow secretly coalesced into a miniature sword!
It stabbed upwards, straight at his lower body!
"???"
Where the hell are you stabbing?!
How utterly vicious!
At this moment, Pierce was genuinely starting to panic.
He never imagined that the bastard in the wheelchair would actually want to make him childless!
At this moment, his pre-stored flame shield had already been used to defend against the frontal sword attack, and there was no time to build the circuit to release a second flame shield in a short period of time.
So Pierce made a quick decision!
The flames on the fire shield instantly flowed back to his body, and his Armament was instantly deployed!
Lineage Investiture.
Armament Manifestation.
The Heart Essence Mantle.
—[The Undying Defense].
His Armament is to instantly form an automatic defensive [Shield of Lava] on his body when he senses an attack.
The Shield of Lava instantly ignited on his lower body.
With a crisp "ding," Pierce instinctively shielded little Pierce.
We managed to save it...