Chapter 23

Just out of the wolf’s den and into the tiger’s mouth.

 

Seeing the light particles gathering more and more on Fanya’s knight sword, and the intense magical energy pressure released from the sword’s edge, Winnie knew that if he were to take this [Charged Light Strike] head-on, even with [Ice Steel], he would definitely be overwhelmed.

 

He had to find a way to break the situation.

 

Fanya’s level was higher than his, but no matter how strong her talent was, it couldn’t surpass the fate of the heroines.

 

These troublesome light element crosses that hindered his movement could be destroyed, but they probably couldn’t be shattered in a short time.

 

Moreover, judging from the situation, Winnie guessed that Fanya, as the user, could freely move in and out of these light walls, while he, sealed by the crosses, could not.

 

For the opponent, this was a really troublesome and terrible magic, equivalent to a one-way door. Fanya could enter the door at any time to beat him, but if he wanted to move, the door wouldn’t be open to him.

 

With this in mind, the cold light on Winnie’s [Ice Fang] burst forth. He grabbed the tail of the spear, and the spear blade, carrying a bone-chilling icy blue light, swung fiercely around him.

 

[Frost Moon Slash]

 

“Swish! Swish!”

 

The frost power caused the surrounding temperature to drop sharply. Snowflakes fluttered on the blade of [Ice Fang], and where it passed, a patch of ice thorns was born, freezing the ground around him and also freezing the light crosses.

 

“Has Winnie’s brain been beaten to mush? Isn’t this sealing his own path?” a student on the stands teased.

 

“No, no, do you know what the effect of [Holy Wood Seal] is?” A student who was also a [Saint Envoy] soul armament user saw the trick.

 

On the stands, Isatia instantly understood what Winnie was trying to do when she saw this scene.

 

His comprehension of ice magic was indeed strong.

 

The ice element released by Winnie did freeze the ground around him, but it also froze Fanya’s light crosses.

 

This meant that the pure light element crosses were frozen into solid ice sculptures.

 

In other words, Fanya could no longer launch a one-sided attack on Winnie, and she couldn’t pass through the light crosses she had released. To hit Winnie, she had to first shatter the frozen crosses.

 

Fanya also realized this. To be honest, before the battle, she hadn’t expected Winnie to be so troublesome.

 

She unconsciously became serious. If she didn’t concentrate all her attention, the outcome would be hard to predict.

 

The light particles in the air continued to gather on her sword blade. The power of [Charged Light Strike] became more and more terrifying, but Fanya showed no intention of attacking. She stared intently at the frozen crosses and ice thorns, unmoving.

 

On the other side, Winnie also remained motionless, as if he wouldn’t move unless Fanya did.

 

Anyway, the ice thorns blocked Fanya’s view, making her unaware and unable to see what Winnie was doing at this moment.

 

Both sides waited in place, as if they had agreed not to move first.

 

However, Fanya couldn’t hold out in the end. The [Charged Light Strike] in her hand had already absorbed too much of her mana. If she continued to accumulate power, there was a risk of her magic running out.

 

So she couldn’t wait, but Winnie could.

 

In fact, this was a duel of psychological strength. Whoever moved first would lose.

 

Fanya was waiting for Winnie’s psychological defenses to collapse first, unable to withstand her continuously accumulating power outside the ice thorns, bringing [Charged Light Strike] to a level where she could instantly kill him. To find an opportunity, Winnie would definitely rush out of the ice thorns to interrupt her accumulation.

 

If that happened, she would win.

 

If Winnie was completely ignorant of the [Charged Light Strike] spell, Fanya might have really won.

 

However, it was a pity that Winnie was not only not ignorant of this spell, but he had even used it himself before, at most, he just didn’t know some more advanced usage techniques.

 

What was the characteristic of [Charged Light Strike]? It could only be swung once.

 

Winnie knew very well that a [Charged Light Strike] could only be swung once at most. Unless the light element affinity reached excellence, there would be no leftover light element magic after one use. Even if it did reach excellence, the remaining light element wouldn’t be enough for a second swing.

 

So Winnie wasn’t anxious at all. He knew Fanya only had two choices: either cancel [Charged Light Strike], but once she did that, the mana she consumed would be wasted.

 

Generally, young people of this age were a bit impetuous, so the probability of doing this was almost zero. After accumulating such a big move for so long, how could she not use it??

 

The second choice was to use [Charged Light Strike] to break open her frozen crosses. Otherwise, the situation would remain deadlocked.

 

So, the current situation seemed like Fanya had the initiative, with the [Charged Light Strike] in her hand growing stronger and stronger, and he was waiting for death, but in reality, it wasn’t so.

 

Fanya couldn’t see what he was doing, which would bring her invisible psychological pressure.

 

And he, Winnie, didn’t need to think to know that Fanya must still be holding onto [Charged Light Strike], unwilling to let it go.

 

One didn’t know what the other was doing, while the other knew what the former was doing, and had no restrictions on hand, so he could plan ahead. This information gap, in fact, had already determined the outcome to some extent.

 

Not moving? Still not moving? Fine, you don’t move, I won’t move either. Let’s see who can hold out longer.

 

Winnie was ready, just waiting for Fanya to break the ice.

 

It was worth mentioning that the [Charged Light Strike] spell seemed to be able to accumulate power infinitely. It sounded impressive, but it was also the chain that bound her, making her waste more and more resources on it, increasingly unwilling to let go.

 

After all, the mana used to accumulate power for [Charged Light Strike] wouldn’t be returned. The longer it dragged on, the less mana Fanya would have left.

 

Finally, Fanya seemed to have made a decision in her struggle. She knew she had to act to break the ice, otherwise, if the two continued to stalemate, Winnie wouldn’t even have to act before her mana was drained by [Charged Light Strike].

 

She had also figured out that even if she used [Charged Light Strike] to shatter the ice, she still had enough leeway to defeat Winnie. There was no need to obsess over this one move.

 

With the powerful Cassian swordsmanship and Saint light magic, she still had many moves she hadn’t used yet.

 

So, she moved, stepping forward and raising her knight sword to break the ice.

 

In an instant, the light burst forth, and the shattered ice fragments were bathed in a dazzling and brilliant beam, each piece reflecting a crystal-like luster, maximizing the spectacle.

 

However, Fanya, who had shattered the ice, didn’t think so. Due to the intense light element released by [Charged Light Strike], she was momentarily blinded by the light reflected from the ice fragments she had shattered.

 

And when she looked to where Winnie should have been, she didn’t see a single figure.

 

Fanya’s eyes flickered with hesitation, but then a shadow blocked her from above.

 

She muttered a curse and suddenly looked up. In the air, the iron-clad man with [Ice Fang] under his arm was diving towards her.

 

How was this possible?!

 

Fanya was stunned.

 

Impossible, when did he…? And with that armor, how could he jump so high??

 

Soon, Fanya got her answer. She saw the ice locks on Winnie’s palms that hadn’t yet dissipated.

 

That’s right, long before Fanya was about to shatter the ice thorns, Winnie had made preparations. He released [Ice Lock], binding two symmetrical ice pillars. The moment Fanya launched her attack, before the light magic impact could reach the ice pillars, Winnie retracted [Ice Lock], using it to pull himself into the air.

 

At the moment the ice was shattered, Fanya, because she was using light element magic, was blinded by the reflected light from the ice fragments. This was also within his calculations.

 

With such a window, it was entirely possible to take off without Fanya noticing.

 

By the time he was about to dive down, Fanya only then realized where he was, but it was already too late.

 

Blinded by the ice fragments and not seeing where Winnie was at first, in the moment of hesitation, Fanya didn’t even have the leeway to move her gaze away, let alone dodge.

 

Noticing where he was at this point, apart from understanding how she died, had no meaning.

 

“Your strength is somewhat recognized by this young master, but unfortunately, this young master is an insurmountable mountain for you.”

 

“Truly blind to gold inlaid with jade, what kind of stray cats and dogs dare to challenge the notorious young master of Camella’s capital??”

 

“Remember, this young master has no rivals!” The resounding words spread throughout the audience stands. Clearly, Winnie wasn’t just speaking to Fanya.

 

[Ice Steel]

 

The iron-clad man’s body was covered with a layer of ice crystal-like armor, and he smashed down fiercely towards Fanya, who had no leeway to dodge.

 

“Little girl, take this young master’s Mountain Press!”

 

“Boom! Boom! Boom!!!” Winnie, landing on the ground, exploded like a heavy bomb in the arena, sending countless ice fragments and frost flying.

 

The arena was shrouded in frost and snow.

 

“……” The audience stands were silent. Many people moved their lips but ultimately said nothing, their eyes fixed on the battlefield where the smoke hadn’t yet cleared, still expecting something, but in fact, everyone knew the outcome was already decided.

 

Fanya, with disheveled hair, lay on the ground, her eyes filled with confusion and blankness, as if she hadn’t yet realized she had been defeated.

 

The iron-clad man knelt on one knee beside her, holding the ice spear, silent.

 

In this Mountain Press move he had held back, stopping at the point.

 

After hitting Fanya, he stopped, otherwise, the ground where Fanya lay would have been smashed into a huge ice pit.

 

“Click.” A crisp sound woke Fanya, followed by the referee’s announcement of victory.

 

“The winner is decided. This ranking battle is won by Winnie Varelis, successfully defending his rank. The rank remains unchanged. For this semester, Fanya Cassian cannot challenge Winnie Varelis again.”

 

Winnie stood up, dispelled [Armour Fortress], and transformed [Ice Fang] back into an earring, hanging it on his earlobe. He glanced at Fanya, said nothing, and turned to leave.

 

‘Virtue + 30.’

 

‘Virtue + 20.’

 

‘Current Virtue: 54.’

 

Huh? Why did virtue increase? And twice?

 

Winnie looked puzzledly at the audience stands. Apart from the batches of deathly silent spectators, he keenly caught sight of that black-haired beauty.

 

It was Isatia.

 

She had watched the entire duel??

 

Winnie was surprised that Isatia would take the initiative to pay attention to him.

 

He had only met her once in the secret realm, and there was one exchange that didn’t count as communication.

 

Winnie thought that with the title of her ‘nominal fiancé’, someone as proud as Isatia would definitely not take the initiative to associate with him.

 

Well, she was probably just bored, watching casually. In her eyes, his previous duel was nothing more than child’s play.

 

One virtue was provided by Isatia, probably the first time she had given him virtue. As for the other one…

 

That golden-haired little devil who had been cheering for Fanya to beat him up was now gnashing her teeth in anger, baring her teeth at him, and raising her pink fist, saying something.

 

Although both had emotional changes, they were probably different. Winnie didn’t know about Isatia’s, but Millian’s was definitely because she didn’t see him get beaten up, causing him to lose his rank.

 

However, this reminded Winnie.

 

He noticed the batch of spectators on the stands with awkward and embarrassed expressions.

 

Oh? Was he, Winnie, so popular? Just a ranking battle had so many people watching. Next time, he should charge for tickets, otherwise, it would be a real pity.

 

Thinking this, Winnie’s lips curled up, and he gave a big middle finger to these spectators who came to watch his downfall.

 

“Bastards, here to watch daddy’s ranking battle again? Do you like watching daddy so much? Now that daddy has won, what’s wrong with you all, why aren’t you happy??”

 

“What’s the matter? Are you all bastards hoping for daddy to lose?? Tsk tsk, alright, meeting adjourned. Remember from now on, anyone who wants daddy’s rank, just come, daddy will entertain them one by one.” After saying this, under the angry and complex gazes of the crowd, Winnie swaggered around the audience stands and walked out of the arena with his head held high.

 

“The previous ranking battle was very exciting.” Just as Winnie was about to leave the arena, he happened to meet someone who didn’t choose to pass by him pretending not to know.

 

“……Uh?” Looking at Isatia who had taken the initiative to speak to him, Winnie didn’t know how to respond for a moment.

 

Watching his battle was incidental. He really hadn’t expected her to take the initiative to talk to him when they met.

 

After all, in the original work, Isatia had completely ignored Winnie, only taking severe action when he became a mid-boss. Apart from that, it was as if Winnie didn’t exist in her world.

 

The imperial family, due to the Varelis family’s loss of power and the controversial bloodline, had been trying to erase all relations with the Varelis family, including the arranged marriage and past promises.

 

And Isatia was extremely averse to and rejected the fate decided by others. Although the original intentions were different, in this regard, the imperial family and Isatia’s thoughts coincided.