'I wonder why that is,' Shang thought as he threw the Adept's desecrated corpse to the side.
The once beautiful woman was nothing more than a husk of what she had once been.
The cheering returned as her corpse slowly vanished.
'Why does it not feel as bad to kill Mages as killing warriors?'
'Maybe it has something to do with belonging, privilege, and power? I mean, lots of normal people on Earth don't have sympathy for a millionaire.'
The wheel returned.
"Level three: Powerful Initial Adept."
Then, the wheel began to spin.
'I'm not sure,' Shang thought, 'but I think I'm on to something here.'
Shang scratched his chin as he waited for the wheel to finish spinning.
'Mages have thousands of years of advancements that make it easier for them to become powerful. On top of that comes the fact that some Mages don't view warriors as equals. I mean, I think I didn't speak to one of those before, but I did notice some odd stares from some Mages.'
The wheel stopped at the Lightning Affinity.
'A lot of people from poorer countries have an inherent dislike for people of richer countries, which I can understand. After all, the people of richer countries automatically have it easier in life just due to the simple fact that they had the luck of the draw during birth.'
'They didn't work for their privilege, which could create some anger in some people. Why do they have to work so hard to earn enough money to buy the few scraps of food that keep them alive while others get help from their country?'
After a short burst of light, Shang's opponent appeared in the distance.
It was a young man with short, silver hair. A serious expression was on his face, and he wore spiky, silver robes.
'I mean, I am in an inferior position in life, which could mean that…'
As Shang looked at his opponent, his thoughts stopped.
And then, Shang threw everything he was currently thinking about out of his mind and fully focused on the battle.
What had prompted this change in priorities?
In the man's hand was a floating crystal, and a circlet was slowly and peacefully spinning around it.
'A Focus,' Shang thought as he narrowed his eyes.
'This might be more difficult than I anticipated.'
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
The Mage opened his eyes, and he looked at Shang with a solemn expression.
BANG!
Shang exploded forward with his full speed. With his opponent having a Focus, Shang couldn't take this battle lightly anymore.
A Focus was exactly one of these many advantages that the Mages had over warriors.
The procedure only closed the gap that the Mana Sources created, but Mages also had other advantages.
A Focus could use the Mana in the environment to cast a Spell, but that wasn't all it brought to the table.
On top of not needing any Mana, the Focus could also cast Spells on its own, albeit with only 50% of the speed.
But that was already terrifying enough.
After all, this meant that having a Focus gave a Mage a free Spell every two seconds or so, and they didn't even need to spare any concentration for it.
As Shang charged forward, the Adept activated his Focus and created his Mana Shield.
Then, he began casting a Spell that didn't sound familiar to Shang.
After fighting so many Mages, Shang became familiar with nearly every Spell, but he hadn't heard of this one.
'This is probably a self-created Spell,' Shang thought. 'Sure enough, this is a very powerful and talented Adept.'
Just when Shang reached a distance of twenty meters from the Adept, the Adept suddenly began to float in the air.
For an instant, Shang was shocked.
Only the most powerful High Mages could fly!
But then, Shang noticed that his opponent wasn't actually flying.
Several bolts of lightning were coming out of his Mana Shield, which connected it to the ground.
The Adept was using the force of lightning to float about half a meter away from the ground.
'That must cost a ton of Mana,' Shang thought.
Shang reached his opponent and slashed forward with his sword.
BZZ!
Some lightning came out of the Adept's Mana Shield and hit Shang's sword.
Shang felt his muscles cramp up, and he felt some searing pain shoot throughout his body.
If his sword had been made with Lightning Affinity ore, it would have absorbed the Lightning Mana. However, since it wasn't, it only conducted the lightning.
The lightning went through Shang's entire body and entered the earth.
And his opponent?
Just like how the Mana Shield hovered above the ground, when the lightning hit Shang's sword, the Mana Shield was thrown into the distance.
Because of that, Shang's strike had missed.
'So that's why he used that Spell,' Shang thought with narrowed eyes. 'His Spell repels all forms of matter, which makes it a counter to warriors and beasts.'
Like a ball floating on a pool of soapy water, the Mana Shield glided away from Shang and into the distance.
Shang quickly charged after his opponent.
A moment later, the lightning on the surface of the Mana Shield became brighter, and Shang couldn't see his opponent anymore.
'He's hiding his Focus so that I can't anticipate his attack!'
Shang kept charging at the bright ball, his mind taut with stress.
The Focus should have finished creating its first Spell now, and the Adept could unleash it whenever he wanted.
Even worse, Shang didn't know what kind of Spell the Focus had created.
Luckily for Shang, a Focus could only store one Spell, and not several, like a Mage. In comparison to a Mage, a Focus didn't have the advantage of a Mana Source and a mind.
But that was only a Focus.
It was very possible that the Adept had also already created a Spell.
As Shang got closer, his nervousness rose.
The Spells of Lightning Mages weren't known for being slow.
'I don't think that he has had the time to create two custom Spells, which means that he will probably use one of the standard Lightning Spells for Adepts.'
Shang had fought his fair share of Lightning Adepts, and he knew all the basic Spells.
Suddenly, the Mana Shield became even brighter with a flash.
But Shang only continued running.
An instant later, the flash had passed, and the Mana Shield returned to normal.
'Now, I know what you have prepared,' Shang thought.
BANG!
Suddenly, a violent bolt of lightning shot toward Shang's abdomen.
At that instant, Shang knew that his opponent knew that Shang knew what Spells he had prepared.
'But you are not the only one with unknown powers. You also don't know mine!'
Shang pointed his left arm to the sky and unleashed an Ice Blast.
BANG!
Shang's body was violently thrown to the ground, and the concentrated bolt of lightning barely passed over him.
An instant later, Shang put his sword into the ground in front of his head.
WHOOOOOM!
Not a moment too soon.
A wave of lightning washed over Shang's entire body.
The skin that came into contact with the wave of lightning became charred as the lightning traveled through the skin into the ground.
However, the lightning that would have hit Shang's head got attracted by the sword instead, which redirected it into the ground.
If Shang had remained standing, all the lightning would have gathered around his entire body, and it would have traveled into the ground via his legs.
This meant that his feet would have to resist 50% of all the lightning each, which would have resulted in them turning into crisps.
But as it was right now, only a tiny part traveled across Shang's entire body before entering the ground.
This was exactly what Shang had predicted.
When the Mana Shield had lit up, the Adept had attempted to make Shang dodge prematurely.
Essentially, it was a feint.
This meant that the opponent had a spell prepared that needed to directly hit Shang, which would most likely be the Lightning Bolt Spell.
However, such an experienced Mage wouldn't put all his money on only one kind of Spell.
No, he would definitely also have a safety net prepared, which was the Lightning Net Spell in this case.
The Adept had shot at Shang's abdomen since he had guessed that Shang had seen through his bluff. So, if Shang knew what Spell the Adept had readied, he would do the most logical thing and jump to the ground.
And he was right. If Shang had normally jumped to the ground, the Lightning Bolt Spell would have hit his head.
But the Ice Blast made Shang fall faster to the ground than the Adept had anticipated, which resulted in him dodging the Spell.
In the end, Shang managed to completely avoid one Spell and minimize the impact of the second.
The ground around Shang exploded as he charged forward again.
