Shang looked at the wheel. His next opponent wouldn't be a big issue, but he also couldn't take them as lightly anymore.
The wheel eventually stopped at the Lightning Affinity.
SHING!
Shang's opponent appeared, and he looked over.
It was a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties. She had long silver-whitish hair, and there was a serious expression on her face.
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
The Mage opened her eyes and saw Shang quickly charge at her.
She immediately cast Mana Shield.
SHING!
And then, she used Mana Step.
Shang's attack missed, but he quickly charged after her again.
When Shang was only ten meters away from her, her Focus lit up.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Lightning gathered around her Focus, and it looked like it was ready to attack Shang with lightning.
However, no lightning actually shot toward Shang.
It simply continued exploding around the Focus.
At the same time, the Focus moved between the two, standing in Shang's way now.
Then, the Mage finished her Spell and pointed at her Focus, which was between the two opponents.
A gigantic bolt of lightning shot from her hand towards her Focus.
BANG!
Shang quickly angled his body, jumped, and put his wide sword in front of him.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The Focus released several beams of lightning, all shooting in random directions.
It was like a disco ball that shot lasers out of every surface!
The clouds in the sky were split apart, and destructive, burned lines were left on the ground all around Shang.
This was the perfect Spell against a very fast opponent.
The Focus shot the beams of lightning at random, which made it impossible for the opponent to predict.
SSSSSSS!
One of the beams cut through the place where Shang currently was.
Shang wasn't entirely thin enough to fit behind his sword, which meant that two holes were left behind at the sides of his torso, which hadn't been covered by Sword.
Even worse, Shang was thrown back by the force.
BANG!
But he immediately charged forward again.
Surprisingly, the Focus was still filled with lightning.
At that moment, Shang realized what his opponent's plan was.
Shang reached the Focus before the Mage could ready another Spell.
The Mage wasn't in a panic since she knew that Shang had to get past her Focus first.
Shang's left arm touched the side of Sword, and it quickly withered into a nearly useless state.
And then, Shang attacked the Focus with his sword.
BANG!
The aggressive lightning on the Focus finally found a target. All the lightning around it immediately homed in on Shang's sword.
Getting hit by that much lightning wasn't much weaker than getting hit by an actual Lightning Bolt Spell.
This Spell could severely injure Shang.
The lightning entered Sword and rapidly moved towards Shang's body.
But then, it vanished.
The Darkness Mana inside Sword nullified the lightning!
CRACK!
Sword hit the Focus with full force, and it exploded into many pieces.
When the Mage lost her connection to her Focus, her eyes widened in horror.
How?!
How did her opponent survive being hit by that much lightning?!
After that, the fight was basically over.
An Early True Mage without a Focus was no threat to Shang.
Maybe if the True Mage was a Late True Mage, but not an Early True Mage.
The Mage released several Mana Steps, but without her Focus, it became very difficult to create attacks that would threaten Shang.
After two strikes, her Mana Shield broke. Her constant usage of Mana Step had used up the remaining Mana.
BANG!
Shang killed her, and he absorbed her life energy.
The fight had been so long that Shang's left arm had already recovered via his passive regeneration, but he still wanted to have more life energy for his next fight.
Right now, Shang was at his absolute peak. He was fully healed, his Mana was full, and he had more life energy than normal.
He couldn't enter the next fight in a better state.
The cheering had already passed, and the wheel returned.
Shang looked at it as it began to spin.
"Level six: Powerful Early True Mage."
'This is it,' Shang thought. 'This fight will determine how many points I get.'
At that moment, Shang remembered his last trial.
Back then, Shang had barely won against an average Mage one level above him.
The same fight had been relatively easy for him this time.
He had definitely grown more powerful.
Yet, the Mages had also grown more powerful.
In the last trial, Shang had only gotten seven points against the beasts and warriors without using Entropy.
This time, Shang had gotten ten and fourteen points.
This was an insane difference.
But against Mages?
Shang could count himself lucky if he got six.
Right now, Shang was at the same place he had been the last time.
The powerful True Mage would be his next opponent.
The last time, Shang knew that he had absolutely zero chance at victory.
But this time, he had a shot.
Yet, the difference between how much the Mages had grown and the others was insane.
Shang had gotten several more points in the other categories, but he would be happy if he got a single point more than last time in the Mage category.
The Mages were truly powerful.
And Shang knew that this wouldn't be where their escalation of power stopped.
They would grow more and more powerful in relation to other beings on their power.
Shang was growing at unimaginable speeds when compared to warriors and beasts, but when compared to Mages, he was growing only a little faster than them.
Shang closed his right eye and took a deep breath.
He knew that this fight would be brutal.
When he heard that the wheel had stopped spinning, he looked over.
When he saw the Affinity, Shang grew a bit more confident.
The Affinity of the powerful Early True Mage was…
Fire.
