When Shang saw that his opponent had a Fire Affinity, he knew that he had a chance.
'If they decide to heat up their surroundings, I can release far more Fire Blasts without injuring my body!'
SHING!
Shang's opponent appeared, and he looked over.
It was a young man with short, fiery-red hair. He wore simple red robes, but for some reason, the robes didn't feel as simple as they appeared.
However, when Shang looked beside the Mage, his eyes narrowed.
'His Focus has two Amplifiers.'
Beside the Mage hovered a Focus with two circlets rotating around it.
Shang had never fought a Mage that had a Focus with two Amplifiers.
The Amplifiers decided the cast speed of a Focus. Higher leveled Spells needed more complex chants. Of course, as the Mages got more powerful, their mastery over their Mana and Affinity allowed them to cast faster as well.
However, a Focus was only a tool, and it couldn't cast faster as the Mage progressed. In order to allow a Focus to cast faster, one needed to add Amplifiers.
An Early True Mage with such a Focus could essentially cast at double their speed.
'Even though he has a Fire Affinity, I'm still not sure if I can win. His Focus took me a bit by surprise.'
The jester slowly lifted his hammer and struck the bell.
DING!
Shang immediately exploded forward with a Fire Blast.
The Mage slowly opened his eyes and noticed Shang.
His eyebrows furrowed, but he immediately began casting.
As Shang approached, he noticed something.
'He isn't casting Mana Shield!' he thought with furrowed brows. 'Usually, I would think of my opponent to be stupid if they did that, but the God judged this Mage to be extremely powerful in his Realm.'
Shang quickly closed in on the Mage, but when Shang was only fifty meters away from him, the Mage's Focus suddenly began to burn violently.
'Focus Fusion!' Shang thought.
Focus Fusion meant that a Mage and their Focus cast the same Spell. With that ability, they could cast very powerful Spells in a very short time.
Shang knew that the Spell the Mage had prepared had to be insanely powerful.
The Mage extended his hand towards his Focus and touched it.
After that, the fire from the Focus suddenly vanished.
Then, the Mage looked at Shang.
At that moment, Shang felt like time had frozen.
For an instant that felt like an eternity, the Mage only looked at Shang.
Yet, in that instant, Shang felt like he was about to die.
His instincts were screaming at him to run away.
And then, Shang saw the young man's lips move with a familiar word.
Shang's hair stood up, released a powerful Fire Blast to his front to stop himself, and lifted his sword to block.
"Ishah!"
This was the word the Mage had spoken.
And as soon as he had finished the word, he vanished.
BOOOOOOOOM!
Something impossibly powerful hit Shang's sword, and the power threw him over a hundred meters away, breaking his arms.
CRK!
At the same time, some small cracks appeared on Sword's body, and Shang could feel its pain.
Sadly, that wasn't even everything.
Whatever had hit Shang had exploded with violent fire, and Sword hadn't been wide enough to block Shang.
The sides of Shang's body had turned to ash.
His organs were safe, but his arms and shoulders had effectively become useless.
Shang had no choice but to quickly heal his body with his life energy.
And with that, all the extra life energy Shang had stored up was gone.
But the biggest thing Shang was concerned about was Sword's crack.
Shang could be resurrected in the trial, but he didn't know if Sword could.
If it broke, Shang might lose his lifelong companion.
Shang managed to regain control over his body by using a Fire Blast and looked at the Mage.
The Mage stood at the place where Shang had just been. However, his entire body was encased in violent fire.
The ground around him for over ten meters had turned into nothing but a blackened crater as the Mage stood in the middle.
BANG!
Shang released another Ice Blast and shot towards the fiery figure.
There was no retreat in this trial!
The violent fire around the Mage seemed to grow as Shang approached, and when Shang came close to the Mage, he realized that the fiery figure had grown to a size of ten meters.
Another foreboding feeling entered Shang, and he felt like it was a terrible idea to come close to the Mage.
But what was he supposed to do?!
He had to get close to kill the Mage!
Shang gritted his teeth and continued running at the gigantic figure. At the same time, his left arm withered as he filled Sword with Darkness Mana.
The figure slowly crossed its arms.
It was like it was preparing itself to push the entire world away from itself.
By now, Shang's instincts were screaming so loudly that he stopped.
BANG!
Shang released a Fire Blast to flee again.
Ignoring his instincts had been a bad idea!
'I should have never ignored my instincts!'
For a second time, one moment seemingly stretched into eternity.
And then, the fiery figure explosively extended its arms.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Shang threw himself to the ground and activated his Domain of Entropy.
He saw an unimaginably hot wave of fire consume everything around him. Even the earth around Shang had vanished.
After what felt like an eternity, the fiery wave finally ended.
However, Shang was shocked to see that over 90% of his Mana reserves were gone!
Shang's Domain of Entropy had never consumed so much Mana to block a single attack before!
Shang quickly stood up when he saw that the fire had ended, but when he saw his surroundings, cold shivers ran down his spine.
The crater the Mage had created was nearly 50 meters wide!
No wonder his Domain of Entropy consumed so much Mana.
And then, Shang saw the Mage, and his eye widened.
The Mage's red robes were on fire!
Yet, the Mage seemingly didn't care.
Instead, his previously neutral expression had transformed into a smirk.
"You're still alive!" he shouted from a distance.
"Good!"
Then, the Mage opened his arms and pointed his palms upward beside him.
BANG!
The fire disappeared from his robe and appeared on his hands as two flames, burning violently like they were flames of a gigantic welding torch!
His smirk transformed into a maddened grin.
"Finally, a good fight!"
