The Mage's Mana Shield was vibrating, but it was still in one piece.
She had probably lost over 60% of her total Mana.
The Mage had appeared several kilometers away, and she glared at the distant Shang.
WHOOOOOM!
But then, her eyes widened as all the Mana around Shang vanished.
That warrior could also use Void Casting?!
How?!
All the darkness around Shang had disappeared, and his Subsis turned black.
Shang swung his Subsis upward, and a huge corridor of darkness engulfed him and the distant Mage.
The Mage immediately realized what had happened.
When Shang appeared, she used Mana Step to retreat again.
BANG!
Shang exploded out of the corridor of darkness and shot after her.
When she saw that, the Mage gritted her teeth.
Just now, she had laced the surrounding darkness with small bombs of Earth Mana.
If Shang had used Void Break, all these bombs would explode inside his body.
But he didn't.
The next moment, Shang's body began to shine brightly, engulfing the surroundings in light.
However, compared to Radiation, this light wasn't nearly as overwhelming or powerful.
It was literally only that, light.
The Mage knew why Shang was doing this.
If one wanted to fill the surroundings with Earth Mana, one would need to use quite a bit of Mana and put some effort into actually distributing it.
With water, it was way easier since it wasn't as dense and since it was liquid.
With wind, it was even easier.
But with light, it was the easiest.
Every little bit of Shang's surroundings for several kilometers had a bit of his Light Mana, and if the Mage tried to use Void Casting again, chances were she would pull a significant amount of Shang's Mana with her.
Earlier, thanks to the Death Mana, the Mage had received a devastating attack. Something like that wouldn't happen with other kinds of Mana, but there were still problems.
For example, Shang could simply move his Mana around when the Mage was creating the Magic Circle for her Spell, which would mess up the Magic Circle.
That would disperse her gathered Mana, make the Spell fail, and make her lose a lot of her own Mana.
It wouldn't injure her, but she would lose time and Mana.
The Mage realized that she was in trouble.
She couldn't use her Void Casting anymore, which was one of her greatest weapons.
Her Void Casting was why she was so powerful in her company in the real world.
Nevertheless, she readied her next Spells without using Void Casting.
Just when she was about to unleash her next Spell, Shang used Missile.
Sadly, Missile wasn't nearly as powerful as usual since Shang's Addum didn't have one Void Break of Mana stored inside it, but it was still quite powerful and dangerous.
The Mage noticed that getting hit by Missile would use up more Mana than Mana Step.
She put her readied Spell in her backhand and used Mana Step.
And then, she launched her Spell.
A huge storm of earthen spikes shot toward Shang.
Shang readied his two swords.
And then...
SHING!
He vanished from his position and appeared several kilometers to the side.
Mana Step!
Why had Shang avoided using Mana Step in the past?
Because his mind was so weak.
But now, his mind was no longer so weak.
Mana Step was still quite expensive to use for him since his body was so heavy, but he could use it several times now.
SHING!
Shang used Mana Step again and appeared right in front of the Mage.
The Mage used Mana Step again in panic.
Shang shot after her with Mana Step and launched a Needle.
CRK!
The Mage's Mana Shield cracked, but it didn't break.
However, the Mage's Mana Step was stopped at the same time.
She might not be out of Mana, but she didn't have enough Mana to use Mana Step.
With three Mana Steps, Shang had used up over 60% of his stored Mana inside his mind, but it had ended the fight.
BANG!
Shang swung his Addum, breaking the Mana Shield into pieces.
The next moment, his Subsis impaled the Mage.
The Mage's last moments were filled with dread, and she turned into a dried husk rather quickly.
The next moment, Shang also turned into a dried husk and fell to the ground.
He needed to refill his Death Mana.
The applause returned, and the corpse vanished.
The fight hadn't been easy, but it also hadn't been overly difficult.
Shang received a couple of bruises and broken bones, but he still had a majority of his life energy, and he hadn't really been in true danger.
But still, he had been serious, and he actually had to put in quite some effort to win.
When he finished refilling his storage of Death Mana, the Affinity Wheel started to spin again.
In the next fight, Shang didn't have a lot of trouble.
Due to the big difference in Mana, Shang had to launch several attacks at the opponent's Mana Shield, which made the fight take quite some time, but Shang hadn't actually been in danger.
It was just annoying and exhausting.
However, the next fight wasn't easy.
It was about as difficult as Shang's battle against the Earth Mage from earlier, but it also took way longer due to the difference in Mana.
At this point, Shang already needed to launch several powerful attacks to destroy the opponent's Mana Shield.
And even worse, he couldn't give them any time to refill their Mana since their rate of Mana regeneration was insanely fast.
Nevertheless, Shang won in the end.
"Level 15: Powerful Peak Ancestral Mage."
Finally, it was time.
Shang would have to fight a powerful Peak Ancestral Mage.
Earlier, the God had said that he wasn't sure if Shang would reach this spot.
But now, Shang was here.
However, getting here was different from winning.
How powerful was a powerful Peak Ancestral Mage?
They could probably win against the Peacock Shang had fought against with quite a lot of confidence.
But maybe, they weren't as powerful as an average Initial Beast Lord.
Shang didn't know.
After all, Beast Lords were insanely powerful.
Shang believed that he had a shot at winning, but the chances weren't too good.
Would he win?
