"I heard someone wanted to teach me how to play dirty?"
Dekan sneered and shook his head.
"Do you think I haven't prepared cards to counter mages? Witness the power surpassing despair, the power of Permissions!" He shouted loudly at the bewildered Flatta, as if deliberately taunting him for being unable to speak.
The abnormal status that Dekan had inflicted on Flatta was not "Silence" but "Gag."
If a control spell with a "Silence" effect were used, it would prohibit the use of magic, even making it impossible to use magic cards. The duration was often short, and the cooldown was long.
However, Dekan's "Gag" specifically targeted the opponent's vocal cords, preventing them from speaking. It was a toxic spell with a long duration and a short cooldown.
"Fuck! What kind of wicked bullshit is this card!"
"How can anyone pick mage now?!"
Even many students from the Mage College in the spectator seats couldn't help but stand up and berate this card.
In addition to using magic cards, a part of a mage's combat power came from the spells they had mastered personally. If they were "Gagged," it would be the ultimate imprisonment for mages in battle. They couldn't cast their spells without the ability to chant!
Due to the convenience of magic cards, modern mages might not necessarily practice the skill of chantless casting! This would force everyone to learn chantless casting!
Even Teacher Cat couldn't help but want to scold Dekan.
"This guy, meow! Croix! As a mage, don't you want to scold him?"
Teacher Cat looked at Croix, who had a calm expression, and asked excitedly.
Croix: "I can cast without chanting."
Cat: "..."
Aren't you impressive, you noble and aloof of a thing.
Dekan had long found out that Flatta didn't possess the skill of chantless casting, so he was confident that "Gag" could block the magic Flatta had mastered personally. If Flatta used "Purify" magic, Dekan’s character icon’s background will turn from blue to blood-red again.
"Wuwu, wuwuwuwu!!"
The enraged Flatta finally couldn't bear it anymore and charged towards Dekan, raising his staff.
In any case, as a tier 5 mage, even if he used his staff as a blunt weapon, he wouldn't lose to a tier 3 Dekan!
He had investigated Dekan's attribute test results when he entered school.
Dekan's strength growth potential was only E!
"Oh, you chose to run towards me?"
This time, Dekan didn't run away; instead, he stood quietly in place, waiting for Flatta to approach. At the same time, he had prepared his favorite spell card.
When Flatta was not far from Dekan,
"Calm down!"
With Dekan's shout, Flatta felt that his knees bent uncontrollably. Then, in an extremely abrupt manner, he slid to his knees on the ground, losing balance in the process. He rolled on the ground. Finally using either his knees or his face, he managed to halt his motion.
Dekan held the "Mind Disturbance" card as if he were a black-whistle referee brandishing a red card. He had just used this card to make Flatta kneel.
Watching Flatta kneel while in a running state, the students outside the arena felt a phantom pain to their knees.
"Can this guy do anything decent?"
"That card of his can impose a brief mental disturbance command, but he deliberately chose the most bastardly option..."
…
Flatta lay humiliated on the ground, his angry eyes filled with resentment, as if he wanted to tear the person in front of him to pieces. However, compared to his earlier near-deranged madness, his eyes had now dimmed considerably, like a flame on the verge of extinguishing.
In truth, he didn't want to continue the fight anymore. Flatta could be sure that in this duel, he had no chance of defeating Dekan. His summoning cards were unusable, high-level spells lacked the mana to cast, low-level spells were silenced, and engaging in close combat would only subject him to Dekan's humiliation with mental magic.
Tormented to this extent, Flatta's greatest desire now was to go down together with Dekan, even if it meant sacrificing himself just to strike Dekan with his staff.
When Flatta, struggling with his last bit of determination, tried to get up, he saw Dekan walking slowly towards him, holding a spell card emitting an orange glow.
Dekan's every step was light and his rhythm calm, eerily composed. The spell card in Dekan's hand was something Flatta had heard about—a card that could vaporize the blood of different races, "Blood Purification."
At the same time, Dekan had finally summoned the "Ruined Poet," and black mist spread across the entire area, shrouding both Dekan and Flatta in a chilling atmosphere.
"Ugh!"
Although Flatta didn't know what Dekan was planning, a terrifying sense of oppression instantly enveloped him. His body also sent out strong death signals, warning him that he needed to escape.
Dekan had now reached Flatta's side. He lowered his head so that Flatta, who was lying on the ground, could meet his gaze. Dekan's appearance remained unchanged, but his pupils had a faint golden sheen, and there was a hint of an enigmatic smile at the corner of his mouth.
Those deep pupils seemed to belong only to unknown beings from the depths of an abyss, like a bizarre creature about to enter a state of uncontrollable slaughter in a high-level Shadow World!
Without hesitation, Flatta used purification magic to remove his own silence status. He had to run!
"I surrender..."
However, as he tried to declare his surrender, he found that he couldn't speak again. Dekan had silenced him once more. Purification magic was also on cooldown.
"Hmph, you wanted to surrender just now?" Dekan's pupils returned to their usual color, and the oppressive feeling disappeared along with it. His face once again displayed an extremely affable smile.
Flatta's pupils contracted sharply, and the growing panic in his heart intensified. Dekan's current appearance was even more terrifying than before.
Flatta was extremely uncertain whether Dekan was even human. If he wasn't, "Blood Purification" could vaporize Flatta's blood! Even though he wouldn’t suffer actual injuries in the Artificial Shadow World and had blocked his sense of pain, he had no idea whether the vaporization of blood would be considered to be within the protective range of the Artificial Shadow World.
Flatta deeply regretted not reading the instructions carefully and entering into a life-and-death agreement with Dekan!
The vaporization of blood was too terrifying. Even in his worst nightmares, Flatta had never encountered such a scenario. If Dekan continued to prevent him from surrendering, he would be tortured repeatedly and eventually vaporized into a lifeless corpse. At that point, even leaving the Artificial Shadow World might result in actual death!
"Wuwuwu!"
Flatta couldn't speak; he could only gaze at Dekan with a pleading look.
"If you can't clearly declare your surrender, the Artificial Shadow World won't be able to send you back," Dekan squinted his eyes, his smile unchanged. "Artificial Shadow Worlds can be quite dangerous, don't you think?"
"Wuwuwu..."
"But please rest assured, I've always been a kind-hearted and benevolent person; I won't put your life in danger."
