Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 120: Special Battle

With the intention of finally being able to let off some steam, Xiao Lin resolved to be extra focused that time. Therefore, he stopped being on the defensive and chose to attack.

His blade clashed against the dagger made of energy as red ripples of energy could be seen. The weapons the virtual characters used were formed by the energy from the energy stones, just like they were. Thanks to the system strictly restricting the amount of energy that could be retrieved, they could guarantee there would not be much harm done to the human body. At the most, one would feel a slightly warm sensation.

Xiao Lin backpedaled for a few steps before stabilizing himself. He furrowed his eyebrows, feeling the impact of the gravity. His opponent seemed to still be stronger than him, which was even further away from his settings. He had an impulse to complain to Dickens, but that had to wait until after the battle.

Two people, who were not even at Black Iron-rank fighting in the New World, were akin to fighting while carrying sandbags. This battle was extremely not worth watching. Their movements were slow and the blades swayed as they slashed around. The two of them had not distanced themselves a single step after closing in on each other. A single extra step meant a lot of extra effort from Xiao Lin.

All of the red virtual character’s attributes were higher than Xiao Lin’s by quite a bit, but thanks to the effect of the gravity, the character’s advantages were greatly restricted. The battle entered a deadlock, with both their hit points slowly decreasing. It was hard to tell who would win just from looking at the speed of decrease.

The situation suddenly changed when the red virtual character suddenly held its dagger backhanded and took a leap forward. It was not that fast, so Xiao Lin managed to dodge it, but he widened his eyes in shock when he raised his head because the virtual character’s weapon turned into a shortsword.

It could change weapons?

Xiao Lin cursed in his head, but he quickly lost any opportunity to think about it when the virtual character charged at him again right after switching weapons. What was even more shocking was that the speed of the blade was noticeably faster and more accurate.

Xiao Lin could not dodge it, so he could only exert himself by raising his blade to block. He was using a lighter sword, but with the gravity, the blade felt no different from a heavy sword. Xiao Lin was very certain he could not wield his blade so quickly, but the virtual character managed to do it.

Both of them were influenced by the gravity, but why was his opponent faster than him! Xiao Lin could not figure it out, but their blade forced him to retreat. The only reprieve he had was that the virtual character’s strength was not as much as he thought, which indicated that it was still affected by gravity.

The virtual character retrieved its sword before changing weapons once again. This time it was a curved blade. Xiao Lin once again raised his blade in defense as he panted. However, the virtual character did not attack immediately as it waved around the blade for a bit before changing its weapon once again.

This time it was a staff. The virtual character finally attacked again and Xiao Lin could only defend as he fell back. He did not have the strength to dodge, and when the staff hit his blade, the heavy impact hurt his wrist, causing him to almost drop his blade.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Xiao Lin was stunned. In not even a minute, that virtual character’s speed and strength both increased; was that due to it switching weapons?

Or could it have been concealing its strength to lull him into a false sense of security before striking? Xiao Lin shook his head and crossed that possibility out. The opponent was just a virtual character made by the system and the system was designed for training. How could it have such a cunning setting?

He had no time to think about it as Xiao Lin noticed the weapon had changed yet again. This time the weapon was a long war scythe. Even though it was made of energy, the virtual character held the weapon valiantly, with the blade dragging the floor and making grinding sounds. It was a sight to behold.

Suddenly, the virtual character moved again, and this time it was even faster than earlier. It looked very adept, as if gravity had stopped influencing it.

The virtual character drew a circle in the air with its scythe and flames started to form on the blade. The hot air caused Xiao Lin to take a few steps back, retreating from the scythe’s wider attack range.

Curiously, the virtual character once again increased its speed. It seemed that Planet Norma’s heavy gravity no longer affected it. It was like the wind as it charged at Xiao Lin from the corner.

Xiao Lin was suddenly feeling a sense of danger he had not before. Even though he knew this was a virtual battle, even though he knew getting hit would only mean his hit points would hit zero again, Xiao Lin was still filled with anger. Anyone would also be angry if they were tortured like this by virtual characters. The most important thing was that no matter how Xiao Lin thought about it, he could not understand how the red virtual character was doing what it did.

Xiao Lin thought about it for less than a second, and then he immediately activated his replication skill!

Even though the opponent was just a virtual character, he should still be able to replicate its skills. It was just as he thought, but Xiao Lin could only gape in surprise when the skills flashed in his mind.

[Choose a replicable skill:

[Piercing Wind: limited to daggers; use the dagger to lunge forward and attack. After the skill is used, agility will be increased by half a grade. Skill evaluation: F]

[Breeze Blade: limited to swords; continuously attack in a forward direction. Can increase speed by half a grade after hitting the target. Skill evaluation: F+]

[Violent Blade Dance: limited to curved blades; can strengthen the user by performing a sword dance; has no offensive capabilities; increases strength by half a grade. Skill evaluation: F]

Xiao Lin snarled as he recalled all the moves the virtual character used earlier. Every skill needed a completely different weapon, and the variety rendered him speechless. He believed that was possibly not all the skills that the virtual character had.

He could not really say the opponent was very powerful, since upon detailed inspection, one would notice all the skills were very low ranked. The skills were all around F-ranked, and it did not even seem to have any E-ranked skills.

Xiao Lin finally understood how the virtual character suddenly spiked in strength and speed. It was not that the virtual character had overcome the effects of gravity, it was just using all these skills that could strengthen itself to temporarily enhance its abilities. When stacking all those buffs together, the virtual character really did overcome the effects of heavy gravity, at least for a short while.

He felt that the system had some problems somewhere; that was obviously not the settings he had input!

Nonetheless, Xiao Lin refused to admit defeat. He had already activated his replication skill. No matter what, he would replicate a skill. It would at least let him vent his frustrations. Otherwise, he might go crazy after being tortured for a whole day.