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"I'm still too weak..."
Harry sighed silently in his heart.
Using only his base strength, he realized he wasn't as formidable as he had thought. Sure, the other contestants were all five, six, seven, or even nine years older than him, but the amplification effect of Awakened Magic erased that age-based power gap—if anything, it gave Harry an advantage.
Age improved technique, while Awakened Magic directly enhanced raw power, and it applied to all forms of spellcasting. No matter how flashy your abilities were, if he could break through them with a single punch, that was all that mattered.
So, was the opponent Harry faced—Lu Chuan—a genius? Yes, he was. And unlike Harry, he wasn't lacking in resources. But could he be considered one of the absolute best?
Not really. When it came down to it, Lu Chuan was just an exceptionally skilled contestant within normal parameters. He wasn't one of those monsters that defied common sense. His advantage lay in having ten times more magic than the average competitor, a greater mastery of elementalization, and a set of alchemized armor worth more than what a middle-class family could earn in two hundred years.
Yet despite all that, he was still just an above-average contestant—stronger than most but not invincible. A group of a hundred wizards focusing their fire could take him down. And yet... Harry found himself unable to defeat him quickly using only his base power.
"This is kind of embarrassing."
Coming to terms with his weak basic attacks, Harry began criticizing himself.
"If it were Senior Sett, he'd have ended this already… Have I been relying too much on technique and neglected improving my raw strength?"
Frowning, he shifted his stance. He had absorbed a few stray projectiles but managed to evade most of the attacks. Just like his White Ivory, Lu Chuan's firepower fortress had an obvious flaw—it was great for mowing down weaker opponents but lacked sufficient firepower for breaking through defenses. He did have methods for high-impact attacks, but the charge-up time was too long. If he couldn't lock his opponent down, landing a hit was nearly impossible.
"If I had mastered Ebony's sniper rifle form, one composite spell shot would be enough to knock him out of the match. Its penetration scales with my wand's advancement—ten magic shields wouldn't even matter, let alone just a few."
"I really have been neglecting my foundations. No matter how many fancy techniques I pick up, raw power is still the most fundamental factor in one's strength."
With a sudden Blink, Harry closed the distance, pulling out his transformed KS-23 Ebony shotgun and blasting Lu Chuan in the face at point-blank range. The Shattering Curse split into twenty-five fragments mid-air, hammering into Lu Chuan's multi-layered elemental shields. Even though those shields could withstand an entire magazine from an M1911, they were nearly shattered in one go.
Panicked, Lu Chuan quickly retreated, frantically patting his armor to reinforce it, once again turning himself into an impenetrable walking fortress.
"I can't even one-shot with basic attacks… I've completely embarrassed the Awakened seniors."
Harry scolded himself, feeling deeply dissatisfied. If anyone else had heard him, they'd probably call him arrogant beyond belief—but it was simply the truth. Ebony's magic amplification wasn't the highest, but its ability to ignore a portion of magical defenses was absurdly strong. Even after having half of its length sawed off, the old wand-turned-suppressor had lost only its silencing function. Its magic amplification, a monstrous 47x, remained completely intact, putting it among the best spellcasting mediums. In sniper rifle form, it could fire composite spells as powerful as those used by top-tier wizards.
In its KS-23 shotgun form, Ebony could fire up to twenty-five fragments per shot. With that level of amplification, failing to one-shot someone was downright disgraceful.
"Hey, buddy, aren't protagonists supposed to get a last-minute power-up when they need it most? We've been together for two years now—an evolution per year isn't too much to ask, right? How about upgrading into a rocket launcher or a recoilless rifle? No? Even a heavy sniper or an autocannon would do!"
Ebony remained motionless, exuding an air of cold indifference, as if silently mocking Harry's wishful thinking. Oh, now you want me to evolve? Where was this enthusiasm before? Too bad, not happening.
"So much for destiny. Clearly, I'm not the protagonist of any grand fate."
Abandoning his unrealistic hopes, Harry cleared his mind. Getting distracted in battle was a serious mistake, but in this match, it barely mattered. Lu Chuan was a walking fortress—thick-skinned, with an absurd ammo supply—but his bullets might as well have been BB pellets. They barely even stung. Sure, a BB gun could kill if it hit a vital spot, but Harry wasn't dumb enough to stand still and take the hits. A bit of casual dodging was enough to nullify most of the attacks.
The black aura armor enveloping him wasn't quite as durable as the Iron Armor Charm, but it layered itself continuously, regenerating endlessly. A few stray shots were no threat at all.
On the flip side, without tapping into his advanced abilities, Harry didn't have an easy way to deal with Lu Chuan either. Ebony could break through his defenses in two shots, but its slow fire rate made it impractical—each shot had over a one-second delay, and switching to KS-23 mode stretched that gap to two seconds. That was more than enough time for Lu Chuan to reinforce his armor twice over. He also wasn't dumb enough to stand still and let Harry punch him or finish him off with White Ivory. His turret-like rapid-fire could keep Harry from closing in entirely.
What should have been a swift duel had devolved into a war of attrition. The audience loved the intense back-and-forth, but the combatants and referees knew the truth—this was a pure endurance match.
Lu Chuan's confidence lay in his enormous magic reserves, which were ten times larger than normal. As for Harry? Sure, his maximum mana pool wasn't that high, so he couldn't sustain high bursts for long…
But in a drawn-out battle? Heh.
"Three deep breaths and I'm back to full mana. Unlimited refills. You really think you can outlast me?"
The fight had already dragged on for nearly thirty minutes, making it the longest duel so far. Other contestants had long since finished their matches and were now in the break area, watching and snacking. Meanwhile, the two on stage were still locked in a seemingly endless struggle.
"If you can't hold out, just give up already."
Harry, somehow managing to snack on sunflower seeds while dodging attacks, didn't even bother pulling the trigger anymore. Instead, he directed seventy to eighty psychic tendrils to whip Lu Chuan like a spinning top. Unfortunately, this top didn't spin—it just shot back at him with biubiubiu noises.
Each strike from the tendrils shattered one or two layers of Lu Chuan's shields, but against his densely layered turtle shell, it was little more than a tickle.
"I have infinite mana, man. Look, I just take a breath, and my magic comes back. What's the point of dragging this out? How about you just surrender, and I'll treat you to some barbecue later?"
However, locked inside his armor-like shell, Lu Chuan didn't speak. Frustrated, he didn't feel like responding at all. He wasn't foolish—after witnessing Harry's several close calls when his magic ran out and he almost got knocked out, only for him to suddenly bounce back alive, Lu Chuan had given up on any unrealistic ideas. His opponent was far from ordinary; something strange was going on.
"Is there anything that a good barbecue can't solve? Maybe I should treat you to two, or three meals! If it weren't for my girlfriend having no close friends, I'd definitely set you up with a cross-national romance!"
"I'm already engaged." Lu Chuan replied flatly, whether because he couldn't stand Harry's casual chatter or for some other reason.
"Being engaged doesn't mean... uh, cough, cough." Harry quickly corrected himself, clearing his throat. "What I meant is, being engaged is great! Your fiancée must be watching from the stands, right?"
"Let's do it this way then, bro!" Harry, unsure of why Lu Chuan was willing to drag this out, was happy to offer a compromise. Rather than continuing the endless back-and-forth on stage and creating a false sense of a close match for the audience, it made more sense to wrap things up. "How about we settle this with one final blow? You're wearing alchemical armor, it's not as fragile as my own, but how about we both unleash our strongest move, and finish with a dramatic flourish?"
"Not happening." Lu Chuan's voice was still low, almost grumbling, "I have reasons I can't afford to lose."
"You think just dragging it out will make you win?" Harry's brow twitched, his voice carrying frustration and impatience.
"At least I can last another two hours before I lose."
After a few confirmations, Lu Chuan had realized that while Harry's overall magic wasn't comparable to his own, his ability to recharge through breathing was real. His own large magic reserve couldn't replenish quickly enough to keep up with the consumption. In just two hours, he would no longer be able to maintain his defensive strength. Harry's tendrils, which seemed like mere light taps on him, would actually break through a few layers of elemental shields. If he were to be hit by hundreds of them, his shield would fail to keep up.
The real problem was the constant onslaught of these tendrils. He had to clear them or face a losing battle. At the beginning, he had failed to deal with them, and that cost him dearly. If he hadn't acted quickly, Harry would have planted hundreds of them, overwhelming him. These entities, whether physical or psychic, were like programmed minions. Whoever created them clearly had years of expertise.
Harry's tendrils were nothing compared to the true danger posed by others. If Harry's uncle were here, even a third of these tendrils would send Lu Chuan running for cover.
"Is there something you're trying to say?"
Though Harry sensed something was off, he decided to keep the gossip for later. Two hours was too long.
"But I don't want to wait anymore."
"It's my fault," Harry sighed, "I was too greedy and overconfident. Only two years in, and I wanted to surpass people who've been studying magic for more than a decade."
"What are you trying to say?" Lu Chuan, sensing something was off, tensed up. The tendrils, once slacking off, now sharpened, as Harry, having discarded his casual attitude, clapped his hands and stood firm.
"I mean," Harry looked seriously at Lu Chuan, "you're strong, but unfortunately, I'm using hacks."
"Honestly, this isn't a fair victory. I originally planned to use this against those who, like me, arrived here with cheats. Using it on you feels a bit excessive."
"Tonight, I'll treat you to barbecue, as a... apology."
ZAP!
A surge of black energy gathered in Harry's palms, morphing instantly into pure lightning.
"Apology, yeah."
The lightning, as intense as a dragon's breath, roared through the air, turning the battlefield into a chaotic storm. After the blinding flash, a streak of crimson appeared in the far corner of the arena.
The belated whistle sounded, but the winner didn't smile. He nodded calmly and walked off the stage.
Harry once again felt the weight of others' gazes, still on him—the same silent, indifferent young man carrying a sword case.
Li Jiannan gave Harry a slight nod as they passed each other.
(End of chapter)