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Defeat.
It was unexpected, yet at the same time, it made perfect sense.
Harry didn't find his loss unbearable. Even the most overpowered wizards had their moments of downfall. He was just an ordinary thirteen-year-old boy—winning and losing in competitions was nothing unusual.
If you asked whether he was convinced by his defeat, the answer was a resounding yes. Even though Li Jiannan was only five years older than him, the actual difference in their magical experience was at least twelve or thirteen years. In terms of early education, England had virtually no investment. Sure, letting children under eleven, whose magical cores hadn't stabilized, practice magic was risky, but they could've at least introduced theory.
In Taishi Tianchao, magical education was structured in a way that broke down the complex, often daunting magical systems into gradual steps: starting magic exploration in preschool at age three, learning foundational theory and hands-on practice in primary school, formally engaging with magic in middle school at eleven, specializing in high school, and then pursuing advanced studies in university.
With such a stark contrast in educational systems, even two people with the same level of innate talent would achieve vastly different outcomes.
Li Jiannan wasn't just as talented as Harry—he had trained longer, had better educational resources, lived in a more favorable societal environment, and was wealthier. While most people were still thrilled to wield basic enchanted weapons, real elites had been sleeping next to divine-grade sword cases for over a decade.
Losing to someone like that? Harry felt no shame. He only regretted not being born a few years earlier. If he were just a bit stronger, perhaps he could have seen this modern-day Sword Immortal's true strength.
For Harry, the previous battle had been an all-out effort without relying on external aids. But Li Jiannan? It was hard to say how much of his true power he had even used.
"I passed?"
As he stepped down from the stage, Harry pondered the cryptic statement. His next match was against Tupac, a fight to determine second and third place. But honestly, he didn't care. People only remembered the champion. To him, silver and bronze medals were meaningless.
A half-hour break flew by. Once his condition was mostly restored, Harry returned to the stage calmly. The injuries from his previous battle were far from superficial—Li Jiannan's final strike had slashed from his left shoulder down to his hip, nearly bisecting him.
Just like in his duel against Anna, Harry had once again experienced the sensation of bodily separation. The crimson light barrier had been a literal lifesaver, instantly dispersing all lingering magical energy from his wounds. The medical team had put him back together in seconds. But the platinum sword's destructive power far exceeded that of Sectumsempra, leaving Harry in a state of physical exhaustion.
"More or less fine."
After rechecking his condition, Harry exchanged nods with Tupac at the center of the stage.
This so-called "vegetative man," as Professor Flitwick had put it, was indeed a troublesome opponent. However, the confined space of the dueling platform also limited his abilities. While his spore-based combat strategy was incredibly effective in close quarters, it was fundamentally an assassination technique. In a formal, open duel like this, its threat level was naturally reduced.
Notably absent from Harry's arsenal this time was Fiery Delight. That sword was meant for taking down the toughest foes—ones that even Ebony struggled against. If Harry had wielded Fiery Delight in his match against Lu Chuan, he could've shattered that thick turtle shell in just a few swings. However, a weapon specializing in single-target assaults was ill-suited against someone like Tupac, who excelled in stealth, ambushes, and large-scale area attacks.
Harry even suspected that Tupac's Animagus form wasn't an animal or insect but a plant—something entirely different from anything he had ever seen. When Li Jiannan had impaled him with his sword rain, Tupac had materialized amidst the writhing forest of tendrils.
Harry acknowledged that this guy was strong—so strong he could be considered a freak. But this wasn't his ideal battleground. His real stage was the upcoming melee. Only in a massive-scale combat arena could Tupac truly unleash his full potential.
Even so—
The moment the starting signal rang out, an ear-piercing screech, like the wailing of a tormented infant, exploded next to Harry's ears!
The dueling competition had strict rules forbidding instant-death spells like Avada Kedavra, and Mandrake Screeches, which could kill on impact, were also banned. But Castrobushe wizards, who specialized entirely in magical botany, were known for their unpredictability. You could never guess what sort of sinister surprise they'd pull out next.
Tupac had already realized one key similarity between Harry and Li Jiannan: both possessed the ability to end a fight in a single, devastating blow. Though Harry couldn't rip through the dueling stage's magical barrier like Li Jiannan, he had more than enough power to time a strike that would take Tupac down in an instant.
Having already experienced defeat at Li Jiannan's hands, Tupac wasn't about to let history repeat itself. Instead of his usual strategy of staying hidden to build up a powerful attack, he adopted an entirely different approach for his duel with Harry.
Even though he could, given enough time, prepare an ultimate spell like World of Trees to obliterate the entire dueling arena, he knew Harry wouldn't give him that luxury.
So he changed tactics.
The Mandrake variant he had personally hybridized, cultivated, and enhanced had lost its lethal magical properties, but its super-potent sleep-inducing effect remained fully intact—and had even been further strengthened.
Within twenty meters, even a wizard prepared for the attack would be overwhelmed by the soundwave's effects. Within fifty meters, an unprotected wizard would be put into a deep, twelve-hour slumber.
In most duels, competitors would instinctively use a combination of offensive and defensive spells to protect themselves from unexpected attacks. But Tupac had studied Harry's previous matches carefully—Harry had never proactively used defensive spells.
Even when faced with the terrifying sword rain, his strategy had always been to attack rather than defend.
Aggression was the best defense—but only if your attack could clash directly with your opponent's!
Harry's hand, poised to strike, suddenly froze. His steps faltered slightly. While the piercing screech didn't knock him out instantly, the intense dizziness and stabbing pain in his ears were enough to slow his reaction.
'Careless. Got too distracted thinking.'
Harry smirked bitterly and uttered a single syllable:
"Qo." (Lightning.)
Serpents of electricity slithered across his body, crackling and surging. A burnt, acrid stench filled the air as countless microscopic parasitic spores, already clinging to him, were incinerated. The violent current surged through him, scorching away every last trace of the invasive fungus before they could take root inside his body and begin their rapid, flesh-consuming growth.
Any opponent who could give Professor Flitwick a headache was bound to be tricky. And Tupac?
He had chosen an obscure, sinister path—one that was as eerie as it was impossible to guard against.
Although Harry didn't have much of an aversion to such tactics, the anger in him remained unchanged, mixed with a trace of frustration at his own carelessness.
"Mul-qua-lass" (Strength - Armor - Life)
The pitch-black aura armor immediately covered Harry's entire body. Countless activated spores tried to root themselves on the armor, and in the blink of an eye, a nearly finger-thick layer of parasitic fungus appeared, squirming and trying to dig its roots into the mental energy armor, attempting to drain magic as nourishment and grow into an invasive mycelium blanket.
The strong acidic digestive fluid secreted by the fungus, when it dripped onto the ground, released a pungent corrosive smell, and small black pits appeared on the hard surface of the arena. But as the black energy armor shifted from iron-gray to dazzling lightning-white, the carbonized mycelium blanket cracked, splitting into countless scorched fissures.
With the blackwood and ivory tucked into his weapon holster, a ball of lightning gathered in Harry's palms. In the blink of an eye, an elemental-polarized mental energy sphere shot out!
Mental Beast · Thunderstorm Dragon!
The mental beast, resembling the Thunderstorm Dragon Tor, unfurled its massive yet graceful body in the sky. A cascading breath of thunder poured down, and the air around it shimmered with distorted light. The splashing elemental breath was like boiling molten steel, but the blinding white light was even more terrifying than the scorching steel!
Tupac excelled at concealing himself and using activated, growing magical plants and spores for stealthy, wide-range attacks. However, standing before him was Harry, one of the best at wide-area, ground-clearing attacks in this arena, only rivaled by Luchuan, the human artillery fortress.
As a dedicated "mage," wide-area clearing was their specialty!
"Liz (Ice)"
The blinding white light softened slightly, and a bone-chilling frost filled the arena, shrouding it in a thin layer of mist. The sub-zero temperature froze the vitality of everything, including the spore cloud, which was now completely stiffened and neutralized. Both lightning and frost were merciless to plants, and while it was well known that fire was a counter to plant-based magic, lightning and ice were rare and effective counters.
Tupac, coming from a tropical rainforest environment in Castrobushe, could not have expected such cold magic, especially since snow was virtually unseen there.
Even the screaming, ugly Mandrake root babies were silenced by the electric shock and freezing ice, and under the combined forces of thunder and frost, the previously chaotic arena fell into the silence it should have had.
However, Tupac's figure vanished once again. At this moment, Harry was certain that Tupac's Animagus form wasn't an animal or insect, but rather a magical plant form, one he had never encountered before.
Beneath the red carpet, a massive pit had formed, and within it, roots of mysterious plants, as thick as coins and tougher than steel cables, were coiled.
This was a plant known as "Titan's Beard," a carnivorous vine unique to the Amazon rainforest. It wasn't afraid of fire, but now it was frozen in the frost. At ultra-low temperatures, the plant's vitality was heavily suppressed. The once strong roots became brittle and fragile. The unexpected cold completely threw Tupac off, as he never anticipated Harry's mastery of such powerful ice magic.
Just like when he ambushed Harry earlier, Tupac didn't get the chance to adjust his tactics. The fatal attack had arrived.
Someone raised their hand high, palm outstretched as if trying to hold the sky. Endless magical power gathered, quickly forming a huge sphere at their fingertips.
"Mental Energy Polarization · Thunder · Spiral Mental Energy Field!"
The once round massive sphere instantly transformed into a crushing vortex of chaotic energy. The frozen and brittle roots were shredded by the rapidly expanding energy field. The slow-moving Titan's Beard vines, which had pierced through the spiral mental energy field, were reduced to thin, twig-like strands, freezing mid-air before crumbling to the ground in irregular fragments.
A flash of red light appeared at the center of the spiral mental energy field. Tupac's protective magical shield, which had resisted the cold, was completely torn apart by the lightning-infused mental energy. The crimson light stabilized his life signs, dispersing the bone-chilling cold just before he was frozen to death.
The arena duel came to an end, and the rankings were set.
—
"I passed, but what does this even mean?"
After stepping off the stage, Harry approached Li Jiannan with a puzzled expression.
"A senior asked me to test you."
Li Jiannan, holding his sword case, replied casually.
"Do I know them? I mean, that senior?" Harry asked, somewhat confused.
"Setirares Sgeji, the Sun Dragon gave you that stone, didn't they?"
(End of chapter)