Battle-General-Class Summoned Beast

"Damn it — my movement speed has slowed down too," Shen Mingxiao swore.

His primary element was Wind. Normally, when executing Star Trails, he could move at high speed within a wind corridor, leaving only a trail of afterimages behind him. But the frost blanketing the ground severely hampered movement — the sticky ice made each rushing step feel like wading through knee-deep snow.

*At this rate, my Wind Track — Drifting Shadow isn't even hitting the speed of the second-tier Wind Track — Flash Step.* If the opposing team also had a Wind Element mage who was immune to this domain's effects, his sluggish pace would leave him wide open to be dominated at will.

"Lightning Seal — Furious Strike!"

While everyone was still caught within the ice domain, the Imperial Capital Magic Academy team had already launched their attack.

A Basic-Level Lightning Element spell — the violet lightning seals twisted and writhed, somehow conducting freely across the ice surface. In an instant, long crackling arcs raced beneath everyone's feet, filling the air with a relentless **snap and pop**.

Ice Vine already carried a powerful slowing effect. Now with Lightning Seal's muscle paralysis layered on top, the four Pearl Academy members found it nearly impossible to move.

"Don't panic — I'll handle them," Mo Fan said, seeing his teammates scrambling to dodge.

Only then did Song Xia, Mu Nujiao, and Shen Mingxiao remember that Mo Fan was also a Lightning Element mage. Those Lightning Seals might not have it so easy against him.

Mo Fan stepped forward, facing the seals racing across the ground toward him.

Violet arcs sparked from his body, drawing every last one of the enemy's Lightning Seals — luring them to leap onto him as though called home.

Lightning arcs move like pythons. Once Mo Fan began drawing current outward, those pythons lunged at him as if they'd found living prey, swarming over him in a frenzy until his entire body was wrapped in a crisscrossing web of crackling electricity.

Lightning Seal was supposed to lash and paralyze — but Mo Fan felt nothing.

His hand snapped shut. The energy of his second-tier Lightning Element Star Nebula surged out in full Release, instantly subduing every last bolt that had dared dream of scorching his flesh.

"Now you're mine."

"Lightning Seal!!"

Mo Fan converted every last seal into his own power. A denser, far more ferocious storm of lightning marks gathered above him — and at his command, the doubled seals surged back along the ground, bearing down on the Imperial Capital Academy's four members.

"Gutsy little bastard," muttered Mingcong, the team's Lightning Element controller, with a cold snort. "Sacred Shield — Blessing!"

He'd just been slapped right back, and he was forced to deploy an Intermediate-Level Light Element spell because of it. Without that barrier, the wave of returning seals would have wreaked havoc on his team's formation.

Absorbing the enemy's lightning and hurling it back demanded absolute confidence in one's mastery of the Lightning Element. Not only did you need to be certain your cultivation surpassed theirs, but you had to complete your Star Trail while their Lightning Seals were actively trying to disable you.

Otherwise, if the lightning wasn't released outward in time, it would erupt through your own body — jolts and burns without mercy.

Mo Fan had stood there arranging his Star Chart while taking the full brunt of the opposing Lightning Seal head-on. Had he made even the smallest error, he would have borne the skill's entire effect in the flesh.

"Well done!" Song Xia called out.

Mu Nujiao's eyes lit up as well. Pearl Academy's notorious troublemaker truly lived up to his reputation — he'd sent double the Lightning Seals right back at them, forcing the other team to burn an Intermediate-Level spell just to stop it.

Everyone's Magical Energy was finite. Intermediate-Level spells couldn't be cast indefinitely — each use drained a substantial reserve. So forcing the enemy to spend a mid-tier defensive spell just to answer a basic attack was a win by any measure.

"Save your tricks. I'll deal with them personally." Lu Zhenghe carried an arrogance around others that he simply couldn't suppress.

He had been at the rear of the formation from the very start — not because he was being cautious, but because once his Contract Beast was summoned, the opposing side would be left in absolute ruins.

Summoning Element Star Charts were the most demanding to draw of any element — equivalent in complexity to multiple Intermediate-Level spells. A Summoning Element Intermediate-Level cast took two to three times longer than anything else.

To dominate the field in style, he couldn't afford a single mistake.

The Star Chart was three-quarters complete. A smile crept across Lu Zhenghe's face. *These Pearl Academy idiots have no idea how catastrophic it is to let a Summoner finish his casting.*

"You think you're going to summon in peace?" A voice drifted in like the wind, catching him just as he was growing smug.

He looked sideways — and there was Shen Mingxiao, appearing at his side through some Wind Track maneuver without him having noticed at all.

"Ha. You think you can interrupt me?" He was surprised, but not the least bit rattled.

His Star Chart was still being drawn. Only the final Star Trail connection remained.

Shen Mingxiao had no patience for people who underestimated him. He unleashed his full speed, sweeping past Lu Zhenghe in a gale that tore through like an autumn wind stripping the last leaves from the trees.

In his wake, the air erupted in churning turbulence — like a hidden current surging suddenly from a crack in the rock face — carrying a fierce, battering force straight at Lu Zhenghe.

Lu Zhenghe didn't budge. A self-satisfied smile sat on his face.

Just as the gale was about to hurl him off his feet, countless water droplets materialized from nowhere.

Deep blue and gleaming, they gathered together to form a supple Water Control ribbon that wound and circled before him, intercepting the raging gust on his behalf.

The ribbon bowed like a waterfall caught in a storm, but Lu Zhenghe, sheltered within it, was completely unharmed.

"Time for you to die," he sneered at Shen Mingxiao.

"Contract Summoning — Shadowmark Berserker Wolf!"

The Star Chart blazed against the ice with a pale lunar radiance. Lu Zhenghe straightened himself grandly and stepped back a few paces, and the entire chart expanded several times over — it looked like an ancient scroll painting etched in moonlight and foxfire on the ice, every line and every trace brimming with an energy that did not belong to this world.

The radiance crested. Then the entire Star Chart went pitch black, becoming what looked like a void.

From within that void, a wolf-type creature began to rise — slowly, its aura volatile and seething, its bearing fierce and overpowering.

Its fangs were blade-white and razor-sharp. Its eyes were pure black, yet a single glance was enough to read the savagery carved into its very nature. Its body was the size of an elephant, and every step it placed on the ice left fresh cracks radiating outward beneath its weight.

More striking still were the bold blue markings covering its body — running savagely from the base of its neck all the way to its tail, as if branded there by a curse, or as if they were sealing some unknown power away within.

"Good god — a Battle-General-class wolf Summoned Beast!"

Somewhere outside the arena, a student from one of the other schools let out a scream and grabbed their head in disbelief.

**Battle-General-class!!**

A creature like that was devastatingly dangerous even against Intermediate-Level Mages!!