Summoning Element — The Bane of My Existence

"Hello — I just arrived, but I noticed that girl crying. Could you tell me what happened?"

Ding Yumian was watching the match when a polite but oddly flat voice came from behind her. Her first instinct was that someone was fishing for an excuse to strike up conversation — that sort of thing happened often enough — but when she turned and saw the man's eyes, she found no trace of that intention, and opened her mouth to answer.

She had a keen eye for men who used pretexts to flirt. The man talking to her now had strange eyes — a hardness and quiet desolation in them utterly unlike anything you'd expect from someone his age.

"I see. Thank you." That was all the man said after she finished her brief account.

When he fell silent and grew still, she could barely sense his presence at all — a dark, unmoving statue.

She stopped paying him any mind and turned her attention back to the match.

Down on the arena floor, Mo Fan was still grappling with a problem: the Giant Shadow Nails hidden throughout the battlefield.

Giant Shadow Nails were devastating — the most powerful restraint magic at the intermediate level. But the conditions for landing a hit were stringent. Anyone with enough seasoning knew how to stay out of the shadows, how to read the moment of deployment and dodge clear.

Yet Ding Yumian understood very well that a truly skilled Shadow Element mage didn't need to obsess over landing a direct hit. A Giant Shadow Nail was most dangerous as a suppressor.

Just like right now.

On the arena floor, lightning crackled and arced across every inch of Mo Fan's body, filling the air with a rumble deep enough to make his opponents shudder.

With the Spirit Grade Lightning Seed Qianjun channeling through him, if his third-tier Thunderbolt: Frenzied Dance came crashing down from the sky, Xu Mingcong's entire team would be devastated — every one of them would have to pour everything into their defensive magic, and even their Enchanted Gear would be pressed into service.

Intermediate-level destruction magic at its peak. No one dared underestimate the thunder of Thunderbolt: Frenzied Dance.

But just as Mo Fan's teammates shielded him while he worked to complete his Star Chart, a slender, razor-sharp Giant Shadow Nail erupted without warning from the shadows beneath a curtain of falling frost and ice, driving straight toward him.

"Water Control can't block it — watch out!" Ah Li Jie called out urgently.

Mo Fan already knew that Ai Tutu had used Light's Grace to protect Liu Xin from the stranglehold of Ice Lock. He seemed to have prepared himself for exactly this — in a single motion he dissolved the half-drawn Lightning Star Chart and sprang nimbly backward, evading the Giant Shadow Nail whose deployment had actually been readable, if you knew what to look for.

"Losing your nerve already?" Mo Fan laughed, a thread of mockery in his voice.

Giant Shadow Nails worked differently from other magic: completing the Star Chart didn't mean the nail could be fired instantly. Now that Mo Fan had dodged Xu Mingcong's three Shadow Nail spikes, the bulk of his threat had been neutralized.

"Wrecking your Lightning Star Chart is a fair trade!" Xu Mingcong laughed back — but the ease had left his expression. He could feel it plainly: Mo Fan's destructive capacity was a full tier above Gu Jian's.

A thought shifted behind his eyes. Even as he spoke, an eerie dark light began to flicker in their depths.

*Whoosh.*

A second Shadow Nail spike launched — timed to the exact moment Mo Fan finished dodging the first.

Giant Shadow Nails were excellent for suppressing overwhelming destruction magic. But landing one directly on an enemy was effectively a match-ender, and Xu Mingcong wanted Mo Fan down as fast as possible.

Pity, then, that this supposedly clever hidden follow-up had already been seen through. When Mo Fan called Xu Mingcong impatient, he didn't mean the interruption of the Lightning Star Chart — he meant that Xu Mingcong had thrown down two Dark Element pieces in a single breath.

As a Shadow Element mage himself, Mo Fan's understanding of shadows was no worse than Xu Mingcong's. He had already sensed that his opponent wasn't just trying to interrupt him.

A ball of flame bloomed in Mo Fan's palm. He hurled it into the air.

In the sudden wash of firelight, the Shadow Nail spike hurtling toward him was exposed — and its power sharply blunted.

Mo Fan tracked its trajectory in an instant. Dodging was simple: he twisted sideways and let the spike pass through the space his chest had just occupied.

"You've got one left. Use it carefully." Mo Fan retreated a few steps, positioning Ah Li Jie — who wielded both Water and Ice Elements — as a forward buffer. "Though if you'd rather spend it interrupting my next spell, I won't complain."

Before the words had fully left his mouth, new Star Motes shimmered into existence around him — a pale moonlit radiance, glowing with an otherworldly luminescence unlike anything else in this world.

Star Mote linked to Star Mote, threading together in swift succession, cutting open the fabric of space itself.

"He's going to summon!" the slightly heavyset female mage on Xu Mingcong's team cried out.

"Damn it — I forgot he has natural Dual Elements." Xu Mingcong swore.

Now that everyone knew this was Mo Fan, his natural Dual Elements were hardly a surprise anymore — but facing them in actual combat, having to contend with an entire extra element, sent a wave of helpless frustration through the team.

Xu Mingcong had only one Shadow Nail spike left in reserve. Using it to stop a Basic-Level spell would be a laughable waste. And even if he did interrupt it, one moment's inattention and Mo Fan would have the Star Chart redrawn in no time. This was Dimensional Summoning — a *Basic-Level* spell!

"**Awoooooooo!!**"

Basic-Level spell it may have been, but what Mo Fan called forth was unmistakably a Swift Star Wolf — one whose strength sat in the lower-middle range of the Battle-General-class.

Every mage dreaded being pinned down by a close-combat beast. The Swift Star Wolf might not dominate the Battle-General tier, but tying up a top-twenty Elemental Rankings expert? That was absolutely within its reach.

"This wolf of mine is also rather proud of its speed. The two of you should have plenty to talk about." Mo Fan stood at the heart of his team, grinning as he ran a hand through the Swift Star Wolf's flowing mane.

"**Awoo! Awoooooo!!**"

The Swift Star Wolf was ecstatic. As long as it hadn't been dragged out to spar with Little Flame Queen, it was always ravenous for a fight.

After so much time at Mo Fan's side, the wolf had grown cunning as a fox. It knew the opponents its master faced now were formidable — people who could hold their own against a Battle-General-class creature in a straight fight. So it didn't charge in blindly. Instead it used its blinding speed to streak wild circles around the opposing team, watching and waiting for any opening to exploit.

Not long ago, Xu Mingcong's Giant Shadow Nails had been haunting everyone like restless ghosts, forcing Mo Fan's team into constant vigilance. The pressure had been relentless.

Now the situation reversed in an instant. What was supposed to be a spell-for-spell duel, trading blow for blow — and suddenly a Battle-General-class Demon Wolf was circling Xu Mingcong's team. Its sheer intimidation put those Shadow Nail spikes to shame. One moment of inattention, one gap in their formation, and the Swift Star Wolf would be on them in a heartbeat.

"I swear on everything — nothing in my entire life has annoyed me more than the Summoning Element." The muscular Stone Element student cursed.

Your Basic-Level spell carries half the weight of an Intermediate-Level one — fine. Your Lightning Element tears through everything in sight — fine. But calling out a *wolf* to turn this into a numbers game where we're outnumbered? What in the actual hell is that?!