Published at 3rd of January 2026 11:37 am

Chapter 978: Switch.

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All of this happened in a very short span of time, as Alec was finally able to close in on Roderic, who swung his sword sideways to meet him, but before the blade could reach, the smoke behind Alec surged forward, wrapping around him.

The sword Qi Roderic released was scattered and thwarted by the thick smoke that almost engulfed Alec.

It was then Roderic realised how the smoke was reacting to Alec—almost like some type of protective barrier, all this while he’d been wondering why Alec had dashed into the explosion like some mage on a suicide mission.

Now he was starting to get an idea. He glanced back toward Serena while retreating, as Alec’s figure vanished again inside the spreading smoke fog, leaving him completely unsure of Alec’s exact position.

The way the smoke moved gave him a bad feeling that Alec could move freely within it.

“I think you’ll have to get your hands dirty for this one Serena, you can’t sit it out again,” Roderic said as he stared into the fog, unsure of what was really happening.

Before facing the War God Mage Academy, he’d done a bit of research, and from what he’d learned, they weren’t supposed to be anything special.

Reports said they were just an academy that recently had a big break and regained some recognition after their kingdom’s inter-academy competition, but when he checked the academies that performed well, he found almost nothing concrete on the War God Mage team.

All his informants had told him was the same thing: be wary of Alec Gordons. As if there was going to be any trouble winning this match, it would come from Alec.

Yet from the very start, from that first exchange till now, he still couldn’t clearly say what Alec’s specialty was, all he had seen was a guy testing small tricks here and there, like he was trying out different things just to see what worked.

_ _ _

Knight briefly broke eye contact with Cassian to check on the rest of the team, on one side, Pale had completely changed his fighting style and now looked every bit like the mage who once used to compete with Lucas, as he kept Grayson Holt fully occupied.

On the other side, Endrick was still shuffling around, and though it looked embarrassing, however he was only doing what Alec had instructed him to do.

Before the battle began, Alec had told him to relax and move around the ring, just doing his thing.

Even now, Endrick was still following Alec’s orders, and Alec had asked him to look after Sophia so she wouldn’t be taken out, while she focused on supporting him.

Only Pale had been given free rein, as he was the variable Alec hoped would surprise everyone.

And yet, the person standing in front of Knight had somehow managed to eliminate Sophia—the very person he’d been told to protect.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Cassian asked, twirling both guns in the air before smoothly slotting them back into the holsters under his arms.

“Just so you know, you’re going to wish you never did that with the amount of pain I’m about to inflict on you.” Knight said as he dashed forward, as he ran, the dual daggers in his hands dissolved into dark smoke, reverting into their tattoo forms.

But while Knight charged, Cassian only shook his head, looking at him like a dead man walking.

“You don’t have the right to threaten me anymore.”

As Cassian spoke, he began making sharp motions in the air with his hands, like he was dragging out an invisible weapon.

[> Mid Tier Spell – Gunslinger Projection: Assault Type <]

A split second later, flickering azure light condensed into a massive weapon in his hands—something like a heavy gun, almost twice the size of a regular one, but without any bulky ammo box attached.

But there was something else happening besides all that, the bullets that had fallen to the ground when the bullet array that had stopped Knight from shadow-travelling to Sophia’s side dissipated suddenly began to glow, as a thin, lightning-like rope of light started connecting each bullet within the radius around him towards the weapon he just conjured.

Seeing this, Knight tried to jump and enter Shadow Travel, but he couldn’t match Cassian’s firing speed.

[> Mid Tier Spell – Bullet Barrage <]

Ting!!!

The sharp cry of bullets tearing through the air drew the attention of everyone else battling on the stage, the bullets on the ground were being pulled up by some invisible force, and was being sucked into the mana-formed weapon in Cassian’s hands, and then fired out again toward Knight at terrifying speed.

[> Mid Tier Spell – Shadow Veil <]

Caught off guard as the mana bullets rushed in, Knight hurriedly cast a defensive shadow spell cancelling the shadow travel spell as he didn’t want to be hit, a veil of darkness rose from the ground to cover him, and the barrage slammed into it.

For two seconds, the Shadow Veil managed to hold, as the bullets slowed to a crawl after they made contact, they chewed through the dark barrier.

But even Knight already knew it wouldn’t be enough to save him because the dark veil wasn’t created to stop such types of attack, so he raised both hands up like he was pulling an invisible force up, as a ring of earthen-brown runes appeared, and he triggered another defensive spell.

[> Mid Tier Spell – Earthen Wall <]

Behind the flickering Shadow Veil, a solid wall of earth rose up as his second line of defence, and just as Knight predicted, the Shadow Veil shattered a few seconds after the emergence of the Earthen wall, and the bullets began hammering into the Earthen Wall instead, as muffled bangs rang out as the stone wall was being steadily chipped away.

‘Very soon, his shooting will have to stop. When that happens, dash toward Pale’s side. He’ll be switching opponents with you. And mind you... you might want to start thinking now about which spell you’ll use to restrain that huge opponent you’re about to inherit.’

While Knight was wondering what to do next, he heard Alec’s voice deep in his mind and realised Alec had just sent him a sound transmission, without a shred of hesitation, he bent slightly, bracing himself and waiting for Cassian to stop shooting—just like Alec had said he would.

And his trust paid off, as a few seconds later, the barrage ended, Cassian had finally fired off all the bullets around him, and this time he couldn’t reuse them like before since they’d been pulverised after slamming into the Earthen wall.

Even so, he felt satisfied with his work—the Earthen Wall was already fragile after the brutal pounding it had taken.

Sizzlkk!

The heavy gun in his hands began to flicker and fade as the mana sustaining it was cut off, forcing Cassian to revert to his pistols, he crossed his arms, drawing both guns from the holsters beneath his arms.

As he pulled the mana pistols free, a low hum rang out, like some dormant machine awakening, as the runes on them lit up. Echo glowed with a brown light, while Reign shone with a sharp white glow.

Just then, he noticed movement—Pale was sprinting toward the battered Earthen Wall where Knight was hiding, with Grayson charging after him at full speed.

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