Published at 6th of March 2026 6:26 am

Chapter 1053: Shock 1.

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

This was all because the new ground tiles he had installed were being destroyed right before his eyes. Over the past few days, the amount of money he had to pay the mages responsible for restoring the arena to its proper shape had been steep.

One of the envoys overseeing the competition had advised him to switch to much higher-grade stone tiles, as not only would it reduce the repairing time but also make it harder for the Tier 6 participating mages to damage them.

Yet now, those very tiles that were supposedly built to withstand mid-rank power were still being destroyed.

First, Earth Takeda seemed to completely ignore the natural limits of things and somehow manipulated the same dark rock tiles that he had been told that mid-rank mages would struggle to manipulate, and he had done it easily, as if that wasn’t enough, he dug his legs into the ground and dragged a long trench across the stone surface.

The sight made him grit his teeth in anger, and he couldn’t help cursing the War God team, though they weren’t even the ones tearing up the ground, but his prejudice against them made it easier to blame them for his own shortcomings of not getting High rank tiles.

He could already picture the even larger bill he’d have to pay the array mages who handled arena repairs.

_ _

After blocking Lucas’ Qi attack, Earth Takeda shifted his sword, trying to locate where Lucas had moved, but the moment he adjusted his blade, all he saw was Lucas’ towering figure already before him.

His breathing was slow, mist curling from his mouth, his body flickering with sparks of lightning, his weapon was drawn all the way back to his left side, both hands gripping it tightly, clearly preparing to unleash another devastating strike.

In that motion, in that position, it was obvious to Earth Takeda that Lucas was trying to use his superior strength, which is boosted by his unyielding Qi to knock him clean off the battle stage.

“You’d have to try better than—” Earth Takeda was still speaking when the hit landed.

He had cast a gravity push on himself; normally the spell was used to force an opponent under crushing pressure, but he had twisted it for his own use so he wouldn’t be blasted out of the arena.

Though he had raised his right hand to form a refined circular earth shield to cushion the blow and take some of the hit, however; the glaive’s impact still threw him off balance, smashing him hard into the ground.

Ironically, the gravity push he had cast on himself contributed to how easily he was driven down.

Even then he didn’t stop sliding, as his body continued skidding across the ground, overshooting the range he had intended.

As he slid past, he disrupted Wind Takeda, who had been engaged with Katie in battle as he passed by their middle, both of them watched as Earth Takeda tumbled, twisted midair, and finally drove his greatsword into the ground.

Before pushing his weight down, and slamming his knees down soon after, though he was still sliding backward, fortunately the deeply embedded weapon slowed him enough to halt the momentum that would have carried him off the stage.

With Earth Takeda out of the way, Katie instantly appeared before Wind Takeda using her enhanced speed.

Tribal totem markings appeared from her legs to her ankles flaring up with light that shone even on her equipment set, turning her movement into a blur as she followed through with a right hook aimed straight at him.

He raised his left hand in a high guard to block, then immediately countered with an upward slash toward her inner elbow, but the katana only scraped against the armor covering that area.

Before she could counter with a left uppercut she sent his way, he retreated backwards using the wind element to hasten his steps, allowing him to easily evade her strike, it was clear he had been searching for a slight opening in her defence to exploit and injure her.

“Die!”

While they were still locked on each other, Lucas, who had dashed in to close down Earth Takeda, reached him first instead and decided to engage him by throwing a punch with his right fist.

At that same instant, Wind Takeda pushed out his left hand toward Lucas and cast a Wind Bomb, as a swirling sphere of wind, about the size of a watermelon, shot toward him.

Seeing this, Lucas simply coated his hand with Qi and kept advancing without hesitation.

Bang!

The wind bomb exploded the moment his hand collided with it, scattering sharp wind blades in every direction, several wind blades carved long gashes across his arm, slicing upward.

Despite the injuries and blood pouring out, Lucas didn’t seem to care, with the glaive in hand, he seemed to have abandoned all thoughts of defence, his only intent was forward momentum, pushing relentlessly to deal maximum damage before going down.

After forcing his way through the wind bomb, he planted his feet and took a stance, rotating the glaive overhead with both hands gripping the center as his Qi flowed from his palms into it, coating the weapon once more.

Seeing this, the Wind Takeda ignored Katie and rushed in to close the distance, though his katana was long, but it still couldn’t match the glaive’s reach, and he couldn’t risk giving Lucas too much space to attack freely from a distance away.

As he approached, he executed a quick sweeping motion, slashing twice in rapid succession—clean, efficient sword strikes, but both were deflected by Lucas, who continued rotating his glaive with both hands.

Tink!

Both times his katana was parried by the force of the rotating glaive, the recoil pushed Wind Takeda backward, drawing a frown from him.

Still, he wasn’t about to be outworked, as his blade became coated in a green hue as the air around them grew heavier, and he brought his katana down in a powerful strike.

But at that exact moment, Lucas finally acted, using his left hand, he swept the glaive diagonally from right to left, dragging it downward in a decisive slash.

For a brief instant, Takeda wondered why the mage before him seemed completely unconcerned about the incoming strike, as if he didn’t care for his own safety at all.

Yet that thought didn’t shake his resolve, as he too poured all his strength into the descending katana, fully prepared for whatever clash was about to follow.

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