Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)
chapter-458

Chapter 458: Wang Dalin’s Abnormality

Xiao Lin touched the spatial ring on his finger. Although the professor told him that when he reached a proficient level and that he would not need to use death aura to transform elements, he was still a beginner and he needed to rely on death aura to perform element compression. He felt that it was a little too rushed.

Extracting death energy from the spatial ring was the quickest thing that came to mind. After all, he could not summon the black knight anywhere or anytime wanted. Fortunately, this ring was completely controlled by his mental strength, so it was possible to properly extract the black knight’s breath of death.

Xiao Lin’s shots were very quick, and it was the same Flame Bullet spell. However, his casting time was a little slower this time. Fortunately, his own basic attributes, coupled with the water shield, bought him enough time. In addition, this spell had an extremely short casting time. From condensing elements to compression, until the elements were recombined into the structure required by Flame Bullets, the entire process only took a few seconds.

Of course, this was a total failure in the eyes of the professor. In actual combat, a few seconds could be the difference between life and death. However, this was more than enough to deal with opponents of Wang Dalin’s level.

A dazzling red light began to emanate from Xiao Lin’s fingertips. This was a hotter flame compared to the one he cast earlier, and some people already started to notice that something was off. Yu Mei seemed to realize something and opened her mouth as if about to say something, but in the end, she just sighed.

‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’

In quick succession, Xiao Lin fired three Flame Bullets. Xiao Lin was also observing carefully. After all, the significance of this duel was not actually to hit Wang Dalin, but to experiment with the application of his own compressed element techniques in actual combat.

Three explosions happened one after another. Xiao Lin was a little disappointed that the first two Flame Bullets detonated before they reached their targets. This showed that the death energy had not been completely transformed into elements, resulting in an incomplete spell structure. Colloquially, this was a spellcasting failure. The third Flame Bullet hit Wang Dalin squarely in his lower abdomen.

Wang Dalin was brutally flung backward, crashing against the defensive barrier that was set up by Yu Mei earlier before falling to the ground. He was barely able to get up, swaying a few times, and almost fell over again. The leather armor on his abdomen had long been completely burned, revealing a hideous and terrible-looking wound.

“You still want to fight?”

Xiao Lin frowned. In his view, when a melee fighter successfully closed the distance with a spellcaster but was then beaten back by the caster and distanced, it was already a failure. Now, he had enough time and space. Even if he did not compress elements, he could easily knock him down with a normal Flame Bullet.

“Xiao Lin! Something seems off with this guy!” A familiar voice could be heard from outside the protective barrier.

Xiao Lin stood stunned for a moment. There was indeed something abnormal with Wang Dalin. The blood in his pupils seemed to have become even thicker, and his muscles seemed to be trembling as if enduring great pain. Was his attack so powerful?

After compressing elements, the power of the Flame Bullets was greater than expected, but that was its limit. After all, the basic power of this spell was too low. Being able to knock Wang Dalin into the air was actually an unexpected effect, and it was unlikely to be fatal.

“Enough! That’s enough! This duel ends here!”

Yu Mei walked over while breaking the protective barrier. Walking to the corner of the venue, she glanced back and forth between Xiao Lin and Wang Dalin, who was barely able to stand. Xiao Lin laid out his hands to show that he did not intend to continue, but Wang Dalin seemed to completely ignore Yu Mei’s warning. He was still approaching Xiao Lin, clutching the handle of his knife tightly.

Yu Mei’s frown deepened, and she did not waste her breath. She suddenly rushed over and with a heavy chop, she struck Wang Dalin on the back of his neck, stopping him completely.

“What’s wrong with him?” Xiao Lin asked as he walked over.

Yu Mei glared at him and snapped in a low voice. “You brat, I finally got the opportunity to come here to have some fun, but you had to meddle and ruin it!”

Xiao Lin’s put on an innocent face. “That has nothing to do with me.”

Yu Mei wanted to say more but decided not to continue, as there were a lot of discussions all around. She waved her hands, and said loudly, “What are you all looking at! Don’t you know class is still going on? These two students demonstrated textbook dueling between melee fighters and spellcasters. Now, start practicing!”

The crowd finally dispersed as they watched Yu Mei carrying the unconscious Wang Dalin in one arm, walking out the classroom with Xiao Lin. For the subsequent portion of the lesson that was essentially open duels, she simply handed the responsibility of maintaining order over to the monitors.

Yu Mei made her way to the student union. Although she was a legion commander, according to Dawn Academy’s management mechanisms, she had no right to supervise students. Obviously, the student union had to get involved with this matter, and Xiao Lin as a party would naturally need to follow.

On the way to the student union, Yu Mei’s face locked into a frown made Xiao Lin realize that things were not as simple as he thought. He was getting more confused and he thought about it for a while before probing, “This Wang Dalin probably bears hatred against me. Umm, it was when school started. I thought he didn’t care anymore, and I didn’t expect this guy to hold such a grudge. Earlier, he was coming at me with fatal moves, but good thing I’m not a pushover.”

Yu Mei did not know whether to laugh or cry and said, “Whatever animosity between you two isn’t important. Even if he really killed you, it’s just some life points. I know you’re quite wealthy. Are you that afraid to lose a little money? This… uhh, what was his name again?”

“Wang Dalin.” Xiao Lin glanced at Wang Dalin, who was being carried by Yu Mei. He was still unconscious while foaming in the mouth and convulsing from time to time.

“Well, what is Wang Dalin’s usual strength like? I mean compared to the battle just now.”

“The difference is huge. His power has been raised significantly, the most obvious one was his speed. His speed was very scary.” Xiao Lin looked a little frustrated.

“You are a monitor, and you have access to check his attribute points. Do you think that, judging by his attribute points, his sudden explosive power is normal?”

“I haven’t checked for over two weeks, but I don’t believe that he can grow that much in a mere two weeks’ time.”

“That’s it.” Yu Mei finally released a heavy sigh. “This guy had violated the academy’s biggest taboo.”

“You know how he is able to achieve such explosive strength and speed?”

Seeing Xiao Lin’s glimmering eyes, Yu Mei immediately stopped and said, “Don’t even think about it. I said this is a taboo of the academy. If you want to stay in Dawn Academy, don’t think about it. Moreover, it’s not good for your health.”

“Can you stop playing hard to get?”

Yu Mei did not seem to be playing hard to get; she was truly being hesitant. In the end, she still waved her hand, and said bitterly, “Fine, I don’t see any harm in telling you. At your rank, you’ll find out sooner or later anyway. Have you heard about forbidden techniques?”