With every spell Endrick tried to cast, Liang made sure to freeze it over, not only slowing the growth of the plants and sometimes, with enough ice power, he was able to put them into a full hibernation state which rendered them useless before the spell could fully materialize.

This gradually turned the battle into more of a hand-to-hand confrontation, which seems to be exactly what Liang had been aiming for, in some ways, the mages of Silent Night seemed very confident in close combat, but against Endrick it didn’t go quite as Liang expected.

After cutting off his ability to freely grow plants, Endrick simply switched tactics, as he drew his spirit weapon in its crossbow form and began firing bolts at Liang while steadily increasing the distance between them.

For a mage like Liang, though that wasn’t much fun, but ninjas of Silent Night never complained about ranged skirmishes.

As he too pulled out several shurikens and hurled them toward the incoming bolts, altering their direction by deflecting them just enough for him to close the gap during such period.

By the time he reached striking distance, Liang swung his daggers in a flurry, aiming to pierce Endrick’s guard.

However it seems Endrick was ready for him as he had already shifted his weapon into its bow form, with its edges lined with razor-sharp blades, and using the bow like a makeshift staff, he blocked the daggers with his left hand while countering occasionally with a short blade in his right.

It was a tense deadlock, parrying a proficient ninja’s relentless strikes with one hand while keeping the other free for opportunistic jabs.

After two minutes of this stalemate, realizing they were evenly matched, Liang decided to go all out, as he shoved back hard during one clash, creating space, and began channeling his ice mana and his Qi energy for a decisive final move to end Endrick.

But as he gathered power, Endrick did the same, funneling his mana into one last plant spell, one he believed potent enough to overwhelm any ice that might try to halt it, but neither of them had considered that clashing at such close range, without either side holding a clear advantage, was a terrible idea.

When they finally unleashed their attacks, one side of the battle ring was dyed green while the other turned icy white.

Neither managed to overpower the other, the colliding energies eventually exploded outward, blasting both mages off the ring.

Now only Takeda remained on the School of Silent Night’s side, while the War God Mage Team still had Katie, Lucas, and Beatrice who had still not made a single move since the battle started.

Even though only one opponent was left, the War God team didn’t relax.

If anything, they became quieter, more focused, fully aware of what they were about to face.

Though they hadn’t been present when Takeda first revealed what made many mages currently view him as the most terrifying mage present in the tournament, but Agnes had provided them with detailed reports of his battle style, and the Dean had even obtained a costly crystal recording of Takeda’s last battle.

In fact, he had bragged a lot about how much it had cost him to obtain it, so they had to make sure they didn’t just go out there and lose woefully after all that effort.

After studying it, they understood just how dangerous Takeda truly was, that was why they weren’t offended by the crowd rooting against them, because even them knew exactly what they were up against.

“Let’s get this over with, all of you just come at me,” the clone body Takeda said, curling his fingers in a casual beckoning gesture, which provoked Katie as she was aware that he is just a clone.

Lucas on the other hand didn’t waste time, as his body twitched once, and in the next instant he was already in front of Takeda, glaive thrust forward in a sharp, one-handed strike.

He thrust it low, as if trying to shove Takeda off the battle stage, but Takeda simply raised his left hand in a high guard to block.

Clang!

The sound of the glaive blade scraping across the surface of his hand guard rang out, yet he kept his composure, closing the distance, he shot out his right arm instead, driving his elbow toward Lucas’ chin.

But Lucas didn’t budge, as there was already Qi energy lingered there as if he had anticipated the strike.

At such close range, Lucas released his glaive, grabbed Takeda’s head, and slammed his forehead into his, which caused Takeda to stagger backward before Lucas seized his collar, twisted, and then released him, by flinging him toward the stands.

“Ouuuush!”

The crowd of mages waiting in the stands gasped, surprised at how easily Lucas seemed to have handled Takeda.

However, before Takeda’s body could crash into the invisible barrier shielding the spectators, something unexpected happened.

A wind door appeared in the middle of the arena and swung open, and unlike the last time, when the other Takeda bodies had taken their time emerging, a long chain-like weapon shot out immediately toward the clone representing Takeda.

It coiled around him and dragged him back.

Beatrice, who hadn’t made a single move until now, finally acted, as she formed several hand signs, a massive flaming pattern materializing before her.

In a split second, her flaming mage puppet emerged, hurling its sword toward the wind door, but she wasn’t done yet, as another set of seals appeared before her, summoning two more puppets — one wooden, the other clearly resembling a demonic beast.

But before they could fully emerge, the flaming sword reached the wind door, at that exact moment, the bulky figure the crowd had come to call Earth Takeda stepped out and immediately swung his greatsword.

Bang!

Flames erupted as Earth Takeda blocked the incoming sword, the weapon seemingly detonated by the flaming puppet mage.

When the flames finally cleared, four Takedas stood on the battle stage.

There was the one dragged back onto the stage with a kusarigama, then the ones the crowd had come to call Wind Takeda and Earth Takeda, lastly there was a new Takeda there too and he was wielding the kusarigama, he is a new variant they haven’t seen with his abilities still unclear to everyone watching.

Immediately, the newly appeared Takeda stepped forward, placing his foot on the neck of the fourth Takeda — the clone body — and pressed down.

Since he had dragged him back with his weapon earlier, the clone had already been forced to the ground, and now, apparently no longer needed, the new Takeda simply crushed it beneath his foot.

Causing the clone body to dissolve into fleeting colors that drifted into the air before vanishing completely.

“Now that the lesser distraction is out, you have us,” Wind Takeda said, spreading his hands casually.

“And I have to admit, you’ve really piqued our interest. What do you say... three versus three?”