Seeing Pale running toward his side of the battlefield made Cassian a bit worried, as he didn’t know what that meant. He could see Grayson coming up behind, but it didn’t change the fact that Grayson was slower than Pale, and it didn’t help that his weapon of choice just happened to be a massive warhammer which made his speed more slower than normal.

At that moment, Cassian was really contemplating which direction he was supposed to point his weapons at, he thought about just focusing on Knight but then again Pale could be trouble if he left him unattended to.

“You ready?” Pale asked, turning to look at Knight, who was about to dash out to meet him halfway.

“Yea,” Knight replied with a straight face.

“Then give me a lift on your way,” Pale said, just as Knight finally dashed out, as their bodies passed each other, Knight pressed his left hand, which is coated in a brown-colored hue—down onto the ground.

In response to this motion of his, a small earthen pillar shot up from beneath Pale’s feet, launching him into the air, However; Knight didn’t stop there, he carried on forward, forming a series of hand signs, and by the time he reached a certain range, Grayson had already raised his warhammer high with both hands, tilting it to his left before swinging down with incredible force, like he was trying to swat Knight off the arena.

But that didn’t happen, as Knight ducked under the swing just in time before the warhammer could reach him, even going as far as slapping his right hand onto the ground as a black rune lit up where his palm made contact.

[> Mid Tier Spell – Shadow Bindings <]

The dark runes spread out with him at the center, almost like they were forming some kind of locking array. Grayson might not know what the spell did, but he didn’t like it one bit, he tightened his grip and reversed his swing, trying to slam Knight away.

This time, Knight couldn’t evade in time, so he raised his left hand as dark smoke materialised, and when it faded, he was already holding his short sword, which is part of his spirit equipment set, as he gripped the blade in a reverse motion as he tried to block the attack.

But there was no way he could completely stop such a blow with a weapon like that which put him in a power disadvantage, and also his strength simply wasn’t overwhelming enough that it surpassed Grayson’s own.

Bang!

The hammer slammed into him and sent him flying backward, as his left arm twisted at an awkward angle like it was broken. Knight only let out a muffled groan as he stretched out his right hand in a grabbing motion while still in mid air.

“Lock.”

That was all Knight said, and even Grayson, who had been trying to escape the range of the dark runes, finally realised his speed was getting slower with every step he took.

From the edges of the rune circle, shadow chains shot up from the ground, they were clearly anchored to the spots they rose from, moving through the air with an uncanny, snakelike pattern until they coiled tightly around Grayson.

“Arrrg!”

The moment they wrapped around him, he tried to break free by mustering more strength, but he was quick to realise that brute strength meant nothing against shadow chains, even though he had managed to snap a few of them loose, more still kept rising from the runes to replace them, and each new chain was now stronger than the last they replaced.

When he finally understood that it would take a miracle to break out of this shadow binding prison, he lifted his head, and what he saw made him gulp.

There were already several earthen rods floating around Knight, just levitating in the air, he had cast the earth spear spell, but since he wasn’t aiming to kill, he had toned it down. By making the tip where the blade should be completely blunt, with an extra layer of compressed earth, almost like he wanted the pain to sink in deeper.

“Release!”

Knight didn’t waste any more time, as he thrust his right hand forward, and the five earthen rods that had been hovering at his sides shot out with a whooshing sound, cutting through the air before slamming into their target—

One struck Grayson’s head, one his chest, one his stomach, and the last two drove straight into his knees.

Immediately, all the earth rods smashed into Grayson at once with the same brutal speed they’d been launched, his eyes rolled white from the sheer pain he felt, and he passed out on the spot.

Not long after, Knight turned toward the fight between Cassian and Pale, and what he saw left him stunned.

Unlike him, Pale had no trouble dealing with Cassian, and that was because Pale was the perfect counter to him, just like Knight had been the perfect counter to Grayson.

Pale didn’t struggle against Cassian’s bullets. If anything, he had more firepower than Cassian, making it hard for the gunslinger to get a proper aim on him, after Knight had launched Pale into the air, Pale twisted mid-air, gathering ice elemental particles around himself and forming hundreds of ice spikes.

Seeing this, Cassian, who had been about to pull the trigger, immediately turned tail and tried to run, but it was too late. Pale thrust his hand forward and unleashed the Ice spike barrage, and for a few seconds, that section of the battle ring was completely covered in ice.

Though Cassian wasn’t heavily injured by the small spikes, but they left him stiff and sluggish since he had been hit by many of them, and he also was swift to notice that his hands felt much heavier, and when he looked down he saw black ice patches were clinging tightly to his forearms and wrists.

Pale had cleverly hidden a few of his black ice shards among the barrage of normal ice spikes, planning from the start to cripple Cassian’s casting ability, with that one step complete he had targeted two things as Cassian using mana would make the black ice grow more and Cassian feel his hand getting heavier and even if he doesn’t use mana he still couldn’t lift his hands like he used too, the rest of the battle for Pale turned easy from this moment.

Cassian was a magical gunslinger, and his path required mana to activate most of his powerful skills, though he could fire Echo and Reigns without mana, however right now his hands felt like they weighed a ton, so heavy he couldn’t even raise them to aim.

Pale landed smoothly, sliding across the frozen ground like he was walking on it with his right hand fully encased in ice like a gauntlet, and when he reached Cassian, he slammed his frozen fist straight into his gut, sending him flying out of the battle ring.

It was then he turned and saw Knight staring back at him. Pale gave him a small wave, and as things stood, as of this moment the War God Mage Academy still had four members on the field, while the Argent Guild was down to three.

And from the eyes of everyone watching, it was clear which sid

e the advantage was tilting toward.