Close Combat Mage Chapter 176

As some of you may know, this week (and half of next week) are finals weeks for me. I have been extremely busy, and haven’t really had the time to edit or translate. You will still get 3 chapters this week, but it is very likely that the other chapters will be posted near the end of the week, after I’ve finished my exams.

Edit: Thanks to Jafz from Gravity, there is now a compiled list of the chapter titles, which you can find ! The link has also been posted on the index page. 

Translated by: Taffy

Edited by: Lurker, Hakubruh, Comfortabull

Chapter 176 – The Pinnacle Showdown Pt. 2

Excitedly looking at Suo Jia, Duo Mei confidently waved the long blade in her hand and loudly asked, “Young Master, can I use the spear and the four colored potions? If not, I’m fine as well.”

In response to Duo Mei’s question, Suo Jia darkly smiled and said, “This is a battle, not a friendly competition. We only have one goal: to obtain victory over our opponent using any methods, despicable or evil…as long as we can defeat our opponent, we can use anything. There aren’t any taboos at all. Just come at me!”

Aimi and Aila couldn’t help but sharply inhale at Suo Jia’s words. They really couldn’t understand why the Young Master had decided on such ruthless rules. Everyone was close friends, so why do this?

However, the 36 Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes couldn’t help but sigh in admiration when they heard Suo Jia’s words. If it were before, they probably would’ve reacted the same way as Aimi and Aila, naive enough to think that such cruelness shouldn’t be allowed. However, after the past 10 months of bloodshed, they understood that Young Master’s method was the smartest way. The winner was the just king, and the loser was the foe. As long as the enemy was defeated, it was righteous!

Duo Mei slowly lifted the war blade in her hand and tightly grasped the blade’s hilt. Although she was completely confident that she could defeat Suo Jia, as a proper warrior, she had to maintain her mentality of needing to defeat her enemy until the battle ended. With this mentality, she’d be able to focus all her energy into achieving victory. This was a warrior’s greatest asset!

At the same time, Suo Jia’s expression had grown heavier. Although…in terms of attacking and evading, Suo Jia wasn’t afraid of his opponent, Suo Jia knew that his defense was extremely lacking. He didn’t have that type of peerless armor! Once he was hit, he would most likely lose.

In terms of attack, support, and recovery, Suo Jia believed that he had already reached equivalent realms compared to Duo Mei. However, in terms of defense, he was still inferior. Although he had the Glacial Armor, it was only effective as a defense at long range. It wasn’t very useful against powerful, explosive attacks at close range. This was also why mages were so afraid of close combat.

In addition, truthfully speaking, Suo Jia didn’t actually like the Glacial Armor. While it protected Suo Jia’s body, its chilly air also froze him. Wearing the armor was equivalent to Suo Jia freezing himself. Magic didn’t differentiate friend from foe.

If one wanted the Glacial Armor to be harder and sturdier, the temperature had to be lowered. Moreover, since it was worn on the body, the Glacial Armor’s extremely low temperatures would have the same invasive attacks on the user’s body as the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes’ fire wind battle qi damaged their skin.

After a while, Suo Jia came to a decision. He decided it was best to put some distance between them to prevent close combat. If the opponent activated Thousand Feathers, he’d use the Space Shield to block. Suo Jia had tested the interspatial ring before, and was able to materialize 10,000 Space Shields in succession without a problem. It was evident that the interspatial ring could release infinite Space Shields with the help of the crystal stone.

It was fortunate that the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenix’s Thousand Wings wasn’t invincible. Although it was extremely fast, and very explosive, it required a certain amount of time to store up energy for it, around 3 seconds. Thus, it wasn’t impossible to detect, and one couldn’t hide its presence from the opponent. It mainly depended on how accurately the other party could shoot it, and whether or not they could dodge.

At the moment, Suo Jia had the limitless Space Shields, as well as the four colored potions. That’s why…the Thousand Feathers wouldn’t have that much of an effect on Suo Jia. What he really needed to worry about was his opponent gaining on him until the attacks became close range. With the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenix’s speed, a single mishap would result in a struggling fight, and end in a loss before he realized what had even happened.

Suo Jia slowly raised his right hand. With the support of the four great auxiliary magics, an ice strip about the size of a chopstick whizzed out once more. A line of blue light instantly connected the space between the two people.

“Chi…Tang!” The Ice Arrow was accurately blocked by Duo Mei’s blade, the sound resonating powerfully through the air. The war blade in Duo Mei’s hand, as well as the surface of her armor, quickly began to condense into large pieces of ice!

Seeing this, Duo Mei couldn’t help but start. She soon realized that although she had managed to slice the Mysterious Ice Arrow, her attack had released its freezing air, which had begun to freeze her body and the war blade in her hand. If she didn’t react soon, she’d become an ice cube!

Not daring to tarry any longer, Duo Mei wildly raised her battle qi. Her entire body flashed with a red glow, dispersing all of the icy mist surrounding her. However…before she could even take a breath, a second ice arrow instantly crashed into her armor-plated chest. The powerful momentum fiercely blasted Duo Mei down into the ground, dragging her backwards until she had formed another meters long scar in the ground!

“That…” Faced with the powerful Suo Jia, the girls couldn’t help but stare blankly. Although in terms of speed, the ice arrow couldn’t be compared to their Thousand Plumes, it wasn’t that much more inferior. At the most, shooting at a distance of 100 meters meant it was pretty much undodgeable. Its speed was too fast, it practically hit its target the same time it was released.

“Tch…” Miserably crawling back up from the ground, Duo Mei finally focused her concentration. She faced Suo Jia, who was slowly stretching his right hand towards her, Duo Mei abruptly spread her arms. With a shout, blazing flames ignited and leapt into the air. Duo Mei stood amidst the whooshing of the fire and wind, much like a goddess of battle.

“Hehe…” Duo Mei smiled and proudly declared, “Young Master, this is the Fire Phoenix Necklace’s strongest battle skill: Fire Phoenix Protection. With this shield, nobody can freeze me!”

Faced against an abnormal existence that could control both water and ice elemental mages, Suo Jia couldn’t help but sigh in relief. Fortunately…such a mighty treasure hadn’t been given to anyone else. Otherwise, if Suo Jia ever encountered it, he would’ve regretted his decision to death.

Suo Jia tentatively shot out another ice arrow. Against Suo Jia’s attack, Duo Mei didn’t dodge. Instead, she swept her war blade through the air, and accurately blocked the ice arrow as Suo Jia watched carefully. As expected…the ice arrow’s freezing air was instantly swallowed by the flames rising from Duo Mei’s body. It hadn’t given rise to any freezing effects at all.

Suo Jia furrowed his brows. He knew that at the moment, the Ice Arrow Technique could only be used as distraction now. Wanting to rely on it to defeat Duo Mei could only be a delusion.

In reality, the Fire Phoenix Protection greatly consumed battle qi. However, Duo Mei had the four colored potions, so her battle qi was essentially limitless; she wasn’t afraid of the consumption at all. Thus, Suo Jia could only get rid of his plans on winning with the Mysterious Ice Arrow.

Duo Mei abruptly reached her hand down to her waist, and a red gold spear appeared in her hand. Battle qi wildly gathered there…and then Duo Mei fiercely swung it, activating a full strength Thousand Feathers!

Faced against the Thousand Feathers attack, Suo Jia really wanted to resist with the Mysterious Ice Arrow. However, this would be extremely difficult. Putting aside the extreme speed of the Thousand Feathers, simply making two chopstick-sized attacks collide with each other midair wasn’t something either Suo Jia or Duo Mei could achieve.

Suo Jia stretched out a hand, and calmly opened the Space Shield. Moments later…the red gold Thousand Feathers silently disappeared without a trace. All of the Angelic Six-Winged Phoenixes were shocked into a daze at the sight.

Duo Mei looked at Suo Jia suspiciously, and didn’t continue to attack. Instead, she asked in confusion, “Young Master, the Space Shield can indeed block my Thousand Feathers, but it can only block three times, and I have 36 spears!”

“Hehe…” Suo Jia smiled and scratched his head in embarrassment, “I always forgot to tell you all, but my interspatial ring is different from yours. Mine can release Space Shields infinitely!”

Ah!

At Suo Jia’s words, Duo Mei was first stunned, but she then violently shook her head, “You can’t do that, you’re really shameless! How can you fight that way? You’re being too ridiculous! There’s no way I can obtain victory!”

Calmly looking at Duo Mei, Suo Jia shook his head and said, “No, how can that be invincible? You can’t forget, the Space Shield requires a moment. As long as you pull apart the distance between us and use your extremely fast frequency of activating attacks, I won’t have the time to activate my Space Shields. That’s why…mages are afraid of close combat!”

All of the girls’ eyes couldn’t help but light up after hearing these words. That’s right…although the Space Shield was unrivaled, they didn’t have to make that their target. As long as they could get closer, their attack speed and frequency would make it impossible for Suo Jia to block, even with the Space Shields!

Duo Mei laughed at the thought. Her body suddenly leapt over without a warning, and she first used her blade to slice up all the Mysterious Ice Arrows Suo Jia had activated. Soon after, she wildly sliced at the floating Suo Jia, much like a bullet!

Chapter end