Chapter 2745 Shadow Concealment <TOC> Chapter 2747 Layout
Translator: SumTLMan
Kael voiced his own conjecture.
「Not a bad analysis. 」Daus offered a word of praise, but the very next second he switched his tone:「However, after-the-fact analysis is still a step too slow. Battle changes in an instant, who has that much time to sit and think things through? So, you’re still a long way off!」
After first lifting Kael up only to cut him down, Daus finally answered Kael’s question.
「Your guess isn’t wrong. When Vai summoned the stone pillar, it was indeed a small mistake. He didn’t consider that his shadow had already joined with the pillar, which gave Ghost Shadow an opening. 」
Daus:「But you did get one point wrong. Ghost Shadow didn’t meddle in Vai’s shadow ‘multiple’ times, he actually did only one thing. 」
Kael looked at Daus, waiting for him to reveal the answer.
However, Daus paused at this point and looked to Angel instead.
Angel:「Mother Mycelium. 」
Daus turned back to Kael:「That’s right, Mother Mycelium. 」
Kael: …Did you look over to the Super Dimensional Lord because you didn’t actually know?
Kael’s doubtful gaze made Daus a touch uncomfortable. He turned his head aside to avoid Kael’s eyes and gave a light cough:「The name isn’t what matters. What matters is knowing the effect. 」
「Mother Mycelium can attract the split-off mycelial strands. You saw it: why did the fungal fog expand so fast, and why could it blanket Vai no matter where he went? It’s precisely because Mother Mycelium was planted in his shadow. 」
Trying to evade the fungal fog by darting around the arena at high speed actually caused the fog to expand faster.
As for why Vai was now lost inside the fog, it was because wherever he went, the fog overhead could never be shaken off. Even if there were areas of the arena that hadn’t yet been covered, the fog would spread in advance even if Vai found them. So long as the Mother remained in Vai’s shadow, he would keep losing his bearings on the platform.
Daus:「Besides drawing mycelial strands, the Mother Mycelium should also be subject to Ghost Shadow’s control. 」
Earlier, when Vai suddenly coughed blood atop the stone pillar and interrupted the casting of Earth Cocoon, it should have been Ghost Shadow influencing Vai through the Mother Mycelium.
「However, Ghost Shadow’s degree of influence over the Mother Mycelium shouldn’t be too deep. Otherwise he could have already won by relying on it, instead of what we’re seeing now, unceasing harassment attacks and a war of attrition. 」
「Think about it: how could the fungal fog possibly be completely controlled by a mere lowly apprentice like Ghost Shadow? This is likely a means granted to them by a formal wizard. 」
Kael:「My lord means, given to him by Shrew or Gray Merchant?」
Daus shook his head:「Judging by how skilled Ghost Shadow is in applying the fog, this wasn’t his first time playing this way. He likely obtained the Mother Mycelium earlier. As for who gave it to him, that’s uncertain. 」
Though Daus put it like this, Kael was still indignant:「To resort to such tactics, shameless. 」
While Kael fumed, Daus gave him a strange look:「If my memory isn’t muddled, you’ve got an out-of-bounds tactic on you as well. And yours seems even more…」
Daus didn’t finish the sentence; after all, Kael was on their side, no need to go too far.
Kael’s eyes drifted; the resonance in his nasal cavity buzzed for a while before he muttered under his breath:「That’s not the same. 」
As for how it wasn’t the same? Kael couldn’t say; otherwise he wouldn’t have sounded so lacking in confidence.
Daus didn’t pursue the topic further; go on, and he’d be undercutting his own team.
「Now it depends on whether Vai can locate the Mother Mycelium. 」Daus paused, glanced toward the arena that was nearly ninety percent shrouded in mist, and added:「But even if he finds it, I’m afraid it’ll still be hard. 」
Kael:「Is there no chance at all?」
「At the moment, I can’t see any opportunity. 」After saying this, Daus deliberately looked at the Black Count, to see if he would prepare any「asymmetric」tactic for Vai.
However, the Black Count, as before, showed no reaction whatsoever, like he hadn’t heard their conversation at all.
Murmuring a few puzzled lines to himself, Daus moved to Angel’s side and asked:「What do you think?」
Angel:「There’s still a chance. 」
Hearing Angel’s words, Kael’s eyes lit up; he looked to Angel with hopeful expectation. Daus, however, frowned:「Where do you see a chance?」
Angel didn’t answer, he only shot Daus a look laden with meaning.
That look filled Daus’ heart with a thicket of doubts. Coupled with the Black Count’s silence, could it be… there really was something he had missed, and Vai still had a shot at victory?
At that thought, Daus stopped thinking about anything else and fixed his gaze back on the arena.
On the other side, Angel also appeared to be watching the duel, but what filled his mind was… if Kael were to face Ghost Shadow, and the remaining three apprentices, did he have any direct route to victory?
Yes, Angel didn’t actually believe, in his heart, that Vai could win.
As Daus had said, Vai was beset by difficulties. Even finding the Mother Mycelium wouldn’t help. His only way forward now was to ignore these interfering factors and focus his whole mind on dealing with Ghost Shadow. Yet in fog where shadows were everywhere, this was Ghost Shadow’s home ground. For Vai to defeat him on his home turf would be very, very hard.
The reason Angel told Daus「there’s still a chance」was because the Black Count hadn’t spoken.
By the Black Count’s previous habits, when Daus and Kael were discussing things, he would certainly offer his own views. But now he said nothing at all. While Angel didn’t dare assert this necessarily related to Vai’s victory, he still held back his own judgment.
Moreover,「there’s still a chance」was, in fact, ambiguous. A chance doesn’t mean a win; and Angel hadn’t specified who the subject was. He could fully explain it as the apprentice bout still having a chance, rather than Vai personally still having a chance.
In any case, the right to interpret rested with him, and he hadn’t nailed anything down.
As for that meaningful glance he tossed Daus… a little acting, is that so wrong?
Isn’t that basic wizardry?
Back at Pat Manor, Angel often saw White Bear savoring a certain book. Its title was 《The Wizard’s Self-Cultivation》, which detailed the basic cultivation and qualities a wizard should possess. To Angel, it felt more like 《The Actor’s Self-Cultivation》 or 《The Birth of a Charlatan》, but he had to admit: after White Bear studied it, whenever he put on the air, he really did have the flavor of a「prophecy wizard. 」
Angel had scorned it at the time, but later found that when you can’t explain certain matters, or when you can’t give an answer, putting on a little depth often lets you coast by.
This had already been proven when he served as a judge at the Novastar Competition. When those guest judges, just like him, were critiquing contestants and predicting winners, all Angel needed was a cryptic expression to waft the topic past: no wasted words, no extra explanations.
The same applied now. Angel truly couldn’t explain where Vai still had a chance, so he’d act a bit.
Of course, such「acting」can’t be done too often. Once others fix you with a label, the act stops working. Fortunately, Daus’ label for Angel was more「bright on the surface, sly inside」, a ways off from「poseur. 」So, he could still act.
Since he held out little hope for Vai, Angel naturally placed his hopes for the apprentice duel on Kael.
He wouldn’t be like the Black Count, still testing his own descendant at a time like this.
One way or another, Kael was the convener of this expedition. He wanted to go deeper; Angel would naturally assist with all his strength.
Given the current state of the fight, once Vai lost, Kael would very likely go up in consecutive bouts against the four apprentices opposite.
The one who looked most mysterious on the other side should be Shepherd, a wind rhythm school apprentice. Yet Shepherd was also the one Angel worried about the least, because Angel intended to let Speedling accompany Kael into the arena.
Of course, in Daus’ eyes, such an out-of-bounds tactic was rather shameless.
What formal wizard lends his own elemental companion to someone else as an out-of-bounds tactic? If you did that, couldn’t Shrew and Gray Merchant also assign their elemental companions down to other apprentices?
Although Daus had misunderstood Speedling as Angel’s elemental companion, the rest of his thinking was normal.
Naturally, Angel wouldn’t be so blatant. He was an alchemist; nothing on him was more abundant than alchemy materials and semi-finished items. All he needed was to build Speedling a shell and inscribe runes that resist probing to conceal its identity.
Furthermore, while an elemental companion in battle shares a mental connection with its master, Speedling wasn’t Angel’s elemental companion, at most a subordinate. It had autonomy, and even in battle, there was no fear of exposing a tie to Angel.
With Speedling’s support, Kael should be able to defeat Shepherd.
Of the remaining three, Pink Jasmine would be easier to deal with. She was an illusion school apprentice; as a wizard of the illusion school, Angel had plenty of tools to break and counter illusions. As long as Kael wasn’t blinded by them, he could win with Speedling’s aid, or even on his own strength.
Mammoth was a bloodline wizard, which was a bit more troublesome. Still, a bloodline wizard in the apprentice phase isn’t impossible to handle. Kael was a space school apprentice; perhaps what his mentor left behind could help him.
And finally, Ghost Shadow.
Though Kael had said many times that if he’d gone first the situation might be different, Angel felt he was overly optimistic. Ghost Shadow could certainly fight a long game, but that didn’t mean he lacked methods for a short, explosive burst.
Also, the shadow school boasts the strongest damage-avoidance ability; Kael wouldn’t actually hold a clear advantage against it.
With the out-of-bounds aids Angel could provide, Kael should still be able to win, but it could be grueling.
Was there a way to let Kael win easily?
Pondering, Angel’s gaze drifted slowly to the shadow on the ground… Eremy.
He wasn’t planning to send Eremy into the fight; rather, he suddenly remembered something. He still had a Shadow Demon on hand, previously turned over to Eremy for training, perhaps the Shadow Demon could enter the field?
Just as Angel was about to speak with Eremy to see whether the Shadow Demon was fit for use, the Sovereign of Wisdom’s voice suddenly sounded at his ear.
It wasn’t the Sovereign of Wisdom’s private transmission, but a public announcement of the duel’s result.
Angel looked up on instinct.
He had already prepared himself for Vai’s defeat, but when his eyes fell upon the arena, he realized with a jolt… only one person stood there: Vai!
Beside Vai, a massive earth spike had run straight through Ghost Shadow’s abdomen, hoisting him high.
Drip, drip, blood pattered from the spike, proving that Ghost Shadow was the true body, not a shadow.
The victor of this duel… Vai?!
A flicker of astonishment flashed through Angel’s eyes, but he quickly suppressed it.
He had just been thinking about how Kael might win and hadn’t been focused on Vai’s bout. How did Vai win? How had he turned disadvantage into advantage?
With questions in mind, Angel began to comb through his memory.
Although he had been thinking of other matters, his eyes had never left the arena; by lightly recalling surface memory, he could review what had happened.
As the images flickered past like a montage, Angel finally saw the process of Vai’s earlier fight.
…
Time rewound to three minutes earlier.
The stone skin covering Vai had grown mottled and battered; cracks ran through almost half of it. Fresh blood seeped ceaselessly from the fissures.
At this moment, there was scarcely an uninjured place left on Vai’s body.
Moreover, at the split lines across his back, wisps of white fluff had begun to sprout, these tufts were the buttons born of the fungal fog’s invasion.
These mycelial buttons took Vai’s body as a cradle and his blood and magic as nourishment. In a short time, they had begun to spread wildly.
If a block wasn’t imposed quickly, these wispy mycelial buttons would proliferate without restraint until they had sucked every drop of flesh and blood from Vai.
The only consolation was that this fungal fog, unlike those strains cultivated by Mademoiselle Goldilocks, had not invaded the Mental Space and the Land of the Soul. So even if all flesh were lost, there would still be a sliver of life left to Vai.
Vai’s condition was poor: not only bleeding and sprouting growths, but also dizzy and reeling, his steps staggering.
He had stopped resisting the mycelial filaments in the fog and drifted about like a zombie.
His actions looked disorderly, but from his repeated pushes back one could basically guess what he intended next.
At this point Vai must have decided to stake everything, not to seek safe zones anymore, but to go straight for Ghost Shadow.
Just as Angel had guessed: if he could seize a single chance, he might change the fight.
Only, what the outsiders could read, Ghost Shadow within the fray could read as well.
Thus Ghost Shadow had ceased his sneak attacks and instead pulled away from Vai.
In the fog, Ghost Shadow came and went as he pleased and could sense Vai’s position. Not wanting to be found by Vai, he made sure that even if he was found, Vai would be helpless.
Now, he only needed to wait for the mushrooms to spread and victory would be his with ease.
The farther off-track Vai wandered, the farther Ghost Shadow withdrew, with no intention of drawing near.
But then Ghost Shadow’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Vai had started popping potions!
Before, with Ghost Shadow’s intermittent attacks, Vai hadn’t had time to leverage his pay-to-win power. But now that Ghost Shadow wasn’t striking, Vai had leisure to down potions.
Ghost Shadow watched as Vai chugged potions to heal while yanking the fluffy growths off his skin.
Though this couldn’t halt the buttons’ expansion, the potions were remarkably effective. Even if they couldn’t purge the buttons directly, they established a perfect equilibrium with them.
In that equilibrium, Vai could basically reach his normal fighting level.
The cost was tremendous, but Vai could still bear it.
Seeing Vai’s state improve, a trace of irritation rose in Ghost Shadow’s heart. Even so, he restrained the impulse and didn’t resume shadow attacks.
If he kept dragging things out, Ghost Shadow would lose nothing, whereas Vai’s potions would, sooner or later, run dry.
This was Ghost Shadow’s present plan: hold position and wait.
But soon, that plan changed.
Because Vai walked into a dead end himself……