During the time he invoked two arcane skills in succession, Moss had already rushed near Makkany.

In this instant, Makkany didn’t even pay attention to his attacks. He didn’t even use any arcane skill, his body merely flashed away, and Moss’ successive punches simply fell into empty air again and again.

"Too slow. It’s impossible for attacks like these to hit me."

Dodging away as if amusing himself, Makkany also derided Moss at the same time.

"Hm?"

However, his expression changed just at this moment. Along with a gust of yellow dust, his body flew backward.

An Evil Flaming Eye and a snake-like shadow separately brushed against his waist and his soles before sweeping past.

"Boom!"

Just at this moment, a gap over a meter wide appeared in the cage of vines along with the belch of flames. Ciaran’s figure flashed out, standing beside Ayrin.

"Your hands are ruined right now, but it seems I still can’t show the slightest carelessness," Makkany said with a slight smile, glancing over Ayrin and Ciaran.

"Ayrin, how are you?" Moss shouted.

Thin needles were stuck into Ayrin’s entire back. His face was totally twisted in pain.

"It really hurts!"

Ayrin clenched his teeth and shouted, "Teacher Ciaran, what goddamn things are these, how can I pull them out?"

Without waiting for Ciaran’s answer, Makkany said to Ayrin, his gaze sympathetic, "It’s too bad, these thin needles are ‘Painful Groan’ seeds. They already grew roots once stuck inside your body. Those roots are too tiny, they would get stuck inside if you pulled them out one by one. You can’t get rid of this pain within several hours. That said, this arcane skill only has the power to make the opponent crumble from pain. The body will slowly erode these roots by itself. I didn’t expect you to resist this pain and forcibly invoke an arcane skill."

While he was talking, a green vine grew very quickly beside him. In a flash, it grew over a dozen meters tall and as thick as his waist, like a huge tree.

"You can only bear with it. The reason why this plant is called ‘Painful Groan’ is that even an unconscious person would be awakened by the pain. But fortunately, it’s only pain. I’m confident you can definitely withstand it," Ciaran told Ayrin. Finally, she used a voice only she and Ayrin could hear and said, "Holy Body Ignition… With the stimulation from pain like this, it’ll definitely increase Holy Body Ignition’s effectiveness."

"I absolutely have to withstand it!

"I have to stay clear-headed!"

Ayrin clenched his teeth so hard they made audible grinding noises.

This suffering had already exceeded the limits the body could bear, to the point his vision was already becoming hazy, while his thoughts were becoming quite a bit more sluggish than usual.

Makkany looked at Ciaran, Moss, and Ayrin. He proudly said, as if everything were under his control, "I’m about warmed up, it’s time for the decisive battle."

A green, bizarre light radiated from his entire body.

Rather than continue to grow upwards, the giant tree-like, more than a dozen meters tall vine suddenly shrank underground like a driving pile.

Under Ciaran’s, Moss’, and Ayrin’s feet, the ground overturned madly like billows. The gigantic vine drilled out from the soil, the sharp tip swelling violently.

"Swish!"

Several beams of arcane particles flowed out under Ciaran’s feet, immediately melting into four black ghostly shadows crashing against the vine.

"Boom!"

The giant vine exploded outward on its own accord. Turbulent gusts of air blew out, carrying with them a power difficult to imagine, while the exploding vine’s outer cuticle lashed out like whips, looking like the fan of a giant flower in the middle of its bloom.

The moment they crashed against it, Ciaran’s four black ghost-like shadows merged together and became a black sphere. It forcibly contained inside the most powerful gusts of air born from the implosion.

However, the formidable power caused the black ball to bounce back in her direction and crash into her body.

"Puff!"

Blood spurted out of her mouth. Her entire person flew out backward.

"Pa!" "Pa!"

At the same time, Ayrin and Moss couldn’t dodge the vine’s cuticle lashing out like giant whips. The impact whipped them away in the air.

"Now that the finger skill queen can’t use her hands, her strength’s indeed declined by more than half.

"It’s the end!"

Makkany spoke softly to himself, watching the three of them flying out from this attack. Wrapped in green light, he walked forward, his steps unhurried.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

Three persons fell heavily on the ground.

Ayrin didn’t move the slightest finger, as if he already fainted.

Ciaran forced herself to sit up, but standing seemed too difficult for her right now.

Only Moss bounced up from the ground. He roared madly, "Bastard! I definitely won’t let you harm teacher Ciaran and Ayrin!" Then he jumped like a small rocky hill. A golden light suddenly radiated from him, faintly becoming a huge halo of light.

"The secret skill of the giant nations in olden days, the Sacrificial Halo that makes the enemies perish together with you?"

"It’s only a pity that your level and mine are too far apart. Your skill invocation is like a snail compared to mine."

A shocked expression flashed but an instant across Makkany’s eyes. He shook his head, stretched out his right hand.

A green beam of light fell on Moss.

Many dozens of green vines thick as an arm appeared seemingly out of thin air and twined around Moss. Moss had jumped in the air only moments ago, but now the vines forcibly pulled him back on the ground.

These vines constricted rapidly. Not only they bound Moss’ hands and feet, two vines even bound his neck and tightened nonstop, to the point he couldn’t even breathe. His stone-like face started to turn purple!

Makkany no longer spared any glance for Moss. Moss was already a dead man for him.

He continued his slow walk in Ciaran’s direction.

The earth in front of him spread apart like water. A faintly magenta vine rose from the ground like a strange giant earthworm, quickly boring its way towards Ciaran.

"Any last words before you die?" Makkany asked with a faint satisfied smile, looking at Ciaran.

"You think that you can ensure victory just like that?"

Ciaran laughed grimly just at this moment.

Makkany suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of danger.

At the periphery of his vision, he saw a small blue rope tied around Ciaran’s right wrist. This small blue rope strangely attracted part of his attention, then he immediately saw that inside Ciaran’s sleeve, what this small blue rope was tied to looked to be like a very small wine cup.

In this split instant, Ciaran suddenly spat out crimson air from her mouth.

"Elemental Erosion! You actually learned this arcane skill!"

Makkany’s proud and complacent face instantly turned deathly white. Under the shock, even the hair on his whole body stood erect.

As if his body weren’t under his control anymore, arcane particles poured out from the bottom of his feet like torrents, without holding anything back. They transformed into yellow waves of dust and earth, and pushed him flying backward at a speed he could never reach in ordinary times.

When faced with the threat of imminent death, everyone would break out with their entire potential.

At the same time, Ciaran suddenly raised her hands that had always been hanging down until then, suddenly lifting both her palms.

"What!"

She hadn’t unleashed the terrifying arcane skill Makkany’s intuition had screamed at him. After losing momentum, the crimson breath dissipated into incomparably chaotic gusts of wind in front of Ciaran, blowing up her short hair and her red scarf.

And at the same moment, a black light flew out from under Makkany at a speed difficult to imagine.

"Puff!"

A deep wound slashed deep from Makkany’s belly all the way to his chin. Fresh blood gushed out from the wound.

"How did it turn out like this!"

At this instant, a hair away from being cut in two, Makkany didn’t even feel pain. He was brimming with a tremendous chill, a tremendous dread.

Ciaran looked at Makkany flying backward, blood gushing out of him. She said frostily, "You keep talking about the Holy Dawn Evil Six, did you actually forget my nickname from back then? Even if I can’t use finger skills, I’m not someone who’d be killed by an arcane master of your level."

Then she slowly stood up.

"Ambush Specialist Ciaran!

"Although she learned a taboo skill like Elemental Erosion, she only used it to give me a lethal threat. The real attack was instead the ‘Hell Sword’ trap she arranged beforehand!

"She already laid out the trap and had been waiting until now for a moment like this to launch it, until my state of mind is wholly intimidated by Elemental Erosion, until I use my whole strength to retreat and can’t do anything else!"

Makkany started to tremble violently. Recalling Ciaran’s nickname from former days, he immediately realized he made a huge mistake, a mistake he was going to pay with his life!

"You can actually ambush even at a time like this!"

"Let us die together then!"

Makkany fell into his final insanity. The moment he fell on the ground, the moment his feet touched the ground, he squeezed out every last arcane particle out of his hands. Beam after beam of arcane particles, as if lit on fire, stretched out several meters in the air.

"Hatred - Final Combustion!"

One after another, scarlet vines drilled out from the ground around Ciaran, instantly radiating startling heat, becoming strip after strip of terrifying flames quickly gathering together.

"At the very least, they’re going to survive."

Such a thought appeared in Ciaran’s mind at this moment.

She wasn’t entirely certain she could block Makkany’s final crazed attack.

"Holy Body Ignition!"

"Fire Embers!"

But just at this instant, she heard a fierce roar.

Surprised, astounded, she turned her head around. At this most critical juncture, she couldn’t help but faintly freeze.

She saw Ayrin who’d been "passed out dead" until now jump up with an explosiveness hard to imagine and flash in front of her.

Countless arcane particles fluttered around Ayrin, becoming flames dancing madly in the wind like autumn leaves. Embers appeared in the air, the aftermath of combustion.

Those weren’t utterly cleansing snow-white embers like those Donna invoked, merely black embers. Yet, it was enough to make Ciaran happy at this moment. She relaxed all of a sudden.

"So it turns out he was also faking it all along and was waiting for the opportunity to strike back."

"Only, we rushed here from Holy Dawn Academy, and he didn’t have all that many opportunities to practice on the way, but against all odds, he directly grasped Fire Embers and put it to use…"

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