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nA humongous explosion appeared in the middle of the arena.

nThe powerful storm inside the arena immediately destroyed all the smoke the explosion had created, revealing Shang.

nShang’s body was nearly destroyed. His entire body was filled with cracks and burns.

nShang had offset the power of the explosion by cooling his body rapidly, but that process required more control than Shang had.

nIf Shang cooled his body a little too much, he would completely freeze, stopping the function of his body and his mind in an instant.

nSo, Shang had to err on the side of heat. It was better for parts of his body to burn away than to risk his brain freezing and being unable to think or act.

nThe damage inside Shang’s body was severe, but he immediately used his life energy to heal himself.

nHe could heal himself just as fast as with his old body, but every bit of life energy was just that more valuable since it wouldn’t recover nearly as fast.

nIn past fights, Shang always managed to recover 10% to 100% of his life energy just by staying alive, giving him more opportunities to heal himself.

nNow, every bit of life energy wasted was permanent.

nThe time Shang needed to recover even 1% of life energy would be longer than this fight would take.

nOn top of that, Shang’s maximum level of life energy was already at only 70% due to his new body, making it even more difficult.

nThese were the negative effects of Shang’s new body.

nBut it was worth it.

nHaving the ability to have a mind as powerful as his body was too valuable for Shang.

nBut for now, Shang needed to heal himself.

nHe used 30% of his life energy, leaving only 40%, and it would not go above 40% during this battle.

nIt would only go down.

nDING!

nAt that moment, something glittered in Shang’s hand.

nShang’s Subsis had transformed!

nInstead of being a black stick, there was now a beautiful and long icy edge on it, and even more, there were tiny red things moving into it.

nShang had defended against the explosion, but he had also used his Subsis to absorb a lot of the Fire Mana.

nAll the absorbed Fire Mana traveled through Shang’s body, being transformed in the process.

nAnd then, Light Mana entered Shang’s Addum.

nShang slashed horizontally.

nBOOOOOOOM!

nThe arena shook!

nThe eyes of the onlookers opened in surprise.

nAll the wind had stopped!

nShang had transformed the Fire Mana into Light Mana on the extreme end of mass.

nAfter that, he released the mass in the surroundings, making the surrounding space much denser and heavier.

nThe wind didn’t have enough power to move that much, and since it had only been pushed by its own momentum, the wind very quickly lost its power.

nThere was nothing that actually pushed the wind forward.

nIt was just Wind Mana being Wind Mana.

nShang’s body withered a bit, but he didn’t use any life energy to heal himself yet.

nAs soon as the Wind Mana vanished, Shang shot at Cindy again.

nWith all the wind gone, Shang finally regained full control over his body, increasing his agility to its usual levels.

nCindy’s eyes sparkled.

nSHING!

nCindy used Mana Step just before Shang arrived.

nShang had expected something like that.

nIf he couldn’t kill a Mage very quickly, it transformed into a battle of attrition.

nEvery use of Mana Step was an additional 10% to 20% of Mana wasted by his opponent.

nShang had fought hundreds of battles against powerful Mages inside his inner world, and he knew exactly how to handle them.

nAbout two more uses of Mana Step and Cindy would be critically low on Mana.

nShang was currently in the arena on ground level, and Cindy had appeared in the middle at the very top, at the edge of the barrier surrounding the arena.

nFrom several kilometers high, she looked at Shang with a serious expression.

nThen, she took a deep breath.

nAt that moment, Shang felt an unreal amount of Mana gathering around Cindy.

nIt was difficult to believe that Cindy had access to that much Mana!

nAs soon as Shang saw that, he knew that Cindy wasn’t planning on having a drawn-out battle.

nShe had managed to injure Shang once, but she hadn’t managed to kill him.

nOn top of that, she had already used several Spells and two Mana Steps.

nShe knew that if things continued like this, there was a very real chance of her losing.

nShe felt that she wouldn’t win in the long run.

nBecause of that, she had to end the fight immediately.

nAnd she was planning on doing just that.

nCindy lightly touched her Focus.

nSHING!

nHer Focus vanished and reappeared at the bottom of the arena.

nCindy had used Mana Step on her Focus.

nAs soon as the Focus arrived, a fiery red wave shot out from it.

nIt was an extremely dense wave of Fire Mana!

nHowever, when Shang felt the properties of this wave, he grew extremely shocked.

nHe had never seen anything like it!

nShang knew that this couldn’t be anything good, but before he could do anything, Cindy was already unleashing an extremely dense storm of Ice Mana.

nA storm of ice from the top.

nA wave of fire from the bottom.

nAnd they met in the middle.

nZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

nAn extremely loud noise akin to a powerful circular saw reverberated throughout the arena as an intense white wall appeared in the place the two kinds of Mana met.

nThe intense wave of Fire Mana filled the bottom half of the arena and completely buried Shang.

nHowever, Shang didn’t move or do anything.

nThe intense wave of fire seemed to encompass Shang like water, filling his entire body.

nBut it wasn’t doing anything else.

nEverything around Shang and even a lot of space inside Shang was filled with this kind of Fire Mana, but nothing was burning or exploding.

nSince Shang knew the Concept of Addition and the Concept of Subtraction, he managed to see the Fire Mana’s attributes early, and that was exactly what shocked him so much.

nThe Fire Mana was not truly Fire Mana.

nIn a way, it could be compared to the effect of mass Shang had released with his Light Affinity earlier.

nObviously, no one would consider a dense and heavy space to be light, and the same thing was true with the Fire Mana here.

nThe properties of explosion and heat had been removed from the Fire Mana!

nInstead, it was filled with the properties of penetration from ice!

nThis meant that the Fire Mana had no destructive effect but could permeate everything.

nMeanwhile, the Ice Mana at the top of the arena was the polar opposite.

nThe Ice Mana had the missing properties of the Fire Mana, making it extremely explosive.

nHowever, since there was no heat inside the Ice Mana, the explosion was harmless.

nThe Fire Mana was harmless.

nThe Ice Mana was harmless.

nBut when the two of them met…

nThe power inside that tiny white space in the middle of the arena was extremely powerful.

nYet, that wasn’t the true danger.

nShang’s body was filled with the harmless Fire Mana.

nAnd if he touched any of the harmless Ice Mana…

nThe Fire Mana inside of him would transform and explode.

nEven more, all the Fire Mana was permeated with Cindy’s will, and if Shang wanted to get rid of that, he would need to use his own Mana or body.

nBut since Cindy had used so much Mana, it would be nearly impossible for Shang to get rid of all of it while passing through the border.

nShe had him.

nShang’s Spirit Sense focused on the Focus just two kilometers beside him.

nIt was unprotected, and Shang could destroy it with a simple hit without having to pass through the border.

nThat would stop the outpouring of Fire Mana.

nThen, Shang focused on Cindy.

nCindy obviously wasn’t stupid.

nSo, was she actually banking on the fact that Shang would destroy her Focus?

nWas this a trap?

nBut what if she expected that Shang wouldn’t underestimate her, and destroying the Focus was actually the correct thing to do?

nShang realized that this train of thought could continue indefinitely.

nIt was a 50

/50.

nNevertheless, Shang had to make a decision now.

nIf he didn’t do anything, either the Mana would become even denser, or Cindy would recover Mana, maybe both.

nBut what should Shang do?

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