A soft yet heavy brownish-yellow light soared into the sky, swallowing Lin Qingyue.
In an instant, a symphony so grand that it made the soul tremble echoed out of thin air across the entire plaza!
That was no decadent melody, but an epic of iron and blood!
It was a Knight's march of protection and destruction!
The vigorous French horns sounded the prelude to the charge!
The passionate strings wove a gorgeous battle suit!
The heavy timpani beat the drumbeats of Judgment!
A giant virtual Display suddenly unfolded above Lin Qingyue's head!
Guo Tao's powerful and heavy fist froze in midair, leaving only a blank look on his face.
Lin Xiyue's tense, pretty face burst into a brilliant smile, taking the opportunity to pant heavily.
"It's finally here... Sis's 'Gundam Mode'!"
Liu Hui's elusive kitchen knife stopped in her hand as she stared blankly at the sky.
Yuan Feng's elegant figure faltered, almost falling from the sky.
Su Wan seized the opportunity and shot out an ice cone, forcing Yuan Feng to retreat and dodge.
"Here we go again, the music is quite nice this time."
The wry smile on Li Mo's face instantly froze, his pupils contracting sharply the moment he saw the image on the display.
"A skill outside of our intelligence? Transformation Magic?"
In that half-second of distraction, an arrow silently closed in, forcing him into an extremely awkward combat roll to dodge, revealing panic for the very first time.
The thousands of teachers and students in the audience all looked up collectively, their faces full of astonishment.
"What is this thing? An illusion?"
"Playing a movie overhead halfway through a fight? What kind of wicked move is this?"
"This BGM... is actually quite catchy? Wait, no! Is this the time to be thinking about that?!"
The light faded.
An intricate and gorgeous Gothic maid dress armor appeared out of thin air on Lin Qingyue.
The heavy skirt and the solid breastplate combined perfectly, adorned with roses formed from Geo crystals!
On the display, an anime girl wearing the exact same dress armor was wielding a giant sword, fiercely fighting alone against three mountain-sized mechanical constructs!
That world-destroying sense of power smashed heavily into everyone's hearts through the screen!
The symphony reached its climax.
In the entire world, nothing remained but that soul-shaking melody and that figure clad in heavy armor, wielding a giant sword.
She slowly raised her head.
That beautiful face was filled with "nuclear kindness".
The magnificent [Epic of Love and Flowers] seemed light as a feather in her hands at this moment.
"Sorry, it's time to clean up."
Lin Qingyue (Noelle Form) gave Guo Tao a polite smile.
In the next instant, she moved.
There were no flashy techniques, not even any wasted footwork.
She simply pointed the giant sword, which was highly disproportionate to her figure, straight ahead and swung it down simply.
"Ha!"
Guo Tao recovered from his shock, and instead of fear in his eyes, a monstrous ferocity and fanaticism was aroused!
He roared, advancing instead of retreating, the muscles in his right arm knotting like steel as he threw a punch!
Meeting attack with attack!
He wanted to use absolute power to personally experience the reality beneath this magnificent illusion!
However, the giant sword fell.
There was no earth-shattering boom.
"Hum—"
An extremely muffled tremor sounded.
The giant sword, in an unreasonable posture, directly crushed his proud protective aura and slashed heavily on his gauntlet.
A power like a landslide and tsunami instantly penetrated his entire body!
"Crack!"
The stone slabs beneath his feet were instantly reduced to powder, and he was sent violently flying backward out of control!
One step, two steps, three steps...
With every step Guo Tao took backward, he left a deep footprint on the hard ground of the plaza. He retreated 78 steps in a row before barely managing to steady himself.
His arms, capable of blocking the impact of a heavy truck, were now trembling violently and uncontrollably, his bones seeming to wail.
'What... is this power?'
He stared fixedly at the "maid" holding the sword with both hands, whose figure hadn't swayed in the slightest, his mind going completely blank.
A second ago, he was the embodiment of strength, an insurmountable wall of despair.
Now, the strong and the weak had swapped places!
"Xiyue."
Lin Qingyue spoke calmly, her gaze locked on Guo Tao the entire time.
"Received!"
Lin Xiyue's spirits rallied. She leveled her shield and directly charged at Liu Hui, who had just come to her senses.
With her Sis's "Gundam Mode", she no longer had anything to worry about!
"Need some help, junior?"
Liu Hui licked her lips, her ghastly white teeth somewhat dazzling in the sunlight.
"Senior, you should worry about yourself first!"
Lin Xiyue let out a delicate shout, brazenly activating [Holy Shield Charge]!
Lin Qingyue did not immediately pursue Guo Tao. She held her greatsword horizontally in front of her and softly chanted, "Breastplate!"
Buzz!
A solid amber Aura spread outward with her at the center, instantly enveloping Lin Xiyue, Su Wan, and Xia Lian, casting a thick Geo Elemental Shield over the entire team.
Almost the instant the shield took shape, the tide of battle completely changed.
A reckless smile curled at the corners of Su Wan's lips.
In all her past battles, she had always needed to calculate evasion routes first, prioritizing the "elegance and self-preservation of a Mage" taught by her family.
But now, under that familiar amber shield, she could finally taste the thrill of unscrupulously pouring out her full firepower!
"Senior Brother, do you like ice?"
She whispered softly, as dozens of [Frost Rays] and [Ice Arrows] formed an inescapable ice-blue storm. Carrying her long-suppressed rebellion, it rained down heavily upon Yuan Feng!
"Damn it!"
Yuan Feng's expression changed, forced to rely on his ghostly footwork to weave through the barrage. Several invisible wind blades slashed against Su Wan's Breastplate, but they only stirred up faint ripples, unable to make the shield sway even the slightest bit.
Meanwhile, Xia Lian abandoned all unnecessary movements, becoming the most elusive hunter on the battlefield.
The shortbow [Dark Night Starwhisper] in her hands continuously drew back and released, as arrows imbued with the "Star-Concealment" effect appeared out of thin air, completely silent.
Swish! An arrow abruptly appeared along Yuan Feng's evasion path, forcing him to abruptly twist his body, nearly crashing headlong into Su Wan's array of ice cones.
Swish! Another arrow shot precisely toward Li Mo's fingers just as he was about to complete his incantation, forcing him to move and dodge, delaying his buff spell.
They had entered a Berserk Mode of all-out offense with no defense!
On the other side, Li Mo's expression had turned incredibly grim.
"Whisper of Wind: Haste!"
"Ballad of Earth: Fortify!"
His fingertips plucked at the air as if playing an invisible harp, and two buff auras instantly enveloped Guo Tao and Liu Hui.
Even so, the situation was still collapsing.
Although Liu Hui's strength and skill were far beyond the ordinary, faintly suppressing Lin Xiyue, the presence of the [Breastplate] greatly increased Lin Xiyue's margin for error.
The Gravity Rune intertwined with the Power of Holy Light, forcibly deflecting and absorbing more than half of Liu Hui's finesse and strength.
Lin Xiyue only needed to block with precise timing to neutralize the originally fatal attacks, and relying on the counter-attack ability of Holy Shield Charge, she instead forced Liu Hui to retreat repeatedly, achieving a jaw-dropping suppressive effect.
Guo Tao, on the other hand, was experiencing the most frustrating battle he had fought in the past half year.
Facing Lin Qingyue in her "Gundam Mode," his proud strength was completely suppressed.
With every clash, he felt as if he was using his flesh and blood to forcefully smash against a Hundred-Ton King traveling at top speed.
What made his scalp go numb even more was that her sword moves were wide and sweeping, seemingly plain and unadorned, yet contained highly tempered skills—a perfect combination of strength and technique!
Is this girl... really a Priest?
This thought crazily swirled in Guo Tao's mind.
"That's about enough, let's not waste any more time!"
Lin Qingyue glanced at her teammates, who had gradually adapted to the rhythm and started to counter-suppress, and the arc at the corners of her mouth grew more delighted.
The warm-up ended here.
She raised the greatsword high, and her gorgeous armored dress erupted with a dazzling Geo-yellow light.
An aura even more terrifying than before began to gather.
"It's time to end this game,"
she declared softly.
On the blade of the greatsword [Epic of Love and Flowers], the Power of Geo frantically converged, extended, and surged!
In an instant, a massive three-meter-long Geo light sword took shape in her hands!
[Sweeping Time]!
"Bring it on!"
Far from being afraid, Guo Tao let out a beast-like roar of extreme excitement!
With his muscles and qi pushed to their absolute limits under Li Mo's enhancement, the ground beneath his feet violently exploded. He transformed into a burning meteor, launching a death-defying charge toward that apocalyptic sword light!
A gleam of excitement flashed through Lin Qingyue's eyes as her arm ruthlessly swung down!
At the same time, she let out a fitting shout:
"Ex...calibur!"
The massive light sword, carrying a screech that tore through the air, cleaved straight down at him with unstoppable momentum!
At that moment, the entire world seemed to lose all sound.
Reflected in everyone's pupils was only that destructive golden sword light that spanned across heaven and earth.
In the face of that heaven-spanning sword light, Guo Tao's final charging posture was as insignificant as a moth darting into a flame.
The moment his all-out punch came into contact with the golden beam sword, the berserk protective energy surrounding his body was torn apart and evaporated like thin paper.
That power he was so proud of, which was enough to split mountains and shatter rocks, failed to deflect the sword light even a fraction before being completely swallowed and crushed.
"Boom—!"
A delayed explosion rang out, causing the entire plaza to tremble.
Guo Tao's figure was sent flying like a baseball hit by a home run, smashing heavily against the edge of the plaza dozens of meters away.
The Red light representing a hunter on his body flickered frantically a few times before finally, unwillingly, going out.
Eliminated.
Lin Qingyue slowly turned around, shifting the tip of the massive Geo beam sword to point at Li Mo.
She still wore that polite yet menacingly friendly smile on her face, as if she had merely done something insignificant.
"Next, it's your turn, Senior Brother."
The entire Beidou Plaza, with its thousands of teachers and students, was dead silent.