Chapter 7

Long Chen eyes started to open. He got up and analyze his surroundings. 'Where….'

'This is...Is this the infirmary?' He is laying on the bed. 'The last thing I can remember is going head to head with Yaoheng and...we won, right?....'

The door opens revealing an older woman. "Oh, you're awake. Your teammates have been waiting outside this entire time. Do you want me to call them in?"

Long Chen nods silently in reply. A few minutes later, he could hear the door slam open.

"Brother Long!/ Brother!" the two came rushing in and ran to the side of his bed. Luo Han did not waste any time in lunging himself at the patient in bed and hugging the boy.

"Brother Long, are you feeling better now?" Hao Lin asks first in concern. "The teacher said that you weren't too injured. You just passed out due to excessive usage of spirit energy and the strain on your body. They gave you a pill to regain the lost energy and let the body recover naturally." He updates his leader.

"Wuwu...I believe that Brother Long will surely be ok. Brother Long is forever invincible in my heart after all!! " Luo Han cries with his head now buried in Long Chen's stomach as Long Chen caresses his head.

Hao Lin had been the one to explain the situation to Long Chen on their would-be competition for the position as champions. As expected, the one to advance to the finals was Ma Xiao Tao's team. It was a one-sided slaughter. Their opponent were completely overwhelmed and didn't last long under Ma Xiao Tao's fearsome rapid firepower. The strength of the demonic phoenix is not to be underestimated.

Since he was injured, the final match was postponed until the next day. Long Chen told Hao Lin and Luo Han to go prepare first and recover their energy for the rough battle they're going to have. It took a lot of convincing and mainly three people dragging to get Luo Han out of the room. Long Chen decided to take the time and recover as fast as possible before their match. He needs to be in full-strength when fighting against Ma Xiao Tao for their struggle in becoming the winning team of the tournament.

----The next day----

The final has already begun. The overseer had requested both teams to step up to the platform and introduce themselves.

"Ma Xiao Tao, Spirit Elder"

"Luo Ming, Spirit Grandmaster"

"Qin Meng, Spirit Master"

"Ming Long Chen, Spirit Elder"

"Luo Han, Spirit Master"

"Hao Lin, Spirit Master"

Long Chen's team were already at a disadvantage. Ma Xiao Tao's fire were fiercer than expected. Long Chen didn't predict her to open fire right after the start of the battle. She bombarded them with extremely hot flames spweing out from her mouth which covered half the platform. Not leaving much space for them to dodge. However, this may have made their plans too obvious.

Fortunately, Luo Han was able to block all the fire with his armor shield and with Long Chen's support. Once the smoke cleared up, their opponent's next actions is as clear as day. Seeing that their enemy is not going down, their second option is to charge forwards and deal with them in close combat while they are still weak from the attack. It is common tactic to not allow the opponents to rest for even a second.

Ma Xiao Tao's other two teammates were the only ones attacking from beside them, thinking that the smoke will act as a cover for them to conduct a sneak attack. Long Chen didn't give them that opportunity.

[Boundary Mirror : the realm of hungry ghosts]

The two teammates were suddenly restrained and it became difficult for them to move. It was as if dozens of invisible hands were chaining them down like vengeful ghosts. Taking this opportunity, Hao Lin and Luo Han made their move to attack. They both knew it would be hard for them to deal with one person each so they had to take out one first together. They aimed at the agility spirit master first while they have the chance as they knew it takes longer and more effort for these types of spirit masters to break Long Chen's restriction ability.

That way they can slowly deal with the other power attack type later as the restrictions drain his strength while trying to break free.

Ma Xiao Tao didn't expect for her teammates to be occupied with this quickly, 'Having Long Chen in their team really makes all the difference. Up until now, he hasn't used his spirit rings in battle so we don't have much information to work with. More importantly, what's with those abilities!! It's obviously cheating!! He's too versatile! What is he trying to be? A one man army!'

"It doesn't matter." She mutters to herself, "Once I get rid of the leader, the rest will fall into place!"

[Evil Fire Phoenix 2nd Spirit Ability: Phoenix Baptism]

Her entire body is covered in red hot flames as she charges straight at Long Chen.

Long Chen senses her and immediately retaliates. He predicted that this was going to happen. It will be extremely difficult to take out Ma Xiao Tao but with his skill-set this is his only option.

[Boundary Mirror 2nd Ability : Seeker's Sight]

With this skill, one of his eyes turns gold. He was able to predict Ma Xiao Tao's attacks with ease and dodged them with minimal movement. However, that didn't stop the heat from affecting him.

'Tch, so hot!'

From Ma Xiao Tao's perspective, Long Chen was like mist. He was dodging her attacks so efficiently that it was almost as if she was only chasing an afterimage. No matter how fast her attack became, they were all going past him.

'What's going on!?! As someone with a beast spirit, I should have the upper hand in close combat! So why!!'

Both of them weren't backing down. The others could only watch in amazement as this fight got even more heated up, quite literately.

Soon, scotch marks begun to appear on Long Chen while Ma Xiao tao suffered from the the fatigue that came with using her skill and excessively broad attacks.

Meanwhile, on their teammates side, Luo Han and Hao Lin had just finished dealing with the agility spirit master and are uo against the power type spirit master. This may be considered a bad match-up but neither of them are going down without a fight. Seeing their leader battling against such a strong opponent with the one and only rare Evil Fire Phoenix beast spirit and the another decendant of one of the original Shrek Seven Monsters.

Regardless of the situation, they must win to not be a burden to their Brother Long. Luo han dashes forward to crash himself against the just freed Luo Ming.

[Steel Rhino : Hardened Skin]

Luo Ming did felt the damage he had taken from the collision. He attempted to attack when Luo Han was close but is interrupted as Hao Lin took it as an opportunity to strike with his spear. Luo Han jumps away to avoid clashing with his teammates attack.

[Wind Spear 1st Skill : Titanic Impact]

Unfortunately as the spear came down, Luo Ming has escaped in time and the spear struck the ground. "How about this!"

[Wind Spear 2nd skill : Thousand blades]

Luo Han leaps forward and the blade of his spear glows green. His movement were as smooth as water and creating many glowing line barrage of attacks appear from where the blade went, only allowing minimum space for dodging. Naturally, Luo Ming whose defense and agility weren't that high, couldn't avoid all the blades.

Luo Han planned on going for another strike while the enemy is distracted. He swung his spear at his opponent's back but he suddenly sensed an intense pressure and is forced to retreat.

"You think that you're tiny meaningless attacks can get through to me, a spirit grandmaster, that easily. Hah! Let me show you despair!"