Chapter 3389: Prediction Comes True, Changing Strategy

————Currently rushing~~

————

From this perspective, the degree of control over the microscopic Magic Net String determines a Mage's true limit; of course, such a limit can be achieved through one's own efforts or through external objects.

If one could use some means to completely control the Magic Net within a certain area, it would be no exaggeration to call them the God of Magic in this area; Arcanists were likely born out of this expectation.

However, even an Arcanist's Private Magic Web cannot fully control the Magic Net Strings within a natural environment, but one can indirectly achieve more efficient control over the Magic Net Strings through operations such as Suppression, repulsion, and Resonance collaboration using their own Magic Web against the Magic Net in the natural environment.

At the moment, although Xia Duo has fallen into a disadvantage, he has not yet deployed his Private Magic Web (his avatar also possesses Arcane Fire, which can be deployed as a Private Magic Web), so he still has a chance to turn the situation around.

Just like playing Go, temporary gains and losses count for nothing; only by playing to the end can one know who wins and who loses.

However, Xia Duo was intentionally falling into a disadvantage to provoke Dafuni's competitive spirit, aiming to stall for time, so he did not deploy his Arcane Fire but instead acted as if he refused to admit defeat, determined to win back exactly where he had lost.

This actually violates the general strategic principles of a Spell Duel, where the competition is for the overall control of the Magic Net within an area, not for local gains or losses.

If one can trade the failure of a small area for an overall advantage, that is clearly more favorable, and one can then use the momentum to crush an opponent who occupies a local advantage.

Xia Duo already had a reputation in the Northland for being skilled at Spell Duels; from any angle, he should not be fixated on local gains or losses, but there is one exception: losing one's head.

When emotions overwhelm reason, one naturally does whatever feels satisfying, disregarding gains, losses, or consequences, and even if one knows it is the wrong choice, one still follows that path to the end.

What Xia Duo is performing now is someone who cannot accept being inferior to an enemy in his most proficient field; of course, he also knows when to stop, and after a simple attempt yielded no results, he decisively deployed his Arcane Fire.

After all, this is the means that his current identity—Arcanist—is most proficient at and most should use.

Deploying Arcane Fire has both pros and cons, but at the moment, the pros completely outweigh the cons; since it is a one-on-one duel, the game of maintaining and destroying Arcane Fire is already included.

No Arcanist would mind deploying Arcane Fire in such a situation because they already occupy the greatest advantage; if one does not even dare to do this, then there would be no Spell Duel at all, and one should just run away instead.

Just as Xia Duo guessed, Dafuni immediately began trying to destroy his Private Magic Web, and because an Arcanist's Private Magic Web is itself built using the natural Magic Net, under Xia Duo's control, it is actually unlikely for Dafuni to directly destroy the Arcane Fire or the Private Magic Web; the so-called destruction is more about disrupting the structure of the Private Magic Web itself.

An Arcanist's Private Magic Web is far inferior in volume to the naturally existing Magic Net and is actually just crude Magic, and in order to allow the Arcanist to control this Micro Magic Net, it must inevitably have some extra structures for control compared to the natural Magic Net.

This is the biggest and hardest-to-hide difference between an Arcanist's Private Magic Web and the natural Magic Net.

Of course, an Arcanist is not stupid enough to expose their greatest weakness to the enemy; in fact, the essence of Arcane Fire is still to absorb energy to create Arcane Energy, and deploying it as a Magic Web is just an incidental effect.

Since it is not the primary purpose, one naturally would not pursue complete consistency with the natural Magic Net; if it were truly completely consistent, wouldn't just anyone be able to use it?

This is clearly impossible.

No Arcanist could accept that the Private Magic Web they painstakingly built could be easily used by others, so any Arcanist's Private Magic Web is a reconstructed Magic Net.

The more advanced the technology, the more one can ensure consistency with the external Magic Net while maintaining one's own control, because the external Magic Net is the most universal in the current state of the Plane.

But if the technology is insufficient, one prioritizes maintaining one's own control; in this case, it may lead to certain Spells being naturally restricted and unable to be cast through the Private Magic Web.

Looking only at its external performance, Xia Duo's Magic Web is almost indistinguishable from the normal external Magic Net, and even when it exists simultaneously with the external Magic Net, it is more concealed and secure.

However, he still actively revealed flaws and even allowed Dafuni to destroy his Magic Web; anyway, he had already prepared to sacrifice this avatar, so he did not need to care about how the avatar's Arcane Fire fared.

Instead, it was the fact that the secret of the Arcane Fire might be discovered by Dafuni during this process that Xia Duo cared about more; even though the Arcane Fire of the avatar and the main body are not exactly the same, the essence is both the creation of Arcane Energy, which is even the essence of the Mythallar.

Therefore, despite retreating step by step, Xia Duo held his bottom line very tightly; no matter what, the secret of Arcane Energy conversion must not be known by Dafuni, while the Magic Net characteristics were secondary.

After all, Magic Net characteristics are related to the Plane Root; if one wants to know about different Magic Nets, one can just change to another Plane. If the Magic Net characteristics are known by Dafuni, it is merely adding a new Plane Magic Net sample for the opponent.

And similar samples, if not already everywhere in the Northland, should at least not be lacking, given Dafuni's previous status as a Consultant to the Crown King.

For Xia Duo, changing a characteristic for his Private Magic Web is not much harder than creating a new Arcane Fire.

……

Just like this, Xia Duo kept losing in the duel with Dafuni, which caused his degree of control over the surrounding Magic Net to become lower and lower, but he always held two red lines in his heart—

One is not to expose the essence of the Arcane Fire, and the other is to continue stalling until Kandela and the others return to Evereska.

In the current situation, although it is very unfavorable for Xia Duo and he might be completely defeated at any moment, the first red line is still firmly held, and the second one is almost there!

"Fast, fast, fast!"

Xia Duo kept urging Kandela and the others in his heart; watching them rush out one by one from the passage opened when they entered the mountain stronghold, Xia Duo's nerves tightened even more.

In fact, he had already prepared the Annihilation Light and could launch a strike at any time, but if he were to strike now, Kandela and the others would not be able to escape and would be affected by the energy waves dissipated by the disintegration of such massive matter from Tanzan Peak.

The Annihilation Light can annihilate energy, and it is precisely because it can annihilate energy that Xia Duo intended to use it to erase Tanzan Peak, but it is not a true "reality eraser" after all.

Whether it is disintegrating material structures or annihilating energy forms, it requires a process; even with higher power, it is impossible—at least not for Xia Duo—to achieve it without a trace of excess energy leakage.