Chapter 867: Extreme Micro-management, Spell Counter

Unrestricted warfare is not something only humans on Earth can conceive of; in fact, in this magical world, the possibility of unrestricted warfare appearing is even higher than on Earth.

After all, those living, breathing High Mages or Great Arcanists, who are comparable to nuclear weapons, all have their own emotions; once they are in place, anything can happen.

Whereas on Earth, there is a greater tendency toward collective decision-making and relative rationality, especially regarding major weapons of mass destruction like nuclear weapons, or certain war actions that exceed normal bottom lines.

Generally, there will be a collective that comes forward to make decisions together, even if only in a formal sense.

This avoids randomness and suddenness, actually reducing many conflicts.

Of course, in this magical world, as long as the human Great Arcanists or Elven High Mages who act as the "nuclear weapons" themselves remain rational, there will basically be no sudden accidents.

If there really were any, Xia Duo would have no way to deal with them; for him right now, that would be entirely force majeure, impossible to calculate, and no need to calculate.

If he were to actually work out the reactions and even countermeasures of High Mages, and do so accurately and appropriately, then what would those Great Arcanists think?

Xia Duo does not think about such unrealistic things at all; at this moment, he has only one goal in his eyes, which is to keep all these dozen or so Elven Mages here.

As for what comes after, he will take down as many Elven Mages as he can; such opportunities to kill Elves openly and aboveboard are rare.

……

Within the Mind Link, Xia Duo continuously issues new instructions based on the real-time positions of each team on the battlefield.

——Mage Luodite, 【Protection-2-4】, target updated.

——Mage Date, 【Protection-2-4】, target updated.

……

Multiple High Mages, who were leading teams of Intermediate Mages, quickly began to jointly cast 【Protection-2-4】 from the Resonance Spellbook under Xia Duo's instructions—a Forbidden Spell equivalent to an 8th-circle spell, specifically used to block teleportation.

And the target, besides the location of the Elven Mages, covered an even larger area centered on them, even including Huaiyate and the others!

However, this does not matter!

Almost at the moment the Forbidden Spell descended, the dozen or so High Mages who had arrived nearby earlier and had been held back by Xia Duo also began to independently counter the Elven Mages' spells under Xia Duo's instructions.

Although Xia Duo does not know much about Elven Magic, he has no problem attempting to counter it, especially since he specifically received various assassination training targeting Elven Mages in the 【Projection Plane: Underdark】.

Although spell dueling was not the main focus of the training, and it was all auxiliary to assassination, it was still there; with Xia Duo's mastery of magic, it is not difficult to create various Netheril Magic versions of contingency plans.

This is also one of the sources of confidence for Xia Duo in participating in this Seven Towers Union operation, or as the official term goes, the "Plane War"; as for manifesting as a shadow, he will avoid using that if he can.

After all, anything involving shadow assassins is still quite sensitive in Netheril.

At this time, although there are only a dozen or so High Mages, this is already the limit of Xia Duo's command.

Unlike other teams that cast spells jointly in a grand and open manner—where the difficulty is at most in information processing, and the actual command is not much different from dragging a mouse in a game.

But these dozen or so High Mages are all "true executors" selected by Xia Duo based on how well they executed his instructions previously; in game terms, every single one of them requires Xia Duo's extreme micro-management.

Even if it is just taking one step forward, or observing the state of the Magic Net from a certain angle, it must be considered in great detail.

In particular, Xia Duo needs these dozen or so High Mages to counter and interfere with the Elven Mages' spellcasting in a discrete state, while achieving a state of overall joint coordination.

It is somewhat similar to the previous forced joint spellcasting, but these dozen or so High Mages are indeed independent; they do not need to be forcibly squeezed into the same Spell Source Point, so the fault tolerance will be much higher.

But even so, this matter occupies a large part of Xia Duo's consciousness.

This part is not suitable to be handled by the subconscious, as it is the front line of the engagement.

Although the Mind Link has almost no delay, there is certainly time required for information to be fed back from the front line, for him to think of countermeasures, for instructions to be fed back, and for the front line to execute those instructions.

The specific instructions among them must be conveyed by the conscious mind; after all, the other party cannot accept subconscious information. To reduce the time for conversion between the subconscious and conscious mind, Xia Duo handles almost everything that can be handled by the conscious mind with the conscious mind.

Coupled with the fact that those dozen or so High Mages are almost extremely thorough in execution, he is barely able to keep up with the impromptu changes made by the Elven Mages while casting.

——Aisisi, advance 4, spell elements 1-ΞΩΟΣ, 2-ΛΙΠ, 3-ΩΨ, 4-Π, target anomaly point at front left.

——Fuluosite, advance 2, spell elements updated, target updated.

……

In this world covered by the Magic Net, whenever one casts a spell—even if an Arcanist is casting via a Micro Magic Net unfolded by their own Arcane Fire—it will inevitably affect the normal Magic Net environment of the outside world.

And the influence is mutual; influencing the external Magic Net can also affect spellcasting, which is the origin of 【Spell Counter】!

Compared to the simple and crude 【Dispel Magic】 that forcibly suppresses the Magic Net, 【Spell Counter】 is undoubtedly more skillful; it is simply the art of spellcasting.

Because it is not a specific spell, but a way of handling different spells with flexibility; this reveals the spellcaster's profound understanding of spell Principles and the essence of the Magic Net, as well as superb spellcasting ability.

It is almost impossible for an average Mage to conduct spell dueling in the form of 【Spell Counter】.

However, Xia Duo is not an average Mage; setting aside his rank, at the very least he is an Arcanist proficient in the Principles of magic, and this alone exceeds countless ordinary Mages.

Not to mention, he also possesses knowledge and depth of thought far exceeding ordinary Mages due to his experiences in various Projection Planes and even on Earth.

At this moment, under Xia Duo's guidance, just over a dozen High Mages have formed a suppression against the Elven Mages; of course, this is under the premise that Huaiyate and the others are still resisting stubbornly, and that a large-scale Forbidden Spell has descended.

Contrary to Xia Duo's expectations, even at this point, the Elven Mages still did not consider retreating, which really puzzles him greatly.

However, things have reached this point, just like an arrow on the string that must be released; not to mention that this situation, for the time being, is still favorable to Xia Duo's side.

All he can do now is increase the intensity of the suppression.

Regardless of what thoughts those Elves have, or what backup plans they might have, if they are not revealed, they are empty to Xia Duo; he cannot be timid just because these Elves are hiding some backup plans.

Even if he were present in person, he would not be, let alone now that he is only commanding remotely, he would be even less so.