Chapter 977: Echo & Reigns.

Immediately after Alec cast the spell, a massive flaming fist shot forward toward Roderic, with Alec trailing just a little behind it, Roderic in response to this attack on him instantly raised his left hand which was covered by a magic gauntlet and fired controlled mana burst balls into the air to meet the Enhanced Flaming Fist.

His reaction had been really swift.

Bang!

A small explosion went off mid-air as both attacks met mid air, and smoke spread out, covering Alec's figure who was still dropping down, which caused many of the War God Mage Academy supporters in the stands to gasp in shock.

While most of them thought Alec must have been injured for being caught in the blast range, Roderic on the ground had his doubts and retreated a few steps back, confusing many of the low-rank mages watching and didn't understand what was going on.

Roderic could have sworn he'd seen Alec bend his body and push himself further into the blast the moment it happened, and he couldn't understand why anyone would be that eager to do such a thing, entering a blast.

But as a safety measure, he chose to fall back.

From within the smoke, a long Qi slash suddenly flew out toward him, as it slashed the smoke into 2, the moment it appeared, Roderic could already see Alec dashing forward to him with a smile on his face, pulling off the upper part of his uniform and revealing his bare chest.

On Alec's left hand was a tattoo of a wolf that seems to have been inked by both pure shadow and light, so vivid it looked alive to him, like he was being locked on by the wolf tattoo, but Roderic had no time to think about that.

What mattered most to him at the moment was the fact that Alec was clearly still alive and unharmed even in the littlest form, he quickly tucked in his stance and swung his sword, aiming to deflect the incoming Qi slash.

Though the force of it pushed him back, he still managed to stop it after going back three steps, he braced the blade body with his left hand and redirected the Qi slash toward Knight, who wasn't too far away.

This move caught Knight off guard; as he hadn't expected Roderic, who should have his hands full with Alec, to divert an attack toward him, that moment of surprise cost him, creating a fatal delay in his judgment as he struggled to decide which attack he was supposed to block.

Coming straight at him was a barrage of bullets, and from another angle the residual Qi slash was closing in.

Normally, there would be no debate on which attack to focus on, as common knowledge was that a residual attack could be ignored since it was always weaker than a direct one.

But the problem here was that the person who sent that residual attack was Alec, and there was no way Knight would ever believe Alec's attack was "weak," even if it was just the leftover force.

After hesitating for a split second, he finally made his choice, that he would be blocking Alec's attack instead, but even though it was only a moment of delay, it was more than enough time for Cassian to seize the opening he'd been waiting for.

The moment Cassian realised Roderic had helped occupy Knight, he sent mana surging straight into both his guns, Echo and Reign.

【> Mid Tier Skill – Compressed Energy Bullets Mid Tier Skill - Gunslinger Array Mid Tier Spell - Shadow Counter <]

Bang!

The moment Cassian fired, she released the bullet she'd previously absorbed into the first shadow portal, sending it out from the second one she had just formed, directly toward the mouth of his gun.

As both bullets collided, a sharp spark of light burst out, as Sophia twisted her face away from the blinding flash, clearly unused to this kind of exchange, Cassian, however, had anticipated it.

The moment the explosion's shockwave faded, he leaned in from his sliding stance and slammed the back of her head with the butt of his gun.

Even though the clash of bullets wasn't strong enough to seriously injure him, being that close had still left him with a few cuts and bruises.

"One down, four more to go," Cassian said as he stood, blood slightly dripping from his mouth. By now, the bullet array had dispersed and all the bullets clattered to the ground, he then kicked Sophia's unconscious body off the stage.

As he turned, all he saw was Knight's dead stare fixed on him from the edge of where the bullet array had just stopped him from passing.