Chapter 928: Flicker
The moment Leon invoked the Flame Elemental Avatar, his body transformed into pure fire and merged with the blazing sea. With two swift Flame Flickers, he darted dozens of meters away, the fiery ocean around him seeming to move in tandem.
In less than a second, Leon saw a flaming meteor—its tail trailing like a white skirt—break the sound barrier, carving a tunnel of white shockwave hundreds of meters long through the air, then smashing down exactly where he’d stood moments before.
With a thunderous boom, the flaming meteor exploded, sending up a gray-white mushroom cloud. The terrifying shockwave swept across hundreds of meters, scraping the earth bare and lifting massive fragments into the air, which disintegrated into fine dust.
Dozens of meters away, the shockwave slammed against Leon’s Runic Shield, as if countless blades were hacking at it in an instant. The runes crawling across the shield suddenly went berserk, each one flaring with a blinding brilliance as dense ripples spread across the Runic Shield.
But Leon didn’t care about the force of the shockwave; such power could never tear through his Runic Shield. In fact, apart from transcendent forces, few below the Heaven Rank could break through it now.
As the strongest defense of a Title Archmage, the Runic Shield is rarely used in combat—every time it’s deployed, it means facing grave danger.
Once the Runic Shield is torn apart, the countless runes fall into chaos. To restore it, one must first gather those scattered runes before the shield can be raised again.
And the time spent in between is fatal!
Even for mages with the deepest understanding of their own runes and the Runic Shield, it always takes more than ten seconds to restore it!
Ten seconds is more than enough time for life and death to be decided several times over. In battles where fate hangs on a blink, even a single second’s difference can change everything.
Leon commanded an immense number of runes. If his Runic Shield was ever torn apart, regrouping those chaotic runes would take even longer. Even with magical equipment assisting him, Leon’s grasp of runes and shields far surpassed ordinary mages, yet it still took him more than three seconds to restore his shield a second time.
So unless that flaming meteor—a fusion of force and spell—struck him head-on, Leon couldn’t care less about the collateral power.
The Ancestral Warden was already striding three hundred meters away, targeting Leon. That first flaming meteor was just the opening act. Black clouds swept across the sky, fire flickering within, and massive meteors rained down like a storm, trailing black smoke as they hurtled toward Leon.
Leon’s face stayed cold, showing no intention of dodging. The Doombringer Staff shimmered with violet light, and the Violet Dragon Avatar shot forth, transforming into a massive purple dragon’s shadow behind him. Majestic and mysterious, the dragon stretched out its hands, grasping the huge wheel-shaped shadow looming at Leon’s back.
In that instant, a mysterious aura flowed between dragon and wheel, and for a moment, both the Violet Dragon Avatar and the complex wheel-shaped shadow behind Leon seemed almost tangible—real.
Countless runes, brimming with arcane energy, streamed from the dragon’s body into the wheel. Instantly, the runes within the wheel surged wildly, jumping and pulsing as if ready to explode from the shadow itself.
In Leon’s left hand, the Death Tome’s pages turned slowly, shining with a four-colored glow. It was as if Leon held a sphere of shifting light, with no runes visible, only mysterious rays weaving intricate paths, each one tinged with unfathomable power.
Strands of crimson and blue light shot from the sphere, merging into the wheel behind Leon. Instantly, the wheel—once deep as the starry sky—began to blaze with red and blue brilliance.
No spell was cast, yet terrifying fire and frost began to fill the air, as if summoned by some ancestral force. Fire and frost elements from all across the battlefield converged toward Leon.
Leon’s magic radiated with overwhelming force, compressing the air around him. Waves of energy rippled outward, starting as gentle breezes but quickly surging into visible shockwaves.
The earth trembled lightly as elemental flames spontaneously formed in midair, while swirling frost continuously condensed and shattered, only to reform again.
Shattered stones on the ground began to float, the air stilled under magical pressure, and the debris seemed to defy gravity.
In the distance, Difo watched in horror. The sheer force of Leon’s presence was enough to make one’s heart tremble—this was the aura only a top Ninth-Rank Title Archmage could unleash.
Far more terrifying than an ordinary Ninth-Rank Title Archmage—deep, oppressive, as though a slumbering demon god was awakening.
Difo retreated, his eyes wide with fear. Around Leon, the space within dozens of meters seemed warped, distorting everything within.
Leon, unleashing his full power, slowly lifted his head. The left side of his body ignited with crimson flames, deepening into a dark red blaze, filled with a suffocating, violent energy.
Endless fire elements seemed drawn to him, converging joyfully into a boundless blaze.
The right side of Leon’s body burned with icy blue flames, shards of ice continuously forming and falling, as endless frost elements gathered into a swirling blizzard.
Leon’s body began to swell, his left side ablaze in dark red fire, his right side engulfed in icy blue flames.
The left half of the battlefield became a sea of fire, with crimson flames devouring everything. The right half, though, was swallowed by an endless blizzard—ice and frost freezing all, even the very air seemed to crystallize.
Dual Elemental Avatar!
Advanced application of Elemental Avatar!
This kind of ability is unheard of in this era!
Elemental Avatar is considered a rankless spell nowadays, its power tied only to the mage’s own rank. Everyone believes its strength depends solely on the caster.
But Leon never neglected his study and mastery of Elemental Avatar. In the future, the strongest mages would rely on various Elemental Avatars in battle.
For a low-ranked Title Archmage, casting Elemental Avatar is like using a seventh-rank support spell. Yet for Leon, even the simplest Flame Elemental Avatar equals an eighth-rank support spell.
Dual Compound Elemental Avatar is achieved only after mastering Elemental Avatar, raising its hidden spell rank.
Lava Avatar is formed by combining Flame Elemental Avatar with Earth Elemental Avatar—a powerful combat form.
Icefire Elemental Avatar, in some ways, is even stronger than Lava Avatar!
These two nearly opposing elemental forces merge into a single avatar, creating a form of unmatched ferocity.
Leon’s current Icefire Elemental Avatar is far from complete—one half is fire, the other is frost. This is merely the initial stage of mastering the dual element.
Only after achieving full fusion, like the Lava Avatar, can its true power be unleashed.
But even now, it’s more than enough.
In his Icefire form, one eye blazed crimson, swirling with endless fire runes; the other glowed icy blue, filled with spinning frost runes forming a vortex.
Leon unleashed his full power, his aura filling the battlefield. Within a hundred meters around him, one side was an endless sea of fire, the other an endless expanse of frost—truly terrifying to behold.
Just as Leon completed his Icefire Avatar, the Ancestral Warden’s meteor shower was about to descend upon him.
Dozens of flaming meteors, each over eight meters wide, pressed down on the air, rumbling like thunder as the atmosphere exploded outward.
Faced with this terrifying meteor shower, everyone on the battlefield retreated far in advance—even Heron or Joey would never let themselves be caught in its range.
But now, Leon had no time to dodge. The meteors covered hundreds of meters, and in just a second or two, the fastest would crash into the ground.
At that moment, Leon moved; the sea of fire and frost around him erupted. His body shimmered with light, flickering through the fire and frost like a master swordsman, moving at blinding speed.