Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree

Duke’s reaction was calm. At the same moment the spear left his hand, countless tiny dark golden sand grains surged out from his palm, cuffs, and the surrounding space, spreading outward with his body as the center, forming a constantly flowing and rotating sand barrier in front of him.

These sand grains were strengthened through the devouring of Magic Metal, each grain exuded a deep and restrained dark golden metallic luster, and the collision between the sand grains made a crisp and dense metallic crashing sound, as if countless miniature metal bells were gently shaking simultaneously.

But the sand grains no longer had only the luster of metal itself, but rather an extremely thin, extremely bright light film that constantly changed colors.

Within the light film, four colors flowed gently: dark red, ink black, light gold, and earthy yellow.

They were the four Rule Powers: Flame, Shadow, Light, and Earth, each presented in its most elemental and pure form.

The four colors were not independent but mixed into a composite luster like flowing aurora intertwined with lava.

The light flowed through the sand grains, and with each transit, it stirred up ripples of interwoven four colors in the sand sea, making the entire sand sea splendid like a nebula and impossible to gaze upon.

This layer of light film did not cling tightly to the sand grains like armor, but rather was like a flowing liquid halo, tightly adhering to the surface of each grain, turning the sand itself into the perfect carrier of Rule Power.

As the Flaming Spear pierced the sand barrier, the violent flame vortex at the tip first collided with the Four-Color Divine Light on the surface of the sand grains.

The vortex released a terrifying heat in a tiny area of contact, enough to instantaneously melt a whole piece of steel into molten iron.

But this did not break through Duke’s defense; the Rule Power and heat contained in the spear were absorbed by the Metallic Yellow Sand, or more precisely, counteracted by the Four-Color Divine Light, and dissipated.

The absorbed Flame Rules spread out in the entire sand sea along the Four-Color Divine Light, lighting up the sand sea like a miniature sun ignited within.

In the perception of everyone in the conference hall, all this was just a scene in a flash, the tip of the Flaming Spear stopped less than three feet from Duke’s forehead.

The spear, imbued with the full-force strike of a Level 3 Middle-Rank Great Mage, just rested quietly wrapped within the sand sea, the dark red flames atop the spear tip still frantically jumping, but each jump dimmed them a little more.

The Four-Color Divine Light transiting through the Metallic Yellow Sand was like a slowly rotating miniature nebula, securely locking the spear at the outermost layer of the barrier.

Duke sat upright surrounded by the sand sea, without changing his posture, merely maintaining the gesture of his right hand slightly raised, with fingers slightly spread in the void as if manipulating something he could crush at any time.

With the blessing of the Four-Color Divine Light, the sand grains vibrated at a high speed invisible to the naked eye, each grain being a miniature Rule slicing blade, continuously grinding down the Flaming Spear formed by Flame Rules, starting from the spear tip.

Dark red fragments peeled off from the spear tip, briefly flickered in the air, then completely dissipated.

The flame patterns flowing on the spear shaft were ground down layer by layer by the sand grains, and with each layer ground flat, the spear’s volume shrank a bit.

Finally, the entire spear disintegrated into countless tiny light spots before Duke, swallowed completely by the sand with a roll.

Those light spots flashed a few times in the sand sea, then completely disappeared as if they never existed.

The hall returned to silence, the flames in the fireplace still flickered, but everyone felt the room was much colder than before.

Augustus sat at the main seat, the obsidian tabletop before him cracked with several fine lines by the aftermath of that strike. His deep brown pupils reflected Duke’s calm face, clearly showing shock for the first time.

Despite being Level 3 Middle Stage, he could clearly perceive that the power realm of the young man before him had not surpassed his own.

But that spear strike, imbued with his full efforts Flame Rules, was caught so effortlessly by the opponent.

Augustus reacted swiftly, suddenly raised his right hand, and gently waved to the side.

A dark red Flame Barrier appeared out of thin air in the conference hall’s center, enveloping Alberto and several senior members along with the guards behind them.

The Flame Barrier’s surface flowed with dense rune patterns, marking the activation of emergency teleportation techniques within Furnace Castle.

Alberto, before being engulfed by the teleportation light, reached out towards Augustus on the main seat, mouth open as if shouting something, but before any sound was released, he transformed into a flame and vanished.

Several streams of teleportation light simultaneously lit up and extinguished in different corners of the conference hall, leaving chairs and scattered documents where people once stood.

Augustus withdrew his hand and refocused his gaze on Duke.

His right hand fingers slightly spread, the surrounding Flame Rules began to gather towards his palm again, but this time the gathering speed significantly slowed, not due to scarcity of Magic Power, but his split concentration controlling.

Duke could sense from the flow path of Flame Rules that Augustus was maintaining several outward extending energy flows simultaneously, their ends penetrating the conference hall walls, linking to emergency activated protective techniques throughout Furnace Castle.

He was using his strength to shield this fortress.

If a Level 3 Middle-Rank Great Mage unleashed his full power, the entire top layer of the tower would have long been turned into lava by Flame Rules, but he did not.

Because here is the headquarters of the Fire Sect, managed for countless generations; every Volcanic Glazed Brick contains the names of past Great Mages, he couldn’t demolish his own home.

At the moment Augustus’s right hand fingers were slightly opened, and Flame Rules not yet fully gathered, Duke suddenly clenched his fingers.

The surrounding Metallic Yellow Sand, as if receiving a silent military command, swiftly completed the transformation from defense to offense in less than a heartbeat.

Dark golden sand grains rapidly coalesced, compressed, shaped in mid-air, forming a dark golden giant hand, nearly half the size of the conference hall, before Duke.

The giant hand was entirely constructed from Metallic Yellow Sand, each finger as thick as an adult’s arm, with distinct knuckles and clear palm lines visible.

The Four-Color Divine Light flowed unceasingly on the giant hand’s palm, and the interwoven colors of dark red, ink black, light gold, and earthy yellow created a dazzling composite halo, illuminating the entire giant hand like God’s hand extending from a nebula.

As soon as the giant hand formed, it already struck towards Augustus. From the sand grains coalescing to the giant hand striking, there was almost no time interval.

Duke’s speed in converting defense to attack far exceeded Augustus’s prediction; he clearly didn’t expect the opponent to launch an equal strength counterattack immediately after absorbing his full-force strike.

Augustus reacted extremely fast, his right hand fingers suddenly clasped tightly, forming a dark red barrier in front of him out of thin air.

The barrier was hemispherical, enveloping his entire upper body, with dense flame runes flowing on the surface, each rune flashed at an extremely high frequency, forming a layer upon layer of flame shield on the barrier’s outside.

This barrier was not his usual defensive technique but was released after activating a peculiar item sliding out from his cuff.

It was a palm-sized metal disk engraved with a very ancient flame emblem, a protective treasure passed down through generations of Great Mages of the Fire Sect.

However, when the giant hand imbued with Four-Color Divine Light struck the barrier, the brightness of those flame runes dimmed suddenly at the contact point, then extinguished like crushed light bulbs in batches.

The power generated by Rule Fusion was not a simple addition of the four forces but an exponential multiplier.

The barrier crumbled, deformed, and shattered under the strike of the giant hand, with cracks frantically spreading from the contact point, and accompanied by a series of crisp fracturing sounds, the entire hemispherical barrier shattered like a glass dome struck by a sledgehammer, into countless dense light shards scattered wildly.

After shattering the barrier, the giant hand continued its momentum, firmly striking Augustus.

Augustus’s whole person was smacked off the main seat by this palm.

His body shattered the high-back chair made of obsidian and Volcanic Glaze behind him, hit the Glazed Wall of the conference hall, and created a large web-shaped crack, then slid down the wall to the ground.

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