Chapter 6(2/2): The Trickster Lin En

This battle style defied all understanding, making everyone’s scalp tingle.

“Lin En!!!”

Brook’s roar was now desperate.

Endless humiliation and the needle-like stares from the stands ignited the last madness in his soul.

Kain’s cold gaze, his companions’ disdainful “tsk,” echoed in his mind like curses.

“Power! Give me the strength to tear everything apart!”

Beastly fury devoured his sanity.

After enduring dozens of Fireball strikes, the last glimmer of humanity in his eyes vanished.

He stopped futile blocking and charging, ignoring the incoming Fireballs.

His monstrous hand, veins bulging like purple pythons, shot into his pouch, pulling out the last two dark-red, blood-scab-like Mad Bull Pills and shoved them into his gaping mouth.

“Crunch! Gulp!”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he forced them down.

“Two Mad Bull Pills?! He’s lost his mind!”

An Instructor shrieked, face pale.

Boom!!!

It was like a volcano erupted within.

Destructive energy flooded Brook’s body.

“UAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

Inhuman screams tore the air.

Brook’s body swelled like an overinflated balloon.

Muscles ripped skin, bulging like forged stone.

Dark-red veins throbbed like magma under his skin.

Sweat, thick and stinking of sulfur, poured from his skin.

Bones cracked with explosive sounds.

His size nearly doubled, transforming into a blood-flesh golem reeking of sulfur, blood, and destruction.

The Wind of Stagnation binding him was ripped apart under this wild brute force, shredding with snapping sounds like breaking ropes.

The restraint was broken—destructive power restored.

“Die!!!”

Brook roared like a beast from the abyss, shaking the entire Arena.

The stone under his feet exploded into a crater.

A dark-red blur remained where he stood, moving so fast the air boomed.

His enormous fist, like a siege hammer, smashed toward Lin En from over ten meters away, trailing a visible white shockwave.

Where the fist passed, the ground shattered.

This punch was close to the strength of a Silver-tier warrior.

The entire Arena fell silent.

Everyone was frozen by the inhuman transformation and the earth-shattering blow.

But the instant before that berserk fist reached Lin En—

Lin En’s body slid half a step back in a subtle motion, his feet unmoving as he drifted weightlessly out of range, evading perfectly.

The wind from the fist only ruffled the hair at his forehead.

In the stands, cries rang out.

“He dodged again, with that weird sliding move! That’s not even Wind Step!”

Brook’s blow missed.

His massive body lunged forward, then he twisted and unleashed a barrage of second and third punches like a storm, each strong enough to shatter stone.

But Lin En’s figure flashed like a phantom between the blows.

His movements were minimal, each evasion precisely measured as if predicting Brook’s every trajectory.

Even more bizarre was his movement style.

His feet seemed to hover just above the ground, a barely perceptible gap as if floating on a cushion of moving air.

Every turn and slide was fluid and seamless, overturning the image of mages as clumsy and slow.

Swish!

Swish!

Swish!

Even while dodging, Lin En fired strings of orange-red Fireballs.

Individually weak, less impressive than Brook’s blows, but fired at high frequency and tricky angles.

Brook didn’t block now.

Fireballs struck him, sparks flying.

But more slipped past his guard, slamming into his arms, shoulders, knees.

The explosions didn’t severely wound, but kept throwing him off balance and breaking his rhythm.

“Wind! He’s using wind magic to move himself!”

A sharp-eyed student shouted.

“My God! That level of fine control? His feet barely leave the ground by half a finger’s width!”

Cries filled the stands.

Previous jeers had vanished, replaced by disbelief and bewilderment.

Lin En’s performance had completely overturned their understanding.

Effortless evasion, ceaseless instantaneous Fireballs, the subtle wind lifting his feet…

Everything was so seamless, so—bizarre!

“I…I remember!”

A student suddenly shouted.

“A few days ago in the Old Goods Warehouse, Roger and his group tried to mess with Lin En, then Vice Principal Morton himself appeared—and even supported Lin En as they left!”

“What? Vice Principal Morton?!”

“Could it be…Lin En is Morton’s secret last disciple?!”

“No wonder! It all makes sense now! Only a magic instructor of Morton’s level could teach such a…such an abnormal fighting style!”

This speculation spread like wildfire through the stands, instantly shrouding Lin En’s incredible performance in an aura of mystery and reason.

Countless gazes became reverent and complex.

Deep within the Library, the Secret Chamber remained shrouded in blue.

Vice Principal Morton stood motionless before the Crystal Ball.

Within it, the scene of the Arena was displayed clearly.

His gaze locked onto Lin En, a tempest raging in his clouded eyes.

The Crystal Ball not only showed the duel but broadcast all the spectators’ discussions in perfect clarity.

Morton’s lips twisted in a bitter smile.

“Such ethereal and strange combat…how could I teach this?”

“Using wind magic to hover…with precision to the millimeter! Maintaining constant distance with minimal consumption…this requires godlike control of airflow.”

“Instantaneous Fireball…steady frequency, stable mana output, no fluctuations…this isn’t just shortening an incantation, it’s…there’s no casting process at all! Spirit Power control!”

“Direct energy shaping!”

“Movement…evasion…all actions blended seamlessly, mana flowing smoothly, no delay or waste…this combat style is like…”

“Like the elite assassins of the elves!”

“Zero loss…almost zero loss!”

Morton’s dry voice trembled with emotion.

As a high-ranking mage, he knew better than anyone what it meant.

On the Dueling Platform—

“ROAR!!!”

Brook bellowed, attacking wildly but unable to even touch a hair on Lin En.

The calm on Lin En’s face finally faded, replaced by a hint of boredom.

“Brute strength stacked by drugs…meaningless.”

He muttered, a trace of disappointment in his eyes.

The test of low-level magic combinations was complete—the mindless monster before him had lost value as a test subject.

As Brook’s monstrous fist hovered less than a meter above Lin En’s head, the turbulent air whipping his robe—

Lin En moved.

He neither dodged nor defended.

He simply raised his right hand, fingers splayed, palm facing the charging Brook.

In his mind, a grain-sized Crystal Core erupted with dazzling white light.

Twelve Nodes flared, twelve unseen energy channels working with unprecedented efficiency.

Vast Spirit Power was drawn, converted, and shaped in an instant.

No lengthy incantations, no complicated rune weaving.

Only the purest, most violent elemental energy, shaped in Lin En’s absolute control, modeled after physical laws, was instantly constructed.

Buzz!

A fist-sized, violently spinning, unstable gray-white energy sphere condensed before Lin En’s palm.

Space around it twisted, radiating a wave of destruction.

“Cloudburst.”

Lin En’s lips moved slightly, uttering two cold words.

He flicked his finger.

The gray-white energy sphere shot out silently, meeting Brook’s destructive fist.

Time seemed to freeze.

The next moment—

BOOM!!!!

Blinding fire erupted, a deep, earth-shaking boom splitting the air.

A ten-meter-wide, half-transparent sphere of high-pressure shockwave exploded into being.

Air was compressed, heated, then exploded outward at supersonic speed, expanding, tearing, and crushing everything in its path.

Brook’s swollen body, his mountain-breaking fist, were as fragile as paper before the raw physics of the airburst.

“PUH!”

Brook’s massive frame was blown backward like a ragdoll, the forward charge instantly reversed.

He flew even faster than he had attacked, his muscles twisted by the shockwave, flesh torn, blood spraying from mouth, nose, and countless wounds.

He didn’t even leave the platform, his body slammed by the shockwave against the protective Arena wall dozens of meters away.

BANG!!!

A terrifying crash shook the reinforced wall, cracks spider-webbing instantly.

Brook slid down like a mass of ruined flesh, leaving a bloody, pulped trail at the base.

His bones were shattered, muscles ruptured, his body a broken bag of blood—only breath escaping, none entering, as he lost all consciousness.

Whether alive or dead was unknown.

The aftershock tore through the Arena, toppling people in the stands, robes fluttering.

The whole Arena fell silent.

A needle could be heard.

Everyone was frozen mid-motion, mouths open, eyes fixed on the figure still standing with an outstretched arm, white robe drifting, then at the bloody pulp by the wall.

Wind magic?

Fire magic?

What was that?!

An instant fire-air sphere, and then…then it was over?

Brook—the drug-fueled demon—just…was gone?

The absolute visual shock and mental dissonance blanked everyone’s minds.

Lin En slowly lowered his hand, brushing dust from his robe as if he’d swatted a noisy fly.

Without glancing at Brook’s ruin, he turned and walked calmly off the platform.

That calmness was a jarring contrast to the dead silence.

Only as his figure neared the exit did the stands erupt.

“My God! What kind of magic was that?!”

“The air…the air exploded?! Did I see right?!”

“Brook…is he still alive?”

“Instant cast! Again instant! The power…the power was terrifying!”

“Is he really an Apprentice?! Are all of Morton’s disciples this terrifying?!”

“That battle style…that phantom movement, that casual magic combo, and the final…the air bomb…”

A student muttered, awe and confusion in his voice.

“This isn’t a normal mage…he’s like…like a magician playing tricks…”

“Arcane Trickster…yes! Arcane Trickster Lin En!”

The nickname fell like a stone into a calm lake, sending waves through the crowd.

“Arcane Trickster! It’s perfect!”

“Arcane Trickster Lin En!”

“My God…waste Lin En…was actually Arcane Trickster Lin En?!”

Exclamations and awed murmurs swept the stands like a tidal wave.

The title “Arcane Trickster,” fused with that mind-bending combat and earth-shattering finale, was seared into everyone’s minds, spreading rapidly through Folan Magic and Martial Academy and Academy City itself.

Lin En’s pace didn’t falter, as if the storm of “Arcane Trickster” behind him had nothing to do with him.

In his mind, he was already analyzing the Crystal Core data from the fight, pondering how to further optimize the energy conversion efficiency and compression ratio of the Cloudburst.

Fame?

Nicknames?

Merely byproducts of experimentation.

True exploration was just beginning.

In the Secret Chamber, the Crystal Ball’s light shone on Morton’s aged face, etched with shock and complexity.

He looked at Lin En’s departing back, then at the replayed gray-white shockwave that had erased the berserk Brook.

His dry lips moved silently.

He took a deep breath.

In his cloudy eyes, amidst the storm, a burning light ignited.

“This child…Arcane Trickster…”

“Nearly monstrous.”