566 Chapter 566: Crystal Armor Scorpion

"Run!" the lead guy screamed, casting a wind spell to defend himself while gesturing frantically at his teammates. Even without his warning, the others were already turning on their heels and sprinting in the opposite direction.

Just a second later and they would have been pulverized. The pincer of the Crystal Armor Scorpion swung down and smashed the ground, sending a spray of debris scattering across the coliseum.

"Damn it!"

One of the guys stumbled as he tried to get away, cursing while he was being pelted by small chunks of concrete. He tripped when one of the larger rocks smacked right into his back and he was sent crashing into the ground. He rolled to his knees, but couldn't do anything when he saw the pincer of the Crystal Armor Scorpion rose above him. His face turned pale and cold sweat ran down his cheeks, mingling with tears.

He was suddenly aware that he wouldn't be able to get away in time.

"Oh, shit…"

"Watch out!"

"This isn't good!"

The spectators cried in fear when they saw their fellow schoolmate get pulverized. The poor guy was smashed into a bloody pulp in an instant, even before he could cast any spell. The boundary field generated around the arena would keep him alive, but it didn't prevent his body from being mangled beyond recognition.

"Weakling," Hai Da Pang sneered, crossing his arms with a smirk.

"Boy…" the professor in a lab coat sighed as he exhaled a ring of smoke, the cigarette still in his mouth. He raised a hand and cast a telekinesis spell to ferry the student's maimed body away from the arena. "This sure as hell got bloody."

The remaining three mages scattered, but the Crystal Armor Scorpion continued to bear down on them, hot in pursuit. One of them managed to conjure a transparent barrier that withstood the Crystal Armor Scorpion's pincer strike for a moment. His hands glowed as he began casting another spell.

"Flash!" he shouted, and for an instant the entire stadium was engulfed in a blinding golden light. "I'm going to blind you!"

The spectators shrieked and cried out as they shielded their eyes from the sudden brilliance. Even Hai Da Pang cursed as he swiveled away, covering his eyes.

"Damn it!"

"Hah!" the light mage crowed as he rose to his feet. "At such close range, my spell has definitely blinded your soul beast. I am Xie Yan, and I will be the one who defeats you!"

I watched from a distance, impressed. Well, this was Vermillion University, after all. Of course students who enrolled here were smart and gifted. This guy knew how to use his light magic in such a creative manner.

"Isn't that better for us?" the guy next to him replied with a laugh. Everyone turned to stare at him, perplexed, and he continued without any hesitation. "That's one down. Now there are only five people left competing for the spirit enhancement elixirs."

"Five?" Zheng Ying Shou repeated, confused. "Don't you mean six?"

Yeah, seven minus one was six, not five. Where did this guy learn his math from? His magic teacher, maybe?

"Are you actually counting him?" the arrogant bastard jabbed a finger at me. "There's no point including him among us. He hasn't summoned anything at all."

"Uh…none of us except Hai Da Pang have," Zheng Ying Shou pointed out incredulously. "And we are all in the same department. We are all fellow summoners. We should be working together, not sowing discord amongst ourselves. Especially since we have to fight the rest of the school by ourselves."

He took a deep breath, a bead of perspiration rolling down his right cheek. Evidently our class representative was anxious.

"Do you remember what Professor Simmons said? If we don't defeat at least 100 people, the resources that were originally allocated for us will be given to the other mages who put on a better display than us."

"Don't worry so much," the arrogant prick said dismissively as he waved his hand. He grinned and jabbed a thumb at himself. "If you guys can't hit the target of 100, I'll carry you all and get all 100 on my own."

"Wow, Wang Chui Niu, you really know how to boast." Zheng Ying Shou pushed his glasses up his nose as he glared at the arrogant fella.

Oh, so the guy was Wang Chui Niu. I never learned his name because he was too proud to introduce himself to me. For some reason, he treated me like trash. Probably because I was the main character and all other people in the story must always treat me like trash just to contrive some sort of conflict so that I could embarrass them later. Typical of Chinese webnovels. I wished they could come up with deeper and more realistic characters.

Despite their conversation, Hai Da Pang was far from down yet. He was rubbing his eyes and looking annoyed.

"Seems like you've spent all your mana on stupid spells," he remarked, a vein popping in his temple from rage.

The Crystal Armor Scorpion, despite bleeding from its eyes, still had not fallen. With a monstrous shriek, it hammered the barrier with a pincer. The sharp end of the pincer pierced through the barrier and drove in deeper, cracking it. The barrier could only withstand a few more blows before it finally shattered in shards of fading light.

Ichor continued to drip from the Crystal Armor Scorpion's eyes as it chittered incessantly, its mandibles clacking in a threatening manner. Hissing, it drew closer to Xie Yan, who merely looked amused as he cast another light spell.

"Hah! You've been blinded. What could you possibly do? You can't see me!"

At least that was what he thought, but the Crystal Armor Scorpion turned to stare at him with its many bleeding eyes. Xie Yan suddenly feld a stab of cold dread and he backed away subconsciously, sweat pouring down his face.

"No way, impossible…" he murmured, but the Crystal Armor Scorpion smacked him across the coliseum with its huge pincer. The glowing light barrier that wreathed his body shattered and he crashed into the wire meshing of the cage with tremendous impact. He then slid back, blood spurting from his mouth.

His body bruised and battered, he could hardly get to his feet. It seemed like the blow had broken a few of his bones. Raising his head pitifully, he stared at the approaching Crystal Armor Scorpion in disbelief.

"No way! This…this can't be…! I blinded the summoned beast…how…how can it see me?"

"Ha ha ha ha!" Hai Da Pang burst out laughing, his hands on his hips. The idiot was flinching just a minute ago, so I had no idea why he was acting so confidently. "Don't you know that Crystal Armor Scorpions don't really have good eyesight in the first place? It doesn't really have to rely on vision to find you!"

The professor in the white lab coat sighed and used his telekinetic spell to ferry the poor guy out of the cage and placed his broken body on a stretcher.

"Hang in there, kid," he told the dude while still chewing his cigar. "I'll fix you up in a moment. For now, you'll be sent to the infirmary."

One of the female healing mages ran out to accompany the floating stretcher. The dude in the white lab coat nodded at her.

"Miss Yi Ya, he's all yours."

The healing mage frowned as she began to cast healing spells on Xie Yan. "You should have intervened earlier. This child's injuries are severe."

"With the boundary field intact? No one's going to die. Also, I have to protect about a hundred students. I need to conserve my mana as much as possible, or I'll run out before the day is over."

"You guys are too weak!" Hai Da Pang was chortling as his Crystal Armor Scorpion ran amok. One of the other mages twisted around and cast a lightning spell. Like Darth Sidious before him, he raised both hands to throw webs of electricity at the advancing Crystal Armor Scorpion.

"UNLIMITED POWER!" he hollered. The white net of lightning zapped the massive bulk of the Crystal Armor Scorpion, dancing around its exoskeleton.

For a moment, it seemed as if it had worked. The lightning sizzled across the Crystal Armor Scorpion's white, crystalline shell, causing fumes of smoke to rise. The Crystal Armor Scorpion stopped in mid-stride, seemingly paralyzed by the electricity.

"Hah!" the lightning mage crowed. "How do you like that? My lightning spells have a paralysis effect to them! Unless you have Full Restore or Full Heal, there's no way you can get rid of the status!"

"Wait, we can use items in combat?" I asked, astonished.

"Yeah," Zheng Ying Shou replied with a nod. "We can use medicine to cancel out ailments and status effects, and restore our summoned beasts' HP."

What was this, Pokemon? And what the fuck was HP? We didn't have such things in real life.

"Okay…maybe no such medicines conveniently existed," Zheng Ying Shou admitted when he caught me glaring at him. He raised both of his hands sheepishly. "Sorry, I was joking. I play too much Pokemon."

In any event, Hai Da Pang didn't bother to use any medicines or items. His Crystal Armor Scorpion continued to fight the crackling lightning, even as the lightning mage cackled like some mad Emperor and continued to fry the poor beast with more lightning.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Unlimited power! The Dark Side of the Force is invincible!"

…was the guy a Sith Lord now?

In any event, the Crystal Armor Scorpion was not amused. It swung its pincer and smacked the Sith Emperor wannabe away with such impact that it ended up creating a fissure in the ground. The poor lightning mage was sent tumbling head over heels, his broken body finally crashing onto the ground in an undignified heap.

"Long live…the Empire…" he gasped before he expired. Or lost consciousness, since the boundary field would keep him alive.

The two remaining mages glanced at the poor guy, shocked from the turn of events. They both gulped, sweat pouring down their pale complexions, and turned to watch the advancing Crystal Armor Scorpion in dread.

Licking his lips, Hai Da Pang stroked his chin arrogantly. He winked at them and snorted in a condescending manner.

"Looks like the both of you are the only ones left. Let's finish this. I still have about ninety-five more opponents to go after you."