Ashe didn't move even after hearing Lucius' signal to start the battle.

In her opinion, Vale still needs a decade or two before he can become a threat to her. Right now, she's only looking at a practitioner who didn't even have a year of proper combat experience.

'Let's see what that Dark Spirit can do…' Ashe muttered to herself as Phantasm State remained fully active and focused on the Dark Spirit's movement.

Vale may not be a threat but the Dark Spirit may bring her some surprise.

Suddenly, three blurry figures were summoned by Vale and they targeted her in three different directions…

Whoosh~

To her surprise, they were actually three Undead Hands—No, they were Ghost Hands but they weren't illusory at all!

"Advanced Realm?!"

Ashe was shocked. Even her Ghost Hands weren't in the Advanced Realm yet! She only has 2 Advanced Realm Dark Spells and Ghost Hand wasn't one of them.

In the first place, who would spend so much time in such a basic Dark Spell to the point of progressing it to the Advanced Realm?!

Ashe still didn't move as she allowed the three Ghost Hands to approach her…

'Create: Shadow Soldier…'

The moment the Ghost Hands were about to grab her, a figure made of darkness appeared in front of her…

Bam!

The Ghost Hand attacking her in front slammed on the Shadow Soldier's body while the other two were caught by its hands!

With a single spell, Ashe was able to suppress the three Advanced Realm Ghost Hands!

Vale's eyes lit up after seeing this. Although he had seen Professor Morton demonstrate the Create Shadow Soldier spell in their class, seeing it being summoned by another Practitioner was still an eye-opener for him.

The one that Professor Morton summoned was like a child compared to the one summoned by Ashe!

As expected of the Order's Squad Vice Captain, she seems to have more talent than their professor.

Anyway, he didn't stop controlling his Ghost Hands even after being captured…

He soon showed the real power of an Advanced Realm Spell!

Boom!

The hands grabbing the two Ghost Hands exploded!

Vale didn't detonate the Ghost Hands but he controlled them to change their size! The Ghost Hands became bigger and the Shadow Soldier failed to restrain them!

Soon, three large Ghost Hands struck Ashe in succession!

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The strikes were strong but weren't enough to bring down the Spellcaster.

"Hmm?" Vale frowned at the success of his Ghost Hands' attack. Ashe should have some time to react but she just watched the Ghost Hands strike her.

Then, as he controlled his Ghost Hands to restrain her, Ashe suddenly made a move as she used her unsheathed rapier to strike the Ghost Hands!

In a single swing of her rapier, the three Ghost Hands were shattered at the same time!

It was such an effortless move so Vale was even more confused why she allowed herself to be struck by his Dark Spell.

Ashe then shifted her attention to Vale and said with a smile.

"That's incredible. It's not every day I see Advanced Realm Ghost Hands, so I want to see how strong they are. That was a good one."

She praised with a genuine smile on her face.

Nevertheless, Vale simply smirked at this as Yvaine finally made her move!

Yvaine is now wearing her Shadow Cloak as she arrives behind Ashe… At the same time, Vale also triggered his two Mystical Artifacts, the Nymph Scale and the Murloc's Gem at the same time!

Activating both of them could cause strain on his muscles if it was prolonged so he didn't waste his time and charged toward his opponent.

Yvaine used a technique that could bring nightmares to anyone who saw her eyes. However, Ashe seemed to be aware of this as she actually closed her eyes the moment Yvaine got closer.

Nevertheless, Ashe was still capable of fighting… The Shadow Soldier she summoned has already recovered and regained its limbs.

She used the Intermediate Realm Shadow Soldier to try and deal with Dark Spirit.

For some reason, Ashe seemed to be having fun and wasn't using her deadly spells. The moment she noticed Vale charging in, she instead cast the Light Absorption Spell and Darkness Manipulation Spell!

She can actually cast three Dark Spells at the same time!

The Light Absorption Spell blinded Vale for a brief moment as he missed his target.

Furthermore, with her Darkness Manipulation Spell, she was able to gather enough Dark Energy to protect herself and to strength her Shadow Soldier!

Lastly, with the Light Absorption Spell active around her, the Shadow Soldier's speed and power had also increased!

This is one of the passive skills of the spell, making the three Academy-Exclusive Spells very harmonious.

Of course, Vale didn't panic as his Spell Dispersion Spell activated at the right time. However, he activated it in a range in which Ashe wouldn't be covered by the Spell Dispersion…

She can only guess what had happened on how he became unaffected by her Light Absorption Spell.

Then, with a flick of his fingers, he used two of his Elemental Talismans!

One of the talismans has an Ice Shard, while the other has a Wind Arrow!

They were the talismans he obtained from the Elementalists of the Rakmiths Academy.

This unexpected form of attack surprised Ashe, but that was it… With a swing of her rapier, the two low-tier Elemental Spells were shattered as well.

At this time, Vale finally noticed that the rapier she was using was being covered by a strong Dark Energy the moment it clashed with the spells.

"Now!"

Vale shouted as he saw the spells being shattered. This command was meant for Yvaine who was playing around with the Shadow Soldier…

Ashe was shocked as she felt a very threatening energy fluctuation behind her…

She realized that the Dark Spirit had formed a dozen dark tentacles aiming to devour her! She even noticed that her Shadow Soldier was utterly immobile!

She was about to trigger one of her spells to escape since she was afraid that she'd be forced to kill the Dark Spirit with her rapier when suddenly, a slightly warm hand grabbed her forearm.

Then, her Spell Activation was canceled and before she could even react, she felt a strong suction force draining something out of her!