William and Uri competed back and forth with Supreme Left and Unbreakable Right in a battle of wits and attrition, each pair using multi-layered schemes to waste the other party's Mana more efficiency.
Spirit Auras were raised, Forcefields recovered and shattered again, and dozens of Spells cast in a period of just a few minutes. The moves alternated erratically between extreme quantity and great quality, dozens of Fireballs cast by Supreme Left countered by oceans of William's Water Mana, only to be redirected with a simple Earth Wall from Unbreakable Right.
It had become a stalemate through and through, but William could sense that he was on the back foot. Uri was powerful, but his Mana Reserves weren't as profound as the two legendary Cultivators and he was slowly losing steam.
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William had plenty of Mana left, but it wouldn't make a difference if his partner was forced to retreat. He considered following the System's suggestion and leaving the area, but there was no guarantee he could keep his friends alive in the process.
While they had been transported to safety temporarily, it wouldn't take but a few hours for Supreme Left to locate them if he was actively searching. That was assuming they were well-hidden. If William tried to pick them up while escaping, he would only lead his enemies to them.
He transitioned to a more aggressive fighting tactic, bearing the brunt of his enemies' attacks to lighten the load on Uri. With the Regeneration Talent and the Life Element, William had much more leeway to take damage than the Flame Dragon did.
Because of this, William's wounds started to pile up over the next hour until he aged another year. His efforts didn't come unrewarded, however, since Uri was still in decent condition and could fight for some time longer.
On the other end, Unbreakable Right was breathing heavily from raising Earth Wall after Earth Wall to deal with William's attacks. He consumed a few dozen Tier 6 Mana Regeneration Pills to recover, staring wildly at the Core Formation Cultivator that was fighting both of them almost by himself.
Where does he get his Mana from? the man wondered as he tried to sense William's Mana flow. He didn't have a large number of sensory abilities, but his Cultivation was enough to notice a few minor details. It seemed that William's Mana was coming from one of the layers of space, but he couldn't tell which.
What more, William found himself buffed by the lava, his Fire and Earth Mana reacting wildly as if they were enjoying the best meal of their life. The Heat Resistance Talent seemed to be taking in William's opponents' Mana and feeding his own Elements to make them stronger.
He looked at the Heat Resistance Talent's information in the System Panel.
-SS-Rank Bonus Effect: Flames are your companion; Lava is your lover. When your body is partially covered in flames, increase the power of your Fire Magic by 100%. When your body is partially covered in lava, increase the power of your Earth and Fire Magic by 100%. When affected by both, both effects apply.
This is my chance! I need to use it wisely, though.
William couldn't set himself on fire before because Supreme Left had always been maintaining the Fire Domain, and allowing his opponent's attack to hit him would be too obvious. He wanted to save such a move as a last resort or trump card to surprise his enemies.
But now that he was under the lava and temporarily hidden from their view, he allowed the lava to bypass the protective Arrays set on William's clothing and set some of the fabric ablaze.
He only had to meet the "partially" requirement, and not his entire body on fire. His Mana became even more rampant, doubling in strength on top of all the other percentage bonuses. It wasn't just a simple increase of 200% of his base Fire Magic ability, but rather triple what he had before!
It was just enough for William's Fire and Earth Magic to exceed his opponents', but he knew the outcome would be set at that point. His enemies might run away, but that wouldn't be the end of it. They'd come back later to bother him or target his friends, and that was unacceptable.
So what was the best solution? How could he stop two of the most legendary figures from simply running away when they had lost the advantage?
I'll just have to make sure they can't run. System, upgrade my Fire and Earth Affinities to the next level.