A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 74 Valley of the Gods

The rest of the time could be considered garbage time. It seemed to be deliberately arranged, as the strong teams never met. It was almost always two weak teams fighting each other, or a strong team playing a weak team.

There's absolutely nothing worth watching.

Jiang Shuzhou used the same trick again, launching a sneak attack when the two teams were locked in a fierce battle, successfully wiping out two more teams.

One trick is all you need; as long as it works, use it to the fullest.

In less than an hour and a half, only four teams remained on the field.

They are Jiang Shuzhou's Shadow of the Law team, the Animal Friends team that made a name for itself in the finals, the Phoenix team from Europe and America, and the Dragon Soar team from China.

The Animal Friends team was unknown before the battle, consisting of three druids. The reason they were able to make a name for themselves this time was mainly because they had too many animal friends, more than a dozen animals. With their numerical advantage alone, they were able to defeat many teams.

That's how the Azure Sky Team was defeated. Musketeers have high attack but low health. Even with three people and automatic weapons, they were no match for the enemy. After killing eight of the enemy's animals, they were pounced on and bitten by the other animals. In the end, they died in the Northwest and were eliminated.

"It can be seen that China's gaming strength is quite strong. Of the four teams, only one team is from abroad, and all the remaining teams are composed of Chinese people."

"An all-Chinese team!"

"China is awesome!"

"Go for it! Push those foreigners off the stage!"

Such comments flooded the commentary live stream room.

"Here! The Animal Friends team and the Phoenix team have met!"

The commentator's excited voice came through, and the main screen showed the confrontation between the Animal Friends team and the Phoenix team.

It's clear that both sides are very tense.

By this time, they all knew that there were only four teams left on the field, and that as long as they made it into the top three, they would receive a prize. Although they also wanted to win the championship, they thought that getting the prize would be good too.

The atmosphere was tense, and no one dared to make the first move, fearing that the other side would find an opportunity to counterattack.

"It seems both sides are being very cautious. Wait a minute? Am I seeing things?"

The scene shifts, revealing Jiang Shuzhou crouching behind a rock, concealing his figure. Undoubtedly, he is preparing to launch another sneak attack.

Upon seeing this, the live stream chat exploded again.

"Truly worthy of being called the Shadow of the Law! He has never engaged in direct combat, only resorting to sneak attacks."

"You might as well change your name to 'The Assassin Who Pursues the Law,' even assassins can't hide as well as you."

"Speaking of which, where is the thief?"

"Fun fact: Thieves have high attack and low defense, and short attack range. In the competitive meta, they are completely outclassed by Musketeers. Don't think Musketeers are weak just because so many of them have been eliminated."

"Wow! The best sense of smell ever! Wherever there's a battle, there's my Shadow Chaser!"

"Haha, as we can see, the Shadow Chaser team has undoubtedly found another good spot for a sneak attack, and they are now watching the two teams intently from the sidelines."

"Want to fight? Oh? The fighting has begun!"

Neither team wanted to fight at this point, but turning away was unlikely, since no one knew if the other would betray them.

This could be resolved through communication, but the Phoenix team and the Animal Friends team discovered through communication that...

One of them only speaks Mandarin, while the other only speaks English and French.

They spent a long time trying to communicate simply by gesturing, but they still couldn't reach a mutual understanding.

There's nothing we can do about it. Both sides suffered from a lack of education. If even one person on either side knew a foreign language, this battle would never have broken out.

Unfortunately, there are no "what ifs." In any case, neither side could trust the other, and the battle was inevitable.

"Break them down!"

The two paladins set up their shields and began their charge. However, compared to the heavy armor and shields of the other paladin, which weighed hundreds of kilograms, the charge of these two paladins was not as unstoppable.

Their entire set of equipment weighed less than 80 kilograms, consisting of ordinary light armor.

On the other side, the three druids, seeing the enemy's formation, quickly cast spells.

Numerous thorny vines coiled around the paladin, a testament to the power of nature.

The paladins' charge was blocked by the vines, forcing them to slow down and stop. Their equipment did not provide them with the momentum to break through the vines' obstruction.

The battle reached a stalemate once again.

On the other side, Jiang Shuzhou was about to make his move. Due to his personal preference, he decided to attack the Phoenix team first.

In any case, let's eliminate these believers first. After all, the two professional factions are completely opposed. Although Jiang Shuzhou and the Druids don't have a very good relationship, that's all a misunderstanding. Jiang Shuzhou himself is quite protective of the environment. It's just that the situation is special and he has no choice but to do this.

"bump!"

When faced with a situation where indecision arises, one should draw their gun and fire. Jiang Shuzhou picked up his pistol and fired at the Phoenix team members.

He mounted a high-powered scope on his pistol, originally intended for observing battlefield dynamics, but now it can also be used as a sniper scope.

"clang."

The bullet struck one of the paladins' armor, creating a small dent. Clearly, this paladin's defense wasn't as strong as that of the paladin representing the God of Protection; after all, even in death, his armor hadn't deformed.

One bullet was just an appetizer; Jiang Shuzhou fired as he rushed toward the Phoenix team's location.

"My friends over there are also Chinese. Let's take care of them first, and then we'll talk about other things, okay?"

Jiang Shuzhou spoke to the members of the Animal Friends Team.

"Okay, we agree."

One of the three men answered.

"What's wrong with you? Why did you agree so easily?"

A girl dressed in green, dressed rather lightly, and only 1.6 meters tall asked in a low voice.

"Cai Cai, why can't you understand? In this situation, every extra person helps, and our goal right now is to get into the top three and secure the reward."

"That's what the red-haired girl said."

"Yes, let's pretend to agree first, and then talk about it after the fight."

The man echoed, already prepared to cooperate with Jiang Shuzhou to secure a top-three finish.

Their team's strength has been greatly reduced due to the fierce battle with another team. Almost all the animals they had subdued are dead. If this were not just a competition where the dead animal friends could be resurrected, he would never have come to participate.

The other two were not unaware of the need for flexibility and understood their current situation, so they transformed into beasts and commanded the remaining five animals to assist Jiang Shuzhou.

At this moment, Jiang Shuzhou was fighting two paladins alone.

The two paladins surrounded him, intending to wear Jiang Shuzhou down little by little, but unfortunately they miscalculated.

They originally thought that the opposing team would sit back and watch the fight, and would not help Jiang Shuzhou no matter what. However, to their surprise, the opposing team chose to support Jiang Shuzhou.

This caught them completely off guard, but of course, there was something even more unexpected.

That means they can't break through Jiang Shuzhou's defenses.

They originally intended to defend against attacks with absolute defensive power and then slowly wear down their target. However, Jiang Shuzhou was different; low-level attacks simply couldn't break through his defenses.

"clang!"

The swords and blades struck his body, but made a sound as if they were striking armor. The rebounding vibrations made Prolan's hand go numb, and he almost dropped the sword.

"Damn it! What is this thing? How can it be so hard?"

He spoke in English; however, unfortunately, despite considering himself erudite, Jiang Shuzhou did not speak any foreign languages, so no one could respond to him at this moment. The only response he received was a knife from Jiang Shuzhou.

"puff."

The powerful attack pierced through the weak point of the armor in an instant, and Prolan was slashed in the waist.

The prolonged battle had caused some damage to his armor, not to mention that he had run out of divine magic.

"Proland!"

Vena, who was standing nearby, was startled. He immediately cast a divine spell on Proland to help stabilize his injuries, and then looked toward where the priest was.

Oh no, the pastor is in trouble!

Seeing nearly ten animals charging towards the priest's location, Vena felt a chill in her heart. She didn't intend to linger in the fight and took two steps back to prepare to rescue the priest.

Did I let you leave?

Seeing that the two paladins in front of him were clearly planning to run away, Jiang Shuzhou cast a spell to block their retreat.

Seeing the raging fire suddenly erupt on their way back to defend, the two paladins realized that the battle was over and they had no chance of victory.

They can't even beat a mage in melee combat, let alone in ranged combat.