Enter the Intermediate-Level Mage!

Ice Element against Lightning Element — in a straight one-on-one, Lightning clearly had the edge.

At the Intermediate level, Luo Song already found himself outmatched against Mo Fan. He absolutely could not let Mo Fan's Summoning Element training go smoothly on top of that. If Mo Fan's Summoning power kept growing, the day would come when Luo Song couldn't even beat his Summoned Beast.

That was something he simply could not allow.

So anything that could throw an obstacle in Mo Fan's cultivation path — Luo Song had no qualms about stepping in. Besides, he was already annoyed by the Summoning Element student controlling the Bone-Eating Demon. That pathetic creature strutting around like it was the greatest thing in the world?

Laughable.

"You're Earth Element? Earth Element's not much use against the Bone-Eating Demon — maybe hang back and wait for the next group?" A cluster of students hesitating at the challenger entrance spotted Luo Song approaching.

Luo Song didn't spare them a glance as he walked past. "Did I say I was joining your group?"

"The hell? If you're so great, go take down the Bone-Eating Demon yourself."

"Exactly — who does he think he is, strutting around like that? Can't stand people like this." The group erupted in curses behind him.

Luo Song had never needed anyone. He stepped into the massive barrier-cage.

The Bone-Eating Demon was circling above a smug-faced Wang Liting, who squinted at Luo Song and grinned. "Hey, chubby — know what my Bone-Eating Demon loves most? Guys like you, with all that extra meat on their bones!"

"Do you know how many pieces a block of ice shatters into when it falls from thirty meters?" Luo Song regarded him with mild curiosity.

"I think there's something wrong with your head." Wang Liting had no idea what Luo Song was talking about and ordered the Bone-Eating Demon to attack.

"You'd better pray your Bone-Eating Demon has solid bones," Luo Song said, tone as arrogant as ever, "or picking up the pieces afterward will be a real hassle."

As he spoke, he closed his eyes.

When they opened again, a bone-deep chill surged through the entire battle-cage.

**Crack... crack... crack...**

White frost appeared on the ground without warning — first scattered flecks of crystalline ice, then a ferocious wave of freezing that rapidly blanketed the arena around Luo Song in a thick shell of solid ice.

"Ice Lock!"

The formation snapped into place. Beneath his frost-locked legs, a brilliantly glowing ice-white Star Chart wove itself into being, the vast energy coiled within it radiating outward with Luo Song at its center.

"Rise!" He barked the word, and the frozen ground beneath him shattered apart.

From the cracks came a sharp clanging of metal, and then great chains of ice — each as thick as a man's fist — shot into the air.

Linked together by solid iron locks, they hung cold and desolate around Luo Song's body...

"Oh my god!"

"In-Inter... Intermediate..."

"That chubby kid is an Intermediate-Level Mage!"

The entire arena went still.

Everyone stared in open shock as Luo Song manipulated those fearsome ice chains, disbelief written across every face.

The students who had been hurling curses at him moments ago looked ready to pick their jaws up off the floor. They finally understood what Luo Song had meant when he'd brushed past without a word — that unspoken *don't bother thanking me* was now blindingly obvious.

What did it matter that the Summoning Element ruled at the Basic level? Once an Intermediate-Level Mage stepped onto the field, who could stand against them?

Wang Liting's face might as well have frozen solid.

He'd heard rumors that one of Pearl Academy's freshmen had already reached the Intermediate level, but he hadn't taken it seriously — only to find that someone actually had, and it was this entirely unremarkable chubby kid standing right before him.

"Damn it!"

His expression shifted; he scrambled to recall his Bone-Eating Demon.

The ice chains erupted in clanging chaos as they launched skyward under Luo Song's control.

Fast as the Bone-Eating Demon was, it could not escape the encirclement of four or five long chains closing in from every direction.

The ice-colored chains wrapped around the creature without mercy and hoisted it into the air. The freezing energy pouring from the chains rapidly invaded its body.

The Bone-Eating Demon was no hardier than other Demon-Beasts. Against the overwhelming force of Intermediate-Level Ice Element magic, it had no capacity to resist at all. First its skin was blanketed entirely in frost — then the frost forced its way inside.

At last, the Bone-Eating Demon became a perfectly lifelike ice sculpture suspended in the air.

At that same moment the Ice Lock shattered, and the frozen Bone-Eating Demon plummeted straight down from over thirty meters above the ground.

**CRASH!**

The ice block exploded on impact, fractures running from the creature's claws all the way up to its fleshy wings...

Wings and claws alike shattered completely under the force, sending ice shards skittering across the ground in every direction.

"No — no... NO!" Wang Liting could barely form words. He nearly dropped to his knees.

His family had gone to enormous effort to obtain this Bone-Eating Demon for him. If it died, Wang Liting would be utterly finished — he could forget about holding any ground at Pearl Academy.

The arrogance that had plastered his face was gone without a trace. He stumbled forward, hollow-eyed, toward the Summoned Beast that was his everything.

Luo Song's gaze was cold and unreadable, without a trace of sympathy.

In the real world, the strong devoured the weak. Luo Song had never cultivated a habit of pity, and holding back simply was not something he did.

"Calm down — your Summoned Beast should still be alive." Gu Han stepped forward and efficiently moved the frozen creature over to Healing Element teacher Ruan Ya.

Ruan Ya shook her head with a helpless sigh and swiftly assembled her Healing Element Star Chart.

Luo Song glanced at the Intermediate-Level Healing Element magic at work and couldn't help curling his lip. *With a Healing teacher on hand, that Bone-Eating Demon's miserable hide gets to see another day.*

The whole fight had lasted only moments, yet the uproar throughout the arena refused to die down.

They had now witnessed firsthand just how overwhelming Intermediate-Level magic truly was — the Bone-Eating Demon that not one student of any element had managed to stop had been swept aside like rubbish.

"Both of you — come at once." Luo Song pointed directly at the remaining Summoning Element students, his bearing radiating total contempt. "No point dragging this out."

The remaining two were furious. They had no intention of backing down — they were going to avenge Wang Liting.

"His Intermediate Ice Element magic can only take down one Summoned Beast at a time," the two muttered to each other. "Let my beast take the hit first; then you move in and finish him while he's exposed."

"Got it!"

"You really shouldn't go," Mo Fan said, offering a word of genuine advice.

"Stay here hiding like a turtle — you're completely useless!" The two shared Wang Liting's dorm room; the bond ran deep, and in their fury they had no ears for anything Mo Fan had to say.

Mo Fan had given them fair warning. If they wouldn't listen, there was nothing more he could do. *This world never ran short of people who excelled at flaming their own teammates and feeding the enemy easy kills.*