The rapidly growing ice thorns of the Snowblossom Spirit slammed fiercely against the Celestial Tortoise's shell, not even leaving a white mark.
Sylvia furrowed her willow-like brows. The hardness of this tortoise shell far exceeded her expectations.
Coupled with Brandt's Piercing Impulse that could penetrate everything, it was simply the perfect combination of the sharpest spear and the sturdiest shield.
Avelia's Primordial Assimilation also failed to affect the Celestial Tortoise.
As an abyssal race of Sequence No.14, it was closer to the Origin Sequence than the Nether Raven Tribe.
Without the blessing of Eternal Symbiosis, ordinary mental interference would have no effect at all.
This was merely the first tentative exchange between the three sides.
Avelia pointed her hands at Brandt and Sylvia and shouted in a low voice: "Blood Coagulation Domination!"
Even though both of them had long prepared Abyssal Armaments to resist Avelia's ability, the blood in their bodies was still forcefully stirred, and their figures suddenly froze for a few seconds.
In that fleeting gap, Kylen drew the Night Devourer Longbow, condensed dark red blood arrows at his fingertips.
The bowstring trembled slightly, and the arrowheads turned into afterimages, shooting toward the two.
Boom!
The blood arrow hit the Celestial Tortoise's shell, only sparking a few sparks before shattering into a blood mist.
The defense of this tortoise shell was actually able to withstand the penetration power of the Night Devourer Longbow.
And Sylvia's side was even more bizarre. The blood arrow suddenly lost speed, less than ten centimeters away from her, as if crashing into an invisible quagmire, and finally shattered into blood droplets all over the sky in the twisted spatial ripples.
It was never realistic to win with blood arrows. Kylen just wanted to use this attack to figure out the two's defense methods.
Brandt and the Celestial Tortoise's abilities seemed simple and brutal, but the Celestial Tortoise had never shown any special skills, clearly hiding a trump card.
Sylvia's Snowblossom Spirit mainly attacked with infinitely proliferating ice roses and thorns.
From her performance of blocking the arrow just now, her own ability should be spatial distortion.
After all, the Spirit Tribe was inherently good at both spatial and mental attributes, but her other ability still needed further testing.
A faint smile curled on Sylvia's lips. Her S-rank talent Spirit Space Severance could distort three ten-centimeter square spaces on the battlefield.
This ability had an extremely high growth ceiling, but once its pattern was figured out, intensive attacks could overwhelm her.
For this reason, she had contracted the Snowblossom Spirit, using its proliferation to make up for the shortcomings of intensive defense.
She shared the same idea as Kylen: never let the opponent take control of the rhythm.
Her mental power had reached Astral Lake, but she had not contracted a third creature, waiting for an Origin Sequence or top-tier upper Sequence.
Now that Avelia had appeared, she had even specially contracted a second Plant Spirit, aiming to capture Avelia alive.
But now was not the time to rush. She must first deal with Brandt, then activate Moonlit Demon Night.
If she exposed her trump card now, it would only force Kylen and Brandt to join forces.
At that time, the incompletely awakened Moonlit Demon Night might not be able to trap the two.
Although the three sides exchanged blows evenly, they all held back their trump cards and maintained restraint throughout.
At the Stellar Plaza outside the Abyssal Simulation Domain, Quentin, a Star-Ranked Mentor from Zephyr Contract Academy, sighed:
"Kylen is not at all at a disadvantage facing the two. Now it depends on who becomes the target of the alliance first. Once targeted, they will probably miss the championship."
But Urien shook his head with a smile: "Not necessarily. Have you forgotten? Besides Kylen and Sylvia, Brandt has two more people behind him."
Only then did the audience notice that while the three geniuses were engaged in a fierce battle, Nia and Fritz, another contestant from Riverside Beast Contract Academy, were squatting behind and quietly drawing array patterns, patterns of a teleportation array.
"No wonder Brandt made the first move! They were prepared!"
"I wondered why Riverside Beast Contract Academy brought a contestant with a B-rank talent.
It turns out his contracted creature is used to set up the teleportation array!"
"They're going all in! Riverside Beast Contract Academy wants to eliminate the other two favorites in the first round!"
"Nia's talent, Spirit Body Dissociation, can split the spirit body to track others.
She must have figured out the positions of all her teammates long ago and let them set up the teleportation array in advance!"
"On the surface, it's a three-way free-for-all, but in reality, it's a gang fight by Riverside Beast Contract Academy!"
Inside the simulation domain, Kylen also noticed the movement on Nia's side.
The array patterns glowed with a faint blue light, clearly reaching the final stage.
The beasts he lured would take another fifteen minutes to reach the summit.
If all the members of Riverside Beast Contract Academy were teleported here, the situation would become completely passive.
"Avelia! Attack over there first!"
Kylen spread his Crimson-Horned Dragon Wings, soared into the air, drew the Night Devourer Longbow again to its full extent, and shot three blood arrows at Nia and Fritz at the same time.
Sylvia also sensed something was wrong. The ice vines of the Snowblossom Spirit broke through the ground and grew wildly toward the teleportation array, trying to destroy the array's foundation.
But Brandt grinned: "Too late. From the moment I made a move, you had no chance."
"Celestial Tortoise, Heavenly Mandate Mystic Shield!"
The Celestial Tortoise's shell suddenly lifted into the air, glowing with dazzling golden light.
A translucent golden shield stretched across in front of Nia.
The blood arrows shattered into blood mist when they hit the shield, and the ice rose vines that wrapped around the shield were also bounced away.
This was actually an absolute defense.
Nia clapped her hands, and the light of the teleportation array suddenly intensified: "Done!"
A faint blue beam of light shot straight into the sky. Kylen and Avelia instantly understood:
Nia's spirit body had already found all the participating contestants of Riverside Beast Contract Academy and let them replicate the teleportation array at their respective positions.
Teleportation spirit arrays were not suitable for battlefield use. They were slow to draw, easy to interrupt, and could only teleport unidirectionally.
But Nia's Spirit Body Dissociation just made up for these flaws, allowing precise positioning and synchronous activation of array patterns in the abyss.
In the next second, faint blue beams of light rose from various parts of the mountainside.
Contestants fighting with beasts, Contractors confronting those from other academies, all stepped into the teleportation arrays and appeared at the summit in an instant.
Brandt took out a bronze holy grail covered with water patterns from his arms, his eyes arrogant: "It's time for me to draw the end of this exchange tournament."
"You have no chance."
This was a Mythic Class Abyssal Relic found by the principal of Riverside Beast Contract Academy in the Thousand Lakes Abyss, the Lakeward Chalice.
Low-tier Contractors could not normally use Mythic Class armaments, but this holy grail was a natural Origin Relic, hailed as a Divine Era Legacy.
It could be used directly without forging, with no side effects or level restrictions, and was one of the top relics in the abyss.
To eliminate Kylen and Sylvia, Brandt and Riverside Beast Contract Academy had bet everything.
In the extreme environment of the Blizzard Calamity, the abyssal lake water gushing out of the holy grail would instantly freeze into an avalanche, completely burying Kylen and Sylvia under the blizzard.
Meanwhile, the members of Riverside Beast Contract Academy standing high on the summit would be unharmed and secure all the elimination round spots.