Over the battlefield, Blondie had fully transformed into a little dragon. Her expression feverish, her whole body wreathed in blazing flames, she soared high in the sky like a bomber with infinite ammo, endlessly firing huge, missile-like Fireballs.

Below, a beautiful girl with black hair and red eyes watched the battlefield coolly. A faint blue light glimmered around her as she floated inside a protective shield, hands flashing through spell after spell. The small, standard-issue wand in her hand worked like a top-tier staff—a conductor’s baton—with every flick releasing several spells.

[Lightning Bolt] [Empowered Casting] [Mana Link] [Disruption Spell]

They were all basic first- and second-tier spells, but with her precise calculations, each one produced extraordinary results. She always managed to make things difficult for the enemy at exactly the right moment.

At the very bottom, a girl with a huge bun wore a gentle smile. Ten giant mechanical puppets formed a battle formation around her as she issued a steady stream of commands.

Three Bombers held their positions, protected by three Guardians in formation, and poured out fire without pause. The three Raiders waited for their chance, coordinating with Lina, who would occasionally dive down and try to tear open the enemy’s shield with her dragon claws, to deliver a fatal blow.

Another mechanical puppet stood beside her, one Jiang Cha had never seen before. It never unfolded, yet faint Mentalism waves radiated from it, assisting with each of her commands.

Core Puppet: Calculator.

The three girls worked together flawlessly. At a glance, Lina and He Qin seemed to be deploying their own tactical systems and fighting separately, but with Jiang Cha—their biggest brain—coordinating them from the center, even Casey, watching from the stands, had to admit that those three little troublemakers were a perfect match.

“This is way too obnoxious.”

It really was obnoxious.

He Qin defended, Lina attacked, and Jiang Cha covered the gaps. There wasn’t anything special about the setup on paper. Everyone knew how to fight against it. But with Jiang Cha coordinating them, no one at their level could handle it.

It was the most classic Witch squad tactic—and once mastered, one of the hardest to counter.

Normally, first-years couldn’t pull off this strategy at all. But… what could you do when Jiang Cha’s calculating power had evolved once again, reaching a truly inhuman level?

She only had to coordinate Lina and He Qin. Even if things got more complicated while the environment stayed the same, she could handle twice as much.

“What would you do if you ran into this?”

Casey turned to look at her teammates. They’d been partners for a long time and faced plenty of opponents, but they rarely came across a combination this unusual.

“Just drop a Tsar Bomba on them and end it. Mentor Carol’s pretty impressive, too—she can actually stay patient and keep grinding away at them.”

Her blue hair was as gentle as water, but this Witch had a downright explosive temper. She rolled her eyes and replied irritably.

“The main thing is that little Lina and that He Qin have such a complete tactical system. Otherwise, they couldn’t pull off this strategy. Mentor Carol probably wants to see where their limits are, too.”

He Qin sighed softly.

If she were out there, she’d do the same thing as her teammate. Against a setup like this, you either attack the defensive side head-on: if you break through, you win; if you can’t, try again next round.

Or you set a trap for the attackers and bury Lina. That’d settle it.

But that was exactly what made Jiang Cha and the others so obnoxious. It was obvious in the match that Carol, despite holding back her power, had used her extensive experience to try to break through one side.

But Jiang Cha saw straight through the trap Carol had set for Lina with a hidden spell. Her ability to read mana information was downright absurd. She even turned the tables with a combo of [Empowered Casting] [Might Spell] [Magic Shield] [Mana Link], making the little dragon’s offense more than twice as strong and leaving Carol in a sorry state.

Carol built up mana to try to break through He Qin’s puppet shields, only for the three Raiders to stop her. Jiang Cha really did nothing more than wave her wand before unleashing [Empowered Casting] [Magic Shield] [Mana Link] [Keen Edge] [Fireball] in rapid succession. Compared to when she’d defended Lina from the ambush, she’d only changed the spell order—and still had enough leeway to throw in two empowered Fireballs for an even better result.

If Carol hadn’t been a veteran Grand Witch whose traits, even with her power restricted, still far surpassed those of three first-year rookies, she’d have lost long ago.

After all, when three opponents of equal strength gang up on one person, experience doesn’t help and their skills are about the same, there’s nothing anyone can do.

“Damn, Mentor, that’s way too unfair!”

Lina spat out the blood in her mouth and cursed irritably. For the little dragon, who was just as obnoxious on offense as on defense, to say that showed how difficult Carol was to break through.

That woman was a Grand Witch of the Evocation school, yet damn near half her traits were focused on strengthening her defense.

Especially that [Stalwart Guardian]. It was completely ridiculous!

Physical attacks barely worked on her.

“I haven’t even complained about you three ganging up on me!”

Carol, meanwhile, stayed completely calm. She taunted them with ease. “What’s wrong, little brat? You’re so young, but you hit with so little force. What’re you going to do when you get older?”

Then she deliberately jiggled her chest, taking the taunt to the next level.

“Damn it!”

Lina pulled out a giant flaming sword. “I’m gonna cut that filthy thing of yours off in a minute!”

“Heh.”

Carol didn’t reply. She only gave a scornful laugh, making the flames around the little dragon girl flare even higher.

Any veteran Combat Witch knew a taunt or two. And young Blondie had been beaten by Carol so many times when they were evenly matched that trash talk accounted for at least a third of the humiliation.

Carol had used that trick plenty of times to beat Lina up and unwind.

But not today.

It was true that Blondie’s Red Dragon trait made her quick to fly into a rage during battle. The problem was that she had a completely emotionless external processor standing beside her!

Cha Bao in Full Power Mode didn’t care about trash talk. To her, the entire battle was just streams of information. Once her brain was running at full capacity, all she did was calculate the costs and benefits of offense and defense.

Feelings?

What use were those?

“Eight o’clock. Coordinates zero-eight-two. Fire.”

She gave a ruthlessly concise command. The next second, one of the three Bombers behind He Qin immediately shifted its fire.

“Lina, replenish your shield. Gather mana for Dragon Breath.”

And just like that, Carol’s carefully prepared hidden [Explosive Flame Spell] was countered. All it did was make the mana field inside the arena more chaotic.

“Damn, you’ve got no honor, you old hag!”

The moment Lina saw where the Explosive Flame Spell was hidden, she knew it had been aimed at her and started cursing on the spot.

“You little brat, you fight dirty too!”

Carol narrowly dodged the Fireball Lina had hidden behind Jiang Cha’s Lightning Bolt. It singed even her hair.

Witches didn’t gain resistance to a type of magic just by using it. Unless they transformed into a Red Dragon like Lina, taking a Fireball head-on with their bodies meant getting blasted to ashes.

But a Witch’s Fireball wasn’t like the kind magical creatures cast, which merely converted mana into flames. This thing was in an ionized state, with the force of a missile and a core blast radius of at least ten meters.

“We need a more powerful way to attack.”

Jiang Cha immediately worked out what they needed.

And Lina did have a more powerful spell.

[Red Dragon Trait Bonus Spell: Dragon Breath]

“There’s not enough time!”

The problem was that the spell needed ten seconds to charge. Ten seconds without anyone attacking was more than enough time for Carol, an offensive specialist, to smash through He Qin’s defenses.

“I can’t hold out that long.”

He Qin knew it herself, and there was no shame in saying so. Her opponent was a genuine ace-class Combat Witch, after all.

What did an ace-class Grand Witch mean?

Among all Witches, only Sages of an even higher rank could beat them in a fight. Even weaker academic Sages might lose to them.

They were the top tier of combat power beneath the Sages. Every day, they were either fighting or on their way to a fight. Their entire magic systems had been refined over decades, perfected to the point where they only needed minor adjustments to counter an opponent. Their magical artifacts were bottomless, and their magic gear was perfectly suited to them.

Even with Carol restricting her power and voluntarily sealing away all spells above the sixth tier, her powerful offense was more than first-year rookie He Qin could withstand.

Honestly, the only reason they’d lasted this long was that they had more people.

Ten seconds! That was enough time for Jiang Cha to cast dozens of spells! Lina could charge up a thousand Fireballs in a row!

“The only weakness in Lina and the others’ system is probably Jiang Cha, right? She’s a transfer student, so her spell library is ridiculously limited.”

Jiang Cha’s contribution to the match was irreplaceable. It was no exaggeration to say Lina and He Qin wouldn’t have lasted three minutes against Carol without the girl’s commands and support.

But her own relatively weak abilities were indeed the system’s weak point.

Fragile and lacking firepower—she was pure support!

“But she’s really cautious and always stays somewhere safe. Mentor Carol tried to bait her several times, but she never fell for it… That information-reading ability is way too unfair. It’s like fighting with the whole battlefield revealed.”

Reading and analyzing mana information on the battlefield to make tactical decisions was required training for every Combat Witch. But Jiang Cha had graduated before she’d even taken the class.

What did that mean?

It meant she was cheating!

Every Witch with a shot at becoming an ace had some kind of cheat ability. Jiang Cha’s just looked ridiculously overpowered in a match when paired with Lina and He Qin.

Imagine the enemy support and shot-caller in an LOL match seeing straight through the fog of war. How are you even supposed to play against that?!

How?

Carol had the answer.

“Five seconds, real woman! Skull-crushing strike!”

The scantily clad, dark-skinned beauty took a deep breath, wrapped herself in a Flame Shield, and charged straight through Lina’s Fireball explosion. In the blink of an eye, she was right in front of Jiang Cha!

‘Hehe~ Looks like I’ll still have to teach you how to hide your tactical intentions.’

Looking at the beautiful girl in front of her, whose delicate face remained as expressionless as a doll’s, Carol’s lips curled into a smug smile.

Even though the barrage of Fireballs had nearly shattered the three layers of Magic Shields around her, even though Lina and He Qin were just 0.01 seconds away from coming to the rescue.

That 0.01 seconds was still enough for her to kill Jiang Cha ten times over.

This match—

Was she still the winner…?

BOOOOM—!!!!