Kaier shared his speculations.
"Your analysis is decent," Dox praised, but in the next second, his tone shifted abruptly: "However, analyzing after the fact is still a step too slow. Battles change rapidly; there’s not so much time for you to ponder slowly. So, you’re still far off!"
After praising and then criticizing Kaier, Dox began to address Kaier’s doubts.
"Your guess is correct, Vay summoning the stone pillar was indeed a small mistake. He didn’t consider that his shadow had already connected with the stone pillar, giving the Shadow Phantom an opportunity."
Dox: "However, you got one thing wrong. The Shadow Phantom didn’t tamper with Vay’s shadow ’multiple times’; he actually did just one thing."
Kaier looked at Dox, waiting for him to reveal the answer.
However, Dox stopped speaking at this point and turned his gaze to Angel.
Angel: "Mycelial Mother."
Dox turned to Kaier: "That’s right, it’s the Mycelial Mother."
Kaier: ... Is it because you didn’t know, so you looked to Master Chaowei?
Kaier’s skeptical gaze made Dox a little uneasy. He turned his head slightly, avoiding direct eye contact with Kaier, and coughed lightly: "The name isn’t what’s important; understanding its effect is."
"The Mycelial Mother can attract split mycelial bodies. As you saw, the reason the fungal barrier expanded so quickly, and no matter where Vay went, the barrier could completely cover him, is because a Mycelial Mother was placed in his shadow."
Vay wanted to avoid the fungal barrier, moving swiftly on the arena stage. This action actually caused the barrier to expand rapidly.
Now, the reason Vay is lost within the fungal barrier is that no matter where he goes, the barrier above him can’t be shaken off. Even though there are areas on the arena stage not yet covered by the barrier, as soon as Vay finds these areas, the barrier will cover them in advance. So as long as the Mother exists in Vay’s shadow, he’ll keep losing his way on the arena stage.
Dox: "Besides attracting mycelial bodies, the Mycelial Mother seems to be controllable by the Shadow Phantom."
Earlier, when Vay suddenly coughed blood from the top of the stone pillar, interrupting the spell of the Earth Cocoon, it was likely the Shadow Phantom’s influence through the Mycelial Mother.
"However, the Shadow Phantom’s influence over the Mycelial Mother shouldn’t be too deep, otherwise he could have secured victory through it already, rather than engaging in constant harassing attacks and playing a war of attrition."
"Think about it, how could the fungal barrier be completely controlled by a mere apprentice like the Shadow Phantom? It might be a method bestowed by official wizards."
Kaier: "Are you suggesting it was given by the Wicked Woman and the Grey Merchant?"
Dox shook his head: "The Shadow Phantom seems well-practiced with using the fungal barrier. This shouldn’t be his first time playing like this. He may have obtained the Mycelial Mother before. As for who gave it to him, that’s hard to say."
Despite what Dox said, Kaier was still very angry: "Using such a method is really shameless."
While Kaier was angrily dissatisfied, Dox looked at him with an odd expression: "If my memory hasn’t gone wrong, you also have some out-of-discussion methods, and yours seem even more..."
Dox didn’t continue, since Kaier was, after all, on their side, and he stopped where needed.
Kaier’s gaze drifted, his nose making a humming resonance for a long while, before he softly murmured: "It’s not the same."
As to how it was different? Kaier couldn’t really say, otherwise he wouldn’t have sounded so lacking in confidence.
Dox didn’t pursue the topic further, since doing so would be undermining their own side.
"Now, it depends on whether Vay can find the Mycelial Mother." Dox paused, looking at the arena almost completely covered in mist, then added: "But even if he finds the Mycelial Mother, it’ll be very difficult."
Kaier: "Is there really no chance at all?"
"It doesn’t seem there’s any opportunity now," Dox said, then glanced at the Black Earl, wanting to see if the Black Earl would prepare any "asymmetrical" methods for Vay.
However, just like before, the Black Earl showed no reaction, as if he hadn’t heard their discussion.
Inwardly puzzled, Dox muttered a few things to himself, then walked over to Angel’s side, asking, "What do you think?"
Angel: "There’s still a chance."
Hearing Angel’s words, Kaier’s eyes lit up, looking at Angel with hopeful eyes. Dox frowned: "Where do you see the chance?"
Angel, however, didn’t reply, only giving Dox a look heavy with meaning.
That gaze filled Dox’s heart with doubt and suspicion. Coupled with the Black Earl’s silence, could it be... there truly was something he missed, and Vay still had a chance of victory?
Thinking this, Dox refocused on the arena.
Elsewhere, Angel seemed to also be watching the duel, but in his mind, he was thinking... if Kaier faced the Shadow Phantom and the remaining three apprentices, was there a direct path to victory?
Yes, in truth, Angel wasn’t optimistic about Vay’s chances of winning.
As Dox said, Vay was now facing many difficulties, and even finding the Mycelial Mother wouldn’t help. His only option now is to disregard these factors affecting him and focus on dealing with the Shadow Phantom. But within the mist, shadows are everywhere, and this is entirely the Shadow Phantom’s home ground. It’s very, very tough for Vay to win on the home ground of the Shadow Phantom.
The reason Angel told Dox "there’s still a chance" is because the Black Earl hasn’t taken a stand.
According to the Black Earl’s previous habits, when Dox and Kaier were discussing, he would certainly offer some of his own views. But now he remained completely silent, and while Angel couldn’t say this was necessarily related to Vay’s victory, he still retained some of his own opinions.
Moreover, "there’s still a chance" is actually quite ambiguous. Having a chance doesn’t guarantee a win; Angel didn’t specify who it was an opportunity for either. He can fully explain it as the whole apprentice battle still having a chance, rather than Vay individually having a chance.
After all, he holds the right to interpret, and he didn’t close off alternative explanations.
As for the meaningful look he gave to Dox... is it not okay to fake being deep sometimes?
Besides, isn’t this a fundamental skill of wizards?
Previously, when the White Bear was at Pat Manor, Angel often saw him engrossed in a book titled "The Wizard’s Self-Cultivation," detailing the fundamental behavior and qualities a wizard should possess. Although Angel found it more like "An Actor’s Self-Cultivation" or "Chronicles of a Charlatan," after the White Bear learned from it, he really did embody the flavor of a "Prophet Wizard" more effectively.
Angel looked down on it at the time, but later discovered that sometimes, when you can’t explain things or don’t have an answer, acting profound works pretty well.
This was proven during his time as a judge in the New Star Competition. While other guest judges, akin to him, were commenting on the on-stage contestants and speculating the outcome, Angel just needed to show an enigmatic expression to smoothly steer the topic away without much explanation.
Similarly now, Angel couldn’t truly explain where Vay’s opportunity lay, so he acted.
Of course, this kind of ’acting’ can’t be overdone. Once people have defined you, further acting loses its effect. Luckily, Dox’s perception of Angel was more surface-level brightness with a crafty core, still some distance away from labeling him as pretentious. So there’s room for more acting.