Faced with the Shepherd’s attack, Kaier was initially in full alert. But soon, he realized that instead of an attack, the Shepherd was testing and obstructing.
The Shepherd’s probing was different from others. His testing was more about confirming whether Kaier possessed the Wind’s Force.
Countless turquoise flowers appeared in mid-air. These blossoms, resembling roses, swirled and swayed, approaching Kaier.
As the flowers flew, they gradually trembled, seemingly foretelling what was about to happen. As they neared Kaier, their shaking intensified, as if a raging energy inside wanted to be unleashed.
Finally, around Kaier, a mass of flowers reached their peak tremor. With a rumbling sound, the flowers exploded... or rather, disintegrated.
The disintegration brought about countless petals, these petals like blades, repeatedly impacting Kaier.
The attack wasn’t very strong, but extremely bothersome, like mosquitoes buzzing around your ear, not causing severe harm but enough to irritate you.
The best way to handle such an attack was to ignore it. But the Shepherd also seemed to have some skills in sound manipulation, he amplified the hissing sound of petals slicing through air, and by adjusting sound frequency, constantly plucked the taut strings in Kaier’s heart, aggravating the annoyance.
If ignored any longer, it could affect performance in the ensuing battle.
Hence, handling these petals became Kaier’s immediate dilemma.
Kaier understood the Shepherd’s intention, using this harassment tactic instead of direct attack, to test if he truly mastered the Wind’s Force.
As the Shepherd mentioned earlier: Since Kaier was reluctant to answer, he’d probe himself.
If Kaier had mastered the Wind’s Force, the simplest method would be like what the Alchemy Golem did: converting strong wind to weak wind.
As long as Kaier set up a layer of strong wind around him, he could easily transform these weakly driven petals away.
This method of setting up a wind layer was so basic for a Wind Apprentice, that it wouldn’t even be considered a trick. Merely elementary use of Wind’s Force.
So, if Kaier employed other methods to counter the petal winds, it would essentially expose his lack of Wind’s Force mastery.
The Shepherd devised such complexity to prove this point.
While Kaier comprehended the Shepherd’s motive, he couldn’t fathom why the Shepherd insisted on confirming his Wind’s Force mastery?
In such a high-pressure battle, proving such a trivial point seemed unnecessary, didn’t it?
Kaier hesitated for a moment, contemplating whether to call the Alchemy Golem back. After all, the true master of the Wind’s Force was the Speedy hidden within the Golem.
Yet for some reason, when Kaier attempted to contact the Speedy through the devices in the Alchemy Golem, there was no response.
Kaier puzzledly glanced at the Golem and noticed four black-faced sheep had transformed into terrifying whirlpools, encircling the Speedy tightly.
Was the Speedy trapped by those black-faced sheep?
But wasn’t Speedy close to an Official Wizard Level elemental creature? How could it be trapped by these unknown black-faced sheep?
While Kaier was doubtful, the surrounding petal winds grew denser, the hissing more vexing to his mood.
After hesitating a while, Kaier opted for spatial defense spells to fend off the petal winds.
Among various defense spells, only the Spatial Defense Spell was a Third Level trick, as the Power of Space was harder to grasp than other elements, and if uncontrolled, the consequences unwelcome. Hence, the Spatial Defense Spell was the only Third Level trick of its kind, not necessarily the strongest defense, but certainly the hardest to cast.
Kaier’s use of Spatial Defense Spell here felt like wielding a sledgehammer to kill a fly.
Nevertheless, it was intentional by Kaier.
He wasn’t incapable of other defense spells, but chose the hardest Spatial Defense Spell to bluff.
Regardless, using any other defensive spells would lead the Shepherd to conclude he couldn’t use the Wind’s Force, so he might as well use the hardest Spatial Defense Spell.
It was a deliberate defiance: I’ve seen through your plan, but I’ll act contrary to your script.
Whether the Shepherd was fooled by this bluff, Kaier didn’t know, but it was a tactic nonetheless. Besides, if the Shepherd discerned his intentions, it wouldn’t matter.
It’s merely exposing his lack of Wind’s Force mastery, nothing significant after all.
Previously, his hesitance to answer was purely from embarrassment. Because a "Wizard Level Alchemy Golem" wasn’t something an apprentice could wield, merely exposing it would imply it was granted by an Official Wizard.
Even though everyone had some Out of Discussion measures, the ghostly figure or the powdery dew on the other side stayed within apprentice means. Bringing a Wizard Level means to an apprentice duel was indeed excessive.
Thus, he hadn’t answered the Shepherd’s question before.
But if the Alchemy Golem were deemed acceptable, it meant the Wise Sovereign approved its conformity to duel rules. Hence, if exposed, it’d be inconsequential.
Kaier’s contrary approach did indeed momentarily puzzle the Shepherd.
However, the Shepherd quickly snapped back, shook his head with a slight smirk at Kaier, as if signaling that he’d already seen through these tricks.
Kaier wasn’t affected by the Shepherd’s demeanor, as he said, he didn’t consider it a big deal; the detour and defiance was just to prevent the Shepherd from reaching conclusions too easily.
Rather than being outwitted by the Shepherd, Kaier was more concerned about the Speedy’s condition.
Why was there no feedback from the Speedy? What had those black-faced sheep done to the Speedy?
Kaier was deeply worried about any issue with the Speedy, knowing how precious elemental creatures were in the Southern Domain. Should anything happen, he couldn’t afford it.
With this in mind, Kaier, under the Spatial Defense Spell, flew towards the Speedy.
At this moment, Kaier didn’t consider that the Speedy was nearly at Wizard Level; if something went wrong, his efforts would be futile.
Meanwhile, the Shepherd had confirmed that Kaier likely couldn’t wield the Wind’s Force but hadn’t determined where the prior Wind’s Force originated, was it from the Alchemy Golem?
So concerned was the Shepherd about this answer because those winds... felt different.
The Shepherd had his own secrets, and those winds seemed to resonate with it somehow.
Therefore, till a conclusion was reached, the Shepherd wouldn’t let Kaier disturb the little ones.