"What do you think of this Shepherd?" Dox looked at Angel.
Angel blurted out without hesitation, "An interesting person."
Dox raised an eyebrow, "Interesting? Just interesting?"
Angel pondered for a moment and said, "Also a person with a story."
Dox chuckled, "Who here doesn’t have a story?"
This time, Angel was silent for a bit longer, "Then he’s a person who is both interesting and has a story, but also hides some secrets."
Dox still seemed unsatisfied, muttering, who here has no secrets?
Facing someone who was never satisfied with any answer, Angel chose silence and to turn a blind eye.
Actually, Angel’s first answer already encompassed all of his views on the Shepherd: an interesting person.
From the beginning, Angel had noticed the Shepherd. Among the group of apprentices opposite, the Shepherd was the one Angel was most concerned with.
The reason wasn’t the vague title of "Rhythm Apprentice," but because while his peers were filled with urgency, caution, and panic, his demeanor was remarkably calm, out of place with the others.
His calmness was not a facade, nor was it forced composure. It was different even from Grey Merchant’s calmness. His calm had more of a serene, leisurely, and relaxed quality.
How leisurely was he? Earlier, he leaned against a black-faced sheep, closed his eyes, and rested, really sleeping.
In such an environment, to maintain such a relaxed attitude was truly odd.
Perhaps he was very confident in his own strength and indifferent to the joys and sorrows of the world?
Let’s not mention whether the Shepherd is really powerful, even if he hides his strength; under the dual pressure of the Wise Sovereign and the Black Earl, believing one’s own strength makes outer joys and sorrows indifferent is only possible for a wizard beyond Legend. Yet currently, in the Southern Domain, there’s no Legendary Wizard besides the Observer.
Or perhaps he’s aware of his future and doesn’t care about anything external?
This premise is: he’s a Prophet Wizard, or has received some prophecy and revelation. Such a "Prophet" has a very typical trait of being emotionally indifferent, tending to observe coldly. Although the Shepherd’s emotions are calm, he’s not to the extent of cold observation; he does still have the joy and sentiment that a "Prophet" would lack.
Or perhaps it’s just his nature, indifferent to external matters?
This is hard to verify, as personality is excessively idealistic. But for now, the Shepherd does have a gentle nature, or perhaps... easy-going? But even such a nature is not enough for him to face the current situation and remain so composed.
Ruling out all the above possibilities, Angel still couldn’t see the reason for the Shepherd’s composure.
This is why Angel said, "He’s a person with secrets."
As for what secrets he’s hiding? The battle is not over yet, and if he truly has secrets and those secrets support him far beyond his own strength, they will eventually be revealed in the upcoming battle.
...
On the arena, the wind continued to blow, and with the Shepherd’s flute, the wind on the field changed subtly.
As the melody was long and graceful, the wind gently bound Kaier’s limbs without leaving traces.
When the tune was somber, the surrounding wind turned into numerous wind blades that, like homing birds, wouldn’t disperse without hitting Kaier.
This caused the wind blades to appear like green petals, swirling around Kaier incessantly.
As the melody climbed, the heaviness of the wind became more pronounced, not only stifling Kaier but also sealing off the magic power around him, making it difficult for him to mobilize any magic power, forcing him into continuous internal consumption.
This internal drain could be handled short-term as long as the Magical Core didn’t deplete, but sustaining over time would be much harder.
Yet, this was just the Shepherd’s wind manipulation. He himself hadn’t moved, standing suspended in mid-air, eyes closed, playing the flute.
Kaier knew he couldn’t drag it out any longer. The current wind was only "first sight." Judging by the Shepherd’s flute, the melody hadn’t yet reached its climax. When the true climax hit, Kaier might find it hard to even stand firm in the arena.
Thus, he needed to quickly deal with the Shepherd... at least interrupt his flute playing.
If according to Kaier’s own strategy, he initially planned to use a space rift to flood the surrounding wind into the void.
But after simulating the battle in his mind, Kaier abandoned that plan.
The Space Series is very special on the Mysterious Side; both tricks and spell techniques have higher backlash probabilities compared to other series, and once backlash occurs, the damage exceeds other types of backlash substantially.
This also means those using Space Series techniques always focus their attention, avoiding the slightest distraction.
Now, the wind was raging all around with no time to focus intently on the spell, very likely causing a backlash mid-spell due to the hurricanes, ultimately leading to defeat.
Therefore, he opted to abandon the "floodgate" method using space rifts.
Since his strategy couldn’t take shape, Kaier didn’t struggle more and directly summoned the Alchemy Golem in front of him, using the means Angel had provided to fight this duel.
The Alchemy Golem’s body radiated a dazzling metallic sheen, particularly its face, seemingly painted, enhancing the metallic reflectiveness. Its face had been inscribed by its creator with an eerie clown smile, giving a strange and mocking aura whenever it acted.
The Shepherd didn’t pay any mind to the Alchemy Golem’s appearance; he seemed lost in his performance.
Not until the Shepherd played halfway, noticing the thinning of the surrounding wind, did he open his eyes, puzzled.
Upon opening his eyes, he was met with a large metal fist.
Startled, the Shepherd quickly swiped the flute to deflect the hand in front of him, then released a wind vortex from one end of the flute. The vortex’s recoil quickly sent the Shepherd retreating.
In this brief contact, neither side was injured, but the Shepherd’s playing was interrupted.
As the Shepherd’s playing stopped, the surrounding wind grew sparse, and the heavy wind that had been binding Kaier gradually dissipated.
The battle seemed to return to its starting point.
"The wind has disappeared?" the Shepherd murmured, "No, the hymn in the wind hasn’t vanished. The wind hasn’t disappeared, it’s been transmuted."
Previously engrossed in playing, he hadn’t noticed the changing winds outside. Now he finally realized that the surrounding wind hadn’t disappeared but had "betrayed," as he termed it "transmutation." The total amount of Wind’s Force hadn’t changed; the reason it felt weaker was that the wind was being transmuted away by the opponent.