Chapter 904
: Winning the Gold Grail Championship!
Chapter 904: Winning the Gold Grail Championship!
Behind each pilot wizard carrying a flying magical plant stands a referee, because everyone stands on the same takeoff line, and there are more than fifty runways in total.
There are 28 of them already in use.
Therefore, the referees behind each pilot wizard need to calculate the time, because some runways have turns on the inside of the curves, while others have turns on the outside of the curves. So the referees need to convert distance into time to ensure that the flight distance of each pilot is relatively equal.
At this moment, with the sound of whistles, flying magical plants took to the air.
Some of these flying magical plants are giant lotus flowers, swirling in mid-air.
Some are like pins, a row of small roses that can be hung on a person's clothes and carry the wizard forward.
Some are dandelions that resemble silver locks, which a wizard can hold in his hand and carry him forward.
The most majestic and imposing was a Thunder Spruce, which looked like a huge warship enveloped in thunder, surrounded by lightning storms, carrying the spruce tree forward.
Among the 28 flying magical plants, the one that stands out the most is the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow on Barrett's body.
Flames wrapped around the three small and one large banana wings behind the Great Crying Dragon Sparrow. Then, the Great Crying Dragon Sparrow dyed half the sky into fiery clouds, and even the golden light reflected from the Golden City in the sky was dyed red.
The Great Dragon Sparrow was not the first to set off, but it accelerated in a very short time, quickly reaching the first position, and flying in the cableway, leaving the other 27 flying magical plants further and further behind.
Thunder Spruce, as the first magical plant to set off, had the advantage of being the first to act, but at this moment it was directly left behind by the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow.
The crystallized wizard standing on the Thunder Spruce had a grim expression. He wanted to forcibly increase the speed of the Thunder Spruce. Suddenly, the thunderstorm around the Thunder Spruce tree intensified and became more active, with heavy thunderclouds. But the next moment, a flying dragon crashed into it. Because the Thunder Spruce was at least a hundred meters long, although it had powerful momentum, it lacked agility.
Unable to dodge in time, the Thunder Spruce was directly struck in the middle by the Crystallized-level Demon King. A loud bang echoed from the sky, and the Thunder Spruce snapped in two, with countless bolts of lightning bursting out from within.
The Thunder Spruce spun once in the sky, and then crashed down alongside the King of Dragons, whose head was bleeding and who had been knocked unconscious by the plane crash.
In the audience, the wizard who developed the Thunder Spruce suddenly stood up; he hadn't expected this to happen.
"But Thunder Spruce does have a larger total magic pressure, which can accelerate the growth of magic plants more quickly. It's just that it lacks some flexibility."
"Among all the flying magical plants in the competition, my Thunder Spruce ranks third in absolute speed."
The breeder from the Second Ring Road looked extremely grim.
He lowered his head and quickly left the spectator area. He was originally full of confidence, thinking that he could at least compete for a top-three position, but who would have thought that he would be the first to be eliminated because of the lack of agility of the flying magic plant? It was too embarrassing.
At this moment, many flying magical creatures on the cableway began to break free of their chains and enter the cableway, which meant that the competition had entered a new stage.
One by one, the crystal balls waiting at various locations along the cable car flew out, recording all the match footage and projecting it into the air, allowing the audience to see the distant matches more clearly.
At that moment, a huge honeycomb flew out from the center of the cableway.
A wizard from the Golden Dynasty in the audience exclaimed in surprise, "That's the Julian Hive! The Julian Queen Bee is hiding inside, controlling the swarm, and she's incredibly aggressive. She's a genuine second-circle magical creature!"
However, the entire swarm is classified as a second-level magical creature.
At this moment, Julian's Hive had broken free of its chains. Because the chains were broken, the previously sealed Hive was also released. This was a terrifying world-destroying monster that could destroy a medium-sized world with just one Hive.
On the cableway in the sky, many flying magical plants were immediately attacked by countless swarms of Julian bees.
Immediately, some more flying magical plants were eliminated halfway through the journey.
At this time, the first place was still the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow, and the second place was the Flying Gourd made by the wizard from Ancient Vine Village.
Locke sat in the audience, looking at the wizard [Leon Newman] from Ancient Vine Village with surprise. He hadn't expected this guy to be so strong.
At this moment, Leon Newman was staring intently at the arena, where he saw his flying gourd carrying a wizard, who was approaching the main body of the Julian bee swarm together with the wizard Barrett.
The Julian bee swarm is an extremely aggressive monster swarm. They are inherently neurotic, and their tendency to destroy the world stems from their subconscious elimination of anything that might threaten them.
However, because Julian bee swarms are overreacting, they are prone to developing annihilative hostility toward any object with a high-energy response.
At this moment, the Julian bees were going berserk because two high-energy objects were rapidly approaching their hive. The terrifying swarm was flying through the air, trying to stop the two flying magical plants from getting closer.
The wizard sitting on the flying gourd saw countless bees approaching, and he immediately sat down nervously. He then reached out and patted the mouth of the gourd, which automatically generated a suction force. Before the countless bees could even get close, they were sucked in.
Leon Newman breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing this.
Bruce, the wizard from the Windbound Sanctuary who was watching the match, let out a soft exclamation as he noticed the flying gourd and his eyes lit up slightly.
'What's going on? Did I really underestimate everyone? I thought it was going to be a meaningless, old-fashioned competition, but I unexpectedly saw two impressive flying magical plants in it.'
'That gourd looks quite good too. It definitely has the potential for further development.'
The flying gourd, having swallowed a large swarm of bees, suddenly emitted a surge of magical tidal energy from the hole at its tail, thus abruptly accelerating its speed.
That flying gourd, as big as a car, actually caught up with the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow.
The wizard Leon Newman appeared very excited, even standing up from his seat. He turned and looked up at Locke with a challenging gaze in his eyes.
Locke remained expressionless.
A gasp rippled through the audience as flames suddenly erupted at the center of the Julian's hive. The flames then spread like wildfire, followed by a deafening explosion from the heart of the fire. The Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow, aided by Locke's pre-planned strategy of using a lone tree to hold the line, used its special imaginary roots to force open the Julian's hive.
The entire beehive was ripped open with a large hole and burst into flames.
The entire hive thus slowly descended from the air, and a furious roar erupted from the queen bee's center.
Many wizards in the audience applauded, and some whispered among themselves, saying that this was no longer a flying magical plant, but rather an attack-type magical plant.
When Bruce the Wizard saw this, his eyes were filled with admiration.
Few breeders can combine the mobility and attack power of flying magical plants so evenly. The special flames not only provide powerful attack power, but also provide great mobility by being ejected backward.
What's even more interesting is that the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow's instantaneous displacement ability is truly powerful. It can stop abruptly in mid-air at will, or move quickly in a certain direction in a short period of time by spewing flames. In other words, this flying magical plant has powerful mobile combat capabilities.
Wizard Bruce said to his secretary, the Moon Ring Witch, "I remember someone from the Siming Waters placed an order for us to equip their void warships with some small flying vehicles that have super combat capabilities and can travel in the void."
The Moon Ring Witch's secretary quickly flipped through the documents in her hand and said precisely, "That's right. The person who placed the order is the wizarding academy in the Siming Waters. There are more wizards from the Mind School there, and their void warships are more inclined towards mind control magic. However, the void mothership itself is relatively fragile, so there is a requirement for a melee aircraft with strong combat capabilities."
"However, besides the performance requirements of traditional aircraft, there are also requirements for environmental isolation when navigating in the void, right?"
Wizard Bruce said, "What's so difficult about that? The Siming Waters are one of the wealthiest wizarding territories in the Eastern Boundary. The wizards there are incredibly rich, so why not make money off them? After they buy the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow, they can also buy a wizard's robe that isolates them from the internal and external environments, and a wizard's mask that can adapt to the principles of the void, right?"
"And this also has great advantages. According to their requirements for us, this basically means that individual wizards will move around the main body. This will enhance our mobility."
The Moon Ring Witch's secretary, after reviewing the documents, said, "The attack performance of those Great Green Leaf Dragonflies yesterday also shows the potential for developing an autopilot attack mode for these magical plants."
"It might be good to develop it into a loyal wingman for automatic attacks."
Wizard Bruce thought about it seriously for a moment.
"Indeed. The most valuable items in this competition were the Great Crying Dragon Sparrow and the unexpected surprise—the Flying Gourd."
"The rest of the magical plants..."
This aligns perfectly with his previous understanding of flying magical plants.
That Thunder Spruce, for example, is utter nonsense.
As for other flying magical plants like Crystal Bellflower or Giant Scythe Lotus, their performance is unremarkable and they have little value for development in the eyes of the wizard Bruce.
These magical plants are decent as personal wizard spells, but when transformed into flying machines, they become less than satisfactory in various details.
Moreover, the Holy Land of the Windbringers itself has high standards.
Ordinary things cannot catch his eye.
An hour has passed, and the gap between the various flying magical plants on the field has widened significantly. Once a flying magical plant falls behind, it is very difficult for it to catch up.
Except at the beginning of the competition, when the pilots of the various flying magical plants were relatively close to each other, the distance between them would increase every ten minutes thereafter.
At this point, it was clear that most of the flying magical plants had no hope of winning the championship.
The participating wizards, sitting in the audience, had already accepted the result; some were happy, and some were sad.
The flying magical plants in the hands of the wizards of Black Iron Mountain Wilderness initially tried to catch up with the flying magical plants cultivated by Locke and Leon Newman, but after failing to catch up, they had no choice but to give up.
On the field, Da Mingli Long Que took the lead, but Fei Ren Hu Lu was close behind.
Wizard Leon Newman clenched his fists, his palms sweating, as he intently watched the outcome of the match. The normal speed of the Flying Gourd was far inferior to that of the Great Crying Dragon Sparrow.
However, the flying gourd has an enchanted magic circle inside, within which is a second-ring magic artifact called the "Water and Fire Pearl". This second-ring magic artifact can grind down any objects swallowed by the flying gourd, turning them into pure magical energy, which is then ejected to accelerate the flying gourd's flight speed.
In other words, it is because there are some dangerous magical creatures on this track that the Flying Gourd can swallow them and then use the enchanted magic array and water and fire beads inside the gourd to crush them and turn them into pure magical tidal energy to increase the speed of the Flying Gourd, that the Flying Gourd is able to catch up with the Great Mingli Dragon Sparrow.
Locke looked at him and said, "Wizard Newman, the design of your flying gourd is truly thoughtful."
This was designed specifically for this match.
It was designed to adapt to this type of track.
To Locke's slight surprise, this design was very effective. Despite its base stats being far inferior to the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow, it closely followed the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow and even showed signs of overtaking it on some track sections.
The wizard Leon Newman nervously wiped the sweat from his neck with a handkerchief. He turned to Locke with a pale face and smiled, saying, "But it's only just enough to catch up with your work."
"That's not enough."
Wizard Leon Newman clenched his fists, his palms sweating profusely.
'The Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow achieved this level without any tricks, relying solely on its basic stats. That's truly amazing. I never expected to encounter such a strong opponent in the Gold Cup; it's beyond my expectations.'
"I thought I was sure I could win the championship." "But I underestimated the geniuses of this world. My Flying Gourd's only chance to beat the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow is if an incredibly powerful magical creature appears on that cableway. With its energy, I might suddenly accelerate and instantly overtake the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow."
"In about ten more minutes, the two flying magical plants will reach their destination. Time is running out for my flying gourd."
A wizard from the Black Iron Mountain Wilds, sitting next to Leon Newman, glanced at him and Locke and thought to himself with a strange expression, "It seems my Qing Tuan Yun Pu Zucchini can only come in third place."
At this moment, his work, Qingtuan Yunpu Zucchini, resembles a green dumpling with cloud-like silver veins on its surface, a heart-shaped silver leaf with some downy hairs on the back of the leaf, and a flower blooming in the middle of the leaf.
However, what lifted it into the air was the silver, cloud-like veins on the surface of the Qingtuan Yunpu zucchini, which condensed water vapor and turned into white clouds, like a few auspicious clouds adorning the green dumplings, making the Qingtuan Yunpu zucchini fly.
Unfortunately, the basic panel of Qingtuan Yunpu Zucchini is quite different from that of Damingli Longque and Feiren Hulu, so the distance it falls is relatively far, and as time goes by, the gap between them is getting bigger and bigger.
However, the Qingtuan Yunpu Zucchini is not without its advantages. This magical plant looks very light, as if it has no weight at all.
When other magical creatures attack it, it can easily avoid all physical attacks from them due to the disturbed airflow. Even some magical attacks that violently disturb the airflow will cause the Qing Tuan Yun Pu Zu Hu to automatically float away and avoid the attack.
Patrick the wizard from the Black Iron Mountain looked at the first and second place finishers, sighed, and gave up his last bit of hope. It seemed he had no chance of winning.
The Qing Tuan Yun Pu Zucchini was a creation passed down through three generations of his academy. It was a hard-won achievement that he won many competitions in the Black Iron Mountain Wild Wizard Land this year, which gave him the confidence to bring his work to participate in the Golden Grail. However, he suffered a blow to his confidence as soon as he entered the competition.
The wizard Leon Newman suddenly stood up excitedly.
"The opportunity has arrived. Simon, quickly swallow that mechanical dragon!"
At this moment, on the track, both Simon, the pilot of the wizard Leon Newman, and Barrett, the pilot of Locke, had already seen the red flag representing the finish line on the back of a three-headed chimera in the sky ahead.
At this moment, a flying dragon made entirely of mechanical components appeared on the cableway. The mechanical dragon's body was like a perfect cube, with two mechanical cannons on its shoulders and missiles all over its tail.
The core of the mechanical dragon is composed of a suspended hollow mechanical sphere containing a solar transmutation array, which is an alchemical transmutation array that can drive small airships, providing energy for the mechanical dragon.
At this moment, the cannons on the mechanical dragon's shoulders began to charge up energy, generating high temperatures, and then two energy cannons were fired at Barrett and Simon.
Barrett and Simon's flying magical plants reacted automatically, quickly dodging the trajectory of the energy cannon.
However, the flying gourd that Simon was sitting on did not avoid the mechanical dragon. Instead, it quickly approached it. The gourd's mouth generated a powerful suction force, which even distorted the trajectory of the energy cannon. It began to be sucked into the vortex of wind at the gourd's mouth.
The mechanical dragon roared, raised its tail, and began bombarding the flying gourd and the wizard Simon with missiles.
But as soon as the missiles got close, they were all sucked into the flying gourd.
Wizard Leon Newman shouted to the sky, "Simon, absorb that sun-transformation array into the flying gourd. The flying gourd will burst into its maximum speed in an instant. That way, we might be able to win the championship."
In the audience, whether they were participating wizards, ordinary spectators, or high-ranking members of the Golden Dynasty, everyone was invigorated at this moment.
Could it be that there's a dark horse in this match?
Will this dark horse defeat the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow, who was considered the best chance of winning before the competition, and thus win the championship?
At this moment, the wizard Barrett glanced back at the flying gourd that had suddenly changed direction.
In the audience, Locke remained calm and composed, seemingly unconcerned about whether the flying gourd could obtain the solar transmutation array on the mechanical dragon's chest.
"Barrett, there's no need to worry about who's behind us. Just head straight for the finish line."
Locke had extensive combat experience, so he knew that this was not just a competition of flying magical plants, nor was it a contest of the traits of flying magical plants.
The mechanical dragon itself was the work of an extremely skilled alchemist.
They possess considerable combat strength.
The design of that flying gourd, which increases its flight speed by swallowing people/objects, is indeed very interesting, and its object-swallowing magic is indeed powerful. However, based on his own combat experience, Leon Newman's idea of having the flying gourd swallow the mechanical dragon in a short time is pure fantasy.
They only wanted to gamble desperately when they saw that they were bound to lose.
There's no need for me to care about such a desperate gamble.
The probability is too low.
Most importantly, that mechanical dragon should be a large-scale bionic magical artifact of the second ring of the alchemy school. If it is operated by a team of alchemists, it is probably impossible to break through this existence without several ordinary second-ring wizards.
At this moment, the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow continued its journey towards the finish line.
The wizard Leon Newman kept his eyes fixed on the flying gourd and the mechanical dragon.
"There is only one way to defeat the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow. The Flying Gourd... you are my masterpiece, the culmination of my hard work..."
From the stands, Russell looked up at the two magical plants vying for the final championship and nodded approvingly, saying, "They are both good children. They have added a lot of excitement to our Golden Cup Flying Magical Plant Competition, surpassing the level of previous competitions."
At this moment, on the last 20,000 meters of the cableway track in the sky, the mechanical dragon, facing the air vortex of the flying gourd, suddenly unleashed two high-temperature rays from its eyes. Those two high-temperature rays shot into the flying gourd, seemingly damaging something, and the entire interior of the flying gourd suddenly exploded.
Simon the Wizard, sitting on the flying gourd, was nearly blown away by the explosion.
He held the gourd by its narrow opening and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"How could this happen? We were just one step away from success."
In the audience, the wizard Leon Newman suddenly pressed his right hand against his forehead, bent over in defeat, and let out a sound of resentment.
At the same time, applause and exclamations rang out from the surrounding area.
The Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow has reached its final destination!
The champion of this year's Gold Grail ultimately fell into the hands of Locke.
It wasn't taken by any dark horse.
Wizard Leon Newman raised his head and gave Locke a half bow.
"I lost."
"The Flying Gourd is the culmination of all my hard work. I thought I could win the championship, but I never expected that I was still so far away from it."
"It's such a shame that we couldn't win this match for Guteng Township."
Wizard Leon Newman sighed.
However, he didn't dwell on it. Although he lost, he quickly adjusted his mindset.
He thanked Locke, saying, “Thank you, Mr. Augustine. You have shown me a higher level of breeding and given me a challenging goal. The wizards of our Ancient Vine Village are never afraid of challenges. We may lose, but we will never give up.”
"You won this time, you are the victor. But next time, I will continue to challenge you."
Locke, seated above him, nodded slightly.
"Leon Newman, I'll remember your name. You're welcome to challenge me again in the future."
Locke glanced at Leon Newman, who had sat down again.
This person isn't without a chance of winning, it's just that the odds are relatively small. If the pilot he hired had a stronger combat talent, perhaps he could eventually use the flying gourd to suck the entire mechanical dragon in, and then suddenly unleash its speed to snatch the championship from his own hands.
However, the reason he came in second place in this Gold Grail event was not because his skill level was only below his own.
Leon Newman probably didn't realize that his skill level was actually much lower than he thought, and that he was far from being a champion.
Because of this competition, and due to their own reasons, a few players naturally did not participate.
The flying magical plants produced by the Rose Council's magical plant crystallization technology, and the magical plants of that genius breeder from the Mamluk Rift Valley.
If these two were to participate, Leon Newman's flying gourd would probably only rank fourth.
Because you'll still be number one.
The wizard from Ancient Vine Village does seem rather reliable.
Locke said.
'Judging by his defiant look, he'll probably run into Leon Newman again in some other match in the future.'
The host announced in a cheering tone: "The champion of this year's Golden Grail has been born! Congratulations to the wizard Locke Augustine from Yunze Wetland·Golden Crown Mountain and his work, the Great Crying Dragon Sparrow."
"As per our pre-match agreement, the wizard Bruce Sun Ring from the Holy Land of the Windbreakers will be collaborating with the champion to establish a shop alliance, focusing on developing the Great Roaring Dragon Sparrow as a commercial vehicle."
"Let's congratulate Locke Augustine once again on winning the championship."
"Judges, please comment on the competition results..."
In the stands, the wizard Leon Newman could only watch dejectedly as his half-broken flying gourd slowly approached the finish line, finally crossing it safely before the third-place finisher, Qing Tuan Yun Pu Xi Hu.
It at least secured second place.
The wizard Leon Newman turned to look at Locke, who was wearing a golden crown on his head, and a competitive spirit appeared in his eyes.
"It doesn't matter. It's always been like this. It was the same when I was in Guteng Township."
"There will always be someone more capable than me. I can only silently chase after them, but by chasing them all the way, I have finally arrived at where I am today."
"Chase after them, chase after them, and I will eventually surpass them."
"It's better to have a goal."
The wizard Leon Newman looked at Locke, a competitive glint in his eyes.
"With such a powerful breeder as my role model, I can improve even faster."
"Locke Augustine..."
(End of this chapter)