Diana stood in midair. Her feet wore ice skates, and each time she swung her laurel leaf blade, an ice trail would appear in midair, allowing her to step on the ice trail and glide along it.

At the same time, she chased that steel fortress above the cloud lake, and with each slash she delivered forward, the steel fortress would be enveloped in a layer of frost. Sometimes, this would also affect Locke who was chasing behind the steel fortress.

However, no matter how many times those laurel leaf blades imbued with osmanthus fragrance struck, they would at most only break through five layers of Locke's permanent defensive force field. But because the permanent defensive force field could quickly self-recover, as long as it wasn't completely broken through in a single instant, there was no real danger.

While Witch Diana chased the steel fortress, she also noticed Locke. She raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Nine layers of permanent defensive force field? Even slashes with second circle extremely powerful magic characteristics can't cut through?"

Witch Diana instantly realized that if Locke fought against her, unless she used ritual magic, she seemed to have no other means to break through Locke's turtle shell.

Moreover, even if she used ritual magic, there might not be a way to break through this ultimate turtle shell on Locke's body.

Meanwhile, Edgar's treant also descended from the sky. He used the branches on the Ancient Life Tree's head to summon three Ancient War Tree treants, and continuously formed three battlefield ancient trees, enveloping all the nearby Mekani people protecting the steel fortress within them.

At the same time, he jumped onto that steel fortress and delivered a treant fist, smashing down on top of the steel fortress.

'Bang~'

The steel fortress building that was struck not only didn't collapse as expected, but instead underwent a special transformation. The building that Edgar's treant had smashed rapidly transformed into standardized cube-like component sub-robots, all cube-shaped robots.

After these robots disassembled, only a small portion were damaged while most remained intact. They quickly reorganized, reassembling into a high-rise building at an adjacent location.

Wizard Edgar froze for a moment. "Wait... could it be that this fortress wasn't built from magical alloy at all? This fortress is essentially building blocks?"

Building blocks assembled from those sub-component robots!

Like each individual Mekani person, did they have structures on their bodies that imitated wizards' permanent defensive force fields using golem techniques?

At that moment, the metal street ground of the fortress city suddenly began to collapse. Large numbers of cube robots began rolling on the ground, then the cube robots constructed a massive super energy cannon with its barrel pointing at Edgar's treant.

In the next moment, a high-temperature flame engulfed Edgar's treant.

Edgar's treant was thus blasted out of the steel fortress.

Diana gliding on an ice path and Locke with the Large Green Leaf Dragon Sparrow behind him, both passed over the blasted Edgar's treant and simultaneously approached that steel fortress.

Edgar's treant then made a sound, saying, "You two, that fortress is not simple. Its basic structure is not steel and mechanical at all. The entire fortress is a building block fortress composed of sub-component robots that imitate permanent defensive force fields."

"Each cube sub-component robot... is similar to a cell."

Witch Diana slashed twice, and the buildings on that steel fortress immediately began to transform into cube robots that started rolling and formed hundreds of high-temperature cannons on the surface, beginning to heat the air above to counter the two absurdly large-scale ice magic attacks that Witch Diana had slashed out.

Seeing this scene, Locke didn't rush to launch meaningless attacks but observed from the side for a while.

He saw that as they chased the steel fortress, countless Mekani people were falling into the city. The moment those Mekani people fell into the fortress city, their bodies would disintegrate, transforming into small standardized cube robots.

These component sub-robots would assemble into this fortress robot like individual parts.

In other words, each Mekani person was actually just a component of this fortress.

The Mekani people had actually always been just one whole entity.

Each Mekani person was simply some components of the true Mekani steel fortress.

The Mekani people had evolved to this level through thirty years of Cloud Marsh Cup competitions. Their technology simulating and imitating wizards' permanent defensive force fields was already commendable.

Locke caught up and used Sea Gold Sand, Scorching Gold Sand Flow. Streams of golden sand like countless sharp blades slashed toward the steel fortress. The buildings inside that steel fortress immediately began transforming into countless small cube robots, namely component sub-robots, reorganizing their shape and becoming holes in the city ground, causing all the Scorching Gold Sand Flow attacks to miss.

Locke immediately chanted a spell, changing the flowing gold sand's attack direction, beginning to transform into scattered blades attacking the surroundings.

This attack did indeed achieve some effect, but those damaged component sub-robots were immediately dragged away by intact sub-component robots, then pulled into the mechanical repair factory deep in the fortress, while intact sub-component robots replaced them. The entire steel fortress remained completely undamaged.

Locke immediately realized that after fighting until now, under the continuous attacks from the three of them, that steel fortress with its imitation permanent defensive force field was still completely intact.

"The entire city is like it's protected by a permanent defensive force field. This is something even a genuine permanent defensive force field couldn't accomplish."

Locke's expression changed repeatedly.

His nine layers of permanent defensive force field blocked all the intercontinental missiles attacking him.

"It's more accurate to say this city has turned itself into a permanent defensive force field... Even if temporarily damaged, it can immediately recover."

Locke quickly thought of the opponent's energy problem. "Although the energy issue is their fatal weakness, a First Circle level sun refinement array's energy supply is already sufficient to power void battleships. I think the energy source inside that fortress might have principles even more advanced than the sun refinement array..."

"Then this city is equivalent to a city that's completely impossible to breach."

"No wonder the competition committee had us fight to this point. So this is the reason."

Edgar's treant continued to charge up stubbornly, with a massive vine appearing beneath his feet that threw him into that steel city.

After brief consideration, Witch Diana also immediately followed.

Locke stayed around that steel fortress. "Currently, the only method is cooperation. The three of us cooperate together to forcibly possess attack power that completely surpasses the opponent's imitation permanent defensive force field in an instant, using this method to obtain victory."

"But... this is a competition."

Locke looked at Edgar and Diana and knew those two had absolutely no such intention.

"Then I can only think of a way to see who can crack this imitation permanent defensive force field in the shortest time."

"Hm?" Locke slapped his forehead. "I almost got myself confused. That's not a permanent defensive force field at all, it's just imitated using component sub-robots. I have a solution now."

...

At the judges' seats, one hundred and thirty judges were scoring those contestants.

Currently, Locke, Diana, and Edgar all had roughly the same amount of screen time, with Locke and Edgar having slightly more screen time.

Wizard John looked at Witch Yekaterina and asked, "How can that contestant Locke convert his magical pressure into dragon might? Is that really dragon might?"

Witch Yekaterina said briefly, "Yes, that is indeed dragon might with very high positioning accuracy."

Several Third Circle wizards all showed expressions of surprise, since dragon might was still relatively rare at the First Circle stage.

The Third Circle wizard from the Rose Council said, "Originally, I thought the newly added rule would be disadvantageous to the only liquefaction wizard. Who knew it would have no effect on him. He consecutively used bloodline studies, botany, and other methods to completely cover his disadvantages."

Wizard John said, "Actually, from the beginning, I felt this rule didn't have a very large disadvantage for him. Think about it, a First Circle wizard with nine permanent defensive force fields stacked on their body... would there really be a disadvantage?"

Wizard John said, "I don't know if any contestant this time can take down the fortress. The competition is also approaching its end. In past years, even this steel fortress was never forced to appear. We decided rankings based on points."

"But this Cloud Marsh Cup is different. Once that Mekani fortress escapes, we'll announce the competition results."