Destroy This Strawman

"Teacher, why can't I go to the battlefield?"

After summoning a water magic arrow, Elara attacked the wooden dummy in front of her. The power of the water arrow easily destroyed the scarecrow.

"I want to be able to help Grandpa too."

Seeing Elara muttering to herself in the training ground and not even focusing on practicing her magic, Ye Chuan just sat leisurely in the background.

"No means no. There aren't that many whys. If you keep talking nonsense, I'll spank you."

Hearing Ye Chuan say that, Elara immediately covered her bottom and quieted down.

"War isn't as simple as you think. People die. Do you really think your amateur skills can be of any help?"

Ye Chuan thought of those mobile magic arrays and the massive magic cannons.

If a little bean sprout like Elara went there, wouldn't she just be serving herself up on a silver platter?

To be honest, if Ye Chuan hadn't used every trick in the book and exerted a tremendous amount of effort, even he wouldn't have been able to handle those damn things.

It took quite a bit of hard work.

"When can I become as strong as you, Teacher?" Elara asked, holding up her magic wand.

"Like me?" Ye Chuan suddenly grinned. He created a new scarecrow, but this time, he applied a layer of chaos energy to its body. After doing so, he said to Elara,

"When you can destroy this scarecrow with your magic, you can barely be considered a beginner, and then I might let you go to the battlefield."

Destroying a scarecrow is all it takes to go to the battlefield?

Hearing this, Elara's eyes lit up immediately. This was a rare opportunity. Wasn't destroying a scarecrow a simple task?

However, knowing Ye Chuan, Elara also figured things might not go that smoothly.

"You have to keep your word, Teacher!" Elara tightened her small hands around the magic wand.

Taking a deep breath, Elara stepped back several paces. Gripping the blue gem at the top of her wand with both hands, she quickly began chanting a spell.

A rich blue light glowed from the wand. The surrounding air suddenly became humid, and fine water droplets even seeped from the ground, converging toward the magic wand.

"Gugu gaga, water elements, heed my command—Water Element Cannon!"

Following her shout, a water sphere roughly the size of a tree trunk formed in front of the wand. The sphere rotated at high speed, its surface rippling with sharp water blades. Accompanied by the howling wind, it blasted fiercely toward the chaos scarecrow!

This strike concentrated more than half of her magic power. If it were a normal scarecrow, it would have been blown to pieces long ago, leaving not even ashes behind.

"Bang!" The Water Element Cannon slammed heavily into the scarecrow, but it didn't produce the expected sound of shattering. Instead, it sounded as if it had hit an indestructible fortress.

The blue light scattered, and the water sphere instantly disintegrated into a sky full of mist. It fell onto the scarecrow without leaving a single trace.

The pale gray chaos energy lingering on the surface of the scarecrow acted like an invisible barrier, steadily blocking all attacks without a single piece of straw even trembling.

The smile on Elara's face instantly froze, her eyes filled with astonishment:

"H-how could this be?"

She clearly felt that her Water Element Cannon was extremely powerful. How could it not even scratch the surface of the scarecrow?

Did Teacher set up a high-level defensive magic on it?

But it didn't look like it.

Elara turned her head to look at Ye Chuan, then had no choice but to raise her wand again:

"I must not have used enough force! Rapid Water Blades!"

As the spell was cast, several sharp water blades shot out from the wand, flying toward the scarecrow like a rain of arrows. Coming from tricky angles, they covered the scarecrow's entire body.

But the result remained the same. The water blades hit the chaos energy barrier and instantly disintegrated and vanished, failing to stir up even the slightest ripple.

Huh?

This didn't work either?

Was the defensive magic on this scarecrow really that powerful?

Shouldn't it at least cause a little reaction?

Refusing to give up, Elara cast several more water spells in succession. First, she summoned winding water ropes, trying to crush the scarecrow, but the ropes turned into mist the moment they touched the barrier.

Then, she formed a Water Prison, encasing the scarecrow within it and squeezing frantically, yet she still couldn't shake it in the slightest.

She gradually realized that something was wrong.

Her magic was enough to severely injure a Tier 3 warrior, but against this small scarecrow, she couldn't inflict a single scratch.

That pale gray light seemed to ignore all magical attacks. No matter what moves she used, it was like throwing stones into the sea.

"Damn it..." Elara panted heavily, the blue light at the tip of her wand growing much dimmer.

Casting spells continuously at high intensity caused her magic power to deplete rapidly. Her arms began to tremble slightly, but looking at the still motionless scarecrow, she gritted her teeth and refused to stop.

Using the last ounce of her strength, she poured all her remaining magic power into the wand. Her small face flushed red from the exertion:

"Water Impact!"

This was the strongest magic she could currently cast, concentrating all the magic in her body. A thick blue water pillar erupted from the wand, carrying an earth-shattering momentum as it viciously smashed into the scarecrow!

After a loud crash, water mist filled the entire training ground.

Elara stumbled back a few steps and finally plopped down on the ground. Her eyes fixed intently on the center of the mist, anticipating the sight of the shattered scarecrow.

But when the mist cleared, the scarecrow was still standing steadily in place. The chaos energy barrier on its surface was completely intact, and even more solid than before, as if the previous attacks were nothing but a passing breeze.

"My magic... is depleted..." Elara felt completely drained of strength. The magic wand slipped from her hands and fell heavily to the ground.

She looked at the invincible scarecrow, her eyes filled with defeat.

"How about it? Is your magic completely useless?" Ye Chuan appeared behind Elara with a smile. Seeing her frustrated look as she hugged her wand, he picked her up with one hand.

"Let me tell you, those armies are also protected by magic arrays. Attacks like yours are completely useless and will only get you killed by some unidentified AOE."

Although Elara didn't quite understand what an unidentified ay-oh-ee was, she knew Ye Chuan meant well.

"Teacher, can I use this scarecrow for my future training?"

"If you like," Ye Chuan said.

"Okay!"

Just as Ye Chuan was instructing Elara, the princess happened to appear at the training ground, carrying a small basket in her hand.

"Um, Lord Xi Xi—"

Seeing Princess Irena, Ye Chuan turned his head. "Oh, Your Highness, what brings you here?"

"I... made some snacks, and I hope you can try them." Irena held up the small basket in her hand. It was covered with a white cloth, and faint steam could be seen rising from within.