Being a self-taught true mage with very little knowledge outside of tier three, had always been a problem for Lith. He had to make up from scratch most of his spells, and not having much free time, if not none at all, his toolkit was quite limited.
For such reason, most of his spells were derived from imitation. Phloria’s Full Guard, the Ry’s slipstream effect or the Wither dark aura were all tricks that he had picked up along the way.
His fight with the plant Abomination had allowed him to further understand darkness magic, and how to overcome its obnoxious limitations.
Darkness was an element capable of inflicting an enormous amount of damage overtime, and to add insult to injury, it was extremely hard to defend from it. On the other hand, though, darkness based spells were so slow that outside niche situations they were nigh useless.
Vampiric Touch required physical contact, hence it was a last resort. The Wither’s dark aura had good range, but required a huge mana expenditure compared to the damage dealt.
That was why Lith had thought long and hard about it, trying to figure out a way to use darkness magic to cover for his weak points. No matter how much he planned in advance, he was still an amateur fighter, lacking any professional training.
Despite being much slower than Lith, two members of the Talons were enough to force him to go all out just to not be turned into mincemeat in a few seconds. Thanks to their rich battle experience, they were able to anticipate his movements and adjust their attacks accordingly.
Not to mention that even speed could do only so much in front of such refined teamwork. The moment they closed in, they had used the range advantage granted by their blades to restrict Lith from escaping or counterattacking.
To gain the upper hand, he needed to fight dirty and shamelessly like before, exploiting the fact that his opponents knew nothing about true magic. When the four melee experts approached, black tentacles emerged from Lith’s body, trying to grab whoever came near.
The Talons’ first instinct was to cut them down, but the tentacles were made of pure energy, so they passed through the blades like a breeze, lashing at the enemies’ bodies, sucking out their life force and giving it to their master.
Death Call was the answer Lith had devised to his problems. Anyone that came too close would have to endure the vampiric touch of the tentacles, that were nothing more than a dense mass of dark magic guided by his will.
The compact form meant that, unlike the dark aura, the draining effect was fast and efficient, while the mid range of the spell made the slow speed irrelevant. Thanks to Full Guard, Lith was completely aware of his surroundings, therefore able to manipulate every single tentacle like it was one of his limbs.
Combined together, the two spells offered a perfect defence. Come close, become food. Stay away, suffer true magic. Lith didn’t need to attack anymore, he could simply focus on dodging while the tentacles did the rest.
Barely a few seconds after the activation of Death Call, the close range Talons realized what was happening. They were out of breath, their movements getting sluggish, each strike sloppier than the last.
Their opponent, instead, was suddenly fully healed, either dodging or deflecting their combined attacks with his bare hands, without even breaking a sweat. But the most shocking part was when the five of them, Lith included, noticed an unforeseen side effect of the spell.
The four Talons seemed to be aging by the second, their hair getting thin and grey, while their faces were now full of wrinkles, the skin starting to sag. It was actually a mere cosmetic effect, caused by the sudden loss of moisture and life force.
Nothing that a few drinks and some rest couldn’t fix. No Talon feared death, but age? That was another matter entirely.
For the first time in many years, the members of the Talons started to feel fear. From the moment Seephit had opened that Warp Gate, their day had quickly turned into a nightmare.
Since when kids could rip off heads? Since when spells could be cast with no magic words or hand signs? How could possibly exist someone capable of killing a soldier of the calibre of Negal with just a wave of the hand?
Last, but not least, what kind of monster could summon an unnamed horror?
“Black, fall back! Red, fire at will! White, hold your fire until Red is done!” Fear had never made Beruit falter, and this time was no different.
By alternating the waves of spells from the two teams, she planned of raining on the monster enough destruction to make the nightmare end.
When the four of the Black team tried to retreat, they discovered that the black tentacles had turned solid. Infused with spirit magic, they dragged back their victims, using them as meat shields against the incoming attacks.
It was after the first shockwave arrived, that Lith understood to have gravely underestimated tier five spells.
The four bodies, even with all their magical protections, were barely enough to block the first one, a densely packed chain of lightnings that boiled the four Talons from the inside, turning them into charred corpses.
The second spell from the Red unit ripped them to shreds, forcing Lith to dodge and wave countless wind blades, capable of cutting through rock and dirt like a hot knife pressed against butter.
Those he didn’t manage to avoid, penetrated deeply into his flesh, stopping only halfway through the bones. The wounds were too extensive to cut off the pain receptors, otherwise his whole body would go limp.
Seeing that the monster was still alive, and four more Talons had died, their fear turned into despair, but that didn’t stop them. In battle there was no time for whining or grieving, only victory or defeat.
Beruit and the last member of the White unit unleashed their spells too.
Lith had no choice left, he could only fly away as fast as he could. He used all his remaining strength to raise a stone wall after the other, hoping that between the distance and the makeshift barriers he would manage to survive.
Whatever it was, it hit with the strength of a volcano.
The spot where Lith had been until a split second before had turned into a vortex of purple flames, that exploded with great violence, turning the stone walls in pebbles, trampling them like they were just domino pieces.
Lith stopped wasting his energies on magic fusion, keeping only the light one to keep regenerating his present and future wounds and earth fusion to try to save his life. Everything else he had, was focused on his speed, trying to avoid being reduced to a pile of ashes by the purple flames.
Despite all his efforts, the explosion kept getting closer and closer. Lith wasn’t fast enough to outrun it, his only hope was to get far enough from the epicentre of the spell to take as little damage as possible.
But it was all useless. Even from a distance, moving faster that a bullet, Lith could feel the scorching heat burning his feet despite the magical shoes and earth fusion.
When the flames engulfed him, Lith stopped even flying, letting the shockwave carry him away. A cold shiver ran down his spine, the fear almost made his mind go blank, but he refused to surrender.
In a last gamble he used all his remaining strength, even aided by Solus, to insulate himself with a thick barrier made of air, quickly revolving around his body to deflect the flames and avoid direct contact, while using water magic on himself, in a way that in any other circumstances would have frozen him to death.
Despite his water magic spell, the air inside the barrier quickly became so hot that he had to stop breathing to not burn his lungs and throat. His skin got covered in blisters, his open wounds immediately cauterized.
The pain was strong enough to make Lith cry, and he was happy for it, because despite keeping his eyelids close like shutters, he still feared that without the tears his eyes could boil.
