The answer to all of his questions lay in Reaver, the estoc that Orion had forged for Phloria back when he had crafted War for Lith.
Lord Ernas had enchanted his daughter’s blade with the ability to hold spells on its own. Reaver relieved Phloria from the mental burden that keeping several spells at the ready required and prevented them from dissipating in the case she lost her focus.
Unlike a magic holding ring, the estoc didn’t have a limit to the number of spells it could store, but it couldn’t maintain them for more than two minutes. It was the perfect weapon for a fake mage, allowing its wielder to pack the same assault prowess of a small unit on short notice.
To an Awakened who could cast spells with their mind and use Invigoration to replenish their mana at will, however, Reaver granted the same power of an army. Phloria had now at her fingertips two full minutes of casting, allowing her to relentlessly attack while she kept refueling the estoc.
She didn’t need hand signs anymore so she could keep using her mind to cast new spells to store inside Reaver while unleashing those that were close to expiring. At the same time, she used Invigoration to never run out of mana.
The only weakness of her weapon was its inability to hold Spirit Magic spells, but those she could keep on her own.
“Fuck off, girl!” Vareen couldn’t move due to the hepta-elemental onslaught that bombarded him from every side, but he could still cast spells.
A tier four Void Howling left his palm and moved towards Phloria too fast to be dodged. Coordinating so many spells at the same time while also weaving more required her full focus.
That’s why when Full Guard read the incoming attack she didn’t move and raised her Adamant shield, Breaker. The black stone at its center came to life, turning into a black liquid that covered the silver surface of Breaker until it became a black slate.
When the Void Howling hit, the multiple Darwen layers that now covered the shield shattered the spell’s mana flow into countless smaller streams that the Adamant underneath deflected with minimum effort.
‘Fuck me sideways, Orion spared no efforts for his daughters. Phloria is damn overgeared.’ Lith thought. ‘Wait, what are those?’
He regretted being separated from Solus who could have probably answered his question.
‘What the fuck are those?’ Solus thought in amazement.
A glowing rune appeared around the estoc with each spell that Reaver unleashed. Another function of the blade was to collect any bit of mana that failed to strike at the enemy and use it to fuel another of its pseudo cores.
There were so many runes around Reaver now that they formed a spiral that went from the hilt to the tip of the blade. By absorbing them, Phloria was supposed to temporarily boost her physical prowess and be coated in a defensive layer of solid mana thanks to Reaver’s Take and Give ability.
‘How can that guy be still standing?’ Lith couldn’t believe his eyes when Life Vision revealed that the hail of spells that would have flattened a mountain had just weakened the Eldritch.
‘Did you really expect a blue cored Awakened to be effective?’ Aalejah replied. ‘It takes the Council dozens of Elders to face a single Abomination as strong as Vareen. Even the World Tree is wary of their powers.’
The Plaguespreader dashed forward the moment that the frequency of the spells decreased enough to create an opening and aimed at Lith again. Vareen was now not only annoyed for being hurt so much by a bunch of babies but also worried.
‘If the Council called for help the moment that I cut off the communications, Salaark might arrive here any second now. Between the revived Abomination’s Chaos spells and the one-woman army, I’ve taken too much damage.
‘I need to get out of here before-‘ A sudden flash of light barely below the speed of sound severed his arm, sent the Eldritch crashing against a wall, and derailed his train of thought.
Unfortunately for him, Phloria was far from being done.
The Take and Give skill would have been pointless against an opponent of Vareen’s caliber. She was well aware that only a bright violet cored Awakened might have been boosted by Reaver’s skill enough to go toe to toe against an Eldritch.
Yet, unlike Lith, she had spent lots of time getting used to her equipment and find ways of using it that not even Orion had imagined.
Instead of just absorbing the glowing runes that orbited around Reaver’s blade, Phloria had learned how to make that energy flow from the estoc to her and back at will. The repeated exchange allowed her to control Reaver’s every enchantment as if it was her own.
Unbeknownst to her, Phloria had found a way to forcibly raise the compatibility between her and her weapon, creating her first Blade Tier spell, Omnislash.
The energy stored by Take and Give to boost her body was now perfectly mixed with Fusion Magic, allowing her to make it explode all in a few seconds instead of slowly consuming it.
Phloria moved now so quickly that even Vareen’s eyes saw only a blur. His Chaos spells were incapable of following her footwork and hit only air. On top of that, a bright blue sheath of energy covered both Phloria and Reaver, shielding them from the Eldritch’s corrosive touch.
‘How the heck can this fucker be so strong as to still manage to follow my movements?’ She thought while dodging spells and claws that suddenly erupted from Vareen’s allegedly blind spots.
‘If not for Full Guard, I would be already dead. I could move faster, but the last time I tried that, the sonic boom burst my eardrums and I spent half an hour puking until I managed to heal the damage.’
Phloria had trained a lot to master Omnislash, discovering its strengths, weaknesses, and limits. Orion was proud of her, having no clue how his daughter had achieved such an ability while Faluel had suggested her to keep it a secret.
The best trump cards had to remain hidden. Also, the Hydra didn’t want Lith to die from overwork.
Phloria kept circling around Vareen in an irregular pattern, cutting him asunder with each step she took. The Eldritch could only helplessly grit his teeth while he was reduced to smaller and smaller pieces.
‘I have no vitals and she’s going to run out of steam at some point. Time is by my side.’ He thought.
Yet when Phloria felt her body reach its limits, she consumed all the strength she had left in a vertical slash faster than sound. The sudden burst of mana, the shockwave that her movement produced, and the mastery of her swordplay turned Vareen’s body from small pieces into dust.
Phloria, Lith, Athung, and Aalejah erected a Hush zone to protect themselves, but it wasn’t enough. The combined tier one spell took the brunt of the impact and disappeared, leaving behind enough noise to damage the Awakened’s eardrums and impair their sense of balance.
Only Lith who still lacked organs and ears managed to still stand.
‘Oh, fuck me sideways!’ He thought in horror.
Lith had yet to take the first breath of Abyssal Gaze and retrieve Solus with Spirit Magic that the dust was already reassembling into a humanoid body.
