“This is why I hate smart enemies.” One Warg was nothing to an undead.
Even a whole tribe was just an annoyance. A Firstborn like Ilthin could take care of a monster horde of Warg by herself without breaking a sweat.
The Black Tide, however, was comprised of millions of them and the Warg in front of her carried their collective power, mass, and magical power. Despite its size was nothing much, the creature was a force to reckon with.
There was a limit to the power a regular Warg could amass, but those that had attacked Ilthin all had fur the color of charcoal and eyes red like embers, the sign of a mutated species of Wargs that had overcome such limits.
That along with the hive mind allowed them to pass their power to the closest Warg to the prey and use their shared senses to follow Ilthin’s high-speed movements. Yet it wasn’t enough.
Ilthin had now an idea of the enemy’s capabilities and dodged the incoming fist with the minimum movement necessary while delivering a counter at the same time. Even with the mutation, the difference in battle experience made monsters easy to read.
The Warg snarled, his strength disappearing and his body bursting like a balloon under the heavy mace. Instead of fighting a losing battle, he had passed on his abilities.
When the Firstborn Banshee struck with all of her might, the lack of resistance made her lose her balance and created an opening for the next Warg. She turned her fumble into a roll and the ground where the monster landed into a sinkhole that swallowed him.
Breaking free of dozens of tons of solid rock would have drained the tide’s stamina so the Warg accepted his death and passed the power on to the next vessel.
“Two down, two million to go.” Ilthin sighed as another mutated Warg stepped forward.
Only mutants dared face her while the rest kept their distance. They, or rather, the one pulling their strings knew that stalling was the best strategy against an undead. Sunrise was an enemy that not even a Firstborn could defeat.
***
“I’m not going down there stark naked.” Tista said while she and Lith studied the situation from above.
Turning into a Hekate had given her great physical prowess and increased her mass but had also made her old equipment useless. She lacked the means to craft an armor her size so her red scales were all she had.
The only silver lining was that Sunder, the enchanted claws, now fit her like a glove without the need to reduce their weight with gravity magic.
“I don’t think it’s a wise idea.” Lith nodded, noticing the willingness of the monsters to sacrifice themselves to kill the enemy and their perfect teamwork. “We have just to buy time for the Wayfinder.
“Instead of getting swarmed like the others, we better create a diversion.” He used Void Magic to collect the dust and debris released by the fight below in the air to conjure round rocks the size of a small apartment.
Then, Lith combined them with fire and gravity magic to unleash the tier five spell, Burning Comet. The fire element amplified the friction with the air, setting the rocks ablaze while gravity magic increased both their weight and speed.
Lith aimed the spell so that it would hit away from his allies but close enough to the frontlines to disrupt the monsters’ formations. Each impact generated a mushroom cloud that rose for dozens of meters in the air, creating localized sandstorms.
The Tiamat took control of the air currents filled with dust with Void Magic, turning them into solid walls that trapped the monsters and isolated them from the rest of the tide.
At the same time, he took deep breaths with Invigoration, releasing a hail of Demons of Darkness from his wings. Abominations were no picky eaters, all life forces tasted the same to them.
Lith gave them only one eye each counting on the monster hordes to feed his own.
As for Tista, she took a deep breath as well and activated her bloodline ability, Ethereal Aegis. Her whole body turned into a living mass of Origin Flames as she dived down into the heart of the tide.
In that form, no physical attack could harm her and she phased through the lines of monsters while leaving a trail of charred corpses in her wake. Sunder’s splayed claws cut down scores of monsters upon her passage and released air blades that cut deeper.
When she felt the familiar sensation of her lungs burning for air, the Hekate flew back up in the sky in an ascending parable before the flames disappeared. The smell of charred flesh still lingered in her nose and a thick layer of grease covered her tongue.
Tista had killed hundreds of monsters in one swoop and left behind a burning scar in the Black Tide yet it barely put a dent to it. She turned to Lith, noticing that instead of unleashing his spells one after another he was taking his time and aiming carefully.
She was about to take a deep breath to conjure a twin stream of Cursed Flames when the Tiamat grabbed her shoulder.
‘Not so fast. Invigoration can’t make up for the life force we lose every time we use Origin Flames. We must make every burst count.’ He said with a mind link to not waste time.
‘What do you propose, then?’
‘Origin Flames infused with Life Maelstrom, what else?’ Lith replied. ‘It’s the perfect opportunity to put our training to the test.’
‘We have never succeeded so far. What if it’s just another failure?’ She asked.
‘Worst case scenario, the resulting explosion will make up for that.’ He shrugged.
There was no need to mention the best case scenario.
‘Fine.’ They used the mind link to coordinate their breathing rhythm until their hearts beat in unison.
‘Now!’ They thought as one, unleashing a jet stream of Origin Flames each.
The two pillars of fire overlapped, crackling as the different energy signatures they carried fought for dominance. Then, pushed by the willpower imbued within them and the sparks of silver lightning, the deep and the bright violet flames merged into a pristine white pillar.
The Primordial Flames grew in size by devouring the surrounding world energy and vaporizing everything they hit. They cut through the lines of monsters like a hot knife through butter, disappearing only when the two Divine Beasts ran out of breath.
‘We did it!’ Tista was elated, Lith not so much.
Firing from above meant to be safe from attacks but it also limited the piercing power of the flames. Had they attacked while standing on the ground, the white column of fire would have cut the Black Tide asunder.
‘Yeah, but most of the Primordial Flames were wasted against the ground. We need to think of something better.’ He replied.
‘Can’t we just rejoice that our theory was correct?’
Lith had noticed that having the same energy signature wasn’t necessary nor enough to produce Primordial Flames. He and Solus had done in the past but so had Kigan and Xenagrosh.
