Or at least Friya was an easy target for the vampire back when she couldn’t use dimensional magic.
Friya switched herself with the vampire Redcap this time, placing the enemy in the right spot to skewer through a flabbergasted Wraith’s side and in front of the horizontal swing of a Treant’s giant mace.
Tyria involuntary assist paralyzed the Wraith long enough for the Treat to struck both of them at the same time, sending them flying. The Wraith died on the spot, her body was unable to endure the heavily enchanted hammer that had followed the deep wound caused by the halberd.
Tyria fared much better. Pain wasn’t a problem and healing wounds from a single strike wasn’t a big deal. She Blinked a few times, to give her body the time to recover and keep Friya from Switching her again.
“Not so fast!” Friya slashed at the position from which Tyria had Blinked the first time, activating her personal spell, Dimensional Cut. It was an offensive spell, whose purpose was to destabilize space and make it collapse, resulting in a devastating explosion.
In this case, Dimensional Cut rode the ripples in space that Tyria’s series of Blinks had left behind. It allowed Friya to exploit the still lingering mana to amplify the effect of her own spell and have it appear right in front of Tyria.
“Fuck!” The vampire said while turning into her mist form. Blinking would have not only dragged along the golden fissure, but it would have also further boosted its power.
The explosion opened a small crater in the ground, yet Tyria was unscathed. No matter how powerful, the blast triggered by the dimensional spell was more physical than magical in nature, so it couldn’t harm her now ethereal body.
Yet a Vampire’s Mist Form wasn’t usually used in combat, or at least not on the entire body. It was a technique better suited to avoid a single attack or stalk prey. As long as Tyria was in her Mist Form, she could only use her innate true darkness spells since she was unable to speak and form hand signs.
The smoke hid Friya Blinking where the Dimensional Cut had struck and, without her nose, Tyria didn’t notice her coming. Friya struck at the small mist cloud while unleashing a series of darkness pulses that forced the vampire Redcap back in her humanoid form.
Tyria consumed all the blood stored in her hair to heal her wounds and release a barrage of silent spells at the same time. No one but her knew what abilities she had stored, so she was certain that the combined assault of her victim’s skills would take the human by surprise.
The wooden spikes that only a Treant could conjure erupted from the ground while the Origin Flames of a Wyvern filled the air along with the corrupted black lightning of a Jotunn.
Unfortunately for Tyria, Friya knew everything about Redcaps. They were among the easiest opponents that a dimensional mage could face. A mage couldn’t be hurt by their own mana, but the abilities Redcaps used were stolen and so was the energy empowering them.
Professor Rudd had shared with her all of his knowledge about creatures with similar abilities and had instructed her about how to finish them in the quickest way possible. Friya knew that she couldn’t possibly beat a more skilled and powerful opponent by playing fairly.
Also, war wasn’t a test of skill or honor, but only a matter of survival.
Full Guard bestowed upon Friya full spatial awareness, while dimensional magic allowed her to exploit the chaos of the battlefield to Switch the position of the chess pieces and cheat her way to victory.
Friya had resorted to attacking solely with the darkness pulses generated by her weapon as bait, to prepare the field for the spell she was keeping at the ready, Warp Steps. The dimensional door appeared in front of Friya who stepped out from its exit point, which appeared right in front of the surprised Redcap.
Friya hopped past Tyria and used the vampire as a meat shield against the raging storm that was following her.
Unlike Blink, Warp Steps would remain open as long as the mage provided it with mana. The skills that the Redcap had conjured could freely move through the dimensional door as well, hitting her with their full force.
Friya was covered in wounds, old and new. Tyria had stabbed her when she had come out of the Steps and neither the vampire’s body nor Friya’s conjured shield had managed to fully block such a powerful onslaught.
‘So much for an easy opponent.’ She thought while mending the most severe injuries and stopping the bleeding. Most of her hair was gone and her armor was charred from the Flames and lightning. Yet she was alive and relatively safe.
Before her death, Tyria had moved to a mostly empty area to keep Friya from Switching, so there were no enemies nearby. The Dimensional Mage wanted nothing more than dispel Full Guard and rest, but those were luxuries she couldn’t afford.
Friya remained at the fringes of the battlefield, searching for her friends or at least for an opportunity to turn the tides of the battle.
Meanwhile, after Solus had unveiled for him the secret behind the Grendel’s nigh-invulnerability, Lith released the spells stored inside his rings every time an opening appeared in Gremlik’s offense.
Phloria was looking for an opportunity to take part in the fight without hindering Lith’s movements while also using the short respite to prepare a few new spells. Kalla, instead, was still busy using Invigoration to close the deep wounds a single slash of the Grendel’s claws had opened in her chest.
‘No wonder Grendels are considered on par with mythical beasts. For some reason, the wounds he has inflicted upon me have yet to heal, whereas in normal circumstances one breath of Invigoration would have been plenty.’ She thought.
Kalla had no Solus, so she wasn’t aware of Gremlik’s body being fused with his blood core. It didn’t just make him a mass of living elemental energies, it also involved the seventh element, the mana.
The wounds Gremlik caused while in his Grendel form were both physical and magical, inflicting a slight mana poisoning upon his victim. It wasn’t enough to threaten their mana core, but it still managed to scramble their mana flow and hinder the healing process.
At first, both women didn’t understand why Lith kept wasting his spells. Gremlik didn’t even bother to dodge them, taking every time the full force of whatever Lith threw at him without a scratch.
The creature seemed to be immune to direct damage, so they wondered why Lith didn’t use spells that would at least grant him a tactical advantage.
Yet when Lith cast his tier four spell, Plague Storm, the Grendel dodged the hail of darkness bullets, giving Lith the first opportunity to catch his breath since they had started fighting.
Gremlik wasn’t the kind of opponent he could play with, and going all-out right from the bat was exhausting.
“There’s a limit to how much punishment the Grendel can take!” Phloria said. There was no other way to explain why Gremlik had tanked Plague Arrows before but was now wary of them.
“Is it?” Gremlik grinned, stabbing the floor with both his hands. The wooden floor withered and rotted as the Sapling’s energy was devoured by the Grendel, refilling his core.
