Chapter 1657 - Battle Of The Dead (Part 1)
Syrook twisted his tail, pulling Lith close enough for his head to lunge at the exposed upside-down left membranous wing on the Tiamat's back.
Much to his surprise, Lith didn't try to break free from the grip nor to stretch his wings as far away as possible. The four bones in between the membranes flexed like fingers, forming what looked like a thumbs-down fist.
Then, the wing punched the Black Dragon's face with an uppercut movement that closed his mouth shut and sent his neck back like a whip.
'You are not the only one with extra limbs, pal.' Lith thought while he exploited the recoil from the wing's punch to pivot on his trapped leg and kick the Black Dragon square in the chest with the other.
His talons dug past the scales and into the flesh, making Syrook bleed as he was sent slamming against the walls of Zeska. The entire city trembled as if it had been struck by an earthquake and several people fell down the battlements.
Before the Black Dragon could recover, Lith unleashed one of the most powerful spells he knew, Primordial Roar.
It manifested the aspects of all elements, using air to create a powerful shockwave whose strength was boosted by fire while water froze the target, earth locked the enemy's movements, light needles pierced their body, and darkness coated everything else.
The hexa elemental Spirit Spell further intensified the quake, putting the arrays that protected the city under so much strain that they became visible to the naked eye.
Meanwhile, Solus had her hands full as well.
'Thank the gods all that insane training Lith put me through allowed me to master all the six elements and to manifest the emerald streak in my hair, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to use Domination on a Spirit spell.' She thought.
'I'm still too weak to counter every spell with another, let alone take them head-on. Domination, instead, allows me to exploit my surgical precision in controlling mana flows and to hijack spells with minimum consumption of energy on my side.
'On top of that, the Yggdrasill wood and the Evil Eyes offer me the perfect cover. Everyone will think that it's all thanks to my artifact while it just gives me the strength to keep standing.'
"I knew it!" Quaron laughed like a madman while darting toward her and dodging the hail of spells from the mages of the regiment. "There was no way that you achieved so much on your own, Verhen.
"Kwart was right about you, hypocritical bastard. Despite your pretty words, you are just like me. You sold yourself to a Divine Beast in exchange for power. You are a Harbinger as well!"
'The boosted core, the Origin Flames, and all of Quaron's strange abilities are just part of the powers of a Harbinger?' Solus was flabbergasted.
She knew of their existence, but it was the first time that they actually met one.
Quaron lunged with his polearm, taking advantage of its longer reach compared to War. If Solus dodged, he would keep the offensive. If she blocked, he would spin the staff and attack her with the blade on the other end of his weapon before she could react.
Solus was still recovering from the exertion of Dominating Breakdown and even if she wasn't, her body coordination was severely lacking. Knowing all of Lith's battle techniques was pointless if she was incapable of performing them.
'I could Blink, but he would see my exit point with Life Vision and I would have just wasted mana. I can't allow him to cut the armor. Not only would people realize that Lith isn't here anymore, but if Quaron notices that I have just a deep blue core, he only has to exploit my lack of mana to win easily.' She thought.
Instead of just blocking, Solus hit the polearm with War with all the strength she could muster. Quaron had taken Lith's insane physical prowess into account for his plan, but Solus was stronger.
The full weight of a nine-story mage tower struck the glaive, almost ripping it off the Ranger's fingers and pushing him off balance. Then, Solus lunged with the Sage Staff, hitting Quaron's exposed chest and sending him crashing against the city walls for the second time in less than five minutes.
"Fuck me sideways!" Solus cursed her stupidity.
Her strength faded with every move she made. She couldn't afford to chase her prey around nor waste precious mana with Spirit Spells. On top of that, flying or Blinking while inside the array field would expose Lith's identity as an Awakened.
Luckily for her, she had no need to.
"Attack!" The regiment of mages didn't waste the opportunity that had been offered to them.
Both the Dragon and the traitor were now nailed to the walls, making them easy targets. The barrage of tier five spells produced by the one thousand mages deepened Syrook's wounds and opened new ones.
Blasts of fire, ice, and darkness shook the east side of Zeska. The people behind the walls screamed in terror as the shockwaves caused by the spells made their houses tremble as if they were made jelly instead of solid stone.
As for Quaron, he survived only thanks to the many protective enchantments of the equipment that his master had given him. No barrier could fully block such an onslaught, but he was an Awakened.
Darkness magic allowed him to ignore the pain from the burn and freeze wounds, keeping his breathing rhythm stable. When the mages stopped their attack to let the dust settle and check the result of their work, he was unscathed.
Most of his artifacts had their power cores almost depleted and Quaron had only a few uses left of Invigoration before it lost any effect, but the mages of the Kingdom had no way to know it.
"He… He's immune to magic." A soldier with a deep green core said before collapsing onto the ground from exhaustion.
He had given his all, yet he refused to surrender. He tried to reach his blade but he lost consciousness along with all those too weak from the mana abuse.
"Nonsense!" Solus could feel the despair gripping the hearts of the soldiers and she shed it away with a burst of light.
Her tier three Light Mastery spell, Sunburst, generated a beam of incandescent light that struck Quaron exactly in the dent left by the Sage Staff in his armor. The Ranger kneeled in pain, groaning and cursing his inability to use Spirit Magic to Blink.
"See? He's just a man covered in stolen equipment. As long as we keep him near Zeska, he can't fly nor dodge. Take him down!" Solus regretted not having used a stronger spell, but she couldn't risk it being foiled by a mere Spirit Blink.
She was too far away to exploit the exit point and she had to keep Lith's abilities a secret.
'At least now I'm sure that Harbingers don't inherit their master's knowledge for free.' She thought, glad to have an army of mages that made up for the mana she lacked.
"Enough!" Syrook roared as the violet light that still shone on his chest spread throughout his body.