With the withdrawal of his Beast Transformation, Emery once again gained full control of his body. However, this was by no means a good thing, as he now had to bear the full brunt of the dark flames, which had become even more deadly now he didn’t have his transformation active.
In that instant, the plant creature – Twik who was on his arm quickly expanded and crept all over, trying its best to envelop Emery’s body so it took the majority of the deadly flame.
The dark flames burned intensely as it devoured every inch of both Emery and his plant creature. And with their bodies still shackled by the chains held by six dark elf magus, there was clearly not much they could do except persisting.
As expected from its prowess that of Tier 7 spell, the flame swiftly took care of Twik’s roots, turning them to charred crisps layer by layer.
“Ku.. ku!”
“No!”
Emery desperately wished for his little friend to save itself from the dark flames, even abandon him if needed to. However, not only were they bound by the chains and barred from any movements, they were also completely surrounded by hostiles.
Besides, with his entire body shackled and thus unable to cast any spell, the protection that Twik provided was the only reason they, or rather, he still hadn’t turned into a lump of charred body. Nevertheless, the torturous sensation of his flesh being burned clearly ran through Emery’s body.
“Arrghh!!”
While the dark flames continued its atrocity and plunged Emery into a hellfire of abyss, suddenly there was a slight ripple on the glowing portal, attracting the attention of the female magus and the others.
“Something’s coming!!” said one of the magus
It didn’t take long for the newcomers to arrive. However, instead of a ship or any kind of construct as they expected, only two people came out of the huge portal. The female acolyte who had escaped earlier and a middle-aged man with short dark hair that had some whites.
As previously ordered, brilliant lights appeared in the high sky; the elven warship hovering above swiftly launched a volley of blasts on the portal. The two newcomers didn’t even have a chance to take a look around before they were swallowed up by the storm of explosions.
Kaboomm kaoommm kabooom
Even though they had attacked the newcomers, the serious expressions on the female magus did not disappear. It was because she realized the middle-aged man was no ordinary figure, even though she only glimpsed the other party. What’s more, with Spirit Reading, she could tell that the bombardment didn’t hurt the man.
“A grand magus!”
As if answering her guess, the response the other party gave was one that befit of his illustrious status.
A dazzling light appeared amidst the thick plume of black smoke generated by the bombardment. Then, the smoke that should have dispersed and dissipated in the air by now began to move in a suspicious manner, converging into an enormous dense cloud of black smoke.
Under everyone’s shocked gazes, the bizarre phenomenon then made its way towards the hovering ship.
This immediately sparked a response from the female magus as she retracted the dark flames from Emery before flying into the air and chasing after the moving cloud.
Alas, by the time she caught up, there was nothing she could do to disperse it as the cloud of smoke had transformed into a gargantuan creature with eight huge tentacles waving all around in the sky.
It was so huge that its tentacles were enough to completely entangle the two mile long elven warship. Most importantly, cracks and dents began to rapidly appear on the metal structure as the creature made of clouds slowly crushed it.
[Cataclysm Smoke]
It was a high tier combination spell of wind and fire element which manipulates smoke into a destructive force at the whim of its caster. In this case, the spell manipulated the smokes into an entity possessing tremendous power.
From the ground, Emery and all the other magus watched in stupefaction as the warship was crushed by the outlandish creature. It went off with a bang, but Emery saw dozens of elves leaving the warship before it was destroyed. He could see them landing on the ground several hundreds of meters away.
The figure of the female magus floated in the air as her eyes fixed on the wrecked remains of the ship that had fallen to the ground. A moment later, she turned around and glared at the middle-aged man who was still in front of the portal.
“Y-You! You’re going to regret this!!” She shouted with apparent irritation, angry that she couldn’t save her ship.
On the other hand, with the female magus no longer casting the spell that tormented him, Emery was finally able to clearly see the identity of the people who had arrived with surprise.
He saw the figure who he knew well yet least expected to come – Headmaster Delbrand.
The man hovered in the air, a serene atmosphere around him, as his eyes swept across the area assessing the entire situation. After a while, he calmly took out a cigarette and lit it up with a tiny flame from his finger. Only then did he finally turn his gaze towards the female dark elf.
“You have trespassed into our territory.” the Headmaster said calmly.
Not wanting to lose, the magus quickly replied to those words. “No, we have already claimed this area as ours!”
“I see… Well, we shall see who really has the claim”
Right after saying those words, the Headmaster breathed out the smoke he had inhaled. Emery watched in fascination as the smoke split and gradually took form into another four bizarre-looking creatures, each with four arms that exhaled a screeching wind.
After that, he glanced at the female acolyte next to him with a smile. “Give us some space, will you?”
“Yes, Headmaster.” Understanding what was about to come, Klea swiftly nodded her head.
Klea descended to the ground, and the four smoke summons also went into action. One flew down and entered the underground facility, one headed towards the group of elves that escaped from the destroyed warship, while the last two went together making their way to Emery who was still being restrained by the six dark elf magus.
Seeing the spell mastery the other party possessed and hearing the title mentioned by the female acolyte, a startled look appeared on the female dark elf magus’ face as she realized his identity.
“Headmaster… I see, you are the new magus academy headmaster, aren’t you..” With a look of pondering, she said, “Delbrand Ember..”
“Acting Headmaster,” corrected Delbrand. “I’m merely filling the post until Master Altus returns.”
Hearing the unexpected confession, the female dark elf magus burst into laughter.
“Hahaha, great! This is great! Today is the day I, Lyana Darkmoon, get the chance to kill Delbrand Ember, the Ghost King of Lymhurst!”
Saying those words, the female dark elf proceeded to cast a spell, sending a powerful wave of dark flame towards her opponent. With that, a battle between two legendary figures swiftly unfolded in the air.
Shrriiieekkk!!
At the same time, the smoke creatures that the Headmaster conjured which head towards Emery shot at breakneck speed and wreaked havoc, crashing into the magus holding the chains and sending them hurtling across the ground.
With the shackles of the chains around him loosened, in an instant, Emery cast a spell that became viable with the death of the dark elf Magus Kasin.
[Blink]
His figure disappeared from the chains, reappearing a safe distance away. However, his situation was far from good. The wounds inflicted by the female magus’ dark flames were too severe; and to his shock, the plant creature clinging to his arm fell off. It’s mostly charred body fell to the ground with a thud.
“Twik!!”
Despite his grievous condition, Emery focused his efforts on healing the plant creature. A moment later, Klea rushed over and quickly extended a helping hand, healing the two but focusing mostly on Emery.
“Hang on there, Emery!”
While Emery and Klea focused on recovery, the two watched how the Headmaster’s smoke creatures devastated the six dark elf Crescent magus. As if they were foot soldiers fighting against cavalry, the six people could do nothing against the two.
They could only watch helplessly as they were one by one taken down by the smoke creatures. All of their attempts to retaliate were in vain as they were unable to deal any damage thanks to the creature’s smoke nature.
The other smoke creatures also did their part and brought chaos on the other part of the facility.
As for the battle between the strongest in the sky, even though only a few spells had been exchanged, it was clear that the Headmaster had the upper hand.
Both Emery and Klea saw firsthand how the arrival of a single person had completely turned the tide of the battle.