This magus called Hades was definitely too strong an opponent for Emery and Klea. Not only had he a powerful fire element for offensive spells, he also bestowed with darkness element affinity, gravity spells that were able to restrict his opponents and could also become ultimate defense.
Through his study within elite class, Emery has never heard of any instance of a rank 8 acolyte could win against a magus, even if a dozen rank 8 fought at the same time.
Now that Hades revealed his power, Emery finally realised how strong the real power of a magus is. He finally knew the gulf separating the two different levels.
The wind blew and whipped his hair, while the ground was shaking as if it was about to swallow him. Like a god, Hades hovered in the air, his power increased after he undid the seal that has been restricting his power.
Emery could see the man's skin turn into a color similar to obsidian, while his face turned a deep red, like someone flayed his face and displayed to the world the muscles underneath.
Come to think of it, Emery himself has the [Immortal Gate] and [Fey Transformation] as his reliable cards; it was definitely to be expected that a magus would also have their own secrets.
The aura made of dark flames blazed all over the magus' body, sending waves of heat toward every direction and causing all the plants in the immediate surrounding to shrivel up. The magus pressed both his hands together, gathered energy from his surroundings, and formed a massive flame that threatened to incinerate everything into ashes.
The residual flicks of flames were spreading all the way across, while the central flames gathered behind the magus and hovered above his palms. The scorching heat could be clearly felt by Emery and Klea, all the way to where they stood.
[Pyroblast – Tier 6]
Tier 6, a spell that can only be cast by a magus.
Not wanting the worst to happen, Emery quickly grabbed Klea's hand as he prepared himself to blink her away when needed.
However, the magus only smirked when he saw Emery's action. The other party's reaction to him only made Emery have extremely bad feelings, and this hunch of his was proven by what happened next.
While a playful smirk still decorated his face, Hades got into motion and aimed the powerful spell. But the problem was he wasn't aiming at Emery and Klea, the man wasn't even looking at the two. He was aiming to a different target, more precisely, towards the Fey sisters who were currently still fighting the flesh monster.
Realising the magus' intention, Emery shouted
"NO! Fight me!"
Hades turned toward Emery and the playful smirk on his face was briefly replaced by an indifferent look as he said, "This is a lesson for you not to run around in a fight!"
Emery watched as the powerful wave of fire started heading towards where the fey sisters were.
There was no way to cast [Blink] on them all in time to avoid the blast, and judging from the size of the wave, the spell could hurt all of them.
Emery decided to [Blink] in front of the wave's path, facing the incoming flame that could easily send him to the afterlife. Even so, he stood courageously and slammed the ground with his hand.
[Granite Wall]
Multiple thick and tall walls made of black stones swiftly appeared in front of him, blocking the incoming flame.
BOOM!!!
Loud sounds occured as the flame waves crashed onto the walls. Unfortunately for Emery, the magus' spell was a channeling-type spell that would persist as long as the caster kept transmitting the necessary spirit force. With each moment, the layers of the walls started to crumble.
"Run!!!" Emery shouted with all his might while his face quickly lost its color. It was apparent that the consecutive cast of [Granite Wall] had taken a toll on him.
The fey sisters who were fighting the abominations quickly ran, only stopping for but a moment to grab the unconscious Morgana.
Crackk!
The walls crumbled apart, leaving only the last layers. Emery knew it would strain him, but he had to hold on. He channeled all the power from his dual core into the last layer of wall separating him and the flames.
Emery could clearly feel his fingers glowing from the heat, but there was no choice other than persisting.
Unfortunately rank 6 spells were definitely on a different level. The wave of flames eventually destroyed the wall, leaving only Emery standing in front of it.
"Emery, get away!" shouted Klea from afar, unable to do anything to help him.
However, Emery knew if he tried to save himself, the unconscious Morgana and the sisters would be quickly engulfed by the flame. Hence he decided to stay, even if it cost him his life.
At the last second, right before the wave of flames touched his body, an item came to mind and he quickly flicked his hand, opening the [Spatial Storage] to retrieve it.
It was a piece of black scales, as large as a shield. It was the dragon scale that Kilgragah had given to him as a gift.
Baaaammmmm!!!
The raging wave of flame was suddenly split in the middle, creating a letter Y. The black dragon scale was burning and glowing red. It managed to hold out most of the flames but some stray embers splashed onto him, each drop feeling hotter than a freshly molten lava. Emery felt as if his hands were submerged into an active volcano, but he knew he couldn't let go of his grasp otherwise he would lose his life.
Emery would have to depend on his [Granite Skin] and the increased magic resistance from the shaman transformation to block it, but he succeeded regardless, and emerged mostly unscathed.
Emery managed to redirect the trajectory of the tier 6 flames and accidently burned the flesh creature into a puddle of wax-like melted goo.
Upon witnessing it, the magus' face contorted in annoyance, unable to believe that his powerful fire spell was stopped.
"Huh?! That is impossible!"
Emery was happy the dragon scale was effective, Unfortunately, the action took a toll on his already tired body, and he felt his strength quickly diminishing. It was clear that Emery finally lost his shaman form.
Fortunately, the Fey sisters had managed to run quite a distance. And now, only him and Klea were standing side by side against the magus.
"Klea.. I need time before I can reactivate my shaman form." whispered Emery with difficulty.
Klea maintained her poker face although inwardly she was worried. "So should we probably retreat?"
Hearing such a reasonable solution, Emery was only silent. He stared at the magus who was still hovering in the air and said, "If we retreat, Camelot will be in danger."
The magus cast the flaming spell once again, while Emery in response spun both his hands to create an uncommonly large spatial gate.
As soon as the portal was created, not just the magus, even Klea thought that Emery did want to retreat.
"You will not get away from me!"
Hades quickly turned into shadow as he dashed toward the gate and cast his spell.
[Gravitational Push]
The strong force threw Emery and Klea's bodies away from the gate.
"There was no way you could run from me!!"
Emery stood up with difficulty from the ground and said, "I have never planned to run anyway!"
"Huh! You think I am stupid, boy?! I know what this gate is for!"
Emery answered, "To send something in…" He drawled, then a smile appeared on his face, "Or to bring something out.."
Realising what Emery was implying, the magus turned his head back to the portal and was shocked by what his eyes saw.
Something emerged from the spatial gate. It was a large brown furred beast, a gigantic bear with root-like protrusions on top of its body.
It was Gaia's guardian, the bear Artio.
As the bear emerged, it quickly jumped out of the gate and tackled down the magus, sending both of them straight into the ground.
BOOM!
A curtain of dust rose high into the air before a majestic roar that shook the area loudly resounded.
ROOOOAAAARRRR!