Emery and his two friends were cornered at one side of the bridge, but considering everything else, this could be seen as a much better situation. At the very least, they were no longer surrounded.
In the heat of the battle, the group had almost forgotten that starting from level 4, the true objective was to survive. Without the need to guard the orb, the two can fight the enemy with much better flexibility, such as moving to a better spot to defend.
There were still 33 stone trolls that came charging from the distance while his two friends were exhausted from using their battle power continuously.
The trolls came closer and closer, crowding them to their end.
Emery gritted his teeth and focused as he tried to cast something different that he had not tried before. Something that was inspired by the previous spatial gate trick.
He took a deep breath and concentrated as he felt his energy gather and shift, ready to be unleashed to the charging trolls.
Right as the trolls reached 10 meters before they clashed, all of a sudden, the space in front of them was distorted and a massive spatial gate was formed right in between Emery and them.
Emery made his biggest [Spatial Gate], specifically, it was 8 meters wide and four-meter tall, enough to cover the whole width of the bridge.
Although the stone trolls were not intelligent, at least they were smart enough to stop at the moment they saw the spells, but the sudden opening of the gate caught them off guard and caused a dozen trolls on the back row to crash onto the front rows. The force threw some of them into the gate.
At the same time, a gate also was opened next to the bridge. This was the gate’s exit destination and right after, Emery spotted three trolls coming out from the gate and falling down to the abyss below.
This was the first time Emery used the spatial gate in this way. Seeing what just happened, Julian quickly shouted in glee.
“You can do something like this!? Darn, this is amazing! If we can continue this, level 5 is already in the bag-“
However, before Julian managed to finish what he said, he saw that Emery’s face was contorted in a pained expression with each second that passed. In addition, a quick glance made him realize that four stone trolls were still stuck halfway in the middle of the gate. The trolls struggled to pull themselves out of the gate.
“What is going on?!” Thrax shouted.
With gritted teeth and pained breath, Emery slowly answered. “They are… resisting…, quick use this chance to rest!”
Julian’s previous fantasy to easily win the whole game had disappeared right at that moment, but he decided against dwelling on it. He sat down in a cross-legged position next to Thrax, and used their Divine Technique, [Golden Bell Divine], and [9 Suns Divine].
Beautiful golden light surrounded them, and slowly, the gashes and wounds they sustained during the battle started to close up and disappear while their depleted spirit energy slowly restored.
Emery managed to buy some time for his friends, but his struggle was not over. He controlled his breathing, as he tried to maintain the steady flow of spirit force he channeled onto the spatial gate spell.
This was the first time he tried using the gate like this, and before, he had no idea that the gate could be resisted. Each time the trolls tried to pull themselves up, it felt as if someone was knocking on his dark core, causing him tremendous mental pain.
Despite the torturous pain that kept on striking him every few seconds, Emery fought on to keep the spatial gate open. He knows that not only did his friends need the rest, but he realized this condition made him understand space magic further. This was a good opportunity for him to improve his understanding of space magic.
One minute, two minutes, each minute that passed felt like an eternity as Emery felt beads of sweat start to trickle down his face and chin, and at the ten minute mark, the pain he felt was multiplied, enough for his concentration to break.
The next moment, the spell was finally broken with a small blast that made the remaining four-stone trolls who were still stuck in the gate at that point dropped to the ground unmoved, died, or severely wounded.
This also made his dark core hurt but seeing the remaining 27 stone trolls who were still standing charged at him, Emery take out his sword and force himself to use [Shadow Edge].
In his shaman form, his strength was multiplied, and the shadow crescent slash he made was strong enough to cleave through the frontmost troll. The creature was cut in half and the spell also stop the other creature’s momentum.
However, right after he managed to crush the troll, so did his tier 3 sword. The sheer strength he exerted also used up his shaman from time. He fell down, kneeling on the ground in pain, and the transformation dispersed, returning him to his human form.
He gritted his teeth and struggled to stand, but two figures touched his shoulder. As he looked up, he saw his two friends standing in front of him.
“Good job, Emery! It’s our turn now!!” The two of them said at the same time
An aura of searing flames engulfed Thrax’s body in a protective cloak, while Julian’s aura shone in a brilliant gold carrying the warmth of the morning sun. They gripped their weapons tight and charged at the same time towards the oncoming trolls.
At a glance, Emery knew that his two friends were currently using their strongest skills to fight the trolls. This was his chance, and he sat down to cast [Nature’s Blessing] and heal himself up.
The two rivals, one Roman and one Thracian, fought for two different visions of the world back on Earth. However, here in the Magus Games, they fought hand in hand, and they were surprisingly much more compatible than either of them would ever admit.
As the green healing light enveloped his body, Emery’s lips curled into a smile secretly. His two friends had done a lot of bickering on Earth, despite constantly insulting each other, their current teamwork was impeccable, enough for them to kill the powerful trolls left and right.
When one focused on defense, the other would focus on attack. If one focused on distraction, the other would push the horde back. When one attacked from the left, the other would attack from the right
[24 trolls left]
[22 trolls left]
[20 trolls left]
The duo really makes havoc on the trolls lines effectively stopped their advance
Unfortunately, thanks to Emery’s accumulated battle exhaustion and his over usage of the shaman form for the spatial gate, it took him more time than usual to heal.
A quick glance towards the sky, and Emery saw Chumo’s shadow was standing on top of a wyvern stabbing the knives into the creature’s hard scales while his main still focus on shooting the huge arrows. Even with multiple long arrows sticking out on a few of teh wyverns, they were still able to fly and fight.
As for Klea she has been endlessly alternating her spell from defense and trying to tear through the wyvern’s wing. Emery knew that the two were reaching the limit of their spirit force, too.
After a while, Thrax and Julian were on their last legs; even the protective barrier that once surrounded them had been depleted to 0.
[18 trolls left]
[4 wyverns left]
Julian looked around to do a quick headcount on the number of creatures left before he glanced at Emery and said,
“You must pass through this level Emery, focus on your recovery first”
Without giving him a chance to answer, the Roman used [Quick Steps] and dashed in between the trolls, before he entered the center of the last remaining trolls. This act quickly diverted all the remaining monsters’ attention towards him.
“What are you doing? Roman!” Thrax shouted.