The battlefield was chaos, but for the first time, Elara felt like she was starting to control it. Her frost magic had carved a clear space around her and thinned the relentless waves of smaller monsters. Her movements were more fluid now, her casts sharper and more deliberate as her confidence grew.
Still, her mana reserves were dwindling rapidly. She could feel the strain in the aching heaviness of her limbs and the faint buzz in her head as she pushed herself harder and harder. Her frost magic continued to hold the line, but each spell drained her a little more.
‘I need to keep going,’ she thought, her staff glowing faintly as she sent another volley of ice lances toward a snarling beast. The creature crumpled to the ground, frozen in place.
But then, her vision blurred for a moment, and she stumbled slightly. Her chest tightened as she realized what she had been avoiding for the past few minutes: she was running out of mana. Badly.
‘I need a mana potion,’ she thought, her fingers fumbling for the vial strapped to her belt. But the monsters weren’t relenting, and as she paused to uncork the potion, a clawed beast lunged toward her, its glowing eyes locked on her exposed form.
Elara’s heart jumped, and she swung her staff in reflex, but her movements were slower now, her mana nearly depleted. Just as the beast’s claws came within inches of her, a flash of dark steel cut through the air.
SLASH!
The monster fell, its body cleaved cleanly in two. Elara staggered back, gasping as she looked up to see Luca standing before her, his black blade still humming faintly with energy.
“Need a hand again?” he said, his tone light but his sharp eyes already scanning the battlefield. Before she could respond, he added, “I don’t have time to babysit, though. I need an opening.”
Elara blinked, her chest still heaving as she struggled to recover. “An opening?” she repeated, her voice faint but questioning.
Luca nodded, his gaze shifting toward the massive serpent still circling them in the distance. Its glowing eyes burned with cunning, and its movements were calculated and precise. It wasn’t charging blindly anymore. Instead, it was darting in and out of reach, striking quickly and retreating before Luca could land a decisive blow.
“That thing’s too slippery,” Luca explained, adjusting his grip on his blade. “It’s playing hit-and-run, and if this keeps up, it’ll wear us down. We need to pin it down—stop it from moving.”
Elara’s mind raced, the exhaustion momentarily pushed aside as she processed his words. She understood what he was asking. He needed her to immobilize the serpent, to give him the opening he needed to finish it. And she had a spell that could do it.
But it wasn’t simple.
The magic that came to mind was powerful—far stronger than anything she had cast so far. A 4-star spell, intricate and demanding, one that required immense focus and time to channel. It could lock down even a monster as powerful as the serpent, but the cost was high. Casting it would leave her completely defenseless, and if her focus was broken, the backlash could cause severe internal injuries.
Elara hesitated, her fingers tightening around her staff as doubt flickered through her. Can I do it? she wondered. Trusting someone else to guard her was no small thing. But as her gaze shifted to Luca, something about him struck her.
The way he fought, with his back turned to her as if completely unbothered by the danger behind him. The way he moved with the assumption that she would handle the monsters flanking him. He trusted her without hesitation.
‘I can do the same,’ she thought, her resolve hardening. He’s putting everything on the line out there. I can’t just keep receiving, over and over. It’s time I repay it.
“I can do it,” she said, her voice firm despite the ache in her chest. “I’ll cast something to lock it down.”
Luca turned his head slightly, his smirk faint but approving. “Then I’ll keep everything else off you. Just don’t screw it up, mage.”
Elara snorted softly, her lips twitching into a faint smile despite herself. “Don’t plan to.”
She planted her staff firmly, the frost around her feet swirling upward as she began tracing the complex sigils for the spell. The air grew colder, the mana around her shifting as she focused every ounce of her energy into the cast.
「Frozen Dominion」 (4-star spell)
The sigils glowed brighter, intricate patterns weaving through the air as Elara’s mana surged outward. Ice began forming rapidly beneath her, spreading across the platform in jagged, crystalline patterns. Her hands trembled slightly as the strain set in, but she pushed forward, her focus unwavering.
The battlefield around her blurred into the background as she concentrated, her breath steady and measured. She could hear the distant roars of monsters and the sharp clashes of steel, but she trusted Luca to hold the line.
And hold it he did.
Every time a creature broke through, Luca was there, his blade moving with deadly precision. SLASH! THUD! Each strike cleared the path, ensuring nothing reached Elara as she cast. He didn’t look back, but his presence was constant, unwavering.
Elara’s chest burned with the effort, her mana reserves dipping dangerously low as the final sigil locked into place. The frost surged forward, racing toward the serpent as if alive. The ice coiled around its massive form, encasing its limbs and tail in unyielding bonds. The serpent roared, thrashing violently as the frost tightened, locking it in place.
“It’s done!” Elara shouted, her voice hoarse but triumphant.
“Heh….Not bad, mage….”
It was now his moment.
“Leave it to me, now.”
Luca raised his blade with deliberate grace, his right arm extended upward, the weapon held at a perfect 90-degree angle. The air around him shifted, growing heavy with an otherworldly presence. The faint glimmer of starlight mana began to coalesce around him, swirling like a constellation come to life.
Elara, though drained, couldn’t help but feel her breath catch. She had seen him fight, but this… this was something entirely different. The mana resonating around him was extraordinary, luminous, and transcendent. It was as though the very cosmos bowed to his will.
The serpent continued to thrash against the icy bonds, its roars shaking the air, but Luca stood unmoving, the calm in the storm.
“Elara,” he said softly, his voice steady yet carrying the weight of command. “You might want to step back.”
She didn’t question him. Planting her staff for balance, she staggered a few steps away, her eyes locked on the unfolding spectacle.
「Void Starfall Blade. Dance of the Celestial.」
The words left his lips, and Luca moved.
In an instant, he became a blur, his form vanishing and reappearing in sharp, precise arcs around the serpent. Each movement was impossibly fast, his blade leaving trails of pure starlight in its wake. The starlight hung suspended in the air for only a moment before exploding into bursts of radiant energy.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The battlefield was awash in brilliance as the serpent’s roars turned into cries of pain. Each slash was precise, deliberate, and devastating. Seven times he passed around the serpent, each strike painting the air with celestial light, and each explosion tearing into the monster’s colossal form.
Elara could hardly believe what she was seeing. The intricate, deadly dance was unlike anything she had ever witnessed, as though Luca himself was wielding the very heavens as a weapon. The serpent’s once-imposing figure now writhed, weakened and ravaged by the unrelenting assault.
The seventh and final slash came, Luca moving faster than her eyes could follow. He reappeared directly behind the serpent, his blade raised in a finishing pose, starlight still cascading around him like falling stars.
For a moment, there was silence. The serpent froze mid-thrash, its body trembling as the remnants of the starlight energy surged through it.
Then, it collapsed.
The icy platform beneath it cracked under the sheer weight of the monster’s fall, and a deafening crash echoed through the battlefield.
Luca exhaled slowly, lowering his blade. The starlight mana dissipated, leaving the space around him eerily quiet.
“It’s done,” he said, his voice calm but edged with the faint satisfaction of victory.
Elara stared at him, awe and exhaustion warring within her. She managed a faint, breathless laugh. “You… are insane.”
Luca turned to her, smirking faintly. “Takes one to know one, mage.”
Her chest tightened—not from exertion, but from the realization that the trust she had placed in him wasn’t misplaced. She had witnessed his true strength, and it was both terrifying and breathtaking.
“Well,” she said, steadying herself, “let’s hope there aren’t more of them.”
He chuckled softly, sheathing his blade. “If there are, you’ll have to freeze it too. No slacking.”
Elara rolled her eyes, but the smile on her lips lingered.
It was strangely a satisfying fight. Enjoy new stories from empire