While Termyn was still in a daze, Belia didn't miss the opportunity to strike with her most powerful lightning spell. The Cingy was incapable of using fusion magic, so it took a clean hit, its whole body going into a spasm, keeping it an easy target.
- "Dammit!" Belia thought. "I was so scared when those things attacked, that's only thanks to Phloria's instructions that I didn't freeze again.
And to add insult to the injury, I was in such a rush that I ended using the Bladed Battle Armour instead of the Bashing one. Edged weapons are useless against such thick protections. F*ck my life. Here goes everything!" –
As soon as the lightning struck, Belia rearranged the ice shards that composed her armour, turning the gloves in war hammers, that she slammed with the combined strength of her arms and flight spell between the Cingy's eyes.
The impact was strong enough to make the beast take a few steps back, while shaking its head trying to regain focus. The several blades conjured from the ice armour, started to spin on their axis, turning into buzz saws.
Following Belia's will, they encircled the enemy attacking from all sides, managing thanks to their high-speed rotation to cut through the rock-hard skin.
Termyn scoffed at the girl's efforts.
- "Please! The first hit is for free, the next ones you have to earn them." -
Just like the day of their first encounter, the Cingy activated Mountain Body, its strongest defensive spell. Every inch of Termyn's body turned to a shiny black, its density raised to the extreme thanks to a massive flow of earth magic.
A short charge forward was enough to send Belia crashing against tree, stopping the blade swarm in its tracks. Phloria had no idea how to stop something so strong and heavy, yet she had to try.
It was in that moment that the situation turned for the worse, with lightning and dark projectiles raining from the sky.
- "That's a game two can play!" Visen inwardly screamed. "Gods, why in the heroes' tales they are never caught in the middle of a spell? Talking should be a free action!" –
It was his time to shine, yet he was forced to keep chanting the third Warden formation, while with his foot he activated the magic symbol he had engraved in the ground.
All he could do was use first magic to create a bang noise, alerting his companions.
Instantly, the entire area of the fight was surrounded by magnetite enriched stone pillars, that acted like powerful lighting rods and intercepted every single electricity magic-based attack.
- "Sh*t! I wanted to complete all three to maximize their effect, but we are losing ground every second. – Gritting his teeth, Visen activated the second array, creating a ten meters (11 yards) radius low gravity field.
The four mages had all stored a flight spell in their rings or were already flying, so they could instantly cope with the sudden change. Gravity or not, it made no difference to them.
But when Termyn tried to take on Phloria's shield, she only had to give it a strong push upwards to send it in the air, like the Cingy was just a balloon.
Belia's armour had already reformed, and she was ready to intercept the enemy.
According to the plan, she should have kept it in the air, exploiting the Cingy's weakness to wear it down with physical and magical attacks, giving Phloria the time to take care of the Ry.
But avoiding the sudden hail of dark bullets and foiling all Termyn's attempts to reach the ground, required all of her focus, leaving Belia no time to attack.
Termyn was conjuring tendrils of earth to get back down, generating at the same time thick ice shields to intercept Belia's spells and ice bullets to keep her away.
The Cingy couldn't allow to be hit by a Lift again, it would have been too humiliating failing twice for the same trick. Termyn was giving its all, swimming towards the tendrils.
All Belia could do was use her conjured weapons to cut the tendrils as soon as they arose from the ground, while dodging the combined attacks the magical beasts were raining on her.
Lith could only curse their bad luck.
- "Who would have thought that magical beast can use arrays too? Based on what I have seen, if I could use true magic, I could fight on par with one of them. But as a fake magic user, we need two of us to make one of them.
Even if Mirna was still with us, we would still be at disadvantage.
We have only until Visen's formations run out of juice before the wipe out. Got to take care of that Cron, and fast!" –
As soon as the second Warden array was activated, Lith circled around the flabbergasted M'Rook, whose legs were now a few centimetres floating above the ground, grabbing it by the tail and throwing it toward Phloria.
According to the plan, it was up to her to get rid of the Ry with the ace in the hole Lith had kindly provided. But even without the lightnings, Sentar's control on the array was on another level, compared to Visen's.
Sentar could freely manipulate the dark bullets aiming only to their enemies, greatly reducing the advantage the low gravity field granted the man-pups. The Cron would also reinforce the barrage adding wind blades, making any attempt to attack her allies even harder.
Despite always having refused to learn how to fly, M'Rook was a natural at air magic. Even just reacting by instinct, the Ry was able to move enough to avoid almost all Phloria half-baked attacks.
Seeing no other way out, Lith decided to resort to a ridiculous plan that had just popped in his head. Termyn was completely focused on Belia and at controlling the tendrils, its back was wide open.
The Cingy had yet to notice that Lith and Phloria had switched opponents.
Lith shoot a fireball at the ground below Termyn, the resulting explosion propelled it in the air, away from the earth tendrils and scattering the defensive shields.
Lith moved below the belly of the beast, pushing it upwards with all the speed and strength he could muster. Visen's array didn't cover that much space, Lith needed to gain momentum fast, before the reduced gravity effect wore off.
He soared the skies, willingly walking into Sentar's trap. Using Termyn as a shield, though, it was the poor Cingy that took all the damage in his stead, grunting at its opponent for using such a dirty tactic.
Sentar was forced to temporarily stop the sky array. Termyn could take lightnings all day and whistle the whole time, but darkness bullets were another story. Every time they hit, they would sap the strength and vitality of the victim.
When all the momentum had dissipated, and the Cingy started to plummet, Sentar hesitated for a moment. The Cron could see its friend had gone limp, its eyes were clouded by the fatigue and pain from all the friendly fire it had endured.
Sentar was worried that falling from that height, Termyn could get seriously wounded if it didn't manage to soften the landing.
Lith exploited their friendship, using that moment to reveal himself, casting his new and hopefully sure kill spell. Despite its name, Checkmate Spears had yet to defeat a single opponent.
"Burning Prison!"
Six fireballs appeared at the same time around Sentar, one above, one below and the others in a square shape, resembling for a moment a giant, flaming eight faced die.
Without giving the enemy the time to react, they all detonated together, inflicting heavy damages despite the air shield Sentar had managed to conjure at the last split second.
Back at the castle, having nothing else to do, the Professors were spectating and commentating their students' performances.
"That's my student!" Professor Vastor was puffing his chest with pride.
"I always told you, Thorman. Healing magic develops calm and foresight. That alone wins half of a battle." He said while actually looking at the Headmaster, trying to get extra funds from him, like everybody else.
"Bullsh*t!" Professor Wanemyre replied. "That's thanks to my classes. Only a Forgemaster can have such a quick casting and precision at timing his spells."
"Bah! You should get a full check-up as soon as possible. Clearly there is something wrong in your head." Vastor scoffed at her remark.
"What if I killed you both at the same time? You are ruining my show!" Manohar yelled throwing salty snacks at them. Unlike the others, he was sitting on a very comfortable looking armchair, surrounded by bowls filled with delicacies.
He was zapping from fight to fight, looking for something interesting. Right now, he was trying to follow Phloria's group from different angles through the surveillance mirrors.
"Man, this stuff is good." He said while eating a pretzel-like snack.
"We should record and sell it. I call dibs on the profits. I need more funds. Okay, Linjos?"
The Headmaster could tolerate the lack of honorifics, but the idea of making a business out the sweat and blood of his students was too much. Those were the lives of young adults, not the entertainment for some rich and bored noble.
Yet the idea had its allure. The academy was a black hole for money, no matter how much the Kingdome invested on it, there were never enough.
"I'm more interested in one student managing to develop a tier four personal spell after a month. Great job, Nalear." Professor Nalear replied with a polite bow, using the hand behind her back to give the finger to her boastful competitors.
Before the smoke dissipated, Lith was already charging full speed ahead.
- "I bet everything I have that the f*cking Cron is still alive and kicking. No matter how much I put in a single spell, it's never enough against a magical beast." –
And he was right. Sentar was injured, but far from being knock out. It had managed to compensate quality with quantity, conjuring a series of concentric air barriers, halving the spell effectiveness.
While the Cron was still dazed by the booms and the blinding flames, Lith appeared through the lingering smoke. Putting the potions finally at use, he punched Sentar multiple times, in the head and body.
Back on the ground, without covering fire, M'Rook was losing ground quickly. The array intercepted every lightning, while Phloria's shield offered protection against any quick spell it could whip up.
Phloria was managing to hit more and more often, her sword was perfect for piercing the thick fur and skin of the Ry, that was now bleeding from multiple points.
After using Blast Guard to throw her opponent off balance, she took out something from her dimensional amulet, using first magic to keep it on the tip of the sword.
At her next stab, M'Rook did its best to dodge, but Phloria still managed to use her superior mobility to stab through, injecting the Clacker's poison Lith had saved from the previous day in the enemy's side.