Each of my three brains screeched with pain as I condensed more mana into the gravity bomb. The spell was already dense to the point it had turned dark and now it rotated ominously as it drew more and more mana into itself.
I grit my mandibles tight and tried to focus. Much like exercising a muscle until it burned, straining my minds to this point hurt. Having one headache is bad enough, having three separate headaches at the same time is so much worse!
I wouldn't have to hold on for long though…
After a few more seconds of pushing mana into the spell, just before my control began to slip, I leapt up from my hiding place and let it rip.
The mournful cry of the gravity bomb rang out as the sphere of condensed gravity mana blasted forth and began to exert its terrible pull on the air around it. The monsters of the horde had grown accustomed to this sound lately and they scrambled to move away from the inevitable death that would soon find them.
Except it wasn't inevitable any more.
No sooner had I unleashed the spell into the pre-dawn air than I leapt to one side and began to scramble left and right. Good thing I did to, as a fireball impacted the hill not two metres behind by commercial zone, causing me to curse.
Those buggers are getting quicker!
Thanks to my wide field of vision, even as I dodged and hurled myself about I could see my nemeses for the last few days approaching from within the horde. The slave attendants of the Kaarmodo wore long, pale robes with hoods that concealed their faces and I hadn't had an opportunity to get a glimpse of their features, despite them chasing me around over the last twelve hours.
Two of the mages continued to attempt to crash my stocks with searing hot fire magic whilst the others raised their hands and began to perform the magic I was here to see. We'd been doing this little dance repeatedly throughout the night and this bit right here was something I desperately wanted to understand.
The gravity bomb continued to hurtle through the air. The mages had only seconds before it would impact and expand, unleashing its full, terrible might. This one was a condensed gravity bomb after all. Despite their desperate flight to escape, quite a few monsters on the edge of the horde were still likely to get caught in the blast.
Come on then you lizard lovers, let's see if you can handle this one!
I desperately tried to keep my eyes on the mages as I continued to dodge frantically, my mana sense active and my aching minds sharpened to their limits.
The mages did two things at once. First, they raised a magical barrier between themselves and the bomb, but I was prepared for this.
Jets of acid arced out of my business district, liquid justice sent to deliver my wrath to the enemy. The moment I fired out the acid, the two fire flinging mages turned their attention to the acid and managed to catch two of my shots with fireballs but one made it through.
As the bomb crashed into the barrier, the magical shield bent to absorb the pressure, as if it were a giant elastic sheet being pressed into by giants finger. The acid impacted not long after and began to eat through the shield, tearing apart the threads and allowing the bomb to push forward until the barrier shattered like glass.
I felt no triumph however, I knew what was up as I'd seen this interaction before. As the spell had been caught by the barrier for precious seconds, no less than four of the mage attendants had been hard at work. With my mana sense active I'd been able to see it as they'd reached out with External Mana manipulation and began to drain away the mana contained within my spell.
They tore into the mana with desperate energy, trying to kick over my sand castle with fierce hammer blows, the combined efforts of the four mages rapidly unspooling my gravity bomb. But this time something was different. This was a condensed gravity bomb, with as much juice as I could pack in with my current abilities, the mana contained within was far more potent that the spell they had defeated last time!
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that this was the most potent gravity bomb I was capable of creating at this time.
When the spell broke through the barrier, it still had plenty of oomph left, far more than the mages were anticipating. I could only imagine the look of shock on their faces as the spell flew forward, ready to impact in their midst, since their faces were still covered and all.
The bomb crashed into the ground and expanded rapidly into the swirling vortex of doom that I had come to know and love. Due to the efforts of the mages that spell had lost half of its potency. This appeared to be a coordinated technique that they used to break down spells. I must master this application of external mana manipulation! With my multiple brains on the job, I could be defending and attacking with magic at the same time!
Sadly for the slave mages, half of a condensed gravity bomb is still a heck of a thing to deal with.
Using surprisingly agile footwork, the six mages tried to slip away. The speed and grace they were able to move their bodies felt strange, perhaps it was magical in some way? They didn't appear to shift their feet as they glided away at high speed.
All but one, that is.
A little too close to the blast, a little too slow to begin moving, the poor sap found himself caught in the inexorable pull of the gravity bomb. The trapped creature shrieked, the high pitched hissing sound pierced my ears even from a distance of near one hundred metres.
The other mages turned back at the sound and reached out to save their comrade but it was too late. In another second the mage was gone, sucked into the swirling heart of the gravity bomb and crushed by the potent forces inside.
[You have slain Level 46 Setsulah Bonded Mage Attendant]
[You have gained experience]
[You have reached level 38]
The Setsulah servant wasn't the only creature get caught in the blast, plenty of monsters also suffered the wrath of my gravity magic.