"What the hell?" one of the mages said frantically at the sight of several copies that had surrounded them.
In fact, they all had a bad feeling until Karl yelled, "Lies! These are illusions! Do not for one second fall for them!"
Aiden turned to Arianna and said, "I’m assuming you’d like to watch," then his body levitated off the ground while he used the Force spell to telekinetically make Arianna float upward with him.
Now Aiden watched them from the sky with both his arms folded. He had made Arianna float with him to get her as far away from the conflict as possible.
Arianna herself was entirely dumbfounded by the different displays of magic she was witnessing; too shocked to even utter a word.
The avatars hadn’t engaged yet. They simply stood there grinning deviously as they enjoyed the look of fear on the faces of the mages they surrounded.
"Silver Pegasus! Attack!" Karl called out, which somehow forcibly instilled them with confidence.
The four mages of Silver Pegasus then stood facing the four directions; east, west, north, and south.
At the same time, they each released a magic attack in an attempt to vanquish the multitude of Aidens clustered in their direction.
"Earth Magic: Heavy Golem!" Karl called out. Then a large, humanoid creature composed of rock rose from the ground to over eight feet with a hulking mass.
The golem simultaneously lunged its right fist toward the clones of Aiden in front of it.
Then one avatar in front slightly took a step forward and stretched his hand toward the golem with the incoming fist, then released several bolts of lightning outward. In an instant, the golem had shattered into several rock pieces under the impact of the Raging Bolts spell.
The second mage to the right side released a water spell: "Water Magic: Multi-shots!" This caused several small orbs of water magic to travel at high speed toward the cluster of clones on his side.
On this side, an avatar took one step forward and stretched its right palm toward the incoming water orbs. "Wind Gale," he whispered, causing a powerful gale of wind to travel out and scatter the water orbs mid-air.
The third mage on the left side used an ice-related spell: "Ice Magic: Spike Fangs." There was a large growth of ice that burst forward toward the duplicates in front of him.
Like the others, a single avatar stretched his hand forward, and a large steel lance took form and spun rapidly forward toward the incoming ice attack. The impact it made was strong enough to shatter the ice formation.
The last mage used a sand-related spell: "Sand Magic: Spiraling Shot!" Stretching both hands forward, a large amount of sand was subsequently fired in the form of a powerful sand tornado, which moved toward the duplicates before him in a straight line.
The avatar that countered this spell used a wind magic spell, "Wind Tornado", that traveled in a straight line as well toward the incoming sand attack. The wind tornado spell naturally countered the sand by dispersing it away.
"Impossible," Karl said in a low tone and shaky voice, his eyes in utter disbelief.
These weren’t just illusions as he had thought. Each one of the avatars he stared at could harness magic just as much as any other mage.
The worst part of their situation was that only four of these avatars had chosen to respond to their attacks, as if Aiden was intentionally trying to make them realize they were in the worst situation possible.
As if their situation couldn’t get any worse, every single avatar surrounding the Silver Pegasus mages stretched a hand toward them.
A sphere of flames amassed and took form right in front of their palms. This was Aiden’s most powerful flame spell: Exploding Sun, but they were all in miniaturized forms while retaining just as much power.
These mages from Dragonhold had lost their will and couldn’t even fathom a thought to attack any further. How could they possibly do so after feeling the magic power coming from these orbs of flames aimed at them?
Arianna, looking from the sky, had sweat around her face from nervousness. The magic energy she could feel from that distance made her too uneasy to be around. "This boy is an Initiate-ranked mage?" she thought to herself.
The original Aiden, watching from the sky, saw that he had broken their will to fight, which was his true goal all along.
And so with a smile on his face, he slowly floated to the ground and landed right in front of them.
So did Arianna, whom he made float down with him at the same time.
The mages were currently shuddering with fear when Aiden arrived before them. The knees of the water mage had even given out, causing him to fall onto both of them.
Karl had terror in his eyes when Aiden said to him, "I could easily reduce your tedious little lives to cinders right this very moment, but that would bring me no gain. However, if I see any of you within Xathian territory again..."
Then Aiden glanced at one of his avatars, who moved his palm upward to the sky, releasing the miniature sun technique into the air.
It reached a certain point and then caused such a catastrophic explosion that sent shockwaves extending back toward them on the ground.
Aiden wanted to make a point with this display, and now the mages understood what they were truly up against.
Then he stepped back and said, "Now leave!"
Karl immediately turned and ran first, and the mages behind him followed right after.
Aiden laughed heartily as he watched them scamper away, and one by one his avatars started vanishing along with the miniature sun spells.
Arianna, who had been watching from behind, walked up closer to ask, "How did you possibly do all that? It makes no sense."
"Most importantly, we are safe," Aiden replied with an entirely different answer to her question.
Then the system notifications started pouring in:
[Technique Copied → Earth Magic: Heavy Golem(B)]
[Technique Copied → Water Magic: Multi Shots(D)]
[Technique Copied → Ice Magic: Spike Fangs(D)]
[Technique Copied → Sand Magic: Spiraling Shot(D)]
More system screens followed right after, sending him the reward screens:
[Side Quest: Defeat The Malicious Mages Of Dragonhold → Complete]
[+8 Available Stats Points]
[You have gained +12,000xp]
[Bonus Reward +7500xp granted]
[XP Boost Badge: Extra +19,500xp]