Elaine swallowed hard as the Greens approached. Common affinities or not, these people were from the Divine Root. Even with Circulation, taking on three of them wouldn’t be easy. Still, it wasn’t herself she was worried about…
‘Will he be alright?’ she stole a glance at her cousin.
She knew he’d beaten Greens before, but always one at a time and with ample preparations. Plus, she’d never seen it in person. The last time she watched Percy fight; he barely managed to stun a goblin. And, technically, his grade hadn’t even changed since then. Could he really handle this?
Besides the upcoming fight, his current condition also worried her a little. Percy had already downed the potion, an overwhelming surge of mana spilling out of his pores, shrouding his body in a swirling teal fog. Soon, it faded from her eyes like the rest of his constructs, only visible through Mana Sense. His skin was flushed red, blood bubbling from countless expanding cuts as his muscles swelled more than they were ever meant to. Yet, he seemed unfazed by the pain – probably used to putting himself through hell by now.
His glowing eyes stayed locked on their opponents instead, like a predator observing his prey. His fingers tightened around the invisible scythes in his grasp. One of them rested propped against a boulder for now – the one not fully cloaked. He clearly wanted to keep the element of surprise as long as possible, though they both knew it wouldn’t last beyond the first attack, if that. His armour was invisible too, though it wasn’t hard for her to make its shape out – partly because she already knew about it, and partly due to the way it displaced the mist.
‘It doesn’t matter. He’ll be fine as soon as he drinks a few healing potions. We just need to survive until then…’
There was no turning back now. Their opponents would notice their presence in mere moments, if they hadn’t already. And Percy’s potion wouldn’t last long. She had to wrap her own fight up quickly; in case he needed backup.
One of the incoming Greens suddenly snapped his head in their direction, sensing something was off. As if on cue, Percy lunged from his hiding spot, hurling two scythes toward him before following up with a flurry of throwing stars.
Elaine didn’t wait to see the outcome. Her focus shifted to the leftmost trio. She shot forward, channelling mana to her feet and skidding across the grassy terrain. At the same time, she raised her palms and unleashed a barrage of small, azure projectiles at the startled mages.
The Greens dodged her attack, quickly regaining their composure. Their eyes flickered between her and Percy, weighing their options, as if considering whether to gang up on her cousin first.
“Like hell I’ll let you!” she snarled, stepping between them and Percy, mana coiling around her fingers as she manifested a set of glowing whips.
Undeterred, they unleashed a barrage of spells at her. A few large fireballs, some water arrows – faster and more condensed than her own shots – and a wave of earth mana rippling towards her feet. She clicked her tongue – this was going to be rather annoying.
Shredding the projectiles into harmless motes, she slid away from the earth mana right as it pierced towards her in the shape of a spear. Despite avoiding all of their attacks, she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the sight, however. She’d seen earth users use similar attacks before, but this was different. It was faster and smoother than she was used to. It didn’t look like regular stone either. It glistened in a dark colour, resembling obsidian.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Not that strange, considering where her opponents had come from…
Outwardly, Elaine didn’t divert her gaze from the trio in front of her for a second. Still, she couldn’t help but scan the area behind her with Mana Sense, worried about Percy. He was fine. Not that he had it easy – his fight was just as tough as hers. But he wasn’t at a clear disadvantage either.
‘Ok. I guess I’ll just have to trust him.’ she nodded.
Without wasting another moment, she went on the offensive, rushing towards the earth mage. Water splashed wherever she stepped, mixed with torn blades of grass. And she kept picking up speed as she dashed in a straight line, determined to cut the enemy ranks short.
The mages responded in kind, raining more spells at her.
But she didn’t pay them any heed, forming more whips in her hands, turning them thinner and longer. Whatever attack neared her, she sliced and diced, not giving her opponents the chance to touch even a single hair on her head.
The only spells she had to be careful of were the ones coming from below. Not that it was impossible to uproot the earth mana before it caused harm, but it would cost a lot of mana. Even with her boosting art active, she knew she had to pace herself for her reserves to last.
Like demonic fangs, the obsidian constructs bit upwards, Elaine weaving and bobbing as they forced her to vary her path. Still, she persisted, closing into the earth mage with every step.
Realizing the danger he was in, he ran backwards, sending more and more spells to block her way with every passing second. His teammates pitched in too, spreading out in opposite directions, trying to pincer her in with their own spells.
Elaine never stopped parrying them, but each impact put a drain on her core. Her mana was running out faster than she could breathe it in. Even worse, the earth mage kept his distance from her, doing an admirable job filling her path with obstacles.
‘Nice try.’ her lip curled upwards.
After fighting for years in the war against House Tantalus, she wasn’t the inexperienced girl she’d once been. Taking a sharp turn, she ignored the earth mage entirely, closing into the fire mage instead.
Taken by surprise and without his buddies to help him, the guy panicked, stumbling backwards as she spun, activating the Kraken’s Gambit. She didn’t even care about the airborne projectiles anymore, all of them shattered into nothing by her spell.
The sickening sound of torn flesh and shredded bones never came, however. Blinking once, Elaine saw the figure in front of her fade away. The fire mage stood a few dozen metres further back, still hurling fireballs at her. She didn’t care about the weak attacks too much, blocking them with her Refined spell as she racked her brain to understand what had just happened.
‘Illusion? Some kind of bloodline?’
This was bad. These people clearly had all sorts of trump cards up their sleeves. Even worse, her core was already halfway empty, thanks to her costly move just now. And that was just the start of her trouble.
The fire mage and the earth mage fired more spells at her, but the water mage had turned towards Percy instead, shooting a flurry of water arrows at him. Her cousin had already put his own opponents on the backfoot, but the sneak attack caught him by surprise.
The pressurised blasts knocked him off his feet, violently slamming him into the ground as teal fragments splintered off his armour. The outer layer was half broken, even the one beneath it taking serious damage as the invisible spell regained its colour.
Gritting her teeth, she allowed her whips to disperse before pelting the man’s location with a barrage of her own blasts, stopping him in his tracks. Still, the damage was done, as Percy rolled on the grass, struggling to dodge his own opponents’ attacks.
‘Damn you, Elaine! You had one job!’
As much as she wanted to berate herself further, she knew this wasn’t the time, however. The trio had launched more spells at her, and she didn’t even have her whips this time to block them. Instead, she dodged them as best as she could, trying to think of a way out.
‘Closing into them isn’t an option…’ she grimaced.
She’d already tried that, but they clearly had way too many tricks to deal with her. At least, she didn’t think she could kill them fast enough, and trying would only give them a chance to go after Percy again. Besides, the Kraken’s Gambit was way too expensive. She had to rely on her Slippery Step for defence and the Pressure Blast for offense. But could she really win this with just a couple of Crude spells?
Either way, it appeared she had no choice but to try…