Zela
Two and half Hours Before.
The gates opened and the army of seven thousand charged out, toward the undead with Lt. Colonel Azalea, leading them.
Seeing the undead army, the old memories couldn’t help, but appear in front of my eyes. I have fought many of such battles; too many, with some horde having over a million undead in them.
I had never wanted to fight in my life. I wanted to study magic in peace and for a few years, I did. It was the happiest time of my life, until everything changed one day.
Hun!
My thoughts were interrupted by the materialization of the black tide in front of the horde. It was a huge of water, but not normal water, but black water.
Dark Water Tide or Zarkill’s Tide.
A Grade 4 spell of water and death element; a powerful at that. It will be bad if it hits the army; I cannot let that happen.
Luminous Surge
My staff lit up, and immediately, a surge of radiant water moved toward the tide.
It is a spell given to me by Mr. Silver when we had returned from the Port Midlet. He had gotten it from the Count; it is a pretty powerful spell. Especially against the wide-area spells of death element and the undead.
Though it is a Grade 3 spell, the one coming is the Grade 4 spell. There is a clear difference in power between them.
I was preparing to send more surges when the staff in the hands of the orc beside me lit up and the green light came out of it and went to the surge.
As it touched it, a faint green color covered the surge. There was no other change in it, than that.
The small surge clashed against the tide, and immediately my eyes widened. I glanced at the Orc beside me for a moment, before turning to the clash, where both spells were trying to push each other while consuming each other.
They both started to whittle down, till the Radiant Surge disappeared, but the other spells weren’t in much better shape either.
Less than 20% of it remained.
I looked at the man casting the spell. He is a man in his late forties, with blue eyes and green, holding a staff with a dark blue crystal, which looked almost black.
He looked kind of familiar for some reason, but I don’t remember him. I don’t usually forget mages are so powerful.
He didn’t launch any attack and nor did I. He is the target, I have to keep occupied, kill if I can.
I looked at the necromancer far behind in the horde; that woman was powerful. I had heard about her on the island and was worried about Lt. Colonel Azalia and Steven, who would be fighting against her with Aghed.
The undead and the army met and started fighting, while I moved toward my target with Shaman Dul and Captain Vandal. Surrounding us are aground of Mid-Level 20s and pre-level 30s, who are clearing every obstacle in our way.
There were a lot of obstacles and I wanted to help, but I kept focus on the enemy. He is the most important; I have to keep all my focus and mana for him.
Soon, there was less than two hundred meters of distance between us.
“You will not be able to get away this time,” he said and a moment later, hundreds of dark water lances materialized over him, before they came at me.
The water lances are huge, longer than me with icy tips. Even if the lance didn’t do one; the death energies would by their corrupting power.
I couldn’t let these lances touch me or anyone. It would be a certain death if they did.
Sup Sup Sup
Shields Of Ahasin.
I cast the spell, and tens of shields appeared in the path of the lances. They are not only targeting me but also others.
As my shields appeared, once again the staff of the Shaman Dul lit up and the green light filled them.
The young orc shaman beside me is a Shaman Dul, and he is a pure enhancer. Very few shamans were born with a talent for such magic. On the island, any of such shamans were highly regarded and fostered.
Bang Bang Bang!
The lances crashed against the shield and blasted them apart, but the lances had also lost most of their power.
“Who are you?” I asked.
He clearly seemed to know me, and I felt familiar with him, but couldn’t remember where I had seen him.
He didn’t answer. Instead, an enormous fountain appeared behind him, before separating into tens of large whips of water and coming at me.
Captain Vandal moved away quickly while I remained in my spot with Shaman Dul. I remained on my spot and cast the shields with the light spell. Which once again, augmented by him.
There are other spells, I could use, but that isn’t wise.
My experience taught me, that when fighting against an enemy with differences in strengths. It is important, that one should stick to what works and nothing works better than defensive shields.
I am also quite good at them. Since they are the spells, I had cast the most in the war.
It is the defensive spell, that kept me alive when I escaped from the tower. It was also because of this spell; that we were able to make that difficult journey to get out of the island.
Bang Bang Bang!
Whips crashed against the shields, and, after several strikes, they would be destroyed, but the next one would be ready to take their place.
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Finally, the whips lost their power and turned back to the water. There was no change in his expression like he had expected that my shields would be able to hold on against his spells.
Which is why, the water of the whips hadn’t even disappeared, when it transformed into a huge dark worm.
Water Worm
The spells will tear me apart into pieces if I get caught in it. Those black shards of ice are sharp and wouldn’t have any problem cutting through me, even if I had a protective spell over me.
Frost Shield. Freezing Mist.
I cast three Frost Shields over each other before reinforcing them with the Freezing Mist to make it even harder.
Shaman Dul further reinforced it with his magic, making it even stronger.
BANNNG!
The whirlpool crashed against the shield, before beginning to grind against it, till nothing had remained of it. It had also lost most of its power; still, to be careful, I had summoned another group of shields.
A few seconds later, both spells disappeared, and immediately, he launched another attack and, once again, I summoned the shields to defend against it.
I didn’t try to attack him, I just defended. I am not going to take a risk by launching the offensive spell and giving him the opening against me.
I have seen many mages die, by making that mistake.
I didn’t forget even for a second that he is a High Mage. He had many spells, and they were powerful. I am only standing against him before I am good; each of my spells had been modified extensively for my needs and style.
I do not have a large collection of spells, but all those I have been modified.
It is the reason; I am standing here alive, while thousands of mages, who learned from the prestigious academies and powerful masters, are ten feet under the ground.
All mages are scholarly in nature, our class demands it, but some are more than the others.
I am Lv. 29 Mage of Intellect. It is in my class, and I have skills, that let me learn fast. I love learning and if the undead hadn’t invaded; I would have still been to Great Mage Ursula’s tower, learning.
I pushed away those thoughts away and focused on the man, in front of me. Distraction causes death and I don’t want to die, so early.
Puch Puch Puch!
I just thought that when suddenly I saw thousands of dark, icy needles coming from behind and striking into the invisible shield.
For the first time since we started fighting, a surprise appeared on his face, and couldn’t help, but grin.
Even Shaman Dul and Captain Vandal looked surprised.
A pride rose for a moment.
Refractive Veil, a Grade 2 light elemental spell. It might be a Grade 2 spell, but it is hard as the hardest as a Grade 3 spell or even harder. I had cast it over the Grade 2 Tarron Shield, hiding it.
If I survive this battle, I want to focus on the light.
I always liked the light element but didn’t get a chance at it in the tower. Great Mage Ursula was a pure water elemental mage, while I knew a few mages used the light dual element spells, they would not teach the assistants.
We were hundreds in number and were usually taught a few common water elemental spells.
Not to mention, the light spells are notoriously hard to learn and expensive. I had learned them, after escaping Ursula Tower.
All the icy needles clashed and disappeared, while I looked at the man.
“That Great Mage Ursula was good; she gave our leader, quite a fight. If she had known any light spell, she might have survived,” said the man and grinned.
“You were there?” I asked, and the man kept grinning.
I felt the rage rising in my heart; the tower wasn’t just a place of work for me. It was home; there I got the family never had, friends, and met the love of my life, who sacrificed himself to save me.
I want to kill him and nearly cast a spell to attack before taking a deep breath and calming down.
Anger is useless; it will help the enemy instead of helping me.
If we were on the same level, I might have let the anger best out of me, but we are not. He is a grade higher and has the power to kill me.
I could see in his eyes, that he had said those words to get a rise out of me. He is ready with spells. If I made a mistake, he would exploit and, given the difference in power, between us, I might not be able to survive it.
“You should be ashamed. You had let a measly scholar like me escape the tower. Well, that was not your fault, you were not a leader there, but you were at the sea.”
The moment he said thing about the tower; I realized he was the man who attacked us at the sea. At that time, he was wearing a mask and only used pure water elemental spells.
“If I had been in your place, I would have died of shame. A High Mage like you couldn’t even a kill simple Mage like me,” I mocked and there was no response, but that grin on his face.
I could see the anger in his eyes, that is barely controlling.
“You were lucky at the sea; I had held back there, I will not hold back in here,” he promised with an angry grin, and his staff lit up.
“Fuck!”
The spell materialized and seeing it, Captain Vandal cursed, while my expression turned serious.