Ebony watched in surprise. He knew she just formed her bloody wings not too long ago as she learnt to conjure blood but her aerial manoeuvring had skyrocketed even though she hasn’t practised it much. Her hair was on fire, a physical sign that she raised her body enhancement to a high degree. With those flaming wings and the long streak of hair that whipped around he couldn’t help but see her as a flaming bird with a beautiful tail. ‘Phoenix…’ was the only word that came to mind.
‘Woah! She dipped under the bird's neck and the bicycle kicked the rider in that instant?’ Ebony has become a bit easier to surprise nowadays but he can’t be blamed. Ning Xin seemed like she was fighting completely differently but at the same time, just as she always did. She never used kicks on land so it unnerved him a bit at how fluent she was. Her kick attached some blood onto the rider’s face which burst into a blast of fiery lightning and made the rider panic. The bird reins were pulled the wrong way and they plummeted till he regained control. At this point, she was surrounded by 7 of these giant birds with their riders. Koawe shot those that came for them so Ebony didn’t have to do anything.
Winter’s Breath had been a sight to behold but he knew that the fighter Frost Elf hadn’t been very serious. It was a bit overwhelming but not very surprising for a person that was probably King-ranked. Ebony’s spells could not reach the size of a cloud roughly 7 kilometres in diameter yet and that would probably take his entire mana pool but if he evolved again and had a greater ice magic mana efficiency it seemed possible. The spell seemed to be a mixture of ice and snow and did not appear to be very complicated to his senses. Noticing the increasing ease that Ning Xin had when she fought back groups of giant birds allowed him to focus more on the congregation of mana within and outside the stranger Frost Elf.
His time as an artillery mage got him the skill of gauging one’s mana pool. He was quite good at it now and Calculated Hunch only helped increase his accuracy. Winter’s Breath took only 3 to 5% of the man’s entire mana capacity. He wasn’t sure about the man’s capacity but it was definitely at least half a million and that was the lowest estimate.
‘Tier 1 mana expansion skill just isn’t sufficient for large spells. But even the Knights and Imperial mages only have a tier 1 version. Where can I get a better version? Even if I continue to create my own skills they always start off unrefined and I’m taking a long time to make them better.’ Ebony was aware that the Frost Elves were his best bet for the moment. Ning Xin’s version doesn’t work for him so he couldn’t copy her.
Kong Jing already gave him the good news. He didn't want to lag behind by 2 whole Fortifications of 250% forever. She did make a good point though, he could see what new Fortifications were possible and they might be better choices than buffing his current choices further. He was a bit suspicious about what she shared or perhaps what she didn’t share. It was possible to spend Natural Potential as some kind of resource on themselves. Was it possible to give themselves even more Fortifications outside of the known limit of 3? He didn’t see why not.
‘We have to find weak but high-level monsters or some other way to get Natural Potential.’ Ebony made an internal declaration. The first method that came to mind was to use the power of a dungeon. Ordina. He came up with the idea to get Na to pump out the creation of a single creature to an extremely high level with weak defences. The only thing he was worried about was that doing so would decrease his gains. Natural Potential didn’t have a value as an indicator and only the number of inducements could be used as a gauge. If they were something like evolutionary points, that meant that there was a numerical value for them right? Is it equal for every creature of the same level or does overcoming a greater trial give a greater reward?
Ebony was more inclined to believe that greater effort equates to greater reward. Especially with the way skill levels and tiers worked. ‘That’s right, how can I hope to be strong if I’m aiming to hunt the weakest…I’ll ditch the idea that more inducements equal greater volume of Natural Potential.’ He decided on quality over quantity but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t take opportunities when he came across them. There was no one to blame for the lack of information. Not even Kong Jing fully understood the process or the nature of Natural Potential.
‘This won’t do…we need to evolve our skills.’ A sudden sense of urgency to grow stronger welled up in him. Their skill combinations were amazing, they could hit harder than most people even if they had higher-tier skills. Many Commanders definitely had a bunch of tier 3 skills, but they could beat them all the same. According to the high-level mages amongst the soldiers, nobody even heard of a tier 2 version of a domain-type skill. It must be a degraded version and made most think that it was just an area of effect spell. He had been aiming too low!
Firstly, he was going to watch and learn.
Koawe cooled Arti down as the surrounding temperature rose. Ebony concentrated on perceiving what the spellcaster was doing. The mere sight of this man had already given him a direction and path as an ice mage. He had focused on mana compression so much that his spells got crude in comparison. He had an idea on how to improve his ice magic, now he was just wondering how he could apply that to Frostflames. He fell into a trance earlier as the Frost Elf’s body was extremely fascinating to his mana perception. He had a better picture of what to do to cultivate his Physique. Kong Jing’s story also helped to form his desired path.
The Shamans below started to use weirdly strong earth elemental attacks and his domic barrier under Arti cracked in a single blow. They were fully compressed and even had durability runes that more than doubled their toughness but a single ball or earth cracked it. He Willed a Chaotic Repulsive membrane on it and curved Guided Path over the surface. Assured to see the following projectiles whip along the dome and scratch it before flying past them and entering the corrosion cloud above. With that, he returned to observing the spell.
There wasn’t much to see externally other than the icy air around the silent Frost Elf. On the other hand, the spell formation and mana flows were a different story. The village chief, Orren’s and his party had nothing that can make his mind work so hard in trying to keep up. As the seconds passed, Ebony couldn’t even keep up with the mana flow and he was beginning to be blind as to what the man was trying to do. What kind of spell took ten minutes with mana flow faster than his mind to perceive?
They were mages, most elemental spells were simply a congregation of elemental mana. There was no magic circle to form with mana like Mark’s runic circle hence, their cast speed was generally pretty fast. As a comparison, the Shamans below actually needed to chant as a requirement of their magic. Their startup durations for spells took a very long time compared to mages’ casting speed of seconds. The advantage they had was that many shamanic spells had a long or even unlimited duration. Linking Trolls Vitality took minutes but could be maintained for a long time. This was true for the average Shaman on the current battlefield.
“Ebony, can you amplify my voice towards the army?” Koawe asked.
He nodded and got ready to send Koawe’s voice throughout the lands below. “You can speak now.”
“Retreat or stay at your own risk.”
The calm voice came out shattering the skies and travelled to as many people as possible. He wasn’t sure if the army complied but it shouldn’t matter too much unless this Elf had terrible aim.
8 minutes passed. Once again, clouds formed but only a small sphere between his appeared within the stranger's palms and not kilometre-spanning clouds. It reminded him of Gen’s scary snow cloud. Ning Xin danced in the air to revel in the newfound joy of flying and landed on Arti with another spin where her wings would wrap themselves together. She already reabsorbed her flames and cooled herself off with wind magic so that they wouldn’t be harmed.
He didn’t need Calculated Hunch to understand that he shouldn’t touch the ball that the mage formed. He would be frozen to death instantly. The Frost Elf’s mana pool was close to empty and everything was jammed into his spell. His eyes shot open and he released the ball in front of him. It flew forward, deep into the Troll’s territory’s airspace. The deceptively thin outer layer popped open and the clouds exploded in every direction. Fortunately, his high Perception allowed him to see far away.
“Skadi's Salvo!”
‘Skadi?’ Ebony mentally translated and found the name familiar. He didn’t really study myths or history much but he was at least aware of the name to be from Norse mythology but he didn’t put much thought to the coincidence. The white clouds expanded and turned blue instead. They covered dozens of kilometres and Ebony couldn’t see how far it stretched from his position in the sky. He waited but nothing happened for the next 20 seconds, as if the clouds were still expanding beyond. It was controlled as the clouds never covered the Imperial Army.
Then, he saw the first blue shine revealing itself under the clouds. One. Two. Four. Eight. Shiny points appeared all over, they slid down from the clouds slowly. Numerous giant broadhead arrows at least 3 metres wide showed themselves. When the whole arrowhead slipped out, they accelerated down like a meteor. Rumbling tore at soldiers and Troll’s ears but the huge arrows haven’t even hit the ground. The Shamans may or may not have pulled off a hasty defence but Ebony wouldn’t know. All he could see under him was the white mist of Winter’s Breath covering a large area beneath them. Staying atop Arti meant that his senses couldn’t reach the ground either. This meant that most warrior Trolls below who managed to survive Winter’s Breath didn’t even know that they were about to die.
Perhaps only the opponents' rear noticed them and they didn’t have wide region communication skills or technology.
“Phew. This should last two days.” The Frost Elf wiped the beads of ice on his forehead.
“Hmm?” Ebony saw that the arrowheads descended but the body of the arrow continued to extend and was connected to the clouds the entire way. They were a few kilometres up in the air, why create the body of the arrow? It was quite a waste of mana. It didn’t actually take a single second but all of them on Arti could have many thoughts within this short period of time.
Skadi’s Salvo landed and pierced through frozen bodies and the earth alike. It kept going and Ebony could see water sprouting out. The only other time he saw something destroy the tough ground was when Commander Wil jumped with extreme power but the earth fixed itself almost instantly. Just within sight were thousands of these arrows that linked the sea, fake earth and sky together. As far as his sight reached, there were uncountable spikes connecting the sky and sea.
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“Ooo, so I can freeze the sea to this degree now? Great. There should be no battle for at least a week unless they do something about it.
Ebony jumped down. He had to see what happened. He sensed Koawe stopping Ning Xin from following him and he appreciated it. She was low on mana after the aerial fight and might not be able to warm herself up as Winter’s Breath still enveloped the ground below them.
It was cold but not freezing. The spell must focus on range and area rather than power. White mist was just like his old frost mist but there was a combination of snow. It was only slightly compressed which might be why it wasn’t that strong but it was enough to freeze any Master Troll deeply and the fact that the mist hasn’t dissipated after more than 10 minutes meant that the freezing effect had plenty of time to work on those within the spell's range.
He landed and took a single step to reach the closest giant arrow with a long body. Just in case, he stayed at least a hundred metres away and used his mana perception. After noting that he could withstand the chill he got closer and was finally able to see what he wanted to see. Skadi’s Salvo didn’t stop at the ground and actually remained stuck in the ground. In all his time as a part-time artillery mage, no spell remained stuck. The fake earth would repair itself almost instantly without fail. This was the exact same for the corrosion cloud above the battlefield.
Ebony quickly leapt back when the vibrations under him got more violent. A moment later an iceberg exploded out of the ground where he previously stood. These icebergs popped up all across the spell’s range and usually near the arrowhead. ‘He really froze all the way to the sea…’
The point of gravity he left above dragged him back up. He made a new point above Arti as he ascended and made his way back on.
“Thank you for letting me watch.”
“Keep watching. This is a salvo.”
‘The spell’s not done?’ Just like the spell caster said, the long body of the arrow shattered and shot down like gunshots. After that, more shiny tips poked out from the cloud and repeated the process.
“This lasts for two days?” Ning Xin questioned.
“...Maybe 1 and a half. But the ice won’t melt so easily and the Trolls won’t use this region to fight unless they get rid of the frozen wasteland but I’m here. Anyway, let’s go back and have a chat! After I take a nap, it’s hibernation period.” Just like that, the spellcaster fell onto Arti’s back and snored loudly within moments.
“Hibernation?” He cocked his head. Since when do Frost Elves hibernate?
“Only his family, and he just makes up his hibernation times as he wishes so you don’t have to take it seriously.”
“Korben as well?”
“No, just his immediate family.”
“Just curious but how old are you? He recognised Midnight Shepherd from 350 years ago?”
“Haha, I’m only 652 years old and Korta’s only slightly more than 2 centuries older. We’re basically from the same generation but I guess I'm middle-aged for a Grandmaster and he’s a bit younger than middle age for his rank. There was another war back then and Korta was around level 370 or something and this Midnight Shepherd just made a name for herself. He will get talkative when he wakes up so you can hear it from him later.”
Despite living on Elcra for years, it hasn’t really struck him when it comes to lifespan and the way different races view time. He recalled matters regarding lifespan.
A Grandmaster human would have 500 to 600 years and that’s if they didn’t die of other causes. One would struggle to find a fighter that lived their entire lifespan. In Tidal, there might be quite a few crafters, support and non-combatant Grandmasters that were 4 or 5 centuries old. Other cities would probably have more Master ranked humans that could only reach the age of 400 at best. Dwarfs had an average of 1.5 times the lifespan of a human at the same rank and Elves had roughly 2.5 times. Beastmen vary but most don’t really differ much from humans when it comes to lifespan.
All of this was just a general average and may vary if one had a Physique or skill that increased lifespan or slowed ageing. Who knows, maybe there was some method to increase lifespan with magic and there were people with the relevant Fortifications.
Having learnt the name of the spellcaster, Arti flew them back. The spell range was so wide that even if the Trolls further back wanted to stop them they would have no way to cross the Salvo. Soon, there were only chunks of earth that got dug up and frozen into hills of ice. The iceberg that explodes from the ground would sink before exploding randomly anywhere under the spell. This was using the ice element as crowd control to the limits.
‘That’s right, all my spells just run out as long as I don’t power them. Other than Glacial Model. How did he make the spell last even without an influx of mana, Will? I don’t think so… Something about the spell lets them sustain themselves over time, like Gen’s spell.’
It didn’t take long to get back. Sadly, Koawe was polite enough to stop by the General’s tent and didn’t just bring them back to the city. “This region will be mostly sealed off for about a week but watch out for shamanic magic. We’ll deal with the King warriors, work your plan around.” He said without even getting off Arti and didn’t extend his greetings.
‘He’s usually more polite…’ Ebony murmured mentally.
Koawe seemed to notice his and Ning Xin’s thoughts and said, “Now that Korta’s here, the only real course of action for them is to demarcate areas they shouldn’t go near. The Trolls are here in unimaginable numbers so he would have his hands full with their strongest fighters. Don’t underestimate them, they have a lot more King warriors. Although most are weak in comparison to others of their rank, I’m sure you understand how hard they are to kill with a group of Shamans by their side. The patriarchs of the Benumbed and Vigiot Tribe are under Midnight Shepherd's command. Korta would have his hands full with them.”
The Trolls had the advantage in terms of average level and many evolved to King ranked the instant they reach 1.1 or 1.25 requirements. With their racial trait of explosive regeneration and greater physical prowess, even if they were weaker than a Grandmaster General on the Empire’s side it didn’t really matter. The Trolls outnumbered them greatly. A full squad of 8 Kings was more than enough to push a young Minor General present into a tough spot from what Ebony could guess from the recent rumours about the battles. It might be different if the other Tides spared a stronger or more experienced General.
With the Shamans that link their rear, non-combatants’ Vitality they were virtually immortal. Thankfully, they had a smaller population of Shamans. The Empire also had fewer mages but at least 5% of Fifth Tide’s forces were mages while the Shamans might not even constitute 1% of the opponent’s forces.
Tribe Patriarchs were the true rulers of the continent of Tova. They were usually under civil war with each other but for some reason, all the Trolls decided to attack Elva at the same time. There’s a good chance they actually fully qualify as a strong King-ranked opponent. They might not be very intelligent and believed in ‘might makes right’ but all Trolls respected their Shamans. Hence, a Grandmaster like Midnight Shepherd taking command was natural. There were a couple of other titled Shamans but Midnight Shepherd was still believed to be the leader.
“We’ve received word from Archduke Fyre’s seers that the final wave of Trolls will reach the battlefield soon!” A Commander he didn’t recognise ran out of the tent and shouted.
In the end, Arti landed and they went into the tent to get the latest information. Ebony was sure that he wasn’t qualified to enter the tent or listen to military secrets for the upper ranks but no one kicked them out. Archduke Fyre was the Beastmen’s highest nobility and was a family of Foxmen who had the most Imperial Seers.
Koawe actually carried Korta into the tent as well. This tent was well made and not even his mana or vibrational sense could poke into if the flap was closed.
‘I wonder if he’s going to wake up or if he is aware of his surroundings asleep.’ Ebony continued to observe the great spellcaster’s body. Of course, he also took note of the other Commanders and Generals in the tent. Giving a nod towards those he knew, like General Impes who treated them quite cordially. The old man at the centre was probably the one who just came over to Fifth Tide and his aura was weaker than most people in the room. As the only 2 Masters in the tent, they were not exactly welcomed. Ning Xin’s aura wasn’t as overbearing as it used to be as she hid it deeper while his aura was nonexistent to most people so that he didn’t knock them out. Be that as it may, their overflowing Vitality didn’t lose out to these Grandmasters. The Xeng had her blood compression and his health regeneration was quite absurd due to his Physique, and he was even using the life force to train Preservation Bubble so others shouldn’t feel it as much.
Not to mention, they made undeniable contributions to the defence of the city before the battle devolved back to close combat. He might not have been able to tell in the past, but he could feel the fear in some of their eyes as they looked at them. Thankfully, Korta’s presence took the attention away.
‘Let’s simulate a comparison.’ He started to list the strengths and weaknesses of the people in the tent. Telling himself that they had better individual skills and the only reason he could beat them was the abundance of mana. Compression of body enhancement magic made it far stronger than a regular tier 2 version that most soldiers used, maybe even stronger than tier 3. But even when he had far higher enhanced physical prowess, they had strong active skills that may damage him. So he calculated that they must have reasonably refined tier 3 skills and possibly two or three of such skills that augmented each other. There was no other way they could hurt the Vitality-enhanced Trolls. It wasn’t that surprising either as many people here focused on active skills while he worked more on his foundation. Few present in the room used elemental magic and were mostly knights with decent control and usage of mana.
As he took away his advantages such as the ice and gravity magic, these people could injure him if he made the wrong move. Battles were simulated in his head but he didn’t know the limits of most people here so it was not very accurate. Then again, the only time he could see himself making the ‘wrong’ move was when he started experimenting. He had too little information as to what Fortifications each individual had so he scrapped the mental exercise soon enough.
The four of them stayed silent and listened in on the meeting and reports they’d received. The biggest news was that the Empire’s symbolic Emperor had shown himself at First Tide. However, instead of joining the war he went to Second Tide and stood guard. This allowed the soldiers stationed there to be dispatched to other Tides. He acted as deterrence and the military seemed to believe they just needed the bare minimum forces to take care of the city. Ebony assumed it was to give the Empire’s army experience.
Apparently, he had two disciples and he sent one to Fifth Tide and one to Fourth. They didn’t know when the person would show up but it wasn’t like they would send an escort or envoy. They didn’t have any special treatment towards these disciples. Because of the Emperor’s presence, every other Tide was getting reinforcements. Although, they wouldn’t be getting the soldiers from Second Tide but Fourth’s, it was much better than nothing. A certain crown princess was mentioned so he would probably see her again.
There were some whispers when Koawe asked about Navin the Barrier King. They spilt the beans and said that Navin had never been on the battlefield ever since day 1 of the war. No one knew where he was. Not only that, the older generations of many Noble families were not present anywhere on the battlefield. It was no wonder why they weren’t able to spread more forces to the other Tides.
“Forgive me for being rude but is…is Sir Korta the only one…” One of the commanders raised his courage and asked.
Koawe nodded, “If the situation looks bad because of the final wave, they will act.”
Whatever the case, a single Arch Mage can affect a large-scale battle much more than a Knight Lord. Both of which were the common Identify results for a King-ranked mage and knight respectively.
Ebony didn’t even hear the old man, Bernard talk from start to finish. They left after being requested to give the kill count but that would have to wait till Korta woke up.