Ebony reacted by setting up his domain as fast as he could as his Weighted Will went all out on the 8 or 9-century-old mage. He was slower than the flaming swordswoman who actually put distance instead of attacking from their spot at the table. She was charging her Core Skill while Ebony bought time. It was a bit of a habit if they fought together against an opponent far stronger than them. There was a good chance she also didn’t want to spill the tea or hit Koawe. Most likely the tea.
As a spar, they were also confident that Korta wanted to see what they could do instead of overpowering them instantly.
“Gravity? I’ve never seen a gravity mage but there is a purple dungeon not too far from Tuctra that has gravity about 4 to 5 times stronger than this and it triples every floor up. You’ll have to try har--ow.” Korta was raising his arm towards his chin but that caused his mana vibrations to attack. He might not have felt the light vibrations from opening his mouth to talk.
“What’s this, is the mana reacting to my movements?” He waved his hand around, no longer getting hurt. “Vibrations to attack? Cool! How did I not think of that!?”
Ebony didn’t even need eyes to see that ice or cold was the last thing that would harm the ice mage standing there and playing in his domain. But, he had to try if his freezing flames made a difference. Blazing Deep Freeze Petals were already falling onto one of his strongest opponents so far. He made sure to conjure them very close to the man but he needed a short time to compress them as much as possible so he didn’t cast it right where the target was.
He actually tried to do so but he couldn’t even conjure ice anywhere a metre away from Korta. It was not new, he also couldn’t conjure ice directly onto Trolls if they extend their Vitality outside their bodies. The soldiers’ armour could do something similar against most types of magic which protects them better against mages that could conjure elemental projectiles but Ebony already tested that he could overpower the relatively weak enchantment.
Against Korta, even within his domain, his ice mana was barely holding onto their positions as he received the mental feedback that they were getting pushed away from the target. Ebony quickly Willed Gravity Vortex into existence as near to Korta as possible. ‘I can usually cast it onto the target directly if my domain is up…’ Not being able to make the target attract every single object and attack towards themselves was a bit of a bummer but he never depended too much on a single spell.
“You--can actually do this? I knew you were the next prospective candidate but I never thought anyone could use that tree’s magic.” Korta's eyelid dropped as the petals landed on him, he caught one on his palms and ignored the rest. Ebony’s petals weren’t dispersing and were definitely not seeping into Korta’s body.
Of course, he could hear the man’s voice but he wasn’t that surprised that the Frost Elves’ knew about Gen but it might be possible that they didn’t know about Ful, the remnant tree spirit from his form of address. But why is it that even they could not replicate frost flames? His flames were not spreading and were somewhat suppressed but he knew it was only the ice mana that settles and freezes that was being pulled aside and not the flames.
“Hang on, are you using Will? A Master using Will? Are you actually an old freak? Is it mana being’s perk…can’t be, he’s still more physical.” Korta’s mental hold over his ice mana strengthened but Ebony held strong. He was able to resist to some extent but it was draining his Will thrice as fast. Icicle already parked itself over his head and was hidden behind Frigid Refraction but there was no chance the ice mage didn’t sense it.
Stalactite Drop!
Ning Xin’s charge matched the timing of his blade dropping and multiple Glacial Models already jumped into his domain and blocked Korta’s path. She used a simple sword thrust with one arm and readied her other arm for a follow-up. Unlike Ebony’s various control-type skills, many of her skills worked to power one attack. Be it enhancement, mastery or imbuement of elements.
Thankfully, they got Cap Dwarf to compress the ground here even further and it was able to withstand far more force. Not to the toughness of the earth where the underground tomb city was but it was close. They didn’t get any special magical architect to further strengthen the ground as the military training ground was pretty decent, to begin with. Hence, only a small crater formed from her explosive burst of speed. She already had her tier 3 movement speed for a while and it was getting refined over time.
Ebony focused all his domain’s power to push Icicle down on Korta but he felt like he hit bedrock and his spell was forcefully jammed. No amount of mental force or Will he could utilise can make his greatsword move another inch. In that instant, Icicle was ripped out and redirected near his feet. Blocking Ning Xin’s blade with the flat body. There wasn’t any delay from her left thrust blocked to her right slash.
He has not been able to copy her sword style. For her to put her entire body’s power into a thrust and smoothly connect that to a similarly full-powered slash did not feel natural to him. He understood that it was her absolute muscular control but he couldn’t do it as swiftly or naturally. As small as it was, there would definitely be a delay. This withdrawal and transfer of one attack’s force to the next was the core of her sword style and also active skills like her Cascading Mutilation. During the past few months, she already identified the limits that she could reach before her muscles and tendons started to tear. Better still, her Conditioning was specifically refined to deal with the stress her technique’s style put on her body. With just time and effort, they were both very sure they could get their Conditioning to evolve specifically to deal with the different stress they face.
Korta’s reaction appeared to lag as her second strike closed in on his neck but Ebony already had Firm Path drag her back. He could sense the ice spike forming beneath him and his Hunch told him that the ice spike would form explosively fast before she could reach the Arch Mage.
“That was a bit scarier than I had expected but, just a tad slow. As for you, other than compression for durability you’re not making the best use of Intelligence to power your spell.”
‘Why did he have to say slow…’ Ebony’s Stalactite Drop was physically stopped and that was exactly what set off the gravity and vibrations to be released. Stuck in the air, ‘cracks’ could be seen running along the air and into the ground under Korta. His presence faded away with Waning Presence and he hid with Frigid Refraction. Icicle shot back into his hands with Firm Path’s help and was also hidden with him.
The Arch Mage wasn’t prepared for that as ice mana flooded out and burst into flames, naturally forming into plum petals before dispersing. The spell was supposed to stab into a target or the ground. The explosive release into the surroundings had to be suppressed by him or the petals would float and fly out of bounds. Well, there was a barrier set up by Korta, he didn’t really have to worry about petals floating out and getting blown around the city.
‘That’s thick…’ The violent shockwave only appeared to form cracks in the air due to the thick layer of mana within his domain but it rebounded off the far denser layer of mana over the Frost Elf’s skin. The Arch Mage didn’t use the dispelling tactic to wash his vibrations with pulses of mana like Cap Dwarf and the Knights, it was just a simple but incomparably stable mana skin. He likely had a high gravity resistance as well.
Ning Xin hated to be slow, calling her slow was just chipping at her pride. Everywhere she landed had a spike of ice as large as her bursting out and she was hopping around without being able to get close to Korta. There was limited space around and she burst her wings out to meet the same resistance of a spiky sphere of ice forming right in her face. She slashed at the interruption reflexively but they burst on impact. The thin shards of ice melted before they did any damage to her. The Arch Mage didn’t make his ice any harder to melt and wasn’t compressed at all, it might even be expanded so that he didn’t accidentally kill weak Masters like them.
Ebony was able to sense them before they formed but he wasn’t able to warn her, slow the formation down or even affect the conjuration of ice even though this was supposedly his domain. Ning Xin was having a tough time avoiding the land spikes and aerial spheres but she was slowly closing in. She took the attention away from him which may or may not have helped. 4 Glacial Models were trying their best to distract Korta but they weren’t even worth batting an eye. Ebony wasn’t able to latch any gravity spells onto Korta.
With Treading Stride that was in the midst of evolving or mutating, Ebony raised Icicle overhead and phased above and behind Korta. If Firm Path couldn’t attract Icicle onto his target, he just had to place a point of gravity aligned with his blade to repel it to achieve the same effect!
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His greatsword sliced through the air, blowing Korta’s body apart.
Ebony wasn’t surprised that he missed but it was eye-opening that even with his perception of ice, he hadn’t been able to sense that the person he attacked had just been a gust of icy wind the entire time. Not to mention, Koawe and even the table already disappeared from their original spot. Dozens of Kortas surrounded him before he knew it.
Ning Xin sent a bundle of scorching flames around him to melt any sort of icy mirage or clones. Ebony ducked as her blood halos expanded from a tiny palm-sized disk all the way till it splattered on the barrier of ice a kilometre away. It dispersed the mirages and exposed the real body but Ebony already knew which was real.
He didn’t care about aim and put all his effort into magnifying gravity with his domain and formed a 10-metre diameter beam of Firm Path from the sky onto Korta, repelling him and working in tandem with the magnified pull. He amplified the shockwaves from Ning Xin’s Rampaging Mortal’s Pulse and directed it all onto their target. His Will also recognised her as an ally and propelled her next attack even further. He didn’t waste any mana on conjuring ice in his domain or the Arch Mage might use it against him and it saves him energy from contending with the burning heat that took over.
Ebony also stepped in with Icicle overhead again. Stalactite Drop!
It was the first time he tried to use this skill with the sword in hand rather than a spell. He found the skill activating even with a swing and not letting the sword go. He already released all the ice mana within his greatsword so that Korta couldn’t exert control over it.
Sadly, it was a bit naive to expect it to work. Unlike him, the Arch Mage could conjure ice directly on their bodies with just a thought. Ice formed on his blade and it was redirected to fend off Ning Xin’s strike yet again.
Icicle gobbled up the ice mana and Ebony could pull it back again. He unleashed Ceaseless Onslaught onto the tall but skinny frame together with the dual-wielding swords master. Although they trained together every single day, finding a humanoid opponent for them to fight at the same time was rare. However, it only took a few swings before their attacks matched up. The huge sword wasn’t affecting her sword path at all and both of them danced and circled Korta.
“Did your sword just absorb my ice?”
The Arch Mage stopped controlling Icicle to block Ning Xin’s attack as Ebony simply used the momentum for his next swing. Ning Xin was building up speed and power extremely fast and it gave him even more momentum by receiving her parries.
“Gah, I’m melting here!” Korta exclaimed before coughing.
They didn’t hope on trying to suffocate him but perhaps it was more effective than they assumed.
Arrows descended from the skies.
Calculated Hunch made Ebony ignore it and continue his onslaught as arrows pierced his repulsion but shattered from the vibrational reflection, he got his skin cut but it healed up almost instantaneously. A bloody sweep extended from the blood mage’s mantle to swipe and melt the arrows. It bubbled and boiled but quickly cooled off before returning to her mantle. Neither of them stopped to defend or even evade.
All their swings were wind and gravity-assisted but lightning and sonic imbuement were pointless since they couldn’t land a hit. Korta reused the same tactic of forming a small amount of ice on his greatsword to gently skim away from his body. Ning Xin already buffed up and got used to the ice spike and spheres timing and reflexively destroyed them, they melted extremely fast and couldn’t really harm her either. When something was about to form underneath her, she would stomp it out so it couldn’t even push her back anymore.
Not to mention, with the current temperatures around them, it was much harder for ice to be conjured. Perhaps, the heat angered him or made him uncomfortable but he blew out a massive puff of icy breath onto her. It was basically the same spell as his past Frost Mist but far stronger as it swallowed the fiery girl up. Korta finally took them a bit more seriously. Ebony could sense the ice mana condensing. His onslaught decorated the air with flaming petals, he hadn’t given up using ice magic.
Although Waning Presence and Frigid Refraction were both completely useless against Korta, Ebony didn’t stop using them. With Ning Xin dealing with the cloud of ice drowning her out he pushed Treading Stride once again and disappeared and reappeared from every direction he could to slip an attack through. It looked as if there were a few of him attacking Korta at the same time.
“Alright alright, that’s enough. I don’t have to worry about letting you guys fight with this.” Ning Xin had just broken out of the white cloud of ice and possible snow when the Arch Mage yawned again. It was not his main point of focus but Ebony took note of his opponent’s mana. It might have dropped by a percent or so but he might be wrong as he wasn’t that sensitive when it came to measuring how much mana someone has yet.
“We’re not done! Ebony, let’s try that.” Ning Xin burst out with her flaming wings dispersing and stood beside him.
“That? What is that?” His mind was a bit confused from the sudden switch from combat to relax as usual.
“Turn off your blood resistance.”
“Oh, that. Let’s try. Korta, do you want to take another attack? It’s experimental, so I’m not sure how it’ll go.”
“Ohhkay! Just hit this or something.” Korta had another wave of sleepiness washing over him. He walked to the side and fell asleep on the table with Koawe again. Leaving a block of ice for them to hit.
It killed their enthusiasm a little but they still experimented.
“No, gather your life force faster.”
After 15 minutes, she managed to cast Rampaging Mortal’s Pulse on him. It wasn’t easy to control another person’s body even if they shut their defences off but the two of them managed to find a way. She can manipulate his blood even if it was still in his body but he could also remove that control at any time. Although her Core Skill had long changed from a simple heart pump it was still possible for her to simulate the same skill but on his body. The difficult part was matching the blood with his life force since he wasn’t adept at manipulating that.
It was far from perfect but he gained another form of enhancement. It was extremely uncomfortable but his body was tougher than hers by a large margin.
Whatever the case, he cut the ice block with relative ease and the slash smashed into the barrier behind.
“We need more practice with this.” Ebony knew that the chasm of power was too wide to close. Simple spells and abilities were more than enough to render the advantages their elements give them useless.
“Go work on getting your sound magic back.”
Koawe left Korta alone and left atop Arti to fetch Korben.
Ebony went out on an errand to fetch ingredients over. Their chef would just cook for their small unit instead of joining the other chefs today. There was a fully functional kitchen over here anyway. “I want a pot pie version.” Was his sudden craving when she said she would try making the same mutton and pea dish.
He heard people coughing and felt more and more uneasy as he made his way towards the kitchen and warehouse Ning Xin frequents. Before long, the city noticed many people coughing and even collapsing. By the time he made it back to their rented camp, even soldiers started falling sick.
A quick scan showed that many in their unit had some symptoms as well. Ning Xin was taking a shower but he remembered the soft cough when she choked on tea. He couldn't tell if that was a normal cough or if it was the same thing affecting the city folk and even soldiers. The coughing within the camp got louder over the next few minutes.
He didn’t even care about rudeness and dashed for the closest healer. He was gonna snag one as fast as possible even if he had to do it by force. There were around a hundred Imperial healers but they were mostly busy healing soldiers day in and out. The lull in battle allowed some to come back to the city. Ebony got the healer their unit was familiar with. At least the Empire was nice enough to have 1 healer prioritise them. It was a very old man that had already been the city’s healer before the influx of healers came over. Since he remained in the city instead of going beyond the walls with the army he was usually always around. The military city obviously had a couple more healers from apprentices to fully-fledged healers. This old man didn’t specialise in injuries or sickness, he took care of both citizens and soldiers which was a good choice compared to others that specialise in healing injuries.
Thankfully, even the citizens here were a bit tough. Most people wouldn’t see a healer for a simple cough so Ebony got there to see that the old man, Dorqe was not very busy. Dorqe didn’t have high physical stats and was only a Master that’s stuck and unable to evolve due to the lack of talent. He started out as a doctor and wasn’t a healer that studied in Tidal. Ebony made a ride for the old man but he didn’t like the cold as it would chill his bones.
“Don't rush me, young man.”
Ebony lightened Dorqe’s load with gravity and carried his bag of medical supplies. He told Dorqe the symptoms and there were some people on the streets who showed the same symptoms but to a greater degree. They couldn’t leave people who fainted alone which took even more time. Ebony conjured a few more Glacial Models, imprinted Mental Map with Will and got them to carry those who were in worse condition to the hospital where Dorqe worked at. The old healer spent quite a bit of time relaying instructions to others through his callstone. Fortunately, short-range communication wasn’t interrupted.
Ebony’s senses pulsed out and he quickly conjured more uncompressed Models ahead of him to carry any unconscious within the range of his senses before Dorqe could see them. It still took over 2 hours to escort the old healer over when the hospital was only 3 streets away.
“This is the shamanic plague, help me line them up.” Dorqe probably already knew the cause when he diagnosed a few people. From what Ebony saw, the old healer only provided first aid and a quick fix to the symptoms but not the cause.