“Enough disrespect. It's time to end this, Ebony. No. Seeping Cold Abscission, give me your all!.” Gao’larg reduced his size and grabbed his greatsword. He stomped and crushed two of his normal greatswords, leaving the one within his grasp as his last weapon.
“Unfortunate. I will show you everything I have.” Ebony wasn’t referring to the fact that their battle would end. It was that Gao’larg seemed to have squeezed all of his potential out as fast as he could. Sadly, he wouldn’t be able to see what Gao’larg could do in future.
‘What a loss…’ He lamented that he wouldn’t be able to learn more from a good warrior, one that had the potential to go further.
Ebony drew Icicle out and set himself ablaze, just as Gao’larg’s aura rose and his greatsword consumed the injected life force.
His domain spawned thousands of lustrous blue petals that didn’t have any flames burning on them. It was one of his takeaways from saving mana. When he compressed mana till it had a liquid form, he didn’t have to have them burning at all times and it saved some mana. Against a few opponents, he could just burn them as needed instead of causing the entire area to drop in temperature.
Gravity was magnified on Gao’larg dozens of times stronger but only the ground gave in and not the warrior.
Gao’larg roared and gave a wide swing at all the blue petals around him. Cracking and popping sounds echoed as mana in Ebony’s domain reacted and found different ways of inflicting physical shock. The black-toned and red-eyed Troll didn’t even flinch as the sonic attacks weren’t even cutting through his skin.
The greatsword in Gao’larg’s hands was stronger than he expected as all the petals were forcefully blown apart even with his domain on. The resulting wind pressure and shockwave almost blew him off the ground.
“One move!!” Gao’larg yelled at the top of his lungs.
Ebony paused.
It appeared that Gao’larg no longer had anything to show and had no desire to fool around with Ebony.
“Okay.” He nodded seriously.
Icicle was raised above his head with both hands on it. He made his greatsword pull in every bit of mana he could withdraw, overdrafting his mana without hesitation.
Instead of a bright glow, it was as if it got darker as Icicle pulled in the very air around them with Gravity Vortex cast on it. Imperishable Frost Scales had to be the last spell to form over it to ease the injection of all his mana. It was partially pure mana and partially ice mana. It was hard to convert condensed mana into elemental ice and would take some time. Pure mana that was sent out of his mental reach wouldn’t be able to manually convert to ice and burn.
Frostblaze Augmentation was changing bit by bit at his discretion; he didn't put those at play for now as he wouldn’t be able to use it at full power if he was trying to mutate it. Waning Presence was also running as usual but he didn’t need its effects. With Gravity Vortex cast, he wasn’t able to layer Icicle with Chaotic Repulsive Membrane. Firm Path wouldn’t really work either as the gravity mana would just get absorbed and join the vortex.
Once his mana pool emptied, and his mana started overdrafting he got lightheaded. He didn’t forget to put some of that overdrafted mana to power his Augmentation, Stalwart Endowment, Inscripted Mana Moulding and of course, just leaving them in his Stock Mana Compressive Chassis. He left the mana in his robe to sustain their durability runes and his scale armour.
Gao’larg kept roaring as he fed his own life force to his greatsword. He similarly retained enough to power his enhancements but it was unclear how much he was retaining. He used Muscular Bolster which expanded just his muscles instead of his entire frame.
They had been staring at each other the whole time and Ebony understood from the glint in Gao’larg’s eyes that he was ready. They were both ready.
Ebony’s Will was at its limits as overdrafting mana placed a large mental burden and Gao’larg faced a physical burden. He could sense the Troll’s muscles were so tight yet under so much pressure they might give in and snap at any time.
Gao’larg initiated and burst off the ground.
Phantom’s Flicker pushed Ebony to a greater speed than the Troll. Fluid Blitz had never been activated to full power so easily. It was oddly obedient. It might be that he truly felt that he should use all his strength as it was hard to force the activation of Fluid Blitz’s buff. It was too bad there was no momentum to gain but it was no big loss, magic was his main force.
“MOUNTAIN REEEND!!” Gao’larg simply pulled off his strongest strike without embellishing it any further.
“Stalactite Sunder…” He might as well follow Gao’larg’s enthusiasm. It was a bit of a bummer that he wasn’t going spell-heavy but this seemed like the best way to end it.
They clashed the same way they did multiple times over the past…week or so. He didn’t really know how long it had been but all those breaks took hours and so did each clash.
The corrosion cloud above had actually started to withdraw towards the Trolls. It was possible for sunlight to pass through but he didn’t take note of how many times it cycled.
Gao’larg also swung his blade from overhead. Icicle was tilted ever so slightly and their greatswords clashed. The layer of mana and vitality didn’t stop their blades. Gao’larg pushed him down into the ground but Icicle started to freeze through the Troll’s weapon. Every bit of frozen blade would burst as violent vibrations ran through them. It wasn’t able to show what it was capable of. Before his feet sunk into the ground, Gao’larg’s blade was split in two and Icicle landed on the Troll’s head. It got stuck in his skull.
“Ebony, I’m glad you’re a warrior,” Gao’larg muttered out in a split second.
“Mmm. You’re a great warrior.” His mana exploded outwards and blood splattered all over him. Gao’larg’s head was still in one piece. His unbelievably tough body was extending his suffering but the ice mana that spread throughout him numbed out his sense of pain.
It felt like a long time passed as they stared at each other, waiting for the moment to come.
‘Ting’ ‘You have killed [Aesthetic Compact Brute Lvl 385]. No experience is gained due to maxed level. Insufficient potential experience accumulated.’
“My arm hurts. How are you holding up?” Ebony asked Icicle. There was no response as its runes dimmed down all the way.
The ring of light around them dispersed. He took Gao’larg’s frozen but tattered body away, burying him here would just have his body crushed or dropped into the sea once the earth was removed. He made an ice coffin and placed Gao’larg into his bag. The Trolls might not care but he would try to return it if possible. Gao’larg’s the Benumbed Tribe’s heir so they should at least recognise him.
‘What’s this…moody feeling? How unpleasant, I don’t feel like doing anything for some time.’ Ebony fell on his back and fell asleep. Overdrafting mana always made it hard to stay conscious and he didn’t feel like fighting against it. He was pretty sure his head laid on something soft but he already went to sleep mode.
❅❅❅
Once again, Ning Xin had the chance to caress Ebony’s hair while he slept. She was pretty sure he was fully asleep this time. His head was really light since he was low on mana and his regeneration was reduced. It extended the time when she could comfortably let him rest on her lap.
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Her legs were starting to get numb when her Intuition alerted her to look towards the Trolls and the main battle. She couldn’t tell what it was but there was no sense of danger so she stayed put. It took quite some time before she squinted to see something flying towards them. Something huge.
Before long, she managed to make out the figure of a manta ray completely made out of water. Within the enormous water manta ray were thousands upon thousands of Imperial Knights and soldiers. On the head of the water ray was another man who also wore the same design of armour that Imperial Knights wore but it was clearly different in colour and overall look.
The closer it got, the clearer she could see the detail.
Something, someone was swimming out of the water manta ray’s belly and poked his pink hair out.
“MUAHAHAHAHA! I’M HOME!” The loud Prince was dragged back into the manta ray, almost drowning him as he popped back into the air bubble within.
Ning Xin knew that Hector wasn’t going to die so easily. She had initially imagined Navin’s disappearance to be to get Hector out of Tova but the Barrier King wasn’t anywhere in sight.
The manta ray didn’t slow down and brought thousands of soldiers back towards the mainland. The disappearance of the corrosion cloud allowed them to fly high but it was surprising that the water spell could stay unaffected by the Frost Elves cold magic.
She might have had a bit too much fun as Ebony’s hair had dozens of tiny braids when the giant ray made a return trip. It just wasn’t giant anymore and only had the caster on it. He must have let his soldiers alight back at Fifth Tide.
“How does my hair look?” Ebony woke up and cheekily remained on her lap.
“Great.” She rolled him off before she got embarrassed by her own actions.
“Then I’ll have to trouble you to tie my hair from now on.” He kept the ridiculous hairdo like he said.
“Hector passed by.” Ning Xin changed topics.
“I heard him. He’s also dashing here and screaming something.” Ebony must have sensed the vibrations from afar. The ring of lights surrounding other’s battle actually causes most vibrations to get trapped so there wasn’t much to distract his senses.
‘So Hector was the one who woke him up. Hmph, he disrupted my precious session!’ Ning Xin was a bit upset that Ebony woke up so fast. It was already rare for him to sleep and even more rare for her to have a chance to observe without him being conscious about it.
Hector came into view, he was rather dirty. He didn’t appear to see them as he was crying to be let into the ring of light where Mallory was fighting. With such obvious intentions to intervene, he was tightly locked out. Then he cried and smashed the ground repeatedly.
Ebony hid them out of view with his ice and took out a memory light.
“Are you…” Ning Xin was more amused that Ebony was taking the scene down more so than Hector’s silly reaction.
“Mmm.”
❅❅❅
Ebony was glad to see that Hector was the same as he remembered. Minus the shoulder-length pink hair and that he was half-naked. It was amusing to see him act and Ebony recalled that he had a memory light lying around. He took a ‘video’ just for fun, it just came to mind all of a sudden.
Hiding themselves wasn’t so difficult since he wasn’t moving. He couldn’t make them invisible but Hector would have to look over directly unless he had new skills that improved his sight or mana sense further. They were a few kilometres away so it wasn’t really hard to spot on an empty wasteland.
“Let’s see how close we can get.” Ebony patted the dirt off him. He couldn’t get a good view for the memory light from so far away. He could test how good Hector’s perception was as well.
“I’ll pull wind towards us so he can’t use scent to locate us.” She suggested.
With that, sight, scent, sound, mana and their gravitational signature were mostly hidden to some extent. Well, hiding gravitational signature was completely unnecessary but there was a good chance Hector had an affinity with gravity. Ebony always hid it anyway. Shadow mages or rogues were always found by him due to the fact that their gravity signatures were a dead giveaway.
It might not have been necessary at all. They got all the way to Hector’s side and he got a perfect view to take a video. The man was too busy complaining about being late and hammering the floor with his fists to bother about them.
‘It's not as amusing as I imagined.’ Ebony wasn’t that good at taking photos or videos so he had to play around with the memory light for a bit. It was just getting dull because Hector was pushing it with his act. He had been complaining for ten minutes straight! He probably sensed them long ago.
[Hexa Elemental Enhancement Mage Lvl 300]
‘Ting’ ‘Generic Skill Identify evolved into Appraise.’
Appraise - Appraise the world around you, grasp information of the target.
‘As always, it's the least descriptive skill. Anyway, I guess I should take him.’ Ebony immediately tried to appraise Hector.
[Hexa Elemental Enhancement Mage Lvl 300 | ??? Lvl 300]
‘Is that some sort of skill? I don’t see an obfuscation jewel on him. Hexa…he probably uses more than 6 elements now.’ Ebony still thought it was a great improvement to be able to see Sub-Class levels. Hector could use more than 4 elements when he was a Journeyman. Ebony had a feeling Hector could use more than just 6 elements. His Class skill slots must be quite an issue.
He could imagine a pure enhancement mage to only have the elements manipulation skill and the enhancement skill. ‘Just that alone would take up 12 skill slots, What a neat class skill list…’ From what he recalled, Hector only used 1 type of enhancement for each element. Ebony had Augmentation and Stalwart Endowment but Stalwart Endowment should be able to be converted to a skill that only requires pure mana and not ice mana.
“Hector.” He called out, shutting the memory light in his bracelet off.
“WOAH! Don’t scare me like that!” Hector jerked up.
Ebony really couldn’t tell if he was putting on an act.
“Ebony! Scarlet! wuuwoo!” Hector yelled and jumped in to hug him. Snot and tears were wiped onto his robe. Hector got so emotional that Ebony started to believe that he hadn’t put up an act.
He repelled the snot back onto Hector and pushed him off, it was actually starting to get annoying after minutes of this. Hector kept mumbling under his tears, “I’m so glad to see you!”, “I’m alive!”, “It’s good to be home!” and much more.
“Sounds like you had a bad time,” Ebony said.
“The ship I got on capsized days into the journey! We had to travel by conjured ship for years and my fellow mates left me one by one. Once I got to Tova, little old me was too weak to do anything. I was the only journeyman! Poor me!”
He spilt out all his emotional baggage. His ‘mates’ protected him with their lives and he never fully got over it. His grudge against the Trolls wasn’t all that strong. He got revenge months ago and he wasn’t one to hate or blame an entire race for what happened. They were the invaders after all.
He got bullied by his uncle. His speedy levelling in a dungeon made him sick for over a week. His uncle fought the Old Hag by himself over and over again but he was never able to lock her down. Old Hag was delayed for a long time before she slipped out. His uncle returned to his unit lightly injured to gather his men and return. They took some time to gather and finish up whatever they had to do on the other continent.
“So this is that so-called supremacy duel? This ring of light isn’t made of any elemental mana…did you guys see the spirit? Is it really a Saint?”
“We didn’t see any spirit.” It seemed like Ebony wasn’t the only one interested in seeing a spirit.
“How did the battle look?” Ning Xin asked.
“I couldn’t tell. Are there only 2 Frost Elves fighting?” Hector wasn’t introduced to any Frost Elf.
Ebony pointed to Korta’s fight but he didn’t see anyone there. ‘Oh…it ended.’
Arti screeched and came to fetch Korben and Cap Dwarf. Cap Dwarf was on the verge of death but he was still breathing. Koawe managed to keep them alive. Korta was already gone, probably went to back Christy up.
Things were looking good for the Empire.
‘Time to plan for a holiday. Tidal’s so massive, there’s tons of places I wanted to see.’ Ebony’s worst experience was his time as an artillery mage. The levels weren’t worth it. Just killing people without even seeing their faces wasn’t something he wanted to do as a job. No doubt, he did it willingly and even continued for months.
“Something’s coming. We should run.” Ning Xin warned. Not even a moment later, he felt the vibrations from under his feet. His domain sprang up as soon as she finished speaking.
“Let me guess. The underwater Troll Tribe’s Patriarch.” Ebony and Ning Xin took refuge in the skies without hesitation. Hector was slightly stunned at how fast they ditched him. It didn’t seem like he could fly as he was running on the ground.
“Or some of his squad members.” Ning Xin didn’t fly ahead.
They might be underwater specialists but Ebony didn’t think well of their chances against either multiple Kings or worse even if they weren't in water.