As lightning crackled along her flesh, she spoke. “The Lady Slothari wishes me to convey an offer to those of you still untainted by the scum that walks before you, preaching his false crusade. There is still mercy for those among you wise enough to cast down your weapons and flee.”
“They have already made up their minds,” Jonathan replied. “Not a man among them has anything in their mind save for a desire to destroy Slothari and all she stands for.”
“Then they will die.” The lightning coursing around the woman built up to a fever pitch as the skies above darkened. A thundercloud gathered above Jonathan’s army, and a nexus of white light formed on its base. His hairs began to stand on end as a tremendous charge rose within the cloud.
A bolt of brilliant lightning surged down from the heavens, containing enough power to atomize a small city. Jonathan thrust up his hands, a grimace on his face as he used his Blessing to predict the origin point of the attack. Two swirling bolts of purple fire formed above them, looking paltry in the extreme. Then they were loosed, powered by every bit of his various disciplines, ranging from his Domain to his mana.
They streaked off, just as quickly as the lightning bolt itself, and made contact with it in midair. A thundering boom resounded as the air was split apart, and a disc of power shredded through the sky, dissipating a few miles out. Jonathan set his eyes upon the mage, whose face was reluctantly twisted into a snarl of surprise. Likely having been at the top of this realm for decades, if not centuries, the appearance of a random fighter capable of matching her was a scenario she must have found to be quite unlikely.
She raised her hands once more, and a wave of crackling energy raced outwards, enveloping her soldiers. Their bodies began to pulsate with power, and Jonathan felt their strength rising as her elemental energy suffused their forms. Jonathan curled his lip and simply watched, unable to do anything. His abjuration abilities were too weak to affect a spell of this magnitude from such a range.
Instead, he layered his buffs onto himself, blasting his strength up to new heights. Divinity merged with the power of his runes, and he glowed with potency. Then he was off, streaking across the ground like a bolt of greased lightning.
Edgar cast his own buffs, and Jonathan felt the cool energy of his speed enhancement ability fall down upon him. In an instant, he was standing before the lightning mage, his fist hurtling forwards like a missile. She was too slow to react, but some form of automatic shield triggered, creating a dome of lightning that played around her form. Jonathan powered through, creating a spike of Void energy on the end of his fist. Then he struck the shield, and everything went white.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
His body juddered as if he had stuck his fingers into an electrical socket, and his teeth ground together with enough force to cut through metal. Rather than withdraw, he pushed further and further through, even as his skin began to blacken beneath his armor. As his armor was made out of bone, it conducted energy poorly, and the only reason he took any damage at all was because of the strength of his opponent. The shield of lightning began to bend as he pressed his might against it, sparks of fulmination acting away from the main bulk of the elemental energy concentration.
He gritted his teeth against the pain and sent a wave of energy streaking down his channels, slamming into his fist with the force of a runaway train. The shield buckled outwards and broke, expelling a wave of electricity that baked the ground into charred rock. Then his fist connected with the mage’s jaw, blasting her off her feet and into the air. Now that it had become a close range battle, Jonathan was in his element. A dozen more strikes connected without pause, chained together in the amount of time that it took for the mage to raise one hand in preparation for another spell. Unlike what Jonathan had expected though, she was a lot more durable than most mages. Currents of lightning coursed under her skin like blood, empowering her insides with a net of crackling power. It was similar to Theodore and his metallic skeleton, but even more powerful.
Still, his strikes drew blood and fractured bones, but it was too little to stop the mage from casting once more. Over her presumed centuries of life, she had gathered enough power to be a contender for being one of the most potent Tier 3s in this realm. Unlike Jonathan, who had blitzed through the ranks, relying on his natural bonuses and luck to get through, she had sculpted her mastery over long years, propelling her strength to heights that went beyond mere stats.
Before he could strike again, the woman snapped her fingers, and a bolt of energy descended from the heavens, enveloping him. Jonathan might have been fast, but he wasn’t faster than a point blank bolt of lightning, even with his Blessing. This one came in far quicker than the one she had cast against the army earlier, as there was barely any germination time in the clouds above. Instead, Jonathan was sent to his knees, waves of energy sending shockwaves through his body. His muscles became useless masses of shivering flesh, and his organs quivered within him.
Luckily for him, he had a powerset almost tailor made to contest elemental energy. He reached down into his elemental core and let loose a wave of Void energy that rippled through his body. It had no effect on him, but every last drop of lightning was cleansed, expelled from his skin like a host of writhing serpents.