Chapter 30
Waning Crescent [https://i.imgur.com/65Yqjea.png]
From under the ruins of a broken defense wall large ironclad fist emerged and pushed the rubble away. Orbol of the Iron fist emerged from under the remains of the broken defense wall unscratched. He stood up at all his giant height and two more petite figures were revealed, which previously were hidden underneath him. Anisian and Rowa shook the dirt from their robes and without a single word moved out to face Eldritch who dared to attack Emperor’s dominion.
Rowa pressed her ring, wind mana swirled around her, and the woman ascended into the skies like a bird. Immaterial wings crafted out of the pure wind mana spurred out from her back and brought her high up. She flew up in midst of thick white clouds and sunlight was reflected from her small body.
She hung high in the clouds for a second and with a deep breath dived down at a sharp angle straight towards the group of Fallen Eldritch Priests weaving their next barrage of spells. She weaved spell of her own while her eyes didn’t wander from her targets. Her spell was ready and as soon as her dive brought her close enough, she released it along with activating her active perks.
Mage’s call
Wind boost
Blade conjured from the wind mana was released from her outstretched hands and boosted by perks it flew straight toward the largest group of Priests. The blade flew faster than light and, surprisingly to Rowa, it was stopped by an invisible force field surrounding the Priests. A light blue transparent force field revealed itself around the group of Eldritch, and a few of them fell unconscious, from boosted wind blades hitting the shield and shield sucking out mana from the Priests channeling it.
“Damn!” Rowa cursed not getting the expected result from her strike.
All eyes on the ground turned toward her, who still diving straight toward the Priests
Phase
She disappeared in a gust of wind mana, and just in time. A beam of moon mana harmlessly shoot through the place she was just a moment ago. Her blurred form passed the beam and passed the barrier in her way as she found herself right in midst of the enemy. She stopped her momentum instantly an inch from the ground and with the elegance of a dancer spun around herself in mid-air. Wind mana followed her movement and five of the closest priests were split in half.
She instantly shoot up in the sky once more weaving and bobbing, while priests unsuccessfully threw their own moon mana spells at her dancing form. A strike of blue shoot past her body just barely not touching her, yet she stayed focused and dodged the strikes in perfected movements. It wasn’t a battle of power where different mages tried their mightiest attacks against enemy shields. It was a battle of skill. Every attack, every spell was able to kill her weak body, yet she didn’t lose her focus for a second as deadly projectiles all flew past her.
Meanwhile, Anisian closed in a run with an armored giant following close behind. Fallen Eldritch Priests were distracted by Rowa attacking from the air and they managed to close in the considerable distance before the Priests finally turned on them.
Many hands were thrown forward and a blast of joined moon mana followed. It wasn’t as big as the one which destroyed the city, but it was large enough to obliterate at least a small mountain.
The old swordsman removed his sword from the scabbard and as a blast was about to strike him he thrust it forward with a strong and controlled upward swing
Split the Heavens
A slice of energy flew out of Onisian’s sword and split the blast of moon man in half. Energy flowed on both sides past him and the giant right behind him, yet they were not hurt in the slightest, only Onisian’s sword glowed in a red blaze, signifying how hot was the metal at that moment.
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Giant ran past him crouched and jumped high in the air toward the Priests and the force field surrounding them. He landed right on top of it with his both iron fists smashing right through it. Shield shattered in the pieces and even more of the Priests fell unconscious.
Giant was right beside Priests now and with a smash, he turned the closest one into a red pastry. A small disk of moon mana hit his shoulders but he was barely pushed back from the strike. Giant lowered his head and rushed straight into the largest group of Priests head-on in a straight line. Countless magical projectiles landed on him, yet they left only small dents and marks in his armor without affecting the giant in the slightest.
Giant landed a right hook and two more Priests disappeared in a red mist. After his hook, his next step had power enough to bring him 10 meters forward and he struck his next opponent with an uppercut. The Priest tried to dodge the uppercut, but the fist of the giant killer was just too fast. The upper side of the Priest’s ball-shaped body simply disappeared and appeared high in the air. Priest was dead long before.
Onisian was already beside the giant and his blade danced in a flow of its own. While the giant took the magic strikes straight on, Onisian reflected projectiles coming at him with skillful slashes. His footwork allowed him to move through the battlefield with incredible speed and his sword slashed Priests in parts where ever he went. Two men stood against thousands of monsters and yet they clearly had an upper hand. Low-leveled Eldritch kind had nothing on them, as both fighters wrecked chaos on the battlefield. Priests fell one after another.
“Careful! South!” Rowa suddenly called to her friends with worry.
Both Onisian and armored giant turned towards the south just in time to see how a group of hundred Priests releases a moon mana blast towards them boosted by hundred of moon rings. Onisian did not have a mana pool large enough to activate his Split the Heavens perk twice in the same fight, so he could just watch as a massive magical strike came at him threatening to take his life once and for all.
Armored Giant came in-between Onisian and projectile and crossed his large arms in front of him. The blast of moon man hit him straight on and the giant’s feet dig into the ground as he was pushed back by the force. His armor came off his flesh revealing a man in his thirties with red blazing hair and tattoos all around his impressive build. With his best effort, the giant resisted the strike head-on, while Priests all around him died in the explosion. Only Onisian was safe right behind Giant’s protection.
Magic dissipated and the giant fell to his knees coughing blood. His arms slightly trembled as he tried to gather himself while being on the ground on all fours.
A new wave of small projectiles was thrown against them, but Onisian was ready for that.
Follow the flow
Onisian moved around the Giant deflecting all the projectiles with ease. He didn’t move faster and his muscles were not stronger, but still, somehow his blade always found the right spot to be in to deflect the moon mana balls, blades, and beams. Even when there was no possible way for him to be in two places at the same time, Onisian somehow found himself just in the right spot to deflect all projectiles at the same time. Reality bent under the will of the swordsman as he didn’t let even a single strike touch his downed friend.
Rowa was still in the air above them and with the attention of Priests split between the sky and the air, she managed to weave her own spells in between dodging spells of moon mana. She threw blades of wind mana slicing some of the enemies in pieces. Wind blades cut through the bodies of Priest with no resistance. She danced in the air between the projectiles flying at her and responded with her own. Her own being a lot more precise and deadly than the ones of the Priests.
Priests lost their numbers at an alarming pace and after a while of losing one brother after another, they finally turned around and started to flee. It was a mistake as there was no way for slow runners like blob-shaped mages to outrun the Wind Archmage above them flying around the battlefield with the speed of an eagle.
Rowa smirked seeing their desperate try to save their lives and already started to weave her next set of wind blades to mow down the fleeing Fallen Eldritch Priests when voice of Onisian called out to her.
“Don’t chase them! This will be enough.”
“What? Why?” Rowa asked in confusion.
“There is no need to kill them all. This was the first time this tribe attacked the Empire. Let them bring back home news about what happens when you don’t respect the Empire. When you approach the lands of Emperor with ill intent, you will die and there is no other outcome,” Onisian said while helping the giant stand up, “Let will them spread the warning.”
Giant shook off the helping hand of Onisian and stood up on his own. He watched at the backs of retreating blobs and spit under his feet. Rowa descended right beside him, she hovered right beside him to be at his head level and planted her kiss on his lips.
“You look a lot better with no metal on your body, darling.
Giant smiled at her and turned towards the old man who was already cleaning his blade from the blood.
“Say Onisian, why did they decide to attack right now?“ he asked his senior.
“Well, that is a great question, isn’t it?” Onisian said looking back at the ruined city, “Let’s go and find out.”
Somewhere in the Delver Citadel Jack Mors sneezed in his hand. He brushed his nose, looked around, and seeing the despair of local residents smiled brightly.