Far from here, under tons of earth and mud, inside a small alcove perfectly shaped in a circular form, was a man. He was sitting cross-legged inside a drawn circle of purple lights. This circle contained many different inscirptions upon it and they kept on revolving around themselves.

The man had his eyes closed. He was wearing a magician robe in dark and purple shades and had a green scepter sitting on his lap, parallel to the ground. It was Atem. He was immersed in controlling the entire environnment of the island. As he was still focusing on it, a small root began to creep inside the alcove.

The disruption broke him out very slightly from his trance. Since he knew this was a spell from an ally, there was no need to completely divert his entire focus on this. As the root touched his shoulder, he felt some Magic enter his Mind. This was a way to communicate information Lera practiced. The 'Root of communication' was how she called it. A fitting name.

The message was short but precise and all he needed to know was inside it.

Lera: Defeated. One strong. Melee. Tendrils. Metal. Coming for you.

After he heard the message, he sighed in relief. Lera managed to hold that one long enough. There were still a few teams and lone ennemies here and there on the island but Tempest would be enough to end those. He didn't need to keep the spells active.

He could go up.

However, it would still be great if he could earn just a bit more time for Tempest to finish things so that they could fight that one together.

As such, he sent a new spell outside while keeping the previous two active. There was no denying that he would have to move up and meet the ennemy but first, he would stall a bit more.

...

Der moved forward until he was blocked by a shadow in a humanoid form. It looked as if it was wearing a robe. It didn't take long for him to deduce who it was that was behind this spell. However he couldn't feel any bloodthrist or danger from it.

Then, it spoke:

Atem's shadow: Who are you?

There was no answers as a single tendril slashed the shadow in two and Der continued on his way. He was smart enough to understand that this was simply a stalling tactic. And he had no reasons to go along with it. Atem's plan failed.

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...

As the shadow was destroyed, Atem grumbled slightly. Then, he got up and began to channel his magic. The alcove began to move upwards through the Earth, elevating him back to ground level. He was going outside.

At the same time, the magic circle slowly faded into nothing and the shadow arms impeding the remaining opponents returned under the Earth. The mist would take longer but the density was slowly but surely thinning.

Even from a completely different location, Tempest noticed both. It was obvious that it was the result of Atem being forced to go into battle himself. As such, Tempest knew that he had to act even faster, even if he had to consumme more Magic. It was going to be a race against time.

Tempest began to amplify the Magic being sent to reinforce his body and rushed through the tree tops towards the next prey. No longer could he take the time to observe them before ambushing them. He would need to go all out.

...

Atem waited at the place he exited the Earth. He didn't wait long. Der arrived soon enough. And not a word was exchanged as both began to fight. Atem began to channel his Magic to create thousands of purple arrows and sent them straight homing into the creature. Der bounced at high speed towards Atem.

However, whenever Der was closing in the gap, Atem plunged into his shadow to reappear through a different one many hundred meters away. This was once again going to be a fight of attrition.

In battles between a mage and a warrior, what matters is distance. Atem was far more experienced than Lera and far stronger at the moment. Her weakened state was no joke. Atem did spend a bit of Magic to power the two large area spells but his reserves weren't to be underestimated either.

He would be able to slowly drain the endurance of his opponent without a doubt.

Both seemed to be aware of it and Der decided to distance himself. Atem did so as well and for a moment, they simply stared at each other. If the creature was wasting time, it was fine by Atem. Keeping the green ball at bay wasn't difficult at the moment. But neither had gone all out.

It seems like the green ball was going to change his approach.

Der began to move. His tendrils began to rotate all around him. Then, he put them to the ground and the rotation began to push his entire body forward. As if wheels, they acted to give him speed while also blocking all the arrows sent by Atem. And he was getting faster and faster with every rotation.

This forced Atem to move faster too and adjust. He began to cast a new spell and shadow spikes began to sprout erratically all over the paths that Der could potentially take. This was slowing down the rolling amount of tendrils that incessantly inched closer onto his position.

After mere moments of seeing this, Der activated a lightning-type spell and covered his wheel tendrils in the moment. The shadow element was weak to the lightning one and as such, he could render the spikes inneffective with a lower consumption than Atem's.

In order to overcome a spell, one needs to use the same or an higher amount of Magic into it however, if the element is in one's favor, it becomes a different situation. To overcome an elemental weak to your own, a lower cost of Magic can be used.

As an example, it would be easier for a water spell to overcome a fire one but would require much more from a fire spell to overcome a water one.

This was the case here. Unfortunately for Atem.