Gareth sighed in relief. The metal rhino he had created managed to disperse the charge and tank the claw attack itself, leaving him still in the fight. Metal spells took a good chunk of mana, but if it was that or lose, the choice was obvious. They had gravely miscalculated. They thought the enemy was going to go with more or less the same strategy as theirs at least in the Elismera fights Kaiser while everyone else fights separately, but it looked like they planned for Elismera to take on both 4th years with Azura’s support, while Auros tried to take out him, with some passing support here and there if the 4th year tries to interfere. He created several wolves of lightning and had them head for Azura. One of the other 2 would obviously defend him, but he needed time to think. Elismera seemed to be holding off the other 2 fairly successfully, so he couldn’t count on too much assistance moving forward, but he hadn’t lost yet. To keep Elismera even Azura had to focus entirely on her, which left him in a 1v1 with the 2nd year.
He narrowed his gaze. If he was defeated Azura would probably switch tracks and boost the 2nd year to try and take out Liander, from there the 3 would work together to try and break the stalemate against Kaiser. He couldn’t let that happen, but he wasn’t confident he could defeat Auros in a 1v1, even with the weakness of defending Azura which the 2nd year had just done easily by creating a pegasus of water to use its wings to absorb the electricity. It looks like lightning wasn’t going to be a good choice on either side, both had come up with counters for it.
Lightning was probably his strongest offense oriented element, so that would hurt his odds of taking out his opponent immensely. His metal rhino took another hit from some half hearted water spells, forming into violently spinning spears. They gouged into the construct slightly, but had nowhere near enough force to pierce through. It had dealt damage though, and that meant his strongest defense wouldn’t last forever. As he expected many more of the liquid drills rained down on his Golem Tearing much bigger chunks out of it now that his opponent had decided the tactic could work. He sent the rhino racing at Azura. His opponent would be able to destroy or divert it no problem, but not while attacking him, so that would net him a bit more breathing room.
He scowled, they had been totally outplayed. The fight had become a 2v2 and 1v1, just like they wanted, but who was facing who part had panned out in the worst possible way, and worse as long as Azura’s support made Elismera’s vines that blindingly fast neither Liander or Kaiser were going to get any breathing room. Honestly the only reason she probably didn’t take him out was because he was on the far side from her, and that would spread her roots a little thin. Still it looked like Azura taking the center of their formation was 2 fold. It made it so he could more easily support both teammates in a pinch and vice versa, but it also meant Elismera was closer to the 2 opponents she would need to be dealing with.
As expected his rhino had been diverted from Azura, though admittedly he wasn’t expecting a geyser to erupt beneath the construct and launch it into the air. He didn’t have time to try to estimate where it would land, as the slight moment of thinking time he had bought himself crumbled at the water drills shooting towards him. He launched eagles of wind to shoot at the drills and explode. If he couldn’t block the attack he’d just have to disperse it. This was going to be a dragout fight, and he got the feeling it would be turned into a war of attrition, and as a noble, he refused to lose.
***
Elismera was having a blast. Azura was taking his role as support very seriously, and she had never felt so strong. It wasn’t easy per se, but she was comfortably dealing with Kaiser and the enemy 4th year at the same time, and never once was she worried she’d be put on the defensive. their counter attacks were easily countered, and they were both forced to furiously defend against her assault. Auros was probably putting a little more effort into defending Azura then he had to, her roots were still protecting him after all, but she knew why he was doing it that way.
Just as Azura had predicted it had become a war of attrition, and on the off chance Auros lost Gareth would set his sights on Azura, it was best he didn’t have any time beforehand to try and analyze the roots that were currently defending him. They weren’t visible per se thanks to Azura’s spell, but they still created a slight haze in the air where they were located, so if given time to focus on it they could probably find a way to slip past them. She didn’t think it would come to that though. Kaiser had stepped up his game, but she was still able to match him blow for blow even while diverting part of her attention to her other opponent.
Azura was working overtime to keep her and her tree buffed to high heaven, but he himself didn’t even look winded, so it looked like a war of attrition was in their favor, especially as it became obvious Kaiser’s partner was slowing down. She didn’t think the 4th year could fight at this level for much longer. It was like Azura said, once you got strong enough the biggest difference in strength came from endurance.
***
Azura was concerned. He had yet to need to go over 8 spells, no, realistically he didn’t even have to hit his 8. Something was wrong. It was true that they had caught their opponents off guard with their strategy, but the fight still shouldn’t be going this smoothly. Gareth and the 4th year were flagging, Auros was too, but he and Elismera were currently in fine condition. Kaiser’s was harder to gauge, but if he had to guess that man was almost certainly in fine condition as well. In fact he’d have to be, because he was still holding back.
That more than anything else concerned him. He and Elismera weren’t necessarily going all out either, but they were currently in the winning position, so they could afford to conserve energy. Kaiser’s team on the other hand was bordering on collapse. Gareth wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer, and while Auros wasn’t in prime condition, he wasn’t to the point where he’d be out of the fight. The other 4th year was faring slightly better, but it was obvious he was going all out, or at least as near as he could while constantly on the back foot. Kaiser couldn’t be planning to let his team fall just so he could fight them all on his own, could he? Even Kaiser wouldn’t be that reckless right?
He Didn’t flinch as the blood tendrils were stopped only a few feet in front of him. Kaiser had made several attempts to take him out of the fight, but Elismera had been able to deflect each one. Yet the older student showed no sign of concern, and instead looked extremely happy. What was he missing? What would he do if he was in Kaiser’s position? Probably make a swing at Auros. Auros was farther from Elismera than Kaiser, so even buffed he didn’t think Elismera would be able to block it in time. Elismera would be able to get some damage into the other 4th year, but probably not finish him off. That would put them in a tough spot, but not an unwinnable one, but as far as he could tell that was the best move. Yet Kaiser made no move to do that. Never so much as turning towards the side that Gareth and Auros were fighting for supremacy over.
His mind raced as the fight began to pick up in intensity slightly. He continued casting spells at lightning speed, constantly keeping Elismera’s spells buffed as much as possible. The spells were so far out of his level as to be funny, but enhancing something was more effective the stronger it was, so he was still able to be a significant part of this fight anyway. Of course if Elismera slipped for a second then he would be taken out before he could react, and she would be beaten without him to buff her. It was when Auros made a move to finish Gareth off that Kaiser finally made his move.
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A torrent of blood overtook the water giant that Auros had made and created a crimson wall between the 2 teams. Elsimera retracted vines and roots keeping them ready to defend against whatever Kaiser was planning. Clearly she hadn’t seen this move before either.
The blood split down the middle, like parting a waterfall, and to his horror an eye was revealed along with part of a crimson body. The split grew wider and wider as more of the horrifying beast was revealed. It was like the gates of hell had been opened, and the devil himself had taken form. He meant that literally as the beast had 2 goat legs, and horns on the humanoid upper body. The eyes were pitch black with a blood red magic circle in the middle of them. Was this even a construct? Aside from the eyes the rest of it was red enough to be made from blood, but those black eyes were enough to make him unsure, well that and its unbelievable presence. It was like staring at an incredibly powerful monster.
Elismera quickly found her bearings, and rushed to attack the beast with the roots of her tree. The beast howled, creating a horrifying sound. Before jumping away from the assault. Blood tendrils raced up to block The roots from reaching the now revealed Kaiser. The other 2 were behind the still standing wall of blood. He had wondered why Kaiser took center if their plan was for the other 4th year and Gareth to team up. Now he wished he didn’t know.
The beast landed near Elsimera as it moved surprisingly quickly to avoid the surge of vines and roots as it got closer to the tree’s master. For the first time in the fight he was actually forced to use all 8 of the spells he could cast without worry, 4 made the beast weaker, and 4 focused on making Elismera’s tree stronger. The beast's forward advance was finally halted as it’s slowed speed, and the vines' increased speed finally proved enough for the vines to push the crimson devil back. The tendrils defending Kaiser were barely keeping up with the roots Elismera had put on offense, but all 3 of them having to split their focus like this would be incredibly draining.
An idea donned on him as he watched the current state of affairs. Kaiser wasn’t trying to win, or well he was, but the man had realized doing it on his own was impossible. He paled, Kaiser’s goal was a double knockout. The blood walls meant that the other 2 would have time to rest and recover, while he at least would still be casting spells up to his limit so Elismera would win the fight between her and Kaiser. If Kaiser managed to take Elismera down with him it would be a fight between Kaisers team at full power with him at most likely less than half, even if Auros was fully charged that was still a not ideal situation for them.
Worse his daggers didn’t work very well on spells that created physical things. Fire and lightning, and other forms of energy type spells were easily absorbed, but physical types took a lot longer to be absorbed by the daggers. Meaning he couldn’t just throw 1 at the blood wall, and expect it to work any time soon. He couldn’t help but laugh. A self sacrificial plan, the one thing he hadn’t even considered Kaiser might try to pull, and it might very well work. Elsimera and Kaiser were both really exerting themself now as thunderous collisions rained across the entire arena. As blood tendrils met roots, and The blood devil desperately fought off the seemingly endless vines.
It would take a long while for them to exhaust themselves, but that didn’t necessarily mean he had plenty of time to think of a solution, afterall he was the only thing allowing Elismera to match up to Kaiser. He was confident that he and Elismera would win, but not confident that she would have any energy left afterwards, and he bet Kaiser had something up his sleeve to at least take her down with him. The blood beast howled again, and unleashed a wave of flames at him. Elismera quickly shielded him, but that did free up the boost to renew it’s assault on the vines that had been trying to wrap it up.
He had to find a way to get rid of the construct, but how? It was strong enough that even Elismera was having trouble against it. Even if she was splitting her attention between offense and defense. It was on their side, so he should be able to make an anti-magic field that disrupts all magic in an area, but it would have to cover the whole thing, and that meant it would cancel a lot of their magic too. On top of that Kaiser wouldn’t just have the construct sit still while he worked on it. Them being preset on the cards helped, but enchantments still took some time to properly activate.
Auros was calmly mediating, having come to a lot of the same conclusions as him, so that was good at least, but there was no doubt Kaiser’s team was doing the same. Both of Kaiser’s teammates had been pretty tired when the wall was put up though, so maybe if he sped up the double knockout his team would have a better chance of winning. It was a gamble though, then again he knew from the start this fight would be a toss up, might as well gamble till the end.
10 spells cast at once, his limit to be able to continue fighting at full power for longer than a few minutes. All 10 were exclusively to buff Elismera’s offense. Kaiser’s laugh was loud enough for even them to hear, as Elismera’s assault tore the devil to pieces and rushed for Kaiser himself. She didn’t seem pleased with being used as a sacrifice, but it was clear she understood why he had made that call. The vines had all merged together to form a giant flower that covered much of their half of the field. Kaiser glowed red as his blood wall and all the blood from the tendrils merged together to form a giant gate of blood in front of him. His team revealed, and forced back into the fight as they quickly stood from their meditative poses.
Before anyone else was able to react the flower bloomed, and released a beam of pure magical energy. The beam was huge, easily having a radius of 5 ft, that didn’t stop the entire thing from being super charged and incredibly dense though. The beam slammed into the bloody gate with the force of a meteor, and an explosion shook the field. 2 sounds of shattering glass echoed in the smoke. No one made a move as the smoke slowly cleared. When the field was revealed, he was left completely speechless. The gate Kaiser had summoned had a massive hole in it, but somehow that wasn’t the oddest thing; somehow Elismera had started bleeding as red aura surrounded her.
He didn’t love having to go into Kaiser’s plan for a double knockout especially because he didn’t know how Elismera had been taken out, but he wasn’t strong enough to prevent it. The figh would be tough with just him and Auros, but they had an advantage the other team didn’t. Elismera may have been eliminated, but her tree still stood, and that meant they still had the roots protecting them. It would take some serious force for the other team to break through them, and being that close to ground 0 of the explosion meant those 2 had probably taken some damage from it too.
His time for thinking was over as Auros actually made the first move creating blades of water and shooting them at the 4th year. It was the right call. The 4th year was clearly exhausted, the brief time meditating hadn’t been enough for him to recover properly, and they definitely didn’t want to give him that time to recover. He cast 3 spells to buff the water blades, and for the first time in the match made an attack of his own. He swiped up on a card creating a circle from which a lightning bolt shot out towards the 4th year.
Attacked from both sides the 4th created a half dome in front of them to block the attack. The water made several gouges into the stone, but the lighting barely blasted a bit of rock off. He frowned. He knew his offensive power was fairly low compared to everyone else here, but for it to be to that extent. He’d need to work on that more. He smirked, still his strength had always been in trickery, and that had once again served him well. Everyone else may have forgotten about the heavy object that had been thrown violently into the air, but he had been patiently waiting for its return. Elismera or no, without Kaiser on the field, he was going to win.