Cypher's spell took out two Conductors instantly. Their clothes burst into flame, and Cypher noticed that they were heavily underprepared for an attack like this. One would have imagined that they would be heavily armored or, at the very least, shrouded in Wards to prevent such a thing from happening. However, Cypher soon realized that, of course, they were underprepared.
These Conductors had likely been throwing everything they had at breaking through the Wards around the vault. It was no surprise that their Magickal defenses were nonexistent. As for their lack of armor, it seemed as though they were quite the poor band of thieves. They didn’t even have Arks or Arkstones anywhere on them and none of their shabby equipment was enchanted with the deep pockets spell. With that, Cypher felt more at ease when it came to this mission.
After his first attack, the others in the hallway who hadn't been killed began firing back. Water whips, wind slashes, and several stone bolts came flying his way. Cypher dodged the attacks and rolled to his feet to cast his own spells again. However, he was interrupted by one of the water whips wrapping around his leg.
It pulled him up and slammed him against the ceiling before slamming him down against the stone floor. His own Wards flickered, and the pain washed over him. While he was practically uninjured, he still felt the pain of those impacts. His ankle had also been squeezed tightly, and a large bruise was spreading beneath his clothes.
However, such injuries were not enough to slow him down. He shot a bolt of lightning through the heart of the Conductor casting the water whip. The man shook violently, and his spell ended as his life was snuffed out. Cypher then turned his attention to two Conductors dual casting a spell together. His heart sped up as panic gripped him. Together two Conductors could release a Choir.
Spells cast like this would be four times as powerful as spells cast individually. Cypher worked hard to bring up a defensive barrier. "Trio, Verse 3, Steadfast Barricade!" Cypher's spell took effect just as a massive wind arrow took form and shot toward him. Three earthen walls shot up from the floor, each as thick as a tree trunk.
However, judging from the size of that arrow, it wouldn't be enough. He quickly thought through his options as the arrow soared through the air. The distance between him and the Conductors was around twenty meters, but the arrow reached his defensive spell in only a few instants.
The first of the three walls crumbled, followed shortly by the second and third. These walls were at the third rank, and there had been three of them, yet the wind arrow had still shot through them like they were nothing. However, in the instant that the three walls had halted the arrow, he had been able to move out of its line of fire. The arrow shot into the walls behind him and destroyed a good chunk of the manor.
Casting his spell had been costly, but Cypher was still in good shape. It might be a problem when it came to advancing his Center of power, but having an Orrium capable of storing so much Zight was quite useful. While chunks of stone fell behind him, Cypher ran up the wall to his left and charged towards the Conductors, who stared on in shock.
They had never seen a Rank-One Conductor cast a spell at the third rank, let alone three consecutive times! At that moment, they knew that playing around with him wasn't an option. They had to kill him now! They had underestimated him. Of course, that was quite normal, given that he was only a Rank-One Conductor. Anyone would have made the same mistake, right?
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The Conductors didn't have time to worry about that as they gathered into two groups. The first was made up of three Conductors. They drew their weapons and prepared to face him down as best as they could. Even if his Orrium was highly powerful, his body couldn't be on an equal level! That would simply be insane.
Conductors could train a single center of power to higher levels than the other two, and while they had never seen someone at Cypher's level cast like that, they were certain that his body should only be at rank Zero. Anything else was impossible given his apparent age, right?
The other four began casting another Choir as the first three prepared to do battle with the intruder. Cypher took notice of this and panicked once again. He didn't quite know the nature of the spell they were casting just yet, but he had to either stop it or find a way to dodge it.
However, the three in front of him were dueling with him at high speed. Their weapons, a set of twin daggers, a mace, and a flail, swung at him in quick succession. They had trained together and knew how to attack all at once while remaining uninjured by each other's weapons.
Cypher pulled out two sabers and fought them off. The daggers seemed weakest, so he left his Wards to handle them while he used his two sabers to block and parry the other weapons. One of the barbed ends of the flail screeched across his cheek before the other weapons could collide with him, cutting through his Wards with ease.
He squinted his eyes and pulled back instead of clashing with them. If the flail had broken through such powerful Wards so easily, he did not doubt that the daggers could do the same. As it was, he wore only a common iron breastplate. He hadn't had time to outfit it with enchantments as he had only donned it before the raid began.
If the daggers landed their blows, they would have likely fatally wounded him. As such, he had decided to avoid the clash altogether by leaping back several meters. However, the four Conductors in the back were almost done with their spell at this point.
With no other option, he slapped the Ark Cradle onto his waist and roared, "Ignite!" The drain on his Zight was negligible as it had been before, but he still felt his power drain before the iridescent belt wrapped itself around his waist.
A pyramid of light danced around him as the armor appeared, and in the next instant, he called forth most of the armor to block the incoming spell. A massive wave of ice crystals shot toward him next. Each one stabbed into the armor barrier he had conjured in front of him.
None of them could pierce it entirely, but since the armor was still newly formed, it hadn't powered up enough to stop them completely. The ice shards clattered to the ground as Cypher shook them free from the armor before returning it to his body. Several cracks wound their way through the breastplate before slowly healing shut.
He then converted around 20% of his Zight into physical energy and held back his saber. Power coursed through the blade, and he shot forward and unleashed a powerful slash. The Conductors had no time to react, as they were shocked that the scene unfolding in front of them far exceeded their expectations.
SHING!
SHING!
SHING!
SHING!
In several fluid motions, Cypher strode forward and sliced all of them in half. The group in the back had been close together, and only a single strike had been able to sever them in half. His blade rang and a long crack ran through the metal from tip to hilt. Their bodies hit the floor, and blood pooled around his feet as he turned to see the devastation he had wrought. His weak saber however hadn't been able to withstand the attack and fell apart shortly after his attack had finished.
He let the hilt clatter to the floor and turned to move closer to the vault room. He was free to proceed with the hallway cleared, but he was upset that he had needed to resort to the Ark Cradle so early into this raid.
"Tsk..." he clicked his tongue as he moved on. His sour feelings about this battle would have to wait until later. The vault was more important right now. With that, he left the dead Conductors behind and rounded the corner to head into the vault room, but not before his armor had absorbed all of the lingering Zight in the hallway.