Thalion was interrupted by a lightning bolt shooting at him, and he had to dodge to the side but still got hit in the shoulder. If he had been eagly, it wouldn't have been a problem, but in his human form, he was thrown to the side, his body hurting all over. He just managed to position his sword between him and the next lightning bolt Sylas fired at him. The sword easily blocked the lightning bolt and even absorbed some of its strength. He had passed Sylas and with a look over his shoulder, could see how Kael jumped from one of the towers down to one of the lower levels.
So Thalion activated mistform and shot with incredible speed into the sky and over the ringwall, but he felt how something no someone was following with identical speed. He exited mistform after he had traveled over fifteen kilometers, and his mana was at ten percent.
"You can't escape," Sylas said, appearing in front of him. "You are just level 41. What can you even do against me? You are probably out of mana anyway while I am still half full." As if to prove it, Sylas shot a wind blade at him, which was cut apart by Thalion's sword, which was very effective against skills—or maybe anything.
Thalion didn’t have much time, as Kael would surely be on his way, and with a ranger class, it wouldn’t take him long to arrive here. He shot a blood thorn at Sylas, who blocked it with a windshield that surrounded him. The shield cracked a bit, but Sylas quickly repaired it and shot a fireball at Thalion. Thalion, in turn, just used his movement skill to dodge the fireball and to find a way around that maniac, but Sylas was fast and kept pace.
Thalion was not sure if it was a good idea to turn into eagly since Sylas could turn into wind again and appear close enough for a melee attack, which he couldn’t tank or block as an eagly. He had no other choice but to fight Sylas for real. Maybe he could run after he injured the mage badly, but then he could also just kill the guy. Sylas threw spell after spell at him, probably hoping that he would be out of mana soon and easy to finish, but what he didn’t know was that Thalion's recovery was just insane. Pushed by the heart of sanguine archon, his title, and his natural increased recovery, he was already at 40 percent.
Maybe Sylas thought that he would be drained of mana this fast because he was standing on air, but he had covered his feet in blood, which was enough for him to hover a kilometer over the ground, and it didn’t cost any mana. Thalion unleashed another red manaslash at Sylas, who had to dodge by flying in the air, and his eyes narrowed after Thalion unleashed a second one while shooting much faster blood thorns at him, which almost managed to break the windshield that surrounded Sylas.
The fight continued, while no one was able to land a clear hit, but soon sweat started to run down Sylas's face while Thalion got stronger and stronger, pushing further by unleashing one red manaslash after another. Sylas was on the defensive, desperately trying to keep his shield up to not get hit by the blood thorns while dodging the now even faster manaslashes. Thalion had fully claimed the momentum, unleashing skill after skill. His mana was already back at 35 percent, recovering incredibly fast and even faster when he blocked a spell with his sword.
With time, Sylas got more desperate, which led to a heavy injury after he tried to dodge a red manaslash by flying up. Thalion summoned a sturdy manabarrier above him, and Sylas smashed against it with his shield, which stopped him completely, but the manaslash didn’t stop, ripping through the shield and cutting both of Sylas's feet off directly under the kneecap.
Sylas roared in pain; Thalion saw his chance and tried to finish it with a fast blood thorn to the head, but Sylas turned to wind again and shot back in the direction of Kael's base. Thalion didn’t waste any time, dropping the tokens and crystals he had taken from Maike, then he turned into eagly and shot in the direction of the ocean, activating feather glide and thunder shroud for more speed.
It was good that he had invested all the time to craft his sword. Without it, he would have been in real trouble. But how could he lose a fight with a sword that blocked every skill with ease, even consuming some of the skill's mana and recovering his mana pool while completely overloading every skill he shot at the man with power? Today he had almost managed to kill an elite fighter who was almost twenty levels above himself not that bad for a level 41 human.
Maybe life wouldn’t be that hard next week; the powerful camps would move on to the next level, so why should he follow the hunters? Even when the beasts there were at a higher level than on this stage, he wouldn’t get much experience anyway. On the third stage, he was definitely one of the most powerful beings, and he had so many things to do: soul cultivation, building his armor, upgrading his skills, body tempering, and he had enough blood to fill up a small lake. Well, he would rather work on that without a war going on and a ranger hunting him. Yeah, he would definitely stay on the third stage, Thalion happily thought while gliding on the wind at the horizon, finally free. It felt like invisible chains which had bound him before were gone and he could live his dream to his heart's content.
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<--
"Did you get him?" Zyra asked Kai, who stood on the wall looking into the jungle.
"No, he knew what we had planned," Kai said calmly.
"Why are you not hunting him?" Zyra exclaimed, looking at the completely relaxed man.
"Kael is already after him, but I don't think he has a chance of getting him." Kai answered.
"So what now? He could come back after he has leveled up and slaughter us like the shapeshifters," Zyra exclaimed in panic, looking at the light warrior in disbelief.
"No, behind these walls we are safe, and he won't attack the people of this camp. Thalion is only after us," Kai said with confidence.
"This doesn’t make it any better," Zyra exclaimed.
"What will you do with the people who saw how the fight had started?" Zyra asked.
"Only a small group of hunters was there, and Sylas had already killed them," Kai explained. "We have informed the guards the moment it happened. Tomorrow everyone will know that Thalion killed a small group of hunters. Sylas tried to help them, but he already was too late, and after a fight, he and Kael managed to push the monster back into the jungle where it belongs."
"So you already had a backup plan ready. Any idea how he knew?" Zyra asked.
"No, I have no idea how he could have known. Oh, Kael is back," Kai said, pointing at the jungle.
Kael used his movement skill, and shortly after, he stood on the wall beside Kai.
"How is the situation here?" Kael asked.
"Good. Sylas had already killed everyone who saw the beginning of the fight, except a few guards, but we can trust them," Kai reported.
"How is Sylas doing?" Kael asked.
"Fine. A healer is treating him, and he will be up in a few hours," Kai said.
"What has happened here?" Evelyn asked happily, flying by while sitting on the back of Vorlok.
"Thalion had gone crazy and killed a group of hunters," Kael informed her.
They hadn’t told her about the plan since she liked Thalion too much.
"What? Why would he smash hunters?" Kargul roared while jumping on the wall.
"We don’t know why, but it is essential that we hunt him down before advancing to the next stage. He cut Sylas's feet off," Kael said in a tone that left no room for arguments.
"Okay, we will hunt him down. Come, Eve," Kargul roared and jumped off the wall while a giant sky turtle flew after him.
"Are you sure we should send parties after Thalion? I don’t see how they would kill him," Kai asked worried.
"Maybe no hunting parties, but at least scouts. I need him dead, or we can forget about baptizing our fighters before the war against the undead. If we are lucky, Kargul and Evelyn manage to kill him," Kael said looking after the orc and the little girl happily sitting on the sky turtle.
"Let’s hope for the best, maybe we are the lucky ones next time," Kai said, looking at the jungle deep in thought.
"Eve, I think Kael is lying," Kargul said after they entered the jungle.
"Yep, something was definitely wrong," Evelyn nodded in agreement. "Nice reaction. I don’t think that they think that we think that they lied to us."
"Wow, can you teach me how to be that smart?" Kargul said in astonishment, looking up at Evelyn sitting on Vorlok's back.
"Yes, I will teach my padawan," Evelyn announced happily.
"But you have to teach Vorlok too. He is also very dumb," Kargul nodded. At that, the sky turtle looked up with confusion. Obviously not understanding a single word.
<--
Aeta strode through his domain, the earth itself quaking beneath his fury. How had they managed to fail so completely? He had provided them with every possible advantage, yet they still squandered it. Mutating the sanguine thorn to empower one of his followers should have given them a significant edge in the war against the undead and Ankhet. But the human, devoid of any real potential, had ruined everything. Aeta hadn’t wanted to intervene directly, but with other gods granting legendary blessings, he couldn’t afford to be the only one holding back—it would weaken his standing in the alliance.
Time was running short. He had already promised to help Mazu against the undead. The Eternal Dominion had noticed her blessing countless mortals in the tutorial, leading to frequent assaults on her domains. As one of the alliance’s stronger gods, it was his duty to assist her. Aeta descended into one of Mazu's divine battlefields, where towering corpse-lords clashed with the gods of water, who were barely holding the line. The undead general, a Draugr god wielding a frost-white axe, commanded the battlefield. The air around him froze, and every attack against him shattered in midair before breaking apart like brittle glass. Draugr, known for their mastery of ice magic and immense strength, were a noble race of the Eternal Dominion. Luckily, this was a young god.
Aeta remained hidden in the shadows, unseen, as he began charging an arrow specifically crafted to annihilate the undead. When it was ready, he loosed the arrow, which tore through the battlefield. The Draugr was too slow to react as the arrow warped space and time, freezing reality around it before detonating with the force to tear black holes apart.
When the dust cleared, Aeta saw Thulgar, the leader of all Draugr, standing before the younger god… unharmed.
"It's been a long time," Thulgar said, his voice as cold as death, barely containing his rage.
"Good to see you too, Thulgar," Aeta replied calmly.
"Spare me your words, archer. You just tried to kill my son. Let's see how smug you are when Ankhet joins the Eternal Dominion," Thulgar snarled, hatred burning in his eyes.
In an instant, the undead gods began retreating to their realms. The battle was over for the day.
Aeta sat on the blood-soaked ground, deep in thought. The time had come to pour more of his focus into the tutorial stages. Ankhet could not be allowed to escape.