Hiding behind a tree, I poked my head out and checked the scene before me. I am within rock throwing distance of the invaders and seeing them this close up made my stomach twist. The Husks, as mindless as ever, tried to push through, as if nothing in front of them mattered, even though it only amounted to more Husks.
There were monsters of all types, large dogs with fire coming from their mouths, weird octopus monsters that moved strangely and more.
We hadn't informed Sheep of our arrival nor plans via Maji. I had purposefully done this, since knowing him he would've started to change strategies and if that happened it could alert those who were either controlling or leading this invasion. Maji had said the invaders were coordinated, meaning a being or beings were within this group with high intelligence.
Seeing this field of monster, my heart beat increased, a smile starting to form on my face. I wasn't scared, no I'm excited. Excited to finally let loose and once again fight. A feeling I have never felt before, but one I didn't reject.
Breathing out, I came out from behind the tree and let my restraint on magic go. At the same time, two orbs of Frostfire appeared in my hands as I started to move towards the back of this invading force. Moving my palms together, the orbs slowly merge as a tremendous amount of mana erupts from me, finally causing some monsters to turn to look at me, fear evident in their eyes, but it's too late, the orbs merge.
"SEA OF THE BURNING ICE WASTELAND!"
A spell unique to me, Sea of the Burning Ice Wasteland. Pushing my palms forward, Frostfire erupts out in a large cone from the orb, swallowing everything within sight, the very land becoming a field of Ice while everything burnt, froze and repeated over and over. I don't know how many I killed with that attack, but it didn't matter, more had to be killed. Rushing in with a smile on my face, I unstrung the bow and finished off anything that moved, making my way through the burning crowd.
All sorts of enemies that weren't in the area of effect turned on me as soon as I dove into the fray, finally realising that I'm a threat. I finally saw a few humanoid creatures, my mind flashing back to that night as my System confirmed what they were.
Void Legion Captains!
Stepping past the Burning Iceland and into the packs of Husks waiting, I used vines and roots to bind everything that impeded my path as the Captains quickly surrounded me.
"I see, so you're leading them. Well then, don't mind if I do." The clearing I had earnt very quickly evaporated as Husks and Monsters charged towards me. Breathing in, I drew magic towards my throat, preparing to use a new Spell.
"Elemental Breath."
Fire, Ice, Frostfire and Roots erupted from my mouth like a dragon's breath, swallowing the large crowd that had moved towards me, causing them to either burn, freeze, get stuck in a cycle of burning and freezing or get crushed by roots and vines. At the same time, the Captains made their move, some with weapons others with just their fists.
Dodging several attempted blows, I pivot on my foot and gain a bit of distance while summoning more roots from the ground, sending them flying towards three of the Captains, binding them in place. The other three continued their attack on me, with one of them sending a Void Slash from their sword towards me.
Side stepping the slash and pushing my palm towards one of the two approaching Captains, I fired a Fireball at them while entering melee with the other one. Dodging its strikes, I noticed that compared to the first one I fought, this one is slow. Or I’ve gotten faster. Grinning wildly, I erupted my magic, coating myself in a new spell that Greyback had taught me, granting me an aura.
“Nature’s Blessing.” This spell increased my overall strength but weakened my defences. It didn’t matter and gaining the upper hand on this Captain, I threw all of my strength and speed, covering my hands in Frostfire, easily smashing the armour that it wore, the impact of my fists caving in its chest. One final blow to his skull causes the Captain to flop onto the ground, dead.
Looking up at the other five, all of whom stopped and looked at the Captain I killed, said nothing before erupting with their own dark auras, empowering their strength. I knew that they would no longer be easy pickings and seeing the three who were bound easily remove their bindings, I smiled slightly.
Moving my hands, I interlocked my thumbs with my palms facing towards me, holding them up to my face as if I were about to place a mask on. Crouching, I released a massive amount of magic in preparation. If the Captains were going all out, then I too would do so as to kill them quickly.
“Domain Expansion, Elemental Forest of the Fairies!”
With me as the centre, a lush green scene spread out quickly, with trees appearing around us, five in total. The trees were the same colours as the elemental magic I knew, Fire, Ice, Frostfire and Nature. The fifth tree…is Vision, a normal looking tree with hundreds of eyes covering it. These Fairies weren’t real, they were a part of my Domain, a construct of my mana.
The domain fully expanded but was in an incomplete state. The Domain is only an embryo of what it could be. Spanning ten metres around me, my Domain made things extremely difficult for the enemy. Fairies emerged from the elemental trees, their glow the exact same colour as the trees they came from, except for the Vision tree. No Fairies emerged from that one due to its uniqueness.
The Captains moved and at the same time I released my magic, roots and vines erupting out of the Domain. Multicasting, I created a dozen spears of ice around me before sending them flying towards where I had arrived from. The Fairies bombarded the Captains with elemental magic of their tree. Tiny fireballs, small ice spikes, miniature roots and vines. Their assault caused the Captain's attention to divert, but that wasn't all.
The Vision tree glowed slightly. The Captains started to raise their guard to the maximum, looking around as if they were being watched from all angles. Taking advantage of this chaos, I charged at two of them, confidence overflowing within me.
Arriving in front of them, I didn't hesitate to ball up my fists and lay into them. Their movements of working together suggested they had fantastic teamwork and were well trained in close combat, compared to my sloppy moves they were pros. Under normal circumstances I would be easily overwhelmed and killed.
But this isn't normal, no this battlefield is straight out of a fairy tale…or anime. It's not like any fights we've seen so far in this world, and as the two are overwhelmed by the magic from the Fairies and me, I slammed one of the Captains into another, quickly using roots to bind them together before pointing two fingers at them.
"Flare."
Flicking my fingers to the sky, I watched as a massive red magic circle spread under the two which then erupts into a dome of pure fire, causing the surroundings to heat up, patches of grass combusting into small fires. It fades quickly, revealing the burnt out corpses of the Captains.
Sensing two others approaching behind me, I quickly turn and dive past their attacks, both hitting me square on, blocked by my mana shield. Jumping onto my feet, I grinned like an idiot as I swiped my hand casually.
Even though I had obtained new power with magic, I am still at the end of the day the Sharpshooter Sovereign. And if there is one thing I've learnt, it's that bullets aren't the only projectiles in this world. Travelling at speeds hard to see, the dozen ice spears came screeching back, travelling five hundred metres in total. My mana recovered as well, thanks to Refilling Shots.
An explosion of ice, flesh and guts sent a shockwave through the place, and turning my head, I saw the last Captain moving towards me. Meeting him head on, I dodged an attack from him, grabbed his helmet and ripped it off, exposing a face that looked like the alien from ET.
Punching him hard in the gut, I pulled out my handgun, pointing it at the top of his head and fired twice. The last Captain dropped dead as I withdrew my domain. Panting for breath, I looked towards the base, towards the massive amount of Husks and Monsters that remained. I had used over half my mana, most of it had been on the Captains. Thanks to Refilling Shots, I had 75%, more than enough to keep pushing, but using magic like that required far too much focus. If I lose focus on the spell, it crumbles, meaning the set up is ruined.
This is why I’m not one who should fight on the frontlines like this. My magic makes me powerful, but the moment I run out of mana or lose focus I am nothing but a regular person, and against a horde like this I would be easily overrun. Grinning, I knew I had nothing to worry about as I took a step towards those that blocked my way.
“Cover my back, Ghost.”
Stepping out of my shadow is a man I hadn’t seen for a while, now complete with a scruffy beard. He looked me up and down before turning to the horde who seemed agitated, as if trying to figure out if they should attack or not.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
“You’ve certainly gotten stronger since your vacation. I’ll cover you, here take this.” Ghost throws me a radio, one of the ones I had made. “Channel 12 for this sector.” Setting the channel, I clip the radio to my shoulder as voices spewed from it, some of them familiar.
“What the fuck is happening behind them? Do we have any visual confirmation?”
“Negative…holy shit, I think I see trees?”
“Reporting, Sector 1 and 4 are hearing gunfire from behind their enemies!”
“Reinforcements?! No, we don’t have nor were we expecting any!”
“Adapt! We’ll figure it out later! The Commander has made the order for the Lvl 3s to hit Sector 2 and 3, to link up with the Phenomena occurring there.”
“”””Roger!””””
At those words, as if they knew what was coming from in front of them, the horde turned towards me, charging as if intended to get rid of me. Ghost quickly disappeared as I swelled with magic once more. Two large orbs of ice appeared in front of the charging group, and after allowing them to pass them…
“Absolute Zero!”
The orbs erupt, freezing everything around them. There is a limit to this spell, Greyback had made sure I remembered what it is. The more enemies, the less freezing time. It wasn’t a killing spell, but a binding one, it froze those caught within for a set amount of time. When it had been used on the horde, Greyback said he poured most of his mana into it, freezing them for at least ten minutes.
“Ghost, land a killing blow on them.”
Several Ghosts appeared, a clone technique that I’d never seen before, all of them fading and reappearing, beheading all of the Husks at a rate that alarmed even me. If Brian wasn’t on our side I would not get a peaceful night's sleep. Scary.
But it also meant my friend had gotten stronger, and feeling rather happy at this, I used roots and vines to pierce the skulls of the monsters who were mid rush. Fire and Frostfire spells would only hasten the time it took for these monsters to thaw out. As we quickly killed half of the monsters and Husks, I could see the signs of the spell wearing out, and at that moment a heavy pressure fell on us, causing me to gasp in surprise and leap back, gaining distance on the presence that was approaching.
“Midnight.” Ghost appeared to my side as he looked towards the horde that was once again starting to move, but this time they stopped charging and turned around, moving towards the base. “This presence is one of four and is also the reason we separated into four sectors. It’s powerful, we nearly lost Dawn and Aerith to them earlier.”
Surprised at this news, I watched as a figure stepped out of the horde, which had made way for it. There, a humanoid stood, but with a dragon-like appearance. Horns coming from the side of their head towards the back, scales along their arms, a pair of unmoving wings on their back and a tail. Everything else on it was human, and the System confirmed the final piece that made my heart skip a beat.
Traitor of the Incarnates detected.
This traitor has sided with the forces of destruction and seeks to bring the world to ruin. Kill the Traitor and you will be handsomely rewarded.
“Oh? Well well well, look at what we have here. A hot red haired elf as my reward!” Upon setting eyes on me, the man’s eyes became lustful. He didn’t even attempt to hide it either, only looking over my body. “Kneel to me, girl, and I’ll be more than happy to make you one of my playthings.”
“Creep.” Muttering to myself, I felt a shiver go up my spine, not one of disgust but one of excitement. I felt excited to face such a powerful opponent, I wanted nothing more than to prove my strength and this bastard provided the best opportunity to do so.
“Come now, don’t say that. Compared to the sluts in Haven, your body is absolutely slamming. I suppose after I’m done with you, you’ll become just like them.” With a grin, he raised a hand as the density of his mana became heavy. Ghost disappeared from my side as two portals appeared behind the man. “Gates of Babylon.”
From the portals, two giant beings stepped through, both wielding massive axes, their skin void black, just like the Void Legion Captains, but they were double my height, with massive bulging muscles. Their presence overwhelmed me for a moment and as I prepared for this new threat, I felt the sting of a pair of eyes watching me from far above and behind me. Did they have a similar ability to the Vision tree in my Domain? But this stare didn’t hold any hostility to it, at least from what I could tell, so slightly being on guard against it, I prepared myself.
Interlocking my fingers once more, I surged with mana as I brought my palms up to my face once more.
“Domain Expansion, Elemental Forest of the Fairies!”
My Domain spreads fast, but before it can start taking form, the Traitor stomped his foot down as a large, black magic circle appeared behind him. The Domain halted and shattered, the backlash hitting me heavily as my nose bled out, my health dropping for the first time in this battle by 20%.
“I’ve already seen that magic. While interesting, it’s obviously incomplete. Go on, magician, try any of your magic, I already know it all. And don’t think I don’t see you there, Specter.” The man turns and throws a fist out, hitting something. Ghost is forcibly revealed as he tumbles aways, turning into smoke in the next second. “Tsk, a clone, huh?”
Analysing the situation quickly, I knew this Traitor had been at some point watching my fight, and the fact he countered my Domain means he either had far more mana than me, or knew anti-magic.
When Greyback taught me magic, he said that everything had a counter, and anti-magic is one of the few that could stop magicians in their tracks. Strong beings capable of anti-magic were not common, but they weren’t rare either, meaning I’d always have to keep in mind that my opponents could negate my magic. But what the Traitor had used didn’t seem like the description that Greyback provided, meaning he had simply more mana than me.
The two Void creatures charged at me, raising their large axes as they roared. Fast, too fast for their bulk, it didn’t make biological sense. I knew I couldn’t handle these two, at least without my magic. Raising my right hand as I bounced back, I surged mana to my hand but as I rose it, the spell was hit by something and shattered. Looking at the Traitor, he had a finger pointed at me, a magic circle in front of the finger. He grinned at the sight of me before laughing.
“Give up and you could keep your pretty face. Even if you’re deformed, you’ll still be worth a lot in Haven, so it doesn’t matter to me. But I’d like a few rounds before selling you off.”
Ignoring his words as I dodge the void beasts, my mind spun trying to figure out what to do. All of my magic needs time to prepare, meaning they could all be shattered. While I could summon ethereal roots and vines, Nature wasn’t exactly on the level Ice and Fire were. I could only bind and given the speed and estimated strength of these beasts they would easily free themselves.
In that case, what can I do? By the looks of things, Ghost couldn’t easily approach the Traitor, he was having as much trouble as I am trying to do anything. Was this Traitor Lvl 4? No, that isn’t it either. I wasn’t at the peak of Lvl 3 yet, I knew that thanks to the training Rebecca and I went under. Frowning slightly, I came up with a plan slowly as I raised a hand, a swirl of Frostfire forming.
Yet again it shatters, but I had planned for it to happen and looking at the magic circle that formed from the Traitor, I counted two rings in total, meaning whatever magic element he used was Tier 2. Advanced Magic, like Flare, produced a magic circle, and the amount of circuits, or rings, on it indicated the Tier. Greyback was capable of Tier 3 Nature magic and Tier 1 in everything else. If the Traitor wasn’t using Anti-Magic and is indeed using an Advanced Magic Spell to disrupt my magic, then I simply had to produce a spell that was higher Tier, making it impossible to shatter it.
How the hell am I meant to do that?! None of the Elements I had were close to raising a Tier, in fact I still didn’t understand how it happened, I just always had a feeling of when I could do it. As I’m about to dodge another Void beast, suddenly one of them disappeared and appeared behind me, right where I was about to dodge. Knowing I had to face one or the other, I stomp my foot down, using ethereal roots behind me to soften the blow as I used a magic shield and raised it at the beast.
The blows hit, the one behind easily cutting through the roots and slashing down my back, being blocked by the mana shield around me while the other slices through the magic shield I’d created. Narrowly dodging the strike from in front, I put my plan into action. Throwing myself at the beast in front of me, I jump up, grabbing its head while opening my mouth, keeping my throat out of the Traitor’s line of sight.
Elemental Breath spewed out point blank, hitting the Void beast in its hideous face. The recoil of the spell hits me as well, but tanking the hit with my mana shield, I finished the spell before leaping off the now burning, frozen corpse that was wrapped up in roots. Turning to the other, I prepared myself before sensing a surge of magic from the Traitor.
Turning my head, I saw a giant golden fireball above him, but before he could throw it, Ghost appeared, stabbing the Traitor in the neck twice. Looking annoyed, the Traitor threw a punch behind him, but Ghost had achieved his goal, vanishing before the fist even reached him. The spell faded, meaning that the Traitor couldn’t easily join the fight against me without turning it into a melee.
The sound of roots snapping snapped my attention back to the Void beasts and to my shock the Void beast who had tanked my Elemental Breath got back up, roaring angrily. It barely had a wound, as if it’s resistant to my spells. Feeling my stomach drop, I started to realise the seriousness of my situation that I’m now completely stuck in. The Void beasts turned their attention to me, both preparing to charge at me. In that moment, four magic circles appeared above one of the beasts, golden in colour, all Tier 2 Advanced Magic circles.
A spear of light comes from the magic circles, the magic from it heavy as a figure suddenly appeared, grabbing the spear and throwing it down, hard, at the Void beast below it, piercing it from head to two, splitting it in half. The figure bounces in the air, landing in front of me as its features become apparent.
Simple white shirt, skirt and brilliantly silver wings. Golden hair flowing down her shoulders, with silver eyes and a stern but beautiful face. She knelt in front of me, revealing a sword on her back, placing a curled fist on the ground.
“O’ Queen of the Spirits, by my name of Lumisara, a Holy Spirit, I hereby swear my allegiance to you, and you alone.”
An ethereal voice rang out, her lips not moving once but her voice loud. Looking at this person, I sensed something I had sensed from Maji and Greyback. This is a Spirit, and from what she said, a Holy Spirit.