Leon plummeted through the sky, his body wracked with the pain of broken bones, and the red giant’s hand pursuing him. His wrath for Maia’s pain was unabated, but his pain tempered him; he finally activated the invisibility ring around his ankle and in a moment vanished.

With all the raging magical energies of the battlefield, Leon’s invisibility didn’t last a single second before it began to unravel, but with his power flowing through him, he made good use of that time, spreading his wings and catching the air to propel him back into the fight.

With as much grace and deftness as his broken wing allowed, Leon slid around the red giant’s hand and shot straight at the steam mage, who had righted himself first and seemed in the process of reorienting himself to strike at Maia. The river nymph had reformed her water dragon body and gotten some distance, but eyed the fighting combatants hungrily, ice spreading across the surface of the dragon as she prepared herself for further violence.

As Leon’s invisibility was torn asunder by the raging ambient magic, he beat his wings one more time—swallowing his pain as he did—and extended his talons, which blazed with silver-blue lightning. He crashed into the steam mage from below, and for a brief moment, his lightning, powered by origin power, made him and the steam mage the brightest objects in the sky.

The steam mage screamed as Leon’s talons again wrapped around his torso and lightning danced across his body, but the armor he wore was strong, and Leon was unable to secure a decisive end to the man with this one attack. For a split second, Leon eyed the gash he’d left in the steam mage’s neck and contemplated a second strike, but the red giant had already swung around and was coming in for another strike, and Leon was not keen on being hit a second time.

So instead, he released the steam mage, who shouted in pain and frustration and shot off to the side, gaining distance from Leon.

Leon then tucked and rolled, dodging another strike from the red giant, but allowing it to pass close enough for him to bathe the watery limb in lightning. The red water boiled and the magic keeping it together sputtered. The limb began to rapidly lose its cohesion, but before Leon could notionally grin in triumph, the water droplets from the limb landed in his feathers and began to burn.

The added pain amped up rapidly, going from a mild burning sensation to a near nightmare in moments, and Leon let out an uncontrolled shriek and dove again to pick up speed and put a few hundred feet between himself and the red giant.

Above him, he could feel Maia’s anticipation, her bloodlust; she wanted to strike but had no opportunity. Leon, despite his fear for her safety, sent her a quick mental message. His speed was heavily impacted by his broken wing; he needed help if he was going to beat these two eleventh-tier mages.

Maia sent agreement and her now-ice dragon began to emit a greater degree of killing intent. Leon did his best to scowl then, hoping the increase in her aura didn’t tip off their opponents.

In a second, he also sent another message, this one directed inward. The fiery recipient was receptive to his plan and agreed.

And then Leon charged as the steam mage and the red giant more cautiously stuck close but refrained from additional attacks—their side was more numerous, and rather decisively so, so all they had to do was keep Leon from aiding his arks, and their jobs were done.

As Leon shot through the sky, booming thunder momentarily overpowered all other cataclysmically loud sounds from the battlefield while silver-blue lightning raged in the storm clouds above. Even the brilliant flashes of light from Eva seemed to dim slightly in the tempestuous wrath that Leon conjured from the heavens.

With inordinate wrath, Leon shot toward the steam mage. The man visibly steeled himself and braced, while conjuring from his soul realm a bladeless sword. In the fraction of a second it took Leon to draw close, this hilt-only sword suddenly conjured a blade of black ice that gave off a feeling of such dread that Leon almost instinctively ducked under his opponent to avoid getting anywhere near that weapon.

But with silver-blue lightning coursing through his veins, Leon kept a steady course, and hit the steam mage like a falling meteor, causing much of the sky to erupt as they briefly became the raging heart of the storm, giving off light that could undoubtedly be seen across the Nexus. Magic poured from both as they struggled for dominance, causing many of the nearby arks to wobble and be pushed back as they fought their own battle.

Leon felt a deep pain spring from his left talon as the steam mage plunged the blade of black ice into him, piercing clean through the golden scales of his legs. Some of the worst pain Leon had ever experienced burned through his mind, but he remained steady and kept to his plan, pulling on the thread connecting him to Xaphan.

Fire blossomed from his chest as he curled inward to bring the demon’s ingress point into the physical world closer to the steam mage. The steam mage’s eyes went wide as he held up a hand to fire off another jet of steam, but the attack was blocked by a torrent of dark red demonfire that seemed to swallow the steam mage whole.

Xaphan erupted from Leon like an ember from a campfire and collided with the steam mage, whom Leon promptly released. From behind Leon, Maia’s ice dragon came peeling down to join the fray, while Leon, leaving the steam mage to the two tenth-tier equivalent beings, refocused on the red giant.

Fortunately, the giant was so large and cumbersome that moving quickly—at least, at speeds that Leon would’ve considered quick—was impossible over such a short period. Still, Leon had to bury the pain from his broken wing and dodge a strike from the red giant, but as he tumbled out of the way of the thrown palm, water again sprang from the red giant and splashed over his feathers, burning all flesh it touched.

Again Leon shrieked, but he used the pain to focus his mind and conjure lightning from every feather of his body. This lightning arced into the sky where it created a thousand small bird-like creatures from his power, and Leon his order: hit the red giant.

These birds attacked and the red giant was unable to dodge, massive as it was. Lightning hit the red water, passing through and destabilizing the magic holding the giant together, and even crawling inward, closer to the Strategos within. Like grasping fingers, the arcs of lightning grazed the mage, and he screamed silently within his watery body.

A moment later, his magic clamped down hard on Leon’s power, and Leon’s lightning bolts were scattered. Still, Leon recognized that he’d come out better in the exchange.

‘We can do this,’ Leon thought through the pain and the anger. ‘We can hold them off, we can win…’

As if the universe were mocking him, as soon as the thought flashed through his mind, an ocean of power made itself known. This power rolled across the battlefield, dominating all before it. The surface of the red giant rippled as the power coursed over it, and Leon was hurled back, feeling like he’d been hit in the chest with the world’s largest hammer.

“Aggravating…” said a voice, smooth and baritone. “A single Ascended Beast presenting such trouble…”

From the enormous whale-like leading ark of the Ocean fleet came a mage with power that Leon couldn’t identify, and his heart sank. This mage was stronger than him, and all he could do was hope that this was a Despot rather than someone stronger. Regardless, now that such a powerful mage was entering the fray, the battle was essentially over.

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The mage in question was fair-skinned and lithe, though the dark blue, nearly black, armor he wore did wonders for his silhouette. A carefully ordered mop of blue-green hair sat atop his head, apparently unaffected by the storm that Leon had called, while his piercing blue eyes seemed like they were trying to burn holes in Leon with the intensity of his stare.

This mage charged forth, his aura seemingly as endless as all the oceans together, a passive smile upon his face. In his left hand appeared a shield of red, orange, yellow, and green coral, while in his right appeared a mace with a head as black as night. The feeling of sheer dread Leon got from simply looking at this mage’s weapon was an order of magnitude greater than the steam mage’s blade of black ice, though still clearly related.

Leon clicked his beak in displeasure even as unending frustration and despair started to set in. His will to fight remained, however, and he summoned his power and prepared to face this new threat.

At the same time, he could sense the retreat of his forces. They’d acquitted themselves well, but their losses were mounting and with the appearance of a twelfth-or-higher-tier mage, the battle was over. It was time to cut their losses and fall back.

Leon released his power, filling the air with lightning in all directions, doing what he could to prevent the enemy mages from closing the distance with him while also providing as much cover as he could to his retreating arks. His lightning arced from him in quantities greater than almost ever before, striking enemy arks, fighters, and all else. However, barely a second into his attack, the head of an enormous green serpent stuck out from the waiting tsunami off the coast, a pale yellow crystal set in its forehead. The crystal glowed, and all of Leon’s lightning was drawn to it instead. Scales split atop the serpent’s head, spilling black ichorous blood, and it pulled back into the water, but its crystal now glowed more brightly, and its baleful eyes tracked Leon’s position.

Out of an abundance of caution, Leon let up on the torrent of lightning, noting that Xaphan and Maia had at least used it to beat feet, though that left him nearly surrounded by the red giant, the steam mage, and the oncoming newcomer.

“Cease your vain struggle, beast!” the newcomer shouted as Leon shot upward, hoping to curve around the steam mage between him and the mountains. “No one being, no matter how strong, can hold back the ocean entire!”

As the steam mage moved to intercept, Leon let loose an avian growl and blasted him back with a burst of lightning, unwilling to let the man’s black ice blade come close again.

However, the brief delay in his retreat to make his attack cost him, and the newcomer fell upon him. From above, he appeared with his black mace held aloft, and crashed into Leon’s back.

Pain unlike anything Leon had felt since Arkhnavi shot through his body, causing his muscles to seize and his body to plummet. His mind reeled from the pain, his usual tolerance for it seemingly of no help.

“For your arrogance,” the newcomer said as he fell with Leon and wound up another strike, “you shall fall to the Midnight Deep, never to surface…”

A second strike to Leon’s chest split flesh and shattered bone, and Leon let loose with a blood-curdling shriek. He continued to fall, any thoughts in his mind broken by the power of the mace.

“By the hand of Terris, monster, shall you meet your end,” the newcomer intoned. “Now… be silent!”

A third strike came rocketing down, but a stone the size of Terris’ head came hurtling in so quickly that even the Despot had to pivot away to defend himself. The stone exploded into a cloud of sand that formed a whirling shield, separating Terris from Leon.

Terris grimaced in displeasure and conjured a hundred blades of ice that shot into the sand, breaking up the magic and dissipating it into the gale that surrounded them.

In those brief seconds before he did so, Anastasios, who’d launched the stone, and Eva had darted in, catching Leon. Eva’s power covered Leon, glittering light settling amidst his feathers like stars, alleviating pain and mending wounds. Bearing Leon, they retreated with all the speed they had, but as the sand cleared behind them, Terris scowled, while the red giant and the steam mage fell in beside him.

“After them,” Terris ordered, and he jetted after them while the steam mage struggled to keep up and the red giant lumbered as quickly as he could in their wake.

In but a moment, Terris nearly caught up with Anastasios, Eva, and Leon, but Anastasios conjured a hundred shields of stone between them, each thicker than the last. Eva kept healing Leon, and as he regained his lucidity, Leon added bolts from above to cover their retreat.

None of it was that effective against their pursuer, who smashed through the shields with his black mace and took Leon’s lightning upon the face of his coral shield, but it slowed him enough that he didn’t gain much distance in his pursuit. Still, the southern Talon was miles away, and Leon’s people were still retreating into the misty veil, the Ocean forces in hot pursuit.

So, Leon did what he could, letting loose with all the power that his blood bestowed upon him over the weather. Lightning fell like rain, the wind roared around them and further bore them through the air, and cracking thunder shook the earth below.

The red giant bore much of Leon’s desperate power, and the red water of its body began to boil and dissipate, compromising the water mage’s ability to pursue. The steam mage fared a little better, but the shield of white steam he conjured to protect himself, while able to largely disperse Leon’s lightning, also impaired his speed.

Terris, on the other hand, kept moving, as if he were the tide and Leon were attempting to erect a wall of sand to stop his coming.

A grim thought ran through Leon’s head as he attempted to evaluate how well he, Anastasios, and Eva could fight against Terris with their powers combined. It seemed like his two compatriots had come out somewhat worse for wear from their own duels, though that they were here at all spoke volumes about how those duels went. If they turned and fought, then there might be a chance…

A cloud of fire bats suddenly shot in from above, courtesy of Xaphan, accompanied by a dozen of Maia’s water dragons that bit and snapped at Terris. A lance of light came in from another direction, as well as a speeding cloud of razor-sharp ice crystals—Valeria and Cassandra had come, too.

A sphere of water appeared around Terris for a moment, then shot out, drowning all of their attacks, but finally causing him to stop. Leon doubled down on his lightning, now fully concentrating on Terris, while Anastasios conjured a hundred-foot-thick pillar of granite from the ground far below, interposing it between them and the Despot.

Not much, but even an extra second could make the difference; Leon wasn’t going to complain.

Maia and Xaphan fell in beside Eva, while Cassandra and Valeria flew next to Anastasios, all of their powers joining together to speed their group as far from Terris as they could get.

They didn’t manage to get far before Anastasios’ pillar was practically swatted aside by the largest hand of red water Leon had yet seen, bringing the colossal structure down. Terris shot forth from behind, his aura now more a dense cloud of killing intent than magic power.

Power from Leon and all around him shot back to cover themselves, but as they moved, Lance shots began speeding through the air around them—most of Leon’s surviving forces had retreated beyond the mist, so Terris’ arks were now freer target them instead, which they did.

One of Leon’s carriers, alongside one of his heavy cruisers, noticed their predicament and turned from their retreat. Lances fired on both sides, and two Ocean frigates were struck down, drawing Lance fire from the Ocean fleet toward Leon’s arks, and away from Leon’s group.

Gratitude, disbelief, and desperation ran through Leon’s mind. Were he in his human form, he would’ve shouted himself hoarse for the arks to just keep going, to get back beyond the mist. As he was, he was only able to cry out, his avian voice echoing across the battlefield, as Lance fire struck the carrier and heavy cruiser.

Explosions rippled across the surfaces of the arks, but enough space had been bought for Leon’s group to slip under the carrier and into the mist. Terris was forced back as the carrier exploded in brilliant fashion, the power contained not only within the ark’s storm crystals but also from the thunder wood in its superstructure ensuring that it almost completely turned to dust, along with all those within.

The heavy cruiser wasn’t quite so dramatic, its engines failing and causing it to fall. Terris, having been thrown back but left otherwise unaffected by the destruction of Leon’s carrier, watched dispassionately as the heavy cruiser bit the earth and there exploded. This explosion wasn’t from battle damage, though, which was apparent enough. This one was a deliberate choice, meant to deny hopes of salvage from the winners of the battle.

Scattered around the battlefield lay the wrecks of many other arks, each side having badly savaged the other.

Of the arks that Leon had before the battle, half now burned upon the ground, along with at least a third of the MALLs. An equal number of Ocean arks had been downed, too, but Terris could afford those losses, and the Despot ordered them to push forward.

The mist enshrouding the mountains would be no obstacle, he was sure…