Supreme Magus

Chapter 838 Battlefield Part 4

Gremlik lunged at Lith, who deflected the attack with Ruin that was now back into its bastard sword size while pivoting on his feet to use the opponentʼs momentum and move out of his trajectory.

ʼIf I took flight as well, I would have lost one breathʼs worth of Invigoration. I donʼt know when Iʼll get another opportunity to use it, so I must make this count.ʼ He thought.

ʼI strongly disagree.ʼ Solus replied. ʼThe Thrall was nothing compared to the real thing and Iʼve already told you why. In their mutated form, a Grendel becomes one with their blood core.

ʼThat guyʼs mana flow has fused with his life force with amazing effects. Sure, he canʼt use magic anymore, but his entire body is now made by mana and elemental energies.

ʼItʼs like your fusion magic, except that instead of infusing his body with the elements, he is now one with them. It explains a Grendelʼs resistance to magic and their lack of healing abilities.

ʼUndead have no light element to start with and now that the life force is mixed with mana, he canʼt rearrange his flesh to close a wound without undoing his transformation.

ʼTo keep the balance between the two forces, feeding is the only way he has to heal since it grants undead both nutrients and mana. He might be just a brute, but now his physical prowess is close to Faluelʼs.

ʼOne breath of Invigoration is not worth risking your life.ʼ

Lith was about to reply that he needed all the power he could gather when reality ended their argument. Gremlik managed to use Lithʼs sword as a fulcrum to change his direction.

His body moved as if it had no joints, freely rotating the hips in mid-air so that now his feet were touching the ground. It allowed his claws to dig deeply into the rock-hard wooden floor and perform a 180 in the Grendelʼs charge.

ʼDefinitely not worth it!ʼ Lith thought, noticing that even though he was stepping back, the creatureʼs fingers never left Ruin.

Lith had infused the blade with all the darkness magic he could, but the same element coursed through the Grendelʼs body, to the point that Gremlik could physically interact and repel darkness as if he was a living spell.

Wielding a sword was supposed to give him the range advantage, but between the length of his claws and arms, the undead had the upper hand nonetheless. Lith released a powerful tier three bolt of lightning and a Plague Arrow stored inside his rings.

ʼHe has had no way to dodge them from so up close without exposing himself to Ruin. No matter if he dodges or tanks them, I should get some space.ʼ Lith thought.

Yet Gremlik ignored both spells and swung his claws at the enemy, aiming at Lithʼs major arteries with surgical precision.

ʼThose spells were both charged up to the ringsʼ maximum capacity. How the heck is this possible?ʼ Lith was amazed seeing that his rings appeared to be useless.

ʼThe guy is a mass of living mana. If you donʼt hit him with more energy than that stored inside his body, the conflicting elements will simply nullify each other and he will take no damage.ʼ Solus said.

ʼThe bad news is that it makes him nigh-invulnerable to magic, the good news is that to do that, he has to consume his own mana so he canʼt last forever.ʼ

ʼAre you telling me that Grendels work like Silverwingʼs Hexagram?ʼ Lith asked.

ʼYes. He is no Awakened, so if you stop him from feeding, the time he can sustain his transformation gets reduced with each spell he takes.ʼ

Being three against one, Lith could now see a path to victory thanks to Solusʼs analysis. The problem was that he had no way to convey the message to his two allies. To make matters worse, the martial mastery that the Grendel had honed through the centuries required Lith to use his full focus just to not get ripped to shreds.

ʼIf only I knew spirit spells outside of cantrips, I could establish a mind link.ʼ

Meanwhile, Friya was cursing herself for choosing Javvok as her vacation spot. Dimensional magic was sealed and light magic would only strengthen the undead. The only specialization she had left was Mage Knight which was aimed at defense, not offense.

She was supposed to buy time for her allies to deal a critical blow, but amid the chaos of battle, she was alone against many. Luckily, she had activated Full Guard at the beginning of the combat, allowing her to dodge both incoming attacks and friendly fire.

She was used to either coordinate with her group or fight one on one, whereas now she was experiencing the chaos of war. Each time a spell missed its target, each time an attack was dodged, it might strike another enemy as well as an ally.

She was fighting a vampire Redcap, one of the most vicious combinations of plant and undead skills. Her opponent, Tyria, looked like a woman about 1.75 meters (5ʼ9”) tall, with green skin and arms almost as long as her legs.

A row of sharp fangs came out of her protruding jaw that together with long pointy ears and glowing red eyes made her look like something out of a nightmare. The red mass decorating her head was shaped like a red cap, but it was actually a bunch of vines filled to the brim with blood.

Tyria had filled herself before the fight, to exploit her double nature to its fullest. She could use that blood as a Redcap, drawing from it the skills and spells of her victims, or feed upon it as a vampire, securing herself extra juice in case of need.

She wielded a two-headed halberd that could be split in the middle, becoming two battle axes. Despite Tyriaʼs brutish appearance, Friya had never seen anyone moving with such grace.

She moved amid the ensuing chaos like a dancer on stage, using her weapon as a polearm whenever Friya managed to step back and as axes the moment she came too close or the space around them became too crowded.

The fight had started from barely a handful of seconds and yet Friya was already covered in cuts and bruises. If not for Lithʼs Skinwalker armor and Orionʼs weapon, she wouldnʼt have lasted that long.

ʼI can hold a bit longer, but if I keep being forced on the defensive, Iʼm dead. Not only can she Blink freely, but she will also never tire.ʼ Friya thought as she stepped back to relieve her conjured shield from the vampireʼs relentless onslaught.

She had waited for an opening, but her enemy was too experienced to fall for the tricks of someone so young.

Quylla was faring better than her sisters. She had been left behind in the lab, together with Professor Manohar in the case that things went south. To be extra safe, they had assigned her a bodyguard, Trouble the Balor

Lith had restored his body for his experiments, even forging for him a Gatekeeper so big that it resembled a steel slab. It was just a prototype, so it could channel only two elements, fire and darkness.

Lith had designed it to match two of the three eyes of the Balor. Yet it was Kalla the one controlling him.