Supreme Magus

Chapter 4335: Turning Tides (Part 1)

The evasive maneuver bought Protector only a split second, since all Spirit Spells were imbued with the willpower of their caster and relentlessly chased their target. Protector was now two against one, the Titania and the emerald pillar of Bonegrinder keeping themselves on opposite sides to restrict his movements.

He answered to the two-pronged attack with two tier five Spirit Spells, Phoenix Smash. The first burst of emerald flames clashed against Bonegrinder, and the two spells cancelled each other.

The second Phoenix Smash, instead, was infused with all the Vital Storm Protector had left and aimed at the Titania’s left fist. The mystical fire conjured by spirit magic burned through metal and flesh alike, engulfing Feryl’s hand.

After becoming an Upyr, the Titania had gained the mass of a Divine Beast, but she had kept her original size not to offer the golems an easy target. Moreover, her old Fae equipment wouldn’t cover a single claw of her Upyr form.

Phoenix Smash devoured Feryl’s wrist and fingers, working its way toward the palm. The Titania screamed in pain as death reverted her body into a beautiful rose, and a Soldier Golem shot Protector in the back.

’Shit! I’m isolated and surrounded. I focused so much on the Upyr that I left the safe area without noticing. Now that I don’t have Vital Storm, I can’t dodge all the Golems’ blasts!’ He thought.

Meanwhile, Solus scrambled for her life.

She was nowhere as fast as Protector, and she had yet to learn how to use a single one of her human bloodline abilities. If not for the nine copies of the Fury orbiting her and the Spirit Barrier of her armor blocking the Fae’s attack, she would have already been beaten into a pulp.

”Are all Demons this weak, or is it just you?” The Firbolg-Upyr asked. ”I was afraid you were another of the Verhens who had Awakened a bloodline as strong as a Tiamat, but clearly I was wrong!”

His body coursed with Life Maelstrom, and every time his Adamant morning star hit, the Thunder Soul would send a Fury crashing deep into the ground and fill her Spirit Barrier with cracks.

”Said someone who wouldn’t amount to shit without borrowed bloodline abilities!” Solus retorted. ”Even I don’t know how to call myself yet, but at least this is all me. Are Firbolgs so pathetic that you needed to sell yourself to the Incontinent King for power?”

Fae were power-hungry, but prideful creatures, so her words cut deep.

”I don’t follow that loser anymore! I’m one of the Stormlord’s elite now!” Gilghor roared.

”You look like an Upyr to me, Incontinent Boy. Here, my treat!” Her comment cut even deeper, but the final blow was Elysia’s dirty cloth diaper that Solus threw at the Firbolg’s face.

Gulgurth bellowed in fury and activated his Firbolg bloodline ability, Unbridled Growth. Weeds, flowers, and even trees grew at a speed visible to the naked eye and came rushing at Solus like a green tide.

The rising vegetation slowed her enough for the Firbolg to catch up with her and break past her defenses.

”You’re mine now!” The Sage Staff blocked his morning star, but Thunder Souls hurt both the Yggdrasill wood and its wielder. ”I shall enjoy killing you much more than I should!”

”The pleasure is all mine!” Solus’ human mana organs were still atrophied, but her lungs and heart worked just fine.

She released a blast of Void Flames from all over her body as she grabbed the Firbolg, burning the Life Maelstrom that empowered him. The Blight Flames erupted from her throat next, and blew Gilghor’s head open.

”Still alive? Not for long!” She said after witnessing bones and veins growing out of the cauterized wound on the neck.

The Fae had nothing left but his natural abilities, whereas Solus had the Vital Storm and the extra mass of the tower.

She furled her wings around the eight copies of the Furies and then flapped them with all of her considerable strength, turning the Davross hammers into small meteors.

The Furies’ Flight enchantment put the final nail in the Firbolg’s coffin. The gravity field that shrouded the hammers and the fire and darkness crystals multiplied the already considerable destructive power of the Furies by several folds.

Solus needed only six hammers to blow away Gilghor’s limbs and destroy his Root. She sent the other two flying across the battlefield to push back the Golems’ advance.

”I admit you are much stronger than I am, even without the Life Maelstrom.” Nalrond said while conjuring one hard-light construct after another. ”Too bad this isn’t an arm-wrestling contest.”

The Agni was slower and his mass much smaller than his opponent’s, but neither meant much since he didn’t even try to get close to the Sphinx-Upyr. Each one of Shadowbane’s facets manipulated a different construct, altering its size, density, and repairing it when necessary.

Whenever the Sphinx’s mighty Adamant claws hit a construct, it turned into a thick, viscous substance as soft as a pillow. The impact slowed the attack enough for the nearest construct to intercept Rasha’s claws as well and sap more of its momentum.

To make matters worse, the soft-light blobs didn’t disperse on impact. They stuck to the Sphinx’s body and limbs in the form of pools of light that constantly formed elastic tendrils between them.

Life Maelstrom made the Sphinx so strong that she could effortlessly crush a single tendril, but there were dozens of them, and more kept forming with each passing second.

Rasha felt as if she were swimming against a current, and no matter how many constructs she shattered, Nalrond sent new ones crashing against her.

The Agni had no qualms about also throwing Golems at her or unleashing focused heat rays at her vitals whenever she stumbled because of a particularly thick bundle of light tendrils.

”Stop running, you coward!” She imbued part of the Life Maelstrom in her legs for a sprint and the rest in her weapon to kill the annoying pest in one blow.

”Make me.” Nalrond focused Vital Storm in his eyes, ears, and legs to amplify both his natural and mystical senses.

The moment Earth Vision relayed to him the violence of the impact of paws against rock and Full Guard read Rasha’s trajectory, the Agni recalled the dozens of constructs that floated in a defensive formation around him.

Shadowbane absorbed the mana Nalrond had infused them with, making the constructs’ mass its own. Shields, spears, and buzzsaws merged into a colossal blade that used the Crystal sword as its framework.

The facets along Shadowbane’s surface created a complex network of rivets that redistributed the weight and supported the hard-light’s mass from the inside like a skeleton, enhancing its structural integrity.

Rasha was already jumping forward when she noticed the beam of light coming at her. Except it was no beam, but a several-hundred-kilo heavy blade on which her own change impaled her.

Nalrond emitted the tier four Spirit Magic Spell, Piercing Star, from the construct, detonating the Sphinx from the inside.

’I did it!’ Nalrond clenched Shadowbane, struggling to believe his own eyes. ’I defeated a Divine Beast by myself.’

”A little help here!” Morok’s yell cut the Agni’s joy short and drew everyone’s attention to him.