TBATE Volume 7

by Divergence (epub)

  A sharp influx of mana behind me snapped at my attention. Immediately, I whirled around, conjuring a dome-shaped barrier of ice. Not a second later, sharp cracks resounded, cutting through the howling wind as black spikes embedded themselves onto the ice barrier before it shattered. 

  I utilized the dense clouds below us to fuel another frost barrier but the barrage of black spikes continued unceasingly. 

  Sylv. Dip lower into the clouds, I conveyed while manipulating the dense clouds to cover our movements. 

  ‘Got it. We’re almost at Telmore City,’ my bond informed.

  We picked up speed during our descent, giving me enough time to prepare an attack. Unable to use lightning effectively because of the abundance of moisture around us, I readied a barrage of ice shards in the general direction of the approaching Alacryan, adding a deadly spin and boost in speed using wind magic as well. 

  My spell tore through asunder, punching dozens of holes through the clouds. My confidence wavered as I spotted the black dot approaching, unabated by my attack. 

  Soon after, the black dot multiplied and I found myself facing another two dozen black spikes the size of spears. 

  Faster! I snapped, unwilling to waste any more mana right now when a battle on the ground seemed inevitable. At this point, I could only pray that there wasn’t another retainer or scythe waiting for us by the teleportation gate. 

  Finally, after speeding down through an endless visage of murky gray, we burst through the cloud floor. Below, the city of Telmore exploded into view, its buildings and the surface they were built on fast approaching.

  Even with the wind magic I had cast around us, Madam Astera and Nyphia had to clutch tightly around Sylvia’s back spine to keep from falling off. 

  ‘Arthur! Help me with the landing!’ Sylvie pleaded as we approached the paved clearing in the middle of Telmore City. My gaze shifted back and forth between the approaching black spears and the ground, my ears popping from the change in pressure. 

  “Hold on!” I roared as I ignited Realmheart and cast a powerful updraft just in time for Sylvie to spread her wings. 

  Simultaneously, I cast another barrier of ice over us as the black spears began raining down. The spears were different this time though—they burned right through the ice barrier. 

  “Damn it,” I cursed. Curling my hand into a fist, I dispelled the frozen barrier over us, shattering it before using the same updraft I had conjured to slow our descent to redirect at least some of the black spears. 

  Just how much mana does that retainer have to constantly churn out spells like this? I wondered in frustration as we neared the ground. 

  I could barely make out the screams and shouts from the people below as they scattered below us. 

  Suddenly, Sylvie let out a cry and we jerked to the left. 

  ‘I was struck on my right wing,’ Sylvie sent painfully as we started spiraling out of control. 

  It took a few minutes for Sylvie to be able to coat her wing in mana and slowly close her wound before she regained control. The problem now was being able to slow down our descent fast enough to land safely instead of crashing like a meteor. 

  With my attention split between creating the updraft as well as fighting off the scores of black spears that didn’t seem to be stopping, however, I couldn’t help but prepare for the worst. 

  We plummeted down, Sylvie’s wings spread wide to catch as much of my updraft as possible. 

  Just as my fears were about to come true, a green light emanated from around me. 

  I spared just a glance back to see Tess awake and back up on her feet. 

  The light had spread from Tess and onto Sylvie as green translucent tendrils of mana shot out from underneath my bond, embedding themselves into the ground and buildings around us. 

  Most of the translucent vines ripped apart as they tried to counter the speed of our fall, but I could feel us slowing down. 

  Trusting Sylvie and Tess to handle the fall, I focused my attention back to the approaching Alacryan speeding towards us like an ebony comet.  

  Utilizing both fire and water, I conjured a blast of thick steam towards our enemy in order to obscure his vision before releasing an arc of lightning. The blast of steam served as a powerful conductor for the lightning, creating a lightning-cloud that lit up the darkening sky in brilliant flashes of gold.  

  At the last moment, Sylvie cast a barrier of mana around us, and with Tess’ beast will slowing our fall, we were able to land on the ground without a scratch. 

  “Let’s go!” I snapped, picking Nyphia up by her waist as Tess and Madam Astera hopped off of Sylvie. 

  I glanced down at Madam Astera’s right ankle. She had enveloped a thick layer of mana just around the wound to keep it from bleeding. It was only a temporary solution but a smart choice with how little time we had. 

  “I-I can run!” Nyphia said, her face red froms she struggled underneath my arm.

  “Good.” I let her go and we all began racing towards the podium only a few hundred feet east with Tess and Madam Astera leading the way. 

  Sylvie changed into her human form and followed closely behind me when Tess suddenly looked back at me over her shoulder. 

  It was only for a split second and no verbal exchange happened but the expression she made as she looked at me lingered. 

  With our mana-clad bodies, we quickly approached our destination, but so had our enemies. There were Alacryan soldiers lined up in rows between us and the teleportation gate, but they weren’t the reason that every hair on my body stood on its end. 

  I glanced back to see a black fire burning away at the lightning cloud and a figure merely standing on the ground where we had landed. 

  My eyes widened at the sight of the same power as that scythe I had fought against in the Castle.

  With Realmheart still active, I could see the horrifying amount of mana coagulating, not just around him, but on the ground below us as well. 

  My mind whirled as I debated whether to risk using Static Void once more. Encompassing our entire group long enough for us to make it to the portal without the help of mana would take a minute, maybe more. 

  My gaze landed on Nyphia and Madam Astera. Could I abandon these two and lessen the burden? 

  “Arthur!” Sylvie shouted, urging me to do something—anything. 

  I cursed under my breath and decided. 

  I used Static Void… only on myself. I whirled back, digging my heels into the ground and dashing back to where the Alacryan was preparing his devastating attack, hoping to withdraw Static Void in front of him and dispel his magic. 

  But as I got close enough to make out who my opponent was, my concentration wavered and Static Void shattered out of existence. 

  There was a look of surprise at my sudden appearance just a few yards away from him, but his lips curved into a smirk. 

  His arms lowered but the umbral energy still swirled around his hands as Elijah greeted me. “Long time no see, my dear old friend…Grey.” 

   

  Chapter 247: Not Alone

  Air seized in my chest as I struggled to process what was going on. Elijah, who had been taken by Draneeve during the invasion of Xyrus Academy, was alive and standing in front of me. 

  “Elijah? W-What’s going on? How are you…” my voice trailed off as the two of us exchanged gazes. The expression he held was tense and he looked older for some reason. He was definitely Elijah, but everything about him seemed just a little off. 

  With a sneer, Elijah leaped back, his arms swirling with a black aura. 

  I responded in turn, igniting Realmheart Physique to its fullest extent. I needed to. Just from what he showed me, his spell formations were almost instant. If I was going to get out of this alive, I needed to know where and how h
is spells were going to form beforehand. 

  I could see my bangs turn white while golden runes began pulsating on my skin. As the otherworldly power of an asura coursed through my veins, I felt myself calming down—becoming more detached—as a cool blanket draped over my mind. 

  With a thought, I withdrew the only sword I had left in my dimension ring—the remaining sword of the pair that Senyir, Trodius’ daughter, gave to me. 

  The golden sword slid out of its scabbard with a soft hum. Tightening my grip around its handle, I faced Elijah, a whirlwind of ash-like mana converging around his hands, ready to be unleashed. 

  I need to stop him. I’ll pry the answers out of him after that.

  I dashed forward, closing the gap between us in three steps. I aimed for his midsection but a black spike erupted from the ground between us, parrying my swing. 

  “Why are you doing this, Elijah?” I seethed, repositioning myself. I didn’t let him rest. The physical training I had done with Kordri kicked in. My feet blurred in a series of complicated footwork maneuvers designed for sharp directional changes. 

  “After what you’ve taken away from me, don’t you feel bad asking me that, Grey?” Elijah replied, voice laced with anger. 

  His eyes couldn’t keep up but the spikes that could be conjured from thin air and even faster from the ground seemed more like an automatic defense system rather than a willful conjuring. 

  Meanwhile Elijah continued to try and back away, his face tense but controlled as he continued preparing his spell. 

  I could see through Realmheart the form that this massive spell would take, pressuring me to move faster and hit harder. My initial plan was to confront him in close combat in order to conserve my mana and to exploit his weakness, but as our clash went on, I had the feeling more and more that it wouldn’t be as easy as it had been in my head. 

  Even while integrating elemental magic into my blade, the black flames swirling around his hands ate away and even got larger after consuming my attacks. I was able to slice through the black spikes that seemed to endlessly conjure and protect their master, but not without my blade sustaining damage as well. 

  With a blast of black fire, Elijah propelled himself back, putting distance between the two of us as I quickly discarded my outer robe, which caught on fire. 

  In that short span of time, a trail of the ash-like mana accumulated in a path from where Elijah now stood, all the way to the portal. Tess, Sylvie and everyone else all stood in that path.

  Sylvie, I called out in my mind, sharing with her the path of Elijah’s spell. With a mental nod of confirmation, I turned my attention back to my friend. 

  “Damn it, Elijah,” I whispered. Dropping the steel scabbard on the ground, I imbued more mana and swung the sword at Elijah.  

  Not a sound was made as the blade sliced through the air, but the effects were shown immediately. Dozens of thin paths carved themselves like intertwining snakes on the ground as a flurry of crescents honed in on my old friend. 

  Elijah finished his attack prematurely. His spell was three-part—the first part made the ground crack and crumble, the second part raised chunks of the ground into the air, and the third part…

  Thrusting his palms forward, Elijah unleashed a score of obsidian spikes from the ground and from the large chunks of stone floating in the air. Like the inside of a large tunnelworm’s mouth, rows and rows of sharp fangs shot out, tearing apart my spell. 

  Receiving a mental signal from Sylvia telling me that the three of them were at a safe distance away, I concentrated ahead. 

  Realmheart allowed me to see the locations where the spikes would shoot out from and even how large they were before the spikes even manifested. 

  I took a sharp breath, as electricity filled my body, stimulating and forcibly enhancing my reflexes. I tuned everything out and focused solely on the path leading me to my opponent. 

  Now.

  Blood pumped through my limbs and the muscles in my legs and core tensed. I pushed off with my feet, feeling the paved ground beneath crumbling from the force. 

  I shot forward, trusting my body and instincts to take me to the exact location I wished. 

  Like a well-orchestrated performance, a black spike shot out from the ground just where my feet were, giving me another foothold to push off from. 

  Despite the seemingly random pattern that the black spears exploded out from the ground like deadly pistons, I was always at the right place at the right time. 

  I weaved through the jungle of black fangs as more and more spikes shot out in all directions before nearing Elijah. 

  Stabbing my golden blade forward, I released an arc of lightning that glowed black under the influence of Realmheart Physique. 

  Three black horns jutted in front of Elijah, conducting and redirecting the blast of lightning. The black tendrils of electricity spiraled down the thick black spikes that Elijah had conjured, destroying the ground. 

  Elijah’s lips quivered in a snarl as mana gathered around his lower face. A black fire roared to life from his mouth as he bellowed like a dragon. 

  The hellfire grew stronger as it approached, consuming the black spikes as fuel.

  Under the influence of Realmheart, I stayed calm, calculating the best possible scenario out of this. 

  The cold whisper in my mind told me to activate Static Void, to close the distance and finish it cleanly from behind. I almost listened—even if I couldn’t land a killing blow, I could injure him heavily enough to change the tide of battle. 

  But Sylvie’s voice pierced through. 

  ‘Block the attack or the teleportation gate is going to be destroyed! We can’t afford to travel to another one!’ Sylvie screamed.

  Sharing our thoughts, I could sense Sylvie shifting back into her draconic form while Tess, Madam Astera and Nyphia fought off the remaining Alacryan soldiers. 

  Trusting her, I held my ground and released Thunderclap Impulse. The tinge of electricity around my body faded and I devoted my mana into my next attack. 

  I held my sword close to my body with its tip pointed at the approaching fire. A white fire ignited on the blade, shining brightly like liquid pearl as I imbued more and more of my internal mana as well as manipulated the mana around me to fuel my attack. 

  During this time, a concentrated blast of pure mana shot out from behind me, enveloping Elijah completely and creating another crater.

  With the spell interrupted, the size of the hellblaze stayed constant, but continued its fast approach.

  Gathering more and more power into my spell, I waited until the last moment before thrusting my sword forward, releasing the white flame that had covered my clothes in a layer of frost and had frozen the ground around me. 

  A swirling cone of white frostfire ripped out of my sword and clashed against the raging black inferno.

  A shockwave of force as my spell continued to drill through the black fire pushed me back on my feet even as I used wind magic to keep me steady. The golden blade of my sword shattered from the stress of conjuring the spell, but the two spells managed to cancel each other out. 

  Is everyone okay? I asked my bond. 

  ‘Yes. No one was hurt…on our side.’

  Confused by her words, I glanced back to see the scope of damage from Elijah’s spell. The black fire wasn’t able to reach past me, but the spikes made it all the way to where the teleportation gate was. 

  Even more horrible were the bodies of Alacryan soldiers that were guarding the gate stuck on the black spikes. 

  I didn’t have time to dwell on them. 

  Can you guys reach the portal? I asked. 

  ‘No. I can break the black spikes but even then, it’ll take some time to make it to where the portal was buried.’

  As I cursed under my breath, my mind spun tryin
g to make sense of everything and—more importantly—getting Sylvie, Tess, Madam Astera, and Nyphia out of here. 

  If I shot out a spell powerful enough to clear the forest of black spikes, I would also destroy the teleportation gate, but I also couldn’t just wait for more Alacryans—perhaps even a retainer or scythe—to come while we tried to fish the gate out. 

  Suddenly, a blast of black fire exploded into view from the crater where Elijah was. 

  With a hand clad in frostfire, I parried the sphere of hellfire, only for it to hit and bring down an entire building nearby. The fire ate away at the structure, growing bigger until everything was consumed. 

  Elijah walked out of the crater, unharmed. 

  “Who are you?” I asked, remembering what his first words to me were.

  The corner of Elijah’s lips curled into a sneer. “You’re smarter than that. I guess the years of living comfortably in this world have made you soft.” 

  Elijah lifted his hands, but before his spell could manifest, I was already within arm’s length of his face. 

  Weaponless, I swung my fist down, wind spiraling from the speed of my punch. Another black spike jutted out to protect Elijah’s face from my blow but I didn’t stop. 

  With wind speeding my swing and pure mana strengthening the force of my blow, I crushed through the damned spike and landed the punch right on Elijah’s jaw. 

  The sound of crashing thunder resounded from the impact of my blow and Elijah’s body was buried into the ground. 

  “You’re not Elijah so I’m going to ask this one more time. Who the hell are you?” 

  Elijah stood back up from the hole his body had created in the ground. His jaw had been shattered and most of his teeth were gone but as a smoky black ember burned through his face, the injuries he had sustained were recovering. 

  Of course he has regenerative abilities, I thought, grimacing at the radiating pain stemming from the knuckles I had fractured from punching through the black spike. 

  My frustration grew as I saw scores of Alacryan soldiers rushing towards us from both sides. If things progressed like this, I’d have to fight hundreds of soldiers as well as Elijah.