Breaking Through The Centre

Two of the elders who were good at melee rushed forward to intercept Richard, giving the others time to break the encirclement of vines and open up a path for reinforcements. Richard had just landed and couldn’t stand up in time, so they took the opportunity to strike.

However, the foremost elder only saw Richard open his mouth before the air seemed to distort. Dark red flames blew out in a cone, abyssal flames burning both elders as well as the few other melee fighters left on the platform. One of the druids who didn’t escape in time was burnt into a crisp as well, his own body and mana becoming fuel for the fire.

Many of the druids who were casting spells slowed down from pure fear, almost losing control of their spells. However, Richard didn’t take the chance to retreat as he instead flew thirty metres into the air, his arms spread wide and launching a rain of lightning, ice, wind, and fire down on the enemy. Manacycle was pushed to the extreme, stacking multiple spells on top of each other for extreme destructive power.

More than a dozen of the elders shot their spells towards him, but each attack was met with one of Richard’s own. Everything collided right in the centre, the different streams of energy exploding with no use.

The elves who saw this could hardly believe their eyes. A single human was taking on more than a dozen grand druids evenly! Was this person in the legendary realm?

Of course, Richard himself knew that he wasn’t taking on the druids evenly. Blaze and Manacycle just granted him the ability to pour out much more mana than almost anyone else at his level, but his mana pool itself was limited. In only two more volleys he would be drained dry. The first exchange of attacks ended in an explosive stalemate, but the sharper druids had already started preparing their next spells.

It was at this time that the platform shook violently, knocking most of the spellcasting elders down and interrupting them. A mountainous figure had just slammed down from above, the wood cracking under his feet to leak green fluid. Another small figure followed behind, but this one shot right through and to the platform below.

Tiramisu jumped up the moment he landed, turning around to look for Mountainsea whose entrance was supposed to be even grander than his, but all he could find was a hole. With Eleventon and her special vambrace her weight exceeded even his; given her smaller size, she broke through the wood entirely.

Richard flew down the moment Tiramisu arrived, placing a hand on the wood and lighting the platform aflame. A line of fire quickly spread towards the elders, fireballs the size of fists constantly jumping out from within. The treehouse on the platform was smashed apart, finally revealing the black-robed man within.

Richard stared fixedly at the black-robed man as he drew Moonlight from the sword case, hands already bright red as though stained with blood. The fires on the ground suddenly erupted into walls on either side, isolating the two from the rest of the battlefield. The sheer heat of the flames left the elves reluctant to assist, not that they would have been eager even otherwise; given the time to engage, Richard rushed over to the enemy even as he shot a fireball out.

The black-robed man squatted low, hands stretching out as black flames spewed forth to counter the attack. Both fires crashed and actually combined in his hands, turning into a huge orb of flames that was right before the man’s hands.  Just as he was about to shoot this combined flame back, however, the man saw Richard’s figure blur from ten metres away.

Richard took an instant to travel all ten metres, left fist crashing right into the mixed flames. The barely-stable flames immediately exploded, swallowing both the black-robed man and Richard himself. Richard’s epic-grade robes were burnt to ash, as were those of the enemy to reveal a humanoid with the head of a goat.

The explosion forced the two to separate, but Richard only took two steps back before stopping and lifting Moonlight into the air. The red colour of Lifesbane even extended to the blade itself, and everyone seemed to see a red moon in the sky.

The goat-headed monster saw Moonlight and screamed hysterically as it tried to step back, but Richard flashed over in a single step and cut it apart vertically. It immediately froze in place as Richard withdrew his blade, the blood-like colour already vanishing from both blade and arms.

The enemy must have been powerful in his own right, but there was no way to show it. Richard had pushed Lifsebane to its limits and activated Disintegrator, merging with it the power of the crimson moon. This single strike wiped out all of his reserved energy, mana, and moonforce. 

Nobody else saw the sheer power of it at first; the goat-headed man still remained standing in place. Many of the elves exclaimed at the sight, but one of the elders gritted her teeth and shot a grade 9 spell in Richard’s direction. The attack drained so much that she coughed up blood, but just as it was about to land Waterflower flashed out from somewhere and pulled Richard out of the way. The powerful spell, almost an orb of pure mana, flew right past their scalps and destroyed a nearby tree.

Waterflower immediately picked Richard up, leaping towards the astral chrysalis for safety. He had exhausted himself, but there were still many enemies who wanted his life.

Richard looked down, only to see the goat-headed monster still standing there, eyes burning with unwillingness. The moment their gazes met, he felt a scream in his mind: “MY MASTER WILL AVENGE ME!”

In the next moment, the body crumpled to the ground. The attack hadn’t been a physical one, instead crushing the very soul. Richard shook his head; if he didn’t know that he had cut through the enemy’s existence completely, he might even believe this thing was still alive.

Many other elders quickly came back to their minds, aiming their spells at Waterflower and Richard. However, Phaser silently appeared behind one of them and slit his throat with Annihilation. This was the elder who had just launched the grade 9 spell; unable to move from the exertion, he could do nothing to avoid his death.

A pale gold glow suddenly covered the entire platform, space seemingly distorting within range. The elven elders suddenly found themselves losing control of the spells they were forming, the mana growing so chaotic that it threatened to explode. The elves were horrified at the thought; such a large number of high-level spells exploding would destroy the platform and anyone on it, but try as they might they continued to lose control.

These druids were all experienced. Left with no choice, they forcefully cancelled their spells. Forcing such amounts of mana back into one’s body was bound to cause injuries as well, but that was much better than near-certain death.

The golden curtain only lasted a few seconds before it was gone, but Noelene sighed in relief as she fell back onto the astral chrysalis. This was one of the Church’s strongest techniques in dealing against spellcasters; distortions in time were a fatal blow to such delicate arts as spellcasting. It had been draining, but Waterflower and Richard made it back to the chrysalis safe and sound.

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