Hearing that single word, all the mages in front of her started to rush out of the forest. Entering a grass field she found a hill a bit further up ahead with the enemies on top of them. Two stood up right while another sat down.
Suddenly a wave of willpower covered all of them. "Huh?", Elara was confused, willpower was needed to control spells and could be used to inspect things from far away, but this wave wasn't a wave. It was a dome of willpower that didn't go away. Normally, spreading one's mind so wide would risk losing focus—but one movement shattered that logic.
A neatly dressed man with dark blue hair simply pointed in their direction, specifically towards her. Snapping his fingers two large walls of Pure Mana appeared to separate her group from the rest, but he wasn't done.
Pressing his hand down in the air, two massive arrays appeared on the hill. From the arrays hundreds of arrows made from Pure Mana shot out to the groups on the other side of the wall.
Elara was scared for a moment, it felt like the trio had everything prepared. She knew from Valric that they were dealing with a perfectionist, so this was only expected. Still, her heart raced as she wondered why she of all people was being targeted.
'Why did he single me out?'
But what made her even more nervous was the fact that the man who was sitting down, slowly got up. His golden hair, his confident demeanor while faced with all of these forces. She felt a certain pressure from him that made all the alarm bells in her mind go off.
Raising his arms, two large balls of stone were formed. Swinging his arms forward, the massive earthen spheres shot towards the group. What was strange was the fact that the ball didn't seem all that compressed. Rocks and pieces of dirt fell off while it was flung towards them.
'If we don't take care of that we'll get hit by debris!'
Elara looked towards the strongest members as they hurriedly cast their Darkness spells to remove the attack completely from the battlefield. The front members weren't even focussing on the attack as they kept their eyes locked with the oncoming combatant.
They were a functional team on their own. Having gone through plenty of missions, experience had forged them into battle-hardened soldiers, capable of holding plenty of fights on their own. Sadly, that would've worked out had they not been up against a terribly powerful duo.
The frontmen held out their staves, conjuring up their standardized spells learnt during their time in the army. These spells built on top of one another. Being with five, each spell brought its own attack, but in unison they forged a tactic sharp and brutal in its simplicity
The first used a spell to cover the ground in front of them in ice, making anyone stepping onto it entrapped by it. The second conjured a basic Fire Wave spell that was aimed slightly upwards, mostly aimed at the upper body, making the open air a danger zone. The third shot three Wind Blades infused with enough power to destroy any spell the user might send forward in retaliation.
The fourth used the ice on the ground to create spears that crossed one another, no matter where you stood, the spears would hit you. The final person was there to finish the trapped mage off. With a single Dark Blade, the speed of which was faster than a Dark Spear, it would hit the stuck mage.
Using this tactic, they killed plenty of foolish mages thinking they could fight head on. Only this time, what happened was completely outside of their expectation.The Ice spell snapped into place, only for him to lift his foot with the indifference of someone brushing away leaves.Elara's stomach twisted. 'That should have locked him down.'
The fire was brushed aside. Even the wind blades, meant to intercept spells, struck him directly—without leaving a mark.
'Huh?', Elara was baffled. As a healing mage, she could tell when someone else was using Light to heal their wounds, but nothing popped up near their assailant. Not a single spell was used. 'Even with a body strengthening from a mana pool, the body isn't so durable.'
Placing their hopes on the Ice Spears, one of the main attacks in this formation, they didn't have to wait long before it was fully conjured.
Ice Spears appeared from the floor, shooting upwards in all directions, it was inevitably that he would be hit, yet the moment one of the spears was about to hit him, he caught it in place between his fingers. Snapping the tip off, he threw it towards the Dark Blade that came next, dispelling it.
They'd practiced this combination dozens of times, plenty of mages had fallen to this tactic. And yet, he moved through it like it was nothing but falling snow.
"Is that it?", the genuine disappointment in his voice alarmed Elara. "Let me show you how to create a real Ice Field!"
Hearing that, most of them prepared fire or ice spells to counter whatever the man was going to do. Even Elara, who stood at the back, felt the need to conjure up some kind of spell instead of just standing around. Doing nothing at all felt like a complete waste, but the nonchalant manner of the man put her on edge.
Yet the moment she was about to conjure her spell, she heard explosions from beyond the wall of Pure Mana, drawing her attention away from the fight in front of her. She knew she shouldn't be distracted, turning her head towards the man.
Placing his hands on the ground, they were there for only a moment before Earthen Spears popped out of the ground in a not too dissimilar fashion as their Ice Spears did. The spears punctured any unlucky soul who wasn't paying close attention.
The sudden switch in elements surprised many as Ice or Fire did nothing against a stone spear that shot from the ground. Conjuring up two small Pure Mana daggers, the man rushed into the group, taking lives with every step. Elara watched on in horror as the knifes effortlessly sliced the necks of her comrades or were plunged into the chest of her friends.
Elara locked eyes with the man doused in red. Her heart skipped a beat as she screamed it out.
'He's coming. He's coming. I can't cast.. I have to cast...what do I..?!', what Elara shocked the most was the fact that while she could've casted a healing spell, the question was, for who? There was almost nobody left.
The man frowned before rushing towards her. Raising her staff, she had trouble controlling her emotions and spells. She was a healing mage, combat wasn't for her, yet here she had little to no choice.
"Elara!", while she would've loved to turn around, she didn't dare to. By the voice, she knew it was Garric, who had left his own group to join up with her own. 'Oh Garric, please help me!'
Garric's eyes couldn't unsee the carnage behind the man. Corpses hung up by the spears, the bloodied bodies screaming in pain on the ground, the relentless speed of that monster that never stopped in his tracks.
Elara's life was in immediate danger, he had to step in, even if he knew he stood absolutely no chance. There was a slight hope of him overcoming the odds. Stil, the moment the carnage entered his eyes, he knew he stepped towards his death.
Forcing himself forward, he stood in front of Elara and raised his hands. "Stay back monster!", a concentrated beam of fire shot out. The power of this spell was immense, a spell developed by Garric himself, even Valric admitted it was powerful.
But Garric didn't hold some false hope that it would be enough to take down the monstrous being in front of him.
His image was hidden behind the barrage of fire, but Garric was already preparing his next spell when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. A knife was lodged deep into his collarbone, making him lose strength quickly, but he held strong.
"Time's up dumbass.", a voice from beyond the fire spoke as the dagger in his shoulder exploded. It wasn't powerful enough to kill him outright, but it blasted his arm away. Even if he got back up, his life was most certainly over. The pain was immense, but Garric refused to go unconscious, he stared forward only to find the man standing strong.
"That was a good spell, I'll make great use of it, idiot. Who uses their trump card as the first move?", he stood there, straight back, not a scratch in sight. His arms covered in condensed stone that glowed due to the heat.
Grabbing the bottom of his upper arm, darkness came out of his fingers, removing the stones and skin in a single movement. Skin quickly grew back, the smile on his face made him seem almost refreshed.
Garric saw the man reach for his other arm and quickly thought of a plan, he was defenseless! This was the perfect time to attack, if his comrades were here, they would instantly take the chances, but when he looked behind the devil in human form, arrows of Pure Mana killed off the remaining soldiers who weren't done in by the earthen spears.
Turning his head, his heart begged for Elara to be okay. 'If cap quickly comes, she can run away!', was his thinking, but when he saw a similar dagger in her stomach, his face drained in color. As his dreams collapsed, he could only stare in horror.
Elara looked at Garric for but a moment before her body exploded into two halves. The lifeless upper body landed not far from Garric. Staring at her face, he felt his heart sink. Turning back, all he saw a fist headed straight for his head, blasting it away in pieces.
-------------------
Before the fight occured, Lucas sat on the ground, contemplating his moves. 'Look, I gave you control, but please behave in front of him, I don't want to deal with that awkwardness later on.'
'What are you worrying about?'
"I'll handle it fine.", Lucas said aloud as half of him wanted to facepalm. Asta, who was inspecting some arrays undoubtably heard him.
"You should. I'll have you know that I had to empty my core a bunch of times to create all of this. If we fail, which I doubt, I'll put the blame on you.", with all the schemes deployed, Asta was quite certain that even if their back-up plan failed, they would survive.
"Hah! What have you got?"
"Are you in that state again? Well, I'll let you know, I created a few basic trap arrays, when dismantled, they'll explode, if not, they'll still explode after a period of time. Besides that I've put up two large arrays to create Pure Mana Arrows that have a tip similar to the blade you've shown me. There should be around a hundred arrows coming out of them, but I coupled them with another array to gather energy from the surroundings to replenish the arrows."
"I'm jealous of you."
Asta was shocked, he was proud of himself, and always wanted to be acknowledged. He just never expected to actually receive it so easily. It was a bit unexpected, knowing that they always liked to be ahead of one another, to so openly give their emotions voice was a rare occurrence.
"Well.. Thanks."
"No need to be thankful, I'm just stating the truth. All I'm curious about is my next project."
"And what might that be?", calming down, Asta was actually quite intrigued by this. He knew Lucas for some time, and every single project always blew his expectations out of bounds.
"You remember the elemental pool on that island?"
"During the national competition? I sure do, I've never seen such a thing before, and I've seen plenty of strange sights.", Asta never really spoke about his past, and Lucas was very interested, but that part of him wasn't in control right now.
"Darkness is meant to fade when it's created.", conjuring up a small ball of Darkness, the sunlight, air, and wind brought the ball in contact with plenty of matter, making the ball slowly shrink before it vanished.
"Yet I've seen Darkness stay intact many times in my life. Even when I was still Rank 0, I managed to conjure Darkness in my fists without it breaking apart."
"When you were Rank 0? What kind of teacher did you have to learn about Darkness so early on? You came from the Holy Kingdom, no?"
"It's a long story, I'm not going to recount it. I barely remember how I did that shit anyway. What I'm saying is that it's possible to create a stable Darkness that sticks."
Raising his arm slowly, he opened his hand to create a small dagger created from pure Darkness. Staring at it, the longer he waited, the more estranged Asta became. It wasn't shrinking, it wasn't becoming see-through. It stayed in its shape without disappearing.
Asta felt like his eyes were deceiving him, there was absolutely no way for this to be true. While Asta didn't use elemental magic, it didn't mean he wasn't well versed in it. He studied everything related to magic, and while his expertise was in arrays and Pure Magic, he was most likely smarter than most elemental users on his level.
'The intrinsic properties of Darkness is that when it comes in contact with other matter it absorbs that matter and vanishes. It's the only element in hundreds that breaks the law of conservation of energy. Energy can't be created or destroyed, only transformed into something else. Darkness is something that breaks the universe, making it a target of scrutiny, but still...'
As the time kept passing the small blade didn't change shape or form. Yet the moment Lucas conjured a small dagger of Pure Mana next to it, and they collided, they both disappeared.
'Has he figured out how to control Darkness? To have complete authority over an element and bending it to your will. It's clear that there was a high concentration of willpower in that blade. I studied that elemental pool as well, probably more than him since he was unconscious for most of it. The fact that he was able to force an element to do his bidding, imposing his will upon the world. Dammit. I'm starting to fall behind again.'
"You are a monster."
"Hahaha! Thanks! Sadly, this shit is useless in battles.", his laugh quickly turned upside down as he frowned at his own creation. He invested a ton of time into it, yet it was pretty impractical.
"How so?"
"I can't touch it or grab it. This Darkness won't get damaged by small concentrations of matter, but the moment there is a gust of wind or something touches it, it starts to absorb it. So I can't grab it, and if I launch it at someone, it's the same as normal Darkness."
"Ah, I see, well, practical use always comes last. You don't have to worry about that, knowing you, I'm sure you'll figure it out sooner or later."
"Thanks.", Lucas enjoyed just sitting in the grass talking to Asta. He had created a bunch of traps, each designed to force the enemy to their hand. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that there was barely any safe space. Arrays covered the entire place, making Asta satisfied.
'You're surprisingly doing okay. I expected I had to hit the abort button multiple times.'
'Hah! Do you think I'm incapable of learning?'
'Do tell, what did you learn? Because you still don't have any restraint in your speech.'
'Shut it, I'm direct and honest, what's not to like? I'm not going to put up a façade, forget it. I ain't lying to myself.'
'Fine, fine, just don't be too rude against him, he's an important ally and frankly... well.. he's a good friend.'
'Despite his arrogance.'