Reitz was exhausted as he had consumed a considerable part of his mana. Yet there were thirty-two mages before him. The wound had taken a toll on him even so he kept a strong facade when he faced his enemies but he was slightly distraught inside.
"Fuck, this will be tough," Reitz thought.
"I'll let you little fuckers off if you get out of my sight right now." He bluffed. He wasn't at his limit but if he fought here he did not know if he would survive. If he wasn't stabbed he'd be sure to come out on top but right now it was hard to tell.
The mages were cautious and did not attack for a while. They were judging the situation.
The air was tense no one moved a muscle.
But then two of the mages dashed forward. The others cast a spell that enveloped the battlefield with sand and then there was a smokescreen.
"These fuckers want me to spread my magic aura so that I expend my magic aura faster. They are going to duke it out with me. A battle of attrition. These fuck heads."
Reitz expanded his magic aura to detect the incoming mages. They were not using any spells so he jumped up. He flew up to around twenty yards in height. He had overseen the battlefield and knew the position of each mage. The jump effectively dodged the mages that dashed forward and missed him.
[Fires that blaze fort, and burn everlasting. Scorch and burn those that seek mine life. Showeth thy power and flow forth. Incinerate the enemies ere me. Leaveth their corpse in ashes and their bodies in cinders alloweth no bone or flesh beest. Alloweth nothing beest hath left but their memory. Infernal Blaze]
Reitz's armour flickered out yet again as he aimed his two hands at the ground, out of it came fire that flowed like a flamethrower. He scorched the whole plane that the smokescreen covered and burned the two mages along with the three that attempted to flank him in that instant.
Boom!
He was hit by a stone while still in midair. It was a surgical strike by a mage located far from the skirmish. The stone struck his exposed cauterized wound as he withdrew his flame armour. He involuntarily spat blood. The stone veered his direction off from his intended landing place and disrupted his momentum.
"These fuckers are actually quite capable, predicting my next move and striking my injury with a low tiered spell."
The lower the tier of a spell the faster the cast time. The mages actually used this tactic to strike fast with a precision strike to a weakness. It was a brilliant move on their part.
As he landed the earth opened up a hole. Since Reitz could not control his trajectory the mages knew precisely where he was about to fall. Reitz unsheathed and threw his metal sword at the opening crevice near the mouth of the hole. It stuck firmly to the wall of the crevice. As he fell he stepped on his sword, propelling him out of the hole. He landed about five yards away.
"Hmm looks like I can't use my jumping tactics for the moment. I have to stay near the ground."
His insides were hurting like they were about to burst. He had used his magic aura to suppress the ache of his wound and slightly heal it. It was a temporary fix but in doing so his mana was slowly exhausting.
Then the ground where Reitz stood suddenly quaked as he tried to alleviate the pain.
"These fuckers won't let me rest."
Reitz quickly moved out of the range of the spell. There were still twenty-seven mages he had to deal with. He suddenly realized that the mages that he pursued and killed did not actually flee but lured him to the location so that they could kill him in ambush at this point. It was probably why Allister had been so adamant before to escort him out of the battlefield. Here he was far away from his army and his Blackfyre guard consequently he somewhat regretted his actions.
Reitz now just had a third of his original mana capacity because the armour was consuming most of it, not only that but his willpower was also ebbing away. His vision started to blur and he was dizzy from experiencing the mana loss and the pain from his stab wound.
"Fuck I'm pushing myself too hard and I am too far away from my troops for them to give me back up. I shouldn't have been too caught up with my emotions. At this rate, I'm gonna faint before these fuckers all die."
Reitz held on, suddenly the ground beneath him was shaking so that he could not stand firm.
"Shit they are pretty smart for small fries. "
The mages used a low-level magic to shake the ground to disorient Reitz. As he was trying to gain a foothold, three boulders shot at him from three different directions. He dodged them by going out through the only free space there was, it looked like a trap which most probably was. Gambling to evade being crushed by boulders, he had no choice but to evade through the opening. As soon as he stepped out of the way three stone bullets hit his stab wound in succession thankfully he had his fire armour on but there was a sizzle as the bullets hit the fire armour at the same point. Tzzt tzzt tzzt. He had the fire armour on, yet he had felt the impact.
"Ugh." Reitz involuntarily flinched at the pain, vomiting more blood but he quickly recovered. He saw the three mages that cast the stone bullets at him and noticed that they were in close proximity. He withdrew his armour immediately and formed a twenty-five-yard blade and swept the field in a slicing motion. The three quickly burned to the ground as their anguished screams reverberated throughout the battlefield.
When he did this he already blurred vision slowly turned dark inch by inch. The pain was so intense now that it started to throb.
"Fuck. Am I going to die here? There are still twenty-four of them. This assault was well planned. Currently, I am only at twenty percent of my mana capacity. Hmm. I guess I'll just use that."
When the bandits saw him weakening they were like vultures surrounding a dying carcass. They were slowly closing in on their prey. There were ten mages that cast stone gauntlets on their fist, they quickly moved toward Reitz, they were going to smash him to bits.
"You want to kill me? You fuckers have to die too. "
The Brightness of ten thousand dying stars, SUPERNOVA!
Reitz activated his delayed cast spell. Reitz's armour condensed into a ball of shining light. The light was too bright to be seen by the naked eye, it was like the sun shining in full strength. The assaulting mages covered their eyes with their gauntlets.
The light kept increasing in brightness.
BOOM!!
There was an explosion which flattened the surrounding area. The residue from the rocks and boulders flew out as shrapnel. The ten mages that went in to assault him were obliterated into fine particles. The debris from the blast flung out as it crushed the boulders into bits while the mages located further from the blast were hit and four of them died from the shockwave while the other three were critically injured.
There was a huge crater and in the wake of the blast and black burns everywhere. Reitz was on the ground, he had fully depleted his magic capacity. He lay only half conscious.
"Well, it was a gamble. Fuck there are still seven of the little shits standing. I am going to die here definitely." He could not move at all. He had expended all of his willpower for the delayed cast.
The remaining unscathed seven were stunned, who would have thought that Reitz had such formidable willpower. Delayed casting, and chantless magic while sporting a grievous injury. His willpower was superhuman. The seven mages took their time as they neared Reitz. They were still cautious as this man might still something up his sleeve.
Reitz closed his eyes admitting his demise.
"Well, it was a good run. Damn, I should have talked to Ezra more and given him advice about life, I wish that I had spent more time with that monstrous son of mine even if it's just a minute. My cute and monstrously powerful son. Ezra, you show these fuckers who's boss someday. You will definitely surpass me. Ahh, I hope that Aerwyna could forgive me for dying here. Aerwyna, take care of our little boy." Reitz said this as if to give his last will even if no one could hear it.
The seven chanted and then an immensely huge boulder flew towards Reitz. Suddenly a gargantuan earth wall intercepted the boulder there was a loud crash as the boulder hit the sturdy wall.
"You're late, Aaron. You little fuck. " Reitz cussed as he closed his eyes and smiled.