Happy holidays everyone! Hope ya'll enjoy this chapter!
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"You best give up young man, I cannot guarantee you losing just limbs—but also your eyes, lest you cease resistance." Said Ipar who was starting to get annoyed with Naell's resilience.
Truly Ipar now understood why Reyna wanted the boy: his mana would greatly assist them in resurrecting the demon king.
Not only that, if they could in some way take control of Naell, he would be of great use in the battle that would come eventually.
In spite of all that, no matter how Ipar wished to just hand him over to Awthra, Naell was pretty stubborn and honestly, hard to deal with considering the priest could not fatally wound the young mage.
"Honorable master, should I start doing so?" Asked Thslo in a manner that gave Awthra a reason to laugh menacingly.
She was able to wake up a while ago from her deep fear of Naell's mana. That made her more conscious of the young master's prowess.
That became the catalyst for her to collect her rage, yet her boiling ferocity towards Naell permeated the whole place. She then said, "Please let us do that master, I promise I will not kill him… just yet."
Ipar could only sigh at the two; he knew of Athwra's tendency of bloodlust, but for Thslo, he could only guess that the pawn of the rook, like him, wanted to rest now.
'Well, this might scare him a little.' Thought Ipar yet upon gazing at Naell, not only were his eyes as cold as his magic, his mana still petrified and held back numerous monsters from doing anything.
Ipar could only sigh once more, he then said, "Alright, you've made your choice."
"Go on then children." He added as he waved his hands toward Awthra and Thslo. That made the young witch grin and not long after, her bright scorching flames shot at full force towards Naell.
In response, Naell pointed his wand against the flame, releasing a burst of crystalline shards that devoured it together with Thslo's advanced maneuver.
Upon fending off their attacks, he then waved his staff and ordered his snow crystals to hover at his back, forming a barrier against Ipar's dark magic that creeped towards his supposed blind spot.
As all their attacks failed to land on Naell, he was able to relax for a brief moment before coughing out blood again.
'This is bad.' Thought Naell as he gripped his staff. He could only flinched from the numbing pain of his own ice magic spreading through his abdomen.
A while ago, the pieces of Lucile managed to land an attack on him, leaving him bleeding deeply in his stomach.
While Naell knew a variety of magic, healing was not one of them. Hence he decided to use his ice magic to reduce the pain and inflammation altogether.
And although it seemed no organs were damaged since his magic did not even so much as enter and close his wound, the gradual amount of blood he was losing only made it worse for him.
Nonetheless, Naell would never surrender. He knew it was out of character but ever since coming to Mundo his outlook on life definitely changed.
Thinking of all that made Naell smile in gratitude despite the situation. Yet exactly at that moment, a shattering sound filled their surroundings, and the soothing moonlight revealed itself better than it previously did.
Soon, the barrier that was covering the night sky was no more. That shocked Ipar as he uttered, "This can't be."
Awthra and Thslo were also surprised as well. They knew how intricate the barrier magic was as even the likes of their master had a hard time mastering the spell.
Yet even so, the thought that someone out there was capable of deciphering and reversing it—simply put, was a blow to Ipar's confidence.
'Even if it was not as strong as Reyna's barrier, it should still be impossible for the Green Witch to destroy my magic…' In turmoil thought Ipar, digging his fingers into his sides.
Seeing their expression, Naell couldn't help but grin as he wiped the blood from his mouth. His now lax demeanor made Awthra and Thslo act, attacking him immediately.
"How dare you insult my master." In rage Awthra hissed. Her flame in the shape of scattered butterflies then flew at Naell.
That complemented Thslo's dragged yet accurate aim towards Naell's blind spot, an opening brought forth by the flames' concealing after-smoke.
Even so, Naell managed to defend against the attack by sacrificing one of his crystallized snow. He then moved out of harm's way by swiftly standing on one, with the remaining crystallized ice tasked with offense by bombarding the pieces of Lucile with javelins.
Due to their focus on offense, Thslo and Awthra were not able to defend against all of Naell's ice javelins.
"Master!" Athwra exclaimed thinking he was far too distracted to dodge the attack.
Naell too was hoping that was the case, yet as the smoke disappeared, Ipar remained unscathed. The priest then said with a sigh, "I'm alright, you two, be vigilant!"
Judging from their injuries, it was only mild wounds from the shoulders, and so Ipar was able to breathe in relief.
It was then a moment of accepting clarity came upon Ipar. Knowing his barrier was also destroyed, the possibility that their real plans were already relayed to the Kingdom of Awdita was high.
He knew that soon, the army of elves would eventually find their way to entrap them, and so he needed to decide whether to retreat now or persist in capturing Naell.
Upon deliberation, it would be a huge blow for the pieces of Lucile to return empty handed, as they were not even able to weaken the kingdom of Awdita. So the only way to make it a win for Ipar was to capture Naell, their greatest potential mana fuel.