A quick response team of fifteen magisters quickly shortened the distance, flying along the trail left by the intruder. According to witnesses and tracking spells, there was only one culprit. Unheard of impertinence! If he managed to pull this off alone, then the operation was well planned, therefore, there was a leak somewhere. The interrogators had a lot of work to do in the future. Because Given the level of training, there is no hope for pursuit. What kind of fool thinks through an attack, but does not think about fleeing? On the other hand, force majeure happens to everyone, and it will be necessary to write something in the report. The magicians couldn't help but try to catch up with the robber.
The increased magical pollution left by the levitation spell led towards the ocean. The head of the squad, Magister Silen, was not at all surprised by this direction. Hiding somewhere on the territory of Shi'en will not work because the methods of magical pursuit greatly outstripped the possibilities of camouflage charms. Flying towards the neighboring country is also a lost cause. Hundreds of alarmed teams of magicians will quickly block all escape routes, and the garrisons on the border will be strengthened so much that even a rabbit will not slip through there.
There was only one option - the portal. The favorite places for entrance portals are the same for all Intelligences of the world - caves and grottoes. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to deal with them. One enemy sorcerer could make as many portal rooms as his country's economy would allow – the materials were not cheap. At the same time, thousands of magicians would have to be sent to search for portals, which would stop all research, training of students, and undermine the defense. No, of course, the government tried to counteract it anyway. Many departments, from those that were already busy exploring territories, had in their additional functions also the search for portals. Plus, a dozen weak magicians were in the permanent position of caretakers. So sometimes they found portals quite for themselves. But hardly even five percent of their total number was declassified.
The formation of the magicians was semi-combat. No one formed a general defense, but personal shields, of those that are stronger, everyone used. You can't be careless when fighting sorcerers. Otherwise you will fly into a trap at full speed and you will be left without a head or without anything else, no less vital. There were a few hundred meters left before the end of the land, when the wizards felt the portal activation close. Either the thief escaped, or reinforcements arrived to him. "Everyone on the ground. Activate the search charms. Take a battle formation. Prepare the spells of group "a"." Magister Silen quickly gave orders to his unit. A potential group of prepared enemies should be treated much more seriously than a lone fugitive. He didn't need to think about the essence of the orders. All instructions have been tested by hundreds of years of practice and have proven themselves perfectly.
The group approached the entrance to the grotto. The search weaves showed nothing. It looks like there were no reinforcements. "Don't relax, keep moving. Jacques, a picture!" the commander shouted. One of the sorcerers dispelled his prepared battle spell with some disappointment. He definitely wasn't able to create complex spells at the same time, while also holding an unnecessary spell in his aura. Having created a spell of light magic and added a flash there to be sure, Jacques sent his creation inside the natural shelter. After a moment, a bright light illuminated the entire space around, and the magician received an image of what was happening inside. "The cave is empty, as is the portal room. I see three large skeletons lying inside, two and a half meters each." the sorcerer reported. "It looks like we spent time today just to get new exhibits for museums." Silen replied. "Okay, let's go inside, at least look at the portal." Sometimes, by the materials used to build the portal or by the structure of the power lines, it was possible to understand which country it belonged to.
But as soon as the mages approached the mentioned skeletons, one of the sorcerers suddenly exploded with a cloud of blood splashes. Only five of the whole group managed to see a moment before, how a ray of dark energy created by the skeleton pierced the defenses of the deceased, with incredible ease and dug into his body, rebuilding and changing it. The death of the magician was not the purpose of weaving, but an intermediate stage. From what used to be a master of magic, two black blades were formed. One of them flew into the arm of the nearest, already standing skeleton, and the other, pierced into Jacques' head, as if not noticing his protection. In a few seconds, two wizards were lost at once. Silen needed to fix the situation on the battlefield. He shouted, "Scheme 13 option 4." If the enemy's strength is unknown, but high, and individual shields cannot cope with attacks, then you need to create a common, more durable shield, while not allowing the enemy to attack, throwing it with simple charms – this is the essence of the thirteenth scheme. The option number simply determined the number of mages engaged in defense and attack. Silen decided that four people would build a common defense. This is a lot, because usually one magician was enough.
All the masters activated the pre-created weaves. They all belonged to fire magic. The heat was such that the stones immediately began to melt. The roof of the cave was melting, threatening to fall in a few seconds. It seemed that the night had receded, so bright was the blow. But brightness does not mean efficiency. The technique designed for a live opponent worked poorly on the creation of necromancers. Unharmed skeletons, who did not even bother to create protection, using levitation, flew out of the grotto, which in a couple of seconds turned into a mess of lava, stones and collapsed soil. The commander of the wizards had an unpleasant guess. The skeletons had no visible aura, as well as the spells they created themselves. Magic seemed to appear out of nowhere. If you do not see the structure of the spell being created in advance, then it is impossible to predict its effect, which means that you cannot be guaranteed to defend yourself. So you need to throw all your strength into the attack.
Wizards obediently obeying the commander's order began to bombard the enemy with a large number of simple spells, without giving time for a counterattack. At the same time, they can find out the weaknesses of the enemy to specific types of mana and types of impact. A hail of spells covered the trio with their heads for a few seconds. No one can stand against such a long time without a shield. Confirming the reasoning of the squad leader, as unexpectedly as all the magic of the dark creations, a shield appeared around them, against which all the weak weaves were now breaking. Silen had never seen this before. Not that it would be very energy-intensive or strong, rather the opposite. Such protection seemed to come down for the battle of graduates, but not masters. Rask, the youngest and most inexperienced of the sorcerers, used the best remedy against low-power shields - the wrath of light. These charms are designed to banally spend all the mana in weave of the opponent. They could not harm anything other than magic constructs, and also required twice as much mana to create than would be spent by the opponent's spell. Despite the disadvantages, this is a great way to dispel complex, but weakly filled with energy charms. A ray of light originating somewhere in Rask's aura hit the enemy's defense. It seemed that it would be swept away like a spider's web, but this did not happen. The wrath of light continued to act, as did the enemy shield, which didn't seem to change at all. Rask's aura was decreasing at a tremendous rate -an indicator of the huge expenditure of energy.
- Idiot, dispel the weave. You're going to spend the entire reserve now.
– I can't - there was panic in the magician's voice. He lost control of his spell.
No one had time to react properly, as the outer shell began to evaporate after the aura reserve. A second and the sorcerer died. Life is impossible without aura.
- Attack only with spells with external influence.
Stones, ice hammers, water whips, air whips and other spells that have only a physical effect immediately flew at the enemy. It helped. The shield "floated" unable to withstand the pressure and after fifteen seconds it dissipated. The skeletons no longer had the Black Blade in their hands. But it was as if they were waiting for this moment. A shadow stretched across the ground from each of the necromancers' creations, wrapped around the nearest wizard, and then shrank, turning the magisters into a pile of human mincemeat. Another minus three. Finally, a shield of light flickered around the group, immediately dispelling the shadows, ready to pounce on the next victims. The general protection was established, so the magicians could now calmly and thoughtfully engage in the fight. But they were not allowed to do this. The skeletons, seeing the protection, exploded in a flash of dark magic. The sorcerers exhaled in disappointment. The enemy killed six of them, did not suffer punishment, and also left no evidence. The grotto along with the portal room were destroyed by the first attack, so there is no way to get data about the fugitive and skeletons from there. After inspecting the battlefield, the magicians started a conversation.
- And when did necromancers become so strong? Three skeletons killed six magisters. - Nehlen, who specializes in dark magic, asked. He was the weakest in terms of combat, but the best in everything that concerned theory. Surprisingly, he often survived where others died.
"I don't think they're that strong, Nehlen," the commander replied, "it's just that we weren't ready for a battle with such an enemy. If you haven't noticed, the knuckles used only low-power weaves, but at the same time incredibly skillful. And as soon as we put up a common shield of light, the skeletons immediately gave up. They just didn't have the energy left to fight. This also explains where one of the black swords went – it was spent on fueling some of their spells. And Rask, with his wrath of light, probably gave them the mana they needed for the last attack with those shadows. If I had known their weakness from the very beginning, maybe no one would have died. Now I have to report to the colonel about the death of these incompetents."
***
A man was lying in an empty room, covered with signs and drawings. He is located right in the center of one of the drawings drawn near one of the corners of the room. Dozens of spells of varying complexity hung above him. His face was calm and motionless, but his aura fluctuated extremely quickly. At some point, after particularly strong and abrupt movements, a prominence of energy burst out of his reserve, destroying all the weaves surrounding the magician. The aura came to calmness and after a couple of minutes the sorcerer opened his eyes.
"Yeah, it feels stupid. First you have to get out of the habit of breathing in a skeleton body, and then get used to it in a human one. But the rest is fine, except that there is not enough energy. I'm not used to fighting with such a deficit. Well, at least someone not very smart thought of using the wrath of light, without this the score would not be in my favor at all. Do the Shi'ens not understand magic at all? It's a pity that we won't fight with them. But it must be said about the lack of mana to Kira. If this defect is corrected, then the spell can be turned from a curiosity into a strong weapon. Although why should I report this at all, does she not understand herself? She could have warned me in advance." The sorcerer's thoughts jumped to the results of today's sortie. "Now to add a meeting with Faraz to the schedule. It feels as if my every action does not solve the problems, but adds them. I plow like some kind of horse. No, everyone would do their own thing, so no, I have to look after everything myself and fix everything."
Crassus en Janet got up from the stone floor and went in search of Kira. Although it is difficult to call it a search, because where else could she be, except in the laboratory. The girl was the most talented necromancer the archmage had ever seen, and probably the best in history. She was only twenty-two years old, but she had already made a discovery that turned necromancy upside down. Of course, it turned over very figuratively, since neither Crassus nor Kira were going to tell anyone about her discoveries. Such a trump card should be carefully hidden until the last. The discovery was that the girl was able to create a pseudo-aura for her creations. Before that, skeletons and other necromancer crafts had nothing like this, which means they were not able to create magic. Such creatures could frighten only humans, but not magicians. The pseudo-aura was not only able to create spells, but could also be hidden by masking weaves, while the aura of a living magician was only able to look like the aura of an ordinary person, but not completely disappear. Accordingly, this is not only an ideal disguise, but also an excellent bonus to the attack, since the enemy did not see the threat until the last.
Crassus was a little jealous of his subordinate. There were no more than twenty geniuses like her in history, and each of them invented a new kind of magic or incredibly promoted research in some area. While the archmage was only the strongest magician of his generation, and there is such a wizard, as follows from the definition, in every generation. No, his research was also very impressive and perhaps even more ambitious, but Crassus rather combined existing solutions from different fields, and Kira created fundamentally new spells and methods of interacting with death magic. How can he not be jealous?
In general, the search ended as soon as he left the room where he had been lying for the last day and went through several more laboratory rooms. Actually, he was inside the laboratory of his main necromancer all this time. Which is logical, because where else will he control the skeletons? Not from his own spell chambers. There are no necessary drawings, besides, here Kira could observe the ritual. When he entered the break room, he saw a girl waiting for him to appear, sitting in an armchair.
- How did it go?
- Successfully, the only big problem is the lack of energy, I will make a detailed report on the spell later.
- Is there not enough energy by your standards or at all? Because I know you. You're probably heating up the tub with a firestorm.
- No, there is not enough energy at all. For all three of them, they may have had three percent of my reserve. Admittedly, I haven't fought in such circumstances for a long time.
- Okay, I will try to increase the stock. And where should I pick up the skeletons, on the portal platform or in your spell chambers?
- Nowhere. Had to be destroyed. But don't get upset. Your department will be compensated for their cost, and I will also sign your request for doubling funding, and I will also take you with me to check the term papers and graduation papers of necromancers from academies. If you like someone, they will work for you.
- It's a pity, of course, but okay, these are prototypes anyway. That's what's missing, so it's the corpses of Typhons and Jastorphs.
- There will be corpses for you, killer, see you later, don't be bored here without me.
- See you later, brother!
Crassus en Janet left his sister's laboratory and teleported to the capital of Acad. He had a lot of things to do today.
P.S.
sorry for the long absence. In the near future (this week) there will be 2 more chapters. I will also correct the previous chapter, as it was poorly translated.