"Stop them," my cry rang out, bringing the three assaulters to the ancient fairy's attention. Fire clung to them in return, charring the armour a deep black.
"[Greater Firestream I]," another jet of purple flames swung like an ark above my head, dropping down on the living armours that ran behind.
Plates melted, swords fell to the ground, an army was stopped in their tracks... only for the mana imbued in their enchantments to toughen them up again.
Like dolls, their broken limbs were restored by an invisible expert hand. Like the brave soldier they were modelled after, their charge didn't stop.
Never to cease, never to feel pain, to end up broken or manipulated... I perceived many shards of the original design in their model.
Stratagems that found evolution at the hands of a synthetic mind, trivia that spat at my original intentions. A perversion this was.
It simply felt wrong. Their movements felt wrong, their purpose, construct, flow of mana, even the task imposed upon the living armours.
They were not like him. Were not like the Silver Lion. They were a... mistake. "Hotter," I demanded, "increase the intensity. You're a fire creature, how can you freeze over."
This was as much a provocation as it was a lie. My scales were about to melt down in this hellish furnace.
Were I a normal member of The Races, I'd have suffocated already. "Don't. Ridicule. Meeeeee!!!" The heatwave expanded.
All the air was sucked back, compressed and released together with a rolling wave of mana-fuelled fire ready to burn everything to cinders.
"[Greater Ocen of Flames I]," that spelt absolute trouble. Cursing in the Language of Old, I readied myself for what was to inevitably follow, only to see the fire whizz out of existence.
"[Courtain of Nothingness III]," more ridiculous than an intermediate spell cancelling out an advanced one, was the very essence of its concept the elder fairy revealed.
"Nothingness... oh, go fuck yourself." Nobody cared about my words, as the two elder fairies started bickering on the spot.
One because her beautiful flames had been so brutally extinguished, the other because of the damage this spell would've done to the structure.
Without a doubt, had the spell hit the mark, then we wouldn't be swarmed by the accumulated efforts of only one castle floor.
"Shit, duck!" My timely warning made them evade the blade of light headed their way. Analysing its structure and composition, I was fairly certain that even nothingness would end up on the losing side.
There was a sequence of dimensional distortions webbed into that simple energy blade diffused with the element of light.
There was just too much mana packed in that charge. Lashing out with my tail, I tripped the foremost charging living armour, making the others behind it jump over the obstacle.
Up in the air, their target changed to me, essentially pressuring me to retreat some hard-fought steps.
However, some had already circled around me, plugging the hole left behind by their fallen comrades, so there was little space for me to move to.
The elder fairies, though bickering still, didn't sit idle. Their support was also the only reason as to why I was still standing.
While doing my absolute best to evade swords, sword auras and energy blades, I analysed their every move to the best of my capabilities.
Some loopholes were there in the database governing their movements. I exploited them to varying levels of success.
Yet I still hadn't found out just where they got this never-ending supply of raw mana from that was necessary to keep those costly enchantments running at all times.
The surviving walls were riddled with cracks from which steady streams of mana evaporated, but that alone didn't satisfy their immense consumption.
While the ambient mana was saturated to the point of evocating an adverse response even from my trained body, the elder fairies were in an even less favourable situation.
"[Firestream II], nonono," "[Void Field I], taketh heed of thy limitations!" "I-I want to, but this much mana..."
"If 't be true thee can cometh up with an alibi, best art bett'r instead!" Truly, the elder fairy spoke my thoughts.
"[Void Combustion I]," while I was still thinking about how mature a certain elder fairy was and if it would be open for advances, its next spell made me reconsider.
A certain living armour was hurled up in the air by force, crumbling down into undefinable pieces that created a field of singularity, constricting the other enemies in reach and making them tumble against each other.
Then, the whole thing blew up, endlessly consuming whatever ambient mana charged the place in what felt like an instant.
This had me hurriedly gasping for breath because of the immediate mana difference up in the air. At the same time I sneakily took some steps back to where they were floating.
In case of another such load, just to be sure... In front of me, the group of silver soldiers no longer regenerated. There wasn't even anything left to regenerate since even the rubble had disapeared.
"Oh my gosh... Opal Woodpuff, you are awesome!" "Doth not receiveth distract and useth this chance." The ancient fairy really looked mentally drained.
It was floating in the air unstably, its hardly graspable silhouette appearing much more tangible than was good for a conceptual existence.
It had absolutely given its best, so now it was my turn. "Oi, firelighter. Melt this darn piece of junk." In case the other ancient fairy didn't know what to do, I gave her a task.
That singularity, disturbingly potent it was, revealed just this tiny fluctuation I could make great use of. "Don't ridicule meeee!!!"
No cloaking spell could remain perfectly active while under the influence of such a dangerous clash of varying laws magically forced together and playing nice.
Two thirds of the silver soldiers remained, but the pressure on us had decreased substantially. Their target was no longer me, though. "I've got my hands full!"
They focused on the biggest threat around these ruined walls. But Nova Twinkleflame had something against that.
One part of its consciousness was used to steady the stream of flames onto just the place I'd indicated earlier, the other at keeping those attackers at bay.
The care shown to my request was of bad quality, but one couldn't have everything, no? If only it could end like this...