Treevor attacked Emilia, the person he considered the biggest threat. he raised his right fist, trying to kill her in one hit. The branches on the right side of his back came together in his fist, forming a spiraling spear of branches. White runes appeared on the surface, creating a swirling layer of light around the spear like a drill, leaving sparks of light along the way.
To top it off, he activated the spirits boost ability, propelling his own giant body at a speed that should have been impossible. The spirits impulse mixed the amber energy accumulated in his chest with his own mana before pumping it throughout his body, causing an explosion of power and speed throughout his body.
Emilia was barely able to keep up with the Treevor's movement, activating the boots enchantment and the martial skill of acceleration by pure reflex and threw herself to the side with all her strength, saving her life by a thread. Unfortunately, the companions behind her weren't so quick to react. #7 and #9 were behind Emilia and were impaled without offering any resistance.
Treevor's momentum didn't stop and he slammed into the wall, the spear in his right arm digging into the wall up to his shoulder. The entire cave shook as if an earthquake had happened and only then did the other mage slayers understand what had just happened. The monster in front of them was on a whole different level from them. The only thing left of the #7 and #9 was the lower body, everything else had been pulverized in the attack.
"Disperse and retreat, now!" Emilia screamed urgently, panic clear in her voice. The mage slayers thanked Eishin for Emilia's order and fanned out to increase the chances that at least one of them would escape. They tried to use the roots in the walls to climb while they cast their best spells against Treevor, trying to slow him down as long as possible.
A shower of densely packed black spikes, a serpent-shaped bolt of lightning, and a ten-foot fireball capable of melting rocks were hurled at Treevor in sequence, but the latter didn't bother. He removed his right arm from the wall, before the branches that formed the spear became flexible and elongated like a whip. Translucent runes and white runes sparkled on the whip's surface, activating two enchantments.
The first concentrated mana in the center of the whip and released it when swung around in the form of a shock wave, while the second created a layer of flexible light over the whip. Treevor swung the whip in an arc around him.
The blow first struck the serpent-shaped lightning bolt, crushing it in a blast of electricity, then released a shock wave against the fireball, causing it to detonate in midair. Lastly, he wrapped himself in a spiral shield, protecting Treevor from the thorns of darkness. The darkness hissed as it made contact with the layer of light in the whip, releasing sparks of light into the air, but it couldn't get through.
The spells were unable to do any damage to the treevor, but they served their purpose. The mage slayers were almost at the top of the hole, but they encountered a problem. The roots they were leaning on suddenly glowed with white light, before the blade of light shot out of the roots, piercing the mage slayers that were too slow to jump through time.
It was only then that they realized why Treevor hadn't moved. The roots that formed his feet had entered the ground, connecting with the other roots in the ground and walls, sending out pulses of white and amber light, turning the entire hole into a potential weapon.
#2 even tried to create an air platform over his feet and jump out of the hole, but it made him stand out from the rest and made him a target for Treevor. He swung the whip once more, sending a shockwave towards No. 2, causing the latter to hastily conjure up a barrier of wind.
The wind barrier broke easily, but managed to mitigate some of the damage, sending #2 flying with only a few broken bones. #2 smiled at this development, releasing jets of air through his hands to get away even faster, just as Treevor had planned.
He had sent the shock wave upward, but not enough to send #5 flying above the tree line. On trajectory #2, a tree the mage slayers cut down grew in seconds, with finger-sized thorns all over its trunk.
#2 had his eye on Treevor the whole time, so he had his back to the tree. He flew towards her at rocket speed, before hitting her hard. the impact speared the thorns all the way to the stalk, turning it into Swiss cheese, the parts not impaled exploding in a shower of blood from the violence of the impact.
"Four dead." Treevor spoke aloud, wanting to cause panic among his enemies. He didn't give them time to think, swinging the whip and sending shockwaves against the mage slayers with their limbs still attached to the walls.
"Shit!" The mage slayers trapped in the walls swore, seeing the attack coming their way. They forcibly pulled their limbs from the blades, causing blood to spurt from the wounds, and leaped to the ground, the shock wave shattering the walls where they stood a second later.
They quickly took superior healing potions, healing their wounds in a matter of seconds, but that did not improve the current situation at all.
'What do I do? If we band together, he might kill us all together, but if we stay apart, we'll die one by one. Our best spells were useless against him and I doubt physical attacks will scratch that armor. To make matters worse, this thing seems to have drained all the light element from the environment, so my magic is sealed and even non-elemental magic has been rendered useless.' Emilia thought, racking her brains trying to think of a solution.
That's when she remembered an item her father had given her the moment he left the family. She had left the Riphas to escape an arranged marriage to a man of a magical lineage allied to generations, to deepen the bonds between the families. Even though she disowned her family, her father still loved her and gave her a magical teleportation item, an insignia with the Ripha symbol, so that she could flee if found herself in a desperate situation.
It was a purple crystal with a symbol of a staff and a sword crossed upside down, the symbol of house Ripha. Emilia carried it all the time as an emergency measure. The crystal could teleport everything within a radius of 2 meters to a few kilometers away.
Emilia reached into her suit's inner pocket and took out a mana potion and the cristal with Ripha insignia, feeding it mana. She would need about 30 seconds to fully charge it, but the question was whether she would be able to survive that long.
"I have a plan, but I need you to buy me time. I'm going to stay still for a while and I need you to protect me." Emilia whispered into the transmitter glued to the inside of the mask, careful that Treevor wouldn't hear her. Once activated, the crystal would constantly drain its mana until full, making it an easy target.
"How much time do you need?" Gaius whispered back, not looking away from Treevor to avoid suspicion.
"28 seconds and counting." Emilia replied.
"We'll be dead before 10." Finn whispered back. Emilia was about to give an answer when Treevor's gaze left #2 and turned to her.
"Falling stars." He muttered, causing the tiny sparks of light scattered through the air to gather to the size of an apple, before being fired with the force of a cannonball towards the mage slayers.
"Swerve!" Emilia screamed, activating an acceleration skill and another to improve her reaction time before hurriedly ducking, dodging a sphere of light aimed at her forehead.
The other mage slayers activated similar martial skills and began to dodge, occasionally casting spells as a counterattack. Treevor didn't stand still either, the roots of his feet pulling out of the ground and running toward #4, the closest target to him.