She had {Blink}ed out of the study at just about the right moment to avoid the beam of light that descended upon the tower. The building stood no chance against the oncoming beam. The moment the two met, the beam pushed against the tower, causing it to crumble from top to bottom. A loud rumbling shook the area as it was reduced to rubble in seconds.
Sage, having already cast [Flight], shifted backwards to put distance between herself and the golden ray. This kind of light spell was so intense that it caused blisters to her skin even though she hovered over ten metres from it. If she had still been in the tower when it struck, that light would have instantly obliterated her; that was her thought while she looked on with wide eyes as the beam continuously descended upon the tower remains, turning the surrounding dusk into day.
Alarmed, she cast [Ward] on herself to offset the light and bolstered the spell with [Shield]. After, that her eyes frantically roamed around. In the end she found nothing. Whoever had attacked was nowhere close. Learning this gave her a bad feeling.
Anyone who could attack from a distant was definitely not someone to mess with. Such a person could wipe the floor with her in mere moments.
Who is it? She asked herself. Leah?
That thought had only flashed across her mind when she completely disregarded it. As someone who was practically new to this world she might be ignorant of what Transcendents were capable of, but she was not ignorant enough to believe an attack from one would not completely obliterate her, probably even part of the mountain range. So no; the one behind this attack was most likely not be an Ultra Order sorcerer. This gave her at least a little hope. Even if she was unable to defeat the opponent, she could at least get away.
However… her gaze shifted to the debris in the middle of the clearing. The beam had ceased but the light on the rubble still prevailed. It was gathering at a single point, converging into a humanoid form. Sage did not know what it was, but she had already decided that she would not stay long enough to find out.
"Nyx!" she called while also enacting a summoning in the process.
A white circle appeared in front her through which the black cat leapt out a moment later, straight into her arms. It shivered in her grasp as it stared at the converging light. The hair on its entire body stood on edge, a clear indication of its uneasiness.
"Search the debris for the geezer," she ordered.
He was still alive under the rumble, she could feel it. However, his condition was faint. Like a candle flame against a violent tempest, his life felt like it would be extinguished any moment soon.
"You want me to go down there Master?" the cat asked incredulously as it craned its head to allow its wide orbs to peer at her. "With all that light?"
"Use [Shadow Travel] to appear within the debris and check," she told him. "When you find him, drag him through a shadow into the open and I'll handle the rest."
Honestly, with the way Bori was reflected though their mutual bond she was quickly losing hope that he could be saved. However, she was still determined to try. Hell, even if the chance was slim to none she would still drag the necromancer out of the rubble and try to save him. After all, his safety was tied to her fate. She could not afford to let him die.
Nyx tried to argue against her order but she remained resolute. After this the cat could only jump out of her arms to grudgingly perform the task she had set for it.
She was more than fifteen metres above the clearing; so when Nyx jumped out of her arms he fell a long way down. If this action were performed by a normal animal it would definitely splatter the moment it landed. However, with Nyx there was no sound of him landing or rather he did not land at all. The moment he came into contact with the ground he immediately began to sink into the shadows. Then he was gone.
Sage took this opportunity to check out the converging light. The process was completed near completion when her gaze fell upon it. It did not look like she would be able to get away without a fight.
The final product of the convergence of light was a humanoid figure with no features whatsoever, standing at around one and a half metres. All in all the figure did not look intimidating. However, only those who could not feel its magic would think so. As for Sage who had the {Index}; seeing it only served to sour her mood further.
Race: Elemental (Elemental- Light)
Physique: None
Mana: S (Cyan)
The being had mana the equivalent of a 7th Order mage. On top of that, it was a pure elemental. Although hailing from the same place as familiars, the greatest difference between the two, apart from the fact that pure elementals did not possess a complex intelligence, was that familiars could be attacked with multitudes of spells while pure elementals could only be harmed by an opposing element. By default, it made the fight much harder considering the fact that actual attack dark element spells under the senior Orders were practically non-existent. There were of course the newly ingrained ones such as [Blight] and [Rot], but those would probably not work on a being with no flesh.
After the elemental fully formed it craned its head in her direction; causing her to look into its empty face. There was no conversation between them as the elemental made its move. Within a second it had appeared in front of her, thrusting its hand at her chest.
Her reaction was just as quick, {Blink}ing instantly and appearing on the ground.
She took this moment to give the being a wide eyed stare, panic gripping her as she did so.
Although the light elemental had not touched her, she felt a sting in the middle of her chest where she was almost touched. When she looked down she saw that the spot had blackened. If the elemental had manged to touch her there was no doubt it would have been worse.
Fuck! She thought as she {Blink}ed out of the way of another attack.
She had cast [Ward] and [Shield] on herself but it made no difference. When the elemental had been about to touch her she had not felt the effects of the two spell offsetting the damage that was going to be inflicted on her. Either the spells were useless or the effect was just not that great against the elemental. She wholeheartedly believed it was the latter.
The light elemental tried to strike her a few more times with its hands but she was able to avoid it every time; even casting [Haste] so she could react to it faster. When the elemental saw that it could not do anything to her that way, it changed tactics. Raising its hand, it suddenly discharged a beam of light in her direction.
This beam was nowhere near as strong as the one that had descended from the sky. Even so, the harm it could inflict upon her would definitely be fatal. She stopped it in its tracks with [Stone Wall]. Then she backed away and cast [Darkness].
This terrain spell had no attacking capabilities, but it would definitely cause harm to a being made of light. Her conjecture was proven right when whiffs of the conjured darkness extended to the elemental and touched its arm, causing it to corrode and disintegrate.
The elemental, unable to feel any pain, did not make a sound at losing an arm. It simply levitated out of the range of the [Darkness] and began to shine, banishing the [Darkness] and turning the clearing into day.
She did not mind though. It was not as if she had expected a 5th Order spell to take care of an elemental at the senior level. Opening her mouth, she cast [Dragon Breath] and spewed a torrent of black flames at the light being.
In response, the elemental smoothly glided to the side before sending another beam at her. She again dodged by {Blink}ing away. However, this time the elemental was relentless and kept firing beams at her, forcing her to continuously dodge.
Has that damned cat not gotten the geezer out of the rubble yet? She wondered in frustration as she {Blink}ed out of the way of another beam.
Her entire actions up to now had been a stalling act. She had no intention to stay here and fight the elemental. The power of the elemental was such that it would be an uphill battle if she actually tried to fight with the intent to defeat it. Even if they were on equal footing she would not have been eager for a fight in the current situation. After all, whoever had summoned the damned thing had still not shown up and they were bound to be even more troublesome than the elemental.
She cast [Dark Field] to strengthen herself, but the light elemental quickly countered with its own field, causing the two to cancel each other out. Then, as if its glow had not been bright already, the being's light intensified. It caused her to move back as the former irritation to the skin returned.
Unwilling to endure it, she cast [Darkness] once more, only to see it dispelled within seconds. Then the elemental raised its remaining arm as a lance of light condensed within it. Then it hurled it at her.
Unable to dodge, she quickly erected a [Stone Wall] to block the attack. However, much to her surprise, the light spear burst through the stone barrier with ease, turning it into more rubble. Fortunately, the elemental's aim was off, only managing to nick her side. Even so, the burn caused by the graze was intense. She gritted her teeth and prepared to cast another spell.
It was then that she heard the call of her cat.
"Master!" Nyx said. "I got him out of the debris!"
She looked at the cat that had appeared from the shadows of the rubble with Bori. The necromancer was in a far worse state than when he had summoned her. Even though he had not lost any limbs this time, they had been crushed and rendered unusable. His chest seemed to her sunken, maybe causing a puncture to a lung because he was coughing blood.
He was still alive though. That was all that mattered to her at the moment. All she needed to do was get him out of there and somehow find some means to stabilise his situation. The last part she could worry about after their escape; this was what she thought as she prepared to go to his side.
However, just as she was about to [Blink] there, the elemental switched targets and fired a beam at the Bori; piercing straight through his abdomen.