Willing gale-force winds, Bian shot a blast of air. A blunt attack with minimal damage at most, but perfect for a warning attack.
A torrent of billowing wind rushed forth from her palms, shaking and almost tearing the window apart with one powerful blow.
With a start, the Mistcaster dashed away, covering himself with an obfuscating cloak.
Just like she had planned, the spy dashed the away, to the direction she did not want the furtive Mistcaster to take. The part of this city she knew the least.
"Get hi—"
Before she could even finish, Harita was already moving, his figure a green blur as he rushed out of the inn through the open window. There was a steely glint in his eyes that marked his resolution. Lieren was right beside him.
Straining his muscles, Lieren pumped mana to his muscles and bones, giving him the unnatural resilience to at the very least catch up with his Aegis… despite the fact that he was obviously holding back. His magic had been intentionally dampened to allow the naïve boy to catch up.
Glancing over his shoulder, Harita checked to make sure that Lieren was right behind him. A proud smirk rose on his face.
'He's doing better than I thought.'
His mood lightened, Harita faced forward, increasing his speed. This would strain the boy's stamina and mana pool even more, but he could not help it. Any slower and he would risk losing the clandestine Mistcaster.
Narrowing his eyes, Lieren let the world fall away, focusing on one his Aegis. He need only follow him, no matter where it might take the young boy.
Taking a deep breath, he forced even more mana into his body. This stretched his stamina to a considerable degree, as most spellcasting do, but he just gritted his teeth and bared through it.
Cold sweat flowed down the side of his space as his mind practically ripped itself apart. This was much more processing than he had ever done. To the point that breaking his psyche became a real and certain possibility.
Traversing the forsaken city was not an easy task, especially when the path taken were the shady labyrinthine path made to confuse and trap anybody foolish enough to be caught in it… or tricked to, anyways.
Throwing a dark glance backwards, the Mistcaster summoned something and waved his hands, slowing down momentarily.
Harita's eyes opened wide in surprise.
"Get down!"
Falling to his knees, Lieren lowered his head and felt the faint passing of a steel bristle passing by his face. The ultra-thin string flew past his face, cutting some of his hair.
They were extremely sharp.
'Rather, they were so thin and durable that with enough speed, it can cut anything apart.'
Feeling a cold shiver run down his spine, Lieren forced himself up straight.
A wide array of nearly invisible strings glistened in the air. It was imperceptible for the naked eye. Unless, of course, it was enhanced with mana.
Glancing at the Mistcaster, Lieren casted his spell.
"Invisible Abjuration."
Having had the time to charge it during the chase, it was much more powerful than normal.
An invisible arrow arched through the air, distorting the fabric of space itself around it, obscuring it from vision.
'How ironic.'
For a spell to be cast through the eyes, it sure wasn't forgiving for anybody who could use them.
The Mistcaster's eyes flew open as he swung his arm wildly. The man's wild instincts reacted almost instantly, even before the spell had been cast, immediately recalling his strings and weaving them together almost instantly.
The bear-imperceptible seemed to have a mind of their own, intertwining themselves into one another into a pure white fabric reflected the sun into a blinding ray of light. The ray did not do any damage, but was instead unnaturally bright, even by magical standards.
With a muffled thunk, the invisible arrow ripped the fabric apart, tearing through its seams, not quite piercing through as Lieren intended.
But it was enough.
As the strings fell to the ground and eventually dissipated into the atmosphere, disconnected from its user, a figure unveiled itself.
Wielding Silent Reverie in one hand, Harita glared intensely at the man behind the obfuscating mask.
His dagger flashed once… then stopped.
In front of the Mistcaster, additional strings were laid out evenly, mapped out and implemented with perfect accuracy.
Rather than meeting the attack directly like he did to Lieren's spell, the man chose to catch the blade instead, meeting it instead of stopping.
And he was successful. Incredibly so.
…Up until a certain point.
Though the dagger was small and light, it packed the power of the man behind it. Its light structure is not to be mistaken as a weak weapon in any way.
Its wielder, after all, was one of the strongest Paladin in the entire Order.
Silent Reverie flashed again. And this time, the reflective strings could do nothing to stop it.
As the man's eyes grew wide with horror, realizing the power of the man in front of him… a cold realization came about him.
A cold chill ran down the young boy's spine.
'Something's wrong."
As Lieren came to a dark conclusion, dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of reflective strings sprouted from the man's chest, taking the dorm of a destructive arm as dense as Lieren's entire upper body and twice his height.
…All of it aimed at Harita.
'Very wrong!'
A primal scream tore from the Mistcaster's throat. He was on the verge of ripping his vocal cords apart.
"Harita! Watch out!"
Dismissing Silent Reverie, Harita focused on the concentration of his Reinforcement. Turning the knob that was his inner control loose, he let his mana rush forth, flowing through his veins and fortifying his bones and muscles with potent strength.
Then he wield his mana further, extending it out of his body and pushing it out through his palm into a concrete, translucent wall of burning green mana twice the width of his reach and the same height as him.
It caused unimaginable pain, mind-tearing throes, and heartbreaking pangs to the wielder. If it weren't for the Oath enhancing his magical abilities, Harita would have already passed out from the dread and terror that followed. The more time passed, the more suffering he had to take.
The concrete sound of a gigantic solarsteel arm colliding on a fortified solid wall of purified mana resounded in the cloistered roads of the forsaken city.
With an echoing snap, one of the reflective strings of the giant arm ripped apart, then another. Eventually, a cacophony of sharp snapping resounded from the inner workings of the solarsteel arm's weave.
It seemed that, while the conjured construct bore an astounding presence, it was flimsy and delicate. Like a
…To all but Lieren, that is.
His eyes were growing brightest blue. Using Manavision, a skill that came to him as natural as breathing, Lieren was able to ascertain what had actually happened.
The barrier was more than it seemed. Much more.
'He reflected the blow with that materialized construct. Did he imbue it with the reflective attribute after creating the barrier? Or was it made with the reflective attribute already made?'
Lieren was curious. Deeply curious. The subtle scratch at the back of his mind gnawing at him urged him to solve the mystery of the spell. To figure out all of its secrets and reap all the keys and open all of the answers and satiate his gluttonous mind.
But no, he did not have the time for that. There was an enemy to be fought.
'Maybe later.'
With the damage rebounded back to its caster, the Mistcaster could do nothing but fly to the wall like some kind of puppet that had lost its strings.
The spy crashed into the wall behind him with a loud crash.
Looking around to make sure that nobody was hiding behind any obscured corner, Lieren approached Harita with a deferential glint to his shining eye.
"Harita we did i—"
…Only for a look of horror to dawn on him instead.
Losing all strength from his body, the boy's Aegis fell to the ground. An empty expression was etched on his face.
Lieren's face seemed to lose all sense of color as though he had been bitten by an ancient undead.
He found it hard to focus on anything but his Aegis, the rest of the world becoming a nonsensical blur.
"Ha-Harita? Are you okay?"
Tears fell from his eyes, as though a dam had just been opened, let loose by the natural forces.
A faint crumbling drew his attention away just enough to catch wind of the almost-invisible solarsteel threads.
Instinctively raising his bodily enhancement, Lieren leaped away, barely dodging the reflective strings by a hair's breadth… almost.
One stray string, having separated from its pack, graced him by the cheeks, drawing crimson. Blood dripped down Lieren's cheeks as he lowered his center of gravity, catching himself and making certain not to humiliatingly fall over.
His blue eyes shone brightly as he activated Manavision. Almost instantaneously, the world of mana came into view. The miasma of red, blue, green, and beige was there, as well as some others he has not seen before.
He cared for none of these and continued observing.
Filtering out the multi-colored streams with uncanny insight, he searched for the transmuted mana of the insidious Mistcaster.
'Where is it… where is it… where is it… Ah. Right there!'
Soon enough, he did find the thin and almost invisible strand of mana-imbued metal… as well as the source of it.
Following the trails of disheveled pile of strings, he found the delusory mage.
What he saw made his face pale like a specter.