Slice!
The attack did not reach the man, rather something was blocking it. A protection spell which glowed a dark purple color was in between Elin and the man. The spell was just a bit further away from the man. The man laughed, he had expected this.
"Hahaha!!! Did you think that I wouldn't have had some sort of protection spell ready? I knew those buffoons couldn't be trusted to hide their own tracks! Hahahaha", the man laughed like a maniac.
The man was sweating bullets, but didn't seem to forget to put on his smug smile.
"Disgusting!" Elin cursed at him, but he was not done yet.
[Sword slash: type 14]
Truth blade
The sword after being drawn immediately followed its movement diagonally downwards, as a straight line was drawn in the air. The blade seemed to be able to cut through anything, as it made contact with the protection spell once again.
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Shang!
A loud sound resounded in the cave. After the sound, there was a silence for a moment, but it didn't last long.
"ARRRRGH!" the cave was now filled with the magicians screams of pain.
The barrier was cleanly cut. In addition, the man's body chest was cut diagonally. It was not enough to kill him, but he was severely injured. He held his chest with his hand as he fell on his knee. He began taking big breadths again.
"You..." The man began to curse at Elin.
While the man was cursing, Elin's mind was somewhere else. Something was wrong. Elin knew this, something had gone terribly awry. He needed to kill the man immediately.
Elin looked at the man, intending to kill him. But, he was just a bit late. The man stopped cursing, and he began slowly standing back up. He removed his hand from his chest, he let out a small sigh, then began to chuckle.
"Hahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!" The cave was filled with the man's maniacal laughter.
Elin was just a bit late.
"Fuck!"
The man slowly put his hand under the hood, and touched his face. He slowly lifted his hood. He laughed again and again. He stood up, removing his palm from his face. An enormous amount of mana pushed Elin backwards before he could even make a move. Finally, his face could be seen.
The man looked horrendous; he had scars all over his head and face. His left eye had no eyelids, and his other eye had stiches around it to prevent it from closing. His hands seemed to have been burned. His physical appearance was weak, and skinny but, the dark mana emanating from him told a different story. The boxes around the cave cracked just from the added pressure of the mana.
"A 3 star? No. 4 star mage? A dark mage at that? Damn it! My day can't get worse." Elin cursed internally as he readied himself for the fight.
He wanted to attack, but the mana was pushing him away. Elin put his sword in front of him to block the dark mana as it pushed him harder. Elin was being pushed back. Regardless, Elin's current situation was both bad and good.
It was bad, because Elin did not manage to disrupt the summoning. However it was good because, the man was just wasting mana instead of actually fighting.
The man's eyes suddenly began glowing red, as his scrunched up body. Red eyes. Red eyes, symbolized demons, so a person could never have red eyes no matter what. But, this man had them.
"Some dark magic technique, that is. Can't you make yourself look better instead?" Elin attempted to provoke the man more.
Elin was not at all confident about beating a demon in his current position. It would be a death sentence to fight something like a demon head on. But, it didn't matter right now; Elin had to focus. He had to eliminate the man.
The man ignored Elin's remarks and instead had a smug look on his face as if he had already won. And, to a certain degree it was true.
"Oh? What is this? An expert level swords man is after me? Should I be honored?" the red eyed magician spoke.
"Honor? It's surprising you can still feel that shit, fucking coward!" Elin retorted.
"You...That cockiness will be your downfall!"
Elin began moving as soon as the short conversation between Elin and the dark mage ended. He ran towards the man with his sword out behind his waist and lowered stature.
Dark mana conjured near the man's right hand. The mana was compressed into the man's hand into a ball the size of a marble.
By the time the mana gathered, Elin had come close enough to slash at him, with his lowered position. He slashed at the man's right hand. The dark mana suddenly burst into many needles and attacked in all directions in front of the man.
Elin quickly retracted his slash and brought his sword near his chest. Elin managed to block the needles which almost hit his vitals using his sword.
The needles were about 6 inch long and a bit thick, so they were a bit easy to deflect. That didn't mean Elin managed to block or deflect all of them. He back away when the mana marble exploded, and managed to deny most of the damage.
Elin's armor deflected any he had missed previously, however one single needle managed to hit him on the shoulder which weaved itself between the joints. The wound wasn't very deep; it did sting a bit though. Elin lifted his hand and pulled out the needle which dissipated soon.
The mana began to get pulled into the man's hand again.
"Ugh! So annoying", Elin clicked his tongue.
Elin couldn't sense the man at all. The man was different; he was very different than any dark mage Rebecca had faced. But, Elin was confident that he could win even with all his problems. Although it would be a hard fight because Elin could barely tell the change in direction of the mana.
***
The fight between Elin and the dark mage had begun. But, something else was happening to the side. The man was about 3 meters away from the magic circle. Elin was about 20 meters away from the man himself. The circle was glowing red, and the mana around it was pulsating.
10 minutes. Elin had 10 minutes to kill the dark mage and stop the summoning.
The mana was again compressed into a small marble sized ball. Elin took a more defensive position, the ball burst. This time instead of needles there was a long ribbon of dark magic, with a flick of the dark mage it chased after Elin. Elin ran towards the man-
Elin dodged towards his right the ribbon of mana missed his body. A loud sound resounded in the cave room. With a spin, Elin cut off the ribbon as he jumped forward.
Another ribbon of dark mana followed Elin as he was leaping forward. It seemed to want to tie and pull Elin away, as it followed Elin at an incredible speed. Elin peeked behind himself and saw the ribbon which had almost caught up to him.
He rotated his right arm, and struck the ground as he used the force to propel himself upwards. The ribbon followed soon, but Elin caught it. The ribbon twisted and rotated to throw Elin away as it swung around the cave.
This plan of the dark mage back fired when Elin instead pulled on the ribbon with incredible strength. Elin clenched so hard, his hand began to bleed as blood seeped through his armor. The ribbon were still connected to the dark mage, so in theory if he pulled hard enough he could reach him quicker.
The dark mage noticed this and tried to throw Elin towards the wall, he was too late. Elin cut the ribbon as the momentum carried him towards the mage instead.
BOOM!
With a loud bang, Elin landed right in front of the mage.
8 minutes. There was a spark of mana above the magic circle. It was an ember which flickered on and off as the fight continued in the distance.
Elin used the momentum of the landing to shoulder bash the mage. Elin bashed his shoulder on the dark mage's chest-
"Kugh!" the dark mage spat out as he was pushed back a bit.
Elin took at the position as he stabbed the off-balance dark mage.
Clang!
The blade hit something solid and was deflected. It was a barrier made of magic. The mage quickly jumped backwards as he conjured another spell. Elin used the momentum of the deflected blade to spin around and strike it again. The barrier was destroyed in a second.
Elin leaped forward, making sure that the dark mage couldn't gain anymore distance. The dark mage put out his hand right in front of Elin's face, as he got closer.
[Fireball], a fireball the size of a fist flew out of his hand. The size of the fireball was smaller than the one Elin had deflected moments before but, the powers contained within them were incomparably stronger.
Elin had to step back as he also held his hand towards the fireball. He caught it, and clenched it in his palm, which left a small charred area on his armor. Just as he was about to attack again, more fireballs came his way.
He looked forward to see 3 fireballs in front of him. He made a horizontal slice in the air, across all the fireballs. The fireballs dissipated into thin air.
"WHAT?! HOW?" The dark mage was astonished at the feat in front of him.
"This isn't it!" The dark mage conjured another spell.
A huge spear of mana flew towards Elin. Elin brought his legs higher and slightly rotated his torso. The spear slammed slightly to his right, Elin slammed down his legs with incredible force. The spear broke into two pieces.
5 minutes. The small ember was now a raging fire that burnt over the magic circle. There was a small tear amidst the fire. But, it was too small for anything to be seen through it.
The dark mage began to throw more fireballs at Elin. Elin dodged sideways towards the sides of the cave. More fireballs came towards him. Elin seemed to be cornered as he was backed up on the wall.
"No more places to run?" the mage provoked him
A fireball was about to be thrown at him. But, Elin was faster. Elin put his hand aside and caught a crate, and pulled his body forward, throwing the crate at the fireball. The crate and the fireball which was just fired collided. The crate broke into smaller pieces as it caught on fire. Those fire pieces hit the mage, and stunned him just for a second.
SLASH!
A vertical upwards slash caught the mage off guard as he backed away. The blade cut his shoulder. Elin didn't wait for the man to regain his posture; he spun sideways and slashed at right.
The mage wanted to make a barrier spell, but it was pointless. The mage's hand fell on the ground with a dull sound.
"ARRRRRRGH!" the mage screamed in pain. Elin didn't stop as he kicked him in the solar plexus.
The mage was off the ground. He hit the ground, and rolled a bit more before hitting a crate and stopping. The force of impact broke the crate, and a stone fell on the ground besides him. The mage was about 10 meters away from Elin. Elin ran as fast as he could towards the mage.
This was it.
But, the mage picked up the stone. He was on his behind and barely up, he smiled at Elin as he pressed on the stone with his left hand. The stone was a dark mana stone; it could restore vitality of a dark mage, and sometimes even increase the effectiveness of their spells.
Elin was right in front of the mage; he lifted his feet to kick the mage.
Crack!
2 minutes. The tear in the air was getting bigger, as the fire seemed to encircle the tear. The tear was now the size of a fist and red eyes could be seen through them.
Elin's leg hit a barrier. The barrier cracked due the large amount of force on it. The dark magician slowly stood up, he used the wall to leverage him up. The mage touched his face with his left hand and looked at his right one.
"You bastard!!!" He shouted at Elin, trying to make a move but Elin was faster.
Elin spun around and round house kicked the barrier again. The barrier broke again. Elin reached his hands towards the mage's neck.
BOOM!
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[Dark explosion], a big explosion pushed Elin far away. This was a very strong spell, but it had a big caveat. When used by dark mages who weren't very experienced. It was a double edged sword.
The dark mage was also hit by the explosion, and hit the cave wall. He fell down again.
1 minute. The tear in space was the size of a face, as something could be seen moving around on the other side.
The time was running out. Elin needed to kill the mage in 60 seconds. He stood up, the damage he took from the explosion was too much.
"If only I had aura, if only-", He pushed himself up using his knee.
He had no time, he leapt forward. The mage conjured his mage; strange noises could be heard around him.
Elin ran towards the mage, suddenly a wall stood in front of him. The wall was pure black, made of magic. Elin used an enormous amount of force to strike the wall of mana. The wall shook. Again, he hit it again, the cave shook.
Cracks began to appear on the wall.
Slam!
The wall broke down. Elin had no time, he rushed at the mage. He dodged right, and rolled again.
Strands of mana wrapped around each other, to form a hand. The hand was quite big, about a height of a one story building. The hands slammed Elin's position, but Elin was much quicker than the hand.
Slam!
The hand slammed the last position Elin was in, Elin jumped up and climbed the hand. He reverse gripped the sword and climbed just a bit higher. And, he leapt towards the dark mage and slashed downwards.
[Sword slash: Type 12]
Whirlwind cut
The hand of strands of dark mana was cut, and the recoil from the slash propelled Elin forwards. Elin flew towards the mage. The mage threw a fireball at him. He put his sword forward, when the sword and the fireball made contact, he slightly rotated his blade and brought it closer to his chest. He deflected the fireball, and was pushed a bit sideways.
10 seconds. Elin landed on the ground 10 meters away from the mage, and put all the force of the landing on the ground, threw himself forward.
9 seconds. The mage conjured up an explosion of mana needles in front of him. He backed away even more but, was stopped by the cave wall.
8 seconds. Elin slashed his sword forward pre-emptively, predicting some attack.
7 seconds. The needles exploded in all directions in front of the mage.
6 seconds. Many needles were deflected by Elin's pre-emptive slashes, but many dug into his shoulder and knees. He was hurt, but he couldn't stop yet.
5 seconds.
5 meter distance remaining, the dark mage made 2 barriers in front of him; he coughed up black blood due to mana exhaustion. Elin raised his sword above his head, and slammed the ground like a hammer propelling him forwards into the air. He felt his wrist crack under his armor, as he flew above the barrier, at the mage.
The mage was caught off guard. He made another barrier on him facing Elin. Elin slammed onto the barrier, his wrists shook even more, and he stood on it. The dark mage was panting, he was sweating buckets, and he swiped his mouth and cleaned his face. He was scared, but this was it. He would win.
SLAM!
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[Sword slash: Type 10]
Star-fall Slam
The barrier broke down in and instant, Elin felt his wrists cry out in pain, but his eyes were cold. He landed right in front of him. The dark mage was taken aback, he took a step backwards, but this was the end.
Following the moment of the slam, Elin continued his skill to his next stage.
[Sword slash: Type 9]
Cyclone slice
Elin lowered his position, and spun around, as he put all his strength on his now broken wrists. He pulled the sword with all his force, and drew a circle in the air. The slash went right through the dark mage's neck.
The force of the strike lifted up the dust in the area. The dust flew around them like a cyclone and it slowly calmed down. The wall had a huge slice of it taken from the skill used by Elin, as the cave itself shook.
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But, something was wrong.
The incongruity. He hadn't felt the mage die or get injured. Then he realized why. As the dust calmed down, 'it' came to view.
Dark crimson skin, cracks like glass on them which glowed purple, hollow eyes and smiling from ear to ear. Its teeth were like black obsidian with a red glow, all of them were sharp. A dark purple smoke came out of its mouth. If snakes could smile, it wouldn't even compare to the hideousness which was in front of Elin.
A red glow came out of the hollow eyes which spread nightmares around it. Black clouds fumed around its body hiding its hideous figure of a skinny slouched man around 2 meters tall with gargoyle wings which covered its body. It's leg was that of a tytron(1), in a lowered position; it had protected its summoner.
Its head was strangely human, with 2 pair of horns. The pair of horns went straight up with a slight backwards curve to them. The horns were quite big, and had a dark aura radiating around it.
It snapped its head. It looked at Elin; its hideous smile grew bigger. 'It' had been summoned.
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A lesser demon.
(1)tytron: The musimon (also known as the tityrus or tytron) is a charge in European heraldry. It is a cross between a goat and a sheep; it has the feet and body of a goat, the head and beard of a ram, and two horns from each for a total of four—two curved and two straight.