Sigrid's face flushed, gnashing her teeth she tried her best to keep the Night Shroud up and continued to hold the two, now miniature, black spinning orbs in her raised hands. However, keeping the Night Shroud over three people proved to be even too hard for Sigrid with the barrier getting smaller and smaller pushing the trio closer to each other.
The dark beast Kaliyah got even more slower and cautious while getting closer to the camp when it finally was a few paces away from the tents it gently snorted which caused the wolves and trolls circling around the perimeter to freeze in place.
At that moment Sigrid, Oliver and Jerome saw a man with scars all over his body suddenly jump down from the back of the beast to the ground without making any sound. Then Kaliyah took the right tent which was Jerome's and Theron began cautiously walking towards the tent of Oliver and Sigrid.
Sigrid began shaking a little and her feet wobbled making her sway to the right side a little as she kept on holding the spells.
The Night Shroud's radius had already shrunken so much that the slight movement of Sigrid made her lean onto Jerome's arm.
Sigrid shook slightly as her right shoulder pressed right into Jerome's bicep. Sigrid felt like she was leaning against a hard wall before she caught her balance and swiftly huddled closer to Oliver.
"She can hold this only for a few seconds longer, Jerome!" Oliver anxiously said.
Now, Theron and Kaliyah were both being clearly eyed by the hidden couple and began feeling slight unease.
Kaliyah suddenly stopped and turned its head toward Theron signaling him to stop.
"Something feels strange… but I can't quite understand, it almost feels too calm… too easy," Kaliyah thought to itself and started crawling even more carefully.
Theron, noticing Kaliyah's movements, eyes lowered his silhouette and with an unusually serious expression on his face moved towards Oliver and Sigrid's tent.
Jerome's dark eyes followed their movements. His body began to heat up. Slight smoke began to gather around his dark skin, raising the temperature inside the Night Shroud.
Oliver too, feeling the change of Jerome's aura, readied himself for the incoming battle.
Jerome suddenly bent his knees as if ready to jump and shouted. "Now Witch!"
At the same time Kaliyah turned to the left, where a few paces ahead it saw a dark bubble which seemed to be melting down from the top. Kaliyah's razor sharp instincts began screaming to take cover. Kaliyah, now with its fur standing up, growled loudly, "THERON, MOVE!!!"
Unfortunately for them, Kaliyah was not fast enough and as it jumped to its left and Theron jumped backwards while holding his hands to protect his head and chest, razor sharp, thin, black laser-like beams tore through the melting bubble almost instantly piercing all the wolves and trolls who stood on the perimeter before they could even move. Despite their thinness, the black beams evaporated holes the size of two large fists through the bodies of the dire wolves and cave trolls who fell one after another.
Kaliyah and Theron were also not left unscathed by Sigrid's dark magic beams. Kaliyah's left side was grazed by the attack; had the beast reacted a moment later, it would have suffered the same fate as the wolves and trolls, with a hole pierced clean through its body. Instead, the dark fur was scorched, and a deep red gash ran vertically down her side, blood gushing from the wound.
Theron was luckier than his partner, of course his smaller human body size also came into play as he managed to not get hit by any of Sigrid's beams.
The Dark bubble was not fully melted and the beams were gone as if they were never even fired but the trolls and wolves who were put on the perimeter were all dropping dead.
Jerome, who had braced himself for the enemy's counterattack, froze along with them. Like Theron and Kaliyah, he was shaken to his core by the sheer accuracy and destructive power of Sigrid's dark magic. He had expected that taking out even half of them at the perimeter would have been an impeccable ambush. But seeing her annihilate all of them, and even inflict damage on the dark panther-like beast in one strike, while simultaneously keeping him and Oliver concealed within the Night Shroud, made Jerome unconsciously take a step back from Sigrid.
"Shit, I'm glad I didn't slap her ass when she leaned on me earlier. At that range, she could've killed me instantly if she wanted to," Jerome thought, as drops of sweat trickled down his face.
Jerome had always known Sigrid was a powerful mage, but witnessing such a display of raw power made him rethink everything he thought he knew about her. It became clear that they were no longer equals; Sigrid was far above him. Jerome berated himself. "How did she get so powerful? I'm the future head of the Bigge family. I can't let someone like her surpass me by so much…" Other thoughts began to cloud his mind, but he quickly pushed them aside, knowing the main enemies were still right in front of them.
Jerome's body began steaming even more with a ferocious expression on his face Jerome stepped in front of Sigrid and studied their enemies who eyed them down while standing still.
A moment passed, and still, Theron and Kaliyah had made no move after narrowly dodging the trio's ambush. They weren't frozen out of fear or shock; instead, they already knew that the dark mage woman wouldn't be able to cast anything significant for a while. The man beside her, a healer, posed no real threat, and Jerome, the dark-skinned close-range fighter, wouldn't be able to reach them from that distance. Kaliyah and Theron remained calm, a reaction that puzzled the trio, who had expected them to either retreat or attack immediately. However, Kaliyah and Theron understood they had a few precious seconds to calculate their next move: to fight or to retreat.