Forget detection abilities, the surrounding area is completely level.
There's nothing to hide behind.
"They will definitely send strong defenders after us, but if we're quick then we won't have to deal with reinforcements like dragons. Even if that dragon delayed reporting back as long as possible they are still close behind." Elestra briefs.
"She has a name, you know." I scoffed at her just calling Liora 'dragon'. Even I can remember the names of people I just fought.
Now that I think of it, has she even called me by name yet or is she going to refer to me like that too?
"You can't waste your time fighting every small fry. You just need to get inside as fast as possible. I can take care of Shiba for that long." Elestra continues.
"I don't need to be taken care of! I can help too!" Shiba complains.
"All you can do is shoot arrows, so why did you even come knowing how much danger there would be?" Elestra retorts without mercy.
"Every adventure has danger! No one will be able to pick on Lupri anymore if I become a hero that helped take down the demon lord!" Shiba responds energetically.
"What makes you think they would see you as a hero? Not everyone has it like the Lupri." Elestra states, once again trying to shoot down his naive motivations.
If I were a good friend I would probably be defending him, but she's right.
"Fine. But at least we won't be made fun of anymore." He mumbles.
Elestra doesn't seem impressed with his seemingly weak resolve.
I'm not either.
"Let's just make a break for it and hope we get there before anyone stops us." I interject.
Hoping for anything never works out for me.
"Whatever you do in the fortress, you have to make sure you avoid Senna. Not even I know what her power is, and spacial abilities are already very strong." Elestra warns me out of the blue.
"Well, okay?" I respond, not really understanding why I should be more scared of a lackey than the literal god of a boss.
If the minion is scary then the boss should be way scarier.
We only got like halfway before being intercepted by a swordsman in a leather tunic and what I can only really describe as a dark elf wielding a bow.
They looked oddly too similarly matched to my companions.
"As expected, Senna doesn't want all of us coming at once. Hurry up and go, dragon. There's nothing we can do to subvert her planning, if you stay here then reinforcements will arrive by the time we're finished." Elestra urges me forward.
I don't want to leave them here! I'll have to constantly worry about if they lose or not!
"Just go!" Elestra commands.
"We'll definitely win, Lava!" Shiba encourages.
It's impossible for me to refuse under this pressure.
At the same time, it's worrying that the enemies did not even try to stop me.
Whatever, I just need to remember what I'm here for!
Even if everything is planned, I just have to be determined enough to shatter those plans! Something will work out.
I dashed full speed, and prepared to jump over the wall, but I was stopped by a group of people with spears that looked somewhat familiar.
"It's you! The dragon that forced our newest settlement to abandon!" They yell furiously.
Ah, so they're more Ralei? I thought I just told them not to mess with the Lupri, though? It's their fault if they abandoned it.
They don't seem to care, as they try to stab through me with long spears, some of them even extend through magic.
But it's not enough to get through my defense.
With the tips I received from Elestra, I create a large rounded barrier and move it forward to push them all against the wall.
Now I have them trapped in there!
From there it's as easy as breathing my not so hot fire on them.
It doesn't really burn, but making people fall asleep because of the reacting Mana is useful.
I don't even wait for the plume of purple to clear, as soon as I see them drop I'm over the wall, looking for an entrance.
A window is as good of an entrance as any other.
I find the first window I could and broke in with ease, landing in a cold, poorly lit hallway that had pillars holding the ceiling up.
Shattering the window wasn't the quietest way to get in, but quiet was never really an option anyway.
I definitely feel like there are some people hiding, too. But if they aren't getting in my way they aren't much of a problem.
--- Outside the fortress
"Daiko, you really are desperate to make a legacy for yourself. But I promise you, this isn't the kind of legacy you want." Elestra says, eyeing the man she recognized from before being locked away.
"I'm not going to live that long anyway, you've given me the perfect chance to leave a mark in history before then. Enough judging me, just prepare to lose!" Daiko responds, running forward to swing at Elestra.
"Have you forgotten the kind of prison Azgaroth put me into?" Elestra readies her sword which has seen neverending battle, but as Daiko prepares his strike, his form splits into two versions of himself attacking from opposite directions.
Elestra dodges backwards, unable to block both.
"I admit I never bothered to learn what your ability was, but it doesn't feel like an illusion at all." She mutters in the midst of dodging another pair of swords.
"What are you rambling about?!" Daiko exclaims confidently, stabbing at the right side of her body.
Elestra saw it coming with her superior experience with swords, but she knew this couldn't just be a simple stab.
Every strike has been mirrored exactly... But what if they don't have to be mirrored along the same plane?
Instead of sidestepping the stab, Elestra blocked it and kicked behind her as strongly as she could, squarely hitting the mirror clone behind her and sending Daiko flying backwards.
"So you can mirror your movements, but you still take damage if I hit the clone. Perhaps it's not a clone at all." Elestra states, confident that she's figured out his trick.
"Senna did warn me that you were smarter than I already figured, but it looks like I'm going to have to resort to that much sooner than I thought." Daiko panted.
"Why are you defending that worthless beast?! At least Azgaroth had some semblance of care for his subjects! Grimnal is a tyrant that doesn't even have a single quality to respect, you would build a better legacy helping us bring him down!" Elestra raised her voice. "Wait- what are you doing?!"
"You've read through all of Azgaroth's experiments, haven't you? You should know what this is." Daiko held up a small red orb with small etchings on the surface.
"A soul pill?! You would damage your soul to be granted a fleeting glory?!" Elestra screams at him while he swallows the pill without hesitation. "Damn you! Senna gave that to you knowing you're a fool!"
Daiko is enveloped in a familiar blur of distortion that Elestra can't help but recognize as the same kind Lava is constantly surrounded by.
It's an inevitable side effect since the soul pills use Mana as part of the process instead of Arcana.
"Yes! This is the power I need! I can feel my soul being reborn!" Daiko shouts to the environment.
"You've lost your mind!" Elestra scolds.
"Hahaha, don't you think you're a little too close?!" Daiko warns, as a red box envelops the pair.
Elestra knew she was in the worst situation anyone could be in.
The restructuring of the soul pill has changed his ability into a more powerful form, she knew that much, but now she was inside a spacial ability which she didn't even know the power of.
Where she was once in a flat terrain, there were now reflections everywhere, and the horizon appears infinite.
"Welcome to my mirror dimension!" Daiko converses, lunging out of a shattering crystal above Elestra.
Elestra reacts quickly to block and counter, but it was an illusion.
Instead, she receives a graze that she barely dodged on instinct.
Even using an explosive enchantment here, she would only kill them both at best.
Once again she was locked inside a prison of illusions, but her intellect prevented the hopeless thoughts from taking over.
After all, if this was truly a space capable of perfect illusions, why was she able to dodge at all?
There was only one explanation, she thought.
Elestra stands calmly, waiting for Daiko to try another attack, steeling her mind to avoid being distracted by any dialogue.
One distraction and it's over.
Daiko tries to hit her neck, creating multiple illusions at once from different directions.
But unexpectedly, Elestra ignores all of the illusions and turns around to stab Daiko directly.
"Agh! How?!" Daiko screams in pain from the attack.
Elestra had closed her eyes the entire time.
"It was nothing but a visual illusion. Thankfully I understand how Thane fights while being completely blind, I could just replicate what he does, but even someone with good enough hearing could have done the same."
Daiko is unable to sustain the space from being weakened, leading to it shattering and dissipating.
"There goes my legacy." He rasps.
"Fool, you only had to worry about how your friends will remember you, as they are the ones that write your legacy." Elestra replies to what are likely his final words.
She knew he wouldn't want to survive anyway.
Even surviving using a soul pill would strip anyone of their ability to use magic anymore.
---
Shiba was against another bow user.
He was nervous, this was the first real battle he would have that he didn't have help with, even Elestra was busy fighting that person with a sword.
He tried taking the first shot, and instead of dodging, or even blocking, she nocks her own bow and shoots the incoming arrow right out of the air.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you're as pathetic as you look. Do you think using magic can put you on the same level as someone with skill?" The elf scorns.
"Shut up! Don't underestimate my magic!" Shiba shuts it out and tries to curve some shots, but the elf dodges them with ease, and even grabs one of them out of the air to shoot back.
Thankfully, Shiba has the basic reflexes to manage a dodge.
But in the time it took for him to dodge a single arrow, the dark elf was already right in front of him with her speed ability.
She didn't even bother shooting from a distance, and simply stabs him with an arrow by hand.
Shiba had enough time to get one more arrow out, which misses completely.
The elf is not impressed and pushes him down like dust in the wind.
"You should be honored for me to waste an arrow to finish you off, Lupri."
The elf was about to do just that, when the arrow from earlier passes through her back first.
She let her guard down completely, not even considering the impossible trajectory.
Sometimes being weak is an advantage. But in this case at a price.
Shiba couldn't help but regret that his ambitious dream only made himself a burden.
He saw the confining box around Elestra dissappear, and it revealed that she won just as he expected.
He wished he could have a cool fight like that, but instead he lived up to his race's reputation of being useless.
"Damn it, I got too distracted." Elestra grimaces over his fading body. "Look at her, you won. You're still breathing and she was blown away instantly. Just stay like that and don't let go."
Or so she says, but she knew it wouldn't help.
The reinforcements that they were barely ahead of arrive soon afterward, which consisted of a few dragons.
Elestra could tell one of them was Liora since it was easy to recognize the only one hanging their head.
"There they are!" The larger one growls.
Elestra reached in her cloak ready to deal with them, enchantments were enough to deal with most, but all at once wasn't guaranteed.
"Stop it!" Liora screams and gets in the way.
"You're dropping from a failure to a traitor?" The large dragon scolds firmly.
"I was never one of you! So how can I become a traitor?!" She snaps.
"Fine, then you can-"
Elestra takes the opportunity to throw enchanted plates of wood under each of the other dragons, which explode powerfully.
They're enough to knock out the weaker ones while Liora overpowers the biggest one in their surprise.
"I can heal you! Just don't die yet! You promised to show me to better friends!" Liora cries and desperately starts healing Shiba with her power.