Seven opponents. One Aiden.
Then—
They attacked.
[Firestorm Pillar!]
Kael gestured with his hand and magic circle formed as a vortex of fire erupted beneath Aiden. The flames surged into the sky, spiraling into a towering inferno that burned with such intensity that the very air wavered and distorted.
Fast. No chant. No delay. He's skilled.
Before the attack was initiated, Aiden's instincts screamed even before his mind could fully process the spell's activation.
His Psychic Sense flared, reading the mana fluctuations beneath him—heat surge.
Compression. Expansion. Ignition.
[Water Tide!]
And before the flame erupted, Aiden's hand shot downward, and in an instant, a geyser of water burst from beneath his feet, engulfing his entire body before the flame burst out and engulfed him, cooling the intense heat before it could scorch his skin.
The water didn't just douse the fire, It acted as a buffer, carrying Aiden's body upward with the force of the eruption, propelling him high above the battlefield.
At the same time—
"Glacial Tomb!"
Seraphina clasped her hands, and the temperature plummeted.
The flames were instantly countered as a ring of ice burst outward, freezing the fire itself solid, but this wasn't to help Aiden.
Aiden, already within the orb of water turned ice, felt his limbs stiffen. The cold crept into his very bones, sapping his strength.
Fire consumed the oxygen.
Ice stole the warmth.
A deadly combination.
Aiden reacted instantly.
"[Mana Zone!]"
He muttered and a wave of invisible mana exploded outward from his body, disrupting the elemental forces around him causing the ice to crack and shatter, allowing him to fall back to the ground and catch his breath.
But they weren't done.
"[Void Chains!]"
Sylara's voice echoed as the air twisted. Dark chains of spatial magic shot toward Aiden, distorting reality as they approached.
At the same time—
"[Thunderclap Judgement!]"
Eryndor's body crackled with white lightning, and a blinding white bolt surged down from the sky, aiming to obliterate Aiden on impact.
They're stacking their spells.
Aiden's mind raced.
If he dodged the chains, the lightning would incinerate him.
If he blocked the lightning, the chains would bind him in place.
So, he did both.
"[Phantom Veil!]"
His body flickered, splitting into three translucent afterimages—each mimicking his movements.
The chains wrapped around one image. The lightning strike obliterated another.
But the third was already gone.
Capitalising on the smokescreen created by the lightning strike, Aiden used a [Blink] to move towards the Archmage with a robust physique who hadn't even attacked.
The moment his feet touched the ground, his Aura flared.
Valen barely had time to react before Aiden was in front of him.
"[Fist of the Gale King!]"
Using an aura based fist technique, Aiden's fist crashed into Valen's gut, carrying a tornado-like force behind it. The sheer impact ruptured the air, sending shockwaves across the castle ground.
Valen Skidded back, his body reinforced by layered mana shields, but Aiden wasn't finished.
Fire surged from his left hand.
Ice formed in his right.
"[Infernal Blizzard!]"
He thrust both hands forward, merging the opposing elements into a spiraling storm of burning frost and freezing flames.
Valen Roared, reinforcing his defenses but it wasn't enough.
The spell bypassed his magical resistance, its conflicting temperatures shredding the barriers apart.
And just then,
"[Seismic Pulse!]"
Aiden stomped the ground, sending a shockwave of kinetic force through the earth. The unstable terrain buckled beneath Valen, and before he could regain his footing—"[Lunar Breaker!]"
Aiden delivered a devastating roundhouse kick, coated in pure Aura, cracking Valen's ribs and launching him like a comet into the corner of the area.
'One down.' Aiden thought and turned, his breathing steady, but that's when he saw the abyss creeping toward him.
Malek, the Dark Warlock, had been chanting uninterrupted.
"Eternal Devourer… awaken."
A monstrous vortex of darkness expanded from Malek's position, consuming the very mana in the air. Aiden felt his magic weakening, his mana control slipping.
And just then, the shadows came alive.
Aiden's Psychic Sense screamed as tendrils of void energy lashed out at him from every direction, their mere presence corrupting the mana flow around them, which meant...
Teleportation was impossible.
Counter-spells were unstable.
Direct contact would corrode his body.
But Aiden had already seen through it.
"[Celestial Ignition.]"
Aiden's aura flared, a golden radiance surging outward in a violent explosion of purifying energy.
The darkness that had crept toward him recoiled instantly, hissing and distorting as if it were alive, struggling against the overwhelming light.
Celestial Ignition wasn't just an attack, it was an absolute cleansing force. The very particles of mana within the space were suffused with a divine brilliance.
This skill was created by Aiden, using his light affinity to attract light based mana which he used to refine his Aura, giving it a cleansing golden brilliance.
But this was only part one.
"[Astral Rend!]"
His fingers traced a sigil in the air, and from it, a crescent blade of pure astral energy shot forth, aimed directly at Malek.
The warlock's eyes widened. "[Darkness Barrier!]"
He raised a defensive barrier, a sphere of layered darkness designed to absorb magical attacks.
But Aiden wasn't attacking him.
The Astral Rend wasn't aimed at Malek, it was aimed at the shadows beneath him.
The astral energy severed the connection between Malek and his darkness magic, causing the vortex to destabilize.
For a split second, Malek was vulnerable and Aiden moved.
"[Burst Step]"
A pulse of compressed aura exploded beneath his feet, propelling him forward at blinding speed.
Before Malek could react, Aiden's Aura-clad palm struck his chest.
"[Tathagatha Palm]"
A pulse of kinetic force exploded inside Malek's body, shattering his internal organs and disrupting his mana flow.
His spell collapsed as his body crashed against the ground.
Two down.
Aiden exhaled slowly, keeping his breathing controlled. His Psychic Sense expanded, scanning the battlefield.
"Five left. Who's nex-"
However, they wouldn't give him a moment to rest.
Seraphina extended her hand, and Aiden immediately felt a shift in the air.
The feeling was familiar. 'Hmm? Isn't this-'
"[Absolute Zero!]"
Frost exploded from her position, swallowing the battlefield in an instant. The very concept of heat was erased. The ground crystallized, Aiden's breath froze in his lungs, and even the lingering embers from previous spells flickered out as if the world itself had stopped.
'A domain? No, a condensed field of ice magic so refined it mimicked one.' Aiden who was initially shocked quickly analysed and came to a conclusion.
"[Flame Emperor's Reign!]"
Golden flames erupted from his body, not just fire, but pure incandescent energy like the sun burning against the cold.
Similar to the [Lightning Cloak] technique that directly converts mana into lightning, this technique does the same but into Fire.
The frost retreated violently, the two opposing forces clashing in an eruption of steam that blanketed the battlefield in a thick white fog.
But while Aiden was alone, Seraphina wasn't.
"[Hallowed Spear!]"
Kael's voice rang out, and through the mist, Aiden felt it, a spear of golden light piercing through reality itself. It was fast. Faster than any previous spell and he knew if it hit, it would surely cause some level of damage.
Afterall, the spear's colour was similar to his flame cloak, and in magic, colours were important factors in guaging the strength of spells.
"[Blink!]"
Aiden's body flickered just as the spear tore through where he once stood, the sheer force of its passage splitting the mist apart, but Kael wasn't done. He raised his hands.
"[Heaven's Judgment!]"
A second spear, then a third, then ten.
The sky rained golden destruction, each spear a concentrated bolt of mana, locking onto Aiden's mana signature.
A multi-layered tracking spell.
Aiden's eyes narrowed. If he let this continue, he'd be forced on the defensive.
He raised both hands and brought them together in a clapping position.
"[Mana Overdrive!]"
His mana surged to its limits, crackling through the air like an unrestrained tempest.
This was a technique that doubled the mana of any mage for a period of time, however, it came with a risk of the user rampaging due to the overload to the mind.
Aiden wasn't bothered by this as his mind wasn't like those of others.
The ground exploded beneath him as he launched himself forward, not away from the spears, but toward Kael.
A spear closed in, he twisted midair, narrowly avoiding decimation. Another curved toward him, Aiden deflected it with a blade of pure aura, splitting it apart.
A third—he redirected, guiding it to crash into the frozen battlefield, sending ice shards flying in every direction.
Kael's eyes widened as Aiden closed the distance between them. And just when he thought about increasing the distance between them…
"[Wind Severance!]"
Aiden slashed the air with his hand sending a compressed blade of mana that carried the wind as it moved, cutting toward Kael.
Kael being an Archmage was experienced enough and reacted instantly—"[Aegis of Light!]" A golden barrier wrapped around him.
But that was exactly what Aiden wanted.
The moment the wind slash collided with the shield—
"[Dispel!]"
Aiden's mana behind the attack surged, disrupting the flow of Kael's barrier, causing it to flicker in and out, and in that brief moment, Aiden blinked to his front and struck.
"[Blazing Tempest Fist!]"
With his body still coated in the Golden Flames from the [Flame Emperor] his aura-coated fist, burning with concentrated fire and wind, crashed into Kael's exposed chest.
A sonic boom rang out as Kael was launched backward, his body tumbling across the area before crashing into a frozen pillar.
Three down.
The moment Aiden brought his hand down, he rolled to the side just as a crackling black lance pierced the ground where he had just stood.
Sylara.
She was already weaving another spell, her hands moving in a blur as magic circles formed and dissipated behind her.
Aiden's Psychic Sense flared in alarm. He could feel the structure of the spell forming, its purpose.
Not just darkness.
Not just void.
Time magic.
His mind snapped to full alert.
He was familiar with this. When you compress space enough, you get a state similar to it after all.
Sylara's voice rang out.
"[Time Magic: Temporal Lock!]"
The spell completed. A pulse of ethereal energy spread outward and Aiden felt the shift immediately.
His movements slowed.
No. Not just slowed.
The world itself had slowed down.
Aiden's vision narrowed. This wasn't a normal time spell. It wasn't stopping time, it was increasing the weight of time on his body alone.
Even his thoughts were moving sluggishly.
This was a new experience for Aiden and for the first time since acquiring the ability, he found the perfect technique it countered.
[Thought Acceleration.]
Sylara, who was already preparing the killing blow, didn't notice anything since Aiden's body remained unmoving.
But Aiden who was already in an accelerated thought perspective forced his mana to circulate at maximum capacity.
If time wanted to slow him down, then he only needed to move faster.
His Aura burned.
His Mana flared.
His Psychic Energy surged.
Three forces in perfect harmony.
Aiden's lips barely moved as he forced the spell through the temporal resistance.
"[Full Body Enhancement: Acceleration.]"
The moment the words left his lips, his body blurred and he reappeared behind Sylara before she could even perceive the movement.
Her eyes barely widened before Aiden's palm struck the back of her head while using [Tathagatha Palm].
The moment his palm connected, a controlled surge of astral energy passed through Sylara's skull, disrupting the delicate equilibrium of her nervous system.
Her mana circuits stuttered, severed from her conscious control, and her psychic defenses shattered like fragile glass.
Her vision blurred. Her body refused to respond.
She didn't feel pain. She didn't feel anything.
The world simply—vanished.
Her lips parted slightly, as if to speak, but no sound came.
Then, she collapsed.
Unconscious before she even realized what had happened.
Four down.
Aiden exhaled.
The remaining three were regrouping.
Seraphina, still standing strong.
Eryndor, lightning flickering across his arms.
And—
Valen.
The man he had already taken down was rising to his feet, his body trembling but still moving.
Aiden's eyes narrowed.
Valen grinned, blood running down his chin.
"Thought I was done?" He spat disdainfully, blood mixed in with his phlegm. "I'm just getting started."
His body crackled with power.
No. Not just his body.
The very mana in the battlefield was reacting to him.
Seraphina clasped her hands.
Eryndor's lightning intensified.
Aiden realized what was happening.
They weren't just strong individually.
They were strong together.
A formation?
No.
Something more.
Valen grinned wider, his voice like a thunderclap.
"Let's show you what a true Archmage team can do."
The air rumbled and Aiden braced himself.
Apparently, the real fight was just about to begin.