Chapter 3697: Up Close and Personal (Part 2) The conversation had yet to end and the spells to be recalled, that Lith’s core temperature stabilized. He dug his way out of the encirclement and the gravity array, taking the skies again. ‘Don’t let him reach Dragonspeed or we’ll have to start everything over again!’ Uryn passed a series of orders that the rest of the Awakened executed. Jissha the Roc was the fastest in the group, and despite her previous failed attempt, she didn’t hesitate to charge forward after activating Living Thunder. Air resistance disappeared as she rode Mogar’s magnetic field, reaching Lith in the blink of an eye. He had barely the time to take a deep breath before she swept through him. This time, he conjured Noxious and Nether Flames, using the latter and keeping the former at the ready. The cursed earth element carried by the orange flames grounded the electricity and then split it into countless chaotic streams, tearing Jissha’s ethereal body to shreds. That was within Uryn’s calculations, and so was the Healer ready to pick the Roc’s pieces and put them together before it was too late. Lith had struck with half the flames and used the other half to protect Valeron, just like Uryn had predicted. The attack had failed to kill the Tiamat, but had succeeded in slowing him down and numbing his limbs enough for Cailm to strike. The Orthrus emerged from a Warp Steps while Lith was still stunned, leaving him no option but to release the Noxious Flames from his mouth. The air became a toxic acid, but Cailm had come prepared. Both his heads only had defensive spells at the ready, and he was holding his breath. The cursed flames overpowered his defense, but they had so little strength left that Mana Body snuffed them out. ‘Fuck me sideways, the guy was just a diversion to make me waste my flames. I’ve fallen into a trap!’ Lith thought, turning his head just in time to see another Warp Steps opening just a split second after the Orthrus’. Zakra the Titania bolted out of it at full speed, her ten blades ablaze with their respective enchantments and all of them aimed at Lith’s left arm. Or rather, at Valeron. ‘Daughter of a bastard!’ Lith conjured his Golems just for Raptor to be pressed down by a Gravity Array he barely dodged, and Trouble to be shot down by the tier five Spirit Spell, Phoenix Smash. The emerald flames would damage the Golem’s body and power core both, draining its energy reserves twice as fast. Lith parried the first strike, barely deflected the second, and by the third attack, his right arm was so numb from the impacts that he couldn’t move it anymore. The Titania was much stronger than the Tiamat and had eight strikes left. Lith deflected the third and fourth with his membranous wings, and the fifth with his spiked tail. When the sixth blade arrived, his limbs failed him and forced him to resort to his Spirit Barrier. “Got you, you slimy eel!” Zakra hit the emerald wall with all five blades at once instead of one at a time. The violence of the impact sent Lith crashing to the ground, digging a several-meter-deep crater and bringing his escape to a halt. ‘Phase three was a success.’ Uryn clenched his fist in triumph. ‘Move on to phase four. Jissha, Cailm, do not join the fight until you have fully recovered. Don’t become a liability Verhen can exploit.’ Almost as if Uryn had predicted the future, Trouble and Raptor entered and exited the pocket dimension. They had freed themselves from the trap and joined their master in a single move. Trouble charged at the Titania, taking all her ten blades and bathing her in a pillar of darkness element generated by his black crystal. Zakra withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, but Lelira Blinked the Titania to safety. Fae needed no Healer. Merging with the ground was enough to gain all the nutrients they wanted, and their innate regenerative ability would do the rest. Gamra the Sphinx charged at Lith from the left side but found Raptor ready to intercept him with a swing of his Snakebite blade. Lith recalled the Golems one split second before two tier five spells struck them from above and released them just in time to block two of the five enemies coming at him. ‘The bastard is quick on his feet.’ Lelira couldn’t hide a tinge of admiration in her thoughts. ‘It’s a waste to kill Verhen, but it’s his choice.’ ‘Who cares about that?’ Uryn asked all those not fighting for their lives to help him understand the root of their problem. ‘How does Verhen react so quickly, and how do we stop him? Those are the relevant questions.’ Lith moved with the speed one could expect from a bright violet-cored Divine Beast, but his reflexes and hand-to-eye coordination were hard to believe. He moved before the attacks started and countered at every opening he found while dealing with three skilled Awakened fighters at the same time. His armor was enchanted with the Full Guard spell, but everyone used it and only Lith achieved such results. Lith knew that away from a mana geyser, the Ears of Menadion couldn’t tap into its true power, but he had learned from Ripha that there was no need to. Just like during the training sessions in the Garden of Mogar, Lith ignored all mana flows but one. His own. He had learned during the first lesson how to keep his focus on a single mana flow and the ripples it generated upon crashing into another. From so close, Lith needed to scan with the Ears just a couple of meters around his body to collect all the information he needed. The flow of the enemy’s spells, the activation of the enchantments in their blades, when fusion magic spiked and in what limb before every attack. Everything was within the small corner he had built for his survival. On top of that, Ragnarök fought as mean and dirty as its master. “Protect the daughter! Protect the son!” The angry blade howled as the teeth along its edge bit deeply into the enemy weapons with each clash. The teeth trapped the other blades, pulling and pushing at them however Ragnarök saw fit. The Awakened couldn’t advance and retreat as they wanted due to the angry blade forcing them to dance to its tune and ruining their tempo. Attacks that were supposed to flow in a seamless barrage failed because one or more Awakened were always out of position. The angry blade also used this tactic to break the enemy stance and create openings for Lith to attack. Yet none of that was enough. The numerical, tactical, and ambush advantages would have been enough to overwhelm Lith in his peak condition. Now, however, he carried the burden of a small life in his left arm. A small life that cried in fear, and that his enemies attacked relentlessly. A little life that kept his left arm useless by his side and forced Lith to take blows he would have otherwise deflected. ‘This is taking too long.’ Uryn looked at the many wounds on Lith’s body that were closing due to light fusion. ‘At this pace, someone else is going to die before Verhen. Move on to phase five on my mark. Mark!’