There was no time to seal the opening with a third wall. From outside the temple, Treius grinned as his spell invaded the small space between the pillar and the conjured walls. ’It’s too late to Blink away. With the walls around him and the incoming attack, he can’t visualize an exit point. Checkmate!’ His smug expression disappeared when he noticed that the Ranger was taking to damage. Wave after wave, the lightning ring surrounding the main temple faded away, yet Lith was unscathed. ’After the orc shaman used the crystal to unleash real lightning against me, I knew I had to come out with a solution. Luckily, a Faraday’s cage is as cheap as effective.’ Lith thought while inside a bell shaped copper mesh large enough to give him some person space. ’This doesn’t make sense. How can metal protect from lightning?’ Treius couldn’t believe his own eyes. The flimsy grate had withstood all of his attacks. Lith put the cage back inside his pocket dimension before flying out of the window that was in the opposite direction of his opponent. With the Gatekeeper in his hand, he circled around the castle walls while preparing a new set of spells. Treius was outraged. Even after witnessing his power, the Ranger wasn’t running away. He had the gall of thinking he could actually win. Treius opened a Warp Steps leading right behind Lith. Each finger of his left hand crackled with the energy of a different spell ready to be released. The moment Lith saw the Warp Steps forming on the other side of the building, he turned around and spotted the exit point. On the other side, there was a young man about twenty years old. He was dressed in a white long wool robe and what reminded Lith of a tagelmust, the turban symbol of the Tuareg people. They emphasized his dark bronze skin and the colourful makeup around his eyes. Lith had never met someone that didn’t look Caucasian on Mogar. A part of his mind wondered if the young man came from the Blood Desert, but his survival instinct was focused on the fact that he had yet to see the enemy perform a single hand sign. ’I knew it! The sucker is an Awakened too, but he hasn’t realized this a fair fight. Or better, it was.’ Lith thought while unleashing all the spells he had ready through the portal. Treius gasped in surprise when six fireballs exploded around him from every direction. Ice spears the size of a small tree had invaded all of the surrounding space, waiting for their master’s order to strike. Just like Lith a few seconds before, Treius couldn’t Blink. Both the explosion and the ice spears covered an area bigger of the dimensional spell’s measly ten meters (66’) range. ’I could exceed the limit, but it would cost me a lot of mana. It’s not a luxury I can afford, not against another Awakened one. The only way he could spot the Warp Steps despite the castle blocking his visual is with Life Vision!’ Treius thought. He was surprised, but not scared. One of his bracelets generated a powerful barrier made of pure mana that blocked the heat, the shockwaves, and the spears at the same time. The enchanted item wasn’t devised to block such a powerful combined attack. The barrier cracked at several points. The pseudo core fueling the protection was quickly depleting its energy reserves. The mana crystals embedded on the silver bracelet turned dull one after the other. During the split second Treius was blinded by the explosions, Lith Blinked through the enemy’s Warp Steps, lunging with all the strength he had. The Gatekeeper crashed the magical protection only to be stopped by a second one. The attack had been so fast that the new barrier had formed around the blade. Part of the Gatekeeper was inside, stuck like the proverbial in the stone. Treius turned around just in time to see darkness magic that coursed through the weapon filling the space inside the barrier with a black miasma. With no option left, he Blinked away. Treius knew that Lith would see his exit point and intercept him, but he would get away from the deadly spell and the barrier would still block any incoming attack. Lith knew it too, yet instead of pursuing the enemy he remained where he was kept weaving spells. The moment Treius reappeared, a volley of fireballs crashed against his barrier with enough strength to push him backward. ’What a cunning bastard.’ Treius thought. ’The mana released by the explosions in blinding my Life Vision and with barrier active I cannot retaliate even if I guess his position from the fireballs.’ point of impact. ’He must be buying time for something big, like an array. It’s a good plan, too bad I saw through it. A trap it’s not a trap if you know where it is.’ Treius bolted in the opposite direction the fireballs came from, pushing his flying spell to its limits. Before the smoke could dissipate, he crashed against a solid rock wall. Even with the enhanced body of an Awakened, the impact was enough to crack his head, broke his nose, and squeeze all the air out of his lungs. With several ribs cracked, even breathing was an agony. ’Impossible.’ Treius’s mind couldn’t accept the idea that the items his uncle had crafted had failed him. ’Nothing can get past the barriers, no matter if it moves fast or slowly. They react even to mana. How could his spell blatantly ignore them?’ The broken nose made it hard for him to breathe, just like tears of pain blurred his vision. It took him a while to realize he had hit the castle walls. While Treius was blinded, Lith had opened a Warp Gate beyond him, using the explosions to push him through. The dimensional door had moved the youth away from the sky and very close to the ground nearby the castle. Unless Treius moved upwards, he was bound to crash into something. ’The barrier works just fine. It just isn’t designed to protect me by myself!’ Treius had just started to heal his wounds when Lith plunged from the sky like a meteor. The impact with the Gatekeeper infused with darkness magic caused the barrier to crack instantly. Treius didn’t panic. He used the few seconds the dying protection bought him to open a Warp Steps that closed as soon as he crossed it, leaving the Gatekeeper biting air. ’Where the heck did he go? He can’t Warp outside Kaduria, he must still be nearby.’ Lith thought. ’He’s not within the range of my mana sense. I couldn’t see well inside the Steps, but it was a big closed space. We can deal with him later, let’s finish the Black Star first.’ Solus suggested. Treius had escaped to the main temple. His wounds were healing and Invigoration was restoring his energy reserves, but he knew it wasn’t enough. The Ranger was more than ten centimeters (4") taller and ten kilograms heavier than him. Treius cursed at himself for not practicing self defence or magic like his uncle always encouraged to. Yet seeing the cursed item almost broken gave him hope.