Lith knew by the positioning of his enemies that even though his current situation was dangerous, it had to be a set up for something even worse. If not for Death Call’s darkness constructs, the two Awakened near his exit point would have already maimed him, but the fact that the other two mages were keeping their distance was what really troubled him. With enough preparation, there was no telling what a true mage could cook up. Blocking the hammer with a spell was impossible, the enemy had already seized control of the ground, and Lith was facing too many threats at the same time to engage two mages sitting at a safe distance in a battle of willpower. Having no idea what kind of spells the enemy weapons might have been imbued with, blocking was not an option and so was Blinking. ’They made so that I can’t block nor dodge, to force me to use dimensional magic.’ He thought. ’Too bad for them that I had time to prepare as well.’ Lith snapped his fingers, unleashing several fireballs at the same time, each one aimed at himself. Flames composed of his own mana couldn’t hurt him while the shockwaves generated by his spells deflected the incoming weapons and freed his legs from the quicksand restraining him. Lith then tried to use spirit magic to capture the battle hammer and the axes, just to discover that they had been enchanted so that they would always return to their owners. ’What a clever spell. This way not only can’t its owner be disarmed, but I can’t also store their weapons inside my pocket dimension until I kill them. Yet this gives me another opportunity.’ Lith thought while a huge smile appeared on his face. With the magical sand flying around, all the Awakened’s Life Visions were blinded, but Lith didn’t need to see his enemies to find them. He used spirit magic to grab at the battle hammer and used it as a compass to find its master. The four Awakened had scattered around the area, bombarding Lith’s last known position with explosive spells while looking around for the exit point of the Blink spell that they assumed was his only way out from their combined onslaught. When Horyu saw Lith hitching a ride on his own hammer, it was already too late. Lith had used a combination of air magic cantrips and a flight spell to turn the returning weapon into a homing missile. Horyu had to interrupt his spellcasting and focus all of his willpower on the enchantment controlling his hammer’s movements, to prevent it from swatting him like a fly. The hammer was imprinted with his energy signature, so none of his enchanted protections would react to it. Moreover, Lith was boosting the makeshift projectile’s speed non-stop, making it was so fast that even altering the hammer’s trajectory by a little margin required a lot of energy. ’Dammit! The hammer is too fast to stop it in time, and even if I did, I would have no means to defend against that bastard. I’ve only one choice left.’ Horyu thought. He canceled the returning spell and Blinked away. It was better to have his own weapon stolen than letting it kill him. What none of the Awakened could have predicted was that Lith would exploit the opening by Blinking as well. The two identical spells had been cast with a split-second difference in timing, making it impossible to know which belonged to who. Life Vision could show them the position of the exit points, but the time they had to react was too short to hesitate. One exit point had been placed near Aria, one of the long-range attackers, while the other exit point was located at a safe distance in the middle of their formation. Aria released one of her best tier five spells, Great Flood, on the person coming from the exit point near her while stabbing at them multiple times with her estoc. Every one of her lunges was aimed at the stomach level, to incapacitate the opponent without the risk of killing them. She was already regretting having taken part in such a mission, yet she didn’t have much of a choice. Gaaron was her best shot at earning enough money to finish building her lab and with his connections, she would easily set up her business in human society, allowing her to become truly independent. ’All of my hard work will be wasted if that Verhen psycho pops out near me and cuts my head off!’ She thought while her spell took form. Great Flood was a restricting spell that conjured a powerful stream of water infused with darkness magic. The body of water would smother all kinds of attack spells and deflect physical attacks, while the darkness flowing through it would seep into the victim and rob them of their strength. Aria enveloped herself with the spell, giving it the shape of a grey colored water dragon. The remaining two Awakened decided to follow her lead and take precautions. They pointed their hands at the remaining exit point and released all the tier three spells they had at the ready. Yet due to Blink’s speed, even faltering for a second was a second too long. While Aria mercilessly stabbed and weakened Horyu, Lith had wrapped himself with Death call, reshaping his darkness wings into a thick cocoon that weakened the incoming spells enough for the Skinwalker armor boosted by his mana to easily repel them Ormr, a young man who had Awakened before his growth spurt and had become as tall as Lith was, decided to take the kid gloves off and go all out. A blue aura erupted from his body as he activated his Battle Mage tier five spell, God of Darkness. ’Now the bastard is so close that all he needs is a well-placed dimensional spell to use one of us as a meat shield against incoming attacks. The best way to put him down is to go mano a mano. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶 ’Even if our mana cores and physical bodies have similar power, he’s no Battle Mage. It took me years to master the Elemental God book, time that Verhen spent Forgemastering trinkets. ’Even if we are both Awakened, my skillset as a warrior exceeds everything he can do!’ Ormr thought while darting towards Lith. A black armor made of living shadows now covered his body and four black spheres appeared behind his back, spinning so fast that they would appear like a circle. It would need him but a thought to using the spheres to replicate any tier four or lower darkness spell without the need of casting them. ’Note to self, I must learn that stuff.’ Lith thought, regretting to not have asked Morok why he had never heard of those spells before. The spells composing the Elemental God book were something the academies taught only to Rank S Battle Mage students or in Ormr’s case, that Awakened elders taught to their pupils to test their loyalty. Ormr had failed his test, becoming so drunk on power that he had challenged his master and had been kicked out in the result. He had learned the hard way that the only reason such powerful spells had been bestowed upon him so easily was that might without wisdom was an empty threat.