Lith’s cocoon opened and the wings shapeshifted into four huge arms. Each one of them grabbed one of Ormr’s spheres, wrapping them like a shroud and making them useless. Ormr turned the spheres into a combination of blades and projectiles made out of darkness element. Lith’s shrouds twisted and deformed under the spells’ pressure but they didn’t break. Ormr was flabbergasted, he had no idea that a darkness spell could physically interact with another, something that Lith had learned while fighting against Thrud Griffon. Ormr tested Lith’s defenses with a series of quick jabs, only for his left arm to be trapped in the vise that Lith’s grip was. Ormr didn’t even try to break free. Being his body shrouded in darkness magic, the longer Lith touched him, the weaker he would become. Ormr exploited the hold to throw a powerful right at Lith while pulling his own left back, to not give the enemy the opportunity to dodge. Too bad that Solus’s darkness infused glove protected Lith from the enemy armor, making it possible for him to crush Ormr’s wrist simply by going all out as well. Lith twisted and pulled Ormr’s arm, breaking his ulna and dislocating his shoulder at the same time. The Awakened felt only a sting thanks to darkness fusion, but his body was dragged along nonetheless. Ormr’s fist missed whereas Lith’s found his target. It crushed the young Awakened’s trachea, piercing through the neck until it pulverized the spine. Ormr had made two huge mistakes. He had challenged Lith with confidence because he had mastered the God of Darkness spell, but Lith had long practiced the darkness element itself, not just a single spell. As a healer, Lith used darkness as much as he used the light element. One of his favorite quotes from Professor Marth was: "He who knows how to heal also knows how to destroy." The second mistake had been assuming that since their build was similar, so it had to be their physical strength. Thanks to his last body refinement, Lith was now in-between veteran magical beasts’ and Emperor Beasts’ prowess, whereas his opponent would have struggled even against an adult magical beast. Ormr was older than Lith, but the latter could still overpower him like an adult with a teenager. A snap of Lith’s fingers conjured a small fireball that blasted Ormr’s neck to pieces, making any attempt to heal him pointless. The three remaining Awakened, of which only two were still able to fight since Horyu was still using Invigoration to recover from the friendly fire, decided that a dishonorable escape was better than an honorable death and Blinked away to safety. Lith begged to differ, exploiting their temporary blindness to kill them one by one. He Blinked where the stunning redhead, the one with the weakest protections, would appear as his Checkmate Spears spell surrounded the other two exit points. Lith appeared right behind the young woman’s blind spot and Ruin made short work of her armor as well as of her heart, leaving a gaping hole where the pulsing organ had been until a second before. The ice spears struck the two Awakened from every side, piercing their bodies. The onslaught made them lose their focus and all the spells they kept at the ready, leaving them helpless while the barrage of icicles ripped them to shreds. After freeing Ruin from its meat scabbard, Lith performed a horizontal slash to decapitate the woman. Awakened were much sturdier than humans, needing but a breath to fully recover from a mortal wound. Alas, Gaaron stopped Ruin with his Frostbound blade and conjured two emerald green barriers made of pure mana around the other two Awakened, saving their lives. ’Good gods! This guy has a bright blue core!’ Solus warned Lith. ’Fuck me sideways! That’s a spirit magic spell. The mana materialized around those two instead of spreading out of his body like usual. Solus, focus on the spell’s matrix. I can’t allow taking this guy alive to interrogate him later.’ Lith asked Solus. Even though Gaaron couldn’t read their minds, he was utterly offended by Lith’s behavior. Gaaron was going all out right off the bat, spreading a bright blue aura much bigger than Lith’s, yet the child was unfazed by his appearance. Without a cloaking device, Lith was supposed to notice the arsenal the old mage had at his disposal, but he still acted as if it was all an annoyance. Gaaron tried to strike at Lith’s neck, but the blades were glued together by Ruin’s gravity field. The increased weight also put enough strain on Gaaron’s body to put him on his back foot. "Don’t Blink! Fly, you fools!" He yelled while using his other hand to regenerate the redhead enough to allow her to complete the job herself with Invigoration. He had moved the moment Ormr had died, yet it had almost not been fast enough. Dimensional magic was too dangerous, not allowing him to distinguish friend from foe, whereas if his pupils flew, he could easily recognize them from their energy signature. Being their swords locked and Gaaron’s focus split, Lith pushed his advantage further. He emitted an inhuman roar that made the Trawn woods fell silent for kilometers while kicking with all of his strength at the enemy. Gaaron’s equipment was made of Orichalcum and was among the best pieces that money could buy in the Awakened community, yet he felt as if a horse had kicked him in the chest. Lith hadn’t struck him in the nuts because with darkness fusion pain wasn’t a factor in their fight, while aiming for the head would have exposed him to a counter. The chest, instead, was the source of breathing and a major weak point in a battle between Awakened. The air in Gaaron’s lungs was squeezed out as a web of cracks appeared on his ribs. ’What the heck? A physical attack shouldn’t be able to inflict this kind of damage upon me.’ Since darkness fusion negated the pain, most veteran Awakened kept a self-diagnostic spell always active in battle. The lack of pain meant the inability of noticing potentially lethal wounds, like ruptured organs or punctured lungs. Lith’s kick had caused no pain, but it had still caused his opponent to lose a good chunk of his stamina. Pain is just a symptom of the damage a body sustains, just like fever is of infection. Lith grinned noticing that his enemy had refused to give up on the sword, allowing his kick to hit deep. The other three Awakened took each a deep breath with Invigoration before flying away at break-neck speed, but he didn’t mind. All the pieces of the chessboard were already in place. He only needed to get rid of the king to end that nonsense. Gaaron squinted his eyes and two rays of emerald green energy erupted from them aimed at Lith’s pupils. Lith tilted his head to dodge them only to notice that they were able to follow their target. He then used Ruin to block them, sustaining no damaged but freeing Gaaron from the gravity field and leaving both of his hands free. ’That was much more powerful than spirit magic as I use it.’ Lith thought. ’It’s visible, but its speed and destructive power are greatly enhanced. Emerald green energy, huh?’ Lith had mixed feelings about his situation. On one hand, not only had the madman in front of him a stronger mana core, but he was also able to use an unknown kind of magic.