Chapter 3698: Impossible Feats (Part 1) All the Awakened but the Titania suddenly disengaged from Lith and pulled away. He recalled the Golems and, with their help, blocked all ten blades, giving his damaged body and armor a brief moment of respite to recover. “I wouldn’t get too excited, if I were you.” Lith couldn’t see Zakra’s face while she was in her wreath form, but he could tell from her voice that she was smiling. Lith looked around with four of his eyes, keeping the other three fixed on the Titania. Several powerful arrays were taking form above, below, and around him in a death trap. Escape would have been possible, but not with Zakra right in front of him. If he ran, she would stab him in the back. If he stayed there, the arrays would have ripped them both to shreds, yet Lith didn’t have the regenerative abilities of a Titania. He would die, and Valeron with him. It was a lose-lose situation. If Lith had been caught unprepared, that was. After noticing how two of the twelve Awakened focused on magical formations, Lith had switched one of the spells in the Mouth with the array-jamming spell, Disarray. It was a quick and powerful counter against fully formed magical formations. Against arrays whose focal points had yet to connect into a stable network, it was like shooting a fish in a barrel. The Mouth of Menadion released a barrage of Disarray spells, triggering a chain reaction. The resulting explosion engulfed Zakra and wounded several Awakened who had yet to escape the boundaries of the death trap. As for Lith, he was at the epicenter of the Disarrays and guided the explosions outward. Shockwaves and everything that escaped his control due to the mayhem around him were blocked by the triple Spirit Barrier formed by Trouble, Raptor, and the Voidwalker armor. ‘Fuck!’ Uryn clenched his teeth so hard that his gums bled. ‘How? Someone explains to me how Verhen does that. He was one against three in melee, plus our cover fire, and yet Verhen had the time to prepare multiple Disarrays?’ He and Lelira could have dealt with one Disarray. Truth be told, they were expecting Lith to use it in a last-ditch attempt. Ten Disarrays, however, were beyond what even two skilled Wardens could counter by joining their forces. ‘I don’t know!’ Lelira replied. ‘Don’t let Verhen get under your skin. We must not let him escape. Pin him down!’ Yet Lith didn’t try to escape. Between the Awakened in the second line and those he had just injured, it wouldn’t take the twelve Awakened long to recover and trap him again. Yet right now they were wounded and scattered. It was an opportunity to counterattack that he couldn’t miss. Lith, Trouble, and Raptor extended their right hands forward as one, each unleashing a tier five Spirit Spell, Mana Storm. Three hail of emerald bullets, infused with willpower and carrying a fusillade of cannonballs’ destructive power, blasted the burned form of the Titania to pieces and struck at the still-recovering Awakened. “Not so fast, you bastard!” Uryn unleashed a Mana Storm he had saved for a deadly attack to defend his helpless comrades. At the same time, the other five Awakened in the backline released their spells and aimed them either at Lith or the Golems. Lith ordered Trouble and Raptor to move behind him in what seemed a tactical madness. The Golems were supposed to protect their master, not the other way around. Full Guard’s violet aura swirled around Lith as it mixed with the Ears’ perception field. Arches of golden lightning crackled along Ragnarök’s surface, manifesting the air elemental ability of the Davross to amplify magic. Lith’s Mana Storms blocked what they could of the incoming six spells without stopping to harry their original targets. By forcing the Awakened to focus on defending themselves, Lith had restricted their offensive ability. Part of the enemy onslaught was stopped, part deflected, and part weakened. Everything else came at Lith in an emerald tide of fire, lightning, ice, and darkness. He countered with impossibly fast swings of the angry blade empowered by its golden lightning. Before the actual impact, the air crystal on Ragnarök’s fuller went dull, and the blue one flared up. Lith still carried the momentum from the air element, but now he had activated the Davross’ water elemental ability to disrupt spells. The angry blade cut the energy of the spells and the runes comprising them, turning weapons of mass destruction into harmless fireworks. Ragnarök moved in swift, precise circles, severing the Awakened’s will from their spells. With only one arm wielding it, the angry blade was slower than usual, and there were too many spells to start with. Trouble and Raptor kept their Spirit Barriers at the ready, blocking only what Ragnarök missed and without hindering the blade’s path. It saved them a lot of energy and dealt with everything that might have affected Lith’s focus. It was another impossible feat, made possible by the same mind moving the three bodies with a synergy that would have put Rena’s triplets to shame. ‘The blade is made of Davross?’ Uryn cursed. ‘Why did no one tell me Verhen’s blade is made of Davross?’ ‘Because the one he uses in his Tiamat form is not.’ Cailm replied. ‘There are no videos of Verhen fighting as a human, only as a Divine Beast. Did you know those Golems were so obnoxious?’ ‘No.’ Uryn snarled. ‘In all the videos available, they babysit those stupid Demons. They never fought by Verhen’s side.’ Meanwhile, terrified by the rumbling noise, Valeron cried once again. This time, he called upon his grandmother, Tyris, and his grandfather, Leegaain. No one answered the call, making the baby realize that his only hope lay in the man who had betrayed him. The man who had murdered his father. Lith felt everything through the Dragon Scales and used Valeron’s pain to redouble his focus. The Spirit Spells had failed to hurt him but had drained a lot of his and Ragnarök’s energy. What Lith had saved in mana, he had consumed in stamina. His right arm hurt. His body hurt. His breath came fast and ragged. To top it all, Zakra had used that time to dig underground and rebuild her body from scratch by parasitizing the plants in the area. The Titania didn’t have the time to use Invigoration, but her physical prowess was back to her peak. “Ready for another round, little Tiamat?” This time, Lith heard and saw her smile. Zakra lived for the battle and the adrenaline rush of a death struggle. She charged at him without waiting for her allies, eager to see how far the opponent could push her. Titanias had great strength, a long life, and were almost impossible to kill. It was exciting when one was young, but the stronger Zakra got, the more bored she became. She craved a good challenge more than vengeance. She had joined the mission to kill Valeron the Second, but it was Lith she wanted. Her ten blades always moved with perfect coordination, striking from ten directions simultaneously or one after another. Whatever worked best to break her opponent’s stance and tempo. Lith exhaled sharply, feeling his right hand still tremble from exhaustion. I want to dedicate this chapter to Etay E. Thanks for your kind words and support, man. Much appreciated. *Author’s bow.*