Chapter 3809: Cover Fire (Part 2) The Primordial Flames melted Ruugat’s body and ate at his enchantments. Wherever the white fire passed, the orange aura of Earthly Vault became so thin that even normal spells broke through it. "Steady!" Vladion ordered. He and Milea formed a second line with half of the Council, keeping themselves away from the fiery onslaught but close enough to intervene if necessary. Primordial Flames didn’t discriminate between friend and foe. Any spell the allied forces might cast now would have weakened the white fire and helped the lost city "Enough!" Ruugat roared, hurt more than in his pride. Still down, he slammed his head, fists, and knees into the ground like a child throwing a tantrum. A tantrum that split the earth, draining the molten lava, and shook the ground with enough violence to make the soldiers fall. The earth element imbued in each blow shattered the runes of the arrays that trapped Ruugat, dispelling them. He stood up in fury and activated his most powerful offensive spell, Fountain of Death. Each one of the many mana crystals on his body conjured, focused, and amplified a Tower Tier five spell into a beam of elemental energy. They were faster than most spells were supposed to be, and their power gathered in a small surface. One of them was enough to pierce through Dawn’s light shields. Two of them were enough to send a Mage Slayer flying despite his invulnerability to magic. Three of them overpowered the water element conjured by the Fomor and seared their flesh. Hundreds of them at once were enough to shatter even Silverwing’s Bastion and blast the Awakened elders away like leaves in the wind. Hundreds of people died in an instant, and they would have become thousands if not for Double Edge cutting Ruugat deep from hip to shoulder. "Don’t forget about me, you bastard." Trusting his allies in general and Dawn in particular to deal with the offense, Lith had stored mostly Bastions in the Cannon Vault. Resisting the Fountain of Death had consumed two of them already. "You!" The lost city roared. "After Dawn, another cursed object has turned traitor? How can a lost city stoop low enough to become the lapdog of the lesser races?" Ruugat didn’t care for answers, accompanying each of his questions with a killing blow. The reach gap between the Engine’s blade and the lost city’s arms was so wide that Ruugat didn’t need weapons. He shapeshifted his right arm into a spiked mace and his left arm into a shield as he charged at the much smaller Engine. Solus focused the Eyes and Ears on the lost city, helping Lith to read the mana flow of their opponent and anticipate his moves. Lith barely deflected the mace in time to extend his right arm and cushion the shield bash by pushing himself back. The leap bought him enough distance to encase Double Edge with the lingering energy from the Bastions and intercept a volley of Tower Tier focused spells. ’The bad news is that those things are nothing like Morok’s elemental rays.’ Solus relayed the important bits revealed by the Eyes’ scan. ’Those three-elemental Tower spells fueled by mana geyser and turned into laser-like beams by the white crystals. ’The reduced size of the Tower Spells increases their destructive power and gives them great piercing ability.’ ’And?’ Lith asked as Ruugat renewed his charge. ’And what?’ Solus replied as Lith deflected the salvo of spells preceding the mace. ’The good news!’ Lith said. ’If that’s the bad news, what’s the good news?’ ’We are doing fine?’ She shrugged. ’I’m sorry, but this guy has no visible weak point.’ ’Define doing-’ The moment Ruugat raised his right foot from the ground to step forward, Syrah cannoned his other leg while infused with golden lightning and the power of one hundred Hati. The Hati champions and the merfolk’s mud constructs struck immediately after, bending the knee enough to make Ruugat lose his balance. Vladion welcomed the stumble with his own Blade Spell, Roaring Dragon. An energy construct shaped like a Wyrm erupted from Primordial Thirst and coiled itself around Ruugat’s standing leg. Roaring Dragon bit and clawed at its prey, injecting its lethal energy inside the lost city, not to waste one iota of Vladion’s mana. ’Never mind.’ Ruugat’s attack turned into an awkward short jump on one foot that Lith exploited to impale the lost city on his blade. ’We are doing fine. I forgot we aren’t fighting this alone.’ Lith couldn’t have the Workshop and Factory Forgemaster for him the tower’s shield, Yurial Guard, nor could he use his Tower Blade, Extinction, due to the presence of his allies, which limited his options. He couldn’t have the Engine crackle with golden lightning allegedly due to the Adamant-Davross alloy of the Voidwalker armor and a tower shield the size of a Divine Beast without arousing questions he had no believable answer to. Extinction, instead, was the trump card Lith had devised to kill powerful enemies in one shot and had to remain a secret. To make matters worse, even if Extinction might kill Ruugat, the ensuing explosion of his nucleus would turn victory into mutual destruction. Much to Lith’s dismay, Double Edge didn’t even reach the lost city’s back. Ruugat leaned on the blade to swing his left arm wide and send the Engine flying. "What’s happening?" Ruugat said while swatting the Roaring Dragon and stomping the ground with his left foot. "Why am I getting weaker?" The kick missed Syrah by dozens of meters, but the air pressure it generated struck her like a truck. The Hati Queen suffered grievous wounds and landed in the arms of the Hatis on the backlines, hundreds of meters away from where she had been a moment ago. Luckily for the people of Zelex, between the crystal blessing of the orcs and the healing skills of the trolls, no Warg died. The pack split Syrah’s wounds evenly among them and their allies healed the injuries as soon as they opened. "I have a mage tower and I’m not bound to outdated magic like you, old fossil." Dawn laughed. "My mother improved Sunrise since the last time we met. The longer I stay here, the more my control over the mana geyser grows." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶 It was a bald-faced lie to cover up for the presence of the two mage towers, but it sent a shiver down the spine of those who fell for it. Which meant all those who didn’t know about Solus’ true nature. "Then I have to get rid of you first!" The mana geyser below Detemer provided Ruugat with plenty of power, even with the two towers siphoning its world energy. Yet the lost city could feel his hold over the geyser slipping. The mana crystals now took longer to recharge, and the damage he suffered repaired itself more slowly. Not enough to compromise his fighting abilities, but enough for Ruugat to notice. "Don’t mind me and do that!" Lith hurled another river of Origin Flames that Tista and the Demons supported with their own, dousing Ruugat’s back with Primordial Flames. The moment the lost city turned around to deal with the fire-breathing Demons, a squadron of DoLoreans from the Kingdom dived down on him in a wedge formation.