Chapter 693 (Patreon)

Aranor always knew he would be targeted, there was a reason both of the other champions Sylvanthal sent to help were defensive focused, their entire tactic being to protect him and allow him to cast some of the devastating spells he was known for. What nobody had expected however was the sheer amount of champions the beastkin would have, now Aranor was forced to keep casting fast spells to just keep the flood of champions in check now that Aurexion’s wasn’t in a position to threaten them with his dragon’s breath. 

The difference in quality however was slowly starting to show. There was a reason both beastkin armies had been running from their respective pursuers and as the battle dragged on the evidence became more and more obvious. 

“Keep pushing them” The prince called out as he fought defensively to hold the high general of the beastkin’s from going after Aranor. “They’re making mistakes.” 

The prince was right and the high general also knew it. At the start of the fight almost all the beastkin champions were in perfect condition and despite them not joining the fight for more than a few minutes by now two of them had taken debilitating injuries that forced them to retreat for healing. 

“Feeling confident?” The tiger beastkin growled as both of their runes activated, the exchange of spells leaving the prince wide open to the beastkin’s axe. “You should be more careful.” 

At the last moment the prince’s grimace of frustration morphed into his usual smirk as Aranor’s ice lance intercepted the blow and left the prince with the opening to attack. The prince knew he couldn’t take out the high general with the opening he had now so instead of even trying to hurt him he decided to limit him instead, taking a page out of Ajax’s book he channeled as much Lightning Mana as he could afford without overtaxing himself into his blade he started trying to damage the runic structures of the high general’s armor. 

“Kill the gods damned elf.” The high general roared with anger as he was forced back, his orange fur puffing out on his left side due to the lightning attack. 

It was in moments like this that Aranor envied Arianwyn and Elara’s natural talent and inclinations towards Domains. Defending against multiple foes would be so much easier if he was inside a bubble of his own Mana that responded and empowered his every spell. Two weaker champions were closing in on him and there was nobody left to intercept them. 

Not wanting to rely on his enchantments just yet Aranor waited as long as he could to cast his ice nova, seeing as both champions were mostly melee fighters he could let them get quite close without too much risk but as one of them was a hybrid he couldn’t let them get too close. 

Aranor’s care was immediately validated as the hybrid fighter managed to cloak himself in flames a moment before the ice nova covered him and unlike his friend his charge barely lost a little momentum instead of being stopped. 

For a moment there Aranor thought he would have to use one of his escape enchantments, despite being much stronger than the champion about to attack him they were both still champions and while Aranor was sturdier that most mages he was still fragile. One thing made him hesitate however and that was an odd reaction he noticed on the edge of his ice nova. 

Two steps away from him the hybrid champion must have noticed something as well, or more likely his danger sense Skill must have warned as he cut his charge short choosing to pull back for a moment right as Ajax jumped from Aranor’s shadow, his sword flowing smoothly empowered by a Wind augmentation. The last minute reaction was enough to stop Ajax from cleanly decapitating the beastkin but that didn’t mean he got away uninjured. Ajax’s strike lopped off the champion’s nose causing a fountain of blood to jet out as the champion did his best to handle the pain while also retreating.

As much as Ajax would have wanted to continue pursuing the wounded champion he knew that wouldn’t be the smart move now that he had shown himself. He might have hoped to score a kill early in the fight but it was more important that their side conserve the Mana and Stamina. 

“Start casting.” Ajax told Aranor. “I’ll make sure you’re safe.”

Aranor trusted in Ajax’s statement. He had seen the young champion cleave through other champions in seconds when pushed, it was finally his chance to launch some of the massive spells he was known for. 

As the murmur of words flowed from Aranor Ajax was still slightly taken aback by the amount of Mana the old elf was channeling. Whatever spell he was casting would be using close to half of Ajax’s Mana pool. Ajax knew mages his own level would likely have a similar amount of Mana to him and that with over a hundred levels on him Aranor surely beat him in the Mana department but the sheer amount he was willing to put into a single spell was still shocking. This was the reason the enemy was targeting him as the main priority.

One downside of Aranor’s enormous spell was that the amount of Mana he was expertly channeling was so large it actually blinded Ajax’s [Sense Mana], throughout his life Ajax had meticulously used the Skill to analyse Mana as well as notice the smallest traces of Mana to spot ambushes, he simply had no experience to dealing with such large spells. The closest Ajax had gotten to using [Sense Mana] with such large amounts of Mana was when he was casting using the ettin staff and while that might have been more Mana he was using the Skill to keep the spell cohesive and not sense other Mana sources around himself. 

It wasn’t only his own attention that the spell drew in; however, all of the champions that had been carefully approaching Aranor before suddenly became a lot more reckless in their attempts to reach the elf before he finished his chanting.

Ajax’s first opponent was the physical champion that had been slowed down by Aranor’s ice nova. After the numerous battles Ajax had against these younger champions he was much more comfortable in taking the fight to them despite them being stronger and faster.

Besides the relatively large increase in stats Ajax had gained since he first joined the war the biggest difference was made by the increase in level as well as his own knowledge of how to use his Legendary Style Skill. The difference was easy to see for Aranor who could compare Ajax from before his delve break and after. 

Unlike his friend Xavier’s Legendary style Skill, Ajax’s style wasn’t build upon perfectly predicting his opponents moves and rather played into forcing the opponent on the defensive by overwhelming them with a combination of physical attacks and spells. [Spell Direction] had become smoothly integrated into the combat style after the months of combat inside the dungeon. 

“You’re not even taking me seriously.” An angry shout came from the beastkin as he drew back his short sword for a feint while moving in to land a punch with his spiked glove.

Ajax didn’t even bother to respond to the champion’s words, he was instead more focused on making sure nobody else snuck by him while his [Sense Mana] was blinded by Aranor’s casting. 

In the span of two seconds Ajax also moved to close the distance. His habit of using the ground against his opponents was well researched as the beastkin used an enchantment to shove a large amount of Mana into the ground but all of that was worthless as Ajax instead used [Telekinesis] to pull his opponent off balance while at the same time putting his whole weight behind a Void infused hammer strike.

The beastkin managed to react to the sudden pull of [Telekinesis] well, twisting his body in time to intercept the blow before it made contact with his chest, all that meant however was that Ajax had to spend and addition two hundred Mana to move the point of impact further.

Even as the blow landed Ajax clicked his tongue as he knew the impact was still not where he wanted it, it had moved past the layer of armor but landed squarely in the middle of the sizable pectorals the beastkin had instead of right on top of the heart.

Whereas before Ajax was used to seeing a momentary look of confusion on the faces of his opponents as a Void blow landed Ajax could now see the terror in the eyes of the beastkin who knew exactly what was about to happen a moment before he was lifted a good three inches off the ground by the force of the blow alone.

Surprisingly the beastkin still lived despite Ajax bypassing all of his armor and defensive enchantments. As much as Ajax would have wanted to take the chance to finish him off while he was on the ground vomiting blood as his internal organs almost certainly got tenderized, Ajax had to prioritize the rest of the champions targeting Aranor who had almost finished his spell.