Chapter 396: Fierce Exchange(2)

~Moments before ~

BANG! CLANG! BRUM!

Those sounds marked the continuous clash between Mitrass and Seraphina as they moved at high speed through the dark forest.

But none of the other three paid any attention to them.

Seraphina’s doppelgänger focused her attention on Noha and Oryx.

She had only one functioning arm. Part of her side was missing.

Chaotic energy was deteriorating her body, made entirely of mana.

It was not an advantageous situation. And she couldn’t afford to waste time.

Without hesitating even a fraction of a second, she began.

“Cadentis Zone.” (Falling Zone)

Seraphina’s voice resonated with unnatural calm.

It was her first attack.

Noha and Oryx reacted instantly, activating defenses and preparations like the veteran mages they were.

Neither let their guard down despite the obvious lack of an arm and destroyed side: Seraphina’s demonic appearance radiated pure danger.

Above all, neither of them recognized the magic or runes she had just used; they only understood that she had used a large amount of mana.

Brrrr~

The air trembled.

But…

Nothing happened.

There was no explosion, elemental phenomenon, or visible attack.

Everything seemed the same.

Brrrr~

Just a slight vibration, so subtle it was almost harmless.

The confusion lasted only a moment.

“Ira Caelorum.” (Wrath of Heaven)

Seraphina’s words broke the silence.

Mana gathered above.

CRACK—!

A bolt of lightning struck.

It was fast, but seemingly weak, so both interpreted it as a distraction.

A mistake on their part.

BRRROOMM!

The impact against Noha’s crystalline barrier detonated in a brutal explosion.

A pillar of light rose, expanding as if it wanted to consume the entire area in an instant.

Even so, Oryx reacted in time and moved alongside Noha to escape the core of the damage.

He teleported.

But not to the desired point.

When he reappeared, he was still within the radius of the expanding pillar.

Nothing like this had ever happened before, to the point that Oryx was stunned, and the light and lightning spells were still fast, even for his skill.

In the end, he reacted too late.

“Cough! What… what was that?”

The damage hit him before he could force a second jump.

Noha and Oryx appeared elsewhere, but the latter was coughing up blood. Visible wounds ran across his body. He had escaped by inches.

It wasn’t because he underestimated Seraphina. It was exactly the opposite.

Both of them had been analyzing the two “harmless” spells, trying to anticipate their true purpose.

But no amount of previous experience was enough.

’Is it because of this arrow…? Why can’t I remove it?

Confused, his mind worked at full speed because of that failure.

His gaze fell on the arrow embedded in his abdomen.

It seemed obvious that this was the cause, not to mention that, for some reason, he couldn’t remove it, either physically or with his Skill; it seemed fused to his flesh.

But it wasn’t.

The real source was Seraphina’s previous spell.

Gravity.

A branch even rarer than the spatial one.

Something she had begun practicing since obtaining it a few months ago.

She found it very useful because it was a very versatile branch in combat and was also the perfect counter to one of the most difficult magical branches to deal with in combat, spatial magic.

The spell didn’t nullify his magic, it didn’t block it… it simply twisted the gravity of the area enough that space was no longer reliable.

That slight misalignment was enough.

Within that field, Oryx’s teleportation didn’t fail completely…

But it failed.

“Enough! ”

Noha’s voice exploded.

Covered by his crystal cloak, barely affected compared to Oryx, he looked at Seraphina with contained anger.

Her magical execution was swift. Precise. Violent.

But he was also competent.

And if Seraphina had finished executing her move…

He had been preparing his as well.

Frusshhh!!

It was almost instantaneous.

Within a gigantic radius, the entire ground turned to sand.

It wasn’t a gradual transition or a progressive collapse. The ground simply gave way, as if reality had been replaced.

Seraphina felt the change underfoot and looked down reflexively.

Too late.

A colossal jaw, filled with countless teeth, was already closing in on her.

Art of Radiance, Fourth Stance: Refraction Nodes

She didn’t let it happen.

A firm platform of light formed beneath her feet, which had lost their support on solid ground.

It held her up and propelled her upward at great speed.

Even so, she felt the pressure.

The owner of those teeth was hot on her heels.

“Cadentia Inversa”,” Pondus Multiplicatum” (Inverse Falling, Multiplied Weight)

The reaction was immediate.

Two spells fell upon her at the same time: the gravity affecting her was reversed and her weight multiplied abruptly.

Her body ascended as if she were falling, breaking through the air. The distance between her and the creature suddenly widened.

When she thought it was enough without losing control, she turned around and created another platform under her feet, remaining upside down.

From there, she looked down.

Oryx and Noha remained on what looked like an island of solid ground, surrounded by the sea of sand that was now spinning in a vortex.

The worm continued to emerge and try to reach her, still not showing its entire body, but it was already clear that it was a colossal creature.

At the same time, from another angle, a black condor wrapped in lightning ascended violently toward her.

Two beasts of the ten-star.

They were not her priority.

“Saltus Spatii”(Spatial Leap)

Seraphina completely ignored the summons and teleported.

The spell affected her.

She did not appear where she had planned. The jump was imprecise, but it was something she had taken into account, and in any case, she was not far away.

Click!.

With her only hand, she snapped her fingers.

Self-suggestion for casting spells was a technique Seraphina had trained thoroughly, even while teaching it to others.

Linking a spell to a gesture allowed it to be activated almost immediately, which was crucial in combat where there was no direct magical affinity.

Her favorite gesture was that one: the snap of her fingers. Fast, precise, easy to reinforce mentally. Depending on the force and intention, the same movement could produce different effects: a purification, a soundproofing spell… or, in this case—

BROMMMM!!

A violent stream of lightning burst from her position, devouring the space in front of her.

The attack was directed at Oryx and Noha.

Both moved, and Seraphina didn’t have to think too hard about where.

The sand vortex had engulfed everything, and she had finished destroying the last stable point on the ground.

Only the sky remained.

Seraphina looked up and spotted them immediately. Oryx and Noha were already mounting the condor.

Thanks to Noha’s summoning Skill, the beast had been called from a nearby distance.

They gained height. Stability.

But she didn’t let it continue like that.

“Saltus Spatii.” (Spatial Leap)

Click!.

She repeated her attack, but this time it was different.

Oryx and Noha were not novices. They had both anticipated the repetition. Defenses and counterattacks were activated almost simultaneously.

BOOMMM!!

The clash was immediate. The shockwave shook the air and forced everyone to readjust their position.

Seraphina maneuvered on the luminous platform, without taking her attention away from either of them.

“Ira Caelorum.” (Wrath of Heaven)

The thought was brief.

She cast the long-range lightning and light spell again.

This time they didn’t dodge.

They relied on their now-stabilized defenses and counterattacked at the same time. Oryx distorted space.

Noha released plant magic as another circle formed behind him.

BOMM! BRrrss! Slllsss CRUUMM! BRUOMM!

The exchange exploded.

Magic after magic collided in the air. Impacts, deflections, ruptures. The sky filled with crisscrossing trajectories.

Fwosshhh!!

Amidst the impacts, something emerged. To Seraphina’s left.

She saw it instantly and attacked.

Fswuss!

Her attack was blocked.

In the next instant, the thing was already in front of her.

It was a red mantis, a head taller than her. With its scythe pointing directly at her neck.

Seraphina leaned back by a hair’s breadth. The scythe grazed her.

Another ten-star beast, with agility being its forte.

At the same time, a disturbance in space.

Oryx appeared some distance to her right. From the obvious annoyance on his face, it wasn’t the exact spot he was looking for, But he didn’t stop to think about it much.

A silver beam of light shot toward her in a coordinated attack.

Bang!

Seraphina, still dodging the mantis, raised her only hand and aimed at the beam.

She fired.

Brumm!

Both attacks neutralized each other.

THUD!

Without pause, Seraphina immediately unleashed a brutal kick against the Mantis that had missed its attack.

“Pondus Multiplicatum.” (Multiplied Weight)

The impact threw her to the ground, and before she could steady herself, another spell fell upon her, violently increasing her weight. The creature was dragged with greater force toward the sandy vortex.

“Let’s see how you handle this.”

His first attack was intercepted, but Oryx was already in motion. The mana above him stirred violently, and above his head, the sky began to warp.

The distortion advanced toward Seraphina, dense, unstable, dangerous.

Halfway there—

BANG!

“Huh?!”

Seraphina’s projectile of light crossed the spell and nullified it.

Oryx could accept that a minor attack was intercepted. But this…

This was different.

He didn’t understand how a larger-scale spell had been neutralized in the same way.

To Seraphina, the reason was obvious.

Oryx still didn’t have a deep understanding of spatial magic or its runes. Everything he cast was sustained by pure will, and an almost elementary understanding.

His spells were fast and dangerous, as befits that affinity by nature.

But simple.

On that continent, runic knowledge of space was practically non-existent. For most, this magic was an impossible nightmare to counter, and together with his other abilities, it made Oryx someone above his peers.

But for Seraphina, even as a doppelgänger and without the eyes of lust, those spells were basic structures, without layers, without protections, without measures to prevent interference.

So simple that breaking into them was almost instinctive, Oryx, in addition to his annoying ability to Escape, posed no danger to her.

KRRAAAWW !

The sound alerted her.

Another presence.

She turned her head and saw the condor descending toward her, with Noha riding on its back.

He wielded a long whip charged with a strange energy.

“Vector Gravitas...ugh.” (Gravity Vector)

Gravity changed direction.

The condor lost control instantly. Its trajectory twisted unnaturally as Seraphina moved with luminous platforms, avoiding the whip by a narrow margin.

Even so, she could no longer avoid the overwhelming pain her body was feeling, there wasn’t even room to waste it on pain-relieving spells…

But just then

’Damn it… All right! That’s it. I know I’m the parallel thinker, but juggling so many things at once isn’t easy.’

’Save your complaints. You’re the only one who doesn’t feel hellish pain. Or do you want to switch?’

’No. Aim to the left. The other one is almost here. It’s all or nothing.’

BANG!

The mental exchange was instantaneous.

Seraphina fired at Oryx. He dodged as usual.

“Spatium Laxum”, “Anchora Gravitatis.” (Loose Space,Anchor of Gravity)

Seraphina cast two more spells, this time aiming them at the spot where Noha was standing.

At that moment, Oryx moved closer to him. He narrowly missed, but chained another movement to get even closer.

He thought he had arrived before the spells.

He was wrong.

Their lack of understanding of both spatial magic and gravity prevented them from comprehending what Seraphina had done. The spells were already active.

When Oryx reached Noha, he immediately sensed that something was wrong. The space around him seemed to have lost density, stretching and compressing erratically.

A deeply wrong feeling washed over him.

He grabbed Noha’s shoulder and tried to escape using his affinity as usual.

Nothing happened.

He instantly changed his method and activated his other Skill.

“…”

WHUM—!

He managed to teleport.

“…”

But he appeared in the same place.

As if the jump had never happened.

Although the launch seemed to be aimed at Noha, the spell was focused on Oryx.

Seraphina didn’t need to know if she would try to save him or just watch—either decision led to the same result.

That Noha could not prevent what was about to happen.

“Cadentia Forzata.” (Forced Pull)

The attraction activated.

WHOOOM!

A brutal force began to pull everything toward the same point. Noha, Oryx, the summoned beasts… even the Mantis, which had already recovered and was returning to the attack.

Everyone was dragged along uncontrollably, bodies and magic losing stability at the same time.

Resistance seemed like a useless action.

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