Supreme Magus

Chapter 3807: Warrior Spirit (Part 2)

The act was simple on paper, but every warrior knew that survival was the first and foremost instinct of those who stepped on the battlefield. Handling that much power and dealing such a precise blow required a focus that only someone with a clear mind could muster.

On top of that, the soldiers didn’t miss that even the way the nameless warrior had died mattered. His pack members had shed their blood for him during his final journey, and now his blood covered them all.

Monsters, humans, elves, and undead carried his remains and had been entrusted by the dead Hati with his will to fight.

’What a noble race.’ The elves thought while nocking three arrows at a time and preparing a combination of spells.

’I can’t believe that if I get to return home alive, I’ll owe it to a monster.’ The humans thought, raising their wands.

’I accept your warrior will, Hati.’ The undead thought while absorbing whatever life force was left in the corpse’s fragments despite its disgusting taste. ’Become a part of me and fight by my side until our essences are consumed.’

As for the Wargs and Hatis, they received more than blood and guts.

They shared the nameless warrior’s fear, pain, and regret for everything he would never experience. They accepted everything he had been and would never be with open arms, howling in grief and fury as they fell into a berserker rage.

"Forward!" Only the elite warriors among the Hati tribe answered Syrah’s angry call.

Each one of them could hold the power of up to a hundred members of the pack and received the same blessings as their Queen. The rest of the Warg and Hati remained in the backlines, weaving spells for the warriors.

Distance didn’t matter for their race. They were ready to take upon themselves any wound a warrior may suffer and spend their own mana so that their champions could keep fighting.

The Wargs and Hati considered themselves expendable, but not useless. Their sacrifice would bring the pack victory and buy everyone a place under the sun to call home.

Syrah took point in an arrowhead formation, punching Ruugat while he was still recoiling from the nameless warrior’s blow. The rest of the Hati champions hit like a wave, each building on the momentum of those who had preceded them.

The lost city staggered, flaying his arms in a clumsy attempt to resist the impacts.

"Well done, doggies." Dawn snarled. "Leave the rest to us!"

The Lightpillar spells struck a defenseless and off-balance Ruugat before he could conjure more earth element, bringing him to his knees. The seven-man units of Awakened rained Silverwing’s Annihilations on him, pulverizing stone and melting Adamant.

Elves released volleys of arrows imbued with tier five spells while the human soldiers discharged their wands in a hail of fire and wind, both amplified by the Blood Maelstrom before reaching their target.

At the same time, the mages conjured powerful arrays on Ruugat’s massive body instead of wasting their mana in spells that wouldn’t amount to more than a mosquito bite.

"Not bad, but this is far from enough!" The lost city finally stood up, his body already shrouded with an orange aura whose brilliance grew by the second.

"You’d be right if this were all we got. We haven’t even started yet!" The two Lightpillar spells merged with Dawn’s arms, and the constructs’ ends tapered until they didn’t resemble pillars anymore.

Armed with two colossal jousting lances, the Horseman spurred Sunrise in a blinding charge. The constructs had the mass and power to hurt Ruugat while their brightness made it hard to spot the Horseman as she slipped back and forth along the lances to adjust her grip.

"Get out of my house, you bastard!" Vladion slipped off Sunshine’s back and struck with his Davross’ blade, Primordial Thirst.

The blow carried a weight and might superior to a Divine Beast thanks to the First Vampire consuming a fraction of the power stored in his full-red blood core. Expending so much power at the start of a fight would have been a reckless move if not for Dawn’s prism.

It fueled Vladion with a constant flow of light element that made up for the lost life force while Invigoration replenished his mana. The First Vampire was no different from a living Awakened, but with all the perks of undeath.

"You!" Ruugat’s eyes narrowed in recognition. "This day keeps getting better. I’ll add your equipment to my-"

A jet-stream of Void Flames set the lost city’s back ablaze while a burst of Blight Flames weakened his left knee.

"I was expecting a Dragon. What’s that?" Ruugat had never seen a Hekate, and like him, the rest of Jiera.

Tista’s reply came in the form of her bloodline ability, Ethereal Aegis. She turned her body into living fire and dived at the living legacy, dodging his thrashing limbs.

She phased through his chest, releasing a burst of Origin Flames from her body and one more from each of her battle claws, Firefang, leaving a trail of molten lava and metal in her wake.

"That’s a nice trick, but she’s still a youngling." Ruugat focused his power into the mana crystals scattered across his surface and released a fusillade of tier five Tower Spells that struck everything around him for two hundred meters.

"A violet-cored Dragon can’t stop me. The last time you brought many Elder Dragons with you, Vladion, and they were barely enough. Now I’m much stronger!"

Shield hard-light constructs covered the battlefield, taking the brunt of the damage and leaving it to Fomors, Mage Slayers, and Liches to take care of what energy slipped past the conjured shelters.

"I agree." Vladion smiled.

***

Hundreds of meters above the battlefield, Lith was done "placing" the dimensional arrays that he allegedly needed to conjure his alleged super armor. His timing matched Dawn’s signal to perfection, but he passed it as a mere coincidence.

"Can’t you please be faster?" Ryla asked. "My people are dying down there."

She knew the plan, but she still felt like a coward for hiding in the sky while the rest of Zelex fought for their lives.

"Ryla, I’m not exactly having fun here." Lith said while holding her to his chest. "Also, we need to wait for the right moment, or the sacrifice of our allies will be for nothing."

"You’re right. I’m sorry." She sighed.

"Whenever you’re ready." Dawn’s voice resounded from the communication amulet.

A wave of Lith’s hand turned the gibberish of the fake arrays he had prepared into a dimensional rift into his pocket dimension. The Prime Engine stepped through and fell headfirst toward the ground.

"Hold tight." Lith said, and Ryla obliged in fear.

She had no idea the armor was actually a mage tower, and all she could see was a colossus made of grey stone accelerating toward them.

Lith and Solus charged at the Engine from below, making contact with its head. The stone surface rippled like water as the tower welcomed its masters and their guest. Solus dispelled her physical body to save power and merged with the tower core.

Lith, instead, shapeshifted into his Tiamat form, filling the space inside the tower, which expanded and rearranged itself to accommodate him.