Supreme Magus

’Either that man has gone crazy due to the prolonged agony, or he enjoys his work.’ Solus pointed out. ’The other Flesh Golems are way less creative because they limit themselves to follow their commands whereas this guy is doing his best.’

It was indeed a smart strategy. Just like true mages, constructs didn’t need to chant. Even better, they could use some of their abilities freely, without even wasting time weaving spells like Lith did.

By using wide darkness pulses, the Golem was making sure that Lith was forced to either exhaust all of his spells or doom the other two humans behind him. Normally, Lith wouldn’t have cared much for either Neshal or Morok, but without them, he would have to face three Golems instead of one.

This time math was a harsh mistress.

To make matters worse, the black pulses were packed so close that Lith had to resort to alternate spells and Origin Flames to not get overwhelmed.

The Golem noticed the human’s absurd casting speed and soon grew tired of that game. It turned around to leave, but its body refused to move. Quylla had just finished destroying five of the runes forgemastered in its life force.

She had just played possum, taking her time to incapacitate the opponent while saving as much mana as she could. Between the tier five spells and the beating she had taken, her energy reserves were dangerously low.

"They are both helpless!" She said to Lith who granted the first Golem a swift death while making sure that the sadistic construct would suffer as much as its body allowed it to.

Quylla was really curious about how Lith seemed to be able to always find power cores at his first strike, but in that moment she didn’t care. Phloria was about to fall and there was nothing either of them could do.

"Is there really nothing useful you can do?" Morok said while nullifying two darkness pulses with as many spells he had at the ready. "Seriously, if you can’t fight, why go to a dangerous city and put innocent Rangers in danger instead of spending quality time with your grandkids?"

He had tried to physically attack the Golems, but they kept him at bay by shooting spells non-stop. Corridors were truly a nightmare for him since ice lances would shatter against the walls and release razor-sharp shards that were almost impossible to dodge.

Fireballs would produce enough noise and light to make him blind and deaf. Morok had managed to survive the last few exchanges only thanks to his enchanted protections and the fact that the Golems seemed to be more interested in taking Neshal alive than killing him.

Whenever he got close to her, they would lower the output of their attack. Morok would have gladly abandoned her if not for the fact that once the old bat had fallen, so would the array. Also, he didn’t have anywhere to run. There were even more Flesh Golems on the other end of the corridor.

"Ekidu!" Morok said as his hammers turned pitch black before he lunged them into the incoming darkness blasts to nullify the Golems’ spell.

"Please, there’s no need to rush, granny. I wouldn’t want you to sweat." His voice oozed sarcasm.

The Rangers were doing their best, but their spells were useless and by coordinating their attacks, the Golems made it impossible for Lith to get close enough to touch them or for Morok to hit them.

Whenever one of them came too close, the constructs would just electrify their bodies and push them back. Phloria had managed to hold that long only thanks to the Skinwalker armor’s defensive abilities that covered her in Orichalcum every time she infused it with enough mana.

Otherwise the constant onslaught of spells they had inflicted upon her would have made her collapse. The worst thing about facing a Golem in such an environment was their lack of a weak point coupled with their ability to instantly cast spells.

Once again Lith suffered from having lost the Gatekeeper. He could see the power cores, he could get close enough to strike at them, but none of his prototypes weapons could withstand the mana necessary to pierce through the constructs’ body.

Both teams were fighting a losing battle, where the enemy would relentlessly move forward while they were forced to step back. The Golems were constantly sending streams of lighting to each other and the nearby walls, creating an electrical curtain that prevented their prey even from escaping.

"We could Blink to safety, if not for your stupid array!" Morok said to Neshal once he and Lith were back to back. "Since I’m going to die, please be honest with me. Whose side are you really on?"

"Will you shut the fuck up?" Neshal roared while slamming her staff on the ground and releasing the spell she had painstakingly prepared despite all of his yammering. "Destroy them, now!"

Neshal knew that, for a mage, keeping more than one array at the ready was impossible and so it was casting a second one for another mage without them taking their time to study how the first mage had organized their formation.

That because in the case two arrays were to overlap badly, the second one would simply fade into a waste of mana. Since in battle there was rarely the time to cast a second magical formation, Neshal had devised a way to use her own spell as a framework for the following array.

By making use of the runes they had in common, she could shorten the cast time at the expense of the duration of both magical formations. When the Air and the Earth Blocking array overlapped, the Flesh Golems fell face-first on the ground.

Lith struck one of them while Quylla and Morok did the same, yet soon the group was forced to run. The Golems were paralyzed, but far from helpless. They emitted a thick darkness fog from their bodies that almost killed both Quylla and Morok.

Lith had struck down the power core of his mark, so at least one construct was unable to retaliate, leaving them enough space to get to safety. Lith had to take on his shoulders his two fallen comrades while they sprinted away as fast as they could.

Right after darkness magic, the constructs had started to unleash spells in random directions, exploiting the corridor’s confined space that made any area of effect spell impossible to dodge.

"Can we really afford to leave them alive?" Lith asked. He and Solus were racking their brains to find a way to destroy the temporarily paralyzed constructs, but to no avail.

Lith had yet to heal his wounds and even once he did, such a powerful layer of darkness magic would have likely killed him even with the Skinwalker armor’s boosted protection.

That if he managed to get past the barrage of explosions that were ravaging the corridor.

"No, but killing them will drain my last energy. Do you think you can protect us all until we recover?" Neshal asked.

"No." Lith shook his head.

"Oh, well. I’ve lived long enough." Neshal took what looked like three giant nails out of her dimensional amulet, starting to chant another spell. She was so weak that her breath was ragged and from time to time she had to hold on her staff to not fall.