Supreme Magus novel Chapter 315

Thorman used his conjured tower shields to block the whole corridor and Binlow hastily activated a spell from one of his rings to conjure an ice wall one meter (3.3 feet) thick to stop the blast.

Lith could have used the diversion to escape, but charged forward instead. He imbued the Gatekeeper with water magic to conjure a cold aura and himself with earth magic. The combined effects were supposed to protect him from the brunt of the damage.

The fire pillar crushed the shields and melted the ice, yet it still had enough power to turn Binlow’s constructs into gas. Nalear gritted her teeth, activating once again the magic shield of her sword while her minions conjured more protections.

Lith struck them from behind with the Gatekeeper, overloading Nalear’s sword core and interrupting the Professor’s spells. The barrier shattered and the explosion engulfed the four of them, but Lith made sure to stand right behind Nalear.

With the barrier down, she could either protect herself from the blast or from him, but not from both. She would also become his human shield, making it a trade worth Lith’s while. Lith released all the spells he had ready, only to see them crushed by Nalear’s glove.

Its magic could be used as a sword but also as a shield.

Then, the blast struck them and the four mages were slammed against the walls. As soon as the smoke dissipated, the corridor was peaceful again. Farg was satisfied with the results of her sneak attack. Every enemy was down and accounted for.

There was just one thing that didn’t add up.

"Why didn’t you run away?" She asked Lith. "Throwing yourself in the middle of my spell was incredibly dumb. You could have di..."

Despite Solus’s force field and light fusion, Lith’s ears were still ringing. Solus had no such problem allowing him to understand what was happening and cut Farg short.

"Don’t let her recover, you idiot! She’s the mastermind!" Lith pointed at Nalear’s body.

Only then Farg reactivated Life Vision, noticing that Lith and Nalear both were getting stronger by the second, their wounds closing at a speed visible at the naked eye.

’Another Awakened one? This is a nightmare!’ Farg unleashed all the spells she had left, but it was too little and too late.

Nalear raised her iron glove, hitting Farg with a series of shockwaves which crushed her attacks and sent Farg sprawling on the floor, bleeding from the nose, ears, and mouth.

"Seems it’s just the two of us again, dear Lith." Nalear smiled without stopping to use Invigoration. Lith was still sitting on the floor, clearly the blast had somehow dealt him more damage than she had expected.

Lith took a deep breath. Talking was cheap while spells spoke loudly.

"Arise." He carefully avoided breaking his use of Invigoration, while all the fallen one rose on their feet to serve their master.

***

As soon as Quylla was freed from the slave ring, her mind collapsed under the weight of her actions. Ever since the previous weekend, her life had turned into a nightmare. The moment she wore the ring, she had been under Nalear’s thumb.

She had fought the ring’s influence the whole time. Yet her struggle didn’t prevent her from feeling Jirni’s blood and guts cover her hands nor Yurial’s flesh tear up like paper under the enchanted blade.

Quylla stopped struggling. She broke into tears while desperately trying to apologize.

Meanwhile, Friya was already deadly pale. Regenerating Jirni’s heart and lungs also required her to share part of her life force to prevent her mother from dying of weakness.

’How the f*ck does Lith to make it always look so simple?’ She inwardly cursed. She was doing alone something that the academy trained her to do with two teams of three persons each.