"Get over here!" The sudden pull dragged Quaron down, sending him crashing against the ground akin to a living meteor.
He promptly reacted by making the soil elastic in order to soften his landing and add the momentum gained to his counterattack.
Unfortunately for him, Lith noticed his plan with Life Vision and foiled it with a flick of his wrist. The construct changed the direction of the fall, leading straight against Lith's fist.
Quaron managed to Blink away in the nick of time, but he had no way to get rid of the hand of light that shackled him. The moment he came out of the dimensional door, the construct exerted its pull again and this time he was ready to counter it.
Quaron managed to avoid getting dragged again, but only until Lith sent a second construct to also pull Quaron by the cape and change the direction of the force.
'His quick thinking and reaction speed are worthy of someone ranked M by the military. Yet only a self-absorbed idiot wears a cape. Solus, analysis.' Lith thought while Quaron orbited around him akin to a planet with its star.
'I would have ranked him C for cheater rather than M for monster.' She replied. 'His equipment is nothing like the standard stuff they gave you received at the end of the boot camp. They are all high-end artifacts, some of Awakened making and some not.
'Whoever gave them to him is no Forgemaster. As for his mana core, Quaron has a nice bright blue Awakened one but for some reason, it has several violet streaks and it produces mana of similar quality to yours.'
'What?' Lith was flabbergasted, holding the thug of war long enough for Solus to complete her report. 'I don't remember any way to temporarily boost your mana core and it took me years to reach the pseudo-violet level.
'Even thralls just receive a blood core while their original mana core stays the same. Quaron's status service was impeccable until last winter but nothing in his personal achievements makes me think he's a self-Awakened.'
'I have no idea what's going on. If I had to make an educated guess, I'd say that Quaron's core, just like his equipment has been modified by the so-called god who is pulling the strings behind the scenes.' Solus said.
In the few seconds that their conversation lasted, Lith used every iota of his willpower to twist and pull the constructs.
There was only so much he could do from a distance whereas his opponent exploited his enhanced body, further boosting it with fusion magic. On top of that, Quaron kept flooding the phantom hands with darkness magic that ate at them from the inside.
The hard-light construct had just started to crack when they suddenly disappeared into thin air.
'Tired of fighting a losing battle, Verhen? Too bad those spells weren't just a leash, they were also your lifeline!' The traitorous Ranger brimmed with fury just thinking the word leash.
Lith was unknowingly salting Quaron's wounds and the fact that he had fallen for such an obvious trap only worsened his mood. He weaved one of his best Battle Mage spells, Eclipsing Shockwave.
It would conjure several streams of darkness-infused bolts of lightning followed by a series of high-speed winds comprised of razor-sharp air blades.
The flashes from the bolts were barely visible under the darkness coating them, giving the spell the first part of its name, while the air currents that devastated everything in their wake gave it the second half.
Quaron's favorite tactic was to spread the lightning bolts so that the high-speed winds would block any escape route.
'Back when I was still a fake mage, my opponents could avoid Eclipsing Shockwave with Blink, but now I can see the exit points with Life-' A sudden hit to back cut him short.
Quaron completed the spell despite the pain, yet Eclipsing Shockwave failed to take form, throwing a good chunk of his mana into the gutter.
The Ranger was stunned by the sudden turn of events but things got even worse when he started to fall like a brick despite his flying spell. He gritted his teeth to endure the pain and never avert his eyes from the opponent.
The moment Lith had dispelled the construct he had also jumped towards the enemy and deactivated Gravity Fusion, leaving behind a small crater.
Quaron tried to Blink away but the spell failed him.
Only then did he notice thanks to Life Vision that Lith had timed the disappearance of the construct so that it would throw Quaron inside the elemental sealing arrays of Zeska.
Unbeknownst to him, Lith had further fooled the traitorous Ranger by coating himself in air fusion in a way that resembled a flight spell. Quaron had mistaken Lith's speed for a spell whereas it was only due to his boosted physical prowess.
'What the heck is this guy?' Quaron thought. 'The fight has barely started, yet I'm already backed into a corner without even having the time to unsheathe my weapon. I didn't want to use Syrook's powers against a human but I've got no choice left.'
The Ranger opened his mouth as if he was about to yell but instead of words, a violent burst of Origin Flames came out. Just like his mana core, the mystical fire was bright blue yet several violet streaks brought it to the next level.
'Origin Flames? I thought he was a human. How could you make such a mistake, Solus?' Lith inwardly cursed.
He could still dodge them with Spirit Magic, but that would mean being forced to give an explanation later.
If he didn't, however, Lith would take a huge blow. The problem with Origin Flames wasn't just their destructive power but the fact that he would have to stop and extinguish them, giving the enemy the time to recover.
'He seems human. Without the Scanner spell or Invigoration, I can't see much from a distance. He might even be a hybrid as you were.' She replied. 'You can still move freely without earth and air magic. Use Light Mastery to conjure floating platforms to step on.'
'Excellent idea. It makes my plan even better.' Despite the surprise attack, Lith had already faced enough Origin Flames users to know what to do.
He hurled a jet stream of violet flames that clashed with Quaron's for a split second before exploding. Lith was in mid-air so the shockwave just pushed him back whereas Quaron was stuck to the city walls.
The conflagration pinned him in place, making it impossible for him to dodge the incoming burst of fire. To make matters worse, Lith's Origin Flames were stronger than his own so part of them had pierced through the explosion that now boosted their speed to that of a bullet.
"Are those two really human?" Many of those spectating to the fight asked to their neighbors.
The former Lieutenant Colonel Xolman Pelan was covered in a cold sweat, his neck hurting from the sharp movements necessary to pretend that he managed to follow the fight with his eyes.
'I really want Verhen to lose. His career and reputation would be destroyed and I would be the new commanding officer.. On the other hand, I don't want to fight Quaron.'
"I deeply apologize for Sergeant Throq's behavior." Eman unconsciously took a step back before giving Lith a deep bow. "He acted on his own without my permission."
'That damn idiot!' He actually thought. 'His stunt cost us one of our best set of equipment, a good soldier, and it destroyed what little was left of our morale. Even I can't stop looking at the bloody mess of what's left of him.
'If Ranger Quaron abandons us, we are doomed.'
"I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and I'll let this slide." Lith said. "Yet if any of your men try something funny again, I'll hold you responsible and start the attack immediately. You have two days and twenty-three hours left."
He left before the Commander could reply, collecting the corpse with a hand-shaped hard light construct.
"Status report." Lith asked Estar while putting the precious equipment inside his pocket dimension.
"Rudra is currently heading west. The messenger doesn't seem to have noticed his presence but he is changing his trajectory often so we have no idea where his destination is." The Captain replied. "Also, with all due respect, you are an army officer."
"So what?" Lith replied in confusion.
"Your assailant wore military-grade equipment so is reasonable to assume that it came from the city vault."
"And?"
"And if I'm right, those things are the Kingdom's property, not loot. If they are not returned, you might end up in trouble." Estar cleared his voice multiple times in embarrassment.
"Dammit!" Lith checked every single piece of equipment, finding the Royal Seal etched into every single one of them.
'Yeah. I'm sorry to say this, but they also have a tracking spell so we can't "accidentally" pocket some without being caught the moment we use them.' Solus sighed.
"I'm sorry for your loss, sir, but I'm sure that the Kingdom will compensate you properly for your valor." Estar felt stupid apologizing for doing his duty, but Lith scared him too much. "By the way, your tent is ready."
"Excellent. Lead the way."
"Isn't it dangerous to set your living quarters so close to the city? You are still within attack range." The Captain was happy to change the topic.
"It is, but this way I'm creating a diversion that will increase my chance of success during the infiltration." Lith replied. "Get inside first."
Estar did as instructed while Lith stood on the entrance, looking at the city with an intense expression. A split second later, he turned around and walked into the tent as well, yet a second Lith remained in plain sight while staring at Zeska.
"You can split?" The Captain fell onto his knees from the shock.
"Don't be ridiculous. That's just a hard-light construct with my appearance." Lith replied with a smirk. "The assassination attempt worked in our favor. As soon as the news spread, Quaron's accomplices will panic and do something stupid.
"Now that all the eyes are fixed on my tent, it's the perfect moment to sneak in unnoticed since no one is looking at the sky anymore.
Send someone to speak with my double at regular intervals and make sure that no one touches it."
Lith chanted a brief spell that conjured the array needed to fuel the Light Mastery spell in his absence and then opened a Warp Steps leading to the sky above Zeska.
The air coming out the dimensional door was so thin and cold that Estar became dizzy and fell to the ground again.
"If you need to contact me, send three rainbow-colored fireballs high in the sky and I'll get out of the city as soon as I can." Lith jumped through the Steps, closing it behind him before activating a Spirit Spell.
His ability with Light Mastery wasn't enough to land safely from such an altitude, not even with his enhanced body. Spirit Magic, however, was another story. It used only the mana from Lith's mana core, making it immune to the effects of elemental sealing arrays.
Lith simply conjured a float spell that allowed him to take his time changing his appearance with Body Sculpting and another Steps that brought him to the ground level without anyone noticing.
'My best guess is to start our investigation in the City Hall's palace.' He said via the mind link. 'Even in the unlikely case the City Lord isn't involved with the rebellion, if we get our hands on the records of all the past transactions and of those who visited Zeska during the winter we can discover who's behind it.'
'By my Mom, what's wrong with your hair?' Solus replied.
The man who had walked out of the dimensional door was in his mid-twenties, about 1.78 meters (5'10") tall. He had the haircut of an IRS employee on a windy Monday morning and the friendly eyes of someone whose entire family had been slaughtered just an hour ago.
Lith couldn't risk shapeshifting into a body he wasn't comfortable with so he had just mixed his Abomination and Human side together to obtain the appearance he had back on Earth.
'We are in the middle of a covert op and all you can think about is nagging about my hair?'
'First, that do is a crime against eyesight. Second, no one uses it on Mogar.' Solus replied.
She checked with mana sense that they were alone before using Spirit Magic and a pair of scissors to give him a less conspicuous look.
'Now stop glaring or you'll get reported to the city guards and our mission will end before even starting.'
Lith needed several deep breaths and quite some coaching to soften his expression. His face as Derek McCoy seemed to be stuck in a perpetual frown and it took him sheer willpower to alter it.
As he had predicted, Zeska was in a state of panic. The citizens had abandoned their daily activities and had assembled in the streets to discuss the events that had taken place in front of the city walls.
They were too busy pointing at the mages floating in the sky that had surrounded the city to notice Lith.
"Where the heck is Lord Quaron when we need him the most? He should have known that Zeska would be targeted first!" Most people said, receiving nods in reply.
"If he doesn't get here quickly, I'm going to surrender. I'm not risking my life for someone who abandoned us nor for his noble friends." Knowing that their lives would be safe even in the case the rebellion failed made the commoners unwilling to spend three days in fear.
Lith walked briskly toward the city hall, located in the city's inner rim.
Zeska was one of the most important agricultural hubs of the Kingdom and the majority of its inhabitants were farmers. Their duty was to cultivate the hundreds of acres of fields that surrounded the city and they were well paid for it.
The outer rim consisted of the living quarters of the soldiers and mages that protected the city. They were the nearest to the city walls so to minimize the response time in case of an emergency.
Farmers and merchants lived in the middle rim, respectively producing and processing the food for their daily necessities.. The food storages were located in the inner rim along with the noble households.
