'The mine empowers Typhos' best abilities and neutralizes ours at the same time. Not even Faluel could defeat him in here and would be forced to wait for him outside the mine.
'Or better, the old Faluel couldn't. Now both she and we can.' The gloves of Lith's Scalewalker armor became thicker and a series of small crystals each of a different color appeared on his knuckles.
Typhos swung his elemental blades at the Tiamat in an overhead slash and much to his surprise, he blocked them. The dense darkness energy deformed near the Hands of Menadion due to the conflicting willpowers fighting for its control.
The six colored wings of the Fomor worked akin to the Hands, granting Typhos control over the world energy. When two similar powers collided, the decisive factors were the skill and focus of their users.
The elemental blades were akin to a rope in a tug of war, each end had a different master that could touch them without suffering any damage. Typhos turned the swords into light, fire, and then ice, yet a simple flicker of the corresponding gem on the Hands neutralized his efforts.
Friya didn't miss the opportunity, Blinking in and stabbing several times at the Fomor's vitals in a split second before Blinking out. Typhos lost his focus and his blades slipped more under Lith's control.
"Damn you, woman!" He let go of the energy masses and retreated before the rest of the group followed her example.
Had he waited any longer, Lith's energy signature would have overtaken the blades, and all the mana that Typhos had put into them would have been used against him.
'Do you have any idea how to replicate that trick?' Lith could feel the constructs fading away but he had no reason to waste his energy to fuel them.
'No mana sense, no clue. I'm sorry. I have a better idea, though.' She replied.
Typhos went back to the narrow corridor where the white crystals would fuel his wings and keep his enemies from surrounding him, becoming both his sword and shield.
Yet he could feel the world energy resisting his pull. The color of his wings dulled and keeping more than one eye lit at the same time sent pangs through his head, making tears of blood streak down his cheeks.
'Guys, feel free to use your magic. I've neutralized the wings and put a cushion between us and the crystals.' Lith said via a mind link to not alert the enemy that his field advantage was lost.
It took both Lith's and Solus's focus for the task. He used the Hands to counter the Fomor's abilities the moment he tried to activate them while Solus shaped the world energy around the white crystals so that they were insulated from external influence.
Protector, Friya, Nalrond, and Morok each cast a tier five spell that flooded the corridor where Typhos was before he had the time to understand what was happening. When he finally noticed the four incoming blasts, it was too late.
He tried to Blink but the invisible battle between his wings and the Hands twisted the elemental energy and sealed dimensional magic. Before he could try and use his eyes, the combined effects of the four spells reduced him to splatters on the walls.
"My babies!" Morok ran into the corridor to retrieve his hammers before the pillar of black light, the white flames, the dimensional blades, and the elemental spheres faded completely. "If any of you damaged my babies, you'll pay for their repairs."
He used air magic to force the dust to settle while he looked for his weapons. Luckily for him, the mystical ice was still there. It had blocked the magic explosions just like it blocked Grimnir's energy, protecting them from the blast.
"The good news is that you don't have to pay for my new weapons. The bad news is that I have no idea how to-" The ice melted as soon as the last remnant of Typhos' energy signature disappeared.
"Never mind." Morok checked his hammers with Foresight to make sure that none of their enchantments had suffered permanent damage.
"Mission accomplished." Friya panted. "The mines are clear and we have plenty of Harmonizers for Faluel to study."
"Plenty is a big word. There's barely four out of fifteen." Lith replied.
"It's more than zero." Her words dragged due to her ragged breath.
"Are you alright?" Nalrond shapeshifted back into his human form before going to help her to sit down.
Awakened were supposed to recover immediately from fatigue, especially when surrounded by the massive amount of world energy of a crystal mine.
"I don't think so." She clenched her chest that burned from a pain that originated near her solar plexus. "Faluel sent me here to have my breakthrough and I think it's about to happen."
"Shit! You used many powerful spells and the mana geyser did the rest. The same happened to Phloria in Feymar." Lith used Abyssal Gaze on Friya, discovering that her blue core was filled with bright streaks that throbbed like veins.
"Don't worry about me and seal the Harmonizers before they fall apart." She said.
"You don't have to worry about that." A silvery feminine voice said. "The Harmonizers are enchanted with a peculiar double imprint that will preserve their integrity as long as their true master wishes so."
They all turned around, discovering the presence of a woman of a striking beauty over 2.3 meters (7'7") tall, with waist-long hair of the six colors of the elements. She wore a toga that left her arms and back exposed.
With her six-colored eyes and the metal collar on her neck, she looked a lot like Typhos, but there was one big difference between them.
She had six wings instead of two, each one of a different elemental color and arranged with the same pattern of her eyes.
Everyone took out their weapons and readied their spells, except for Nalrond who stood in front of the still panting Friya while conjuring one hard-light construct after another.
"Is this really necessary?" The woman asked with a sad look in her eyes. "You are tired from the previous battle and even if you regain your vigor with a breathing technique, there's not much you can do.
"The crystals block your spells and your partner is about to have a breakthrough. If we fight while it happens, she's likely to fail and die. On top of that, there's nothing you can do against a bright violet cored Awakened. You are too weak."
"Are you really an Awakened?" Lith asked, cursing for the umpteenth time the mana geyser that sealed his mystical senses.
"Yes, but I'm barely yellow cored, just like Typhos. Yet I can assure you that I'm much more powerful than him. Awakening split my wings just like it split the color hidden into your friends' hair." She pointed at Friya.
"We are still five against one and I like our odds." Lith summoned the Hands again, ready to combine their powers with War's.
"My name is Ekidna." She gave them a polite bow while looking at Lith's seven eyes with a mix of hope and longing.. "And it's actually four against two."
