Chapter 1025: Tidal Sky Wave
Everyone in the vicinity looked up to the sky and stopped casting any other spells. The air was extremely still all around the Phoenix… until she released her magic. A few of the mages wanted to escape, but their legs felt heavy, probably aware that no matter how fast they could run there was no way out.
Even the more adept mages who had the capability to open portals to move vast distances felt that their spell casting would be far too slow to grant them any chance of escape, so they did not even bother trying, for the sky had been transformed into a massive ocean with no end in sight and the Nine Oceans Phoenix brought down the fury of the seas right in the middle of the white deserts.
The torrents of waves gushed down with extreme speeds thanks to gravity and it seemed that the magical defensive barrier the hatchery had employed stood as much of a chance to hold out as a man single handedly trying to stop an oncoming train.
And yet a man appeared at the centre of the hatchery’s roof, looking unphased by the massive attack as he released his magical aura and held up a few metal cubes together.
“Have you no care for your own child, oh Mother Phoenix?!” Saberteeth shouted, hoping that the magical waves could be cancelled as they were about to destroy this very important building for his people.
Alas, the Phoenix did not heed the words from the thief who was responsible for her children’s disappearance and proceeded to watch the entire hatchery’s barrier crumble, making way for the torrential amount of burning water to destroy everything in its path.
No, not everything. The metal cubes Saberteeth held had started glowing brightly, as if in reaction to the monster’s magic and created a protective barrier around himself.
While the Southern Leader had the ability and knowledge to use these metal cubes to lessen the damage of the Tidal Sky Wave attack to limit the damage to the hatchery’s magical defensive barrier, thereby potentially saving the lives of his men, he strangely chose not to do anything.
The Tidal Sky Wave attack by the Nine Oceans Phoenix therefore literally obliterated his entire platoon of mages and the possibility of their survival was close to none. “Woah, woah, woah! When I heard of your powers, I did not expect you to be this strong!” Saberteeth said as the cubes grew in intensity right in front of him. “I have no idea how you managed to find this place, but how can you be so cruel as to kill off your unborn child?”
“That is none of your concern. I have seen what your people have done to one of my chicks!!! Even if you had yet to kill the other one, my attack should have granted it a swift death reuniting it with their sibling!” The Nine Oceans Phoenix acted in accordance to what Jin had suggested, pretending to believe that her second egg might have been already destroyed by Saberteeth.
“Wow, you managed to find your chick? How did she look? I hope you appreciate the ‘care’ we’ve given her?” Saberteeth taunted the giant bird openly and at the same time with quite a bit of spite. He now understood why his city team had not been responding. If the Nine Oceans Phoenix had found out about the state of her chick, it could only mean that the Southern Capital must have suffered the same fate as their hatchery now or even worse. Yet, for the Phoenix to find her chick and now the egg, has she always been bidding her time to locate them in quick succession or someone was helping her? A human?
“But still… to have not a single soul escape to send me a message, not even Leopardo…it’s odd.” Saberteeth thought to himself. He could not help but feel that something did not add up. Even if the Nine Oceans Phoenix had eradicated the city, how exactly did she learn that she had to come here?
Besides Leopardo only a handful of the interim leader’s personal guards knew about the hatchery’s existence, and none of them would ever reveal its location, not even under torture, instead they would all opt to kill themselves. Not that monsters were ever known for torturing people in the first place. No, his instincts were telling Saberteeth that there was something else going on in the shadows. And he did not like it.
It was not particularly hard for the Nine Ocean Phoenix to act enraged. Whenever she remembered the state her firstborn had been in when Jin brought her to see her precious daughter, it was enough to ignite the fury within the phoenix and bring her magic powers forth once more.
“Good. Good. Be furious.” Saberteeth thought to himself as he raised the metal cubes right up high and pointed towards the Nine Oceans Phoenix.
“Shit. I have a very bad feeling about this.” Jin cursed as he was watching the whole scene play out from a far away dune hill while Sandy and Shu were standing by about a kilometre away from the fight zone.
“Do not move first, we need to find out what that cube does to her before we rush in,” Jin ordered his two minions to hold steady before acting, hoping that his gut was wrong and that the Nine Oceans Phoenix could withstand whatever treachery Saberteeth was about to do.
From the look of it, he was doing nothing but raising those metal cubes up on his palms, floating and waiting for the Phoenix to make her next move. Another, even more deadly, Tidal Sky Wave was unleashed since it was the most powerful skill she had at her disposal.
Only this time she circled the clouds around Saberteeth as if she was about to pour her waves into a cylindrical manner with the Southern Leader at the centre of it all. That way he had nowhere to run and considering he was standing still so confidently meant he must have something in his sleeve so it was better to unleash everything she got so that Saberteeth could be taken down indefinitely.
But as the waves gushed towards him, the metal cubes shone even more brightly, seemingly intending to rival the sun as they began to absorb the entirety of the attack. Multiple black holes were created at the Southern Leader’s fingertips and the Phoenix was forced to watch the magic being sucked into it.
“HAHAHAH! IT’S WORKING! IT’S ACTUALLY WORKING! YOUR MAGIC IS USELESS AGAINST ME NOW!” Saberteeth shouted hysterically since he had been gambling on this moment and from the joy in his voice his bet had paid off.
“The lives of your chicks were a small price to pay! Getting them for research purposes and using them for the benefit of my country was a nice boon to have. But THIS? THIS IS WHAT I WAS WAITING FOR!”
Saberteeth used his own magic to float even higher as the waves were continuously absorbed into the metal cubes. He had found those cubes in a temple deep in the valleys of the Southern Region. He had roughly deciphered that those cubes were able to channel one’s magic into another, although it was not permanent for a fixed duration, yet so far he had never been able to get it to work as described.
Until the day he found the Nine Oceans Phoenix which allowed him to have an inspirational breakthrough in his findings. It could be possible that those metal cubes required a ton of magical energy for it to work and as expected, the first Tidal Sky Wave that hit the cubes had been the key to activate it.
Seeing how her attack which was further strengthened by Lynn’s food was easily sucked into oblivion by the metal cubes, the Nine Oceans Phoenix panicked a little and decided to send a third wave of magical attacks, only this time it was weaker than usual since she felt threatened and did not have the time to prepare as before.
And yet, the cubes were able to take in that copious amount of magical energy while Saberteeth, in turn, took one of the cubes and tapped into its energy reserves. “I told you it was USELESS! The amount of magical energy you have is so rich that I’ve never felt so invigorated before!!” Saberteeth grinned widely and was about to launch his attack.
