"If you think to have cornered me, kid, think again." The first tail unleashed a burst of Cinder aimed at the fake Fallmug's heart.
The cursed element moved as fast as Chaos, also causing an elemental imbalance that made the well-timed Blink of its prey fail. The blue-robed man realized too late what was happening, managing only to partially dodge the bright red pillar.
Cinder generated heat of thousands of degrees while also robbing the humidity from anything that came too close to it, in order to restore its balance by absorbing the nearby water element.
The right arm of the fake Fallmug was struck by the cursed element, causing his blood to boil, his armor to become white-hot, and every tissue up to his shoulder to be turned into dried meat.
The pillar was infused with willpower, yet instead of keep chasing after its first target, it moved onto one of the Warp Gates from where reinforcements kept coming out.
Tezka's tier five Cinder spell, Dread Star, killed all those nearby and disrupted the Warp Steps' elemental balance as well, making the spell collapse.
On top of that, once the dimensional corridor closed and the connection with its caster was severed, Dread Star exploded on the other side of the Steps, boiling the mercenaries alive in the alleged safety of their own base.
"Quick question, kid. How many elements there are?" Tezka asked while unleashing from five of his tails as many cursed elements.
The blue-robed man didn't attempt to Blink anymore, focusing all he had to dodge.
'I only need to avoid getting hit by the first volley. Once those goddamn tails are depowered, it will be my victory. Without them, he cannot overcome the gap in our equipment.' He thought.
Tezka watched at the enemy's movements with interest. He noticed that whenever one of his cursed spells came in too close, the fake Fallmug would conjure a powerful spell of the opposite element, partly restoring their balance.
This way, the fake Fallmug could take off the brunt of the damage of the cursed elements that managed to hit him since in their reverted form they were no match for his powerful Adamant armor.
"Either you are a quick learner, or you are much older than you look. Countering Mirror Magic as you just did is no easy feat." Tezka gave him a round of applause without looking one bit disappointed by the blue-robed man surviving the onslaught.
The reason was that the copycat had never been the target all along. Decay had made another Warp Steps explode, hitting the mercenaries' exposed backs and making them easy prey for the soldiers of the Kingdom.
Just like Cinder, it had also crossed the dimensional door, turning an entire building full of powerful mages into a bunch of fossils.
Zero, Choke, and Corruption had respectively caused a city block-sized ice age, poisoned to death anyone in a 100 meters radius, and made a mercenary base collapse while melting everything inside.
In a split second, the equivalent of an entire army of elite mages had been slaughtered by just six spells. To make matters worse for the fake Fallmug, Tezka had aimed the cursed elements so that they would kill people on both sides of the Warp Steps.
"How dare you ruin months of planning and ignore me as if I'm just a two-bit side show? I'm the new Balkor and alone I've brought the Kingdom on its knees!" The copycat said in outrage.
"Kid, you're spouting so much bullshit that I suspect my punches must have connected your ass to your mouth. Let me fix that." Tezka Blinked behind his target from the side of the still-limp arm, making any counter impossible.
He grabbed the blue-robed man's head and slammed it on the ground with so much strength that the impact created a several meters deep crater. At the same time, he tried to pierce the man's skull with his claws and to burst the copycat's head open with his grip, but to no avail.
'Whoever crafted his stuff, they are one damn good Forgemaster.' The Fylgja thought. 'It doesn't matter, though. I've unleashed the Chaos in my body and it will take it seconds to make short work even of purified Adam-'
The fake Fallmug stabbed Tezka's wrist with inhuman speed. An Adamant dagger cut deep into the flesh, severing the hand with the same ease of a knife slicing bread.
'Son of a…' The Abomination jumped back as black tendrils reconnected the two extremities of his body, dodging by a hair's breadth another stab of the knife, this time aimed at his right eye.
Somehow, the grip of the short weapon had sprung forward, gaining a momentum that would have blasted Tezka's skull open. Such damage wasn't enough to kill an Eldritch, but without the head, he would have been helpless until it regenerated.
In a battle between mages, even a single second was enough to turn the tide of a battle.
"Seriously, kid, I'm going to have fun ripping off your flesh and discovering what are you." Tezka looked in amazement at the blue-robed man's right arm that had already recovered from the effects of Cinder.
Meanwhile, the Spirit Tail didn't share much of its main body's optimism. No matter how many mercenaries he cut down, more kept coming. To make matters worse, they weren't just dumb goons.
After the Spirit Tail had slaughtered the first waves of enemies with ease thanks to Chaos magic, they had cast a darkness sealing array that had taken away his best offensive weapon.
Also, to better exploit their numbers and press the advantage, the mercenaries had taken down the walls, creating enough access points to attack Zinya and the children from every side.
'Dammit! These guys pose no threat to me and I could take them out easily by escaping the sealing array's area of effect. Yet to do that, I would need to leave the humans behind.' He thought.
What made the fight so hard was protecting their lives from both physical and magical attacks with only a fraction of the powers that any other tail held. The Spirit Tail had been forced to share the Suneater armor with Zinya from time to time, leaving itself open.
Luckily, thanks to his Warg half's ability to share their wounds, every time the tail would get hit, the main body would take the damage in the tail's stead and heal it without the blue-robed man even noticing Tezka's distress.
The main body and the Spirit tail had only one mind, forcing the Eldritch to formulate different strategies while also moving the two bodies at the same time without either of them making a single mistake.
'When I get back, home I must thank Bytra for enchanting my new Endless Night with spells of all elements. Were it like the old one with only darkness and dimensional enchantments, my mission would have already failed.' He thought.
A slash of the starred blade cut through an Orichalcum polearm before tearing the Talon wielding it asunder. The woman wore many layers of enchanted armor, but the Davross cut the Orichalcum as if it was just paper.
Endless Night fed its master with the energies it had robbed from its victim and unleashed the Full Moon skill.
