Locrias had saved as many of his fellow soldiers as he could before helping Solus.
Now that Lith was too busy facing the Black Dragon to share any more mana, Locrias could feel his energy slipping away with each exchange and regretted not having taken care of the enemy leader sooner.
Even as a soldier, Quaron had ranked higher than Locrias did back in his prime and now that he was a Harbinger, the Ranger had become stronger than a regular Awakened human.
'The bastard is stronger and faster than I ever was.' Locrias thought. 'If not for my new inhuman body, he would have already turned me into mincemeat. To make matters worse, Quaron keeps spitting those odd flames.
'Every time they even graze me, I can feel my consciousness fading. I need help!'
Lith had a natural connection with his conjured Demons but he was too far away for a mind link. As for Solus, she had none so she just assumed that as long as Locrias held his ground everything would be fine.
'I have barely a couple of spells left in me and I can't risk Quaron Blinking them.' She thought. 'As soon as I get back to the tower, I need to craft some magic holding rings for myself.'
Solus called upon the Sage Staff's power core, using the elemental energy that the colored crystals and the Evil Eyes conjured to activate its enchantments instead of feeding her body.
She hadn't done it before because it would further shorten the time she could keep her physical form, but now she had no other choice.
Thanks to Life Vision, Quaron saw the power accumulating in the Staff and reacted by taking a deep breath. The moment Solus activated the Distorted Field ability, the Staff released six small spheres of Gravity Magic while Quaron hurled a river of Origin Flames at Locrias.
He dodged them on instinct only to realize that Quaron had them aligned so that Locrias would cover Solus's sight until it was too late. Locrias inwardly cursed and flapped his wings with fury.
His body was as lithe as a feather and stronger than a bull, allowing him to reach Solus before the flames and to attempt to pull her in the air with him to not break her focus.
Unfortunately, she weighed more than he could handle. Locrias' attempt to lift Solus on the go had the same result as a car crashing against a wall.
He didn't lose consciousness on impact only because there was no brain in his head that could suffer a concussion and she barely managed to block the Flames by having the spheres surround her.
By working in unison, they trapped the Origin Flames in a compressed gravity field where they couldn't burn anything but themselves until they went out.
"How can a woman be so short and yet weigh so much?" Locrias asked.
"Shut up and get out of my way!" Solus snarled.
Due to Locrias' meddling, Quaron had managed to get close to her while the Distorted Field was still busy dealing with the Flames.
"Calm down and listen to me." Locrias blocked a lunge of the glaive but the impact almost ripped the blade out of his hands. "I can take him on my own. I just need you to give me a boost. I'm running on fumes."
"That's a bloodline ability that I don't have." Solus's voice was full of frustration. "That's why I was trying to help you with a spell that you ruined!"
"Good to know." Quaron replied with a smirk while slashing horizontally with his glaive.
He could see with Life Vision that neither of them had enough energy to be a threat but if they were somehow able to combine their resources, he would have found himself in a tough position.
Now that he was finally sure that their inability wasn't just a trap, Quaron squeezed the last drops of strength he had left in a final burst.
The curved blade pushed Locrias' sword away and then traced a small circle in the air, returning to its original position without losing momentum. Quaron shifted his weight, turning the slash into a lunge and piercing Locrias' chest.
He made sure to remain in Solus's blind spot by always keeping the Demon between them. This way, Locrias's energy signature blinded her mana sense and she couldn't aim her spells.
Quaron charged forward, using the impaled Demon as both a shield and a battering ram while also hurling a burst of Origin Flames. All three of them were dangerously low on mana, but only one of them had access to an ability that didn't require any.
Locrias' shadow faded away right after the impact, leaving only the remains of the Skeletal Knight and the stolen armor to take the brunt of the flames. Without his burden, Quaron became even faster and aimed at Solus's head.
'I have no strength left or spell ready and there's no time to rearrange the Distorted Field. I don't want to find out what happens when my body gets destroyed but Lith still wears my stone ring and I can't get back inside from this distance.' Solus feared that the death of her body would force her to rebuild it from scratch.
She had waited twelve years to be human again and the thought of losing it after a few weeks scared her to death.
Much to her surprise, her body sidestepped the attack while keeping War glued to the glaive to control its movements. Her right hand holding the staff performed a riposte that caught Quaron by surprise, crushing his nose and making it hard for him to breathe.
'I bet that he can't spew fire with his mouth full of blood.' Locrias' voice said in her head. 'Don't let him recover and use your magic. I'll take care of the fight.'
'What? How? Most importantly, why didn't you do it sooner?' She replied.
'Demons are just shadows. the moment I understood that I had lost, I moved into yours and left my body behind as a decoy. As for your last question, yes, I could have done it since I know by instinct everything that I'm capable of in this form.
'Yet after over a month of isolation during which I couldn't speak, touch, or be heard, even pain is a pleasant change and I wanted to savor every single sensation my new body could offer.'
Solus knew the feeling very well so she telepathically nodded and focused on the fight. Now that she didn't have to worry about hurting Locrias anymore, she could use the Distorted Field to its fullest.
The six spheres arranged themselves in a circle around the fighters, each one releasing small bursts of energy that could alter the gravity in a small area. On the one hand, it limited their effectiveness but on the other hand, it also got rid of most of gravity magic's side effects.
Solus was very proud of her idea.. Usually, conjuring and controlling six elements at the same time while also keeping them perfectly balanced was a demanding task, but the Sage Staff had been devised exactly for that purpose in order to feed her mana core.
"Correct." Syrook nodded. "I can't let my subjects see you when you look like a beaten mutt. Now go and don't forget who holds the leash."
***
Military camp outside of Zeska, Lith's tent.
Right after King Meron had ended the call, Lith had given instructions to his seconds in command about how to arrange the troops and prepare the battlefield while he rested.
He needed eight hours of sleep to reset Invigoration's effects but what worried him the most was the condition of his life force and Solus's. Even though she had kept her human form briefly, it had been enough to weaken her.
As for Lith, he wanted to be capable of using the pocket dimension and Origin Flames to ensure his victory no matter what cards Quaron had in his sleeve. In theory, there was no way that a fake human mage could beat an Awakened Tiamat in human form, but there was too much on the line to risk underestimating his opponent.
'Too many things don't add up.' He thought while using his breathing skill, Demon Grasp, to recover his strength and refine his mana core.
'The north was filled with angry people that would eat a foreigner alive to survive winter, but not even the most remote village ever rebelled. On top of that, no one seemed scared by the presence of my battalion, they only feared me after I displayed my strength.
'Last but not least, I have no idea what part this so-called god played in all this and if they are going to meddle during my fight with their champion. The more I think about this place the more I feel like a pawn on a chessboard of which I can only see my own square.'
'Don't worry too much.' Solus said to cheer him up. 'I'm already back to my full strength and even if Quaron is an Awakened, you still have the advantage of surprise. Now go to sleep. There are two days left until the deadline and plenty of time to practice.'
King Meron's words about the fate of his family in the case Lith failed the mission still echoed in his mind. It wasn't the first time that he had considered leaving the Kingdom but never before had his personal life been at stake.
He loved his house in Lutia with all of his heart. Not only was it linked to most of the happiest moments of his life on Mogar but it was also the only place that his parents could call home.
It was Raaz's ancestral house and the place where Elina had given birth to their children. Losing it like that would break their hearts.
Lith had trouble falling asleep and it seemed to him to have just closed his eyes when the ruckus outside woke him up.
"Face me if you dare, Verhen!" A deep manly voice roared like thunder with enough strength to make the edges of the tent flap. "You wanted to see me and here I am. Are you brave enough to step forward or are you going to hide behind your army like a coward?"
"I mean no disrespect by stating the obvious but Quaron has arrived, sir." Captain Ahria said, stepping inside Lith's tent as soon as she received permission to.
"What a smart son of a bitch." Lith yawned while watching at the orange light of the sun that still barely peeked at the horizon. "He showed up at dawn to catch me off guard while my body is still stiff and my mind numb from the sleep."
"There's no rush, sir. Wash your face while I have a strong tea prepared for you." Ahria said.
"If you can't even respect the terms of your own challenge, then I'll assume that you are just wasting my time. Either you fight now or never, Verhen." Quaron said.
"Don't fall for his provocation and ignore him, sir. His tactic is as childish as it's stupid." Ahria prepared a basin filled with fresh water and a towel.
"I can't." Lith replied. "Remember what the King said. This is a battle of honor to impress the locals. If I stall for time and Quaron claims his victory it doesn't matter what the terms were, only that the people of Zeska will consider his words true.
"At that point, no one will care about the outcome of the fight and our mission will be as good as failed."
Ahria tried to argue with that logic but no words came to her mouth. There was no point in defeating Quaron if Lith ended up losing the hearts of the people. He would just look like a violent bully and Zeska would never surrender.
"Here I am, jackass. No need to be so loud." Lith walked out of his tent while still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and scratching a bitch of an itch on his left ass cheek.
"I'm sorry. Did I interrupt your beauty sleep?" Unlike the two mages' voices, the laughter of the people that filled Zeska's battlements to the brim wasn't magically amplified.
Yet it could be clearly heard from miles away.
Most of the hilarity didn't ensue from the joke but from the comparison between the two contestants.
Quaron floated high in the sky, with the sun on his back shining over his armor. A gentle breeze ruffled his perfect hair and his mantle, making him look like a hero straight out of a bard tale.
His eyes brimmed with confidence and his smile made many hearts flutter.
Lith instead, dragged his feet on the ground and his capeless black armor made him look like a puddle of tar from a distance. He had disheveled hair and bleary eyes, giving him the look of a man that either had partied until late or had recently become a father.
"You sure did, so I'm going to go back to bed as soon as I'm done kicking your ass." Lith's words echoed throughout the valley, making the laughter stop.
There was no arrogance or mockery in his voice. He spoke amid yawns with a deadpan tone as if he was ordering breakfast.
"Let's set a few ground rules so that no one can complain about the outcome, shall we? We'll fight one on one, without any external help of any kind. We can use anything we have on ourselves or that's stored in our respective dimensional items.
"We can also exploit the environment, such as the arrays of Zeska and everything that lay in our surroundings. The first one to die loses. Deal?" Lith extended his right hand to the sky, generating an identical hard-light construct in front of his opponent.
"Deal. The people of the free country of Nestrar are our witness." Quaron promptly shook it while raising his left fist in the air to proclaim his imminent victory. "We are writing a page of history that will change the Garlen continent forever!"
"More like a footnote." Lith said, ignoring the booming cheers coming from Zeska. "And a short one about what a dumbass you were at that. Let's fight!"
Air magic amplified the last two words enough for everyone to hear them.. Only then did the traitorous Ranger and his followers notice that the construct had not faded.
