Even though their thirst for knowledge burned bright, Lith and Solus knew better than meaninglessly rush forward. Lith expanded the silence zone to not be interrupted by the city guards and unleashed a volley of lightning bolts.
Even Full Guard was useless if its user wasn't fast enough to react to the information it provided. Kieran cursed as his body went into a seizure. The blade stuck in his body was a perfect conductor, allowing the lighting to bypass the armor's defensive barrier.
Darkness fusion prevented him from feeling pain, but the electrical current still triggered his active motor neurons. Having the opponent lost his mobility, Lith pushed the Reaver through Kieran's body until its hilt struck his chest.
With a pierced lung and the venom flooding the assassin's blood system, Lith was almost sure to have absolute control over his enemy.
'Too bad that almost is never enough.' He thought.
'At least now he can't use Invigoration. I could question him, but if the scimitar guy is around, he will have all the time he needs to cast his best spells, if not even an array. Time to find out if we are alone or not.'
"Time to die, human. You shouldn't have messed with my turf." Lith's voice in his hybrid form was a low grumble, as if the words were half spoken and half roared, making it unrecognizable.
The rapier went straight for Kieran's heart, forcing Deraniel's hand. The man from the Blood Desert had no choice but to open the Warp Steps he had at the ready while unsheathing his sword.
It cost him the array he had been preparing from the moment the ambush started.
Another of the strong points of the surveillance mirror was the possibility to project arrays from a greater distance than it was normally possible, making it a perfect tool for Awakened working as a team.
'That idiot! Not only did he get his ass handed to him before I could finish my spell, but he also managed to anger an Emperor Beast. Fucking animals, they are almost as annoying as Keiran.' Deraniel thought.
'Behind you!' Solus warned Lith as her mana sense detected the opening of the dimensional corridor. It was too far for Lith to stab the opponent before he could react, so Lith feigned ignorance until the last moment.
Only then did he dodge the attack by rolling to the side while using spirit magic to toss the helpless assassin against his companion.
"Fuck!" Deraniel said, unable to express how frustrated he was. He had only two choices: to Blink away and be at the enemy's mercy or kill Kieran with his own hands.
Dimensional magic was the only way he had to alter the path of his blade, but Lith took the choice out of his hands by hurling a stream of Origin Flames against the two Awakened who were about to collide.
Deraniel cursed again, Blinking both him and his companion in opposite directions. He didn't do it to protect Kieran, so much as to create two exit points at once. He gambled on his luck, hoping the Emperor Beast would follow the wrong Blink.
Lith activated the spirit magic variation he had learned while in Zolgrish's lab.
"Demons of Darkness!" He shouted despite being deeply ashamed of his current persona. Talking like an evil overlord made him cringe to the bone.
He injected his pure mana inside his shadow and then he expanded it like a black sun. Blink had an area of effect much smaller than spirit magic so both Awakened were still within his grasp.
Kieran was too busy spitting blood to not drown in his own fluids to notice his shadow coming to life, whereas Deraniel activated fusion magic as soon as he realized an invisible force was constricting his movements.
'What the?' Not only the grip he felt all over his body was getting stronger instead of fading, but his life force was being sucked as well. It took him just a moment to notice that his own shadow now had yellow eyes and was wrapped around his limbs.
He freed himself with a small flash of light that dispersed the darkness and then he Blinked away.
'Damn, the shadow version of spirit magic has a weak spot even easier to exploit than the regular one does. Ratpack didn't notice it because he's an idiot.' Lith thought.
Instead of wasting his time giving chase to Deraniel, Lith went after Kieran. Preventing one enemy from running away and the other one from healing himself was impossible, so he decided to cut his losses along with the assassin's head.
"We need help!" Deraniel yelled at his communicator amulet panicking.
"Two against one? How pathetic are you two?" Replied a feminine voice full of disdain.
"You can't kill me. I'm…" Kieran attempted to say, but Lith enchanted rapier fully infused with air, fire, and darkness magic made a short work of the black garb's barrier.
"Dead." Lith completed the phrase for him.
'Oh, shit! Forget about the loot, this thing is going to explode.' Solus said when she noticed that all of the pseudo cores of the assassin's equipment were becoming volatile.
'No need.' Lith chuckled as he Blinked both himself and the corpse at Deraniel's opposite sides.
Deraniel now had to takes his chances with two kinds of demise. Either he faced the explosion and took the demonic beast's sword in his back or he took the explosion in his back and got skewered from the front.
Panicking and using the communicator amulet didn't leave him enough focus to cast a Blink fast enough to save himself.
Luckily for him, the person on the other side of the call wasn't really refusing to help. She just needed enough time to lock into his coordinates. She appeared in the nick of time, using the multi layered barrier she had prepared to save Kieran to contain the explosion instead.
Her companion blocked the incoming rapier with a great sword that he was able to wield with only one hand. He was a handsome man who seemed to be in his early twenties. He was even taller than Lith in his hybrid form and had the build of a mountain.
He wore a set of light armor that covered his vitals and his joints with small metal plates over a set of high end hunter clothes. Lith recognized it as a style originating from the Gorgon Empire. The youth had blonde hair and sky blue eyes.
"To kill Kieran so fast you must be a worthy opponent." He said.
"Too bad you can't harm me with that needle…"
"Scram!" Lith roared while infusing himself with all the elements as the youth did the same.
'Deep blue mana core, strong as a bull, good equipment. Especially the sword' Solus said.
"What the…" Pelion couldn't believe his own eyes when the shorter and much slimmer creature pushed him aside. Lith's hybrid form had the same abilities as the human one.
Yet despite the difference in build, thanks to his constant training and body refining, his muscles were even more powerful than the giant's.
The moment Pelion tried to fight strength with strength Lith sidestepped, making the enemy be thrown off balance by his own charge.
The youth was an excellent swordsman, but the nimble rapier exploited his weakness and slithered like a snake through his guard, opening deep wounds on his four limbs and crippling his strength.
