Pala kept Blinking and Lith kept adjusting his aim. He didn't care for the Sapling trembling in pain and outrage due to Setting Sun ravaging the tree as well as the undead.
'Since you can't make up your mind about which side to take, let me give you an incentive. This is what we do to traitors where I come from.' Lith thought.
Megon screamed in agony while cursing himself for not listening to Pala. Without an arm, he couldn't use dimensional magic. His prized armor and regenerative abilities were only delaying the inevitable and prolonging his agony.
He prayed every second he had left that someone would come and help him. It was his only thought even when his body had already started to turn into dust. His heart was still intact, but his blood core was gone, eaten by the black flames.
Meanwhile, Phloria conjured one Mage Knight spell after the other to protect Kalla. Yet there were two big problems she had no idea how to overcome. All of her best spells required to be at close range and the shrinking tornado kept her away.
To make matters worse, there was no way to gather enough mana to stop an ongoing tier five spell. Blast Guard surrounded the fallen Wight, clashing with the edges of the Silent Reaper spell for a second before being crushed.
Crystal Guard and Wind Guard lasted shortly as well, barely putting a dent in Gremlik's spell.
'By the gods, I can't believe Lith was right about the Sapling. If we get out of here alive, I swear to not mock him anymore for his paranoid delusions. Not too much, at least.' Phloria thought.
Everything inside the castle was made out of wood, to make the Sovereign akin to a god within its premises and block earth magic. Luckily, just like Leannan, Phloria had preferred being safe rather than sorry and had taken all the rocks she always carried with her out of her dimensional amulet.
She compressed and then threw them inside Silent Reaper. The spell was unable to pulverize the mass of the giant boulder, only to shave its most external layers into dust.
Yet the dust was still made of earth, hence under Phloria's control. It joined the stone mass again and enveloped the curled figure of Kalla, who was still trying to use Invigoration to recover.
"It's useless, woman!" Gremlik laughed at her desperate efforts and kept his distance.
"If you get away from the traitor, your makeshift shield crumbles and she dies, but if you stay there, you'll die." The Dryad Grendel didn't trust his physical abilities enough to challenge a Mage Knight in close quarters, but he had no need to.
Gremlik weaved one spell after another. He only needed to hit Phloria once to break her focus and kill two enemies at the same time.
'Cunning bastard. I hoped that he would mindlessly charge forward. Now I have to focus on both my tier five spell, Bastion, and him.' She thought.
Earth magic usually had the upper hand against air magic, but that only when the mage could conjure all the stones they wanted, whereas she was forced to recover every bit of dust the conflicting spells created and fuse it back with the dome.
On top of that, she couldn't use dimensional magic. Gremlik Blinked around, too far away for Full Guard to be useful, unleashing a barrage of tier three spells arranged in a formation that exploited the limited room to move she had.
Unlike her, Gremlik could continue pouring mana into his tier five spell, since he only needed to touch the Sapling to restore all the spent energy.
'I wish I had thought of this plan myself. Now I understand why Erlik always blabs about Awakened. The ability to conjure infinite mana is intoxicating. Once we are done here, I should take a city-state for myself.
'Or maybe I should wait for the two "Sovereigns" to kill each other and then take out the winner.' The Grendel thought.
Contrary to his expectation, after dodging a hail of ice lances, Phloria lunged at him despite the distance between them exceeded ten meters (33 feet). Her estoc burst with light, cutting through space in an instant.
It was Piercing Light, her improved version of the tier four spell Phantom Blade. It allowed a Mage Knight to imbue their weapons with mystical energies that, using their blades as a template, could temporarily extend them and expand their attack range.
The extra parts of the sword were made of light, hence weightless, giving the Mage Knight complete freedom of movement. The downside was that covering such a distance required a huge amount of focus and mana
Since she couldn't always keep it active, she used it in short bursts whenever the situation allowed for it. Even if the spell's effects only lasted for the duration of a single slash, it was enough for them to kill her target.
"Nice try." Gremlik tilted his head sideways, dodging the lunge with the bare minimum movement to not mess up the spell he was casting.
Piercing Light was fast, but so was the Grendel.
Moreover, the farther the target was, the easier the attack was to dodge due to the telegraphed movement.
"Likewise." Phloria allowed her grimace of frustration to turn into a smirk only when it was too late for Gremlik to react.
From the tip of her estoc came out a Fireball and a Wind Blast. The combined effect of the two tier three spells triggered a powerful explosion that was accompanied by a deafening noise and blinding light.
The damage wasn't nearly enough to harm an undead, but it still managed to blast Gremlik away and make him lose his focus. As a Grendel he had heightened senses that made the bark of the spell much worse than its bite.
To achieve such a small miracle, Phloria had employed her personal spell, Master Sword. It was a tier five Mage Knight spell that allowed her to channel her magic inside her estoc and unleash it at will.
Mage Knights had to often fight in close combat while defending their mark, so Phloria had devised Master Sword to be able to use all kinds of spells without having to worry about her allies.
It was the first time that she had attempted to combine it with Piercing Light since controlling two tier five spells at once required too much focus, leaving her only enough energy for low tiered spells.
'Thanks, Dad, for teaching me that even the simplest of the spells can have the most devastating effect.' She thought.
Phloria had fused a spell meant to strike multiple enemies at the same time and another that was supposed to inject her magic inside an enemy to create an instant movement ability for her spells.
Gremlik's Silent Reaper disappeared, allowing Kalla to return to the battlefield unscathed. The fight between Phloria and the Grendel had been brief, but long enough for Invigoration to mend her wounds.
"Thanks for your help. I need you to buy me a few more seconds." Kalla said while re-establishing the connection with her undead. Without her to guide their movements, the Wights had no strategy and were recklessly at their enemies, uncaring of their life as long as they could inflict them the most damage.
Between Kalla's absence and the gap in equipment, Erlik's followers had managed to make a short work of the Wights despite their ethereal nature.
