Tale of Eldramir

Ezekiel sensed it before he felt it. A giant wall that his soul sense couldn’t penetrate. One that spanned well past his range, both horizontally and vertically. It had some similarities to the camouflage magic that was usable by Radiant Mages and Spirit. However, those spells were incredibly delicate, and were rarely ever able to cover an area that was this large.

It wasn’t feasible for such a large barrier to have taken shape so suddenly. Especially since there had been no indication that there was any prior set up for it to take shape as quickly as it had. This was something new, and he didn’t like it.

“Ezekiel!” Riley called out from behind him, but he ignored it for now.

Instead, he reared his fist back in an attempt to break the wall between Wolken and the battle happening all around. A sound like a gong being rung echoed through the area, but unlike before, the invisible barrier didn’t break.

“Dammit! They must’ve reinforced it!” He bit back a cry of rage and pain as his fingers nearly broke. “We’ll need to clear up the battlefield and get more help to break it open.”

‘Then let’s go and clear the battlefield.’ Shine encouraged Ezekiel to get back into the fight, just as Riley caught up. ‘We can’t leave him alone in there!’

“Wait! Ezekiel, wait!” Riley was nearly gasping for breath from the strain of moving to keep up with Ezekiel. A hint of guilt filled Ezekiel, but he knew that if they couldn’t get Wolken out of this barrier then Sanafalls’ forces were doomed. “I know you want to help him, but we can’t leave yet.”

“I know... Sorry. Where should we start first?” Ezekiel scanned the battlefield, looking for an appropriate target. “We need to finish up here as soon as possible. I can’t break through that barrier anymore, and our Hunters can’t afford to spare any strength to help me.”

Riley turned to help look for a target. “There! That group is holding back nearly a dozen Legendaries. We should try to clear them up first. That way, we can get those Hunters to help the other groups finish more quickly.”

Ezekiel saw the group that Riley was pointing at. It consisted of a group of Imperial Hunters, only half as many as the Sanafalls Hunters, but their synergy and Artifacts were clearly much stronger than the Hunters on Ezekiel’s side.

What was worse was the fact that the Imperial Hunters had several Cavern Hunters who had successfully set up temporary fortifications that were aiding in their defenses.

“Alright. Let’s keep testing things out then.” Ezekiel reached into his Void Pouch to pull out a set of daggers that glowed with opalescent light.

Throwing the daggers one after the other, they tore through the air, whistling as wind trails spun around them. A slight glow that displayed the Void magic flowing through them caught the eyes of most of the Hunters fighting. They weren’t subtle at all, and Ezekiel knew that many of his allies were likely wondering what he was trying to do. As far as sneak attacks went, this one was a failure.

One of the Cavern Hunters that noticed reacted swiftly, interposing himself between the daggers and his allies. A wall of stone rose into the air. There was a stylized rhinoceros, exactly the same as the one on his armor, that was engraved on the front of the stone.

It glowed with power, showing just how much mana was being used to reinforce it. The Man’s [Will] and [Understanding] were obviously quite strong when it came to defense.

But the moment the first dagger impacted on the stone, it flashed and appeared five feet in behind the wall, still with the same momentum as before. Unable to block, since he was maintaining the first wall, the Hunter who put up the wall found himself struck by each of the daggers he had tried to block.

The injuries were immediately fatal, but as blood leaked from beneath his armor, it was obvious that the daggers had cut deep.

Roaring in rage, the Cavern Hunter reached out to rip the daggers out of his body.

“You damned--!”

A series of explosions rang out as the daggers burst with a massive amount of force. Shards of metal and blue fire flew out and finished the job with the Cavern Hunter. While three more Hunters suffered serious injuries as they started bleeding. The force behind the flying fragments was much stronger than the strength of Ezekiel’s throw, so they had significantly more penetrating power.

It was also enough to distract them so that the Sanafalls forces could break through the Imperial’s defenses. The increased numbers with the lack of fortifications to protect them meant that the enemy Hunters were quickly routed.

“That’s one group. Which one should we go for next?” Ezekiel continued to scan the battlefield. Things were winding down, and it was obvious that the Imperial’s were being pushed back, but if they couldn’t assist Wolken, then it would all be pointless.

The Cult’s monsters would annihilate them all if Wolken couldn’t win.

“There!” Ezekiel took out a few more daggers, doing the same as before. This time he took out only two enemies, but it was enough to free up another group of allies. “Riley, can you take shots at the ones in the air?”

“... I don’t think that would be a good idea. Those battles are a bit too fast paced for me to accurately aim. There’s a high chance that I’ll hit our allies.” Riley looked further back, where the slightly weaker forces were still trying to set up defenses to retreat to. “I can take out most of those temporary defenses though.”

While Ezekiel continued to throw daggers at different groups, Riley started taking shots at the weaker forces. She let loose beam after beam of focused streams of fire. The [Compressed] and [Empowered] flames easily pierced through the temporary defenses that stood in their way.

“We need to move. They’re starting to retreat.” Temporarily holstering or sheathing their weapons, the two Hunters dashed off to catch up with the advancing Sanafalls forces.

Reaching the frontlines once more, they continued to provide support to the various groups that were engaged with the Imperial forces. Due to their own skills, and the specialized Artifacts that Ezekiel had crafted, they were actually able to contribute far more to the battle doing this than they had when they tried to fight directly.

“They’re getting away!”

“Don’t let up! Kill them all!”

“For the Archipelago!”

“For Sanafalls!”

“Down with the Willowbrush Empire!”

Things were getting even more heated among the Hunters that were fighting. More and more of the Imperial Hunters were falling as the number of those fighting became skewed. All the while, Ezekiel continued to throw daggers, and Riley continued to fire her new gun.

“We need to pull back!” Ezekiel yelled as the Hunters continued to charge. “Don’t forget about the Exalt! We need to provide aid, or the Mythic beasts that they’re using will get behind us and cut off our retreat!”

Ezekiel’s words echoed through the entirety of the region. He winced at the amount of mana he had been forced to expend to get his message across, but he knew it had to be done. If he couldn’t get the Sanafalls forces to stop, then it would be too late to help out Exalt Wolken.

A few of the Hunters were happy to help, and Ezekiel could tell from their urgent movements that they were also aware of just how much trouble they would all be in if Wolken fell in battle. Though there were a few that were clearly reluctant, as they glanced over their shoulders at the retreating Imperials.

“All heavy hitters, come with me! We need as much force as possible to break through their barrier!” Ezekiel peeled off from the rest of the battlefield. Over a dozen Legendary Hunters of various elements followed after him. “On my mark, we need to focus your most powerful spell where I show you.”

“Are you sure this will work?” One Hutner asked. “We should be wiping out the ones that are running, shouldn’t we?”

“Don’t be stupid! You saw the crack in the air the same as I did. The Exalt needs help!”

“Enough!” Ezekiel cut off the arguments that were forming before they could start. “Here! Just fire your strongest spells at the glowing orb.”

He had formed a small barrier that was infused with different [Understandings] all meant to strengthen and focus the spells that were about to hit it so as to pierce through the invisible wall in front of them. “Be prepared. We don’t know how the battle on the other side is going. Just that Wolken isn’t dead yet, but that could change at any moment.”

“How do you know that?”

“Do you think that those monsters wouldn’t have wiped us out by now if they didn’t have to hold Wolken back?” The Hunters all looked at the woman who had asked the question like she was an alien. She looked away in embarrassment, but Ezekiel ignored this. He needed to focus everything he could on controlling and directing the magic being thrown around.

‘Are you sure that this will be enough?’ Shine was worried, because they could sense that the strength of the barrier had been reinforced even further. ‘For all we know, there was another pseudo-Mythic that’s powering this barrier. We might not be enough to get through it, if that’s the case.’

‘It needs to be enough. Wolken is strong. Possibly the strongest person in the world right now. But it’s obvious that he’s not able to fight at his best for some reason. We need to get him out of there.’ Ezekiel focused all of his [Will] on maintaining the magic that was absorbing and enhancing the power behind the magic being cast by the other Hunters.

The uncomfortable feeling in his gut grew stronger, and he knew that he needed to take more precautions. ‘Surround us in a barrier and be prepared to [Jump] all of us as far away, and to the side, as possible.’

‘Got it.’ Shine did as they were told, infusing a [Shroud] into the barrier that surrounded the group.

Both Ezekiel and Shine noticed Riley twitch but didn’t bring it up. No one else noticed her action, nor that of Shine’s. They needed to make sure that nothing was given away.

“That’s enough! Everybody get ready!” The amount of power that Ezekiel was restraining had reached his limits. Now, it was just a matter of channeling all the power behind these attacks into a single point. As he shoved a chunk of his mana, with his [Understanding] of [Empowerment] filling it, Ezekiel threw the massive, pseudo-Mythic attack, at the barrier that was only a few meters in front of him.

The sphere of power impacted on the invisible wall, and there was a shudder in the air as the barrier shattered. A pained shriek of rage filled the air, and the Hunters of Sanafalls that were still chasing the retreating Imperials turned to see what had happened.

“Now, Shine!” Ezekiel didn’t even let the feeling from his danger sense finish forming, as he immediately told Shine to get them out of there.

Not a moment too soon, the group of Hunters, and some of the ground they stood on, was empty, as a massive beam of Radiant energy blasted down where they had just been standing.

The earth melted into glassy slag, and steam floated into the air as the figure of the abomination that had been creating the barrier was revealed.

It was a massive moth shaped monster with a human face. The face of what Ezekiel assumed was the Hunter who was partnered with the moth Radiant Spirit that was clearly skilled at illusions.

“What the hell is that!?” One of the Hunters Shine had just saved screamed in shock. Ezekiel couldn’t help but scoff at the man’s surprise.

‘They’re not as world weary as we are. Maybe we should give him some slack?’ Shine tried to defend the man, knowing that such monsters as these were still widely unknown by Hunters. Especially those that hadn’t fought with the Cult as much as they had.

Ezekiel just sighed. “That’s one of the monsters that we need to help Wolken deal with. One of four, as you can see.”

Ezekiel gestured behind the giant golden moth monster.

Wolken was currently fighting three other abominations. All three were huge and could easily topple buildings just by walking around.

The Exalt himself was surrounded in condensed swirling winds that seemed to rip up anything that got near him. It covered him like a massive set of armor, and his true form was barely visible within the gray, mana infused, maelstrom that surrounded him.

But it was obvious that the Cult of Light’s pseudo-Mythics were much stronger than they once were. The fact that Wolken hadn’t taken them out already just proved that. Though, Ezekiel figured that their numbers had something to do with it.

As for the landscape... It was utterly torn up, with glassed earth and torn up chunks where the battle between the Mythics had been taking place. The sheer amount of land that had been destroyed was well over triple the area that the Legendary Hunters and Mages had been fighting.

“Reeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!” the moth monster let loose another scream.

“That thing doesn’t look happy.” Half the party that had been working with Ezekiel to break the barrier had fled, but the ones that were still mostly ready to fight remained. “How do we deal with that?”

“... Do whatever it takes not to die.” Ezekiel’s grim words made all of them flinch, but then something unexpected happened.

“Attack it with all you have!” Wolken’s voice filled the air. “That thing has incredible illusionary and defensive abilities, but other than that one beam attack, it can’t actually do much. So long as you don’t get hit, you basically have free reign to strike it at will.”

From what Ezekiel could tell, it appeared as though the Mythic Hunter’s words were right. The giant man faced moth wasn’t moving an inch, and its body was heaving as it tried to breathe. He figured that it must’ve suffered some backlash from having its spell broken.

‘That thing must’ve been more invested in that barrier spell than we expected.’ Shine was overjoyed at the sight. ‘We might actually have a chance at winning this!’

Ezekiel just smiled. It was viscous and toothy, and he knew that if he wasn’t wearing his helmet, the other Hunters around him might’ve flinched at the sight. But the thought of taking out one of the Cult’s monsters was just too appealing of a thought. Especially when he saw what was happening behind it.

The Exalt’s movements seemed to speed up, and he knocked away one of the abominations he was fighting. “The biggest problem I was having was the fact that that thing was concealing these three with its illusions. The fact that you broke its barrier means that the spell backlash would’ve heavily damaged it. With that in mind, I doubt it has even a tenth of its power left. You need to keep it distracted while I take down these three.”

“By your command, lord Exalt!” the Hunters around Ezekiel immediately moved. Charging as one before splitting apart to keep the mutated moth abomination from targeting them all in as a group.

The moth screamed in rage, firing off one beam after another, but it was so slow that the attacks were easily dodged. One after another, the Hunters attacked from different angles.

Constructs formed from different elements flew freely and impacted on the golden carapace and wings. Stone swords and spears stabbed into the cracks in its body. Flames engulfed and ate away at its wings. Ice covered its joints to slow its movements.

More unique spells were also used, as vines and roots wrapped around its legs. A flock of birds made of shadows swarmed and picked at the moth as best they could. A pack of wolves made of wind chomped at whatever they could get their teeth on. A horde of different Spirit based spells that embodied the different [Understandings] of each Hunter and Spirit.

But this barrage only lasted a few minutes before the moth seemed to regain its bearings. It shuddered violently, and glittering scales filled the air. A moment later, several of the Hunters slowed down. They appeared to enter a daze and Ezekiel took a moment to catch onto what was happening.

“Don’t get too close! Those scales can throw you into an illusion!” Ezekiel and Shine immediately got to work [Jumping] the dazed Hunters out of the way of the moths beam attack.

The other Hunters all backed away, but with a single large flap of its wings, the moth sent its scales flying over the battlefield. By this point, the majority of the Hunters that had continued on their charge had now begun to fall back, but most stopped moving as they were caught in whatever illusion was being cast on them.

Only Ezekiel wasn’t thrown off by the mutant hybrid’s scales. His Void magic worked overtime to keep him immune, but it was almost like his body treated it like it did Rot Spores.

‘Dammit! We need to fix this...’ Ezekiel continued moving different groups around the field. They weren’t able to fight him since they weren’t thinking right now, but his mana was quickly draining. ‘I don’t suppose you have any ideas?’

‘Maybe we can throw a bomb down its throat?’ Shine didn’t sound confident about their suggestion, but Ezekiel couldn’t think of anything better at the moment.

‘Let’s give it a try. Where’s Riley?’ Ezekiel searched the area, still moving different parties as the moth continued firing beams of Radiant energy. Though, he did notice that the interval between the beams had grown. ‘I think it’s finally dying.’

The other downside to the pseudo-Mythics of the Cult was finally rearing its head. Their shortened lifespans, which caused their bodies to break down at an accelerated rate, meant that, even if they didn’t do anything at all, they would only survive for a day at most, before they died.

If they used mana as much as the moth was, it wasn’t a surprise that it was nearly dead after just a few minutes. The constant use of mana, and the backlash of an illusion and barrier it was intricately connected to, meant that its body was heavily damaged at this point.

‘Ezekiel! Over there!’ Shine directed Ezekiel’s attention to the side, where Riley had moved, likely to get into a position to attack from behind. But the scales had covered her, and she’d been thrown into an illusion that kept her still.

‘We need to get over there.’ Ezekiel decided. ‘It’s the perfect angle to attack from.’

‘Agreed.’ Shine [Jumped] Riley away to a far corner of the battlefield, where she was less likely to be targeted by the moth’s chaotic beam. ‘Ready!?’

Ezekiel pulled three Artifacts that looked like revised versions of his Ten Spark Signal Flare. However, each one seemed to emanate an aura of destruction. One that he had no doubt that certain people would find familiar.

‘Ready!’ The next moment, they appeared behind the moth, and Ezekiel leapt forward and landed on its back. The moth reared back in shock as Ezekiel ran up between its wings. It flailed about in shock and rage but could do nothing to throw Ezekiel off.

Turning its head to look at him, the moth opened its mouth to shoot one of its beams at Ezekiel, who was now only a few meters away. The light in its mouth filled the area, while its body seemed to shrink and degrade.

‘Now!’ Ezekiel slammed a foot into the moth's back to brace and threw the explosives in his hand as hard as he could. They flew into the moth’s mouth, causing it to choke as it prematurely let off its attack. Only for Ezekiel to not be there anymore, having [Jumped] away as soon as he threw his bombs.

For a moment, nothing happened as the warped moth-man monster coughed and hacked to try and expel the Artifacts that Ezekiel had thrown down its throat. But it failed, and as Ezekiel ran for cover, several hundred meters away, he expended the last of his mana moving the dazed Hunters out of the blast radius.

Just seconds after he did so, an earth shattering ‘thud’ filled the region as the force from the explosives spread past the pseudo-Mythic’s body. The monstrous moth then swelled up to a comically gigantic size, compared to its originally just imposingly large form.

Lights momentarily flashed through the cracks in its carapace, spreading wider in moments. Then, a blast of multicolored light filled the area. Followed by a wave of force that was a hundred times more powerful than the first one.

If Ezekiel hadn’t taken cover and moved all the Hunters within the blast zone into cover as well, he was certain that almost everyone nearby would’ve been sent flying to their deaths. They would have impacted against stone and glass at terminal velocity when they failed to recover from their dazed state.

‘I think that did it.’ Shine mentally muttered as Ezekiel clawed his way out from his cover. He was bruised and scraped where his Spirit Armor had faded. His mana was now too depleted to maintain it.

Riley, who he had [Jumped] to his position at the last second, was utterly unharmed. She was even beginning to recover from her motionless state under the effects of the illusions cast by the Cult’s moth-man abomination.

“Ezekiel? What happened? I thought we were fighting the moth?” She warily looked around, but it was clear to Ezekiel that her mind wasn’t fully awake. Her words were somewhat slurred. Like a person who had just woken up from a nap. “Your Spirit Armor!”

Seeing him with his Spirit Armor equipped, Riley immediately snapped to attention, looking over his injuries with an intense focus as she sought out any debilitating or crippling damage.

“I’m fine. Just got hit by a few rocks.” He tried to push her off him, but she wasn’t having any of it.

“Your armor is gone, and it’s obvious that you’re out of mana!” By now, most of the other Hunters were recovering from their state of confusion. “What the hell--”

Three ridiculously loud roars filled the area, and all the Hunters looked toward the area in the distance where Wolken had previously forced the three original pseudo-Mythics to fight him.

Two of the Mythics were fighting him with all they had. Their bodies quickly degraded as they sacrificed more and more of their vitality to hold him back, while the third was looking directly at Ezekiel and Riley. It was shining brightly, even as a tornado of wind pinned it down. All its energy was being focused into a single attack.

Without even thinking, Ezekiel wrapped Riley in a tight hold while ensuring Shine was secured in the sheath on his belt. She reflexively grabbed and held him just as tightly as he was holding her.

“Get me out of here!” Ezekiel’s shout snapped Riley out of her daze, and she immediately took to the air, flying the unprotected Ezekiel away as fast as she could. But not going more than a few meters from the ground, else they become sitting ducks in the sky. “Go that way!”

Blue fire increased their speed as Riley turned in the direction Ezekiel had told her to. The flames sent them rocketing away almost as fast as Ezekiel’s top speed.

The other Hunters caught on quickly, having heard Ezekiel’s yell. They moved to intercept and began shooting spells and forming barriers between the fleeing Hunters and the Radiant monster that wanted to kill them.

“Defend with all your might!” Wolken cried out as the Hunters who hadn’t yet moved sprang into action.

Layer after layer of stone walls rose from the ground. As did walls of ice, roots, shadows, fire, wind, etc. All the elements were used to do something, anything, to defend Ezekiel and Riley who were still fleeing, now in a straight line, to ensure that the Radiant abomination’s attack was blocked by the other Hunter’s spells.

A sound like the crack of thunder, followed by a buzzing as the air itself was super-heated and began to vibrate from the plasma that had formed from the attacking monster was released. I cut through the first few barriers in its way like they weren’t even there,

The following constructs and spells were similarly wiped out. Their casters reeled in shock as they suffered injuries as the controlled spells that weren’t constructs were forcibly dispersed. Yet the beam of light wasn’t slowing down in the slightest.

Wall after wall fell beneath its power, and in just seconds, the magical beam of Radiant mana shattered and melted the last of the barriers. There was nothing left from the other Hunters that stood between this attack and its targets.

Nothing, except the barriers around Ezekiel’s newly created compound. Barriers that had recovered when the Imperials had been forced to flee. Barriers that Wolken himself had tested, and indicated would take his full power several seconds to successfully break through.

A power that the dying abomination did not have.

The light of the beam splashed against the barrier in full force. There was a shattering sound as the translucent barrier appeared, and cracks began to form. Slowly spreading through the barrier. But by this point, Riley and Ezekiel were no longer concerned.

They lay on the ground within the barrier, gasping for breath, but otherwise relaxed, as the light began to fade. After just a few seconds, the deadly beam of Radiant magic died out.

Looking in the distance, Ezekiel could see the steaming remains of the three dead abominations. Two lay crushed beneath Wolken’s magic. The other lay in a heap with its face pointing toward Ezekiel.

Their bodies swiftly decayed and faded away. Leaving nothing to remain as the magic that made them forcibly tore apart their bodies on a spiritual level.

There was a beat of silence as the assembled Hunters looked on at the devastated battlefield. Not a single Imperial Hunter or Mage was in sight.

As one, they all cheered in joy at having survived what was, for most of them, the most harrowing fight of their lives.