Chapter 39- 5 vs 1

Adrianna didn't know how it happened.

One moment she was on a secret prisoner extraction mission, assigned by the guildmaster.

But the next moment, she was causing distractions and then buying time for Lucious by fighting the person she was ordered to stay away from.

"Radiant beam"

"Shadow ward" Adrianna heard her spell shatter almost instantly and as she turned around, her vision was filled with darkness.

---

"Quit spacing out, Anna, and help us already!" Tiavan's voice suddenly snapped her out of her daze.

Tiavan, along with Johan, Tina and Sienna, where all using their defensive martial arts and spells to protect her.

A giant shadow wall covered her vision which was barely holding up and a giant blue shield which had cracked in multiple places was supporting it.

"Tiavan ... Johan... you guys?" She didn't believe her eyes, her allies had made it in time to protect her.

"Don't think you can sit back and watch while we fight, hurry up and pull yourself together already." Sienna grinned as she activated her martial art.

At her words, Adrianna shook her head and stood up.

With everyone freed, we should retreat. There's no need to risk our lives further when we have what we came for.

Despite knowing she should retreat, a part of her wanted revenge.

"Bellatrix can deal with the warrior while we keep her busy." Adrianna ordered her party.

Both Kane and Jessica had been amplified to the peak of the sixth stage whilst Bellatrix was reduced to the initial stage of the sixth stage.

Holding them both off alone would be difficult and risky plan.

But due to her experiences and larger repertoire of spells and abilities, she could defeat them in a one on one fight.

"Well she had better finish her fight quickly. Even with all of us, we can't hold this one off for long." Tiavan replied while narrowly dodging a javelin of pure light.

As he and the rest of the party were only at the peak of the fifth stage, they were at a large enough disadvantage.

Their only advantage lied in both their numbers and teamwork.

"Shadow puppet"

Adrianna summoned four humanoid figures made purely of shadows which spread out to surround Jessica.

"Armament arts: sword style." Johan used his martial art to summon various magic swords around the battlefield.

Each of the shadow puppets picked up a magic sword as did he and Sienna.

"It doesn't matter how many weaklings there are, I'll kill you all." Jessica's eyes shone bright gold as her mana began to swell in her hand.

Each of the shadow puppets charged forth only to dissipate as the mana took on the same golden hue as her eyes.

"No you don't, Glacial arts: Ice bomb!" Ice infused elemental aura short forth from Sienna.

"Dark bullet" Almost simultaneously, Tiavan cast a spell.

The martial art and magic spell collided with Jessica and caused an earth shattering explosion of ice.

Everyone stood with bated breaths as a frozen wind swept over the battlefield.

"...Did we get her?" Sienna squinted her eyes and grinned as she saw a familiar golden light.

She barely had time to protect herself as more than a hundred meter long javelins shot forth towards her and her allies.

Not only Sienna, but everyone narrowly avoided being seriously injured by the attack.

Each javelin merely grazed everyone before hurtling past them to explode against the back wall.

The only one that hit, pierced Johan's left wing and exploded, dissenting half of his wing in the process.

"Argh! Tina, heal me." Despite taking a heavy blow, he managed to remain standing.

Neither stopping nor turning to face Tina, he readied his sword and charged towards Jessica as he bled out.

"Healing wave." At her chant, a wave of water swept over her allies, causing their injuries to close.

Though Johan's wing didn't regenerate, the injury closed and stopped the bleeding.

"Is that all you've got?!" her expression tightened as she jumped back to create some distance.

However, with each step she took, she failed to realise she was driving herself further and further into a corner.

By the time she realised her mistake, she grit her teeth and raised her staff with the red gem pointed at them.

"Starfire."

A blaze of gold and red flames erupted from the gem and covered their vision.

Just the heat alone was enough to start melting parts of the rubble filled battle field.

"Get back!" Adrianna could feel the heat despite being one of the furthest away from it.

A strong sulphuric smell filled the air as the roaring flames continued forth.

"Tsunami!" Beads of sweat dripped down Tina's face as she cast her strongest spell.

Before the flames from the starfire could reach Johan, who was the closest to the flames, a giant torrent of water clashed against them.

As soon as the tsunami met the starfire, thick steam began to flood everyone's vision.

Though it was able to hold the flames back momentarily, the starfire was cast from a peak stage six mage.

But that short moment was long enough for everybody to clear the path.

"I ... I won't let you abominations... win this fight..." Sweat dripped down her face and the scent of burnt flesh filled her nostrils.

Her entire left arm had been completely burnt as had part of her neck and face as a backlash of her spell.

"I've sacrificed too much to get here..." She continued while gasping for breath.

Without the general's power strengthening her, she is a peak fifth stage mage.

However, the spell she had used was a master ranked spell. One usually had to be at the sixth stage to cast such magic.

Though the general boosted her to such levels, she was unable to control the spell and thus suffered a harsh backlash.

"Years of neglecting those I cared about just to gain favour with those in charge. I gave up my own daughter lest they discharge me.

I killed my best friend when he deserted the military and resisted arrest... and how did they reward my loyalty?" She continued with hate filled eyes.

"They made me the bodyguard of a cowardly fool who doesn't even know how to lead a small unit... Had you not messed things up, I could have gotten promoted once the war started!"

Her voice burned with rage as her staff started to glow. A familiar heat could be felt as her burnt arm started to crumble.

"She's going to take the entire fortress down with her!"

"Stop her!"

With each passing second, the mana within the gem grew more erratic as small cracks began to appear.

An overwhelming amount of heat halted everyone in their tracks, causing them to resort to ranged attacks.

"Dark bullet"

"Acid rain"

"Shadow javelins"

"Glacial arts: Ice fang"

"Enhancement arts: Bears roar"

Everyone threw their quickest spells and martial arts whilst Johan empowered them with his own martial arts.

Each attack landed and dealt a significant blow to Jessica, yet, none of them were enough to kill her.

"Don't stop, keep firing!" Adrianna screamed while firing as many spells as she could, ignoring how much mana she was expending.

Johan, Tina, Tiavan and Sienna fared no better as they followed suit.

Their attacks put Jessica at deaths door, yet she desperately clung to the gem with every ounce of energy she had left.

Beams of red light shone through the gem as the earth began shaking and the temperature increased further.

"We... we're done for..." Tiavan grit his teeth as his vision began to blur from depleting his mana.

It must have been worse than he had though because for a moment, he began to hallucinate as he saw a lone figure approach Jessica.

"I'll be taking that."

A familiar voice rang out as the hallucination snatched the gem from Jessica's half dead body.