Battle of Liguang: Clash (11)
A white crescent moon tore into the Phoenix Division's backline, followed by a blue dragon forged of fire. The sky was briefly illuminated by their splendor! Boom! Two explosions rocked Liguang again, hinting at the incredible power behind the two spells. Fire spread throughout the debris like a wildfire gone mad and greedily ignited everything it touched as dust clouds rose. The previous fire caused by Freon's Infernal Dragon multiplied in size and intensity in an instant. Although the interference strength restricted their power severely, enough to weaken their spells by three-fifths, the same went for their opponents. They could no longer support a defensive line using Martial Energy! Without anything to defend them, the spells were arguably more effective than before. The two spells almost killed a combined one hundred people! Everyone was astounded!
"Again!" Elizabeth shouted.
Unbelievably, the two began conjuring their spells for the third time. This time, after seeing what their spells could still do, they became everyone's target. The entire Phoenix Division focused on them! Hundreds of lights bombarded Elizabeth and Freon from every direction, creating a particularly beautiful, but deadly sight. Just one of those flying strikes could cut a person clean in half with energy left to spare, then what about several hundred at once? Even though the interference strength suppressed them too, that was an absurd amount of killing potential! And that was not accounting for the crossbow bolts or arrows mixed into the storm too. If they remained stationary, then there was no way they would survive. They would die in a heartbeat!
On the ground, Ten Dawn Iris overwhelmed by a mountain of pressure. As the one responsible for Elizabeth and Freon's feat of flight, it was not easy, even for a Low Condensed Drop Arcanist such as herself. There was a reason why flight spells did not exist in the Zino Kingdom, and why they had to use gliders instead. Simply put, flight spells required an exorbitant amount of Magic Energy, far exceeding what a normal Condensed Drop Arcanist could achieve. To make matters worse, it required a continuous infusion of Magic Energy and extremely precise energy control. The most popular prevailing theory was that a true flight spell required a Blue Depth Core Arcanist, at the minimum, to achieve, so only Protector Avin Arcellius could verify it.
Then how were Elizabeth and Freon flying right now? The truth was that it was not a true flight spell, but a 'levitation' or floatation spell. Ten Dawn Iris was highly proficient in wind-type spells and had some of the greatest energy manipulation skills in the Zino Kingdom, owing to her title as the White Healer. Using a creative application of her spells, she created a makeshift variation of a levitation spell to suspend Elizabeth and Freon in the air, but even that strained her to the limit. She needed to control the altitude, speed, orientation, and other parameters by carefully regulating her energy output. Elizabeth had been trying something similar with a bell for months without success. If Elizabeth struggled to do the same with something as small as a bell, then one could imagine how exhaustive controlling two people could be! The slightest hiccup could injure, if not kill, Elizabeth and Freon. They were literally putting their lives in her hands! The fact that they were still up in the air showed how exemplary Ten Dawn Iris's magic control was.
Ten Dawn Iris was overtaxed just sustaining the spell as it was, but now she had to deal with the hundreds of projectiles flying their way. That meant she had to thread Elizabeth and Freon through a sea of high-speed attacks, while controlling her spell! The difficulty easily went up ten times! Fresh blood trickled out of her nose and mouth. She bit down on her teeth so hard that her gums bled. Her knuckles were ash-white, and her muscles were twitching. It was horrifying to behold; however, she concentrated so hard that she ignored what was happening. Her Magic Aura fluctuated wildly out of control as pain sprung up from every corner of her being. She knew that a backlash was about to appear, but she gave it no heed. This was her choice!
Meanwhile, her partner, Ten Dawn Krogan, was also having a rough time. Due to how complex the flight spell was, Ten Dawn Iris could only move Elizabeth and Freon in simple motions like a stiff puppeteer. She had no leeway to do anything else. For the normal crossbow bolt or arrow, it was hard enough to aim in the dark and account for a moving target. Ten Dawn Iris had no difficulties in evading that. The problem though was the Perception Realms. Perception Realms, with their immense sensory ability, could easily anticipate Elizabeth and Freon's trajectory and pre-emptively strike. This made the emphasis on Ten Dawn Krogan that much greater, since he was responsible for the barrier spell protecting Elizabeth and Freon. He had to protect them against the hundreds of flying strikes!
He dropped to one knee and coughed out a mouthful of hot dark blood. Blood oozed out of his orifices and his skin paled white. His veins bulged out of his skin in horrific fashion, as he gradually lost feeling in his limbs. His body was breaking apart. It could not be helped. Since his Core was already depleted from protecting everyone from the Featherwind Sect's attacks, he had no choice but to use World Energy to compensate. In other words, he was burning up his own lifeforce! His Core and Channels were disintegrating too, which created so much pain that Ten Dawn Krogan nearly went insane. It felt like a million knives were stabbing him from the inside, tearing him apart. It would not be long before his Core gave way and disintegrated completely. By that point, forget about his Condensed Drop Core, not even his life would be spared. He would die! However, he had no regrets. The pain steeled his resolve and pushed his concentration to unprecedented heights. He withstood the pain and forcefully stood up again. He would not fall until his last breath!
Eclipsing Theatre and Infernal Dragon were unleashed again. Elizabeth and Freon coordinated their spells and sent them flying towards the left flank. Boom! Two gigantic explosions dwarfed the battlefield again, spewing hot wind and blue flames everywhere. Countless people died again, but the two felt no remorse nor sadness. They never stopped. Although they used their spells for a second time already, they were still surrounded by a sea of enemies. Who knew how many there were? The damages they caused were a drop in the ocean. It felt like they were totally ineffective. The fires continued to spread around Liguang and illuminated the dark night in a bright inferno. Smoke clouded the skies in a hazy black while the battle raged on. As their enemies continued to advance in all directions, it looked like a nightmare!
Hopelessness. That was the first word that sprung to mind. At most, they could use their spells once more, but what would be the point? Against these insurmountable odds, what could they hope to achieve? Could they win? If not, then was there any point in resisting? It seemed like a dead end no matter what they did. Their hands flinched in hesitation as their determination wavered. The pain and fatigue of casting their strongest spells, using their trump card abilities no less, consecutively took its heavy toll. They were approaching the point of backlash too. Freon never gave up, but the fact that the idea flashed across his mind was bad enough. The same probably went for their allies too. As long as that thought existed, then it would plague their mind and cloud their judgement. As soon as one person gives up, then it would cascade through their forces like a tidal wave and drown everyone. It would spell the end!
Elizabeth grew downcast and bit her lip in frustration. She felt like giving up too. Looking at the situation objectively, that might be the better option. At least, with surrendering, there was some chance of survival. At this rate, they were headed towards total annihilation! And the Imperial Council with their hundreds of Perception Realm combatants wielding Martial Energy was one thing, but there was also the biggest problem of all… She glanced into the sky with narrowed eyes. The Featherwind Sect had unknown numbers, unknown powers, and unknown motivations. They destroyed Liguang with a single attack, and just two of them could handle a fleet of twenty thousand soldiers. On the impossibly small chance that the Alzar Kingdom managed to gain the upper hand against the Imperial Council, the Featherwind Sect could always intervene. The Alzar Kingdom's hopes were thus vanishingly small.