Not A Good Feeling

Osward

Bang!

Lightning arcs crashed against my shields, breaking one while the other one had cracked all over the place.

It had been over twenty minutes since we were fighting.

The enemy is powerful. I had been expecting it, but he turned out to be stronger than my expectations.

I wouldn't have been his match half a year ago when I had become a High-Mage. The half a year had given me time to study the new spells.

"I thought you would be a challenge, but you are only so-so," taunted Yegson.

His words hurt, but I didn't let them get into my head.

I know how powerful, this bastard is, and I have to be careful every moment. The slightest mistake and his spells would hit me before I knew it.

Forget me. He would even kill Asit and Urag. If I am not careful.

I may be far away from killing him, but I am doing the job that had been assigned to me.

Keeping him contained.

I have been doing that for over twenty minutes. I have stopped him not only from harming him but also from harming others.

He would attack others as well as me, and it is my job to stop those attacks.

Like right now, he had attacked Urag with Bone Spikes and I had cast a stone skin on him. In case any of them were to pierce him.

He had a powerful defensive spell cast on him by his shaman.

Stone skin worked well with it.

It is better than casting a shield, seeing the spikes coming from the ground while stopping them with a shield possible, but it is a versatile spell.

If the mage is good enough, then they could move it around it, and Yegson is good.

I could see, he was getting angry, despite showing a smile on his face. A lowly, generalist, he planned to quickly finish before moving toward another battle is keeping him contained.

I had asked General Stone for this, but he wouldn't have given me. If I didn't have the ability in me.

He isn't the man, who will listen to requests that are detrimental to battle.

I have been training hard for the past half a year.

I had studied countless spells and sparred with multiple opponents, including General Stone. That man is a monster; no spell could stop him.

Hun!

Suddenly, he used another spell. It is not targeted at me or Asit or Urag, but at soldiers.

Drasis Wave.

A variation of Necrotic Wave; will affect the common soldiers, who, like us have held the undead back, while slowly killing them.

It would be bad. If the spell hit them; it would be terrible. This spell is a Grade IV spell; it will inflict them with weakness and ailments.

Radiant Wave.

I activated my spell and, to the surprise, of the enemy. The light wave was released from my staff and clashed against the necrotic wave.

I am one of the few people who could use the light elemental spells.

Before coming to Greltheaven; I only knew one light spell. They are rare and the one, I know, was small and nearly useless at my level.

I kept the affinity secret; the churches hound those with such affinities.

I had only revealed it to General Stone who had provided me with the light elemental spells. Mage Zela's help was also instrumental in learning them.

Though I could use the offensive and defensive spells, but couldn't use the healing ones.

They are the most difficult ones and I found out, that I didn't have much talent for them.

Still, it is only half a year, which is not much for the conformation.

The mages with the healing spells have great value. If I learn even a simple one, my salary will go up. I would also be a great help to the army.

The Radiant Wave, hit clashed against Necrotic Wave.

It wasn't able to destroy it all, but 80% of the power of the attack had been reduced. The 20% hit the soldiers, but it wouldn't be as dangerous as it would have been at its full power.

He didn't attack me immediately, instead looked at me.

He kept looking at me for four and a half seconds before he attacked again.

Spectral Blades.

My eyes turned serious, seeing the powerful spell.

The spectral blades are translucent, long blades. It will be my end if those blades hit me.

Aeryn's Wall. Garion's Curtain. 

I didn't hold back either, used the defensive spells. I had not used it before.

Aeryn's Wall is a light elemental shield and Garion's Curtain is a green element spell, which I had cast inside it, not behind and in front of it.

I had merged the spells.

The generalist has many disadvantages compared to the elemental mages.

Our spells are weak. We do not have expertise in one field, which makes it hard for us to advance, but we also have advantages of our own.

We can use a lot of spells without restrictions. Merge the spells of different elements, making them stronger.

Bang Bang Bang

The spectral blades clashed against my shield, which held on against them.

A flash of surprise appeared in his eyes before turning to irritation and his staff lit up again.

A second later, a huge bone finger, with its sharp nail burning in the black fire, appeared in the sky.

The spell immediately scared me. It's a really powerful spell; it could kill me so thoroughly that people would have nothing blood and gore burning in a dark fire.

First the Spectral Blades and now this, he isn't holding back at all.

Sup!

The finger came down toward me. I shuddered in my heart, knowing full well, that even a small part of this spell could finish me off.

I have to defend it and defend as such that not even the tiniest part of it could hit me.

'I'll guess, I will be using that,' I thought, and my staff blazed with power.

Azuro's Sphere. Hundred Plates of Azar. Larus Reinforcement.

A sphere of wind appeared around me and a moment after that, white marble plates appeared inside it connected to each other by stone chains, which began to shine in a metallic light as Karus Reinforcement covered it.

This is a Hatsal's Defense; a famous defensive Grade IV spell combination.

It is not only powerful but also hard to cast. I had practiced for over a thousand hours before I was able to master this combination.

I was also completely drained. My mana had gone below the 5%.

I took out the potion but didn't drink it as the huge burning bone finger had reached me.

BANG!

The finger crashed against Hatsal's defense and immediately the cracks appeared on the plate. The finger crashed, before spreading to the other plates.

Soon, all the plates had cracks with black fire coming out of them, which were quickly being sucked away by spinning air element sphere

I watched with my breath stopped.

Crack Crack Crack!

Seconds passed, and I saw the cracks appearing on the finger. Seeing that, I finally took a breath and drank the potion, which quickly began to replenish my mana.

Bang!

A few seconds later, a loud sound rang out. The finger exploded, but also the shield.

As it did, I saw the Yegson, closer to me than earlier, but I didn't have time to think about it as the Spectral Blades coming at me once again; they had already crossed more than half of the distance.

Aeryn's Wall. Garion's Curtain. 

I immediately cast spells, and I was relieved to see, the spells materialized just as the blades reached me.

All that battle experience in my younger days coming to use.

I had learned to cast the spells faster when I was still a student. I had seen mages, higher level than me getting killed by weaker enemies who could cast the spells faster than them.

Here, in the battle. Even a microsecond could decide the life and death.

Bang Bang Bang!

The shield defended against the attacks, but another was ready.

It was the lances with a tip burning in fire; they came at me from all sides. I once again cast an omnidirectional defense, which is different from Hatsal's defense.

Snort!

He snorted and sent another spell at me while taking a few more steps closer.

Mages fight from a distance; it gives them greater freedom. The closer they get, the more that freedom shrinks, and the battle becomes dangerous.

I wanted to take a step back, but I didn't. I stayed on my spot, which surprised even the enemy.

He likely thought I would retreat seeing him advance.

I may not be as strong as him and have as powerful offensive spells as him, but I am good at defending and casting faster.

I will be able to defend against him.

Most importantly, him being closer, might give me a chance to kill him, which I didn't think I would have when he started revealing his power.

I want to kill him, now, even more than before, seeing how strong he is.

He is an enormous threat and would become even bigger. If left alive, but killing him isn't going to be easy, there is a big chance of me dying, than him.

Every spell, he is casting, he is taking a step toward me. It also forced me to cast the spells faster.

I didn't try to attack him at all and focused purely on defense. I have read the information and know how powerful his defensive spells are.

I won't attack unless I see the chance.

Hun!

Time passed as he continued attacking me with his powerful spells, while I defended, drinking potion after potion.

He didn't drink even a single drop, and why would he? When he could suck the mana out of the surrounding undead like he is doing right now.

Hun!

I defended against his spells and moved to another group of spells to respond to his attack when I noticed something.

Asit and Urag are closer to me.

They were quite far away from me just a few minutes ago, but now they are less than a hundred meters away from me and seem like coming even closer.

They are not coming closer to me on their own, but being pushed by their opponents.

I looked at the necromancer, and he grinned. It's clearly his doing; he is planning something, and it involves all of us.

It did not give me a good feeling at all.