The Final Spell

It was a disaster.

Mikhail's eyes snapped towards the group, horrified expressions etched on their faces now.

"You bastards! Maintain the disturbance frequencies!" One of the members at the forefront shouted.

"Beast tamers! Maintain control over the beasts, you will kill everyone here!"

'He's the leader.'

Mikhail was quite sure of it now.

Focusing on him, even the energy and power oozing off of him was unlike any other.

'Herald rank?'

If so, it would prove to be quite a problem for him.

But there was another bigger issue now.

"Cindralic Bladis."

"Borealic Boltium."

"Aqualis Morphis."

'Shoot.'

A barrage of spells were launched his way, both in an attempt to nullify him and raise the disturbance frequencies.

Taking advantage of the remaining dust, Mikhail hid his hand behind his back.

He performed the hand sign for Aqualis.

First node.

Then for Fumivex.

Second node.

And then for Morphis.

Third node.

"Aqualis Morphis."

BOOM!

But the signs didn't just stop there.

He synced them to another spell stream, now performing the hand signs of another spell.

In a matter of two seconds, he performed three spells.

"Cindralic Morphis."

BOOOM!

"Cindralic Hurrialis."

SWOOSH!

A scorching hurricane of crimson launched forth through the dust, Mikhail's bullets arching through it.

The incoming barrage of spells was completely demolished in front of the vortex, not even lasting a second.

That was the difference in strength between a spell and pre-spell.

The group was thrown into chaos as they quickly tried to split and dodge the incoming hurl of fire.

But in that quickness, they failed to see the two bullets that shot forth, striking two of the members in their leg.

Surprisingly, unlike last time, the robe that they wore provided no protection.

The edges of Mikhail's lips almost curled up with satisfaction.

'As I thought, the ones with protection are artifacts, with shining gold embroidery.'

"Argh!" He heard the two members scream in pain, their charge halting.

Now was his chance.

But the moment he raised his gun to shoot, a piercing pain shot through his spine.

His face scrunched up in irritation as his body froze, already knowing the reason behind it.

Of course, the quick succession of spells came with a price.

Usually, after you cast a spell, the caster had a cooldown period for casting another spell.

The period varied according to the strength and qualities of the spell.

Regardless, even the basic of spells had a cooldown period of a few seconds.

Pushing yourself to cast another spell in that period would just put more and more toll on your body.

In certain cases, it could lead to permanent physical damage of mana veins or cause conditions like blindness, even crippling a person sometimes.

For a person of Mikhail's rank, their spell topology would just break when they would try to cast another spell.

But with his Dragma, Mikhail was able to cheat this limitation.

Unfortunately, not the limitations on his body though.

Currently, his mana veins inside the body were facing the aftereffects of casting three spells at once.

'Move, you weak body!'

Mikhail tried to move, but it was unfortunately to no avail.

And in that time, it was enough for the opposing force to attack back.

CRUNCH!

A crunching kick was delivered right to Mikhail's face from the side, sending his body crashing down the trees.

CRASH!

"Argh!"

He tasted iron as the sudden impact sent blood gurgling out of his mouth.

Mikhail's vision spun, the blood from the wound on his now dripping down on his eyes.

'Why is this body so weak?'

His bones ached and cracked from the impact, making him think he broke one or two.

Ahead in the distance, he saw the members of the group cautiously advancing towards him.

There was a wide smirk on the leader's face underneath the hood was he walked on the front.

Mikhail saw his right leg completely covered in a thick block of ice.

'So it was him….no wonder.'

'I'm definitely not going back in one piece.'

He checked his mana.

—————————

Mana: 1800/6400 [Dragma]

—————————

"Argh!"

He puked up more blood, struggling to move himself.

The sudden increase in the disturbance frequencies had also raised the mana consumption of his attacks.

'At most, I can use Morphis 25 to 30 times now or Hurialis 5 to 6 times.'

It was most definitely not enough to eradicate the whole group.

But…

Mikhail gazed ahead into the distance, where he could see the gates.

They had shrunk again to a size much smaller than the original.

At most, he needed to keep it going for 2 minutes now.

Fortunately, they hadn't run an eye on it again after raising the frequencies.

'I can't have them noticing it again.'

If they did, then he was definitely done for.

But Mikhail could see the signs of tiredness in the member's bodies. 

He couldn't see their faces but he could definitely see it from their movements.

'Their control is wavering. Even over the monsters.'

He could see the erratic movements in the monsters in the distance, showing that they were regaining some semblance of control.

'They can't hold it for long-'

"Argh!"

Another wave of pain shot through his body as Mikhail threw up more blood.

His lush black hair and face was drenched in blood from his wound now, his piercing blue eyes locked onto the members.

'I can feel my consciousness fading…'

The blood loss was hitting him.

The group was almost near him now.

'I can't run fast enough in this state to escape them.' He realized.

Mikhail needed a distraction to get up again.

Just one shot.

One single shot.

His calm blue eyes ran over the members in a split second, as if trying to find something.

Fortunately for him, that moment was right there.

'There it is.'

Step.

They were only a few steps away from him now.

 Mikhail needed to act fast.

Bearing the pain, he hid his hand underneath his thigh.

Bending two fingers, he made the hand-sign for another spell.

'Cindralis.'

Before the spell diagram could appear, Mikhail quickly made the signs of the second and third node.

'Fumivex.'

'Morphis.'

Mikhail heard the leader speaking something to him, but it all came to him as muffled sounds.

"You tried your best kid….unfortunately..."

It didn't matter to him right now, his focus was on something else.

Wasting no moment, he raised his gun and pulled the trigger.

"Cindralic Morphis."

It didn't even take a moment for the blazing bullet to go tearing through the air, giving the group no time to react.

BOOM!

It connected right with the target's shoulder but unfortunately, despite the strength it carried, it was reflected straight forward.

Giving no harm to the target.

Mikhail saw an expression of rage and surprise in the leader's eyes as he realized what happened.

He saw certain shouts erupt out of his mouth but at this point, he could hear nothing.

He walked up to Mikhail with an evil smirk on his face now, the group laughing hysterically behind him.

"I don't know how you pulled off that last ditch effort kid, but at least you should have used some brains."

Mikhail heard it perfectly now that he spoke in a low voice from up close.

'Just there.'

He saw him raise his large ice-clad foot high in the air, positioning it in front of his face.

Mikhail heard him laugh once more, a creepy evil laugh.

"I'll at least give you the honor to choose your last words. Go ahead." He grinned.

Mikhail almost felt the corners of his mouth pulling up as his calm blue eyes stared into him.

Rather than saying a word, he simply raised his hand in the air.

Or rather, two fingers to be exact.

Step. Step. Step.

Pointing the two fingers to his eyes, Mikhail saw the leader tilt his head in confusion.

Step. Step. Step.

But then, he turned his two fingers sharply to his left, as if gesturing him to look to the left.

Understanding what he was trying to say, the leader burst out laughing.

Step. Step. Step.

"You really thought I would fall for-"

SLASH!

"You fucked up." Mikhail moved.

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