Advent of the Archmage

“He’s heading northeast. He must be going to the Isle of Dawn.”

Not too far away from the Shadow Fortress, Eliard was able to come to such a conclusion after observing the fortress’ surroundings through a Mirror spell.

Link stood up with his sword in his hand. Looking in the general direction of the Isle of Dawn, he said, “The High Elves must have used some sort of technique to summon him such that his power wasn’t even affected by the realm itself. He must be in a hurry to go back to Aragu through the Isle of Dawn.”

The wind was howling bleakly through the mountains at that moment. Though the climate in the South was warm and the forest grew thick here, the battle they had with Morpheus had all but caused the trees around the fortress to shrivel up. Most of their yellowed leaves were blown loose by the bitter wind.

Eliard walked up to his side and looked in the Isle of Dawn’s general direction. “Do you think we’ll be able to stop him?”

Link shook his head. “I don’t think we can… Still, it’s worth a shot.”

Their enemy was as uncompromising as a force of nature. The only way they could proceed now was to have a head-on confrontation with the Lava Knight. Only one side was allowed to come out of this alive.

Since that was the case, the only thing they could do right now was to take the Lava Knight down with everything they had.

As one of Link’s best friends, Eliard was immediately able to make out the resolve in his voice. He smiled weakly. “This is the first time I’ve encountered such a dangerous opponent. This should be fun!”

Ever since Eliard began studying magic under Link’s wing, he rarely had the chance to take charge of things on his own. However, with his current power level, he was now able to fight side-by-side with Link. This had always been something he wanted. Naturally, he welcomed such an opportunity with open arms.

As a Legendary master himself, Eliard had already mastered Link’s Void Walk technique. Together, the two of them leaped into the air, transformed into two streaks of light and hurtled through the sky.

A Warrior would never be a match for a Magician in terms of speed. The Lava Knight Mozur was already a Level-15 Legendary master. Though both Link and Eliard were vastly outclassed by him in terms of power, the fact remained that a Warrior would not be able to use that power as dexterously as a Magician.

A Warrior below Level-17 would not be able to fly in the air without the help of some special equipment or battle technique. His movements would only be restricted to the ground. He might even be faster than any other Magician on land, but the uneven geography of his path would definitely hinder his movements.

Link and Eliard only had to follow a straight-line path in the air towards the Isle of Dawn. After flying more than 100 miles in the air, Link finally sensed something.

“Did you feel that?” whispered Link.

Eliard felt for anything out of the ordinary in the area without losing speed. Half a minute later, he replied in a low voice, “It’s Infernal Power, and it’s moving really fast. It must be Mozur!”

Link nodded. Right now, the Infernal Power felt weak. There was also no sign of Mozur in the vicinity. However, he figured that the Lava Knight must be no more than 20 miles away from them.

After determining where the Infernal Power was coming from, Link and Eliard quickly changed course and headed straight towards where Mozur was.

Three minutes later, Eliard suddenly said, “I can’t feel him anymore. It’s as if he just vanished into thin air.”

Link felt the same thing. Now hovering in the air, he gazed at the forest of stone protrusions beneath them. There were stones of various shapes and sizes sticking out of the ground. The biggest stones down there were hundreds of feet tall, while there were smaller ones which were only three to four feet tall. Blind spots abounded in this stone forest.

“He must have noticed our presences. He must also know that he would not be able to match our speed. He’s probably hiding behind any of these rocks, waiting for a chance to ambush us.”

Dylosen had told them that the Lava Knight Mozur possessed incredible explosive power and a talent for sneak attacks. If they were not careful enough, he would be able to kill them in a mere second.

Eliard understood what was going on. He then said, “If we can’t even go down there to find out where he’s hiding without having our heads lopped off, then I guess we should just level the whole stone forest!”

Since their enemy was still set on ambushing them, their safest option now would be to use a huge area-of-effect spell and remove all possible hiding spots down there that he could avail himself of. This was where a Magician worth his salt excelled at.

However, such a feat would come at a heavy price. Eliard would need to expend a huge amount of power in order to cast such a large-scale spell. He would not be able to be of much help in the upcoming battle with the Lava Knight. In other words, after smoking out Mozur from hiding, Link would be forced to take him on by himself.

Link was not too optimistic about his chances of surviving a direct confrontation with a Level-15 master.

After ruminating on Eliard’s suggestion for a few seconds, Link finally nodded. “Do it!”

He would make his move the moment the Lava Knight was forced out from his hiding place by Eliard. Though their enemy was a lot stronger than any of them, if Link could get the drop on him, he would probably be able to increase his chances of victory.

Eliard took a deep breath. Then, power began circulating in his body until light radiated from his entire body. A few seconds later, he took out his magic wand and pointed at the stone forest below him. “Radiant Storm!”

Radiant Storm

Level-11 Sunlight spell

Description: Whip up a powerful storm capable of decimating everything in its path by agitating the air with a high concentration of Sunlight Power.

(Note: No blade of grass or stone will be left standing in the storm’s wake!)

A blinding light shone out from Eliard’s wand and expanded into a tenfoot-wide ball of light which seemed almost palpable. Then, the ball of light came off the wand’s tip and fell to the ground. It was not unlike watching the sun fall out of the sky.

As the ball’s altitude fell rapidly, its volume expanded at a frightening speed. The ball of light then began spinning, agitating the air around it until a golden cyclone, which stretched from the ground to the heavens, appeared in its place.

Whoo. Whoo. The fierce wind was not cool like most winds. Rather, it was giving off unimaginable levels of heat. This was the effect of the Sunlight Power.

The cyclone began moving inexorably forward, melting every huge rock in its path.

No blade of grass or stone was left standing in its wake. The only evidence of its passage was a trail of red molten mess behind it.

As the storm rampaged on, Link waited patiently in the air, gripping his sword in his hand. As soon as Mozur showed his face from behind a rock, he would immediately lash out at him with everything he had!

As the storm’s rampage went on, the stone forest’s area gradually shrunk, leaving Mozur with fewer hiding places. Link’s power was now boiling inside his body, which began radiating light as gentle as the moon’s. Though the light seemed inconspicuous, the power it was giving off felt oppressive.

Ten seconds later, a point of golden-red light flashed out from the ground.

A 100-foot-long flaming blade extended from the point of light towards the advancing Radiant Storm.

Boom!

With a deafening explosion, the flaming blade pierced through the cyclone in an instant. Like a dragon that was stabbed in the heart, the cyclone let out a mournful wail before evaporating into countless specks of golden light in the air.

Eliard instantly felt the effects of having his spell forcibly dispelled by the Lava Knight. His face had turned pale, and his body was now shaking uncontrollably. The knight’s retaliation had also left the internal circulation of his power in complete disarray. Seconds later, Eliard spewed out blood from his mouth.

Though his injuries were visibly severe, Link could not afford to tend to them right now. At that moment, the Lava Knight was all that mattered to him.

With a burst of power, Link immediately conjured a silver-white moon in the sky. The moon basically blocked out the whole sky at that moment.

An instant later, light poured out profusely from the Ode of a Full Moon sword in his hand. Its blade had taken on the quality of a transparent crystal. Countless runes were now flickering around the sword’s tip.

Link then swiftly plunged the sword into the Void. However, there was no sign of a Despair Ball being used, as Link had seamlessly integrated the Despair Ball into his sword technique.

At the same time, the Ode of a Full Moon sword reappeared on the ground, moments away from piercing through Mozur’s forehead.

Link’s attack seemed almost perfect. It gave the impression that Link was bringing all the power in the heavens down on the Lava Knight in a single attack with the aid of the ethereal light around him.

“Incredible!” Mozur felt his very soul being weighed down by Link’s power. If he had faced such an attack three years ago, he would have surely died on the spot.

However, he had mastered his blazing realm technique. After dispelling the Radiant Storm, he had already anticipated Link’s follow-up attack.

“Lava Fire!”

Mozur let fly the power of his blazing realm into the air with a powerful swing of his sword. In an instant, flames surged up into the sky at incredible speed.

At that moment, it was as if a geyser of lava had erupted through a hole on the ground, threatening to paint the sky red and crack open the moon that Link had conjured in it.

Before long, the two Legendary powers collided with one another.

Hum. A high-pitched, nigh undetectable whine sounded in the air. Ripples spread out violently across the space from the point of impact. Spatial fragments had also appeared near places where the ripples were most intense.

Both sides were then struck by the resulting shockwave of the impact.

Waves of pain washed over Link’s body as he was buffeted by the shockwave in the air. Mozur seemed to have been hit badly by it as well. Though his attack seemed impressive, it was in fact hastily executed with only 60 percent of his full power. Due to insufficient preparation, his body went completely numb when the shockwave hit him. Being unable to withstand his power, the ground gave way beneath him, and both his legs sank into the stone as a result.

However, as a Level-15 master, Mozur was physically stronger than Link. His recovery rate was also a lot faster than the latter. After smoothing out the circulation of his power in his body, he channeled his power to his feet, blowing up the stone around them to pieces. He then lightly jumped out of the crater.

Laughing out loud, he leaped into the air, making a beeline for Link. He needed to end this quick!

However, he seemed to have forgotten that Link was also a spatial Magician.

Though his physical body had taken on the full brunt of the shockwave, his mind remained unperturbed. As Mozur came towards them, a white light engulfed the two Magicians’ bodies. In an instant, both Link and Eliard were teleported away.

They were left with no other choice. Seeing how the Knight was able to easily shrug off their attacks, their only option was to escape and come at him again with a better offensive strategy.

With the disappearance of his targets, Mozur had no choice but to let himself fall from the sky.

Looking at the empty sky, he frowned. “I don’t like this one bit.”

He was up against two Magicians. Anxiety began creeping into his heart. He would not be able to outrun the two Magicians, and they did not seem willing to leave him alone throughout the remainder of his journey. At this point, he could only hope to intercept their subsequent ambushes without tripping himself up.

“No, I can’t let this go on. I need to think of something.”