Second World

One of them might have fallen, but the sacrifice was not for nothing. The eldritch beholder had used her Greater Dispel. Everyone used all their available buffs then.

Four Winds used his enhanced berserk, ancestral possession, kingly presence, and titan strength. Makubwa also activated berserk. Emris, Isabelle, and Samuhn cast additional buffs on them while Purple Mist and her lesser angel cast healing spells.

"Hmph!" The eldritch beholder cast forced unsummon and the lesser angel was erased from existence.

She disappeared using teleportation when Four Winds and Makubwa arrived. After reappearing, she was ready with another spell. The Well of Abyssal Reach appeared above the spellcasters who were staying back. Threatening black hands reached out from the ominous upside-down well above them.

They tried flying away. But if even Quetzalcoatl was unable to flee from the magical pull of this well, how could they?

Emris cast Hundred Mirages. Many of his copies appeared around him. Each of these copies had the same mana signatures as him. These copies fooled and distracted the black hands, buying time for everyone.

Like his troops, he was also drilled in the martial arts tutelage program designed by Domon and Jet for the army. The three lord marshals even received a direct tutorial from Domon whenever Domon was available. In Emris' case, he focused more on learning mana manipulation than martial arts. He already had slight mana control, to begin with. With this tutelage, he improved even further. He had the most improvement in mana manipulation compared to the other lord marshalls.

He was now casting a spell while focusing his mana manipulation on the spell.

The spell he cast was the lightning dragon. Empowered by mana manipulation, the resulting dragon was bigger than the usual one he conjured. It flew with incredible speed, brushing the black hands as it flew. The black hands were electrocuted from the touch. This prevented them from advancing further. The lightning dragon then crashed into the well, producing a large lightning explosion.

The black well resisted the explosion, but it somehow negated the pulling force. Emris and the others found themselves able to fly away now. They quickly did so before the black hands advanced again.

Katili used Isabelle's magic wings and flew directly to the eldritch beholder, joining Four Winds and Makubwa. Now that the eldritch beholder had used her greater dispel, he no longer needed to stay back.

Katili also had berserk. He used it in addition to Gigantify. His body grew to a giant size. With his increased size, his giant serrated blade became more like a shortsword in proportion to his body. His increased size also increased his strength, he no longer had a problem holding that giant blade with one hand. Thus, he grabbed the second giant serrated blade on his back and was now dual-wielding the blades.

Four extra arms then sprouted from his back. It was the Asura skill. With six blades, this giant stormed toward the eldritch beholders, who were slapping her tentacles around fighting Four Winds and Makubwa.

The tentacles were so numerous that they had no problem dealing with Katili who joined the melee battle. While one tentacle slapped the combatants' attacks, another fired a green ray. None of the three were yet able to land a hit on the eldritch beholder's main body. It was instead them who got hit by the green rays.

The one who managed to score a few hits was Kuona. Her iron griffin also tried to approach, but it couldn't proceed further due to the tentacles. Kuona slipped in a few tracing arrows that could change direction in flight to land the hits, but the damage she produced was negligible.

As for Emris and the others, the best they could do was run interference for the melee combatants. All the offensive spells were nullified by the eldritch beholder's anti-magic planar wall.

The eldritch beholder didn't even have to use her teleportation spell as often as when she was fighting Quetzalcoatl. Her tentacles were enough to keep the melee combatants at bay. Kuona's arrows did too little damage to matter, and the enemy spellcasters couldn't harm her.

The battle lasted for some time without them causing any meaningful damage to the eldritch beholder.

"Hehe… Hehehe…," The eldritch beholder's mocking laughter sounded in their minds. "All you worthless flies do is simply waste my time, or is that your intention? To waste my time so I don't bother with your army down there?"

"Grrhh… This f*cker is toying with us," Four Winds groaned.

His axes never stopped slashing. He had used starlight field far longer than he'd ever done before. His arms felt numb by now. He had no choice. Each strike from the tentacles, even if only a normal hit, caused high damage. The green rays fired from the eyeballs were even worse. It had the probability to cause random status effects. He couldn't contend with them by just relying on his strength and game skills.

"Let's not stretch this any longer, shall we?" The eldritch beholder said.

"Ah…!!" Four Winds heard Purple Mist's shout. He turned and saw Purple Mist encased in a dark translucent box.

It was the eldritch beholder's Dark Prison. Aside from locking the target in a position, the dark prison also stopped any spells the target cast from going outside the box. Hence, Purple Mist's healing spells couldn't reach the others.

At the same time, uncountable dark spears rained on the other three spellcasters. The ones hit by these dark spears lost all recovery abilities and couldn't be healed or cured of afflictions for a period. They also received damage over time after the initial damage. These dark spears forced the spellcasters back to a further distance.

Before Four Winds could react, he was hit by another mental attack. It was the same as the previous one, this mind blast was an AOE assault. All the combatants near the eldritch beholder were affected.

Four Winds used mana manipulation to protect his mind, but his movement stopped for a fraction of a second. He was slapped away by a tentacle at this time.

Makubwa fared better because he was still protected by Isabelle's Mind Barrier.

Kuona was also hit but she was not that close to the eldritch beholder, so the effect of the mind blast was weaker for her.

Katili had it the worst. He had slight mana manipulation as a mythical-grade native, but not expert enough to use it to defend his mind. He was unable to think properly. A black ring appeared and locked his body. The ring was Magic Bind infused with the dark element.

While he was incapacitated, the eldritch beholder cast another spell. A large cone appeared above Katili. This cone elongated and spun rapidly. It was the Hellish Black Drill that had wounded Quetzalcoatl in the past.

Katili's HP was still high enough to endure an attack. However, when the hellish black drill hit, his HP was instantly depleted. This was because the eldritch beholder aimed her spell at Katili's head. If even Quetzalcoatl's body could be wounded by this spell, what more of Katili who was much weaker? The hellish black drill struck the poor orc's head and it was completely obliterated. 

Katili fell to the ground far below with a headless body.