Supreme Magus

Origin Flames were powerful, but they moved no faster than regular fire. On top of that, they were supposed to lose cohesion after moving too far away from their caster, making them good only for close-quarter combat.

Cursed Flames, instead, were focused like a laser and so quick that even with Full Guard warning her, the Sekhmet managed to react by the skin of her teeth. She attempted to Blink but the Hexagram absorbed the spell, adding the energy to its own reserves.

Iata was forced to conjure at the last second a Tier Five Spirit Barrier that saved her life at the expense of a lot of her mana. The spark of Corruption in Lith's Nether Flames created distortions in electromagnetic forces that held matter together, making it collapse under its own weight.

Spirit Magic was pure energy but to keep the Cursed Flames from harming Iata, it required the same amount of power they held and to focus it exactly on the point of impact.

'It doesn't matter. I've still got a lot of mana and now that I know how it works-' Once again, the first attack was only a distraction.

While the Sekhmet was busy, Lith's feathered wings had produced a jet stream of Noxious Flames, aiming them in the space between the first and the second battalion.

The spark of Choke turned the air into a powerful acid, isolating Thrud's vanguard from the rest of the troops and making it impossible for them to escape.

By the time Iata realized what had happened, many Demons of the Fallen had been born. Strong of their physical bodies, they used the weapons they had collected to kill more soldiers and feed them to their brethren.

The soldiers of the first battalion sacrificed their lives to give the mages the time to conjure their spells but the Hexagram absorbed all elements but earth and darkness.

The advance of the army was forced to a halt while the troops of the second battalion retreated to escape the Noxious Flames and searched for a way to smother them.

Thrud's soldiers needed just a few breaths to recover even from crippling wounds while Lith's healed the moment they grabbed an enemy. Their Abomination Touch restored even a Demon on the verge of flickering away.

At first, the silver and the black army seemed to be locked in a cycle of death of rebirth. Yet while the dead soldiers stayed down, the golems would share a spark of Lith's life force with a fallen Demon to raise them again.

Trouble and Raptor kept themselves at the opposite sides of the battlefield, conjuring arrays that negated the darkness and the earth element, forcing the enemy to use spells that ended up charging Yurial's Hexagram without even putting a scratch on their target.

Thrud's mages were "students" of the Golden Griffon with centuries of experience that allowed them to quickly grasp their situation. They stopped casting elemental spells and switched to Spirit Magic, using mind links to conjure together arrays in the same time that a tier five spell would have taken.

Barriers suddenly protected what was left of the first battalion while a hail of emerald bullets struck at the golems, stripping the Demons of their protectors. Many of them fell, but before fading they would Blink amid the enemy lines and detonate themselves in Void Flames.

The battle had started for less than a minute and the first battalion was already in shambles while the second was now under attack.

The Sekhmet understood that the Demons were just a symptom of the Scourge called Lith Verhen.

'If I don't take him out quickly, all those people will have died for nothing.' Iata thought while charging at him.

The combined effect of Fusion Magic and Life Maelstrom turned her into a living meteor aimed at the Tiamat. He Blinked away but Iata could see the exit point of his spell with Life Vision and corrected her trajectory accordingly.

'I can't take her head on. Our mass is roughly the same but between her momentum and bloodline ability, I'm nothing but a fly against a swatter.' With no other way out, Lith activated the Spirit Barrier of his armor the moment Iata entered the range of his own Full Guard spell.

The expanding energy field took the brunt of the impact and pushed Lith back to safety. The Sekhmet hit the ground so hard that the vibrations forced Varegrave's soldiers to kneel to not lose their footing and raised a dust cloud visible from Belius.

"I like you, kid." Iata emerged from the dozens-meters deep crater unscathed. "You are gutsy and smart, but you have overestimated yourself. Even if you manage to take down one battalion with your tricks, you can't defeat a whole army, let alone me."

The Sekhmet dashed forward by kicking the ground with her four legs, reaching a speed that Lith would have found hard to dodge even without the boost that Life Maelstrom gave her.

He Blinked away and she followed suit, but when Iata came out of the dimensional opening, Lith was holding Double Edge in front of himself. The Blink had hidden the moment when Lith had taken the blade out of the pocket dimension in order to catch her by surprise and use her own charge to impale her.

Contrary to his expectations, her expression showed no fear nor surprise. A savage grin appeared on the snout of the Sekhmet when she realized to have met a worthy opponent.

Full Guard gave Iata the awareness she needed while Life Maelstrom made her fast enough to tilt her head sideways at the last second, dodging Double Edge. Lith needed but a flick of his wrist to change the position of the blade and aim at the Iata's massive body.

The Sekhmet snapped her head forward again, intercepting the lunge from the sides. Her head was covered by a thick golden construct conjured by Light Mastery, but she still used her horns to push the blade away, just to be safe.

The impact was so strong that Lith had to twist his body in an awkward position just to not lose the grip on Double Edge, leaving his body exposed. Iata's charge struck him square on the chest before he could react.

Despite the protection of the Voidwalker armor, Lith coughed out a mouthful of blood as the air was squeezed out of his lungs. The fight had finished as fast as it had begun.

The Sekhmet's four legs pinned him down to the ground, making it impossible for Lith to use body casting. Her claws pierced so deep into his flesh that any attempt to move would have ripped his limbs off.

He still held War in his hand, but without an arm to swing it was just a big piece of metal, and with no air in his lungs, he couldn't conjure any kind of mystical flames.

Even though he had many spell holding rings on his fingers, at such close range Iata's fangs would have ripped him apart before the elements even had the time to be conjured.

'Well played, kid, but it wasn't enough. You had power, wits, and a good plan. The difference between us lay in the quality of our armies.'