Lance Swordplay 4

Opening my mind entirely to my bond, Sylvie formed a solid panel of condensed mana beneath my feet at my request.

Cylrit’s expression didn’t change at my sudden approach. He merely lifted his greatsword into a defensive position.

I focused on a space about three paces in front of Cylrit, sending a quick thought to my bond. The timing was just a tad behind but another translucent panel formed beneath my right foot as I stepped on the space in the sky I had shown to Sylvie. This allowed for another quick change in direction as I pushed off Sylvie’s conjuration.

The retainer’s eyes calmly followed my movements but his greatsword remained frozen in place. Still, I didn’t let down my guard.

Dawn’s Ballad whistled as its sharp edge cut through the air toward Cylrit’s chest, but something felt off.

The closer my blade got to the retainer, the more I felt a weight ‘pulling’ on it. Dawn’s Ballad almost seemed to be sucked in by Cylrit’s behemoth of a sword as the teal blade arced off course and straight into its pitch-black blade.

The sensation disappeared as soon as our blades clashed, but as soon as I swung again, Dawn’s Ballad was once again attracted to his mysterious sword.

With only the thought of ending this quickly, I activated the first phase of my beast will.

Static Void.

The colors around me inverted, freezing everything but myself in place. I quickly brought the broken tip of Dawn’s Ballad against the motionless retainer’s stomach before releasing Static Void.

However, even at point-blank range, my sword veered away from Cylrit’s torso, barely drawing blood while leaving me drained.

Damn it! I cursed.

Sylvie reacted quickly to my failed attempt by conjuring another platform beneath my feet for me to quickly gain distance from Cylrit.

I let out a heavy breath. Static Void was a spell passed down to me from Sylvia that wasn’t compatible with my mastery of aether. Even as a white core mage, just using a few seconds of the aether arts made me feel like I had been fighting for several hours.

“I was taught of the various mana arts that asura clans had forged, especially the ‘aether arts’ of the Indrath Clan. Experiencing it in person, though, I could see why it’s to be feared,” Cylrit said, looking down at his wound.

Having no intentions of exchanging frivolities with him, I mentally nudged my bond.

Sylvie, fire a few shots behind him.

‘Got it.’

Just as arrows of mana manifested in the air behind the retainer, I launched a blast of frost and an arc of lightning. The ice blast spread into a cone while the lightning spell branched off to completely cover our opponent but to no avail.

With a single sweep of his sword, our spells were sucked up and completely eaten away by the black blade.

My bond conveyed her annoyance with a quick glance in my direction. ‘What a troublesome ability.’

Impatience welled up inside me as I watched Cylrit maintain his stance, not bothering to attack. Rather, he pulled out a small scroll and began reading it.

The retainer looked up, shifting his gaze from Sylvie to me before saying, “one of my scouts has confirmed that elven princess has been withdrawn from battle.”

“Do you honestly expect me to believe you and walk away?” I spat.

Withdrawing Dawn’s Ballad, I conjured two frozen blades like Varay had done—condensing layer upon layer of ice to reinforce its durability—before rushing towards the retainer.

Cylrit’s cold eyes narrowed in scrutiny, well aware of Sylvie preparing a spell from a distance as I quickly approached.

My two blades of ice clashed with his sword, generating a blast of pressure. Even with mana coating my weapons, cracks were already visible.

Mending the scarred surface of the weapons, I swung again, quickly turning into a flurry of blades. It was an odd feeling as my swords were unwillingly forced into a direction different from where I willed it.

It got to the point where I would purposely abandon the ice swords and quickly conjure a new one, hoping that there would be a bit of a lag in between the gravitational pull from his sword.

“If your master is really on our side, this is a meaningless battle, Cylrit,” I growled, releasing the eighteenth conjured sword from my hand and shooting a blast of fire at his legs.

That’s when I saw—or rather, sensed it. Something within his weapon changed . Not visibly, but it happened just after the sword I had let loose was pulled into his sword and I had shot the fire.

Immediately, I activated Realmheart, surprising both Sylvie and Cylrit. I tested it out once more, throwing my other ice sword at Cylrit while simultaneously shooting an arc of lightning.

The mana fluctuation within his greatsword—now visible to me with Realmheart—changed in the middle of his swing as he blocked both the solid composition of my ice sword and the mana-fueled spell of the lightning.

His sword can only attract one or the other at once!

By his annoyed gaze, I knew Cylrit noticed my revelation, but it didn’t matter. I knew his weakness.

Sylvie, capitalizing on our discovery, quickly casted the spell she had been preparing. Like a brilliant firework display, hundreds of sparks spread with blazing trails. Rather than fade, though, the sparks of light remained suspended in the air all around us.

A wave of fatigue leaked onto me from my bond, but she remained determined to finish this quickly.