Chapter 238
While Thunderbolts quickly rained down from the sky one after the other, a spellcasting speed race for survival was taking place on the ground . The evolved Clackers were trying to keep their defenses in place, while Lith was putting just as much effort to make them crumble .
Despite Lith being alone, the fight was on equal footing . Lightning wasn't the only threat, there was also the shockwaves it produced . The Praetorians were now blind, deaf, and badly injured .
Unlike their queen, they were unable to use light magic to heal themselves . Also, by following their instinct, they shielded her to the best of their abilities . Lith exploited the situation, focusing on one of them at the time, leaving a different enemy unprotected each time a bolt of lightning struck .
The cloud Lith had conjured was small, it managed to produce only a dozen lightning bolts before returning to normal . Yet its effects were devastating . One of the Praetorians was dead, another was in agony, and the last one was severely injured .
Exploiting their blind loyalty, Lith had also exterminated the Hatchling Clackers that answered their queen's call by throwing them in the eye of the storm . Once the lightning bolts stopped, Lith jumped out of the pit, rushing at full speed toward his enemies .
His body was infused with air magic, making him appear like a blur . The magic crystals embedded into the bastard sword harnessed part of the spell, making a small vortex cracking with lightning envelope the blade .
The Brood Mother was triggered by the noise, summoning an earth shield all around her . The Clackers' sensory organs were still muddled by the thunderstorm, their reaction was disorganized .
When the last Praetorian still standing understood what was happening, Lith had already chopped off the head of his agonizing teammate, to prevent the Brood Mother from rejuvenating it .
The Praetorian screeched for help, fighting with all the strength it could muster . All the rocks and debris that had been created by keeping the thunderstorm at bay, flew against Lith following his every movement .
Lith was starting to run out of steam . His muscles were sore from the continuous bursts and his mind was losing focus . Using so many high level spells at the same time had taken quite a toll on him .
To make things worse, the closer he got to the Praetorian, the more accurate its control over the debris became, making it impossible for Lith to dodge all the incoming attacks . He could only deflect those aimed at his vitals and tank the others .
He used earth fusion to limit the injuries and light fusion to start regenerating them as soon as they opened .
When Lith was close enough, the Clacker interrupted the spell releasing a second one . Eight giant spider legs made of rock erupted from the ground, attacked him from all directions . Each one ended with a spike and was aimed at his heart to impale him .
'Damn my stupidity! I should have known the previous spell was just a diversion . I've no time to Blink . ' Lith infused himself and the sword with air magic, charging against the incoming spike in front of him .
He slashed horizontally, aiming to use the force of the impact to alter his course at the last second and avoid being turned into a shish kebab .
Much to his surprise, the sword didn't bounce off the spike, it cut through the stone like it was paper instead . The Praetorian was suddenly as scared as Lith was jubilant .
'This isn't a sword . This is a masterpiece!' Lith rejoiced from the sudden turn of the events . The Clacker was defenseless . Weaving and controlling his spell with such precision had required all of its focus, leaving it no time for a contingency plan .
With one last burst of speed, Lith arrived in front of the Praetorian, performing a series of quick slashes . The first cut off the front legs that were trying to protect the Praetorian's head . The second and the third split the head in two and removed it from the body respectively .
Lith kept dashing forward, putting some distance between him and the Brood Mother, activating Invigoration as soon as he stopped . It took only a couple of seconds for the Brood Mother to realize there were no more lightning bolts incoming, but when she lowered her barrier everything was already over .
She used Invigoration to heal her many wounds and replenish her mana . Once she spotted him, the Brood Mother was ready to counter any attack the human could be plotting . Yet Lith remained still, his grin grew wider by the second .
"You really are dumb . " He laughed at her with a cruel voice .
"Absorbing the world energy is a great idea . Too bad it's a game that two can play and I started before you . "
The Brood Mother cursed at her own stupidity, it was her first time facing an Awakened one . Through Life Vision, she checked that Lith had told the truth . He was recovering faster than she was capable of .
The head start he got would allow Lith to attack before she was back at her peak condition .
"Great idea!" He kept mocking her after noticing her glowing eyes . Words didn't waste mana, so they were the only attack he could perform without hindering his recovery .
"I'm sure that wasting mana non stop will not slow you down even more . "
The Brood Mother was outraged by Lith's defiant attitude, but she was even more scared of what could happen if she stopped watching his every movement .
Unlike him, she wasn't able to Blink . She also had noticed how the piece of metal in his hands could easily cut apart even her strongest minion . She only needed one strike to cut him down, but Lith was capable of doing the same .
The Brood Mother rushed forward, forcing him to stop using Invigoration too and playing straight into his hand . Life Vision gave her only a vague idea of Lith's core power . After all, he had almost killed her multiple times . The Brood Mother was certain that he had to be at least as strong as her .
Thanks to Solus's mana sense, Lith knew that she was stronger than him even at his peak condition, something that was still lost to him . His body had yet to recover from the attempt to save Protector's life .
Lith had manipulated her fears so that she would start recovering later than him and stop before him, forcing her to fight on equal footing . The Brood Mother was physically superior, but Lith was much more experienced in using all the elements .
Her front legs clashed many times with his sword, keeping it at bay . Their strength, speed, and stamina were on the same level since the Brood Mother was too scared to stop using Life Vision .
Yet Lith was forced to play on the defensive . While his opponent could block with the front legs and attack with her claws, he had only one sword . His daggers had a smaller range than her fingers . Also, he needed both hands to stop her heavy blows .
They were too close to use spells . If one of them stopped even for a second, the other would have the time to strike at least three times . Soon Lith was covered by shallow wounds on the head, shoulders, and arms .
The Brood Mother was starting to get used to his poor swordsmanship, attacking with her claws every time her front legs clashed with the sword . The impact would stun him just for a split second, but it was enough for her .
Lith changed his strategy, infusing the bastard sword with darkness magic instead of air .
The blade turned pitch black and small vortexes appeared on its surface . Lith didn't need to use Life Vision to know that Orion's masterpiece was sapping his enemy's strength by the second .
He only needed to watch at her terrified expression . Every time the dark blade clashed with the Brood Mother's stone like legs, they would crack and a bit of her life force would be transferred to Lith .
The tables were now slowly getting turned . She knew that the longer it lasted, the weaker she would get . She went into a frenzy, attacking faster and faster, hoping he would make a mistake not being able to keep up the pace with her many limbs .
Lith was soon forced to focus only on the defense again, the Brood Mother's attacks were too fast and well coordinated for his skill level . New and deeper cuts appeared on his flesh, but he couldn't stop grinning .
"Not even a monstrosity like you could laugh at his own death!" During the fight, the queen of the Clackers had noticed Lith's unusual smell . It was part human, part beast, part Abomination and completely unnatural .
'I'm laughing at yours!' He inwardly replied before releasing all the nine spells stored inside his rings . Fireballs, lightning bolts, Plague Arrows, and a fully charged Checkmate Spears were fired against her at point blank range while she was lunging her left arm toward Lith's right one .
The thunderbolts stunned her while the darkness missiles drained her lifeforce and the icicles ravaged her body . The explosions from the fireballs pushed her away, but not before her claws severed Lith's dominant arm at the shoulder .
The Brood Mother was severely injured but not dead . Now that Lith had lost the sword she was certain she would get the upper hand as soon as her body started to move again .
Then she saw it . Together with spurts of red blood, black tendrils came out of Lith's severed arm and from his shoulder, pulling it back into place . The flesh merged like the wound had never existed .
Lith was shocked as much as the Brood Mother . He had already seen Balkor's Valors reattach their limbs in a very similar manner . Unlike them, he needed light fusion to close the wound and stop the bleeding .
The arm was in place, but it was useless . The bones, nerves, and blood vessels were still repairing themselves . Lith had no sensibility whatsoever, his arm was no more than dead weight . The Brood Mother didn't know it and hope abandoned her .
It was only then that she realized that her body was already beyond saving . The electricity from the lightning bolts ha temporarily stunned her, but not prevented her from moving . Otherwise the previous thunderstorm would have managed to kill her .
The numbing effect had simply prevented her from noticing that several spears of ice had pierced both her human and spider body, puncturing her lungs and several organs . She started coughing blood, while her life was slowly slipping away .
"Please, have mercy . " She pleaded him, shedding tears from all her eight eyes .
"You are a powerful magician . You can heal me . You know how rare we Awakened are, we shouldn't kill each other . "
Lith clicked his tongue in disgust, moving the sword from the right to the left hand . The Brood Mother recognized him as someone similar to her . He didn't want allies, only servants .
"If you spare my life, I swear to devote all my life to you . I can take on any form you want, be every day the woman of your dreams . I'll be your lover, your slave, whatever you want . Just don't kill me!"
Lith plunged the sword into her head, using darkness magic to destroy the last spark of life force she had left .
'I can't believe she had the gall to ask me to spare her life . Slave my a*s, she would have killed me as soon as she recovered her strength . ' Lith thought, storing the corpse in the pocket dimension .
'What are you planning to do with her remains?' Solus asked .
'Use them as ingredients, sell it, or reanimate it as a greater undead . I have yet to decide . '
Professor Farg had witnessed the whole fight from the beginning . The resourcefulness of both sides had left her speechless more than once .
'By the gods, even with all my equipment, I don't know if I could defeat either of them without reinforcements . The Brood Mother was cunning and the four Praetorians covered her blind spots, leaving no openings .
'Lith's swordsmanship is amateurish at best, but he is a vicious, scheming opportunist . He clearly has a lot of experience using true magic, that trick with the thundercloud isn't something you can improvise .
'Once again, Lady Tyris was right . Lith from Lutia isn't human . I must show her the fight, especially the part where the arm reattached itself . His existence goes beyond my understanding . '
Lith used Invigoration again, checking his surrounding from time to time . The few Clackers that had survived were all Hatchlings and with their queen dead, they had lost the will to fight .
He collected the corpses of the Praetorians too, hoping they were still worth something as trophies or ingredients . Then, he returned to the pit . The flames had destroyed everything, leaving behind only ashes .
Lith wasn't a believer, but he silently prayed for his lost friend . He couldn't avenge Protector's death nor could he bring him back to life . The feeling of helplessness heavily weighted on his heart .
"Goodbye, old friend . Thank you for everything you did for me and for all you taught me . I promise I will take care of your family like it's my own . "
"Well, well, well . Look who's here . I should feel offended . I heard from more than one reliable source that you shed a lot of tears for Protector, but none for me . "
Lith turned around, welcoming Kalla with a warm smile .
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