2034 Golden Knight (Part 2)

Between the pain from War stinging at her from the inside and the Void Flames eating at her from the outside, Iata didn't notice Lith's flaming tail wrapping around her hind legs.

The hold threw the Sekhmet off balance while also giving Lith the leverage he needed to escape and regain his footing. He got up with a kip-up, using the same motion to strike with his head at her lower jaw and make War sink deeper in her flesh.

'What the fuck?' Iata felt as if suddenly the laws of physics had lost their meaning. 'How can Verhen be this strong? I had him pinned to the ground, and with Life Maelstrom empowering me, the gap in our physical abilities is abyssal.'

She charged forward again in order to impale him with her horns before he could heal, yet Lith seemed to move even faster than the Sekhmet. He managed to regain his balance and needed but a hand to force her to a halt by grabbing her head.

"Begone." While his left hand locked Iata into place, his right struck at her chin in an uppercut.

The blow made her stagger and exposed her head to a left hook that sent her brain bouncing against her skull like a pinball. As the concussion clouded her vision, Lith lunged forward with his right hand.

He grabbed War's hilt again, twisting the blade as he pulled it out. The motion freed War and almost cut off the Sekhmet's jaw. Lith was about to decapitate her when a Seven Headed Dragon dived from the sky, attacking him from behind while conjuring seven different spells at the same time.

Lith managed to dodge only thanks to Full Guard warning him and by Blinking right behind Iata, using her as a meat shield.

'Whoever this overgrown Hydra is may have seen my exit point, but now he has no way to make use of this knowledge without taking the Sekhmet out for me.' Lith thought.

Ufyl was on his same page so he used the willpower imbued within the spells to make them explode at a safe distance from Iata, blinding Lith's mystical senses as he Warped her to safety.

'Get a grip, you stupid cat. You almost got killed.' Like all those who belonged to the Hydra bloodline, the Seven Headed Dragon didn't mind wasting mana. He needed just one head to use his breathing technique to recover it while the other six kept attacking.

'I had him, Ufyl. I swear.' Iata replied. 'Despite that damn sword stuck in my mouth, I was about to rip Verhen into shreds when his strength suddenly grew beyond reason.'

'He didn't get stronger, you idiot. It was you who got weaker.' The Seven Headed Dragon used the mind link to show her how the Void Flames had not only dispelled the Life Maelstrom, but also the fusion magic coursing through her body.

'We already learned about this when he stormed the castle of Mandia. How could you forget?'

'Easy to say when you have seven heads and are not busy fighting for your life.' She replied.

'There's no point arguing among us now. I'll help you take down Verhen while Leari deals with the other Verhen.'

'What other Verhen? What the heck are you talking-' The Seven Headed Dragon had just started bringing her up to speed via the mind link when two bolts of different kinds of Cursed Flames split them apart.

True Flames turned the air into a scorching gas that kept Iata from recovering her strength with her breathing technique and burned her lungs. The Frozen Flames just grazed their target, but the cold they radiated sapped the Dragon's strength and almost sent him into hibernation.

'Just as I thought. All Dragons share my weakness to cold but Hydras fare even worse due to their lesser nature. It seems that not even evolving solved the problem.' Lith knew that he had no chance of victory if he fought two Divine Beasts alone.

He had to take them down one at a time and keep them from recovering or he would run out of mana faster than them. The Sekhmet and the Seven Headed Dragon took flight in opposite directions, their strategy simple but effective.

No matter which one Lith followed, the other would have the time to recover and help the other as soon as they were done. Facing only two wrong choices, Lith created a third one.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Yurial's Annihilation was already fading away. The spell had an explosive strength and due to Solus' blue core, there was only so much mana she could use.

If the seven elements weren't kept in perfect balance, the Annihilation would implode. It could only last as long as its scarcest component, Spirit Magic. To make matter worse, Leari the Stormborne had descended as well to stop the slaughter.

Her appearance was similar to that of a Phoenix, but her tail was comprised of two long tendrils and her feathers were of a dark grey that from time to time would shine with a white light from the inside.

It was as if a thundercloud had taken the form of a bird and bolts of lightning were still brewing in its core.

"I don't know who you are but I don't care. You are too weak to matter anymore." Leari stood in front of the second battalion to give the soldiers the time to reform their ranks and heal with their breathing technique.

At the same time, she flapped her wings and conjured a powerful wind that blew away the flying Demons and forced those on the ground to a halt. Solus was safe thanks to the mass she retained from the tower, but not for long.

The purpose of the storm was to lock Leari's enemies into place as she activated her bloodline ability, Stormlight. Thunderbornes were one of the evolutionary branches that Salaark had missed when she had turned from a Firebird into a Phoenix.

They combined the heat of the Origin Flames with the electrical charges of Life Maelstrom to generate the violent streams of white plasma that Solus had earlier mistaken for bolts of lightning.

Stormlight lacked the purifying ability of the Flames and the empowering effect of the Maelstrom but its destructive power made up for it.

The streams of plasma moved too fast for the Demons to avoid them, destroying their physical form and their equipment alike.

Solus conjured one wall of light after another to protect everyone but she was too tired from the Annihilation. The Stormlight pierced through her defenses before slamming against an emerald sphere that enveloped her, sending Solus tumbling to the ground.

'Dammit, there's not much I can do on my own.' She inwardly thanked Lith for the Spirit Barrier of her armor. 'One shot is all that it takes a Divine Beast to take me down. Even if I manage to recover my strength with Sky Blessing, I'm no match for that thing.'

Leari could see with Life Vision that while the golden knight had a weak core, her physical prowess was nothing to scoff at. On the contrary, most of the Demons of the Fallen had powerful magic but feeble bodies compared to hers.