2037 Hidden Blade (Part 1)

Yet the Sekhmet didn't slow down, conjuring several hard-light constructs at the last second and stacking them to form a dozen meters-thick spearhead. It enhanced both her offensive power and her defense, protecting Iata from the threat of the Void Flames.

As she got closer, the construct suddenly expanded forward, further increasing the attack speed. Lith was taken by surprise and barely managed to dodge. The spearhead barely grazed him but the impact was strong enough to send him flying and leave a wide dent in his armor.

Iata turned around in mid-air and resumed the chase while Lith was still trying to stop tumbling.

When the Tiamat dodged the second time, she altered the shape of the construct into that of a sea urchin. The spear turned into countless spikes, each elongating too quickly and covering an area too big for Lith to dodge them all.

He had feared that something like that might happen so he covered his body with a hard-light construct of his own. Much to his dismay, however, Iata's was much more powerful.

The thin spikes pierced through the wall of light and even his armor, leaving many shallow bleeding wounds in their wake.

'What the heck happened, Solus? I'm certain that our level of Light Mastery isn't that different and even if it was, how could she damage Adamant so easily?' His questions met only silence. 'Fuck me sideways! I forgot that Solus is not here. I'm on my own.'

When the Sekhmet returned for the third time, Lith activated the Spirit Barrier of his armor as well to focus solely on the attack and understand the secret of its strength.

It was then that he noticed how Iata spread the Life Maelstrom from her body to the hard-light construct solely at the moment of impact and retrieved it immediately after.

'If Solus was here, I wouldn't have fallen for this trick in the first place and I would already have a counter.' Lith hated smart enemies as well. 'Even if Scarlett or whoever her parent is taught her Light Mastery, there's no way they knew about Domination.

'The Sekhmet can't be afraid of me stealing the Maelstrom so the only possible explanation is that she can't afford to go all-out. According to what Faluel taught me, Griffon can only store so much world energy at a time.

'A Sekhmet must be no different so Iata has to save her bloodline ability for when they reach Belius.' At first, the awareness of having an advantage made him smirk.

Then, Lith pictured ten creatures like him strengthened by Life Maelstrom running toward the City Gate, and his optimism faded. If that happened, the combined attack of the blizzard from the outside and the Divine Beasts from the inside would spell Belius' doom.

On top of that, he realized why Iata seemed content with brief exchanges instead of looking for an opening. She was waiting for Ufyl to recover from the effects of the Frozen Flames in order to kill Lith together with ease.

'I still have Ruin at the ready inside the Mouth of Menadion, but I'll save it in case I can't finish the Sekhmet off before the Seven Headed Dragon arrives. My Blade spell has a huge area of effect and it would be wasted on a single enemy.'

When Iata attacked again, following the same pattern because sure that Lith had no way to stop her, he stood still.

'I doubt he's insane enough to play chicken with me. Verhen is probably going to wait until the last moment before Blinking. Once he get behind me, those Cursed Flames would break my construct and snuff my Life Maelstrom again.

'A good plan, but not good enough.' Every single tactic that Thrud's generals employed had been tested between them and with the Mad Queen herself.

She hadn't Awakened for much longer than them but with her over 700 years of experience, Thrud mastered most spells and techniques in a few attempts. After trying them out, she managed to find their weak points and suggest ways to improve them.

Iata had trained a lot with the Queen and even though she had never won, she was confident in her skills.

Or so she thought until Lith unleashed from point-blank range Scarlett's signature spell, the tier five Spirit Magic Primordial Roar.

The spell manifested the aspects of all elements, using air to create a powerful shockwave whose strength was boosted by fire. The explosive power of Primordial Roar turned the charge into a stumble and pushed Lith away.

At the same time, water froze the humidity inside and outside the construct, earth locked the Sekhmet's movements, light needles pierced her body, and darkness coated everything else.

"What the heck? This spell is exclusive to the Scorpicore bloodline. Even I didn't learn it because I wasn't Awakened at the time. How do you know it?" The Life Maelstrom coursing through her and the construct had taken the brunt of the damage, but Iata stuttered every word.

The cold numbed her body while the darkness was slowly eroding her strength. The hard-light spearhead was covered in cracks, yet it was her pride hurting the most.

Lith's answer came in the form of the index and medium finger of his right hand pointing at the Sekhmet as he unleashed his personal War Mage Tier Five spell, Final Eclipse.

A thick sphere of violet flames imbued with massive amounts of darkness element surrounded him for a brief moment before focusing on his fingertips. Then, the sphere turned into a dense jet stream of black fire that covered the short distance between them while propelling Lith further back.

Iata snarled, needing but a thought to fix the cracks in her spearhead and resume the chase. Her spell was also a tier five and was imbued with Life Maelstrom. Light was one of the best defensive elements, second only to earth, and she was safe behind such an impenetrable wall.

Unfortunately for her, Lith was a Light Master as well and knew how to deal with them. He had used Primordial Roar not only to gain more distance, but also as a cover to leave War behind to sabotage her construct.

Double Edge was still in his hand, drawing the full attention of the Sekhmet while the small angry blade had left the exoskeleton and nested itself inside one of the biggest cracks that Primordial Roar had opened on the spearhead.

The moment Lith conjured Final Eclipse, War used its World Mirror and Counter Flow abilities to suddenly reopen those cracks. The fissure was small, but thanks to the bond with its master, the angry blade guided the spell along the right path.

The jet stream of black fire was focused on the blade, becoming a thin yet densely packet pillar of energy that slipped through the defensive wall. War fed upon the hard-light construct and amplified the power of Final Eclipse before making it explode inside the construct.

The thick walls of light that were supposed to protect the Sekhmet turned into a prison, making it impossible for her to escape from the flames.

'Fuck it! The only way I have to not get roasted is to dispel the spearhead, but if I do that, I'll get hit by the Void Flames.' Iata kept her cool despite the pain, saving herself from Lith's trap.