2193 Hold the Line (Part 1)

Sensing the Chaos eating at his blade, the Emerald Dragon freed it by kicking Lith straight in the chest. The impact sent him back a few meters and squeezed the air out of his body, dispelling the burst of Void Flames he had kept at the ready.

Between the wound and the unstable position, the Abomination was on his back foot, open to another attack.

"It's over. Surrender now and I will make this painless." Jormun could see with the Dragon Eyes that Lith had yet to complete a spell and that the hole in his body had yet to close.

It made him confident and so he pushed forward to not give the enemy the time for a single breath of Invigoration. There was only a tiny opening between the helm and neck guard of the Voidwalker armor yet Dragonclaw found it.

Lith's seven eyes followed the perfect trajectory of the blade, all of them refusing to blink. He tried to block it with War, but he was still in a partly crouched position and his footing was awkward.

With one arm, he lacked the necessary leverage to save his life.

That's why he used two, and when that turned out to be enough, he used three. War pushed Dragonclaw away with so much strength that Jormun lost his balance and almost his grip as well.

"What? How?" He asked while staring dumbly at the second set of arms that had replaced his membranous wings and at the third that came out of his hips, where the feathered wings of the Tiamat form were supposed to be.

In his Abomination form, Lith lacked both the second set of wings and the tail, leaving plenty of Adamant to cover the new limbs. He opposed raw strength to Jormun's superior technique and moved to the offense with a barrage of left fists.

Despite his richer battle experience, the Emerald Dragon had only one set of arms and eyes, making it impossible for him to follow all of Lith's attacks. One hand aimed at Jormun's side, the palm filled with air and water magic.

If it were to hit, the Dragon's body would have been ravaged by cold and vibrations that would have crippled his speed. The second hand was aimed at the side of his chin and was imbued with darkness magic.

The hit would have caused a concussion that not even darkness fusion could prevent while the darkness element would have messed up his motor coordination. The last hand was grabbing at Jormun's arm.

If it succeeded, the Emerald Dragon would have become incapable of either blocking or dodging, taking the other two hits and then War in the heart.

At the same time, Vladion had yet to find a way out of his own predicament. The tier five Blood Magic spell, Crimson King had filled the air with air blades that attacked on their own and didn't disappear upon hit.

His blade, Primordial Thirst, kept finding its way past the enchanted protections of the Forgotten, inflicting upon them deep wounds and drinking their blood to empower him.

At the same time, Life Aura blocked their spells and bloodline abilities alike, shielding Kalla from harm.

Yet none of it was enough.

Whenever a hit wasn't lethal, the second and first line of enemies would just switch positions and recover their strength with Invigoration. Whenever a hit was lethal, a tendril would come out of the Golden Griffon.

Be it reattaching a severed head or regenerating a punctured heart, it happened so quickly that the Forgotten would resume fighting before their corpses could hit the floor.

They weren't fighting in a distant land but inside the Golden Griffon.

The resurrection chamber could be placed wherever the Royal Family wanted and since the King consort was fighting in the Headmaster's office, the safety protocols did everything they could to ensure his survival.

Vladion used the power stored inside his blood core to push his physical prowess beyond that of Jormun and could take on a lot of Origin Flames before weakening. The few centuries of experience of the Forgotten paled in front of his millennia and they lacked both his craftiness and ingenuity.

Yet they more than made up for it by attacking in waves, with no care for their lives. Even in death, their bodies grabbed at the Firstborn, trying to pin him down. Their blades kept cutting at him even without a head guiding them.

They were empty shells, a living extension of the Golden Griffon that ignored the pain and hunger that came with every resurrection.

'Please, tell me that you are almost done.' Vladion said when a Hippogriff barged from the door as well, charging his companions with Life Maelstrom.

'92% and counting. Without you and Lith things have slowed down.' Kalla replied.

As for Solus, she was having a tough time with a taller and heavier opponent who also had superior range. Her arms were already short and the Fury's handle didn't extend her reach much further.

Hystar's polearm was over two meters (6'7") long and his Royal Fortress form was almost as tall.

"You might as well tell me who you are, sister." He said while lunging at her and weaving a tier five spell with the same movement. "Once the King is done with your host, I'm going to take my time cracking you in more than one way."

"I'm not your sister!" Solus first activated the air and earth sealing arrays from the tower's Heart to neutralize his Bonegrinder spell.

Then, she used the power of the Yggdrasill wood to combine her spells together and weave the runes of the six elemental sealing arrays stored inside the Mouth into a small tier Five Gravity array, Small Sun.

By combining the power of the tower, the Hands, and the staff, she could cast magic beyond what her flimsy blue core could.

Small Sun generated a high gravity nucleus that drew in anything within a 10 meters radius. The pressure was so strong that rocks, dust, and whatever was caught in the gravity pull would be brought to the center of the spell and turn white-hot from the heat.

The highly compressed mass generated by the spell looked exactly like a dwarf star.

"Are you insane? It will burn us both!" Hystar had to use the talons on his boots to claw deep into the floor and resist the pull of Small Sun.

Solus jumped, instead, using gravity to charge at her paralyzed opponent and hit his shield with a dropkick. Hystar's arm faltered, letting the Fury pass through his guard and hit him straight in the chest.

The gravity spell also accelerated the Davross hammer, giving it the momentum of a meteor. The same happened to all the eight following hammers that Solus had conjured by activating the Furies' Flight.

Each hit dragged the Headmaster further back until he almost reached the blazing center of Small Sun. Alas, Solus had to pause the effect of the array to keep the Fury and herself from suffering Hystar's same fate.

Gravity magic affected everyone inside its area of effect, even its caster. The silver lining was that having turned Sinmara's spell into an array, Solus could turn it on and off at will.