Viren dug himself out and shoved the rubble aside. His coat was torn, his face smudged with dirt, but he was unharmed. Not a scratch was on his body, which greatly upset Reidar.

He stood, brushing the debris from his shoulders, and looked up at the ridge. The swarm was still there. The summoner was still there.

Viren's jaw tightened. He'd been wasting time killing the summons. Every second he spent crushing skeletons and impaling Titans was a second Reidar Miller stayed alive on that ridge.

"Enough," Viren said.

He looked up at the ridge. He didn't look at the army of summons surrounding him. He didn't look at the Titans still pounding on the gates. He looked only at Reidar, knowing that the only way for him to protect the city was to kill him.

He raised both hands. Shadows erupted from the ground in a wide circle, forming a ring of Shadow Thorns.

The spikes skewered everything within fifty meters—Skeletal Warriors, Vorathid Foragers, and various titans—and they all dissolved into mana mist.

The immediate area was cleared. Viren didn't wait for the swarm to refill the gap. He cast Shadow Step, dissolving into darkness and reappearing thirty meters closer to the ridge.

Reidar felt a spike of dread run through his chest. Viren wasn't fighting the summons anymore. He was ignoring the Titans, ignoring the army, and moving straight for him.

<Shit.>

Reidar repositioned the Terran Bulwarks, forming a tighter defensive ring around his position. He summoned more Bark Behemoths to block the slope.

But he knew it wouldn't be enough. Viren was at Level 335. The level gap meant the Deacon could carve through Reidar's defensive summons faster than Reidar could replace them, and the situation would only worsen.

<I need to keep him occupied. Just a little longer.>

Viren shadow-hopped again, closing another fifty meters. Then, a Twin Boulderback tried to intercept, swinging its fist. Viren cast Shadow Slash. The crescent of black energy bisected the Titan's arm. The giant staggered, and Viren was already past it, reappearing higher up the slope.

Reidar summoned a raven and mounted it. The bird launched into the air just as Viren reached the spot where it had been standing mere seconds earlier.

The Deacon looked up and locked his gaze upon the fleeing summoner. He raised a hand, and a spear of solidified shadows materialized above him.

Reidar banked hard. Avoiding the spear by an air's breath. The raven climbed higher.

Viren didn't follow Reidar in the sky. Instead, he anticipated the raven's trajectory and cast a spear of pure shadows. The spear was faster than Reidar could react this time, and the weapon hit the raven's wing.

The bird shrieked as the shadows seeped into the creature. Turning from a spear into tendrils of pure darkness that seeped into the raven's veins. The summon dissolved mid-flight, leaving Reidar in a free fall.

He hit the ground hard, but his S.H.I.E.L.D. was high enough and the height small enough to make him survive the fall. For a second his vision blurred. As pain ravaged his insides.

He forced himself to his knees, gasping. His mana reserves were still ok, but the fall had rattled him. He could summon another raven, but Viren would just shoot it down again.

"Shit…"

He healed himself with Font of Life. Then, he used Mark of Frailty on Viren while he cast Bastion of Will and Aura of the Alpha just to get that edge he needed to fight.

<This bastard!>

Viren walked down the slope toward him. He wasn't rushing. He didn't need to. Reidar was on the ground now, surrounded by a thinning swarm, but not far enough for him to do anything meaningful, or at least Viren thought.

"Silas warned me about you."

"And what did he say about me?"

Reidar's summons created another ring of Terran Bulwarks. Then they summoned Cinderheart Efreetis above him, and the fire elementals hovered in a defensive formation.

Viren stopped meters away.

"That you are nothing without your summons," Viren said.

Reidar stood. "But as you can see, my summons are here."

Viren's expression didn't change. "For now."

He gestured at the battlefield. Thousands of dissolving summons littered the valley—bone fragments, dissipating elementals, and collapsed Titans. "You've been burning through them like firewood. How long can you keep this up?"

Reidar wiped blood from his mouth. "For as long as I want."

"I have my doubts…" Viren spread his arms. Shadows gathered around him, thickening into a visible aura. "Silas told me you guys killed Aaron, and that you drove him out of Creamont. Impressive, for someone bound by the System."

"Aaron was a fool."

"And you think I am a fool too?" Viren smiled. "Aaron was arrogant."

The Cinderheart Efreetis unleashed fire. The flames splashed against the darkness and vanished.

Reidar flicked his wand, and the Bark Behemoths rooted near the slope and slammed their limbs into the ground.

The earth beneath Viren fractured. Thick, wooden roots erupted like spears, aiming to skewer the Deacon where he stood.

Viren didn't panic. He side-stepped the first root with a movement that was too fast for a human; the wood tore his coat but missed his skin.

He raised a hand to sever the second root with a blade of shadows, but his weapon flickered.

The shadow blade formed and struck the wood, shattering the bark, but the impact jarred Viren's arm back.

He frowned, glancing at his hand.

The Mark of Frailty was doing its job. Both he and Reidar could see that. His resistances were down by forty-five percent. It was a powerful skill, and Viren immediately saw how useful it was. He wanted to replicate it as soon as he could, but such a complex spell required time to be made.

The armor he made with his mana wasn't holding up as well as it usually did.

"Annoying," Viren said.

A Twin Boulderback didn't give him time to analyze the debuff.

The stone giant lunged, swinging a fist the size of a small car directly at Viren's head.

Viren couldn't block it. Not with his defenses compromised.

He cast Shadow Step, dissolving into the grey mist just as the stone fist pulverized the ground where he had been standing.

Dust and gravel sprayed across the clearing.

Reidar watched the mana flow. He saw the fluctuation thirty meters to his left.

"Left flank! Burn it!"

The Cinderheart Efreetis swiveled in the air.

Before Viren could fully materialize, three beams of white-hot fire converged on his location.

Then Viren appeared, his eyes widening. He threw up a wall of shadows, but the fire slammed into it instantly.

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