Chapter 3999: Coward’s Blood (Part 2)

’Not bad, but you’re not the only one who had the time to prepare your spells.’ The golden construct conjured by the tier five Light Mastery spell, Star Guard, took the brunt of both Hassar’s spells while the Agni’s powerful body did the rest.

Nalrond traced a line in the air with his forefinger, conjuring the tier four spell, Sunshine. A barrage of laser-like rays, each as thick as his arm and as hot as a furnace, rained upon the Yellow Wind tribe.

Between Star Guard and Sunshine, it seemed as if a sun god had descended from the sky to dispense his fiery wrath on the mortals who had displeased him.

"Not so fast!" Hassar deactivated the cloaking arrays and channeled the full power of the mana geyser in the combat magical formations.

The air itself became as hard as steel, blocking Nalrond’s spells and Friya’s charge alike. She found herself trapped by an invisible net that was strong enough to hold her still despite her Harbinger powers.

At the same time, the magic circles stacked below their feet conjured dozens of tier five spells. The soldiers had already gained enough distance to ensure they wouldn’t suffer much harm, allowing the defensive system to display its full power.

"That’s my line!" A squint of Nalrond’s eye activated the dormant spells he had placed upon the focal points of the arrays, triggering a chain of explosions that tore the magical formations to bits.

The defensive barrier restricting Nalrond’s and Friya’s movements disappeared, while the tier five spells fell apart into sparks of wild elemental energy before they could fully form.

"You fucking bastard!" Hassar cursed, but never stopped advancing.

Nalrond saluted his bravery and rewarded it with a scissoring cut that slipped past the chieftain’s guard and dug into the flesh of his neck. Much to the Agni’s surprise, however, his bone spikes stopped soon after drawing the first blood.

"For the Yellow Wind!" Hassar’s battle cry resounded as he pushed Nalrond’s arms open with sheer strength and kicked him in the chest.

The blow cracked the Agni’s armor, shattered his ribs, and sent him crashing in the distance like a living cannonball.

"The fuck?" The booming noise of the kick first, and of Nalrond’s impact with the ground later, cost Friya her focus.

Sehir and Tarek ignored her question, respectively conjuring the tier five Battle Mage spell, Snake Pit, to restrict her limbs and lunging at her head. The hold exerted by the sand tendrils was softer than solid ground or rock, but it was impossible to break.

The countless grains of sand formed several streams that flowed around Friya’s arms and legs with the strength of earth and the fluidity of water. The gleaming around Sehir’s khopesh was a testament to its enchantments and the quick death it would deliver.

If it reached its target, of course.

Friya Blinked up and to the right, carrying the sand tendrils and the swordsman with her. Snake Pit was now too far away from its caster to exert more than a fraction of its true power, while gravity foiled Sehir’s attack.

He fell to the ground like a sack of bricks, and Friya plunged Dreadnought into his defenseless chest. Her blade pierced through his back and released a blast of darkness magic that killed him on impact.

"You bitch!" Tarek unleashed a volley of frozen blades and a wave of thunderous flames as she retreated towards Hassar.

Friya dodged the blades and Blinked past the fire wave, finding the chieftain’s khopesh waiting for her. She Blinked again, or at least she tried. A sudden cold snap flooded her body along with the world energy she had conjured to fuel her spell, turning Friya into an ice statue.

Hassar slashed at her with so much strength that if not for the awkward angle of the Blink and Orion’s armor, the chieftain would have cleaved her from hip to shoulder.

’The fuck?’ Solus echoed Friya’s questions as she followed the events via the Monocle of Menadion that her friend wore. ’That guy is not even an Awakened! He missed the Blink’s opening by one and a half kilometers.

’How can he hurt Nalrond and Friya so bad with such sloppy strikes?’

’Because of the gap in mass between them.’ Lith’s mind put the pieces of the puzzle together right before two flames appeared above the chieftain’s head.

Hassar’s skin turned into a black hide, his brown eyes flared red, and two membranous wings popped out of his back.

’That guy is an Upyr.’ Lith said.

’What? How?’ Solus tapped into the Eyes’ records, finding no evidence of any foreign life force. ’By my Mom, you are almost right! That guy is an Upyr thrall. That’s why the Monocle didn’t pick up anything until he triggered the transformation.

’Orpal’s blood seems to possess some kind of cloaking property. As long as it’s inert, its energy signature is so faint that it’s easily overshadowed by the host’s life force.’

’Sneaky and cowardly. Just like Meln. What about now?’ Lith asked.

’Now the human life force is almost gone, swallowed by the Vurdalak’s blood.’ Solus replied. ’It’s like Meln is standing less than a kilometer away from us.’

’That’s great.’ Lith snorted, readying the tower and the Demons. ’Friya?’

’Stay out of this.’ She replied via the Monocle. ’This is my fight, and the bastard is not even an Awakened. If I can’t win against someone like him, I won’t stand a chance against a real Upyr.’

Before she could finish the thought, a gray comet slammed into the ground, sending Tarek flying and throwing a ton of sand in Hassar’s eyes. As the chieftain teared up and rubbed his face to clear his vision, the comet opened up into a flurry of gold and silver.

Nalrond’s metal-coated bone spikes and hard-light constructs attacked Hassar from every side at once, forcing him to ignore the frozen woman and focus on the Agni. The chieftain blocked one bone spike with his khopesh while the other pierced through his side.

It failed to reach his internal organs, but did better than the constructs, which opened shallow cuts across his skin. Hassar had received no training aside from how to use the two Vurdalak bloodline abilities he had access to, Frost and Thunder Soul.

He had no equipment that fitted his Divine Beast full form nor any skill fighting in that form, so he kept his human size. His compressed and dense mass boosted his defense beyond what his flimsy orichalcum armor could take.

The mass gap between Nalrond and the Upyr thrall was so great that not even Orion’s masterpiece could cut through Hassar in a single sweep, limiting the Agni’s options.

"How are you still alive?" The chieftain pushed the bone spike away with so much strength that it dislocated Nalrond’s shoulder and went for the kill.

Hassar was a skilled warrior with over a dozen years of battle experience, not just a powerful mage. Becoming a chieftain in an outlaw tribe was hard, and straying alive after reaching the position was just as difficult.

One had to possess the talent to surpass the current chieftain while also being smart enough to appear unremarkable until he was ready to strike.

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