"Seems some slipped past them," Eldrian commented, watching his map as the red dots made a beeline for the glade. There were six in total, one Tier 7, three Tier 8, and two Tier 9. All of them Terrors.
"I'll take the weakest one, Nerenth?"
"I cannot fight well in this form. I will contact those in reserve to stop the others." She replied, her words drifting on the winds from the surrounding trees.
Nodding, Eldrian left a projection of his map affixed in place. Hoping the spell and runic combination he had thrown together would manage to survive while his attention was elsewhere.
It was a rather simple spell. Only needing to project the image of his map. The tricky part was linking the map (normally invisible to all but the player) to the rest of the world. But since Eldrian already had that figured out, he believed the spell should stay as long as the mana he had given it as a reserve lasted.
With the ambient mana in the area, it shouldn't run out soon. Even if it used more when he was gone, Eldrian had added mana collection runes to the simple complexity he had made.
Other than the coding in the background to get it to work (and adding some runes to make it affixed semi-permanently), it was only a light and water spell. The water for a mist making up the screen, and light gave it its function.
Eldrian hadn't learned illusion magic, so this was his copout to produce images with light magic. It helped that he had a perfect rune (one he had discovered while experimenting with runes and the making of the Memorial Artifacts) just for this precise application.
Heading into the forest, Eldrian quickly found his target. A moving sliver of a shadow taking cover in the darkening forest. With night now fallen, the only light was from the moon. Making the forest the ideal playground for these demons.
Knowing the danger they could present if you closed in on them, Eldrian opted to attack from afar. And internal conflict continued as Eldrian watched the Terror.
As much as he wished to end the battle quickly, he also wished to harvest some new darkslime for experimentation.
As such, he determined that he couldn't use devastating fire spells like Incinerate. And to be on the safe side, all fire was off the table. Even with this restriction, Eldrian didn't doubt his victory.
He had a slight advantage in terms of speed, and while his mana wasn't fully recovered after the backlash from Tranquility, he had 5k to play with. And he was still regaining mana as the minutes ticked on.
The surrounding mana density certainly helped Eldrian in this regard and worked in his favor should the battle become prolonged. As such, Eldrian felt confident in using magic.
Gathering his mana, Eldrian cast a spotlight on the creature. Throwing ridiculous amounts of mana into the spell to give it some oomph. Next, he sent several lances of ice to pierce the demon.
The spells he was using had no names. They were simple conjurations that Eldrian did based on feel and experiences. Yet, even so, they both held true to the principles that Tier 6 spells required. Making them both Tier 6 spells.
Eldrian knew that the damage should be devastating, yet, as his spells landed, the Terror hardly lost any HP. A direct hit with all his lances had only cost the Terror around 800HP. With its 27k reserve, that was but a scratch. Eldrian would need 35 solid hits to kill it.
That was a tall task. Tier 6 spell did not manifest at the snap of Eldrian fingers. Sure, they only took a few seconds to conjure, target, and fire. But that added up and gave his target time to react.
Keeping up the barrage and keeping it always in sight of the spotlight also proved difficult. Especially with trees nearby.
Eldrian couldn't allow the Terror to find an escape in the shadows. Thus he was forced to add more spotlight spells, adding to the drain on his mana and mind.
But it worked. He was slowly whittling down its HP. However, once the Terror realized retreat was impossible, things became tricky.
Deciding to return the favor to its attacker, Eldrian was forced to add dodging on top of managing his spells.
While this was still manageable, it made his attacks slower. From just a handful of seconds to form a spell to ten or more. And worse, the Terror used its attacks to have Eldrian's focus split, allowing it to dodge the spells or cut them down with other appendages before Eldrian could fix their trajectory.
As a result, since Eldrian had opted against using Incinerate as he wanted the darkslime material, their fight turned into a war of attrition. It would not end within mere minutes—unless Eldrian died—it would take dozens, perhaps even over an hour.
His spells did little damage, missed often, and one good hit could do him in. The tables had seemingly turned as soon as the Terror chose to go on the offensive.
But, at the same time, Eldrian's mana hardly went down. Since he only had to focus on three or four spells, the drain was far less than his recovery rate. Especially here, in Avgi, where he could call upon the local mana to aid him.
He almost didn't even need to use his internal mana. He did, though, since it was easier to call upon than ambient mana.
And, even with the Terror attempting to consume the mana that made up the spotlight, Eldrian wouldn't run dry any time soon.
Still, Eldrian wasn't at his best. He had mostly recovered from using Tranquility, but he was working with less than max mana, stamina, and health. All adding to the fragility of his state. While a nick here or there wouldn't do him in, one good hit would.
Luckily, Eldrian wasn't a slouch for touch-and-go battles. They were his unwelcome friends. Always with him. As such, he considered his current situation rather positive.
The battle dragged on. An elf dodged while summoning lances of ice and maintaining massive spotlights on a slime-like shadow.
The smile-like shadow sent out spikes, axes, blades, and many other weapon protrusions from its body. Capable of attacking at all ranges and from all directions. An intense onslaught that would kill most.
In this tense battle, the minutes dragged on. When fifteen minutes had passed, both grew tired.
At this point, the Terror could no longer consume the mana from Eldrian's spotlight without detriment. Yet, Eldrian hadn't even brought it to half HP. Yes, managing his spells was a little easier, but that wasn't the same as getting a good hit in.
In the end, Eldrian decided to enter melee combat. While his recovery was indeed enough to outlast the Terror's HP, it had started learning the pattern of his ice attacks. Now, instead of every second or third spell missing, only every tenth or worse landed.
Eldrian entering melee combat increased the danger to both sides. But he considered it his only real option. Sadly, having only one arm really came to bite him here. He was almost immediately forced to focus on the defense.
Eldrian had completely forgotten that his prosthetic had been reduced to molten scarp during his training with Ziraili.
As the fight dragged on, Eldrian wished from the bottom of his heart that these creatures of the shadow had a vital. Someplace he could hit and end it all in one.
Sadly, the reality was that they had no such thing. They had no core, no heart, no physical brain. They were manifestations of the shadows. And like a shadow, cutting at it did little. Less even than his spells.
At best, it shaved 150 HP from the Terror; at worse, only a few dozen. And that was when Eldrian managed to get a sloppy attack in with one arm.
He couldn't even use Crystoi due to this and had to instead rely on the sword he had received during the defense of Kynigo.
As another fifteen minutes passed, Eldrian started regretting not simply using Incinerate to end it in a flash. Sure, he wouldn't have gotten any darkslime, but he also wouldn't have gotten hurt in turn.
He now sported another new scar across his left flank. 'A new set of clothing ruined...' Eldrian grumbled as he dodged an attack from the front, back, side, and top.
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