Taienra sent an array of weak starlight straight at Nester's eyes. It wasn't powerful enough to cause damage, but it was enough to make Nester flinch and close his eyes. That was when Asilean blinked forward and stretched out his paw, tearing through space in the same place as Nester's throat.
Nester still had his senses as an eighth-level mage, but Taienra's attack delayed his reaction. He only managed to react after Asilean had already begun separating his head and body.
Nester drew back to escape from Asilean's claws while throwing all the chains he had everywhere around him in panic. Nester managed to avoid having his entire head separated, but it was left hanging by little more than the spinal cord.
Nester felt his life rapidly draining away, and he panicked. All rational thought left him. All he wanted was to do as much as possible before he could never do anything again, even if it meant giving up on keeping Toz restrained.
Nester withdrew all the chains sustaining the net and, in a death-fearing panic, created a tornado of chains that swirled around him. He used every last drop of mana at once and subconsciously created a spell using his death as inspiration.
The spiraling chains struck and lashed out.
Asilean, who was right next to Nester, didn't manage to escape the range before the force of Nester's spell struck him. The chain strike sent Asilean flying into the Void, which fortunately saved him from taking any more hits.
The blow knocked Asilean unconscious, and he didn't seem to show any signs of waking up. But before he could drift further into the Void, a surprisingly soft cradle of starlight scooped him up and carried him over to Taienra.
Asilean couldn't participate in the battle, and Taienra was still too weak to interfere with Nester's tornado of chains.
However, the pirate leaders, Hayar, Stitches, Frank, Vaner, Nil, Lucy, Mindle, and Scrael, were all still able to fight, and in order to help Toz, they had to either defeat or circumvent Nester. Trying to circle Nester came with the risk of getting attacked from behind, so the crews of both sailboats came together to take down Nester as quickly as possible.
With the strength of the people gathered on the two sailboats, it didn't take long despite Nester burning through his mana and life force in a last-ditch effort to help his admiral.
Since the Representative could travel freely through the Void, he took the lead, though not as fast as Toz and Asilean because he didn't have the space element.
The Representative opened a path through the tornado of chains, disintegrating as much as he could. And the remaining chains were left for the others to handle.
The chains got denser the closer they got to the center of the storm, so the Representative had to slow down and cooperate with the others to hold off the chains. He could only use his spell to get rid of so many chains at a time, so the others worked together to hold off the chains the Representative couldn't get rid of.
Red Hook used her Blood Spears and blood red grapple hooks to blast away or take control of the chains. Wulf used his axe to cleave or smack away the chains that got close enough to the sailboats. Using aura wasn't enough to damage the chains when they were too far away, and hitting chains that were that far away didn't necessarily force them away from their path toward the boats.
Frank and Vaner combined their strengths to freeze the chains and turn them into icicles instead of flexible, rock-solid whips of death. The pirate leaders easily destroyed the frozen chains.
The cats didn't have it as easy as the pirates since they were at the medium level, and there was a significant gap between them and Nester, especially when he was using all the fuel in his body to power a spell as he was on the verge of death. But that didn't mean they were totally useless.
Nil used his magic to place a layer of metal on the chains that helped Mindle and Scrael spread the heat and lightning of their magic directly to Nester. The magic didn't do much to damage Nester since his unconscious state automatically protected him against outside interference by creating a dense whirlpool of chains immediately around him. The three cats forced Nester to consume his mana even faster than before.
Lucy's magic wasn't strong enough or suited to interfere directly with the chains, but he could start picking at Nester's mind. Nester quickly headed toward his inevitable death due to the wound on his throat. And feelings of fear, rage, and panic clouded and filled his mind.
Nester subconsciously protected his mind by filling it with mana that made it difficult for Lucy to interfere. However, unless they were better at playing with minds than Lucy, such simple tricks wouldn't be able to stop Lucy for long, even if they were two levels higher than him.
Lucy began eroding the remnants of Nester's mind, speeding up his breakdown and the collapse of his mind.
While the pirates and the cats attacked Nester and his chains, Stitches did all he could by boosting everyone's life force and enhancing their strength.
With the cats steadily weakening Nester, it didn't take long until they got close enough to Nester.
The Representative disintegrated as many chains as he could in one go. Wulf used a large phantom axe made from aura to sweep out and clear away as many chains of the central whirlpool as possible.
The Representative's and Wulf's efforts opened up a path through the dense mass of swirling magic chains. However, the tornado didn't stop spinning, and the gap was rapidly closing. They had enough strength to make another opening, but any delays could possibly lead to Toz getting injured or dying, so they wanted to make use of the opening that had already shrunk to a size smaller than a person.
The Representative wasn't proficient at long-range attacks. Wulf's axe was too slow and unwieldy. Neither the cats nor Frank and Vaner would be able to reach Nester before the chains would mince their attacks into dust.
Red Hook took aim and reached back with her hand, materializing a glistening blood-red spear in her hand. She stepped forward, placing her foot on the edge of the boat, and, like a catapult, launched the Blood Spear through the air.
Powered by both Red Hook's magic and physical strength, the Blood Spear only left a bright red afterimage in the air as it torpedoed through the Void, straight at the center of the tornado of chains, Nester.
The Blood Spear cleared the first gaps between the chains with ease. But as it got closer to Nester, the distance between the chains narrowed and was steadily getting closer to completely removing any possibility the Blood Spear had of striking Nester.
The Blood Spear was fast, but it wasn't fast enough to arrive before a chain that had a fraction of the distance to travel and had started moving before Red Hook even threw the spear.
A chain blocked the Blood Spear's trajectory less than an arm's length away from Nester's head.
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