Obviously, it was Alex that mocked the first elder. After teleporting outside, he had already taken care of the explosive runes and traps.
'Explosives are stored inside my farm inventory. You won't be able to activate them, you cunning old fox.'
After exiting the prison, it didn't take long for Alex to understand the general situation. Kalina was battling against the first elder, Taka and Ethan as taking care of the minions. And Laya…She was dead weight.
So, he observed the battle closely to intervene if necessary. And that was when he discovered the first elder's traps.
-
A couple of minutes ago.
Kalina was going all out fighting the first elder. This meant that the first elder was forced to use his spirit guardian possession state or the traps he laid.
After realising this fact, Alex was pretty sure that the first elder would use the traps. During his few interactions with the first elder, he was able to discern what kind of person he was. He was a vile old man with many crafty schemes. He wouldn't risk his life in a frontal battle before making sure that he could win.
If he could injure Kalina with the blast. He would do that first before taking any chance.
That was exactly the first elder's thoughts. And Alex read it perfectly.
Wasting no time, he acted to secure the rune explosives hidden in the ground. He dug the ground without anyone noticing and secured the rune explosives.
This was the first time Alex was coming in contact with the rune explosives. It looked like a thick disk with some engravings on it. He didn't know a way to neutralise them.
So, he did the most sensible thing he could. He stored them all in his inventory space.
As he expected, this instantly made the explosive runes inert. The dangerous aura they gave off disappeared.
'I knew that I could always depend on the farm.' he thought happily.
A couple of minutes later, he encountered the first elder who was trying to use explosives against Kalina.
—-----------
"Meru, you!" The first elder exclaimed after seeing Alex. His eyes widened when he realised why his traps didn't work.
"You imbecile, I should have killed you. It was my mistake to let you live." The first elder said in regret.
Finally, his anger boiled over and he decided to fight. That was the only way left for him. He couldn't use traps, he couldn't run and escape. So, it was better to fight head-on.
Gathering the energy inside his body and activating it. An icy blue halo began to materialise around him. Unlike the wings that materialised around Kalina, the energy was taking a different form.
It was the modified armour skill of the ice phoenix, his spirit guardian.
The energy flow branched out like tributaries of a river, covering his body in a thin layer of armour. Then sharp, pointy spikes rose up from it making it look menacing.
Usually, armour is meant to protect its users. But this armour seems to have its purpose reversed. It looked like it was made to tear up the person that dared to attack it.
And thus, the first elder became a porcupine.
But Alex and Kalina were unbothered by the transformation. Kalina due to her strength while Alex due to his craftiness.
Because of the destruction of the space-sealing rune formation, Alex always had an escape route. So, he didn't have to worry anymore. But that doesn't mean he was out of danger yet. He was still slower and much weaker than a tier 4 warrior. So, he would be hard-pressed in a frontal battle.
"Kalina, You can thank me later. First, beat this guy up.."
"..Nod...Nod…" Kalina who heard Alex nodded in affirmation. Then she turned to the first elder and asked.
"Give me back the blue gem. You are not supposed to have it. A dishonourable person like you will never receive the ice phoenix's blessing. There is no way for you to use it."
Hearing this, the first elder scoffed. His eye wandered the battlefield before saying- "Do you really think I care about the blessing of the ice phoenix? You have yet to see even half of my strength."
The first elder threw a punch at Kalina. The pure energy from his fist created pressure waves around his fist. An explosive air current was released from his fist toward Kalina. It demolished anything its way before racing towards her.
"Hm.." Kalina destroyed it by punching back at it. But she slid back while trying to defend. The pressure wave was much stronger than she expected.
This shocked Alex. Kalina was at a disadvantage against the first elder. The old codger was pushing back Kalina without even touching her.
How can there be such a large disparity in strength? He thought while closely observing the first elder.
"BOOOM!" Another punch was thrown at Kalina. This time, the strength increased even more.
Again, again… Punches were thrown. Each one was much stronger than the former.
Kalina was beginning to feel the pressure. Defending herself was getting harder and harder.
Alex suddenly felt an ominous feeling from the first elder. So, to clear his doubt, he used Mana-vision. The technique that he just learned from Ethan.
His vision cleared and the world became slower. Minute details began to magnify before him and he finally saw the mana flowing through the atmosphere.
And at a glance, Alex noticed the peculiarity. The first elder was glowing unusually bright, even for a tier 4 warrior.
'If Kalina is a torchlight, he is similar to a floodlight." Alex concluded.
What might be the reason for that?
Alex wanted to quickly find that out. If nothing changed, he knew for sure that Kalina was going to lose.
"Kalina, somethings wrong!" He warned hoping that Kalina would be prepared.
"I know that. He is far stronger than he is supposed to be. We might not win this fight. Should we prioritise escaping?"
"He wouldn't allow that. Look at his bloodlust. And besides that, I can see something, a flesh lump giving off a large amount of energy near his navel. He is using it to strengthen his attacks."
While observing the peculiarity of the first elder, Alex came across something weird. A tiny lump of meat inside the first elder's body wriggled weirdly and sent a large amount of energy through his blood vessels.
In the modern-day, people would call cellular growth like this cancer. But now, In this world, Alex couldn't find a reasonable word to call it. Usually, cancers were tissues that grew out of control inside a person's body. They feed on the resources of the body to grow large, until finally killing the host.
But this time, the flesh lump didn't seem to do any harm to the first elder's body. It was just releasing energy almost infinitely out. Not only did not harm the first elder, it even helped him.
What was it? Alex thought.
"You can see something like that? I thought the mana vision was similar to what we see in the spirit guardian possession state. I never thought the mages could see the energy flow inside the body. Mages are much more dangerous than I thought." Kalina exclaimed.
She was surprised by how well Alex saw the flow of energy. And she mistakenly thought every mage was like that. In fact, it was just Alex.
But before they could make a plan to defeat the now-strong first elder, he approached them while throwing punches left and right. The pressure wave forced Alex and Kalina to retreat.
Alex, due to his teleport ability, escaped faster. Kalina who was slower, was caught in it.
For a moment, she regretted her decision to fight. But she pulled herself back and flew to escape from the first elder fist, leaving her back wide open to attacks. And that mistake cost her a lot.
The first elder who realised this jumped towards Kalina.
"Die…" With bloody eyes, he prepared to deliver a finishing move. He condensed an enormous amount of energy in his arms, transforming them into a thick icy spear.
He sped up to thrust it deep into Kalina's defenceless back. Once he tasted the power, it didn't matter to him if the matriarch knew of his atrocious actions. He believed that he could take on a tier 5 warrior if he wished. That was how inflated the first elder's confidence was.
But before he could thrust his hand forward, A space shield materialised before him. His hand smashed into it creating a ripple revealing the shape of the space shield.
It was a spherical shield created by the space bind skill of Taka. And the first elder was inside the sphere, like a fish in a bowl. But he was not alone.
With him was Alex.
"Take it back. I don't want these rune explosives anymore." Throwing hundreds of rune explosives inside the spherical space bind skill, Alex teleported away.
Ethan activated the rune explosives that Alex stole from the first elder.
"Is this the proverbial 'digging his own grave'? Sir Taka, Even if we became enemies, don't try this move on me, please." Alex said looking at runes exploding inside the air-tight prison made out of space bind skill.
Instantly, A fiery flash lit the whole battlefield.
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