A gust of wind blew, instantly turning Gael into a cloud of black smoke. The same thing happened with the white snakes. They suddenly turned into white smoke.
Kyran frowned and cleaved the Void Dagger he pierced through Gael's back, hoping to destroy the black smoke before it escaped. When it only passed through the smoke without a result, Kyran willed it to change form. In a blink of an eye, the dagger shattered and turned into purple mist, which mixed into the smoke. However, as if the wind was alive and helping the black smoke, it blew once more with much ferocity this time, sending the black smoke away from the purple mist in an instant.
The black shadow on the ground also retracted a few meters. It seemed to follow the black smoke's route as it pulled the Shadow puppets along.
With the sudden retreat of the puppets, the Void weapons followed in pursuit. However, most Shadow puppets had already sunk into the black shadow.
Kyran's reddish-purple eyes flashed, and he warped closer to the retreating black smoke. At the same time, he willed the Void weapons to change targets and go after the black shadow.
The Void weapons went after the retreating shadow. However, they missed it by a hair's breadth and only pierced the ground. In an instant, the ground, which had turned into a large crater from Kyran's purple sphere earlier, was now riddled with holes.
Kyran warped several times, trying to get close to the black smoke. But the latter managed to evade him every time. Even if Kyran warped above the black shadow, it veered away from him as soon as he appeared. It was getting a little annoying.
The black smoke was only five meters away from the stone wall.
Seeing this, Kyran spread his arms and summoned two purple spheres, one each on his hands. He threw the spheres with much precision, not at the black smoke, but at the wall, the black smoke was likely to go through.
Obviously, the retreating cloud of smoke was Gael. Kyran already guessed that turning into a cloud of smoke was not an ability of Gael's magic but something the latter's armor could do. Earlier, Kyran did not aim for Gael's head simply because he did not know what the latter's armor could do.
Since Gael was adamant about going to the stone wall, Kyran took the initiative to destroy it. Not to help Gael escape but to use the soldiers on the other side to force him to stop.
Although Kyran had little information about Gael, he noticed how the latter cared a lot about his position in the army. As the Grand Marshal, he disliked people defying him, especially those below him. He wanted to dominate all of them. He also liked to bask in the glory of being the man with the highest authority in the army. If this was the case, would he want his men to witness such an unsightly display where he was forced to flee from his enemy?
Kyran was 80 to 90% sure that Gael disliked showing his weakness, especially in front of his subordinates. The only reason for the 20 to 10% doubt he had was because Imman had left and had yet to return. As a person who was eyeing the Grand Marshal position, Gael did not want Imman to see him retreat.
The purple spheres, initially only three inches in diameter, expanded ten times before hitting the stone wall and creating two huge holes. However, the momentum of the spheres did not stop. As soon as they destroyed the wall, they continued straight at the soldiers, who held huge magic shields lined up in rows, forming several defensive lines.
The grand masters immediately barked out an order for the soldiers to reinforce the shields with their magic. Soon after, their shields burst with concentrated magic energy, turning into a wall of flames blocking the incoming purple spheres.
However, such flames were no threat to Kyran's spheres.
Watching the scene unfold before him, Gael finally materialized from within the cloud of smoke. He shouted, "Don't let the spheres touch you!"
However, Gael's warning came too late. As soon as the spheres touched the flames, they sizzled and easily created a chink in the wall of flames. Seeing the purple spheres' momentum had not shown any signs of stopping, the soldiers in the first row broke out into cold sweats. Their dread worsened when the purple spheres touched their magic shields, easily reducing them to dust.
"Retreat!" The grandmasters shouted.
Unfortunately, the first line of defence failed to retreat in time and disintegrated as the purple spheres swept past them.
Miserable cries filled the air but were cut short when the purple spheres passed them.
Gael gritted his teeth as he realized one of the greatest flaws of the Royal Army. Aside from most of their soldiers having few life-and-death experiences, they also had few Abjurers. As a matter of fact, the whole empire lacked Abjurers.
The main reason behind this was that most of the mages born in the empire possessed Fire and Wind innate magic. Because of the property of the latter two, they could not form a definite shape, making it almost impossible to create defensive magic.
Although Fire and Wind magic could create walls that could serve as a barrier to counter other magic attacks, they did not possess the ability to stop the momentum of other magic attacks. For example, high-level Fire magic could easily pass through a Fire Wall created from inferior flames. And even inferior flames could pass through high-level Fire magic barriers as long as they target its weak areas.
It was the same with Wind magic.
Thus, innate magic that could have a definite shape was usually better at creating defensive magic.
Since the empire had had only peace in the past hundred years, most mages chose to specialize in offensive or support magic. In the whole empire, there were far more Elementor and Enchanters. Even those with Earth innate magic aimed to be an Elementor. Few sought to be an Abjurer because it also required them to have high attainments in Array Creation. And achieving the latter would take years.
Seeing how easily Kyran destroyed the defensive formation using two purple spheres, Gael felt the severity of this flaw.
No one could blame Gael for thinking this way. He was unfamiliar with the Void magic's other nature of turning anything it touched into nothingness. Thus, he had felt the army's lack of Abjurer was their greatest flaw. In reality, even if there were powerful Abjurers in the army, it would have been impossible to stop the Void spheres' momentum.
Gael's Shadow puppet only defended against the Void weapons because of his domain's protection.
Gael's eyes turned blood-red as he willed his domain to cover the ground where the soldiers were standing. The black shadow spread at an alarming speed. At the same time the shadows connected with the soldiers' shadows, they crept up and covered their bodies.
Kyran's eyes narrowed. He recalled how the defences of Gael's Shadow puppets withstand his Void weapons' penetrative ability after entering the black shadow's range. Such a strange ability piqued his curiosity. However, he could only force his curiosity out of his head and focus on the battle.
Kyran did not bother to summon several Void weapons this time. Since the reason his weapons could not penetrate the defences of the Shadow puppets was because of the black shadow, it was useless to target it or the soldiers. Instead, he should do his all to defeat Gael since he controls the black shadow.
The pupil of Kyran's reddish-purple eyes turned into slits before turning silver. Both the Void and Draconic magic circulated within Kyran and into the Shaiha. After which, he summoned his Void Armor, as well as several purple and silver rings. The rings circled Kyran's body, and they expanded and contracted rhythmically.
Magic fluctuations crackled in the air as Kyran's magic pressure erupted.
By this time, the two purple spheres had already failed to kill off the soldiers and soon lost their momentum and dissipated in the air.
Gael gritted his teeth as he looked at Kyran. Frankly, he barely escaped the latter's sneak attack earlier. If he had not been wary of Kyran's melee combat ability, he would have failed to activate the cloak's ability before the latter struck.
Nevertheless, with his weapon's spirit getting struck, he also received a lethal blow. He initially wanted to gain the upper hand before he over exhaust the usage of his domain. But it seemed he could no longer go for that.
'There is no choice but to do that,' Gael thought as a rune appeared on his forehead.
Although Gael's head was covered with a hood, Kyran still managed to see the rune that appeared on the older man's forehead. His eyes immediately widened as he understood what it was.
Devour.
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