Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

Sienna flew at the mage, who disappeared before the wyvern could reach him and reappeared right next to Melina. She could feel how he was constructing a spell, an ice spell by the feel of it, but he had made a critical mistake. He had gotten so close to Melina that she could reach out to his spell and pull the construct apart using her mana manipulation skills.

Shock filled the mage's face as his spell collapsed. At the same time, Melina was constructing a spell of her own—restraints made from the same ice mana that she hijacked from the mage. But he teleported again, a greater distance away, launching a fireball at Melina.

Sienna flew straight in the path of the fireball, intercepting it with her tough scales. For her, being hit with fire was the equivalent of being tickled. But the mage recovered quickly and flung an ice spear at Sienna instead. Melina jumped forward and, using ambient mana, pushed the ice spear to move a little bit to the right of its intended path, making it whizz past Sienna and fly into the distance.

After her last fight with this mage from Su Xien, Melina realized that using shields to protect herself and others from his spell was an inefficient way to deal with him. It required a lot of her own mana, which she didn't have as much of as she did during the time she was the Archmage. She simply didn't have any of the skills that would boost her mana capacity.

But she could still protect herself by intercepting the spell. It required her to understand the spell the other mage was constructing and either redirect it or dismantle the concept within the spell to break it apart. She needed to think more actively to do this; however, it required a minimal amount of mana to execute.

While the mage jumped back, readying to launch another spell, Sienna was already upon him, her maw open wide as she was ready to tear into him. Although her evolution had clearly made her focus on baking more than fighting, Sienna was still a fearsome opponent.

When the mage used short-distance teleport to get away from the wyvern, Sienna unleashed a barrage of flames, covering the whole area where he was standing. Or rather, he had been standing, as he had once again teleported to appear behind Melina.

This time, he unleashed a field of crackling electricity. Melina, however, wasn't troubled. She extended her right arm and allowed the electricity to flow within her. But instead of allowing the spell to inflict damage upon her body, she once again redirected it with her left hand pointed to the ground, allowing the electricity to flow into it without harming Melina.

To her surprise, the man smiled. "Now we're talking!"

Was he excited? He stepped towards Melina, a flurry of ice spears appearing in the air and flinging themselves at her. She stepped back and once again used the ambient mana to slightly alter the direction of the spells, letting them whizz safely past her and Sienna. But it was far more difficult to do with so many spells flying at her at once.

Sienna flew up and was ready to douse the mage in flames when he once again disappeared, this time reappearing some distance away, in their yard. "This house seems important to you. I wonder what you would do if I…"

He turned his hands towards the house—Melina's and Alistair's house— and unleashed a flurry of fire upon it. Melina reacted on instinct, constructing the shield and protecting her precious home from the flames. How dare he try to destroy her home?!

But in that brief moment, she allowed her emotions to take over, and the mage had constructed more ice spears and flung them both at Melina and Sienna. She was able to redirect the ice directed at her, but those that flew at Sienna she blocked with a shield.

This was bad. She was panicking and using her mana too much when she should have been trying to conserve it. Her goal was to stall for as much time as possible. She had to wait for him to arrive.

Melina sent a mental command to Sienna, ordering her to try to get the mage away from their house. He tried to once again fling fire at it; however, this time, by coordinating with Sienna, the two of them were able to take hold of the flames and turn them back at the mage.

He once again teleported, reappearing a short distance outside their yard, this time constructing a water whip spell which he aimed at Sienna. Melina created a water whip of her own to intercept the mage's whip and then freeze both spells over. The frozen whips instantly cracked and broke.

But the enemy mage then attacked the very soil beneath Melina's feet, turning it unstable and making her sink into it. She didn't panic, instead waiting for Sienna to get close to the mage. He once again teleported. Melina kept a tight focus on his movements, following the faint trail to know where he would reappear.

There!

With a swift movement, she encased the mage in ice up to the waist, right as he reappeared. This broke his concentration, allowing Melina to extract herself from the soil beneath her feet.

But to her surprise, the mage once again looked delighted, rather than annoyed at being caught in her trap. He didn't even look bothered by the fact that Sienna had spewed a massive bout of flames in his direction. Instead, he vanished once again, reappearing right behind Melina.

Where is he getting all that mana from? All those short-distance teleportations are costly.

Melina jumped back from him and focused on the mana moving around him, ready to intercept any spell he was to conjure. But instead, he just stood there smiling.

"I'm most pleased, Archmage. You truly do live up to your title. You've learned from our last fight and are doing much better this time," he said.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Melina silently stared at him. She could use this as an opportunity to attack, but at the same time, it was a chance to stall for time. She would take it.

"Why are you working for Heiliger?" Melina snarled. "She only seeks to destroy both of these worlds. I've sent the future. If realms are to be split apart, Su Xien wouldn't remain safe either."

"I don't care," he replied casually, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't care whether his whole world burns and dies. I don't know what kind of grand vision Heiliger holds. All I want is to feel alive. To feel a worthy challenge and overcome it. You are a worthy challenge and will enjoy every last moment of our fight."

Melina understood it now. There was no reasoning with this guy. He was a lunatic. A madman. It was clear in his eyes as suddenly vast amounts of mana coalesced around him. He was sucking the ambient mana towards himself to power some kind of spell.

But how was he able to do that? He hadn't demonstrated the ability to control mana with such finesse. He wouldn't have allowed Melina to dismantle and redirect his spells as easily if he could. Was that just a bluff?

However, as Melina prepared herself for the incoming spell, trying to understand what it was and dismantle it before it could be released, she felt a familiar aura around the mage. Hidden behind his robes. She wasn't able to sense it before because he hadn't used it before.

The Chalice of the World. This was a golden opportunity. If she could retrieve it and destroy the sacred treasures, this battle would end.

Melina sent Sienna a mental command not to hold back. It was time to pull off her gloves. She took a deep breath, absorbing the mana around her, and stomped her foot into the ground, thus redirecting the mana into the soil and creating sharp jagged spikes that shot at the mage.

At the same time, he released the spell he had been constructing using the Chalice of the World. A sphere of lighting surrounded Melina, and lightning discharges tried to strike Melina. Thunder dome.

She was familiar with this spell, having used it many times before. But even her familiarity with it didn't make it easy to dismantle the spell. The best she could do was to redirect the lightning strikes into the ground by letting them pass through her body. It wasn't as simple as with a single lightning strike, as she sometimes had to redirect several bolts.

Meanwhile, the mage wasn't quite able to dodge her spikes since his mind had been focused on the thunder dome. One of the spikes had hit his leg. Although he had teleported away a second later, the nasty hole in his leg remained. Sienna also rushed at him the moment he reappeared, so as not to give him time to heal with a potion.

Melina struggled within the dome. Lightning tried to ravage her body, and she was just barely able to redirect it into the ground. The longer the thunder dome held, the more damage she suffered as she wasn't able to fully redirect some of the strikes.

However, as she felt the spell run out of mana, she held onto the last few lightning strikes and redirected them at the mage. He was locked in a game of catch with Sienna. Melina ordered the wyvern to move out of the way as the redirected lightning flew at him.

"Clever," he smiled and threw up a shield.

He then reached into the pouch by his side and uncorked a potion. Sienna unleashed an angry barrage of fireballs at his shield but wasn't able to break through in time. He had consumed the potion, and the wound on his leg healed.

Melina suspected that it was likely a high-quality elixir that also recovered his mana. This was bad. She was getting tired, while the mage would be able to continue throwing spells for a long time thanks to the Chalice of the World and the elixir. She needed to get the chalice as quickly as possible.

If she were alone, it would have been impossible. But thankfully, she had Sienna. With a mental command, Melina ordered the wyvern to go all out and keep the mage busy.

The wyvern engulfed herself in hot flames and flew at the mage, fire swirling around her in a vortex. He was forced to move back, creating shield after shield and teleporting constantly to keep away from Sienna. Her flames were incredibly hot and could break through his shield quite quickly.

Etan would likely be salivating if he could see how hot the wyvern's flames got. She was likely able to melt even the sturdiest of metals with ease now.

While Sienna was keeping the mage busy, Melina was creating her own spell construct. It would require time and concentration, especially since she didn't have the System to aid. But this spell would allow her to deal with this lunatic in one strike.

Solar Strike. Powerful light and fire spell. One strike from it would instantly penetrate any shield. There was no protection from it as it was essentially a death sentence.

Melina didn't like this spell. She hated how destructive it was and would have liked to never piece this construct together again. But desperate times called for desperate measures. With each minute that passed, more people from Sunglow died.

If there was a possibility to end this early, Melina would take it. She would sully her hands with blood again if that was the only way to save her beloved town.

Sienna was doing a wonderful job of keeping the mage occupied; however, he likely sensed the vast amount of mana coalescing around him. Melina could feel his attempts to dismantle the spell; however, he clearly didn't know what kind of spell it was.

Without knowing that, he couldn't destroy Melina's construct even if it was taking her such a long time to construct.

"I'm sorry it has come to this," Melina said, about to unleash her spell.

But just before could, she felt the wards within her home break apart. The spell construct she had crafted so meticulously fell apart in an instant as her concentration broke. Somebody had broken the ward on the Stone of Sacrifice.

"I'm not," the mage grinned victoriously and flung a barrage of icicles at both Melina and Sienna.

Melina just barely managed to snap a shield up to protect herself and her familiar from the deadly, sharp icicles. She wanted to rush into her home and protect the other Codex of Origin.

But the mage wouldn't let her. He flung spell after spell at her while cackling maniacally. All Melina and Sienna could do was try to dodge the spells or block them with shields. Melina's mind was in such a panic that she couldn't properly redirect the spells.

SNAP!

Another one of her wards broke apart. The feeling was so overwhelming that she nearly crumbled to the ground.

"Ah, she got the second one? How lovely!" The mage cackled.

A moment later, Melina saw Heiliger come out of her house holding the Stone of Sacrifice and the Codex of Origin in her hands.

"Thank you so much for collecting these for me, Melina," Heiliger said with a wicked smile. "It would have been so bothersome searching for them all over the Monster Realm. But with them both in your home, it was just a matter of breaking your wards apart. A little bit of advice, Melina. Do not think that your wards, as masterfully constructed as they are, could ever stand against the skills granted by the System God himself."