Mask of Reflection?
The moment Z was done speaking, the golden mask on his face glowed slightly as it showed a reflection of the spells around him on its surface before swiftly returning to normal.
Immediately, the tornado surrounding him in a suffocating manner disappeared, as the clouds around Brethal's location began rotating and another tornado descended upon her. The next moment, the vermilion dragon that descended from the sky also turned around to face the stunned Levant.
"Damn it! Those were 7th tier spells. What the hell is he using. How can he counterspells of a higher tier than him!"
Even when using a magic item, General it's impossible to block much less reflect attacks that surpass what the user's body was capable of and the only positive for this was a God Tier artifact.
Such an item was world-breaking and none of them had even seen one such item in their entire lives that it was even believed by some that they were just myths.
Magic artifacts, in general, were absurdly rare, and even amongst demigods like them they only possess a limited number of them so they had failed to consider the possibility that someone that wasn't even on their level could possess one.
Thinking of it now, it had been the only possibility, to begin with. They were dealing with someone from the castle the Great Five had been warring over for centuries after all.
Their entire thought process of this battle had been a mistake and now they were completely at a disadvantage not knowing how many of such items this guy had in his sleeves.
"Hey, Brethal seems we may not be able to win without Noual help. Let's retreat for now!"
"Fine!"
"Mass Teleportation."
Seeing as they didn't have a way to overcome Z's reflection ability after trying one of their strongest spells on him. Brethal and Levant immediately decided to escape as without Noual here, they could not win against Z without their magic.
Unlike Feverant who was aware of the limitations of Z's mask just by seeing it in action once, the two weren't even sure the mask was the source of that ability.
Even if they knew it was a magic artifact based on its aura alone, such an obvious target was probably baited to draw them closer. Without knowing how many dangerous artifacts he had to do confidently stand before two demigods, they would be risking death just by being here.
After all, Z was a rogue and would not be able to attack them from a distance as long as he could not attack them from the shadows. He would need to get closer to them to finish them off.
While the two of them had skills and items that would prove useful in battle, they were unsure of the reflection limitations. If their skills got turned against them, they would lose any chance of escaping.
Right now, they planned on locating Noual to assist him in quickly eliminating the shadow rogue before returning to finish off the masked man.
Either that or one of them would take Noual's place in facing her while Noual takes on the masked man with the other backing him up. It was doubtful he had any items against melee fighters, which would explain why the shadow rogue had moved her fight far away, choosing to separate them.
With that in mind, Levant cast a teleportation spell on both of them as he located Noual with his skill, Aura Locate.
—However.
Although his teleportation spell had succeeded and they had escaped being damaged by their spells, the destination of the teleportation had been voided as they only appeared to have moved a few meters away from their previous location.
"What the, what happened Levant! Why are we still here?"
"I'm not sure myself."
Confused by their failed teleportation, Levant tried to cast the spell again but the same thing repeated itself as they appeared only a few meters away from their previous locations yet again.
"Allow me to enlighten you."
Placing a hand on Levant's shoulders was the masked man who should've been quite a distance away from them. He had suddenly appeared behind them before they knew it and placed an arm on his shoulder as though they were old friends.
"I've placed an anti teleportation barrier around this place so I'm afraid you can't leave. However, you can still teleport within the confines of the barrier though. Hence why I'm here you see. Crystallize."
Although he spoke casually while touching Levant, there was no way Levant would allow him to keep yapping his mouth for so long without doing anything. He had attempted to move but his body wouldn't budge and Brethal was too shocked to react in time.
Everything was happening so fast for them to coop and it was beginning to look as though they were the weaker ones here.
His body was slowly being encased in crystals and there was nothing he could do about it. Even speaking right now had become a problem, but he still had to try if he didn't want to die.
"B-Brethal h-help."
"You! You bastard! Get away from him."
Vortex Blast?
Having been snapped out of her stupor by Levant's cry for help, Brethal immediately used a skill and a ball of spiraling red wind formed around her staff and shot at Z with incredible speed.
Expecting to receive her attack back at her, she almost closed her eyes but to her surprise, the masked man gave up his attack and disappeared. The moment he let go of Levant the crystallization immediately stopped and the crystals already around his body crumbled to dust.
Breathing heavily having almost died, Levant fell on one knee as he spoke.
"I guess he can't repel skills back at us Huh. We can probably still win this but be careful, he can teleport without a spell."
"Oh right. Let's take care of this bastard quickly. I'm starting to worry about Noual. What if that bitch has something like this too."
Right."
Z appeared a few meters away as he did not immediately try another attack while the two were distracted. After all, he was only at the Tier 6 standard, and despite their fragile mental state, the two were still demigods and he didn't have that many abilities that could even wound them much less kill them so he had to strictly stick to his plans.
He wasn't worried about Nessi as he believed she could handle Noual but it would still take some time and it wouldn't be a dominating win if he waited for her to come to help him.
However, there wasn't a shred of doubt in his eyes, neither was he worried or scared of facing two demigods at once. Everything so far had gone according to plan after all.
He had been part of the Zorak family and had spent all his time there gathering as much intel as he could get to stand against their inevitable betrayal. After all, he knew exactly what they wanted from him and he wasn't willing to part ways with it.
With the information he had stored in his memories, he had perfectly predicted who the family would send to this event and had prepared for them. Setting up an anti teleportation barrier and having Nessi take out the only close-range fighter amongst them was all part of his plan.
With the Mask of Reflection. He could reflect any magic sent his way with greater speed but not with greater power as that requires him to use a lot of his energy and he didn't see a point in wasting mana.
However, he could not reflect skills and secret techniques which were the mask's only weakness. Well, being able to reflect any magic attack to the user was able absurdly powerful ability so perhaps saying it had weaknesses was being rude to his master who had graciously gifted this to him.
However, he needed these two to not figure that out immediately and believe he had multiple God Tier artifacts in his possession. They hesitated at first before figuring out the limitations to his mask had worked out as he planned and now it was time to reveal his trump card.
A magic weapon that was even on par with God Tier Artifacts. This was the item passed down to him by his late mother and the thing the family had wanted to get their hands on at all cost as it contained the greatest secret of the Zorak family.
"Say, are you watching, Marline? Aur? Here's the thing you didn't want anyone not devoted to you to possess."
In the next moment, as he muttered to himself, a black gauntlet materialized in his hands. It had a slick and stylish design and a faint glow that pulled the mana in the air closer.
Z then brought out a large glowing crystal from his storage and placed it next to the Gauntlet as it absorbed the energy in an instant.
That had been one of the highest grade magic crystals given to him by his master which had enough energy to power a small city for an entire month or even more.
With that, he had met the magic energy required to activate the strongest ability of the gauntlet. Not wasting any more time, he immediately activated one of the five skills engraved in this Gauntlet of Haze.
Tempest Realm?
"Let's begin then, your execution."
*Boom!
That sound had not originated from their location. Rather, it seems to have come from the forest where they could faintly hear the sounds of metal striking metal. It was the rapid sounds of two swords clashing at incredible speeds with one person gaining the advantage.
This signified that Nessi was still engaged in combat with Noual and normally that would have garnered the attention of Brethal and Levant but they were both too shocked to think right now.
"Wait. Isn't that? Impossible!"
"That's the Zorak family's innate ability right? What the hell is this. Who hell are you!? How the fuck can you use that, you bastard!"
At that moment, the air around the masked man had completely changed as his aura began to skyrocket to a new heights that the two could not even fathom. The wind spun ferociously around him as though it was about to devour everything in his vicinity no matter how powerful they were.
"Wait wait wait wait wait wait... Hold on! What the hell is going on here. We were never told to fight someone from the family is this a test? What is this!"
It was well known that the innate ability of the Great Five was their most prized and well-protected secret and they guarded it with all intensity. For centuries, no one who had inherited the innate ability of the Five had betrayed them.
This was not because there were no weak links that could be traitors but rather who violent the Five were with them. Noble were incredibly proud of their heritage and thus would not generally defect but in the limited case when they do. The family would know immediately and sniff them out in an instant.
This was because all demon nobles who had inherited the family's innate ability would enter a demon's pact with the demon lord of that family that let him know the moment there is a traitor.
This was why they were in utter shock and confused by what they were currently witnessing. Why would a demon noble from the family be standing right in front of them, fighting on the enemy's side.
"You both seem confused. Don't worry, I'm no longer a member of the Zorak family and I do not possess their innate ability hence why I'm here."
"That's impossible! If that's the case, how the hell are you doing this!"
"Hmm... this is only a projection from one of the souls trapped inside the Gauntlet of Haze, even with such a powerful crystal I can only use a fraction of its power but don't worry. This is more than enough to finish this. Hope you're both prepared to die."
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