The Runic Alchemist

Damian waited for the trap to get activated, but they did not do that. Mindseer created a golden sword, ready for the battle. Asael simply released the full pressure of his tremendous aura and mana. Mindseer backed away from him, Lily of Ruin gritted her teeth—the other two tried their best not to show any emotion as their whole army collapsed under the pressure and went unconscious, some even bleeding. Those who had sense ran toward the city before it was too late.

Depthcaller released the spell—Damian had seen the big blue and gold runic circle materialize from the start, and he copied it without even knowing how it would function. It had parts of solid water shaping and that summoning light-attribute spell Silverspell was proficient in. The placement of the spell was right beneath the Land-breaker’s feet.

As if the land was a surface of water—a giant shark with spiky armor all around its massive body launched out of the runic circle, opening its maw wide to bite onto the Land-breaker. Asael rose into the air slightly and then simply pushed his right palm downward—a thick rush of highly concentrated mana released from it and buried the water shark back into the land from where it had come, shattering its whole form by invading the shark’s body with his overwhelmingly powerful, concentrated mana. The mana could literally be seen with the naked eye—streaks of gold, black, red, blue, green—all elements in it. It was simply raw mana though—no spell or skill.

Lily of Ruin burned crimson with a pugilist aura, using whatever the skill was, and launched herself, leaving a crater from where she had been standing—the force of her punch, Damian could sense, was indeed quite fearsome. Yet Land-breaker grabbed her fist in his hand like she was an unruly girl doing mischief and had been caught red-handed. Lily of Ruin pulled back with all the strength she had in her back and hips, but it was simply meaningless.

Asael increased the strength of his grip even more—everyone heard very uncomfortable crunching sounds along with Lily of Ruin’s sky-shattering screams. She landed punch after punch on Land-breaker’s body, but not a single one left any lasting damage. The Land-breaker, in return, just landed a single punch onto her stomach, and she was flung backwards with tremendous force that did not lose its power until Lily of Ruin was out of the island and into the ocean. That hand was near useless now.

Hellstorm’s black sword had started glowing dark blue for a while now—the second Lily of Ruin was punched into the ocean, the guy rushed toward Land-breaker at tremendous speed, launching arcs after arcs of powerful, dangerously big sword slashes. Asael once again used raw mana to thwart the fast-coming attacks.

The three third-rankers should have at least tried to work together.

The closer Hellstorm came to the Land-breaker, the harder it was for Asael to deflect all his attacks. In the end, Land-breaker stretched his hand to the side, and a big, heavy double-handed sword appeared out of thin air.

A soulbound weapon. The books never mentioned that.

The land-breaker himself was around 6’5” and was built like a beast of a man. Now, along with a giant sword that was double his own size—every attack the guy launched in Hellstorm’s direction indeed felt like it could split the land in two. Hellstorm could not handle the gigantic sword slashes, even though he was faster than the Land-breaker and used cross slashes.

In the end, an odd-angled giant yellow slash forced Hellstorm back—for over ten meters, his heels gouged deep scars into the land before he could stop the momentum. Hellstorm did not rush back, but Land-breaker kept sending the disastrous sword slashes in both his and Depthcaller’s direction, who was busy chanting another spell.

Both dodged expertly, having enough time to react to the fast, powerful attacks. All four were not using overpowered spells or skills because of the city behind them. Damian assumed the three would give up after testing the grounds a bit against a fourth-ranker, but they kept coming.

Depthcaller summoned a giant wave, trying to trap Land-breaker and Mindseer inside by rotating the water at incredible speed. The runic spell had an air blade section in it—Damian noticed sharp blades of air and water trying to attack Mindseer, mixed in the rotating water, but she deflected all of them despite being underwater. She may not be a master level swordswoman but her skill was real.

Hellstorm also added something to it with a skill, because Damian had not noticed a runic circle—the effect of it was some kind of harrowing sinkhole, with dark, murky blue water filled with mana, rotating at tremendous speed, as a powerful pull grabbed onto Mindseer and Land-breaker, trying to force them in.

Asael grabbed Mindseer and threw her out of the vortex. She landed gracefully and quickly charged toward Depthcaller with her golden sword. She had not mentioned a single warning about the fight.

Was Damian just being here blocking her future sight?

She was such a cheat in a battle. Alas, Damian could never fight beside her.

Land-breaker started using his giant sword to split apart both vortexes—the one Hellstorm made was getting faster and faster, even draining mana from Land-breaker to power the vortex and strengthen the forced pull even more.

While all this was going on—Mindseer and Depthcaller locked in a sword and spell fight of their own—Damian suddenly noticed Hellstorm moving all around the vortex in a flash, stopping at particular places for a few seconds. He was activating the hidden runic relic, Damian realized.

He kept the mana disruption spells ready as a giant sky-blue runic circle started forming above everyone. It had three layers, all rotating at their own speed, with sections of runes flashing and disappearing constantly.

Now that was a fucking spell.

Damian stood to the side, his eyes fixed on the runic circles—waiting for it to form completely so he could use Sigil Relication and copy it instantly.