"I know you killed Hollow."
Moth’s voice was laced with venom, but Luca had half-expected this to happen, so he remained silent.
"So... Aren’t you going to say anything, you bastard?!"
The other mage growled. The eyes of his grotesque insect mask shone with sudden red light, casting a malicious energy in the alleyway.
Luca frowned a little.
’It’s really an artifact.’ And unlike Count D’escoli, this man had access to his full repertoire of spells as well.
After a few seconds Luca finally decided to speak. Dozens of plans had already begun to sprout in his mind. He needed to fight this more experienced mage and win, all the while acting like a High Mage.
His lips parted.
"Am I supposed to seek your forgiveness? He stood in my way," he said in his fake hoarse voice.
All the while they were talking, Luca had already begun preparing a spell and a follow-up.
"You bastard! He was the key to summoning the Lord onto the earth."
Luca frowned again. The Lord? Pestewind? Was this a cult of so sort?
"He stood in my way."
"You will pay the price for your arrogance!"
The battle began in the blink of an eye.
Bright red light shot out of the mask in all directions.
"Plague Swarm!"
A small portal appeared and a massive swarm of large insects ca through. They were shaped like flies mixed with moths, with dark bodies bigger than a human hand.
The swarm destroyed everything in their path, consuming even the bricks that made up the walls.
One thing was certain: if Luca allowed them to touch him, he was done for.
But he never intended for that to happen in the first place.
He punched out.
Incinerate!
FWOOSH!
A fiery orange ball of fla shot out, landing squarely in the center of the approaching enemies, spreading without care. Every ember caught onto the Plague Flies, killing them in a single hit.
He punched out again, summoning another burst of flas to clear a path for him. Then he dashed forward.
From Moth’s perspective, Luca’s sudden lurch forward reminded him of the way certain demons moved. It was terrifying.
Such that a thought even crossed his mind.
’Is this Burning Man even human?!’
Certain high mages altered their bodies permanently with supernatural elents in order to gain a better grasp of magic. That could be what he was dealing with now.
Luca had no idea what the opponent was thinking, but he reached into his pockets, grabbing two talisman tiles and his dagger.
He had to finish this quickly, as they were still in the city. He was sure so guards had already noticed the commotion and were headed his way.
Flick~
He threw out a tile.
Bang!
A bright flash of light appeared in the air like a small sun.
Luca had gone for this because he noticed the Plague Flies had an aversion to both heat and light, which made up most of his spell set right now.
Above that, he hoped to distract Moth just like he did in the abandoned building before.
"That won’t work! My mask isn’t like the others!"
Instead Moth charged forward, pulling out a shortsword from seemingly nowhere.
’Bless with your power, Lord of Plagues!’ he thought, charging the blade with a large portion of his mana.
Moth cast a spell, coating the blade in a shade of dark mist.
Dark Shroud.
SWISH!
Moth struck down, sending a flying arc of darkness at Luca.
’What the hell?’
Luca ducked to the side, unfortunately at the sa ti the effects of the Illumination talisman tile stopped working.
The flies sward once more!
BUZZ. BUZZ. BUZZ.
They converged on his entire body, threatening to eat away at him with ease.
’Can’t let that happen!’
Moth pressed on in the anti, casting another spell.
Fierce Gale!
Large gales of wind spread out with Moth at the center, stopping anything that tried to approach him, including Luca.
While they were both at the Initiate level, the difference between them was too large. This mage already had more combat spells than Count D’escoli recorded in his journal.
Luca had awakened only a week ago, while Moth had been at it for several months at least, not to ntion he had the help of a demon creature.
It didn’t an Luca was about to concede this fight yet, though.
A dangling bronze pendant stayed close to his chest the entire ti. It was the one he looted off Hollow’s body.
And while making his preparations, he had stored an important spell within it. He didn’t even know if it worked since there wasn’t enough ti to experint with the spell, but there was no better ti to try it than now.
First he tossed the second tile he had been holding onto the entire ti.
Explosion!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Petals of red fla blood in the air as a chain reaction went off when the first ember touched a single Plague Fly.
The wind only helped to amplify the power of the blast so that all the flies were eliminated in the aftermath.
Even Moth had to hold an arm up to block the blast.
Luca grinned.
And that was the difference between him and any of the other mages. They had more experience, but they lacked one fundantal thing.
Creativity.
He knew how to use the world around him to the best of his ability.
’The world is my oyster.’
A glyph shone with golden light within the bronze pendant on his neck, and the light rapidly turned to dark red as it spread outward.
It was almost similar to the first spell that Moth had cast, but it was also entirely different.
This ti, a dark red portal appeared in the ground itself and a large magnificent creature rose from it.
However, it was not so much magnificent as it was horrifying.
It was a beast that resembled a massive stag with rotting flesh that fell from its bones.
Two white bone horns curled out from its head and bright red eyes sat in its sunken sockets.
Carrion Stag.
It stared straight at Moth, then charged.
****
Author’s Note: Slow burn story but the battles will be high-energy! A major reason for the way the magic and story is made this way is because I want the characters to be really strong, so after each long build up, you can expect an exciting battle with tons of magic.
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