Two groups of people stood opposite of each other, saying nothing as they observed both the surrounding and the reaction of their enemies. After fighting their way into this stage, every opponent would have to be at least skilful and full of trump cards, or worse, having the unparallel strength that overthrew all plannings.
Usually, just like the previous round, Mabilis would have already retreated to set up his usual rune array, letting Iracia protect him and stall for time to ensure victory. However, using his sorcery energy and his strange spell to check for the powerset of his opponents, he found that he could not reach the depth of the others, deducing that they would at least be as powerful as him.
With no doubt, if he decided to leave Iracia alone to stall for time, she would quickly get overwhelmed and finished off, dying under the combined might of the two, and even if he could get the array ready, he did not have the confidence to say that he would be able to defeat the two of them with himself.
In an instant, everyone within the room developed a hazy understanding over their opponents, and they all knew that others also did so. The situation gradually developed into a strange deadlock where neither side dared to attack first.
"Ocelia, you retreat backwards and watch their movement closely. When the opportunity arises, be sure to seize it well." The voice Ocelia held dear in her heart echoed beside her ears as Forus kneeled onto the ground and tossed potions of different liquids forwards.
Some of them exploded while still floating in the air while others broke into pieces when they hit the ground, leaking in mystic liquids that began their magic. Some caused walls of frost and flame while others created vines and flowers to emit fragrance and generated fogs. With their combination, a fortress emerged from within, defending Forus from all possible distraction.
With all things set up, Forus began drawing runes upon runes onto the ground, creating many mini-arrays that would integrate into a larger, grander whole. The Elements within the surrounding slowly drifted towards Forus, getting devoured by the formations that he was creating.
The moment Forus kneeled and began to paint the runes onto the floor, the stalemate which maintained itself for minutes broke into chaos spontaneously. At first, there was nothing that could force Mabilis and Iracia to act, so they kept their guard up and prepared to counter-attack when weaknesses appeared.
However, with Forus creating the mysterious formation, the two had no choices but to take the initiative and began the assault. If they were stubborn and did not try to attack first, allowing Forus to finish the array, the suppression from the runes would prove to be fatal for them. If fighting straightforwardly would let them have some chance at winning, then with the support of the formation, Forus and Ocelia could easily control the tempo of the battle and had an easier time winning.
Like always, Iracia rushed forwards, pulling out her Heart Blade and Eyes Shield while sliding through the wall of thorns. Her slender figure and smooth movement allowed her to dodge most of the defensive mechanism and slip through the man-eating flowers.
At first, Abicel would always wear her long, beautiful dress with tails of ribbons attached to it to enhance her elegant demeanour. With lots of gemstones and accessories, her body would glow in multicoloured glitter when light decided to reflect upon her body. However, after arriving at the Fleeting Emotions Ruin and advanced deep into the realm of the labyrinth, she quickly found her critical weakness that was her clothing.
With the elegant and grand dress, her body would have a much difficult time at dodging and moving sideways. In the end, she decided to abandon her robe and wore a new set of cloth, changing from an elegant dress to a slim, revealing bodysuit-like clothing.
As for her hair, she did not cut them but instead tied them into a braid. Although it was long, it would not restrict her vision and obstruct her movement.
Although the change caused her to lose the glittering and glow look on her body, it increased her battle power and also enhanced her beauty.
Without the exterior of the dress to conceal her figure, the suggestive curves would expose its charm every time her slim silhouette moved. Coupled with her black bodysuit, the darker hue of colour began to heighten her mysterious grace, suggesting the onlookers to lock their eyes at her, hoping to see more of it.
After gaining the demonic bloodline, her hair colour turned into darker green as to match with the tone of her wings and tail, and her eyes also became sharper, looking more confident and imposing.
Flapping her wings once, Iracia jumped and flew towards the greater height as she bypassed the wall of flame, closing in on Forus from above. Her vision narrowed as she exerted force into the Heart Blade, moving it downwards onto Forus' figure.
Mabilis also sprung into action as he placed his hand onto the ground before him, at the place where Iracia once stood. Channelling his sorcery energy into his third eye, he felt surges of heat as he chanted in a low voice.
The image of a golden eye symbol appeared on Iracia's back, engraving on her delicate skin, glowing in soft golden light as it began its work.
However, before Heart Blade could reach Forus, the seemingly incompleted formation began rotating as icy spikes shot out from the ground, piercing through Iracia's stomach as blood gushed out from it. After the glaciers, rays of light also manifested from the formation, shotting towards Iracia.
In Forus' vision, he saw the black puppet's body penetrated by the sharp ices as black goo leaked out of it, staining his face as some of them slipped into his mouth, tasting its sweetness.
Before the light could decimate her body, Mabilis coughed out blood as he gestured his hand into different symbols, draining bits of sorcery energy every time he did so. Until the last rune, the eye on Iracia's back shone as her body disintegrated into particles of light and reappeared before Mabilis.
She heavily panted as her face distorted in pain, turning pale in the presence of death. As a sorcerer, she felt disgraced as she lost her rationale and moved forwards mindlessly because of her arrogant, not considering that Forus might be setting up traps. If she stopped and reflected on her thought, she would not fall into the trap and wasted Mabilis' sorcery energy.
In truth, the ice spikes would never penetrate her Eyes Shield if she could block it, but, under the threat of time and the lack of information about Forus, she made a stupid decision and jumped across the wall of flame, ridding herself of something to manoeuvre when she remained in the air.
Forus caught her off-guard and almost finished her off, if not for Mabilis discern the trap and saved her.
Before she could catch her breath and calm herself, a dark shadow approached her and rapidly enlarged under her. Mabilis and Iracia only needed an instant to know what was going on and moved out of the place, narrowly avoiding the impact of the Leaning Tower of Flame.
While rolling backwards, Mabilis sent strings of white light towards Ocelia, forcing her to jump away, not being able to cast another spell, gaining them a precious break to compose their thoughts.
However, the Leaning Tower of Flame did not stop. It sent out the Fire Spirits, rushing towards Mabilis and Iracia, spewing fireballs as they moved closer. Although their power was only at the peak of the second-layered sorcerer apprentice, the fireballs could still graze Mabilis, burning his skin and creating shallow wounds.
If he disregarded them, their overwhelming number would quickly prove to be fatal, burning his body alive. With quantity led to quality, tens of fireballs from the apprentices could kill a weakened first-ranked sorcerer. Although he could easily dodge one, avoiding swamps of flame was not an easy task.
On the other hand, Iracia used her demonic wings to shield herself, ignoring the fireballs with the toughness of her greenish skin. She let the Heart Blade absorb her blood as she struck at the group of Fire Spirits, creating an illusionary image of the blade, cutting most of the Fire Spirits in half.
Using her attack to break the encirclement, Iracia changed her wings from defending herself to open up, revealing her seductive figure, and willed them to flutter as she jumped. The dark green demoness bypassed the group of Fire Spirits as her body flew past them, casting her long shadow over their silhouettes.
Landing onto the floor, Iracia prepared to dash forwards, but suddenly changed her mind and jumped backwards, giving herself some distance from the original landing place.
The temperature surrounding the place that Iracia previously landed heated up, turning the area around it reddish. The wall of flame erupted from the floor as the marble tiles broke into a crater, showing red magma as the heat emitted from them, distorting the vision of the surrounding.
Seeing a similar situation, Iracia did not try to go in blindly, but instead, she pulled out her remaining potions, throwing the one with the blue liquid towards the flame. As soon as the heat reached the maximum threshold, the material broke down into fragments, letting the stored fluid leaked out into the air.
The blue liquid began dissipating into the air, generating a frost breeze that dragged the air down to approach the freezing point. With the clash between two extremes, they nullified each other with their opposite polar of temperature, regaining the surrounding its original cool yet warm wind.
However, if she could think about modifying her plan, Forus also could do so. As soon as the flame faded, a figure whose right hand engulfed in a blazing black fire moved towards her, sending his fist towards her, catching Iracia off-guard again.
Although Forus had a great body that he tempered with Death Aura, he could not leave unscathed from the wall of blazing flame. However, with the unintentional help from Iracia, he only needed to pass through a thin layer of fire before getting help from the icy liquid, considerably reduced his injury.
Despite getting caught in a trap, Iracia learnt from her past mistake and kept her Eyes Shield up. Using the gap between her and Forus, she expanded her sorcery energy into the shield and also let it devoured her blood, making her face turned a little pale each passing moment.
The powerful impact echoed as Forus jumped back, landing steadily on the floor before moving forwards again. A part of his right hand fell onto the floor as the rotten smell permeated into the air, mixing with the fragrance of burnt skin as they disintegrated into ashes.
Iracia suffered no external wounds, but her face turned pale from the massive loss of blood. The Eyes Shield had a tiny crack on it as it defended against the strike that was beyond its defensive threshold, draining much more blood than usual. With Forus utilising the impact to fly backwards, he gave Iracia no time to swing her Heart Blade in retaliation.
Mabilis intended to move forward to help Iracia, but before he could do anything, a flaming sword slashed towards him, forcing him to dodge and defend for his life. With Ocelia and Forus cooperating, they broke the formation of Mabilis and Iracia, forcing them to divide into two battle, halving the enemy's battle power while retaining theirs.
At the heart of the battle, Forus and Ocelia stood back to back separating Mabilis and Iracia at the opposite end. They could freely reposition while rotating their focus to deal with each side as well as suppressing the overall tempo of the battle.
As time passed, Mabilis and Iracia continued to weaken as their mental concentration turned dull. The two had to deal with two types of attacks, one from Ocelia and one from Forus while trying to break the current flow to regroup. However, if any one of the couple fell into a stalemate, the other would rotate to assist and suppressed the situation, creating a deathlock that would require an extraordinary tactic to break.
