17 - Mind Games between Monsters

One is rarely born a hero at childbirth. Brius and Falna overcame their shares of suffering in their lives to become the heroes they were despite how they ended up falling under Zex's hands.

The feat seemed easy but with all the steps Zex had to do perfectly, IT WAS NOT!

The two fallen heroes were monsters in their own right.

On the other hand, just like Edge, Arissef, and Drago… were TRUE MONSTERS!

Countless Magic Circles appeared like a dome around Zex and various spells of various elements came out from them simultaneously.

Zex released his [Blade Aura] and deflected the spells in front of him with his sword as he dashed towards the location of the 2 chests.

He knew that the dome of spells was a distraction at the least and their true goal was for Drago to get his weapon and shield.

To his surprise, what awaited him outside the dome was a world of darkness. It was Arissef's spell [Hall of Darkness], a Tier 3 Dark Spell that would entrap a target in absolute darkness once they entered. The condition for it to take effect was for a target to enter it themselves. This drawback reflects the pay-off where the target who entered would not be able to escape it until the duration ends, a common principle of magic: The difficulty of the conditions needed to be met is directly proportional to the effectiveness and power of the spell. This was especially so for most spells of the Dark element while this was the reason why forbidden skills had drastic backlash effects.

3 seconds.

That was the absolute duration of the spell. Enough time for Arissef to cast more spells in preparation and Drago getting back in combat position after retrieving his equipment.

Arissef drank mana potion after mana potion to prolong his battle efficiency while chanting some spells and setting up magical formations all over the battlefield to aid them in battle. Maximizing regenerative items was a tactic most players used in some games to maximize their effects over time where they don't get converted instantly, unlike in games like Resident Evil VII.I.AGE (Yep, that is how it is spelled) where a reattached hand can perfectly heal (Apparently sewing the sleeve back together as well) instantly by using an ointment of sorts. [1]

Moreover, these potions did not restore mana on the spot like refueling a car. Instead, they provided mana for a normal mage to convert into their own, so it needed time to become mana they could use to cast spells. However, Arissef was not a normal mage, he could convert mana while using his existing mana at the same time making it as if he never lost mana in the first place. In 3 seconds, he would have gained back all the mana he used from the start of the battle, including those he was currently and would have used within the 3 seconds.

That was… if they had 3 seconds uninterrupted.

Black flames suddenly lit up around the area and took physical form as they streaked towards Arissef and Drago. Noticing this, Arissef quickly canceled his chants and diverted his mana to bring up barriers to protect them both... He was not expecting what happened next.

The two heroes witnessed something crazy when the black flames came in contact with the barriers.

Just like how they devoured Edge's [Blade Aura], they were now devouring the barriers at a rapid pace despite them being of the holy element. If they saw the battle between Zex and Edge, they would know that this time, the black flames were devouring the barriers at a much faster pace as if they just tasted their favorite food.

Seeing this, Arissef was reinforcing the barriers again and again while he and Drago were dodging the other black flames streaking towards them.

Just after 2 seconds, the black flames lost their power and began dissipating. However, in those 2 seconds, Arissef lost more mana than he could recover, while Drago was zoned away from his equipment. [2]

1 second later, [Hall of Darkness] expired and a familiar silhouette reappeared into the duo's vision.

"Is that all?" Zex continued in a mocking tone with his hands on his waist while standing lazily.

Despite his calm appearance, his heart sank when all of the hidden infusions he put in place beforehand were used up. He never thought that the acting skills he honed in his previous life would come in handy so soon as he needed to convince them that he was not taking things seriously. Otherwise, the two would catch on and will be more aggressive with their movements.

Moving infused mana needed him to expend mana as well. It was like sending remote signals to a device from afar. This is why remote controllers also needed electricity to transmit commands as signals albeit in low quantities as compared to the device receiving and performing them.

This time, however, he was already low on mana due to the consecutive spells and skills he used at the start of the battle while controlling the black flames during his time inside the [Hall of Darkness] used up surprisingly more mana than normal.

He theorized that it must have been because of the isolation effect he was in which in turn increased the power required to transmit the signals to maintain control. Add all that to the fact that materializing the mana into their physical forms drained their power rapidly. It was not an efficient move to make.

Not that he was regretting it, though.

When he tried moving within the hall of darkness, he realized immediately that he could not escape it. So he split his awareness between the remaining black flames he hid before the battle. It was because he was dumbfounded at the sight of Arissef drinking mana potions as if there was no tomorrow, that he decided to do what he did.

'That is cheating!' Zex was pissed at the shamelessness of the archmage. After all, he had no potions to refill his mana since Edge and his companions only carried HP and Stamina Potions together with bottles of all sorts of Poison, which he could not even use both because he needed to keep up appearances and because he had no tank to soak up damage for him while he used them.

Moreover, he decided not to bring any to minimize his weight as he did not have any spatial skills to conveniently store them like Arissef. He opted to rely on [Demonic Regeneration] instead which was relatively subpar.

Right now, he had around a fourth of his mana and his regeneration was a little bit too slow in the face of such a high-speed battle. He even had to stall the battle using words, acting, and mockery to make it seem like he was confident whereas he was only regenerating mana.

After all, from the start of the battle, only around 30 seconds have elapsed counting the stare-downs and his mocking.

However, now that he saw the shamelessness Arissef was showing him, he understood that stalling would do him more harm than good.

The biggest problem was that Drago was a tough cookie and Arissef was no pushover either.

His [Deadly Intimidation] already lost effect on the two heroes the moment they decided to move but their alertness of him was still there, making them tenser and focused resulting in their overestimation of the power and effects of his moves.

This was his current advantage… And he intended to make use of it for as long as he could.

Zex unleashed a dense [Blade Aura] and dashed towards Arissef who he zoned earlier to dodge towards an area nearer to his location.

Arissef was familiar with this movement and decided to put layers and layers of barriers in front of him. His reaction was swift and no frontal attack would be able to penetrate his defense.

"IDIOT! NO!" Drago yelled out as his instincts out sped Arissef's thinking process.

The archmage, hearing this, quickly dodged forward just to buy a few milliseconds and turned around while hastily bringing up more frontal barriers as he realized the mistake of his actions.

A heavy downpour of blade aura cuts began striking at the multiple barriers Arissef placed but because he jumped forward, the momentum of the cuts pushed Arissef like a rocket towards a certain location--- a location that would spell death.

[1] In Resident Evil VII.I.AGE or RE8, the main character Ethan Winters gets a lot of hand injuries... and I mean a lot!!! One of the most notable instances was when his right hand, which was in the process of pulling up a lever, got cut and separated from his arm by the 'Tall lady vampire boss who everybody on the internet simp for', Lady Dimitrescu. When he escapes her grasp... or claws after reclaiming his hand that was still somehow grasping the lever, he pours a cure-all ointment on the stump and then reattaches his severed hand. The clothes he wore also seemingly had self-sowing abilities as the clean-cut on the sleeve miraculously vanished.

[2] Zoning - is a gaming slang that pertains to limiting the options of a target's movement to lead them towards or away from a certain location.