Chương 417: Chapter 416 – Have We Met?

Damion opened his Portal about a hundred meters away from the pair of signals. When he stepped through, he could see Straus, kneeling on the ground, next to an Alfar woman. True Sight revealed to him the woman was at A Rank and the pressure he felt coming off of her told him she was probably close to becoming S Rank.

"A human true mage," the Alfar said, looking Damion over.

"You don't look like much. Not even A Rank and you think you can stop what my people have been working towards for generations? And here I was worried you had come along and would spoil everything." Against an A Rank mage, Damion knew he had no chance. Going up against an A Rank Alfar he felt was as close to impossible as he had ever been. As he stood there, looking at the Alfar, he realized she looked stunning similar to the Alfar he had once encountered in an A Rank dungeon.

She wore the same S Rank multilayered green robe, and her pale skin and hair seemed to be identical.

"I'm amazed your superior allowed you to live after losing eight A Rank Realm Breaches," Damion said, taking a guess at her being the same Alfar he had run into before. The Alfar, who had started to menacingly walk towards Damion froze. She carefully eyed the human but did not recognize him. Was this one of the humans from that group? There had been a B Rank true mage among them, but that human had looked completely different.

Damion, not wanting to waste the moment's hesitation he created, cast Blink several times in a row to appear behind the Alfar before casting Ice Beam directly into her back. Despite pouring as much magic power into the attack he could, Damion knew he would not be able to overcome an S Rank defensive artifact, but that was not his goal.

Even if his attack did not actually injure the Alfar, it still impacted her with a strong force, and the Ice affinity magic could still freeze her in an ice block if he could hold the attack long enough. The Alfar was knocked back a few meters by the Ice Beam before she cast Blink herself to move behind Damion. Knowing he only had a fraction of a second to act, Damion cast Blink again himself. This time he continued to Blink around the area with the Alfar one step behind.

For some reason, the Alfar did not seem to want to kill him, instead she seemed to be trying to catch him. There was only one reason Damion could think of for the Alfar to want to catch him, that was interrogation. Most likely she would want to know how many other true mages there were on his world, and how strong they were. Thankfully, Damion was able to continuously Blink, the spell did not cost him much mana, allowing him to keep moving and stay out of the Alfar's reach.

As the two were teleporting around the area, Straus realized he was overlooked and decided to make a break for it. When the Alfar had captured him, she had taken all his gear, he would be of no use in this fight and he was sure no matter who won, he would not be getting a pleasant reward. While Damion was avoiding the Alfar and Straus was running away, Visault was quietly moving into position. The Alfar was actually stronger than he was, but not by a wide margin.

Still, it meant a direct confrontation was not advisable. When Visault saw Straus trying to escape the area, he felt it was a good opportunity to recruit another ally. The man might only be a knight, but he was still an A Rank knight and could at least force the Alfar to divide her attention between three foes. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Take these," Vasault told Straus as he tossed a piece of armor and a sword out of his spatial artifact. Straus was at a loss, the items were very high quality, but he was not sure if he wanted to get involved in this fight. Still, he at least owed Damion for coming, with his warning, the young man had obviously been prepared, perhaps staying and fighting was the better choice.

When Straus channeled mana into the artifacts to test them, the armor shifted to match his size and the sword altered itself to be identical to his previous sword lost to the Alfar. While Damion continued to play hide and seek with the Alfar, Straus donned his new armor and picked up his new weapon. Once he was ready, Visault took the man by the arm and teleported them both into the fray.

Straus, not being able to use Blink to move around the battlefield like the other three combatants were doing, remained stationary and tried to find a pattern to the Alfar's movements.

"Mistress Mirax, I am surprised to see your Matron sending you into Iblis territories," Visault said, once he was able to get a good enough glimpse of the Alfar to recognize her. The Alfar Blinked away from where the Iblis had suddenly appeared and seemed torn on whether she should continue the fight or try to flee. She was still the strongest, but she knew if Visault was in danger, he could summon his father. Still, her mission was to kill the true mage, she would just have to do that before fleeing.

Mistress Mirax made up her mind and her tactics instantly changed. She was no longer pursuing Damion, instead she was shooting spells at him in an attempt to kill him quickly. The human mage found himself no longer using Blink to stay just out of reach of the Alfar, but to dodge spells that could end him in an instant. Within a few dozen seconds, Damion was forced to evade just as many spells, each of which could have killed him.

Straus took this opportunity, since the Alfar was no longer chasing after Damion, to channel mana into his new sword artifact and launch a magic attack of his own. The bolt of lightning shot out from Straus' weapon was far more powerful than he believed it would be. The attack also caught the Alfar off guard. She was barely able to summon a barrier to absorb most of the blast. The rest caused her to stumble backwards as she attempted to redirect the magic attack into the sky.

Mirax was successful in deflecting the attack, but the time and concentration on the effort caused her to lose track of both Damion and Visault. Damion appeared behind her, Frost Fire in hand, casting the spell onto her multilayered robes. Visault appeared a second later, throwing a right hook with a stone covered fist that landed with a sickening crunch. The Alfar was sent tumbling away.

Despite the attacks, Mirax was able to use the momentum of the attacks to roll to her feet, where she quickly discarded the outer layer of her robes. The Frost Fire on the Alfar's robes was on that outer layer and once they were discarded, the spell posed little danger to her. However, the effect of all three of Mirax's opponents landing a blow on her greatly angered the Alfar. Letting out a scream of rage and, to each of the trio's surprise, she charged at Straus.

The Alfar closed in on the knight before he had a chance to fully process what was happening and suddenly found himself face to face with his attacker, who opened her mouth and sunk her teeth into the man's neck. The knight screamed and tried to bring his sword around to strike at the Alfar, but she was too fast, teleporting herself away before he could strike. A moment later, Straus dropped his sword and clutched the wound on his neck as blood continued to flow around the hand covering his wound.

Both Damion and Visault rushed to Straus' side. Mirax, seeing the two mages approach, quickly cast Portal and dove through, closing the gateway behind her. Without thinking, Damion mentally reached into the Magic System Inventory and took out the C Rank Health Potion stored there and tossed it to Straus. The knight did not question what the potion was, he popped off the cap and quickly consumed the liquid inside.

An instant later, Straus' wounds were healed and both he and Visault were looking at Damion in amazement.