Chương 463: Chapter 462 – Fire Ape

While Damion ran to the next mage team he cast Ice Clone. The construct was nearly identical to him and unless someone was paying close attention to their movements it was very easy to confuse the clone for the real thing. As Damion moved along the battleline his goal was not to kill as many Demonic Beasts as possible. Killing took time and with as many creatures to fight as there were, he chose a better strategy, he fought to wound.

While he would not pass up a killing strike if the opportunity arose, however, he was moving through quickly and was trying to injure as many Demonic Beasts as possible. Others could finish them off and would have an easier time of it since the beasts were injured, his goal was to slow the tide and give the mage teams a chance to handle what was thrown at them before they were overwhelmed.

After sweeping past two teams with him and his Ice Clone providing enough relief for those teams' S Rank mages to shift from defense to offense, the entire line began to change. For a moment Damion thought that perhaps he had succeeded in his goal of providing relief, but a second later he realized the true cause. Mage Veers had cast a spell in the center of the Demonic Beast army. Void Storm had created dozens of Void Bubbles in the middle of the Demonic Beasts formation and annihilated much of it.

Each Void Bubble was a short lasting blackhole. Anything caught within any of their influence was erased from existence. The bubbles did not last long, only a second or two, but they had no limitations on where they could appear. Demonic Beasts dropped to the ground with holes torn in their sides or missing limbs. Some of the larger ones simply dropped dead and Damion suspected the Void Bubble had appeared inside of their body somewhere.

With the middle ranks of the Demonic Beast army being wiped out by a single spell from Mage Veers, it provided enormous relief to the other teams. Creatures that had been pushing forward simply because they were being forced by the ones behind them halted. Others, seeing the devastation wrought, decided to flee. Once the first Demonic Beasts started to flee, Damion knew the guardian had completely lifted its hold on the weaker Demonic Beasts.

No one tried to fight any of the fleeing creatures, if any of them posed a threat after the guardian was killed there would be time to hunt them down, for now, the fight with the Demonic Beasts that stayed to fight were more important. The next team Damion moved to help consisted of mages he was not familiar with. Nonetheless, he moved in quickly. They were fighting an S Rank Fire Ape that stood close to four meters in height.

The S Rank mage also had a Fire affinity, so the two were not able to do much harm to one another. The A Rank mages in the group were a Water and an Earth mage, but neither were able to do much harm to the S Rank Demonic Beast.

"Slow it's movements!" The S Rank mage shouted. Damion was not sure if the command was directed at him or his team members, but it did not really matter. The Water mage was continuously dousing the Fire Ape with Torrent and Water Blast. The attacks were not strong enough to severely injure the Demonic Beasts, but they were at least effective in slowing it down and lowering its defenses.

The Earth mage, knowing she was not going to be able to get through the Fire Ape's defenses was trying to use Manipulate Earth to encase the Demonic Beast's feet and legs to hamper its movements. Unfortunately, the water that was falling to the ground was turning the ground more into mud than hard earth. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Seeing that the two mages were working at odds with each other, Damion came up with a quick plan.

"Pull the dry ground away from the Fire Ape, make a basin around it!" Damion shouted at them as he threw his Ice Sword and let it slam into the Fire Ape's side. The Ice Sword shattered on impact, leaving only a small gash on the creature's side. Still, the beast was injured, and Damion easily resummoned his Ice Sword, this time under his feet to take back to the air.

"Fill the basin with water, as much as you can. As fast as you can!" The Earth mage and Water mage did as Damion commanded since their S Rank mage leader was otherwise occupied and he seemed to have a plan. Damion began flying around the Fire Ape, keeping its attention and, more importantly, keeping it within the basin that was quickly filling with water.

His Ice Clone was harassing the creature from the ground, running across the growing pool of water and slashing at its shins and legs before retreating, unfortunately, it was not able to do much damage. The Fire Ape's hair was still soaked and the water at its feet was slowly rising. He knew he did not have long before the Fire Ape would decide enough was enough and move out of the basin, so Damion cast Ice Domain and began repeatedly casting Frost Over.

The combination of the two spells dropped the temperature in the area to well below freezing and the water in the basin froze solid in seconds. The water coating the Fire Ape's fur frosted over and as Damion continued his spell the Demonic Beast was completely encased in Ice in less than ten seconds. With True Sight Damion could see the affinity and Rank tag assigned to the Fire Ape did not vanish, signaling that it was still alive. The creature was immobilized, but Damion doubted it would last for long.

"It is still alive! Go for the eyes!" Damion shouted to the S Rank fire mage as he dropped his Ice Domain. The Fire Mage did not hesitate and leapt into the air casting Fire Lance that cut through the quickly thinning layer of ice encasing the Demonic Beast to pierce the creature's left eye. The spell cut through the Fire Ape's eyeball and burned into its brain. After a few tense seconds True Sight showed Damion the S Rank Demonic Beast was dead.

"That killed it," Damion announced to the other mages who were readying another round of spells.

"Stand clear." There was still enough ice encasing the Demonic Beast to hold it upright, but it would only be a matter of time before the ice melted and the creature fell to the ground. Damion decided it was better to let it fall now, while no one was around, than at an unpredictable moment. Stretching out with his will, he caused the ice to fracture along one side and a moment later the Fire Ape's carcass fell over with a thud.

"Most impressive Mage Wells," the S Rank mage said.

"Thank you for your assistance. However, now that Mage Veers has eliminated the core of the beast army I think we will be moving to the next floor soon."

"I think soon is a relative term," Damion laughed.

"There are still several hundred A Rank Demonic Beasts to fight and while you S Rankers might make short work of them, there is still the cleanup."

"True, but it is my understanding that Mage Fletcher made arrangements for cleanup while you A Rankers were training on the lower floors."

"What kind of arrangements?"

"Well, since the thirty-nineth and fortieth floors of this labyrinth contain Spatial affinity Demonic Beasts, Mage Fletcher and her family have apparently been spending the last few months manufacturing spatial artifacts. A number have already been distributed amongst the S Ranks and no doubt she will pass more to the A Rankers. A runner from the lower floors should be coming up with new empty artifacts to switch for the full ones so we can carry on."

"I guess I missed that meeting," Damion joked. Mage Fletcher's preparedness did not surprise him, nor did his lack of knowing what was happening. Even after his return from the Mother World, he spent most of his time training. If he wanted a full picture of everyone else's plans he supposed he would have to attend more council meetings.