Chương 466: Chapter 465 – The Battle Begins

"What do you see?" Mage Veers asked Damion. The battle with the guardian had begun. The three SS Rank mages, Mage Harris, Mage Levine and Mage Moretti, closed in on the Demon Sunflower and were doing their best to keep the creature's attention as the S Rank mages started sending their own spells at it. Mage Moretti's Fire affinity spells were proving to be quite effective against the Plant and Metal affinity Demonic Beast. Even with the battle having just started, the SS Rank guardian appeared to be struggling.

The most perplexing thing about the guardian's actions was that it was not using its mithril seeds to attack. At first it appeared to be, its auxiliary maws spitting out the metal seeds in the general direction of its attackers, but none of the seeds came close to hitting anyone. In fact, they missed the SS Rankers by quite the distance and did not even come close to hitting any of the S Rank mages firing their spells from a distance.

Instead, the seeds flew high into the air and when they crashed back into the ground short of the S Rank perimeter, they hit hard enough to bury themselves into the ground. It was not until the fourth wave of mithril seeds missing that anyone began to think there was more at play than bad aim.

"The guardian is not trying to hit anyone with those seeds," Damion realized as he watched the latest wave of mithril seeds rain down. Mage Veers watched for a moment before turning his attention back to Damion.

"Then what is the guardian doing?"

"They are seeds, right? Could the guardian be planting an army?" Mage Veers smiled at Damion's suggestion before pulling out his communication tablet and contacting all of the mages on the expedition at once.

"Be alert, the guardian's seeds that are missing are likely either an extension of itself or can develop into more Demonic Beasts."

"What do you mean they could be an extension of the guardian?" Damion asked after Mage Veers put his communication tablet away.

"It is likely the seeds will sprout, and we will be facing more Demon Sunflowers, just lower Rank ones. But it is also possible that the seeds maintain a link to the guardian and when they sprout they will be extensions of the guardian, meaning they will be considered SS Rank as well."

"There is a big difference between the two possibilities. But I don't think even an SS Rank Demonic Beast could control so many… ah… appendages."

"Nor do I, but the possibility remains, so it is best to warn everyone of it," Mage Veers said.

"Look, the S Rank perimeter is expanding, they want to get extra room from seeds, just in case."

"Let's go take a look at one," Damion suggested. Mage Veers gave him a nod and the two flew towards a seed that had recently impacted the ground and was situated between fields of fire for the S Rank mages. The two peered into the hole, looking for the seed. The hole had mostly collapsed as the seeds buried itself. Damion wished he was by himself for a moment, then he could use Manipulate Earth to bring the seed to the surface and have a good look at it.

For now, all he could do was cast Frost Over repeatedly, freezing the ground in the area to see if it caused a reaction from the seed or the mother plant.

"Should we try and dig it up?" Damion looked to Mage Veers for his opinion. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"No. Either they will sprout or they won't. If your Frost Over did not kill it then it is certainly not having a typical reaction to attacks."

"What if the guardian is waiting until it expels all its seeds to cause them all to sprout at once?"

"Very likely," Mage Veers agreed as he looked around at the various impact craters. There were probably close to a thousand all around the battlefield now. If all of those sprouted at once, it would certainly cause a very sudden shift in the battle.

"We should…" Before Mage Veers could finish, the ground began to shake and from each of the impact craters around the battlefield grew a Demon Sunflower. After just a few seconds the Demonic Beasts' flowers bloomed, and they unleashed a flurry of mithril seeds towards the S Rank perimeter and back towards the three SS Rank mages fighting the guardian.

The Demonic Beast that rose from the crater Damion had cast Frost Over from looked stunted and was visibly slower to unfurl its flower and launch its mithril seeds at the two mages right by it. Before the newly sprouted Demon Sunflower could unleash its attacks at Damion and Mage Veers, the Void mage had cast a spell and the Demonic Beast dropped to the ground in dozens of pieces. In other places around the battlefield mages were struggling to cope with the barrage of thousands of mithril seeds.

Most had erected a barrier or shield in time to block the attack, but Damion noticed a few had not. To his left, Damion saw that Mage Addison, one of the new S Rankers, had been injured by a seed and was now struggling to cast Wind Blade fast enough to block the seeds moving his way. Without a word to Mage Veers, Damion headed over. He cast Ice Wall first, giving Mage Addison and his team cover to hide behind, before casting Summon Ice to drop a hailstorm on all the new Demonic Beasts in the area.

Damion would have liked to have stopped and cast a few heal spells on the injured mages, but he did not want to expose his multiple affinities just yet. Damion continued on along the perimeter, casting Ice Walls as cover for some mages while he continued his use of Summon Ice to bombard the Demon Sunflowers. Since he was moving quickly in an attempt to give cover to as many teams as possible, his attacks were not terribly accurate.

Thankfully, the hailstorms created from Summon Ice blanketed large areas and he was usually able to kill or at least severely wound three or even four of the Demonic Beasts with each attack. As he rounded the halfway mark, Damion saw the next team was in trouble. On this side there appeared to be quite a few more of the new Demon Sunflowers, causing the teams to have to defend against even more mithril seeds.

This team was led by Mage Teft, and her water affinity was proving to be ineffective at blocking the metal projectiles. A direct hit from Torrent would cause a mithril seed to get knocked off course, but there were too many for her to deflect them all. Mage Teft had already suffered an injury to one arm and the three A Rank mages on her team had retreated another fifty meters which gave them the distance they needed to be able to dodge. When Damion saw that his teacher was injured he increased his pace.

Several Ice Walls sprouted on the battlefield and grew quickly to block most of the Demon Sunflowers' line of sight. His spells were able to cut down the amount of mithril seeds being sent towards Mage Teft, granting her a much-needed reprieve. Over the next few seconds, Damion began casting Ice Shard. Each cast sent a hail of deadly ice crystals at a Demon Sunflower, slicing each of his targets to bits as he thinned their numbers. On arriving at Mage Teft's side, Damion cast Major Heal on her.

The soft glow of his spell was not overly noticeable on the battlefield, but even if it was, he would not have cared. A moment later, Mage Teft was fully healed and scowling at him.

"You should be behind the S Rank perimeter with the other A Rankers."

"I'm working with Mage Veers to get rid of these smaller Demon Sunflowers. Most are not even A Rank. Numbers is the only advantage they have."

"They may be only A Rank, but the SS Rank one is occasionally sending its own seeds directly at the attackers now too. That is what got me. The weaker ones I could shrug off with armor, but that one tore right through my defenses."

"I don't think the big one considers me a threat, so I doubt it will target me."

"Don't get overconfident, best to keep your distance," Mage Teft warned.

"Don't worry, I…" Before Damion could finish reassuring his teacher a cry was heard across the battlefield as everything went eerily silent. He noticed the rest of Mage Teft's team were looking and pointing towards the main battle of the SS Ranks with the guardian. Damion followed their gaze just in time to hear Mage Levine calling out, "We need a healer! Now!"