Legacy of the Dark Sage

With his next move carefully calculated, Kyran made the daring decision to break through the formation of the two enemy mages, who were acting as a shield and vanguard and instead target the one lurking at the rear. He deftly sidestepped another incoming attack from the enemy mage, presumably acting as their shield, and swiftly advanced towards the back of their formation.

As soon as Kyran evaded, the other mage, acting as their offensive vanguard, launched another attack. This was a pattern they had been following since the beginning, and Kyran was ready for it. Without giving the enemy mage a chance to complete her motion, Kyran swiftly employed Dragon Steps to put distance between them.

Shiloh's eyes narrowed, a glint of anticipation lighting them up. Positioned at the back, he had an unobstructed view of the unfolding battle, his senses heightened.

The moment the enemy mage summoned an armor, Shiloh was already suspicious of his identity. Recalling the brief report he received from his sister and how they would recognize the intruder that could possibly have had a hand in the early opening of the Tower of the Ancients, Shiloh was 90 to 95 percent positive that the enemy mage was the one they were looking for.

The remaining 10 to 5 percent uncertainty was the enemy mage's barrier.

According to Alta's report, the intruder possessed a formidable ability. He could summon a spherical barrier that was both defensive and offensive. Its defensive capabilities were terrifying, rendering any attacks on it utterly useless. But its offensive power was even more chilling. It could pierce through any non-living or living things, obliterating them upon contact.

Britta's attack was not deflected earlier. In fact, Shiloh had an inkling that if she had not retracted her weapon, it would have been destroyed— and he did not mean destroyed by breaking but by dissolving.

Shiloh used the term dissolve for the lack of a proper description of the armor's effect since Britta pulled back before anything irreversible happened to her weapon. In a way, Shiloh could not blame Britta's actions because if her weapon broke, her core would be damaged. Frankly, her prompt action to stop her attack deserved a commendation.

Still, Shiloh would have appreciated it if Britta had endured for a couple more seconds so he could have gathered enough data.

Considering all this and what little reaction he gleaned from Britta's weapon upon contact with the enemy mage's armor, it was similar to the intruder's barrier.

In any case, seeing the enemy mage's unique movement, Shiloh was more convinced of his identity. He felt elated that they had managed to find him earlier than anticipated.

Reeling in his excitement, Shiloh waited for the enemy mage's arrival. He knew the latter would target him sooner or later because of the multi-casted spells he did, which limited the enemy mage's ability to see, hear, and see.

Shiloh would not panic upon this, though. In fact, he welcomed any attempt the enemy mage would make to render him incapable of maintaining the multi-casted spells. Apart from that, the thought that his sister had trouble apprehending this guy almost made Shiloh unable to contain his excitement.

'Move Shiloh!' Uilleam's warning came a tad bit late as a distortion appeared in the space in front of Shiloh. Following this, two arcs of dark purple glow flashed vertically toward his neck.

Whoosh!

Clang!

Sizzle!

Instinctively, Shiloh cast a protective barrier solely around his neck. Because of this, he managed to avoid an untimely decapitation.

Kyran's frow furrowed after his unsuccessful attempt to decapitate the enemy mage at the rear's head. He immediately used Dragon steps as he jumped to avoid the enemy mage's attack.

A grin appeared on Shiloh's face as he no longer tried to hide his excitement.

The near-death experience shook his heart, resulting in his blood boiling. His reaction was not because he was angered by the enemy mage's sudden attack. On the contrary, he felt elated. After all, he could count on one hand all those mages that came close to killing him.

But none of them did it on their first attempt.

In the blink of an eye, several magic arrays circled Shiloh's body. These magic arrays were support spells that would allow him to make full use of his innate magic nature without worrying about any repercussions.

After that, he disappeared from his initial position and reappeared at the location where he sensed the enemy mage would run— a dagger appeared in his hand just as he completed the motion of slashing.

From another's perspective, Shiloh's action seemed strange because he did it without a target. Thus slashing at nothing but air. But then, the area at which his dagger just passed through distorted as a figure appeared that barely avoided getting slashed.

Kyran gritted his teeth as he barely evaded the enemy mage's dagger from slicing at his eyes. He knew the enemies before him were unaffected by the multi-casted spells within that area, but for this guy to guess correctly where he would appear after using Dragon Steps should have been impossible.

[He is using an unconventional way of tracking your movements, Kyran.]

Shaiha told him with a slight frown. She only had a hunch earlier about it because they were able to track Kyran's movement even when she was still under her concealment ability. She even believed that all three mages possessed high perception. But after this brief exchange, she was now sure that the only one who could track Kyran using unconventional way was this mage at the rear.

And if she recalled every attack, move, and spell that was used up to now, she thought of one possibility.

One of Sound Magic's abilities was producing sound waves.

Shaiha came up with this conclusion because one of the enemy mages tried to stun Kyran by using a Sound-based magic attack earlier. However, the two enemy mages that confronted Kyran had not shown any signs of being capable of using Sound magic. If this was the case, then the one at the rear was the one who possessed it.

Because of his connection with Shaiha, Kyran was able to sense her thoughts and agree with them. Given the current situation, however, he could not voice his thoughts. He was in the middle of a fight, after all.

After evading the enemy mage's dagger, Kyran sensed incoming attacks coming from the back and above. He guessed at once that they were the remaining two enemy mages. Compared to their attacks, however, the one with the dagger seemed to pose far more threat to him.

Kyran thought this not because the dagger-wielding enemy had a powerful offensive but because his Sound magic could easily locate him. Apart from that, the latter could also approach him in the blink of an eye by utilizing one of Sound magic's nature— speed.

One of the enemy mages aimed his fist at Kyran's head while the other one aimed her javelin at his back. At the same time, the enemy mage with the dagger did a 360 degree turn while aiming the dagger at his neck.

[Stop holding back, Kyran!]

Even before Shaiha completed her words, Kyran already made a move.

"What?"

Uilleam, Britta, and Shiloh exclaimed in surprise as the area where the enemy mage should have been crackled. Following this, his figure disappeared.

Shiloh released a sonar-like attack that could not be heard by others to locate the enemy mage. However, he was unable to track the latter this time.

"How—?"

Just then, the air crackled behind Britta as a dark purple arc flashed right in the middle of her neck.

"Britta duck—!"

Shiloh attempted to warn Britta. Unfortunately, the attack came unexpectedly and at a speed that even he failed to see.

The surprised expression on Britta's face was frozen as her head flew slightly to the right from the attack's momentum. At the same time, her body dropped to the floor like a puppet that lost its strings that kept it in place.

"Tsk," Kyran clicked his tongue as he realized he had cut the wrong enemy.

He was sure he had teleported behind the one using a dagger, but then he heard another ting sound, and his directional sense got jumbled. In the end, he ended up appearing behind the female enemy mage, thus killing the wrong target.

"I'll kill you!" Uilleam bellowed in anger after witnessing Britta's head getting sliced so easily.

He clamped his hands together before raising them above his head. A magic array circled his hands as they grew in size, and in just a fraction of a second, they resembled a huge hammer.

With Kyran's other senses still useless, he continued to rely on figuring out the enemy mages' position through their killing intent. But because the latter three were quite good at hiding their intent, he could barely predict their position and what their next move would be.

That changed a the death of one of them, though, as Kyran sensed a surge of killing intent, almost palpable that could suffocate any low-ranked mages that sensed it.

Crackle! Your story continues with m-vl-em|p-yr

Kyran teleported just before the enemy mage's fists came down.

BOOOM!

Kyran's eyes nearly popped in surprise at the strength of the punch just then. Before he could process what was happening, he sensed the dagger-wielding mage slipped through his side.