I had fought and killed Vrakth, a three-horned Narghul Sorcerer, a being that would be equal to an Arcanist, and I had used eleven tries, mastered the way he moved, and even though I had killed him in the end, the chance that he would have won was still there, even at my present state, I could not beat my chest that I would win ten out of ten times against Vrakth.
The Hollow Avatar had told me that Vrakth would be one of the most powerful Arcanists on this world, but that did not mean that these five Arcanists were a pushover, since their skillset were unknown, and what was important was that they were Mages, and like it or not, they had tricks that even a demon may not understand.
I had succeeded in scattering the Arcanists, and that was important because with my speed, I would be able to pick them off, one by one. I could not let them combine their strength as I knew that one mage was dangerous, but two or more mages were calamities... I was going against that tenet, but my situation was different.
From the moment I scattered the Arcanist to when I attacked Iron Beard here, who was still fighting against the resultant lightning magic clinging to him, barely a second had passed.
I reach the iron-bearded one before he stands, and his face that was twisted in pain and confusion suddenly became placid, and he looked up, his cold iron eyes catching me, even though I was moving in my Lightning Incarnate form.
The lightning that had been covering him suddenly vanished, they seemed to have been sucked into his heart.
Space seemed to fold around him, and suddenly he was at my flank, with a hand filled with a deep purple glow that caused space to recoil, and that hand was heading towards me, when suddenly he recoiled and gasped in pain as the arm that he held out towards me fell from his shoulders, a silver flame burning on the stump.
In the blink of an eye, the arm that fell to the ground collapsed into ash, and the Arcanist was pouring purple fog into his burning shoulder with his second hand, trying to suppress the silver flame still lingering on the wound, while placing a wary gaze on my position.
I emerged from Lightning Incarnate, and I grinned at the shocked Arcanist. Say one thing about my fight with Vrakth, it had taught me how fast an Arcanist could move, and that the only way to win was to plan your moves several strokes ahead.
What had just happened? Well, it was simple, but first, we need to go back to the moment I scattered the Arcanist with the pillar of lightning.
The explosion that scattered them appeared to be very grand, and the Arcanist had been covered with my power, and if I were a normal mage, I would have fallen for this trap.
You see, the five Arcanists were stronger together; I knew this, but they also knew this, so when my first move was to scatter them... these devious bastards allowed that to happen. The concussive blast from that lightning attack was powerful, but if they wanted, I am sure they could have fought harder to resist it.
Well, how did I know this? That was simple; it was due to the lightning essence and the nature of my spells. Lightning Edict was a Legendary Spell that could change reality itself as long as I had lightning essence inside and around the things that I wished to change.
The formation of the Arcanists had been broken, and they seemed to have fallen at a disadvantage, at least that was how it appeared on the surface, but Lightning Edict was showing me that there was no lightning essence in the bodies of the Arcanists; in fact, the lightning that was lingering around them was held a centimeter above their skin.
They were waiting for me to open myself as I attacked before they retaliated.
The moment my feet touched the ground and I picked my first target, I already knew all of this, and I proceeded to attack anyway, because battle did not scare me, and Vrakth had taught me the usefulness of relentless assault. Besides, the last thing I feared was failure.
So, when I attacked the iron-bearded Arcanist, I was expecting him to be able to track my speed, even though I was in Lightning Incarnate, and he would attack me when I was not focused.
So, I attacked, but I did not use my full speed, and when I was halfway across, I sent out a lightning bolt that resembled my appearance when I was in the Lightning Incarnate state, while I used Lightning Edict to cloak my true figure.
As I had expected, the Arcanist had attacked my spell, folding space and coincidentally appearing beside me. If he had moved a few feet to the side, he would have collided with my true body.
I knew my deception would not work for long, and the moment he was attacking, I had used Soul Forge.
I don’t know how the Arcanists were blocking my lightning, maybe it was similar to the Abyssal Shield used by Vrakth, but I knew that they believed I wielded lightning, and if they were defending against that elemental power, then they would not anticipate, Soul Forge... which was a power that resembled fire, but it was not really fire, I like to think of it as the power of disintegration... controlled disintegration.
So, there you have it, in a tenth of a second, this was the dance I had with the Arcanist, my first clash against mages of this level, and I had drawn first blood.
"You..." the wounded Arcanist growled. I could see a sickening flush on his face. Extinguishing my flames was not going to be easy, and every moment that passed, he was suffering unimaginable agony, "Who are you?..."
I cocked my head to the side, and I smiled, "I am your father, and you have been a very naughty boy."
And not waiting for him to figure out what I meant, since I could feel the presence of the other Arcanist heading towards our location, the Loom that I had arranged all across the ground rose as a golden bolt of lightning blasted out from my right hand, straight towards the Arcanist’s face.