Michael felt entwined with the molten slag. He felt a hidden connection with it, something that didn't seem to be entirely physical. There wasn't even a string of mana that controlled it. It was something else.
Just a little more, he thought to himself. With just a little bit more effort, he felt like he could control the metal slag telekinetically without the use of his mana.
Unfortunately, the six remaining soldiers did not let him take his eyes off the battlefield for even a second.
Three soldiers came at him from all sides, performing their Flarecorp-specific swordplay that focused on power and explosiveness. Their swings were wide and their powers were enough to leave a large gash on the ground even without contact.
Michael raised his hand, creating a magic circle underneath his feet.
Just before the moment the swords were about to hit him, lightning struck the Earth from high up to the heavens.
The explosion sent the three soldiers flying outwards. They crashed onto the trees, with their skin still smoking and feeling bare from the electricity that surged through their bodies. When they tried to recover, their muscles refused to move, with Michael's spell leaving them paralyzed for a few seconds.
A blinding light appeared in Michael's finger as he shot another soldier in his stomach, leaving only five enemies left.
And before he could celebrate, the other three soldiers ran outwards towards a tree, using their momentum to climb up towards its branches before diving down towards Michael.
Magic circles appeared on their bodies, enhancing their physical capabilities to its maximum.
Fire surrounded their whole bodies, with the wind suddenly picking up and creating miniature fire tornadoes on their bodies.
This was a very smart play by the soldiers. If Michael used water to put out the fire, then the wind from the tornado would repel the water and empower the fire. If Michael used Earth to put out the tornado, then the fire would scorch the element, turning it into ashes.
For a normal magician, this would be a bad matchup. But of course, Michael was no ordinary magician.
Michael raised his hand, creating a magic circle above his palms. As the mana flowed outwards, a violet sludge with the same consistency as slime burst forth.
Just as the three fire tornadoes converged at his location, Michael flung the violet sludge around him, creating a protective sphere.
As the Fire and Air clashed with this violet liquid, its intensity began to wither off. The flames began to die down, eventually turning into nothing but a whispering flame. The tornado lost its power, reduced to a mere gentle breeze.
The three soldiers were caught stunned as they landed next to Michael, completely vulnerable.
They didn't understand what happened.
The truth was that Michael used a very complicated 5-star Poison spell called [Withering Elements]. After all, the Poison element wasn't just a simple poison that humans were familiar with. It was the concept of decay, degradation, and rotting. That was how the Fire and Air elements lost their power.
Michael raised his hand, [Unity Gun] loaded, and fired at another soldier, reducing their numbers to just four remaining.
The soldiers forced themselves up, with their bodies exhausted and almost running out of mana. They didn't know how Michael continued to cast spell after spell without getting tired.
In their last ditch effort, they rushed altogether, creating another combination spell.
"[Eternal Cross of the Flame]!" they shouted.
The soldiers began to perform their sword stances as they slowly rotated around Michael. They swung their swords and lunged, dragging their feet to create a specific indentation in the ground.
As they created a circle, a large fire erupted underneath their feet, creating a wall of flame that trapped Michael inside.
Suddenly, these soldiers disappeared within the wall of fire, becoming nothing but meteor-like flames that swam across the entrapment.
One of the meteors shot towards Michael, and once he looked closely, he saw the figure of a blade at the tip of the meteor, intending to skewer him upon impact.
But of course, a prismatic shield appeared above Michael's skin and deflected the flaming meteor. Unfortunately, it simply returned back into the wall of flames, replenishing the fire that it lost upon impact.
Then, another meteor crashed towards Michael, before another, then another, then another.
These four meteors were relentless in their pursuit to break through Michael's Unity defense. Unfortunately for them, it stood tall with no sign of cracking.
Michael powered up another [Unity Gun] in his finger, raising it up and aiming it at the blazing meteors that crashed towards him.
Their movements were erratic, making it hard for him to focus on aiming. Thankfully, he had ChatJK4 by his side.
[I have uploaded an automatic homing system in your visual cortex.]
Just then, Michael saw a game-like interface appear in his vision, where a crosshair appeared in a specific area where the meteor would be in a few seconds.
He aimed, waiting for the right timing, before triggering the shot.
At the exact same moment that the beam left his finger, Michael felt a subconscious urge in his mind.
It was one of those thoughts that were instantaneous and didn't really have an exact sentence that popped up into his head. It was simply a connection of ideas, the firing of neurons in his brain.
And in that moment, the metal slag in the ground once again twitched. But this time, its movement allowed it to skip at least an inch from its original position.
Michael felt it. He knew that he was the one who made this metal slag move. He just didn't know how or why.
The [Unity Gun] shot off, accurately hitting one of the meteors. The flames sputtered off before revealing the soldier behind it.
The man crashed out of the formation, incapacitated from the shot.
Three more remaining.
And as the meteors continued to barrage his Unity Defense, he kept trying to replicate the feeling he had just now.
Yet no matter what he did, he was unable to make the metal slag move even a microscopic inch.
Maybe…I need to use my [Unity Gun], he thought to himself.
So, he raised his hand and powered up another shot. After a few seconds, he moved his hand to an empty spot to the right and fired off the beam, accurately hitting one of the meteors as it moved randomly.
In that exact moment, Michael felt something. The metal slag moved again!
It wasn't as strong as the one before, but he was still able to make it move just a tiny bit.
He didn't waste more time and fired off another [Unity Gun] shot, accurately hitting another meteor.
And there it was again! The metal slag moved!
As he continued this process, he felt ever more closer to becoming more in tune with that strange feeling in his heart. He felt like if he did it just a few more, he could somehow control the metal slag with only his mind.
Spurred on by this need, Michael fired off another shot, hitting the very last meteor in the formation.
"Just a little bit more!" Michael said.
But as he looked around, there were no more meteors left. The entire ten-man Flarecorp army was defeated.
"NO!" Michael said, almost kicking the ground angrily.