Miri and Hugo continued battling it out in the ritual room, a magical clash of epic proportions. Hugo continued bombarding Miri from a distance with an onslaught of spells—alternating between his Sundering Stalagmite and his summons. In addition to Summon Wolf, Hugo also had Summon Hawk at his disposal, which he would use in tandem to put pressure on Miri from all sides.
As soon as the crazed man sent out another wave of his summons—releasing two wolves and three hawks, both formed with a purple ethereal matter—Miri tried defeating them by matching each of her spells with their respective elemental weaknesses, Flame Orbs against the wolves and Shock Orbs against the hawks. Then, switching up her tactics a little, she decided to use Traversing Wind to close in on Hugo before blasting him point-blank with a Crescent Arc—one that hit him right at his flank, where his Fortified Shield was too slow to defend.
The wave of energy was strong enough to knock the man up against a wall. However, as soon as he regained his footing, he quickly retaliated with another spell—Hammer of Titan—conjuring an incredibly large hammer made of orange energy in his hand and attempting to slam it at Miri.
The mage was able to back away from the first strike of the hammer, which was a downward swing that slammed into the ground, creating a sizable crack upon impact. However, the resulting tremor from the hammer slam was just enough to throw Miri’s balance off for a brief vulnerable moment, allowing Hugo to follow up with another hammer strike—this time swinging upward. The second hammer strike bashed into Miri’s gut, sending her flying backwards and skidding across the ground in a ragdolling tumble.
“Miri!” Anne yelled, rushing towards her redheaded companion.
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Miri felt as though all the air was knocked out of her lungs from that attack. A sharp sting of pain radiated from her chest and she was soon coughing up blood. Hugo saw the mage in her vulnerable state and decided to finish the job by leaping up in the air towards her with a heavy downward swing of his hammer.
However, right before the attack was able to land, Anne stepped in between Hugo and Miri and raised her Protective Ward up—shielding Miri from the blow. The resulting recoil of the block sent Hugo flying backwards, giving the two women some breathing space for the moment.
“Anne…what are you doing…I told you to stay back…” Miri said, coughing mouthfuls of blood in between her words.
“You don’t get to decide whether I stay back or not!” Anne snapped, casting Vital Healing to mend the mage’s injuries. Within just a brief moment, Miri’s excruciating chest pain was pretty much lifted from her body, the broken bones and ruptured organs restored to a healthy condition. “If you’re fighting, I’m fighting with you! We’re doing this together!”
Anne offered Miri a hand and Miri took it, pulling herself back up from the ground. “Yep, no way of convincing you otherwise,” Miri said with a smirk. “Even so, this guy is tough to beat. I tried hitting him with everything I’ve got, but this bastard can take quite a bit of punishment. Even if we work together, we might not be able to take him down.”
“There’s got to be some way to defeat him,” Anne said, gazing at their enemy with a look of concern. “I’ve noticed that he hadn't drunk any mana potions during the entire battle so far. How was he able to cast that many high-powered spells without replenishing his mana? Where is his source of mana coming from?”
Isaiah was listening in on their conversation and began searching his memory in regards to the notes, hoping to recall any tidbit of information that might provide them with some insight. Then, in the middle of his thought process, as he glanced at the bright yellow gem hung high up at the room’s ceiling, he suddenly remembered something important—something that could turn the tide of the battle.
