Reaching mycelia territory, Silas finally allowed himself a rest. He had hared through the ratkin land, avoiding as many ratmen as he could but throwing caution to the wind whenever stealth would hold him back for too long. By the fact they all appeared bewildered by his mad sprint, he figured Hel’Tier’s body hadn’t been found yet. Despite this, he knew it would only be a matter of time before the murder was discovered; he was certain that someone would notice the missing name on the citizen’s list, and if not that, that the sorcerers would soon realise because of some tracking spell they had active or whatever. They seemingly had spells for everything else, so a life-tracking one wasn’t too out there.

But at least here they could no longer surround him and trap him since he had already escaped the ratkin encirclement. He was hoping that the mycelia would be as harmless as before, even better if they were allies now. Josh should have made contact with the prophet sometime ago, and although Silas couldn’t guess at the conclusion of their meeting, he could still pray that it had ended with a good outcome. All he wanted to do now was return to Riverside and relay all the critical information that he had gathered, particularly the fact that the ratkin had spies sneaking around wearing human skin.

Silas’s rest was cut short, however, when he spotted a dark smudge in the distance, shooting in his direction through the skies. At first, he thought it was Bandit, feeling relieved since the owl would be a welcome ally while he journeyed back, but his sense of ease crumbled down when he realised that it wasn’t Bandit’s silhouette. There were no wings, instead only a trembling rectangular outline as if it was a person wearing loose clothes which billowed in the wind.

Blinking, Silas narrowed his eyes and stared again, this time identifying the loose clothes as a robe, a rich burgundy with gilded details. In the next second, he made out the figure to be a thin ratman. Since they had their cowl down, he noticed they had a disfigured face which lacked hair, making it look all the more freakier with its broken nose, pinched skin, and numerous face-splitting scars. Its thin pink tail flapped about from below its robe, swinging like a pendulum.

By now, the sorcerer was only a hundred metres away, and although Silas had yet to feel its aura, he had a very good idea of who it was from their attire and the speed at which they were cruising through the sky. Fortunately, he was in an area with plenty of cover under trees and beside bushes, so he dashed to a particularly thick tree and hid himself from Xe’Hekon’s line of view. While it was troubling to have the E-5 rated ratman so near, he could only hope that Xe’Hekon was here for something other than him. Unlikely, sure, but perhaps he truly was just flying over, in which case Silas saw no reason to hastily engage the powerful sorcerer.

Although he could no longer see Xe’Hekon from his hiding spot, he felt the sorcerer’s aura brush against his skin as the ratman drew closer. Silas eagerly watched the skies, waiting for the ratman’s figure to flit past, while his ears listened to the general noises of the forest. Suddenly, they picked up on an ear-piercing electric hum from above, and immediately Silas knew there was no point in hiding any longer. He had no idea how the sorcerer had so accurately located him, but there was no doubt now that the ratman was here to hunt him down.

He raced out from his cover and glanced up, spotting Xe’Hekon at the same time the sorcerer spotted him. There were giant balls of light floating in the air beside the Starfall, their numbers growing rapidly by the second. They were as blindingly bright as the suns beyond, and they radiated enough heat for Silas to feel them from the ground. He picked up the pace just in time as they began to plunge to the earth, streaking down and crashing into the ground. As they exploded, they violently splashed molten liquid around them, causing foul fires to rage up all around Silas.

While he was agile enough to avoid direct hits, he couldn’t help but be affected by the collateral secondary attacks. Lava splashed onto his runified barrier, draining his mana at a dangerous rate, threatening to scorch the bodysuit below. The surrounding heat only rose further as more lavabombs fell with ardent zeal. It was no wonder Xe’Hekon had become E-5 rated so quickly; he had enough firepower to melt legions of men by himself.

Peering up, Silas saw Xe’Hekon resting in a cross-legged position, watching the damage below with cold eyes. There was no emotion on his face, no curling of the lips, no passion in the eyes. Rather, the sorcerer looked stoic as if he was crushing an insect under his foot instead of barraging a forest with fiery missiles. Even worse, there seemed to be no slowdown to the rate at which these lavabombs formed. This, combined with Xe’Hekon’s leisurely attitude, made Silas realise that he would only be a fool if he waited for Xe’Hekon to drain himself before doing anything. Instead, he needed to take the offensive right away - that much was clear - but how?

Even now, Xe’Hekon was floating thirty metres in the air, completely out of reach. Silas had a bow on his back, but he wasn’t near skilled enough to nock and accurately fire arrows while under this kind of pressure. He also had Retil’s spear, which he could accurately lob at Xe’Hekon, but it was unlikely to do much considering the powerful mana barrier this sorcerer undoubtedly possessed. Committing to a spear throw was also only a onetime measure since he was unlikely to regain it afterwards, but what other options did he have?

Arching his back, his muscles bunched, then sprung, the spear shooting out of his grasp towards the ratman. It crossed the distance between them in a tense moment and rammed against Xe’Hekon’s mana barrier before falling spiritlessly, having achieved nothing. This finally coloured the sorcerer’s hideous face with emotion as he drew the spear back to him using telekinesis, a sneer taking to his lips. “I find it hard to believe that you are the one who killed my master, but I guess it truly must be. How pitiable.”

Silas gritted his teeth and swallowed his response, face taut with desperation. No matter how fast he ran, the firebombs continued to come after him, refusing him any rest. He wished he had a rifle on him now so that he could score the sorcerer’s arrogant face full of bullet holes, but it seemed that was too much to ask for.

“Why did you run all the way here?” Xe’Hekon continued. “Did you think the prophet would help you? I have heard tales that your lesser races are working together. But I’m sorry to inform you that no help is coming. Do you know why that is?”

It was then Silas realised that the sorcerer was slowly drifting towards him. There was a giant tree near to where Xe’Hekon was cruising towards. Was it possible?

Silas abruptly turned and charged for the tree, jumping off the ground, followed by a rapid clamber up the tree trunk before leaping again, finally gaining enough height to come level with the sorcerer. He was flying through the air with his machete flashing when suddenly he was caught in a giant telekinetic hand, mere metres away from Xe’Hekon.

“Because he fears me,” Xe’Hekon answered, giving no care to the fact they were in the middle of a fight. “He is not interested in losing his clones, and there is nothing but death waiting for him here.” Even while Silas struggled to escape, Xe’Hekon came closer and pointed a foot towards his chest. “Breaking Stones.”

The foot rammed into his chest, driving down with such force that they both streaked to the ground like a lavabomb. They landed in an explosion of dirt, Silas retching out from below and then gasping for air. His mana barrier had shattered from the overwhelming force, and both his front and back stung with agonising pain. There was no doubt that his rib cage had been broken in several areas as well since it felt like his whole chest was churning together in a raw mixture of bones and organs.

Meanwhile, Xe’Hekon hopped off of him with a grin, his incisors cracked and yellowed. “Well, it would appear you are tougher than a stone, at least. Let’s see if a second try will do the trick.”

Although Silas could hardly hear anything by this point, he instinctively felt something was wrong when he felt his body rising again, the giant telekinetic hand picking him up. Even though his mana barrier was broken, he still had enough mana left to cast his abilities.

Luminous Land

His level 10 ability dulled the pain at once as his brain came jammed with copious amounts of information about his surroundings, the ratman looming over him, the giant telekinetic hand holding him, his machete lying some lengths away. Silas pushed his arms against the telekinetic hand, using the motion to propel him as he slid out of its grip. Landing on the ground, he immediately made for his machete, sidestepping the hand as it tried to catch him again.

Armed once more, he spun on the spot and charged the ratman who was soaring up by the second, but not fast enough as Silas buckled his knees and leapt, gaining height quicker than the sorcerer. His Weakness Vision allowed him to see the vulnerabilities in the mana barrier, allowing him to strike it just in the right spot to create a hole. It was too strong to shatter from a single strike, but he didn’t need that as his arm shot through the hole like a lunging snake, wrapping around Xe’Hekon’s leg.

Gravity pulled Silas back down to the earth and with him came a ruffled sorcerer, trying to cast Breaking Stones again but failing to hit his target as Silas shifted aside just in time. Both landing back on the ground, Xe’Hekon reformed his mana barrier to erase the hole and turned to the human with venomous eyes. His lavabombs started falling again from the sky, all heading for Silas.

The human in question spat out a mouthful of blood and closed the distance to the sorcerer, allowing his vicious anger to overwhelm the dreadful pain. He could tell Xe’Hekon was trying to fly up again, and it seemed the Starfall thought his prior attack on the mana barrier had been a fluke as the ratman was repeating the same thing as before, only this time he was lower down. Sneering, Silas charged him once more, seeing the flashing spots in the mana barrier and attacking precisely and rapidly, more holes forming in the barrier which finally caused it to shatter from the strain.

Xe’Hekon tried to push him away, but the sorcerer’s strength was a joke beside the Duellist’s. Silas grabbed an outstretched arm and yanked him closer, spitting a glob of blood into his eyes. As it dribbled down the pinched skin, Silas looked up and saw the lavabombs heading for him. He grinned and just as the first of them reached him, he used all the power in his arms to fling Xe’Hekon right into its path. He turned and sprinted away immediately after, feeling globs of lava melting down the back of his bodysuit as he ran.

Given the number of lavabombs barraging down, it was a good minute of dodging for his life and hoarsely gasping obscenities before he was allowed to return to Xe’Hekon. The sorcerer was charred with dark, claggy flesh dripping down his bones, somehow still mewling mindlessly. The whole thing stunk to the high heavens.

Silas stepped forward and swung low, beheading Xe’Hekon in a single stroke. Like master, like student. In fury, he then booted the head away, kicking it into the burnt forest for it to decay underbrush. Luminous Land had guzzled the last of his mana some moments before, and as such he currently handled the pain of his crushed chest through willpower alone. He was thoroughly drained. Although he wanted to bend his back double and lie down, he knew he couldn’t show any weakness now, so he did his best to wheel about smoothly on the spot.

He glared around at the newcomers, who slowly made their way through the charred forest from different directions, having hidden for the duration of the fight. From one side came the prophet, another side an ogre, another side a fiery-headed troll of some sort, and the last side a giant lizardman which towered over all of them.

“Did you enjoy the show then?” Silas grated through his blood-stained teeth. He wiped his machete against his ruined bodysuit and pointed it against them, one by one.