<"Take them all alive and don’t let the Tyrant escape. He will make a fine gladiator in our arena and an interesting specimen in our labs."> The elf lord said (AN: in elvish, ofc).
"What do we do?" Morok had no idea what those words meant, but he didn’t like the sound of them nonetheless.
Suddenly, all those ballerinas that were slowly surrounding them from every side seemed to have become aware of his existence.
Quylla cursed their bad luck and not being Awakened as she took her Forgemastering Wand out of her dimensional item and established a mind link with everyone to not waste time talking.
’We fight or we die, no third option. If they capture us, escape would be impossible. Every one of those guys is at least as strong as an academy professor and judging from their equipment, they have no lack of resources.
’Our only hope is to take them down while they still underestimate us. Nalrond, you focus on recovering and pull us out of the Fringe as soon as you can. Friya, you and I must buy some time.’ Quylla thought.
’What about me?’ Morok asked.
’You should leave. One date isn’t worth such a risk. Please, if we don’t make it, tell Faluel what’s happened. She’s the only one with the kind of power necessary to break us out from any prison.’
Nalrond used a healing spell from one of his magic holding rings to force the short arrows out of his back, even though enhancing his metabolism also meant to hasten the spreading of the poison they were imbued with.
He couldn’t fully heal himself nor cleanse the poison without becoming so weak that he would need to rest. There was no time nor need for that. He shapeshifted into his Rezar’s body that not only was unscathed, but also had such a huge mass that neutralizing the effects of the now diluted poison barely affected his vitality.
The elves reacted to his metamorphosis by pointing their short swords at the group and encasing them inside hard-light walls.
Elves had no Awakened among their ranks, but all of them were capable of using true magic. Actually, they were incapable of Awakening without exploding like an overinflated balloon.
Their mana cores weren’t faulty like those of monsters, undead, or Abominations, nor did they lack the ability to perceive the world energy. Elves couldn’t Awaken because they were blessed by a very high affinity toward all the elements that didn’t match the strength of their bodies.
There was a reason why magical beasts were limited to two elements and they needed to evolve into much more powerful forms to wield them all. Otherwise their bodies wouldn’t be able to endure the surge of world energy that Awakening caused.
The two elements limit of the beasts was akin to what impurities were for humans, a protection rather than a harmful restraint. Elves, however, were born with perfect bodies that wouldn’t produce any impurity, allowing them to freely channel mana and to live up to one thousand years.
On top of that, their mana cores would naturally evolve up to bright blue over time, making it impossible for them to survive the Awakening process without the intervention of an entity whose power rivaled with the Guardians.
’I could Blink outside the cage, but those elves and their glowing eyes remind me of Lith’s Life Vision.’ Friya thought. ’As Quylla said, we only have one shot at this.’
’She’s no Awakened and she had no spell at the ready.’ M’Rael studied Friya from a distance, to coordinate his units akin to what Solus did for Lith. ’The spell she used against my soldier belonged to dimensional magic, but what can she hope to achieve with chore magic?’
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