The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 153

Chapter 153

Chapter 153: A Normal Soldier

Multiple battles going on at once, the sound of metal clashing and spells firing resonant in the air. The musty stench of burning wood overwhelmed all other smells as a thin layer of smoke surrounded us.

However, despite the chaos, my battle with the augmenter seemed confined—almost isolated—as if the soldiers around us deliberately left us alone. Whether the people nearby were too focused on their own fights or if there was some sort of illusion put in place, I couldn’t quite tell, but it left me with more questions.

Just from the short exchange I had with this augmenter and his helper, now just barely a yards away, I could tell that their fighting tactics were fundamentally different than ours. The conjurer manifested a thin veil of mana around the augmenter’s body at his command. While my opponent’s injuries remained, he no longer looked fatigued as he rose from his knee with renewed vigor.

With a click of his tongue, he peeled his eyes from me and focused his gaze elsewhere. It was obvious he was signaling to someone else, but he was looking in a different direction from where the conjurer that’d protected him was.

With a stern nod, his gaze fell back to me. Mana enveloped his hands into the same claw-shaped form as before and just as he readied himself to attack, the faint hiss grew louder behind me confirmed my suspicion.

Remembering my mana interpretation training with Myre back in Epheotus, I was tempted to activate Realmheart to finish this off quickly but decided against anything that’d draw too much attention to myself.

I whipped around in time to see a blast of fire hurtling toward me. Condensing a gale of wind to spiral around my hand like a drill, I dispersed the fire spell only to pivot away from the augmenter’s strike immediately. The moss-covered roots nearby caught on fire from the scattered embers of the conjurer’s spell. The once lush clearing within the forest was turning into a pit of blood and fire as more and more soldiers on both sides began piling on the ground.

The augmenter’s movements were rather concise and well-coordinated despite the uneven terrain, but years of sparring against Kordri had made his attacks seem sluggish. The augmenter landed deftly, his mana claws only hitting air.

“He was right. You’re not just some foot soldier,” he spat as he whirled back around in preparation to pounce on me once more.

Was he only capable of using those mana claws?

“He?” I asked, bewildered as to who could’ve possibly given him this information.

He remained silent and dashed toward me, using a tree stump as a foothold to leap off of with his mana claws poised to strike.

I positioned myself to meet the assault head on but when his claws were just inches away from my face, I withdrew my own fist and swayed to the left. I drove my fist toward the augmenter’s open ribs when the veil of mana surrounding his body gathered toward the area I had intended to attack.

My augmented fist was met with a solid thud before the mana barrier protecting my opponent’s ribs cracked. Just the force of my punch sent the augmenter tumbling to the ground, but when he got back up, there was only an expression of frustration, not pain.

I looked over my shoulder, focusing my gaze at the conjurer again. With his brows knitted in concentration and hands trembling, I could tell that he was the one that’d blocked my attack, not the augmenter. What confused me, and further defending my suspicion was how the soldiers around the conjurer seemed to ignore him—allies and enemies alike.

Is there really something like an illusion around us?

Just then, another fireball shot toward me but it was little more than an annoyance at this point. The spell had come from a different direction but I knew where the conjurer was hiding: fifty feet away directly ahead, positioned somewhere on top of a cluster of large moss-covered rocks.

“She’s over there, right?” I asked with a smirk, pointing in her direction.

The augmenter’s face paled but he remained silent. He pulled himself up to his feet with the help of a nearby tree despite his fatigue, desperation evident on his rugged face. Keeping his deep set eyes locked on mine, he clapped his hands just once. As soon as he did, multiple images of the augmenter began forming around me, resolving my suspicion—there was illusion or deceptive magic involved.

Soon, there was at least a dozen figures of the augmenter all in different—very life-like—poses, all ready to attack.

I looked at the illusions manifested around me, noticing that both Dicathen and Alacryan soldiers were unaware of what was happening, and let out a stifled laugh.

“This is funny?” the augmenter growled, his voice coming from all of the clones as well.

“I’m sorry,” I sighed, still smiling. Looking up, I surveyed the dozen or so augmenters, all with glowing mana claws that couldn’t be distinguished from one another. “Thanks to this illusion, I can let loose a little.”

Poking my conscious deep into my mana core, I activated Realmheart. A burst of mana exploded out of me as my vision faded into an achromatic state. I could feel the comfortable warmth as the glowing runes flowed down my arms and my back while my long hair began shining with a twinge of silvery hue rather than turning completely white.

The clones that had once seemed identical in my normal state were now no more than clusters of mana shaped into the form of a man. All but one appeared to be a mass of white mana particles. What surprised me was that the illusion wasn’t invoked by the hidden conjurer but the ‘shield.’

Locking my gaze on the augmenter, it was obvious from his expression that he knew there was something dreadfully oppressing about me. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he regarded me with fearful perplexity. Ignoring his wariness, the augmenter—along with all of his clones—dashed toward me.

At the same time, the mage conjured another blast of fire—larger, this time—in sync with the augmenter’s assault. Raising my output of mana, I ignored the illusions of the augmenter and aimed for the real augmenter’s mana claws head on, shattering his spell. Grabbing a tight hold of his exposed hand, I used his momentum to redirect him toward the fire blast.

I caught a glimpse of my opponent’s eyes widening in horror before being struck by the full brunt of his ally’s spell.

Several layers of barriers attempted to protect the augmenter but they all shattered from the force of the blast. Still, the augmenter’s life was preserved thanks to that.

The illusory clones flickered before disappearing as I turned my attention toward the conjurer hiding in the tree.

Wordlessly, I raised my left arm and coalesced mana into the tips of my fingers.

“Shiel—Cayfer! Protect Maylin!” the augmenter roared, still struggling to get up from the ground.

The conjurer named Cayfer that the augmenter had referred to as ‘shield’ nodded furiously as I finished preparing my spell. Jagged vines of electricity coiled down my arm like a serpent, gathering at the tips of my index and middle finger.

CEDRY