Nerissa couldn't tell why the battle became even more intense but her cshes with the two water mages were gradually sending them to the sky in water spouts. Their columns spiraling around each other in a dance, shards of broken ice flying in all directions in every spark of attack or defense as two faced one.

  A dozen mana pressurized water spearheads was sent her way fast. She tried dodging them, blocking the ones she could but few got past, one tearing at the side of her neck, drawing blood. She barely felt the pain at the moment. These two are not low mages, and right now, she's struggling to stay alive.

  Seeing that their opponent was struggling, the two mages used mana to increase their speed, hoping to finish her quick but Nerissa sped up too, defending most of their attacks and reducing the fatal ones to shallow wounds. She won't be able to st long, she realize that, but then, out of nowhere a purple ethereal chain swiftly wrapped itself around one of the mages when they were hitting her with barrage of attacks from their sharp, short ice bdes, and yanked her away with a loud startled yelp.

  The other retreated a bit, looked down to check on what happened to her companion, only to see her fighting against the lost demon of Drakoria.

  Her senses tingled and she quickly raised water up from her spout, freezing it immediately. Multiple water spears bombarded the ice shield, shattering it, only for her to see Lady Dragonhart, so close, her arm already set up for a heavy punch. Only it wasn't just a punch. It was an ice cw glove, and it was aiming straight at her head.

  She tilted back quickly, missing the bdes by mere inches, but at the st second, it extended. She should have expected it to extend. It cwed viciously at her face, her cry of agony rending the air, but at the same time, out of instinct, she directed a surge of heavy water at the dy, smming her squarely on the gut, pushing her back.

  They both stood, staring at each other in silence, the heavy chaos of the battle echoing loudly around them.

  Turning ice into mana pressurized water that fast is an impossible feat, the mage thought, her face burning from the wounds. Her left eye blinded and filled with blood, having had a bde gone through it. Always expect the unexpected.

  A loud sm, above the chaos of the battle, resounded beneath them. Darting their attention to it, with a side eye keeping check on each other they saw the second mage struggling against the lost demon of Drakoria. It was as if the witch have 8 more hands with the sharp bde end chains she had conjured, and her companion was struggling against them.

  She brought her gaze back to the King's mother, held for a second, then swiftly with a dive down. Her water spout speeding down, she weaved herself out of it, her hands poised as if preparing for a mighty swing. And when she swung, the water spout immediately turned into hundreds of mana pressurized water spearheads and came raining down towards the witch.

  The witch pushed the second mage with an energy bst, sending her feet scrapping several feet backward, and at the same time her hand was drawing a big circle, facing the fast coming attack that seemed locked on her. Purple smoke followed every trace of her hand as she drew, and when it seemed like she wouldn't be able to complete it in time, at the very st second, the ends connected and the spears disappeared into the void.

  Loud rapid and incessant spttering sound filled the air above the battle. In the very spot where the second mage had once stood, she now y face down, a dark purple void hovering ominously behind her from which the disappeared hundreds of mana pressurized spears were rushing from, relentlessly and viciously barraging her body, turning it to a crumpled mass of flesh and blood.

  Her companion hit the ground with a resounding thud, visibly shaken by the fall, but not enough from gliding herself far away as icicles hit the pce she had been just a second ago.

  Wearily, she regained her footing, her breaths coming in heavy gasps as the King's mother nded with a spsh beside the witch. They stood, staring at each other in a stand off. The mage cast a quick gnce at her companion's irrecognizeable corpse then back at the two. She began taking steps back, eyes still on them, and when she was sure they weren't going to attack, she turned and disappeared into the chaos of the battle.

  As they watched the water mage disappear into the battlefield, Nerissa observed that the tides of battle seem to be changing. The numbers of Ulric's army are getting pushed back.

  "...what is going on?" Nerissa muttered in utter disbelief to herself more than to anyone else.

  "What is going on?" she said again, but now to Helene.

  "The King" Helene answered. "He has gone mad"

  ┌─────── ? ───────┐

  [Name : Daran Dragonhart]

  [Css : King]

  [Level : 11]

  [Attack : 63 ? 30]

  [Defense : 95 ? 30 ]

  [Agility : 52 ? 30]

  [Stamina : 64 ? 30]

  [Skills: Appraisal; Copy; Water arts; Grimoire ; Blood arts; Mana arrow]

  There was finally hope.

  After I killed the wind mage, I felt, for a brief second, the rexing feeling of something been lifted off me, and then a notification popped up, telling me I have leveled up. True to it's words there was a [+3] to all stats. If I knew it was this easy...

  So I went on a killing spree. With each lightning spell, I struck down hundreds, and sometimes thousands. Soldiers of Drakoria were implicated too but it didn't kill them. At least not at first. The moment I pick a victim, the rest get attacked by my soldiers.

  With this we started cutting down their numbers, pushing them back. Confidence grew and I was feeling myself getting stronger fast. It was exhirating. It reached a point where many did not stand back up from my lightning barrage. Either critically injured or instant death. I was in heaven and I didn't want the battle to end. I saw myself becoming the continent's strongest in a matter of hours but then, I realized that the more I leveled up, the more people I needed to kill for the next level up. It became tedious, especially after I reached Level 10. To make matters worse, much stronger opponents started coming for me,trapping me in a small circle of my strongest knights. When that didn't stop the lightning, they started creating a purple dome over the battlefield.

  The first one got shattered easily, and so did the second, but the third one? I saw dozens of purple beams shooting up to create the dome. None of my lightning could go through. They must have used their entire witches to form that. I know the spell, and I know that casting it leaves you...occupied, unable to cast any other thing else. Smart sacrifice. Soon they will be pushing us back again, and this time around I can't do anything about it. We need to end this fast.

  I kept on watching the intense exchanges and that's when it came to me. I checked, and surely all of the knights had it.

  I tapped on one of the knights who turned to me.

  "What is Guardian Sacrifice?" I asked and watched the blood drain from his face and a collective unease rippled through the other knights at the mention of those words.