Point-of-View: Fuo Wesroh

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  "Damn you……I will kill you!" Exclaimed the Earth Sage furiously, as he unleashed his Sage Mode and began to step towards Key with a look of seething rage in his eyes, even as his body trembled with pain.

  He then quickly halted and spun around as Rai landed a few meters behind him and flung his chained blade at the Earth Sage, lightning running through it as it cut through the air towards him.

  The Earth Sage managed to respond in time, a pillar of earth rising up and blocking the attack before it could strike him. The pillar then shattered into several sharp shards, the Earth Sage letting out a roar of fury as he swung his arm across, sending the shards flying rapidly towards Rai.

  Rai responded as fast as he could, leaping out of the way but failing to dodge all the projectiles, a few grazing his legs and one piercing through his knee, eliciting a stifled cry of pain from him, as he collapsed onto the ground, unable to stand up.

  Key began to move towards them with a look of alarm, as the Earth Sage formed several more sharp earth projectiles, aimed at Rai with a fierce glare……he's fighting quite well for someone who just lot an arm. Key won't be able to close the gap in time……but I can.

  Fully powered up, I rapidly swooped down while charging up a solar beam between my hands, landing right between Rai and the Earth Sage, before firing out the charged up beam right as the Earth Sage shot his projectiles.

  My beam wiped out his attack and carried on towards him, as he sprang back with a grimace and a thick wall of earth rose up in front of him, which absorbed my attack.

  He then zipped around the wall, manipulating the ground beneath himself to move around rapidly, as he sent a wave of earth spikes rising up towards me.

  I swiftly flew up to avoid it, glancing back to see that Key had jumped in and pulled Rai out of the way, the two of them getting some distance away……good thinking, I should draw the Earth Sage away from where the battle is concentrated, otherwise more people will get caught up in his attacks.

  I took aim as I formed an ice arrow, before firing it at him, which he easily deflected with a chunk of earth swung up and across at the arrow. I then used my Levitate Cross to grab hold of a chunk of loose earth behind him, and with a flick of my wrist, swung it up and struck the back of his head, eliciting an alarmed yelp from him.

  Because of the distance, there wasn't much force behind it, at least not as much as I'd have liked, but I got the intended effect. I'd managed to provoke him and land a hit on him, and as a result, his attention was now fixated on me……if I slowly back away while continuing to attack, he'll probably think I'm running away and follow after me, which will draw him away from the crowd.

  I formed an ice boomerang and swung it down at him, he looked confused by its trajectory as it went wide, before his eyes widened as it suddenly curved in towards him, he quickly raised an earth pillar but he'd predicted the line of the trajectory wrong.

  The boomerang slipped past his defense and gashed his left side, he winced in pain as blood began pouring out of the wound, before giving me a fierce glare and firing several spikes up towards me.

  I flew out of the way, and sure enough, he followed after me, his anger getting the better of him. Hm, an Elemental Sage's life force would probably give me a significant boost in power, but……Kuro had instructed us to only capture enemies that were blindly loyal to Sant.

  Specifically, that would entail almost exclusively Fairies only, with maybe a few others from the other three races. As for the rest, he told us to kill them, though if they start to retreat, spare them, even if that includes the Elemental Sages.

  Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this guy is going to give up. Maybe I should try taunting him a bit……

  "Hey, are you really an Elemental Sage? You don't seem all that strong!" I exclaimed, as he continued to fire projectiles up at me, and I continued to evade them.

  "Tch, say what you want, I look forward to seeing how your expression changes when I defeat you!" He snapped in response, as a mountain of massive earth spikes rapidly rose up towards me.

  It's no use, I'm well out of his range, at this height I can easily dodge anything that he throws at m……my eyes suddenly widened in alarm as he rose up along one of his earth spikes, leaping off of it as he reached the peak of his range……

  But since he was no longer on the ground, his range had increased as he rose up……not good! Several narrow and sharp earth spikes burst out towards me, several grazing me as I evaded as fast as I could, wincing in pain as I felt cuts appear all over my body.

  My orb of artificial moonlight is halfway at its limit, and once it disappears, my power will drop significantly. I have to finish this before then, I can't let this fight drag out!

  I closed my eyes and focused, and right as several earth spikes closed in on me, my eyes swung open as I burst out a power shockwave of solar energy from my body, shattering and blowing away all the incoming projectiles.

  I then quickly used Levitate to grab hold of the broken pieces and flung them towards the Earth Sage with as much force as I could possibly generate, a look of alarm in his eyes as he leapt off of the column he'd been perched on, jumping onto another one.

  He may have extended his range by coming up here, but all he did was boost his offense……while depleting his defense and mobility. He can't move around freely at this height but I can……the way I see it, so long as I don't give him a chance to attack, I win.

  I shot towards him as he narrowly evaded the projectiles, as I formed two ice spears and flung them both down in his direction, one straight at him, and the other missing and flying past him.

  He managed to deflect the first one before refocusing his attention on me, looking like he was about to launch an attack, when I suddenly swung my arm up……and used Levitate to grab hold of the second ice spear that had 'missed' and rapidly pulling it back up towards him.

  At the last second, he realized what I was doing and spun around, raising a small chunk of earth and tilting his head across in alarm. The spear struck the side of the earth chunk he'd raised and got slightly deflected grazing the right side of his face, nicking the top of his right ear.

  "Gotcha!" I exclaimed triumphantly, as I closed in on him from behind, my fist drawn back.

  "Damn it……oof!" He began in alarm, before I struck his face with all my strength, my fist making contact with immense force and sending him rapidly plummeting down towards the ground.

  I grabbed the ice spear as it came falling down and swooped down after him, the ground beneath him appearing to soften right before he slammed onto it with a devastating impact, a massive dust cloud bursting out as he crashed.

  Most of those that he'd been leading were frozen in shock, and from the looks in their eyes, their already weak resolve and will to fight was fading fast. If he's not dead, I'll give him one chance to retreat with his troops……he can take it or leave it, doesn't matter to me. Well, this is all assuming that he actually survived that, of course.

  As the dust began to clear and I closed in on where he'd landed, I heard a weak whimper below me……wow, color me impressed, he actually survived that. And sure enough, he'd softened the ground, he was laying in a bed of sand, but from the look of it, he'd still taken on some pretty severe damage, coughing out blood.

  I landed above him and pointed the tip of my ice spear at his eye, inches away from it, as he stiffened in response.

  "Don't try anything, if I feel the ground so much as shift the tiniest amount, I'll plunge this right into your head through your eye, got it?" I remarked coldly, before continuing, "Now, then, I'll give you a choice. Listen carefully, because I'll only say this once……leave here immediately, retreat with your troops. I can tell that most of you don't want to be here……tell me, is it really worth throwing away your lives for a cause that you aren't even commited to? Well, is it!?"

  "I……what do you expect, we are not like you humans, we cannot simply betray-!" He began to respond.

  "It's funny, from our perspective, looking at your expressions, it honestly looks like you were the ones that were betrayed by Laus. I don't understand……is someone like that really worth dying for!?" I exclaimed, in a loud enough voice for most of the others to hear as well.

  "That is……I do not……," He trailed off with a conflicted look on his face.

  "This is your last chance to decide……choose, will you die meaninglessly alongside all these others who you've led to their deaths, or will you retreat and live, all of you?" I inquired in an icy tone.

  "I-I cannot even move, I."

  "Now you're just making excuses. Can't your races activate spells freely? Just heal yourself. I'll ask you once more……which will you choose? A meaningless death? Or to keep living on?"

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  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism!

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