City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Chapter 257: Battle of Mages

Zela
 
{Shields of Ahasin} {Dispel}
 
I cast the two spells again to deal with the barrage of water lances and water tentacles coming from below to at me.
 
I cast the spells and moved with the Aqua Glide. Staying in one place is a mistake in front of an enemy like him. Countless times, he had nearly had me and would have, if not for my trusted dispel magic.
 
It is the spell I had cast most of my life.
 
The place where I learned magic wasn’t a place specialized in it. It is an academy with a small magic program. 
 
I had to scrap for every morsel of magical knowledge, from those teachers, who didn’t have much of a foundation themselves.
 
The day I got the Scholar Class was the best day of my life. It is because of that; that I was able to get a job at Great Mage Ursula’s tower.
 
I was a lowly scholar and Dispel was the first spell I had learned there. It was to dispel the spell of novice mages when they got out of control.
 
It was a boring job, but I loved it, because of everything I was learning. It is because of it; that I was able to advance my class to Magic Scholar and had a dream of becoming a mage scholar.
 
Years passed, and I was making steady progress until that fateful day.
 
I still have a memory of the burning tower; many of my friends and colleagues died there. Even the Great Mage Ursula had been slain by them; the only reason I had survived was because I was nobody and they had bigger targets to kill.
 
After that day, nearly every day was a struggle, till we escaped from the island and reached the shores of Zenid.
 
I had tried to forget what I had experienced, it was hard, and I had nightmares, but I had started to make progress till today. This mage attacking me had brought back the memories I had been trying to forget for the past year.
 
The spells he is using and the way he is using them feel similar to the water mages that had attacked the tower.
 
I am not saying he is in that group, but his style felt quite similar to theirs. The spells also bear a lot of similarities.
 
The spells might be the same, but there is a difference between them. When mages reach Lv. 20; they start to tailor their spells based on their preference and environment.
 
Tailoring the spells is one of the perquisites to advance after Lv. 20. It is through this manipulation; that we gain mastery of the element, and consolidate at Lv. 30, where we truly start the journey in our element.
 
This tailoring becomes a signature of every mage, and it is present in every spell they use. His signature felt familiar.
 
{Dispel}
 
I cast the spell again to dispel the thorns coming from above.
 
The Mage is more powerful than me; a true Lv. 30. The difference between our levels may seem short, but the gap between Lv. 30 Mage and those below is pretty big.
 
Consolidation brings tremendous benefits.
 
The only reason I am even able to defend against him is because of the experiences I had after that day.
 
Where surviving every day was a struggle, every bottle of potion was scarce. One would need to rely on their own mana. They have and use it as efficiently as possible. It was hard, as sometimes, I would need to fight several battles with a horde.
 
The hordes were relentless; there is no escape from them unless you truly destroy them.
 
It forced me to utilize the natural mana around me more in my spells, which is far harder than using my own mana. Especially in an environment where there is no abundant mana like it is present here.
 
He might be a Lv. 30 Mage, but I am better than him in utilizing the elemental mana and it is the reason why I am alive right as well.
 
It was also because of my great familiarity with {Dispel} and the spells I have, especially the one Mr. Silver had given me. It is the first of three spells he had given me, which I am using constantly to defend the ship and myself from the enemy.
 
I am defending, but I won’t be able to do it forever.
 
I won’t be able to cast long if I keep casting the spell at this pace. I have already drunk the last mana potion; if I drink more, I will suffer the mana poisoning, but I don’t think I will have any choice.
 
In less than ten minutes, I will be completely empty and will need to drink a potion to sustain myself.
 
I could forget about getting any help; there won’t be any help, seeing everybody struggling on the ship. The only way this battle ends is if the enemy is also reaching the end of his mana reserve.
 
The enemy, being a Lv. 30, has bigger mana reserves, but seeing how big spells he is using one after another; he is expanding that rapidly.
 
Compared to him, my spells are more economical. 
 
It also helped that Captain Perry was an amazing Captain, who had made the enemy mage use lots of spells to defend against the cannons and saved the ship from drowning.
 
Especially from the second wave, which I had thought would upend the ship. I have seen many ships being sunk by such spells, but Captain Perry stops his ship from sinking.
 
However, he was not able to stop some people from getting thrown out of the ship.
 
With these factors, there is a chance that he is also low on mana, as I am.
 
However, I might be wrong, and he might have a mana absorption skill, that every mage desires or that priceless mana potion with emotional essence. Only one sip of it was said to be enough to fill the reserves fully, without suffering the burn.
 
{Water Lances}
 
I coordinated my attack with the cannon blasts from the ships and used Aqua Glide to move quickly across the water. Dodging the cage spell, appeared in the place where I was standing a second ago.
 
‘Why don’t you just accept my offer? The money I am offering is far more than what you will earn in a year,’ he said.
 
This is not the first time he has offered me money, and the amount is good. That some people in my place would have made the deal.
 
The only thing I have to do is let the few spells hit the ship. This way, I wouldn’t be implicated, and he would be able to achieve his target.
 
‘Not Interested.’ I said simply.
 
The money was good, but Mr. Silver had spent more on the spell books he had given me. Not to mention, he had helped me remove the curse and helped others deal with theirs.
 
Even if there weren’t all these benefits; I wouldn’t accept that.
 
Once the job is accepted, I will give my everything to finish it. 
 
I could get out of here as my life was in danger and the contract stipulated that I could escape in such a condition, without facing any repercussions, but I would not.
 
I like Silver and this job, despite the constant dangers me and my team face in it.
 
‘Then don’t blame me for doing this,’ he replied after a moment of silence and my Dangersence warned loudly and I shuddered, but reacted immediately with Aqua Glide.
 
I stopped one, and a half steps later, when I saw the spell materialize around me.
 
“Sphere of Daggers,” I muttered as the large sphere of watery daggers enveloped me. There are hundreds of daggers in it, all with icy tips; just looking at them, I felt pricks all over my body.
 
It is a dangerous Grade 3 spell: a spell only High-Mage like him could use. Powerful enough to butcher a group of hundred in seconds. 
 
Showing me why people shudder in fear whenever a mage of his caliber enters the battle.
 
‘Your senses are very good, able to sense all the spells I had attacked you with,’ he said with mirth in his voice.
 
Yes, I have good senses, but they can be fooled. He just did that.
 
‘Die,’ he said simply and cut the telepathic spell.
 
Sup Sup Sup
 
At the same time, the daggers in the sphere moved. They came at me with their icy tips, wanting to butcher me bloody.
 
They will, and even the armor I am wearing won’t be able to help me with it.
 
Though he had made a huge mistake to assume that I would die by it. Yes, it is a powerful spell, and I am scared of it, but I am not defenseless.
 
{Mirror of Sybaris}
 
I closed my eyes and activated the spell; I had not thought I would use in this battle. It is a second spell Mr. Silver had given to me and not a defensive spell, but a show spell.
 
I had only learned it because it is a free spell. 
 
The spell makes palm-sized beautiful mirrors of water. They shine beautifully and show one beautiful light. The girls of the establishment love it.
 
As for why, I had used this spell instead of the conventional defensive shields, because those daggers are extremely powerful, and using conventional defensive spells would use a lot of manas.
 
The structure of the spell is such that my defensive methods are weak against it. These daggers might pierce through them, with that second spell covering them.
 
Not to mention, those daggers are highly maneuverable, and they will slip through the gaps.
 
Mirror of Sybaris is a better choice. It is a modified show spell; those tiny mirrors are tougher than one would expect, and they are also highly maneuverable.
 
Once that was done, I closed my eyes to focus on the passive skill Water Sense. I got it at Lv. 20. It is my most favorite skill.
 
The mirrors materialized around me as the daggers reached me.
 
The first dagger came, and I moved the mirror moved it.
 
Ting Crack…
 
It crashed against the mirror and the water mirror made a cracking sound like a real mirror. Seeing that, a smile appeared on my face, because the mirror was able to stop the dagger.
 
I was thinking it might not be able to, but it did.
 
I couldn’t enjoy this small victory as tens of daggers came, and I moved the mirrors to defend against them and at the same time, while adding mana to heal the cracked mirrors.
 
I began defending against every dagger that came at me with those beautiful mirrors.
 
For a moment, I couldn’t help but feel grateful for those teens in the circle. Who constantly pestered me for this spell. It helped me a lot in getting familiar with this spell, which I had only learned to increase the number of spells in my collection.
 
If I had survived. I will practice this spell with the same zeal as I practice other spells and also thank those girls.
 
Puch!
 
I defended more than a hundred daggers when one was able to evade the mirrors and hit me.
 
It breached through the protective spell covering my body, before piercing through my shoulder. It went deep and cracked my bone.
 
It was painful, but I barely focused on it. All my focus is on defending against the daggers that are still coming at me.
 
They hit the beautiful mirrors, which stopped them.
 
I didn’t sense any daggers, and opened my eyes, feeling proud that I had defended against such a powerful spell, when suddenly, that smile on my face vanished.
 
“Bastard!” I cursed and moved toward the ship while pouring every bit of mana I had into my staff.
 
Sphere of daggers was a distraction; it kept enough busy that it could cast that spell on the ship. I can’t let him succeed or everyone will die. 
 
Mr. Silver and my friends.
 
This spell isn’t something they could defend against.

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