Wearing a full set of Vanadium armour, Jerion, Goap's First Great General, looked no different from an outstanding human general. He had a black hair, an attractive face with very accentuated cheekbones, a fit physique, a height of 190 centimeters.
Looking at Lawson, who was too afraid to turn to him, with his completely black eyes, he couldn't help smirking in amusement. He was aware how overwhelming his pressure was, but he didn't expect such a cowardly display from Lawson.
"You have a quite thick aura of death surrounding you. You must have killed a lot of us back in your prime," he remarked. "Where has that courage you got back then disappeared to?"
Not even twitching, Lawson kept silent. Jerion frowned at that, and started to suspect that Lawson was up to something.
He couldn't sense Mana fluctuation from Lawson however; he wasn't sure if Lawson was really preparing something. Shrugging lightly, he eventually decided to approach Lawson.
Tap. Tap.
"I am here."
As soon as he felt the tap on his shoulder and heard Lawson's voice behind him, a heavy Mana Pressure descended upon him. He immediately turned around and took a distance to properly defend himself.
He frowned upon looking at the scene unfolding in front of his eyes. There were twenty seven Mage that was consisted of Sixth and Seventh Circle Mages standing behind Lawson.
All of them were in a Magic Battle Formation. A gigantic Mana Structure of a stake was floating above them.
"Tsk! It has been days, but only now do you show yourself," Lawson said in dissatisfaction. "We were almost tired of waiting for you to show up, you know?"
"Heh... Clever humans." Jerion smirked.
Lawson had completely tricked Jerion. The Lawson he had seen, who was frozen in fear, was nothing more than an illusion produced by a High Grade Bewitchment Spell.
As soon as Lawson felt a strong presence closing in, he had immediately teleported himself, and left the illusion behind.
While Jerion was busy teasing the illusion, he prepared a Battle Formation with the other Mages before teleporting themselves back.
This had been planned since the second day of the battle. He and his colleagues had been aiming for this moment, which was why many of them had pretended to be dead and disappear from the battlefield to lure Jerion out.
They had noticed that to completely eradicate the Demons, they needed to kill the leader first. Jerion had been hiding himself for the past days, which was why they went with this plan.
"Release!"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtWhoosh!
As soon as Lawson gave the command, the Mana Structure of the stake floating above them was sent towards Jerion. Jerion covered himself with layers of Barrier, and embraced himself for impact.
"Darn it! If only that accursed person hadn't ruined my Mana Vein, I would not need to defend myself from such an unimpressive attack," Jerion muttered with a hint of annoyance.
BOOM!
In the next moment, his Barrier and the gigantic stake clashed against each other. The clash was stuck in a stalemate for a couple of seconds before the stake eventually broke a layer of his Barrier.
Shatter!
Scrunching up his nose, he clicked his tongue in irritation when the gigantic stake managed to gradually push him back while slowly destroying his Barrier layer by layer. He had expected it to happen, but he still found it hard to accept.
The clash was going on for another 15 seconds. The Mana Structure rapidly lost its power, and dispersed not long after.
At this point, Lawson and the Mages in the Formation were ready to launch another Spell. Jerion, however, was also ready to repay them for what they had done.
As Lawson and the others created hundreds of stone pillars with a fireball at their peak, Jerion materialized a black javelin that looked no different from an ordinary javelin.
Both of them had something in common, however, which was exuding a terrifying Mana Pressure.
This time, Jerion was the first one to send his attack. Throwing his black javelin, it ripped the air apart and went straight to the center of the Formation.
"Block!" Lawson shouted.
A hundred layers of Mana Barrier immediately protected all of the people inside the Formation like a dome. The javelin was stopped as soon as it made contact with the Barrier, but it was visibly destroying the layers.
Shatter!
Thinking that the javelin would soon penetrate through the Barrier, many of the people's eyes darkened.
"Don't be afraid! Believe in your ability!" Lawson exclaimed. "Now, discharge the fire!"
As soon as they heard the instruction, they infused their Mana into the Formation. The fireballs floating above the hundreds of stone pillars got bigger and shone brighter.
Just as Jerion's javelin stopped advancing, the fireballs were sent towards him. Clicking his tongue, he flashed through the ground, dodging all of the fireballs sent at him.
None of them could hit him, but being able to only dodge was undoubtedly humiliating for him. He knew, however, he would only melt if he ever decided to block one of them, so he held his blood from rising to his head.
Boom! Boom!
"He is pretty agile, isn't he?" Alcott, who was standing beside Lawson, remarked. "At this rate, we are going to destroy the capitol first before killing him."
"As long as we can prevent an enormous amount of death, it is worth it," Lawson replied. "I do still concern, however, if we will ever be able to kill him."
As their eyes darkened, the conversation ceased. With their experience, they could tel that although Jerion looked overwhelmed, he hadn't showed his power yet.
Buzz!
At that moment, everyone's Transmission Talisman went off. They were too focused on the battle however, so none of them really paid any attention to it, except for one person.
"Hm? A broadcast?" Alcott frowned. "What is—oh, jolly good! Hahaha!"
Hearing an elated laugh in a Formation was really rare because everyone tended to focus on maintaining it. Therefore, when they heard Alcott, who had heard the broadcast, laughing; they couldn't help getting curious.
Quickly taking out their Transmission Talisman, they listened to the broadcast. It was about the fall of Goap's Obelisk into the humanity's hands under Basil's lead.
Most of them were baffled and bewildered at first—they wondered how someone as young as Basil could achieve that much—but then smiled brightly in glee.
"Kuhahaha! Our Magic Institute has given birth to yet another Dragon!" Lawson exclaimed excitedly. "I wonder how Headmistress Jacinda will react to this information."
"To state it frankly though, we haven't taught many things to him," Alcott reminded. "He is just a first year, and I don't think it is right for us to take credit of his natural talent and diligence."
Uncaring to that, Lawson said, "Pfft. What is a first year? As soon as the Outbreak ends, I will immediately allow him to graduate!"
Shaking his head helplessly, Alcott ignored Lawson and focused on the battle once again. They stopped sending the absurdly hot fireballs at Jerion a few seconds after.
They found they had managed to scorch some part of his armor, which also charred his skin in return. Being a Demon, however, he could instantly heal it.
"Well, I think it is time to get serious." Jerion smirked as he cracked his neck. "Let's see how well a Battle Formation fares against an individual enemy."
Channeling his Demonic Mana into his feet, he dashed at Lawson and the others; deep trench was carved on the ground that he stepped on. He arrived in front of the Barrier in less than a second, and gave it a solid punch.
Boom!
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThe ground shook, and so did the Barrier much to everyone's surprise. Barriers didn't and would never shake—they would only shatter upon receiving an overwhelming blow—so they were quite worried of what had happened.
"Oh, no! Our connection is faltering!"
"Bloody hell! The Formation is getting unstable!"
Their worry turned out to be true: Jerion had done something to their Barrier and their Formation. They tried their best to keep it together, but rather than succeeding, the situation only got worse.
Judging that the Formation could no longer be maintained, Lawson shouted, "Everyone, scatter and create three new formations with me, Alcott, and Brayden!"
"Excuse me, Master Lawson, but why me?!" Brayden, the current youngest professor of Randalvine Magic Institute exclaimed.
Lawson, of course, wasn't having it; ignoring Brayden, as the center of the Formation, he broke out of it first. He shot to the south, and eight people immediately followed him. Alcott also didn't stay idle as he followed suit in the next second.
"This is utter bollocks!"
Looking at that, Brayden almost shed tears of frustration. He, of course, didn't want to die, so he immediately shot to the north, bringing eight people with him to create a smaller Formation.
Jerion looked at the scene in interest and wondered which Formation he should aim first. He was going to with Brayden's as his was the easiest target, but Lawson's was already sending him attacks even before he attacked Brayden's.
Swish! Swish!
"Wind Blades? I thought Spellcasters liked to cast fancy Spells." Jerion faintly smiled. "Given the chance, they fight like Battle Mages too, don't they?"
Extending his hand to the side, a blue staff rapidly materialized in his hand. He twirled it quickly and blocked some of the Spells Lawson and his colleagues sent at him.
Erecting a Barrier to block the onslaught from the three Battle Formations, he smashed his staff to the ground powerfully.
Boom!
The ground shook and cracked open as soon as his staff was planted in it. Everyone heard the sound of sea waves crashing into the shore, and water rapidly seeping out of the crack in the ground not long after.
A crazy amount of Mana overwhelmed the air, while the water was quickly flooding the land. Everyone's eyes widened in shock; they wondered what Jerion would do with such a crazy amount of Mana.
Gulping in anticipation as they created more layers of Barrier to protect themselves, the sickening Demonic Mana overwhelming the air suddenly disappeared. Jerion pulled out his staff, stored it, and rubbed his head awkwardly.
"Ah... It looks like our plan is finally ready to be executed," Jerion lamented loudly. "I have to go everyone. Let us meet again in... The next day, I guess? Anyway, bye!"
Snap!
Snapping his fingers once, under everyone's eyes, Jerion disappeared like he hadn't been about to do something disastrous. That honestly relieved the people, but they also couldn't help worrying what would happen in the future.